Alienware Consumer Reviews - Page 3

Short & sweet - I wanted to give folks a more recent story on Alienware laptops than 2005-2008, etc. Had my MX15 built May, 2010. Price just shy of $2,400.00. Great looking & great working out of the box - for maybe 5 months. It developed video issues: drivers not responding, blinking, artifacting & BSOD. Burnt up all my roll over minutes talking to support for hours on end. They simply reloaded software & drivers as I had already done.

Finally, a remote assist showed them my LCD & wireless cards were both going bad. After telling me I could return/refund the product, they reversed course & had me send it in for repair. A one day rush job & I had it back with only a video card swap out & no mention of the LCD or WiFi card THEY found earlier. Paint scratches all the way down to the metal were found on the lid that they clearly did while turning it over on the bench for service.

I then researched them more & found this site and MANY others with the same types of complaints. In trying to resolve my complaint, support offered to take the mx15 back for 50% of its value! People there are better and cheaper lap makers to go to. Sager, iBuyPower & Mtech all could have made me a laptop with better components for the same $$$. I really wanted to like Alienware (I bought 3 - the other two are MX11's. So far, no broken hinges or other problems with those...) So please be aware what you are getting into with Dell. High price laps should last years, not be in repair all the time.

I first contacted Alienware sales support through the online chat thing. I built my setup, and spoke with ** on the chat. This happened on Tuesday, 07/17/2012. I received a quote via email, but told him I had to think about it. On Friday 07/20/2012, I decided I would purchase, so I emailed ** directly, and he responded INSTANTLY and said the quote is still good, and would have a financing person contact me in one hour. Got AMAZING deals with the $100 off and the Dell Advantage program with free 2nd day shipping.

Just before an hour passed, I got a call FROM AN AMERICAN SALESPERSON to process my order. I got the confirmation email and my order was already passed the processing stage, and into the production stage THE SAME DAY! Again, I purchased a customized Alienware M14X R2 on Friday, 07/20/2012 with custom nameplate and everything. It is now Wednesday, 07/25 and my M14X is already halfway here! FedEx estimates it will arrive tomorrow, 07/26. From order date of Friday, 07/20 with a delivery date of 07/26 for a customized M14X with custom nameplate all within ONE week!?!?

Alienware/Dell is FINALLY stepping it up! I still have my M15X, and it is still running STRONG. I can't WAIT to play with my M14X R2 tomorrow after work! I will keep this updated, but with my experience with Alienware/Dell so far, I have never had a down moment yet!

So I've always wanted an Alienware laptop because I heard they were the best. So, I bought an m15x for 1 they messed up the hard drive size and gave me a 250 when I paid for a 500. I called in about that, they said they could do nothing. So I basically said whatever. So 4 months later, a week after my warranty runs out, I go to turn on my Alienware and nothing happened. The lights turn on then the screen doesn't come on and all the num lock keys, caps and scroll blink non stop so I suspect a messed up motherboard.

So I call them and this is what they say they tell me I HAVE TO SPEND 600 DOLLARS JUST FOR SOMEONE TO LOOK AT IT??? 600 DOLLARS? YOU KIDDING ME, THAT'S NOT INCLUDING THE REPAIR! They said the repair could be up to 400-1000 dollars!? WHAT? Come on! And also they said if I renew my warranty, the motherboard is not their issue so it will still cost around 1600 dollars to fix. What kind of company is Alienware/Dell! A horrible company with horrible customer care!

Beware of the provocative alluring website. In August of 08, I spent just over $4000 for "the ultimate gaming machine". 30 days later, the hard drive crashed. They sent me a new one but you know the pain of re-loading all the software and files. Exactly 1.5 years later, the laptop is running slowly so I had it diagnosed and guess what? The Samsung 500G hard drive failed again!

So I called "customer support" (more like customer torture) and they said, "well you should know that hard drives crash all the time". Gee, I wish they had printed that above the "purchase" button before they sucked $4,000 out of me. Unbelievable customer response. I will never ever buy another Alienware product. Since they have been purchased by Dell, they have been brainwashed into customer indifference.

Alienware does a terrible job of customer service, which may not be a surprise to some since they are owned by DELL. I had a part backordered, which they never informed me of. Once I discovered that the holdup was indeed this backordered part, I was never able to get straight answers out of anyone in their customer service department. I was denied the request to talk to a supervisor, and when I was finally connected to one, he did not think my circumstances (three weeks wait, plus considerable difficulty in being a law student without a laptop) warranted any compensation.

My advice is purchasing from them, is STAY ON TOP OF THEM! Check daily to ensure that your order is proceeding through the steps, and if the customer service representative doesn't have the answers, DEMAND a supervisor.

This is by far the worst company to deal with when it comes to customer support. They are rude, non-understanding and outright crooks. I will never ever buy another product from them and you would do yourself a favor too by staying away from theses guys. Purchased a $4500 machine around Christmas 2006. At Christmas time 2006, the machine went dead - sent it back. They said it was 2 days out of warranty. (I never got a notice the warranty had expired or to extend the warranty which they told me would be done when I purchased the product.)

Needless to say, they wanted $325 to just look at the machine for shipping and handling. Then after several weeks, they called to say the motherboard was shot and it would cost another $300, so a total of $ 625 after one year. I wish I would have found this site before I purchased this computer cause I would have never done so! Next time, DELL only!!!

HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS -- Hanger 18 has not fully worked from day one. I cannot complain about the telephone support people, they have tried but it seems like no one fully understands the system. I have sent it back to Alienware twice, and that had a tech. come to my house once to replace the video card. None of the inputs work, analog or optical and tech. support is not sure why. Is there anyone else out there who has one? They stopped selling them before the end of 2008.