Alienware APAC Support Review

Hi guys, I've joined this forum to share my experience with Alienware as I have absolutely had it up to my eyeballs with them and they have not been helpful in the slightest.

I have an Alienware M17x with an international next business day warranty included in my computer package.

I called customer support on the 12th Jan to tell them my graphics card kept crashing and issuing a blue screen to my computer. This is an issue that has happened at least 10 times in the past 2 years, and the graphics card has always been replaced to just go on and die again. The tech team told me the engineer would contact me the next day to arrange an appointment. I waited until the 14th of Jan and no one had called. I called Dell again and asked them to book the engineer. Nothing. It wasn't until the week of the 20th that an engineer was booked to come to my house finally. I took the day off of work to ensure I could be home when he arrived, which was supposed to be between 12-3pm. At 3PM, I had heard nothing, so I called the Engineer to find out his status. His reply shocked me, "Dell sent the wrong parts, we are not coming today". Great. I call Dell up once again (about the sixth time now about this issue), who tell me they will arrange for someone to come after my working hours so that this doesn't happen again. A guy comes to my house on the 21st of Jan 3 hours earlier than they had stated (thankfully my housemate was home) and starts replacing parts to my computer. 3 hours later he comes out and tells my housemate that the computer will no longer switch on and that he will have to take the computer back to his office.

It is now the 18th of February. I have not had a computer for over 22 days and this issue has been happening with Dells knowledge for 5 weeks. I have repeatedly called Dell, who can only say, "Sorry for the inconvenience". I have tried complaining via their customer service team, who took 3 weeks to call me to say the same thing. I have spoken to their Twitter support, who tell me because my computer is in Asia, they cannot help me as they are based in the US.

This is shocking for a computer that is supposed to be worth over $20,000 HKD. If anyone is even contemplating buying an Alienware I would advise you heavily against it: the amount of time I have spent on the phone to the team is nearing the 100 hour mark in the last 2 years. The number of times an engineer has come out to replace parts for my computer cannot even be counted by the fingers on my two hands. It is disgusting, shocking, disrespectful and utterly outrageous that a company can get away with such ludicrous behaviour.

 

Poor fella

A quick advice, sell it at one of the local markets - a machine like that (once it is repaired) will keep on failing you again.

 

Thanks I asked for a replacement knowing this and of course got laughed at, despite the same problem happening soo many times. I'm going to buy myself a desktop with individual parts put together and save myself the hassle of ever having to contact these guys again! If only I had done that from the beginning

Edit: It is now 24 days since I have seen my laptop, and 6 weeks since I first contacted Alienware about this issue. I have had a call to say that my computer would be delivered today.

Just now I received another call from Alienware to let me know that now the graphics cards have been fixed, they have broken the fan of the computer and this will need to be replaced, taking additional time.

Anyone else think this is absolutely outrageous?

 

Time to file a legal complaint against them. Contact the BBB. You should be compensated with a replacement.

 

Send us an e-mail to [email protected], we will try to escalate the issue to our contacts in your area. Please include the link to this thread and your service tag.

 

Thanks Hackintoshihope - I'm looking into it now

Edit: Day 25 and my computer is returned. I switch it on to discover my graphics cards have been downgraded to 4870M's, instead of 5870M's.

LOL. And the computer is making some crazy noises it never made before.

Dell has kindly offered me a 1 month warranty extension for the terrible service. And provided me another apology. Fantastic..... Not.

I've emailed your team, appreciate you guys looking out at the forums and I really hope that you can actually get through to someone in APAC, as they are not helpful in the slightest.

 

That is ridiculous 1month LOL. And I do love the downgrade of GPU's you my friend have gotten screwed. I wouldn't take anything less then a maxed out Alienware 18 at this point.

 

Almost 7 weeks later and I have finally gotten through to them that they need to change my graphics cards back to the ones I originally had. This is the reply I have received (I was given a free upgrade to keep your harddrive service a couple years ago after the HDD's failed on me: I have already forwarded this person proof of this in another email, since obviously Dell don't keep any records properly).

I asked for new graphics cards because, well, clearly their refurbished ones are not up to par, considering I've gone through ten.

Dell could not care less about my problem and it's laughable. This is outrageous. For the love of god people, never EVER buy a Dell.

"Regarding the video card, I’m sorry to tell you that we only have refurbished one, but we’ll make sure it’s of good quality. If you’re okay with it, we’ll arrange onsite again.
As for the HD issue, according to the email, the engineer allowed HDD not return for that time only, not always. It’s a special concession for that repair, if you wanted to keep the HD, I’d like to suggest you to purchase the HDD NPR service.

Thanks.
Dell | Executive Customer Support Team"

Thanks for looking into it, but it's a shame that your department can do nothing to help out here in Asia..... despite international warranty services.

 

Wow man that's a really bad horror story the Alienware's seem to be getting pretty much worse i went through similar problems with my R2 but nothing compared to what you've been going through i really feel bad for you. You really should report it to the better business bureau and claims to the attorney general whatever is similar to that in your country. You live in a major international city, Hong Kong!! There shouldn't be no excuse to not getting your machine fixed problem in a timely fashion and also to get a replacement i would push so hard for a top of the line alienware m18x or alienware 18. Perhaps buying more of a better laptop from lenovo, asus just a suggestion of course. I wish you the best of luck wish i could help you more though.

 

Thanks for the support guys. Alienware have refused to help at all, and are demanding the hard drive's back despite sending proof of the warranty.
I suspect their lack of support is due to the fact that my warranty is running out in May this year, and they do not want to spend any money helping or replacing a system for someone who is so close to the end.

Alienware, you win, you've screwed over a customer well and truly. I sincerely hope you never experience service like this yourselves, as it's rather violating.

 

Guy finally comes to swap the graphics cards last night. He leaves 2 hours later and I switch the computer on. The LED panel at the top of the keyboard wasn't connected properly and does not light up or work at all. I immediately call Dell and they say someone will call me the next day. No one's called for 4 working hours. I call the engineer, who says someone will call me back. No one does. I call up Dell 8 working hours into the day and speak to someone, who says there are no notes on the system about someone coming to fix the part.

WTH DELL. It's the 7th of March and we're still talking about a simple graphics card swap that was supposed to take place early Jan. Hong Kong Alienware support is absolutely terrible.