Anyone have experience with Warranty exchange?

Hi all, I bought a new near top end M17x R4 last year and after several failed repair attempts I have been approved for a replacement. They were unable to find a suitable refurbished unit, so they have approved a new unit, and have yet to call me with the specs. Has anyone gone through this, and are they generous when outfitting a new one?

The only new 17 I see with a blu-ray drive is the top end machine, but it's already taking them longer than the 5 promised business days to call me with the specs of the one they propose to replace my old one with (I've been hounding the sh out of them too, because my screen is blinking horribly). Could they be trying to spec out a custom lower end unit with a blu-ray? I'm already frustrated at having to wait so long (Original ticket opened Dec 3rd, so system been on the fritz awhile..).

I would "assume" that they would give me the best option on the website, minus the addons in the dropdown lists, since I had 16gb, blu-ray, upgraded cpu, m680 video, etc, but with the delay my suspicions are high...

If anyone has had a similar experience, please share

Thanks!

 

I have had 2 replacement units thus far from Alienware. I bought my first R4 in June of 2012 and about 8 months in I was getting failing power adapters one after the other. They also tried multiple failed part replacements and their tech that they sent kept breaking things and making stuff worse so Alienware processed an exchange for me. Due to the fact that I live in Canada they have no choice but to go brand new in my case because of Canadian laws. The first exchange was almost identical to my original system except for the bluray upgrade which was the only option on the website at the time and the newer CPU which was upgraded from a 3610qm to a 3630qm, all in all small upgrades but I was just happy to have a new computer. The total exchange took about a month and had the new system and shipped the old one back. About 6 months after I got the new system the power adapter failed again and I was getting charging errors, so I called tech support again. I called in and explained what the problem was and what I had been through with the first exchange and the tech offered me a new system due to the hassle and didn't want to put me through it again, but this time I would be getting a new 17 because the R4's were no longer being offered. My main concern at this point was that I had a 7970m in my first 2 R4's and that GPU was no longer being offered in the new 17's and didn't want to end up with a lower end GPU then what I had. I asked the tech to have someone from the exchange department call me so I could talk to them about the configuration and he agreed...but that call never came. I kept checking my Dell account information because that is where your order will show up once it has been placed and sure enough after a couple days a new order showed up , so I clicked on it. The order was decent as most or all of the tech was newer then what I had with the exception of the 770m that they putting in the computer. I called and explained that I wasn't happy with the 770m that was to replace my 7970m and gave them all the information that I looked up showing that the 770m was inferior to my 7970m. After a few days that order was cancelled and a new order was placed, this one had my current specs with the 4800mq, 780m, and 2 750gb drives with the 80gb mSATA which my first R4 did not have.

It took a few calls but I feel like I ended up with a better system then I had the first time around, the only thing I would have preferred was the 3d screen as it is not matte and I actually liked the glossy finish. Basically if you are really not happy with the specs that they offer you then you need to call in and talk to someone , but be sure to have a reason and stay calm, don't blow up at them.

Some people have got some pretty sweet replacements, in fact my first build which was promptly cancelled without my knowledge was the top end system with multiple SSD's and what not with the 4930mx CPU but like I said that one didn't last long and was killed for whatever reason. Either way I am not complaining.

Ultimately they will usually give you equivalent or better then what you had before. You will probably get whatever level CPU you had before, so if you had the second level CPU you will probably get a 4800mq, the ram will probably be the same and if you had the 680m then you should be getting a 780m as compensation. Blu-Ray is pretty standard so that shouldn't be a problem at all.

GL and let us know what happens.

 

Hi!

Give them time, mine took longer then I was expecting, but they e-mailed me over a quote rather than phone me, which I thought was better as I was able to pour over the spec's better before making my decision. I had a standard M17x R4 spec wise, the only difference being the blu-ray I added on during the ordering stage. I began to wonder like you, what they would do in regards to the blu-ray drive, as the drive is in a few tier's higher then your standard spec. Needless to say, the quote came in....with the nlu-ray drive. Instead of getting the standard cpu I got the 4800, the case was the same with the ram and gpu etc. Basically they have to offer you the same of what you had or better. So I got what I would call a tier 3 laptop, when I only ever bought a tier 5 laptop.

Does that make sense?

 

I haven't personally had a replacement laptop from Dell, but they give you an exact if not better replacement (they can't give you worse spec than what you had). So if your R4 had a 680M/7970M, the replacement would have to be on the same tier. Sometimes they'll just give you higher end parts in conjunction, as they may not have any other configuration available in a timely fashion. Give Dell/Alienware some time, Dell's customer service is top notch but sometimes getting things processed may take awhile. Just make sure you follow up in a timely fashion, but don't email them every hour. And remember, no hard feelings, sometimes people DO get lemon computers, as frustrating as that may be (why me in the 1 in 10,000 defective laptops, etc). If you had any other manufacturer, they would keep fixing it.

 

Thanks all, that sounds encouraging, so hopefully they will pony up with the m780 and the 4800 cpu. I have been a corporate customer for years, spending millions on server/san hardware (and usually installing and administering it too), and never had this kind of trouble or delay getting new parts or even entire servers. I guess I've been spoiled

Laptop support is painful, having to deal with script readers, since I can take apart my laptop half blindfolded and probably understand the system better than they do. I cringed while the tech replaced my motherboard a few weeks ago, since he was just snatching cables off the board, and I am always extra careful. Seeing that, it's no surprise that so many people have failed repairs. I had always insisted on replacing my own parts, and up until this time they relented, but I promise I will not allow another tech to tear into my machine again. He can sit there and watch, but he dang sure won't be putting his nose pickers on my system...

 

Bought basic spec R4 (3610QM,12GB ram, 660M GTX, 2x500GB ) 2 months ago, arrived with missing Normal 500GB HDD and LCD was only HD+ instead of Full HD, called dell couple of times, first, they sent me 500GB SSD, then when i told them about LCD they...Replaced the laptop to M18x R2 with 3840QM, 16GB ram, 1x1TB HDD + 1x500GB SSD + 680M GTX.

Shame it was laptop i bought for my friend as he gave me the money to find him a gaming laptop....well my friend is now very happy....

 

We usually send upgraded machines when we don't have something that matches the previous system. If you would like to I can take a look at your tag and see why the specs haven't been notified yet. Send it on a PM.

 

Hmm, thanks for the offer, but the forum won't allow me to access the PM page for some reason.

 

You can also send it to [email protected]

 

Honestly if your comfortable in your system I think this is the best course of action. The only down side being if something else does break while your in there I don't know how the coverage works. The tech that was in mine all 3 times broke something every time he opened it up and so when it came to the last 2 repairs I simply explained what had happened before and calmly said that I wasn't letting him back into my system , I would do it myself....being that I build and maintain servers for a living I am more then qualified

 

The tech said that if I break a component, it wouldn't be covered. Understandable, but when I can take it apart without snatching wires off the board and he can't, who suffers...me! They tried 3 repairs and it's worse off than it was before. It had blue snow/static on the screen, and each repair made it successively worse. Now it whines, the speakers don't work, and the monitor blinks every 10-30 seconds.

I just spoke with someone at Alienware, and they promised to have the 'guy' in charge of exchanges call me within the hour. Wish me luck.

 

Yeah, they dropped the ball again and no one called. We are now on business day 8+ of their promised 5 day response. Apparently this guy from the exchange dept is a hard man to get ahold of.

 

I litterally just posted my results of my exchange process.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/736084-m17-r4-freezes-up-4.html

Pretty much, I got better then what I had but the process was very rushed and uncomfortable for me when dealing with that kind of money and it took them over a month to ship the unit out. I was...meh..I hate saying lied to but, I kind of was too in the process as well.

 

I'm reasonably certain that I will get an equal or better deal, but if I ran that level of customer support for my software business, I would be shut down in weeks. Not to mention that it's a bear performing support when the screen is blinking so badly. Ugh!

 

My replacement time took about a month and a half from start of issues to getting the replacement. I never received a call or email about the replacement. You should check on your Account page to see if any new orders have been put in for you without your knowledge. They might have just speced you out a really top end one and assume because its so good you wont be contesting it, like they did for me.

 

Yep, I get all nerdy and check the status page several times a day. I have also been calling every other day to get a status update, and they never seem to have one, and their story changes a lot. I'm trying to be patient, but they are most certainly trying my patience, hehe.

 

Ok, called and spoke to yet another tech and got a new story, with more details. Apparently, when they have exhausted the 3 attempts to look for a refurb, as in my case, THE 5 BUSINESS DAY CLOCK RESETS and they get up to an additional 5 business days to get final approval and spec out a new laptop. In this case, because it's skipping models (M17x R4 to the new 17), it may take a tad longer. So, going by that info, I am still within the policy timeline. The folks need better training and a new knowledge base. This is the type of thing I do at my job, in addition to server administration, building, system design, project management, etc, I also streamline and work efficiency angles to ensure projects come in on time, are scalable, and under budget.

Hire me Dell!

 

Finally got the call and voicemail from the exchange fella. He detailed the specs in the message, and it all appears to be equal in series, although should yield better performance, since it's upgrading from a M17x R4 to the new 17.

So, from Dec 17th, being notified that I would be getting a replacement of some sort, to getting another email after much prompting, on the 24th, saying I would be getting a brand new laptop, since there were no suitable refurbs available. Here we are now on Jan 3rd, and I finally got the call detailing the specs.

It appears that this is a standard build, and should ship on the 7th, according to the alienware site.

3740QM to 4800QM
16GB ram =
Blu-ray =
680M to 780M Graphics
500GB to 750GB + 80GB caching MSata
1920x1080 LCD =

Somewhat happy with the upgrade to a new model, but still disappointed in the level of communication along the way, since my laptop is nearly unusable until the replacement comes.

 

You seem to have finally come to the end of the road with this exchange. I'm happy to see it was resolved. The specifications you received (or will receive) are actually a little better than what you previously owned. In other words, it should perform noticeably better, and hopefully last longer.

I've just started the exchange process myself, for my second AW 17. For some reason the parts in it just gave out. The GPU, screen, and motherboard are having issues. They decided to just replace my entire system. My expected delivery date is the 23rd of January. I'm hoping it doesn't take this long, but I'm fine with it. I'm actually getting some nice upgrades because my configuration was no longer available, so they bumped me up to the next level.

Best of luck to you and your new system. Wish me luck on mine! I'll need it.

 

Good luck!

I really have some neat ideas for customer service, since I have been in it so long, and they wouldn't be expensive to implement, since much of it would be software automated (Not talking about eliminating jobs!). Basically, for any customer service "event", such as a warranty exchange, a support call, etc, at each milestone, you would get an automated call, text, or email, detailing parts of the ticketing system, to let you know where you are in the process. This not only makes it transparent, but keeps the pisstivity levels low.

Add another step to that, do it for the build process, and add value items (for a modest fee), that takes a snapshot of your system in whatever milestone area it happens to be in (adding motherboard, boxing, os install), easily tracked via RFID. Make the process fun, informative, and well, let's face it, like the build a bear process. Something like this would easily cut call volume and allow movement of resources (people) to customer service enhancement positions, instead of just handling calls from people asking where their stuff is, and why it's not on their doorstep.

 

Finally got my tracking number, and it should arrive today. So all told, from initial support call to expected receipt of replacement laptop has been 36 days. Waiting for new tech is like pregnancy for geeks; the aches, pains, stress, worry, etc.