Dell / Alienware won't take my money - what have they turned into?

A sure sign of a company going to the dogs is when they forget how to sell product. When the M17s came out everybody was posting about insane discounts, custom configurations and more. Now the discounts are gone, the customization is absent and the salespeople are clueless.

I have a budget of about 2800$ and wanted to buy an M17 with a Geforce 780m after seeing the labor day sales. After chatting online and on the phone, the best anyone can do is $3600 (the package with many upgrades I neither want nor need). I can do without the discounts, but just can't stomach an extra grand slapped onto the price tag. There is no need for me to have a 3d screen and find the 4930 cpu an unnecessary upgrade. Slapping the SSD on top of it inflates the prices tag beyond comprehension.

We already have to pay a premium for the Alienware brand. To withhold the best video card from all but the most expensive systems is a slap in the face. To saddle them with unwanted accessories is robbery. I really don't want to go with another brand, but it looks like I may have no choice.

Any Dell reps out there that can throw me a bone?

 

Hey Juason, I see you're in TX and at first I couldn't believe they went more restrictive than release for USA (which alone turned me off), but you're right. They only way right now on their site to get a 780m on a 17 is a monstrous config jump in price. One would be better off graphically and price with sli 770m on the 18, crazy limited choices they are laying out. They are shooting themselves in the foot imo since in the past they've been well known for options, they budget cut much of the AW persona away this year, what's next, user upgradability.

Concerned,
Q

 

For some reason Dell are restricting their systems to tiers, but this is not a restriction resellers have.

Just be aware if you go for a reseller you are swapping to their warranty service.

 

I was not aware of anyone reselling the new Alienwares yet. XoticPC still has some of the old ones for sale, but that is all. I got my wife a 14" gaming laptop from there and have been pleased. No alienware, but they let me customize it and it was 600$ cheaper than an equivalent 14" Alienware model...

Do Dell reps still view these forums? In the past I've seen them PM potential customers to try and work through issues like the ones I am having.

 

They had 10-30% discounts a few weeks ago. 17% coupons have been posted all around this forum for a week now. So the discounts are still here.
That the sale staff refuse to give you discount from the price when you talk to them on the phone, is a positive sign for Dell. It could mean they are selling enough of these systems without having to go down on the price.

The configuration on the new models is missing
A)7970M and 8970M. Why? I don`t know, but GTX 780M is way ahead of 8970M, and 8970M is just a rebrand. Nothing new about it. And who knows, Dell might have given up AMD for a timed period because of all the Crossfire problems they had with the R2.
B) GTX 780M. This is just temporarily. Dell have sold out their stock of GTX 780M, again a good sign that Dell isn`t going down anytime soon. Trust me, they have ordered GTX 780M from Nvidia and its on its way, its just that a OEM like Dell is HUGE and sell a lot of notebooks, and it need many GPUs to fill up their stocks again. Especially since most people seem to want the 780M. That doesn`t exactly put a damper in to the availability of these GPUs.

 

Hurgh, well the 10-30% discounts were back in July (I was out of the country with no internet and missed it sadly). But they have a discounts now ($150 off, 5% cashback, $200 giftcard) that still seem reasonable. My gripe is that even with the available discounts Alienwares are still at a premium compared to product from other vendors - and the initial discounts were greater than 30% if many forum posters are to be believed.

A 1200$ increase just to get one component changed is my gripe. The salesmen also were unable to apply the discounts properly. I had to remind them of the Labor day sale and remind them of the Dell advantage discount. Several times they sent me quotes for systems that did not meet my specs, and played dumb when I pointed it out. My experience with Dell sales showed ineptitude and they were either careless, or shady.

The 780Ms being out of stock is a hollow argument. Why force the 3D screen on me? Why force an SSD on me? Why force TWO CPU upgrades on me over the 4800? If everything is out of stock still SELL me the system - just give me a month wait on the thing shipping. I'd be fine with that if they just made it an option.

 

I've heard they have done this because they only have a limited amount of 780m's, and they want to save them for the higher end configs for now, but I personally don't know.

 

Well if you know the right reps in Dell, you could get a decent discount on the price. But yeah, sale staff in general are pretty hard to get a deal with in general now. Many posts in the "how to save $$$" thread where the best they could get was $50 off after calling numerous times to Dell.

Like the guy above me says, that Dell force you to buy maxed out system to get the GTX 780M is only temporarily while the restock on GTX 780Ms. A way to maximize profit when there is such insane demand for that GPU. I would wait if I were you. They will offer 780M without the 120Hz screen in time.

I totally agree with you that the Dell sale staff are pretty clueless about what they are talking about. I had a guy in a chat telling me to send him a link to the Alienware 18 because he didnt even know it existed?! He kept sending me specs on the Alienware 17. Then there was numerous times when I tried to get better deal on my coupon, where they didnt apply the coupon, and I had to do another chat, just to get it applied and sending me the right quote. As well as times where they sent me wrong specs. So many inadept people working there, even the people I talked to on the phone, many minutes wasted there because they didnt know english and stuff. Sigh.

So yeah, either wait a few weeks more for the 780M to be available on non maxed out systems. Or wait for black friday. Rumors has it that it will be big discounts that day on the new models. But thats pretty far away though.
There was 17% coupon codes posted here every now and then the last week, but that promotion ended today Im afraid. Keep your eyes open, there might be some other ones floating around or will be available soon. You can do better than $150 off in my opinion. Thats way too low. I was lucky and managed to get a pretty good deal here in Norway.

 

There are a few of us offering it.

 

Would you be able to lend me a hand with this, or is there no wiggle room on the preconfigured models? I really don't want to miss the current sale just to have the configurations open up next week... and would be fine ordering a system that was delayed a month due to parts shortages.

Thanks!

 

Well you can go to the websites of different resellers like ourselves and configure the system you want.

 

That's what I ended up doing. I wanted a newer alienware to replace m 17x but price/performance I ended up with a sager. I don't care about look anymore. Just function.

 

Hurgh, what a complete mess. I called and pointed the salesman to your site. He was flummoxed. After 10 minutes on hold he said companies like yours use a different department that allows for system customizations - something us peons don't get access to apparently. I stressed how all I wanted was the GPU upgrades and wanted the 2-year warranty which would make them some cash.

He really understood where I am coming from and kept trying different managers to see what could be done. Finally after several more bouts of being on hold he said they needed a Regional Director to approve this, and he's not available because of the Holiday (mind you, I'm ordering this weekend specifically due to the Labor Day sale).

So then he goes on to try and sell me the 3600$ system again (with 500$ in gift cards). That's just too far out of my budget and I really don't want or need the 3D screen. Man... this is frustrating because I live in TX and can't believe one of our own has become so blind.

I did configure a nice system on your Powernotebooks site. The problem is I will not be able to purchase the system without the use of my Dell Credit account... And before you criticize, we have a year's pay in the bank but no petty cash at the moment If that changes I'll look you up again.

As for Sager - I bought a Sager from PCTorque back when they were putting Desktop 3GHz P4s in them. One monster of a beast. Used it all through college. Damn fans would clear off the lab bench of paper! Only problem is the thing was built like crap and slowly fell to pieces. The screen also got dark moisture spots underneath it which looked terrible (no freaking clue why). So I'm kind of torn on whether to try them again or not.

 

Strange, even the Canadian site allows for a 780m to be added to the second package for a total around 2599. I remember when I was looking at my R4 that the component list changed often; some weeks the offerings were terrible, and other weeks they were great. Perhaps this will be changed after a week or so ...who knows, it could even be parts related. Anyways, sorry to hear about your situation

 

The 780m's are available again for lower specs (just ordered mine this morning actually). Much more reasonable then ~$3600

 

I got a 780m added on to the BASE M17 for a total of $1950 before tax! Intel i7-4700, 16gm ram, 1080p screen and dvd drive. I had to chat and call 7 different agents, until one added it on. The extras really drive the price up but it appears they are getting wise to people getting this configuration and adding after market SSDs etc. Good for sales, but bad for the demographic of "hardcore" users that purchase alienware in the first place. This tiered tactic works for Apple but I can't see it being successful at Alienware. If anything people will get frustrated and go buy something else.

After ordering 3 different alienware products, every sales experience was terrible. They need to make the website wide open to customization, start with base and add things on, that way we don't have to call in and get someone on the phone that doesn't even know how to pronounce the name of the parts.

 

Ugh, same problem with Blu-Ray. I need Blu-Ray, I need at least the 770, though preferably the 780. MAYBE the upgraded screen, but that's it.

I bought my M17x-R4 with a 680 for like $1700 ($1600?) from Costco several months back, but now through Dell I have to spend $2300 just to get Blu Ray, and that doesn't even get me a 780?!?

Dell's new lack of customization STINKS. It's been a joke on their normal systems for a while now, and I'm not happy to see it spread to their high end systems too.

 

Chances are that Dell will milk profit from consumers and keep configurations open for Precision laptops. I don't understand the point--if Dell makes as much profit from Alienwares as from Precisions, Alienware owners should get just as much--but this odd consumer-enterprise schism has been around for a while, so Dell might know what it is doing.

I would not complain if Dell used the revenue to improve the product, but judging from the experiences I have read about, that might not be the case. Dell has lowered prices, but the locked-down configurations will force most people to pay more than they would have paid last year.

What I'd like to see is build quality on par with Precisions. No docking ports, corporate security features, slide-out hard drive caddies, and other enterprise features, but similar durability and perhaps battery life. And customer support on par with Dell ProSupport, but different. Perhaps in-game support instead of support with running professional software, for example.

Another issue: These are "gaming laptops," not Macbooks or ultrabooks. Alienware cannot even compete with Sager in terms of configuration options at the point of sale. Sagers have issues with upgrades after the sale though.

 

Well, thank you for the encouraging words. It took several more phone calls but it looks like their "Regional Director" sorted out. From the conversations it appeared to all hinge on the other sites selling configurable dell laptops and at slightly better prices...

When my wife needs a new PC I'll look up PowerNotebooks. Just couldn't swing it this time, but I appreciate the help all the same. Now to start praying the laptop gets here in one piece and with the correct configuration!

 

Its very odd. I was planning on buying an M17 but I think the price has gone so high that Ill be going for a desktop for gaming and a cheap lappie for travel.

 

If you really need a blue-ray drive just get the config you want and install one aftermarket.