My experience with Alienware

So this is my experience with AW.
I bought M17x R4 for myself and M14x R2 for my wife in May.

M14x subwoofer failed in couple weeks and the laptop was replaced with a new one (hopefully this one will not fail).

M17x came with defective 1080p screen, with blue color coming through (any factory QC?) and was sent for screen replacement to Houston, TX.
It came back with 900p screen instead of 1080p (serviced by certified technician in their depot).
Called Dell and they overnight sent a new screen that was replaced in-home by the local technician... now web camera is not working. Called tech support again and a new screen is on the way, I'll see how it goes.

So, based on my dealing with Dell/AW, they indeed have a great customer service support but absolutely the worst quality control I've ever seen. I've experienced all levels of technical screw-ups starting with the factory level, through the middle level depot, and all the way to the local level.
I'm surprised that such a company can be so ineffective. When my warranty expires and I decide to buy a new computer I will most definitely never even consider AW in the future.

 

Never send your machines in for Depot Service. They usually come back in worse condition than when they're sent in.

 

Alienware has been nothing but good to me. They gave me an awesome discount on my M17x and I've had no issues with mine whatsoever. Sorry you had a bad experience, but understand that you are the minority not the majority.

 

Also, I don't know too many other companies that have as good a warranty as Dell. Granted their depot is trash from what I have heard, and even their onsite techs aren't the best in the world, but at least they will back up their products and give you a completely new system if warranted. If it's something simple, they'll even send you the parts for you to replace yourself.

 

I've had 2 6970s go out on me since I received my r3 last summer, but I had a technician come and install a 6990 for free today. A+ for their customer service

 

Honestly, that's the best Ive ever seen anyone summarize Alienware. Every single time I send in the thing one thing gets fixed and another breaks. When the tech came to my house to fix the GPU, after he left bluetooth wasn't working. When I sent it into their depot to fix the hinges, it came back with a broken a/c adapter outlet. The time after that I sent my m11x in to fix the adapter outlet and got it back with just windows reinstalled (didnt fix the a/c outlet). The final time I sent it in they fixed everything but keep in mind this was over a month later. Their QC is crap.

 

Lucklily the only trouble i have had with my Alienware was to replace my Power DC Jack and nothing else. Very satisfied with Alienware.

 

I understand that there will be issues with computers, but having to fix the same problem 4th time in a row seems a little excessive. I estimate that they already spent couple hundreds of dollars on this, so why not invest it in a better factory QC and keep customers happy?

 

The problem is that people who have no problems typically do not bother to post. You may be one of the few people who ran into problems out of a very
large group which mostly contains people without problems and as such they see no reason to change when 99% of the people are content.

 

agreed mostly, but have to add, even if ppl bother to make a thread just to say "been having x type of AW for a month, not a single issue, and run great", chances are not that many ppl going to reply a post, mostly 2 or 3 ppl saying "hey congrats", thus the post will be gone from first page in a matter of hours or even minutes.

 

Totally agree with you; I've seen 4 LCD's now, all with minor problems (stuck pixels, dust inside screen, loose glass, and a minor scratch). While Dell has amazing customer service, they must be loosing money on QC. Don't get me wrong, I love my R4, but my last laptop (ASUS G51) had a mint screen right out of the box so I'm thinking that it can be done

 

The warranty is the reason I can back to Alienware/Dell. I had an Inspiron 9400 that was replaced with a completly new Inspiron 1720 when it failed and they had to have spent a fortune in replacement parts and shipping and it was never a problem, they just kept shipping out parts. As long as you have warranty I find them quite pleasant to deal with.

 

OP, I'm sorry you had bad experiences with AW, I guess some things are just not meant to be. It's an unfortunate situation for you as well as the company, and something that shouldn't have happened. And from all that we keep hearing, yes AW does need to improve their QC so people stop getting lemons, and yes such incidents are not excusable really. However, I've had great experiences with AW personally and my M17x R4 is, by far, the best computer I have ever owned and used. Now if only they got a little more efficient and minimized such screw ups, they'd have so many more satisfied customers out there like me.

Dell does indeed have great warranty compared to other brands out there; now if only they stopped giving people a reason to claim it and saved everyone a huge pain in the backside, that would be heavenly...

 

I've had amazing service from Alienware. When I had a problem with my fans a guy came next day and replaced them. It was actually a small sticker that had peeled off and got stuck in one of the gpu fans. He pulled the sticker out and it worked fine and said as he had the new fans he would replace them anyway.

I would happily buy another Alienware in the future!! I love my M17x R2 and is a pleasure to use every day

 

i understand that getting a "lemon" sucks, but tightening QC until you have a "0% lemon spawn rate" could be more costly if not near impossible.
imagine if you have to rigorously test every pc in production before shipping, how many test workers you need to hire, and then the slower shipping rate would makes your EDD goes to a month and not 2 weeks, then ppl will start complaining again because its too long to wait.
still i think dell could learn from sager/clevo and give additional options to further test the system before shipping for ppl who could wait and express w/o testing for ppl who couldn't wait and would rather take their chances with the warranty.

 

Nobody knows the exact % rate of "lemons" that get shipped out. For all they know, the systems pass QC, but somehow get damaged during shipping (or by just giving a false positive on the initial test). For all we know, they might have a less then 5% fail rate (unlikely I know, but just saying). The majority of the people that have issues with systems are going to post threads and make comments. The comments I do love, that make me laugh, are the ones that say "AW is crap. My [insert company name] was perfect out the box and never gave me any issues." Well, my Alienware M17X r3 was perfect out of the box and never gave me any issues.

To the OP, it sucks you're having problems with your system, and that the repairs aren't going as planned. But at least the warranty is going to have you covered. You will get it repaired or replaced. Not many other companies can guarantee that.

 

lol yeah saw that a lot too, but chances are if you go to the "[insert company name]" community forum, you'd find similar problems.
however, AW sub forum here is more populated than many others.
so if lets say the lemon rate is only 1% for all brands, we'll see more problematic AW compared to others, due to the fact that there are more AW out there than comparable different brands.

 

Why dont we have a completely seperate forum called AW complaints or something?

Seriously...what are we supposed to do with type of thread? Overall my experience with Dell/AW has been great (although, admittedly, a little pricey). It seems to me that these forums are for people who have a technical problem/issue that they hope to have fixed by other users who may have had similar experiences or are more tech savy. It does not seem to me that the purpose of these forums is for random "my AW sucked" threads.

So I repeat...how about a seperate AW complaints section (if this already exists, then NM...I never bothered to look).

 

nah this forum is fine, it helps a lot of people solving their honest aw problems.
plus if you have "aw praise only forum" i bet it would be deserted.

 

Oh...I dont want a "praise only" forum. I mean, dont get me wrong...everything deserves a little criticism or whats the motivation to do better?

My larger point was that when someone makes a thread along the lines of, "I got an AW model whatever computer and this and this was broken and I am now never buying an AW again..." there is nothing I can do to help. I cant say try this or this, because its past that point. The person wont care, they have made there decision. I dont see the point of posting it...what to warn others of the perils of buying an AW computer? What about the vast majority of AW computers that dont have problems?

Its a neverending war of words. But then again...that is often what people love about internet forums. So instead of continuing to argue my point, I will just concede that i am in the vast minority and give up.

 

like what they said these days "don't feed the trolls!!!" and you're good

 

This is why I am ordering mine through Xotic PC. They will test and OC it before sending it to me to be sure everything is working right and legit.