Need a US based Alienware customer service rep

I have been chasing around a sleep issue on my M17xR3 and several other issues such as dead gpu, dead mobo, etc. There have been many issues with setting up tech appointments and callbacks for the past 2 months, and I'd appreciate if I could speak to a US rep instead of some guy in India. This ordeal has gone on long enough and I am one step short of reporting it to the BBB. If anybody has contact details (phone/email) for a US executive customer response team, please post here. If this is not in the appropriate thread/subsection, mods please move to correct location. Thanks!

 

You need Alienware support in Costa Rica, not Dell support in India. Call 1-800-254-3692. If you don't hear a Spanish/Hispanic accent, hang up and try later.

 

Good joke mate

 

I've been getting the same run around, mind you only for a week. What's your issue now, exactly?

 

It started 2 months ago with a failing sleep issue. I would put my laptop to sleep, and it wouldn't wake up, causing me to force reboot. It took a week for a tech to come replace that mobo + gfx, and that resulted in a massive slowdown of the entire computer (idk how, even the BIOS was lagging hard). Not to mention he stripped the screw holes in my casing for the hard drives. Anyway, it took Dell another week to send me a box to get the depot to send me a box to send in my laptop for repairs, and it took another week to get it back. When they sent it back, the sent it back with a burned out 6990m. Needless to say, they sent me a refurb M17xR3 with a gtx 580m, but with a 3d vision LCD, so I lost my switchable graphics capability (which I absolutely need, since I am a student on the go and use iGPU extensively). In addition, sleep/hibernate STILL didn't work on the refurb system, on the orignal factory image. Anyway, somehow, they guy couldn't understand how switchable graphics doesn't work with the 120hz LCD even after explaining it to him numerous times about the eDP connector vs the LVDS connector, but after several phone calls over the duration of another week, he agreed to send a replacement 60hz LCD to get my switchable graphics back. However, I declined because I was out of town for the next two weeks. On the plane ride, my laptop just suddenly died and got a 1 beep error on boot, indicated motherboard went bad. So for 2 weeks, I had no laptop (not dells fault though, nothing they could do about that). When I got back, it took a week just to get them to call me back to setup an appointment to replace the motherboard and LCD. The tech was supposed to come yesterday, but he never called and never showed up. I tried calling back the guy in charge today, but he was out and the guy taking over for him didn't help me much. Needless to say, I'm furious at this whole runaround game. I will try one more time to call tomorrow and set things straight. If the end outcome isn't how I see fit, this is going to the BBB. If I was in school, I would have been screwed. I'm lucky all of this happened over the summer.

I don't want to keep dealing with R3s if I keep getting sleep issues. I've heard that A10 bios fixes the issues, but it breaks SATA III speeds. If I stay on A08, I lose sleep.

Wouldn't this warrant a m17xR4 replacement at this point?

 

sigh...sorry for the headaches technos!

I would definitel mention the BBB the next time you talk to one of these guys...see if it scares them. usually, you suddenly get cooperation

 

Are you always that ignorant? Calling the right number does get a user to the right call center. The Indians are famous for supporting products that they are not supposed to support, which is where the problems come into play. They do NOT know Alienware support policies. Half the battle comes from user not inputting the Express Service Code properly.

If you want US based support, buy an XPS. Alienware support is in Costa Rica, Dell consumer products (Vostro/Dimension/Inspiron) are based in Phillipines and India, while Dell business support (Optiplex/Precision/Latitude/PowerEdge) is in the US.

 

No need to be harsh. The last time I got a person in Costa Rica botched a simple tech setup request to replace a failed 6970m card. Do you honestly think they can do any better? Any experience with them? Escalated cases should be handled by people in the US when they have been given such crappy support from outsourced labor, no? Is that too much to ask on a computer I paid 2400$ for?

 

What I would do is this:

Call the normal support number (1800ALIENWA), ask for a supervisor, tell the agent that the service you've recieved so far is the issue and you'd like to immediately talk to a supervisor, then explain how many issues you've had, and ask for a complete replacement. They will hem and haw, but usually get the request in. Make sure you write down that persons name. The next day, call for the same supervisor, and make sure he has it done, and tell him that if it's not approved in 3 days, you're calling the BBB. They might even give you an R4, which shouldn't have nearly as many problems as most refurb R3s.

Also, as much as I can understand your desire for US-based technical support, they botch more then anyone. I used to help manage a bunch of Latitudes for an AV company, and it was horrendous sometimes. I had to send a single screen back for bad colour 7 times.

 

Here's the deal. Since my case has been escalated to supposedly the highest level, no rep below executive status can touch my case. I've tried a couple times to get another rep to handle it, but they say they can't do anything because its being handled by a higher power. Any way to get around this?

 

The techs in Costa Rica are not outsourced. Alienware had an office in Costa Rica before Dell came in with the take-over. All those agents (4 years+) were former Alienware employees that have the right knowledge to support an Alienware system. Unfortunately some of the new employees down there don't have the same smarts and problems still arise. However, you are way better off as you are right now versus having a regular Dell consumer product.

 

Can I get a company rep floating around the forum to comment on this please?