Dell/Alienware is trying my patients.

Ok this is quickly turning into a horror story.

I bought my R1 In November of 2011 with dual 6990m cards. In Feb of 2012 one of my cards crapped out so dell sent a tech under warranty to replace both cards and so he did. The computer ran great until about a week ago when yet again one of my 6990m cards went out. This time i was out of warranty no big deal because a few months back i was looking at upgrading my cards anyways.

Being tired of Radeon and going through 2 cards in 2 years (no overclocking btw) plus the fan issue we all dealt with in December of 11 i am just ready to try team Green.

I contacted Dell via their 800 number on their site on Tuesday of this week. I told the rep i wanted to check the price and availability of the Nvidia 680m and i gave him my service tag. He came back and quoted me 549.00 each and said they were out of stock but he would call me in a couple days. Tonight, finding it odd i haven't even gotten an email... I decided to go to their chat system, i gave the rep the part number Luis on this forum provided me of CPCXD... The lady came back and said the cards are unavailable so i asked her the price anyway just to verify 549.00 was correct because i felt like it was a bit low ( i assumed somewhere in the range of 650) She said they were 1154.99 EACH and she said they could call the warehouse and call me in 2-days (exactly what the first rep said)

So i told her to double check that i had been quoted 549.00, she did and again came back at 1154.99 EACH i asked her to clarify that is indeed for 1 and not 2 of them and she said its for 1. Getting confused i decided to leave chat and call the 800 number again. I called and got a rep, gave them my service tag and gave them the part number, they confirmed nvidia 680m and the first lady i talked to said she couldn't give me a price and that they were unavailable, i asked can she not check on the stock at the warehouse and she said no they cant do that LOL WHAT (see above). So i decide to hang up and call again because at this point im getting mad and amused at the same time, how many different stories can 1 person be told. I got a 3rd agent on the phone, gave him the service tag and the part number and he again confirmed nvidia 680m and again said the price was 1154.99 EACH, i told him i spoke with an agent Tuesday and that agent told me 549.00 and he was going to call me in 2 days, this guy says there is no record of that and that the cards are 1154.99 each again i asked, are you sure thats for 1 and not 2 because they are half that on internet and he said its for 1.

So, can any alienware rep on this site help me with this, all i want to do is order 2 cards and the heat sinks and so far this has been a wild chase. Surely to god you guys aren't trying to sell these cards at 1154 each.

 

For 549 I would jump in as well but I doubt it was the right price

 

Yeah it more than likely wasnt but 1154 for 1 card? Jesus christ lol there are brand new ones un opened on ebay for 650 plus the 7970s are 575$ ish even from dell

 

There is no benefit buying from dell unless it will be covered by system warranty

 

I assume they have warranty on their parts even if its only 60-days or something, its more than most people/places on ebay.

 

My assumption would be they are out of stock on 680m's as they transition to 780m's. This happens often in retail. Places like best buy will raise the price of something on their website when they are out of stock to make something similar to it sell instead. I find it less frustrating than the "bait and switch" method that some other retailers use. (where they have only 1 of the really good deal one left so you rush in for the deal and they try to get you to buy something else like it instead that they make money on)
But from your perspective it would probably be better practice for them to just tell you they are out of stock (or low) rather than play silly tricks.

I would phone back and ask them how much to order a 780!! just to test my theory! (and PM table21 if you decide to go with the 680's as i think he had a couple for sale)
Good luck!

 

Keep the originals and go on ebay and if you have issues, put the originals back in for a service.

 

That is the prices dell charge for the 680m all the time. That's why I still have the 580m!

 

Out of a total of 4 reps 3 of them said they were out of stock so i am sure that is the issue, my problem is they were suppose to at the very least call me and give me a yes or no on ordering them. Now when i call back the price has changed from 549 to 1154 for 1 card lol.

If they cant order them fine... If the price is 1154 fine... but i cant confirm either of those because every rep i talk to has a different story. Very close to just going to ebay.

 

Doctor, I can't help you with your patients, but your patience will be tested with Alienware as they are about to launch the largest refresh they've had in years. We're talking completely new designs accross the board - new hardware, new chassis, the works.

You will be waiting for those 680M's for a very long time if you order them through Alienware/Dell. They're not in 'mainstream' production anymore, which means they are scarce.

 

If you buy from Alienware the part comes under the laptop warranty If the laptop has a 4 year warranty the card will too.

 

On the phone with them yet again, currently on hold... Literally just had their "Alienware Sales Specialist" (code name for 18 year old girl) refer to a GPU as a "watcha ma call it" OH dell... how you have fallen since your hay day.

 

WOW *wants to gouge eyes out* Now this lady says the 680m is 499.00 AND they have it in stock!!!!?????

I am on hold AGAIN while she verifies it, i really dont want to delay fixing my comp another 3 weeks by dealing with shipping back and forth the wrong part. 499 sounds too cheap... WHAT IS GOING ON WITH DELL lol


Edit: Awesome, after 30 minutes on hold while she was just suppose to go verify it i got cut off. I call back and THIS rep cant find any 680m and says she doesnt think you can order just the cards lmao this is laughable. Waiting on supervisor... This is their last shot or im ordering somewhere else. This is dumb.

 

Put yourself in their shoes.. If you found out that you told a customer that the 680M is less than half the actual price, would you come back and finish the conversation or would you just mysteriously have the connection break off?

What you could do is to always ask for a rep's contact details first thing first. If he or she gives you another $50 quote for a 680M, you could eventually guilt-trip the person into sending you a gift card or something

Whatever the case, I don't think Dell would ever sell a 680M at $500. Not even years later

 

I dont doubt that, thats why i had her verify, i am dumbfounded at the inconsistency from them EVERY rep i have talked to gives me a different answer.

 

Happens a lot more than you would think. It happened to me as well, just a couple days ago, which is why I just PM the representatives on this forum. I've always gotten straight answers from them.

 

Forget about calling them, you will never get what you want through the call system. You are better searching around or even sending a PM to find out the actual fact to the team over hear, on this forum... If that is not possible, google it around until you get some reasonable prices (but do a proper search and find out about the source who is selling it).

 

I think i am just going to buy them from Table21 on this forum. I finally got an answer from dell supervisor. 761.00 each and they will ship them out on Tuesday.

Only took 3 hrs on the phone lol.

 

If the system officially supports the card
If you have r2 then you are good but not r1 owners

Not applicable for the OPs case but it doesn't matter since he doesn't have warranty unless I'm mistaken

 

No i dont have warranty, dell offers 90-day warranty on the purchased part. All said and done they wanted 1500 for 2 cards waaay to much. I bought 2 from Table21 for about 1k. Thanks for all the help guys, now i start my search for the SLI cable and heatsinks

 

That shouldn't be too hard for Dell to sort out, unlike the gpu's. Give 'em a call back and ask for:

Y48TK Right Heatsink GeForce GTX 680m
5G1VJ Left Heatsink GeForce GTX 680m
GDMRG Nvidia SLI Bridge Cable

The heat sinks should come with the support plate for attaching the HS, and TIM pre-applied to the HS, just an assembly job required - plug 'em in and grab/mod the drivers and you're golden.

 

Already had a chat with them, they SAY (take that for what its worth) that the x-plates do not come with the heatsinks. They are out of stock of everything except the left heatsink, they are doing their whole "call the warehouse" deal again lol. Price on them if anyone is interested is 28$ for the left side and she couldnt tell me for the right side but i assume its the same, as far as x-plates i assume around 10 bucks? again i am waiting on that too and the SLI cable you can find everywhere for 30$ All said and done around 100 bucks for the whole deal

 

Here is a listing in the NBR Marketplace if you can't wait around with Dell again. :thumbsup:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/pri...atsinks-secondary-fan-m18x-all-brand-new.html

LOL just saw that you have already contacted the seller Thats what I get for posting when I'm half asleep HAHA.

Cheers.

 

Haha yep but i just grabbed an SLI cable from ebay for 27 bucks. Now all i need is paste and the heatsinks. Cant wait to get these installed next week.