Just Sharing a great experience with Dell/Alienware (long read warning)

Ok so this isnt as long of a read as i thought it would be. lol!!!

So i bought an area 51 m15x about 5 months ago and Oceanus has been helping me with lots of little things on that (THANKS OCEANUS) but recently I had the oppertunity to pick up an All Powerful M15X for a steal so I jumped on it.

Specs
i7 720qm Processor
8gb ddr3 ram
500gb hd
1080p screen
nvidia gt240m video card
5300 wireless card
bluetooth
9 cell battery
ect... price paid... $600

Well I bought it with no charger (made sure to test it at a buddys computer shop first) and ended up buying a universal charger from him.

After about 2 hours, I realized the battery wasnt charging so I called dell just for some advice. Turns out this computer also has nearly 2 years left of complete care and in home service warranty left!!! YAY

After a bios update, the tech offered to send me a replacement psu at no cost. I explained that I did not have the original one to send back and he said no problem and put the order threw anyway. He explained that it would take 3-5 buisness days. I told him that I was leaving on a buisness trip in 2 days and he ended up overnighting one to me. (Prop number 1 to dell)

The day before leaving on my trip (also the same day I recieved my new psu) I realized that I was getting crackleing/static threw the headphone jacks. After a little research on here, I called dell again. I also read about the throttleing issue on the nvidia cards and even though I had not experienced this yet, I brought it up. The first rep I talked to ran a few diagnostics and then said I would have to send it to the depot to see if they could replicate the issue on the audio. After a little bit of argueing, I hung up and called back to speak to another rep.

This rep was great. He found the last reps notes and said he would place an order for the mb and a tech would call me within a couple days to schedule an appt. I explained yet again that I would be out of town and he offered to give me a call while I was gone so that the parts could be here when I came home and the tech could come out. (I was a little worried about this after reading most people never get a call back but I agreed)

After setting up the callback, I decided to ask about the throttleing issue on the videocard and mentioned that I had seen on here that some people were getting a replacement 5850 card. The rep said he hadnt heard of it but was willing to help. He logged into my comp and installed unigine tropic to test it. After about 30 sec of running he turned it off and logged out without saying anything. (it was getting around 18-20fps which I thought was about normal for that card.
He asked me to hold for a minute and when he came back, he said, we normally dont do this but I am going to send out a new ati 5850 card as a replacement for you. Needless to say I was very excited.

The callback from him was on the day we agreed even though it was a couple hours later than planned but props again for following threw. He told me he had already placed the order for the parts and that I would get a call on tuesday or wednesday from a tech to schedule a time.

I arrived home late sunday night and decided to take monday off to recoup from my 2000 mile journey. Around 11:30 monday morning, I get a call from the tech saying he had recieved the parts and could be out around 1:00 that day. He showed up, took about 45 min to take the computer completely apart, replace the parts and have it back together and running like a top. My audio crackleing issue is gone and i more than doubled my score on unigine tropic (old card was around a 418 and the new is around 975)

So to anyone with dell support issues, I appoligize but just hang in there and you will eventually get someone who is more than happy to help you.

 

So for $600 you got an m15x with a 5850, 8gb of ram, 1080p screen, new charger, and 2 years complete care :-D Nice job!!

It's great to read stories like these especially because any people find these forums when they are having trouble/to complain about the company. This is yet another example of how willing Dell support is towards helping you out.

Perhaps the best lesson is if you don't get a nice rep just hang up and try again later... the difference between a helpful rep and someone who doesn't care is huge

 

Yeah, it was a great deal. I agree, its the same principal as anywhere. some people enjoy their jobs and do the best they can and some people are just there for the paycheck. find one of the reps who enjoys going home at night knowing they did the best they could for you.

 

how the hell did you get that m15x for that price

 

that's one heck of a deal, but I still think dell warranty is a hit or miss, but its always good to hear the good side of things once in a while.

 

I remember I tried that when I got my AW, but when I called or accessed chat, when giving my name, it would patch me through to the same rep.

When I asked for a new sales rep, they said I was locked with that rep for 72 hs. I had to wait 3 days to get a new rep... do they still do that?

 

all i got from reading your novel (JK), is hang up and try again....

i never get the same rep NEVER....lol... last time i called them was when i was having trouble with A09 the EC install and the rep said he could void my warranty for trying to install the bios by myself, i told him to forget it ill ask some one that cares.... all he needed to say was type in DFLASH EC_W690.118 and have a good day....

ive call support about 30 times since oct 2010 and out of all them times i can say ive had 2 good experiences, u sir are the luckest man on the face of this earth!!!!! for the price on your rig, warranty, Free upgrade and outstanding tech support!!!!! its like falling into a pile of sh** and coming out smelling like roses holding an incredible dream machine.... congrats

 

its actually kinda funny how i got the deal. It was at a local pawn shop and i had seen it in there a couple weeks prior to getting it but at the time, i didnt have time to stop and look at it.

I went back in about 2 weeks after seeing it and they told me they had accidently sold the charger with another computer and they had lowered the price from $1500 to $1200 due to that fact. The battery was completly dead so there was no way to test it so i made what i thought was a fair offer on what i knew i could part it out for if it didnt work. I offered $500 cash plus $100 trade in.

They told me they couldnt do that so I said no problem, ill come back in a month and it will probably still be here since most people wont buy something they cant test and said I would make an offer then. The guy nearly jumped down my throat and said "no, it will be the same price then". I said no problem and started to get my stuff and leave and another rep decided to open their mouth and confound the problem by saying "i have a friend who will come and buy it right now for this price so..." and pulled out her phone and acted like she was calling them. I again said no problem and left.

When I got outside, the same girl who pulled out her phone was walking out for a ciggarette and decided to poke at me some more and shouted at me "how about I go buy the charger myself and then ill sell it to you for the full $1500" being a smart *** about it.

I ended up calling the general manager and explained what happened and he told me that he would sell it to me for what the store paid ($600) and he would give me a 30 day warranty so that I could get a charger and test it.

I jumped on it like you wouldnt believe and now it is all mine.

 

your my hero... lol enjoy your alienware they are really awesome systems, i would purchase from them again..... well im off to the pawn shops now

 

So basically you bought a stolen alienware. Lucky nonetheless

 

I highly doubt its stolen. lol. pawn shops are required to report all purchases by law to the police to make sure there not stolen (yes im sure there are some who dont) however this is a very large pawn shop chain (covering 4 states) so i doubt they would risk losing their liscence to buy stolen goods.

 

if it were stolen he wouldnt have any dell support, im sure the owner would have reported it.....

 

what im assuming happend (since with my new psu, the paper work had the guys address in kentucky and im in idaho) is that he was traveling and probably had some problems with his car or was running out of money (maybe going to portland or seattle) and he ended up having to pawn his laptop to get some cash. then because he was traveling and didnt come back threw idaho, he didnt get it out of pawn. thats just my theory but who knows.

 

Great to hear that you also had such great support from dell. Here some weeks ago i had an graphical error with my Alienware m15x, so i called the danish dell support. He was very polite and went through my comp with their wireless control program, and said that he could see it too but that there was nothing that he could do anything about from where he was. Then he told me that i could try and use Alien respawn(and he said that he would follow me through every step, another example of good service) and that that might fix the problem, or that if that was too inconvenient for me, he would send a mechanic out the next day to replace my graphics card. I told him that i would just use Respawn. Then the next day he actually called me back and check up on how it went, and said that he was sorry for not being able to solve the problem himself, and then again asked if i wanted a technician. My problem was solved with the reboot, so i told him it all worked out and then said goodbye. after that i have to say that was some of the best and most polite support i have probably had in some time!

 

I got mine practically free. I should have shared my experience too but I haven't really found the time to write it down.

Long story short: I was having a few issues with the m15x (older model) that I had before and needed some parts replaced. Mind you I had been using it for about 3 years. They had made some policy changes regarding issuing out replacement parts for older Alienware models so they weren't able to send parts out to me like they used to.

Instead, they suggested me to send in the laptop for a 100% refund. No restocking fees, nothing. I used that money towards ordering a new M15x (specs in my signature) and I haven't really had a problem with this one since. What really made my experience with Dell was that they understood that I did not want any downtime between the time I had to ship my old laptop and the time I received my new one since I had to use it for work. I ordered a customized M15x and it arrived almost 3 days after, even before I had a chance to ship in my old laptop.

The only additional money that I put into the laptop was the extended premium warranty. I had originally purchased the laptop with 1 year premium, but I had it extended an additional 3 years for about $500.

Edit: My tip is that if you want to get good customer service, you should always be a good customer regardless of any frustrations that you may face with them. Some of it may not be entirely their fault. Speaking from my own experience as a representative (for another company, of course), I would be willing to bend over backwards to make sure my customer was happy if that customer was being patient with me.