AW Owners: Is Alienware's "onsite warranty" a joke?

This seems to be a recurring issue now and then (often referenced in passing), but I don't think it's been made quite as clear as I feel it could be.

Alienware, on their product customization pages, has their warranties listed like this:

Under the respective "Learn More" link, bullet points like this:

Now. Yes, it's a loaded question. But, for you Alienware owners, if you've needed to contact support, do you consider their "onsite warranty" a joke? I've talked to one of their supervisors, and he estimated that 30% of their support requests have had onsite support approved.

I imagine most of you have at some point dealt with Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. with their onsite support. Which arrives the next business day. For 95+% of cases.

Hence, the question in the poll. Responses appreciated. Depending upon the rate of responses, it may be worth sending this on to other parties (whether it be Alienware itself, Dell (the full owners), Engadget (or other news sites), the BBB, or potentially elsewhere). Thanks!

P.S. If you haven't had problems obtaining onsite support, I'd love to know how you managed it, so if you could add a response, that would be great!

 

Adding my circumstances in as a separate post.

I bought my m15x toward the end of February. A few days ago, just before Thanksgiving, I noticed that the lower left-hand screw on the monitor assembly fell out. I figured it would be okay for a few days. By the weekend, though, the monitor assembly had started splitting in two, and small pieces of broken plastic were falling out.

I've had past dealings with Dell. I've had nigh everything replaced in a Dell laptop before: CPUs, motherboards, LCDs, etc. I figured this would be a pretty simple deal: call customer support, have them send somebody out with a full monitor assembly, swap it out. If only I'd known....

Alienware refuses to perform onsite support of this system. They want me to send it back to their factory "so that they can determine if anything else is wrong" (which makes me wonder: wouldn't replacing the entire monitor assembly guarantee that nothing else is wrong?). They've claimed it's more expensive for them to have it shipped to them than it is to send somebody out (which makes me wonder: why do all the other manufacturers charge more for onsite support, then?). They've claimed that they can't perform these kinds of delicate operations onsite, that it needs to be in a "clean" area (which makes me wonder: why do no other manufacturers have that issue?).

I need my system to get work done, since I'm a software engineer. I can't afford to lose it for 2+ weeks. Hell, I was only confident buying it from Alienware because I "knew" that I could get onsite support. So, naturally, I'm not happy.

 

Onsite support as far as I can tell means "Call Alienware and they'll talk you through the repair" OR just send it back. I don't know why they even state "onsite support" on their website when the clearly do no such thing.

I haven't read about one instance where they actually did come by to fix something for anyone in over a year that I've been on these forums and I DO check regularly and often.

 

alienware is a joke in general just turn to another company. i thought i was going to be wowed when i got my m17 but was greeted with an ugly notebook with horrible cooling. ........ ahhh alienware thowe alienware where is my refund?

 

I think jelly's going insane, and ignore any positives, and only focus and amplify the negative. So, we should all ignore him from now on until he calms down.
I am no AW fanboy, but Jelly is going all out to spread his hatred.

 

As much as I like Alienware, I do consider this a problem with them. I have yet to hear anyone here on the Alienware forum say they had a technician come and replace a part for them. Since Dell now owns Alienware, Dell needs to do its part in ensuring that Alienware owners get the same Onsite support as their own customers-- even if it means sending their own technicians.

 

Sorry, double posting.

Most of Jelly's comments lately have been unwarranted and childish, often containing little substance to what he has to say. I believe most of what he has been saying (ever since his dealings with Alienware) has had the intention of disrupting on-topic discussion and provoking users into an emotional response.

In any case, leave this for another discussion. I believe this thread has a lot of potential in getting Alienware to improve itself. Any criticism or testimony posted on this thread should be constructive or should at least have some form of substance.

 

what you said

 

I find you shallow and pedantic. Your attempts to demoralize me have no affect on my solid debates. I have made acquisitions and opinions that are allegedly negative towards the company we call "alienware". This company does not propose proper business edict in the way they conduct their "business". If you do not conquer with my statements feel free to acknowledge what you feel.

 

i think he did already....

 

LOL, Family Guy ftw....

As for on-site, I never used it with Alienware, so i can neither confirm nor deny.

I will say they do not force you to send back your system for minor fixes and upgrades/swaps. They will send you the parts which is a plus for them and one thing I liked about Alienware.

Some companies insist you send back your unit no matter how trivial the problem is with the hardware (heck, sometimes with the software too).

+1 AW for assuming their end users know what their doing sometimes.

 

considering the company was based and founded on the principles of gaming, and that most gamers have a more in depth knowledge of the tech field regarding computers and associated equipment and jargon, it would be safe to say that.

 

I have had no intention of demoralizing you-- nor do I find your sudden change in diction, grammar, and punctuation intimidating ( Come on now, shallow and pedantic? Someone here watches too much family guy.) There is nothing wrong with expressing negative opinions, but I do believe most of what you have been saying ever since you've decided to return your M17 have had little substance whatsoever-- often with the sole intention of provoking other users into a certain detestation against Alienware.

Because of your sudden change in grammar, I feel obligated to critique your post.

It's obvious that you've used a thesaurus. " Solid debates?" Nothing is solid about your "debates." In fact, I don't even know any of your statements about Alienware can be deemed a "debate." Debates are normally constructive, offering some sort of resolution-- you, on the other hand, only attack Alienware and its products, rarely giving any constructive opinions about them.

First and foremost, your use of quotation marks in "Alienware" seems to suggest that there is something wrong with the name Alienware. I would understand if the company was called " Amazing" or something, but the "company we call 'Alienware?'" You have to be kidding me.

" Acquisitions" and " allegedly?" You do know there are simpler words that could make that statement more clear, right?

I don't even have to explain your use of " propose," " edict," " conquer" and " acknowledge." They're all poor choice of words that do nothing to support the clarity of what you've just said.

If you plan on using a thesaurus to make yourself sound less childish, learn how to use the words you get from it.

 

lol..I may be way off here..but he's in Canada and may be using a french to english translator either way, learn some grammar.

 

In the end, when we're happy with a company or its products, most users are fiercely loyal (See: Apple), especially when that company is perceived as different and makes the purchase a special experience. Alienware does provide the whole "collector's edition," thing with the Agent card, Alien theme and such.

On the other hand, when a company shanks you prison style while you're minding your business, showering, humming the theme to "Friends," and trying to envision how you will choke down today's breakfast, well, that can rightfully leave you a bit raw.

Luckily, the forums give you both viewpoints (in spades), and you can make your own decision. I just hope no one takes it personally.

I can and will critique Alienware in the here and now, but they do offer decent products and my criticism would not preclude myself from purchasing another product from them if it was compelling enough.

But that's just how I roll....

 

I think this is a major negative for Alienware. I am returning my notebook, had it for 3 weeks, due to a problem that they could not fix over the phone. They want me to send it back to them and wait 2 to 3 weeks for repair. If they would have sent someone to my home and fixed it right away I would be keeping this machine.

 

I will add my Alienware support story.

A couple months back, my machine started artifacting in games, and acting badly. I put it up to overheating, and cleaned out the vents. But then the machine (my 9750) started artifacting during boot up, in the windows desktop, etc etc. Fearing the worst, I called up Alienware (This was a Sunday evening), wondering how long I'd be without my machine.

The tech walked me through some basic troubleshooting, and testing the video cards. He determined that the main Video card was borked, and would send out another to me, with an RMA to return the defective one. I was informed it could take up to 5 business days to receive the video card.

On Wed, I had the card in hand. I called up Alienware, and swapped the card out with one of their techs on the phone. No issues, new card fixed all the problems, time down? 2 and a half days.

I had a better than expected experience, minimal down time. I was, and still am, pleased with Alienware.

 

I think it is great that some have had good experiences with AW. What I think the OP is looking for though is if AW have ever sent a tech to your location to fix an issue. When you pay additional for 2 years of onsite service you would not think onsite meant that you are at home and your notebook gets sent to us. I have never seen a company sell onsite service in which they did not send a tech out to you. Heck, I will sell you onsite service, send it to me and I will fix it at my site.

 

I misspelled grammar once when I told someone to get better grammar... E-Embarrassment, lol.


Edit for staying on topic not just for lulz: My experience, (though I've not yet gotten the PC, just ordered it) has been great so far. Yeah, Alienware has a few problems because of the integration with Dell, like their Titanium account, but for the most part it's good, and the people there have been great. I assume that I'll be happy with the system once I receive it too.

 

Pretty much. If you take a look at actual replies from people who have been pleased, it's been due to Alienware shipping a part directly and walking the user through installation. It might just be me, but that doesn't sound like onsite service to me....

 

I have asked for on site support twice. Once they gave me it (it was just replacing a GPU but it took two weeks to get a tech). The other time my mousepad was semi broken so I asked for it and they told me Alienware computers were too highly customized (mine was based off of the Uniwill P71/P72 chassis ).

Dell on the other hand will have a tech at your door in 2 - 4 days. It is amazing. I wish Dell + AW merged support teams.

@Jelly - You are going through what I went through. You're going to get an infraction sooner or later or just get banned. You have to learn how to make your criticism of Alienware constructive.

 

Keep in mind that our Onsite Support is available for replacement part installations. All troubleshooting is done over the phone with our Technical Support representatives.

Should a part require too much disassembly (eg - mobile motherboard, LCD, desktop liquid cooling etc.), we may require the system to be sent in for depot repairs. You are able to ask for onsite assistance but keep in mind the aforementioned exception. We have this in place so you don't risk damaging your system in the process of trying to make a replacement and therefore voiding your warranty.

 

But that's the thing. Nowhere on your website for product information or warranty information does it say that Onsite Service = phone support, which, imho, doesn't qualify as "onsite service" at all. How is talking somebody through a process "onsite service?" That seems more to me like DIY support. What I'm looking for is this:

 

I just got off the phone with an Alienware customer service representative. This whole situation just gets odder.

So... it seems that the onsite service technicians are contractually forbidden from doing anything significant, like replacing motherboards and such. Alienware claims that this is due to past problems where technicians have damaged systems in the process of repairing them. But, from my understanding, this means that the only things the onsite service technicians are authorized to do are... the same things they're perfectly willing to walk you through with doing yourself over the phone.

... ? What's the point of onsite service technicians, then?!

 

Now we can sue AW for giving an service we pay for that they actually don't offer.

 

sweet. if my m15x breaks a hinge and AW starts ing... it's soo on.

 

WHAT I really like AW to do is to lower then 2nd and 3rd year "Onsite" service warranty. Or just take out the onsite and lower the price.
close to 300 CAD for 2nd year warranty is not competitive.

 

That could be the case.

When Dell had an onsite tech come to my crib to fix my desktop he did a really bad job. If I wasn't a computer tech myself, my computer would've been fried. He left the processor fan unplugged from the motherboard and he didn't have the proc in all the way. It was half in and half out.
I was pissed!!!

 

lol, so much for onsite service.

I would rather do it myself with detail guide available on the net.
Reduce the warranty price is the best solution for this "onsite" warranty.

 

Reducing the price would be reasonable seeing as how Alienware does not send technicians out very often, but it doesn't solve the problem of making the Onsite service more effective. Dell has had a good record of getting technicians out, so I honestly believe they should help ensure Alienware has the resources to do the same.

We're also going to need technicians that are knowledgeable, so auditing them once every so often to make sure they stay top-notch would make the service more worthwhile to have. If any of the technicians fail the audit, they should be re-trained to make sure they are still up to the job.

 

well, those technicians are not AW staffs, they are local computer shop that takes the contract. They might not be as knowledgeable about AW product as some members in this forum. What I suggest is to scrap the idea of onsite service and reduce the price. THEN add per service charge for onsite.

People who knows nothing about computer would not buy AW, and if they buy, they can send it back to AW for service or pay for onsite. What they are charging us now is onsite price for non-onsite or bad-onsite service.

 

Hmm. I never knew that. I guess learn something new everyday! In that case, then yes, I guess it does make sense to scrap the onsite service and have it as a pay per service.

Either that or they could have the option of pay per service or as a separate service (that's not bundled with the warranty) for added flexibility. Something like:

Cost Per Service: $10/per service.
1 Year Onsite Service: $60/year.

 

Unfortunately OnSite service is not available here in the UK but I can see how shipping the laptop to them can be quite expensive. Last time I checked, a DHL over night shipping costs around £70 here for the weight of my laptop, and it gets there the next day.

The shipping service is awesome, but I think Alienware needs to work on their efficiency more and fix the notebooks quicker.

 

Hah! You're lucky, then. By default, Alienware will try to pawn off ground shipping, first (which, if you're like me in California, means it'll take 5+ working days to get to Florida). Pushing a bit will get you 2-day shipping. Trying to get next day shipping is like pulling teeth.

 

BINGO!!!!!

 

dell usually when I owned two of their machines (laptops) would send someone to my home which was awesome. The one time my aw needed to go in aw had me ship it (covered shipping and it was fixed) but I was without my machine for a few weeks and it wasn't home either

 

AW could do what Toshiba does in their basic warranty package. Instead of shipping the computer all the way back to them for repair, Toshiba has you take the computer to a local computer shop they hired to fix your computer. The one I dealt with in Tampa was pretty cool. They diagnosed the problem, let me keep the NB until the part came and when I went to pick it up, they stood and watched as I ops checked it to make sure it worked.

That not be as great as "Onsite" but it is better then shipping it in for weeks and weeks. Plus, they didn't charge extra for it. It was part of their basic warranty package.

 

I'm not going to even bother saying it.

Anyways... James I know that you guys try to provide on-site support. However, (even though you would never do it), just tell the costumers that the only time that they will get on-site is when the problem is basic enough that they can fix it themselves.

 

i personally do not want a "tech" because of past issues and horror stories. i myself am a tech and i build and repair systems every day for my customers. all i would ask for is the parts no matter what they are (like dell does including mobo or anything) to be sent as a parts only dispatch and i do the swap and send the old one back. but if this doesnt happen no way.. im not sending my notebook out for month at a time and being without it. think about this that whole month its gone is a whole month wasted of the warranty you paid for?? thats ridiculous and i need my notebook i cant deal a month without it..

how many have been able to get parts sent out only??