Alienware - taking legal proceedings against them

Hello everyone,

I am going to tell you this story about my actual misfortune with Alienware, you will tell me what you think and what I should/could be able to do.

Let’s look at the basics:

-I have an m9750 Alienware laptop ordered in December 2008. Somewhat satisfied of the beast, worth 1800 € the thing, you better be satisfied with that kind of money.
-I had taken a 1 year warranty which I have renewed early January 2009 (just prior to the renewal limit)
-The notebook crashed in June 2009 (startup, but nothing on the screen, no POST, no startup beep, nothing)
-I called the Alienware technical support in July 2009 (not having the time before that to deal with it, since I was in a busy work period)
-I live in France (I know, maybe I should shoot myself ) - my apologies also for the English and excuse my French

A couple of remarks:
-I already had dealt several times with the AW hot-line for various hardware upgrades questions and possibilities (graphics, CPU, HDrive etc.) and have each time been disappointed:
(1) by the lack of training/information from the technicians considering their knowledge of upgrade opportunities (such as avoidable nonsense assemblies like "Yes you can upgrade to the 8800m GT or GTX”)
(2) by the price of the upgrades (I wish not to lose my kidneys or an arm )
(3) and revolted by the lack of incredible seriousness in their communications and their follow-up exchanges : ex: "Alienware will get back to you within 48 hours", "we call you" and other good-looking promises not held...

- I have ordered the same HDrive (160 go Seagate SATA2) as the one in my m9750 to create a RAID0 volume. It was 63 € worth buying it by my own means instead of the 90 € with the authentic Alienware services (huk huk huk).

Where it starts to get nasty:

-I therefore contact (July 23th of 2009) the European technical desk/service to talk about my problem and to find a suitable solution. After a bunch of different operations on the laptop with the technician on the phone (like for 30 minutes): removed the HDrive, the optical drive, RAM, reset CMOS, external screen CRT, connecting on sector / battery
=> result: either the GPU or the motherboard or both are DEAD. (Analysis I myself established according to observations after reading several topics on the m9750 faults and problems).

Result => RMA (return to their factory). OK this is cool, I am under warranty, they just come and get it with DHL at my place (DHL came to take away the laptop that same day, I was amazed!), and in 2 working weeks they return the beast back to me.... ACCORDING TO THEIR BEAUTIFUL STATEMENTS...

I have also asked them to incorporate the Hdrive that I bought separately for the RAID0 volume (as a nice commercial gesture for a laptop worth 1800 € which is just 1 years old and not supposed to fail) => clear-cut refusal from AW (right, I can understand buying their overprized gear is better)...

Today is September 15th of 2009. I still have not recovered my laptop. Let's see... 23rd of July => 15th of September... that’s 56 days... 8 weeks (ok, I will remove 8 weeks x2 days = 16 non-business days of WE) => 40 working days, it will soon be 3 time the initial length of time expected (15 working days).

- communication with AW has been more than hazardous / completely inconsistent / lack of seriousness: in between of the "we don’t know where the problem lies in the workshop", "Yes Mr, we will make the necessary arrangements", "the head of the workshop team should respond within 48 hours", and "you will receive your laptop repaired soon" => I wanted and still want to KILLL them!!!, also, do bear in mind AW’s failure to respond by mail in the "under mandatory 48 / 72 hours delay" and without ever calling back (phone) when I have directly ask them to do so(written request).

-Recently (September 8th of 2009), they tell me by mail that they have sent the laptop to DHL on September the 2th of 2009... 13 days is not that bad for a 48/72 h delivery from DHL... and even better! : They don’t even have a package tracking number to give me! Is this not some kind of big bad as* BS?

- Sale terms are available here (might be different in the US):
http://www.alienware.co.uk/Profile_Pages/Customer_Terms.aspx

"In the event that the shipping time for your Gear Shop or System order will exceed these time frames, you will receive notification by email or a sales representative will be in contact with you to advise." => oh really?

"We will not be held responsible nor will we hold any liability to you for any delay or failure to comply with our obligations under these terms and conditions if the delay or failure arises from any cause which is beyond our reasonable control such as lightning, flood, exceptionally severe weather, fire, explosion, war, civil disorder, industrial disputes (whether or not involving our employees) or acts of local or central government or other competent regulatory authorities or events beyond the reasonable control of our suppliers.. "

=> real nice …

- Warranty terms are available here (might be different in the US):
http://www.alienware.co.uk/sub_pages/warranty.aspx

I wish to find out if it is possible to do something about this, which could involve going to court against them or not, because I am to fed up of being taken for a fool…


1) It is misleading/fake service advertising
2) non-compliance in warranty repair delays
3) non-compliance with communications protocols (email or phone) and deadlines
4) pure and simple lie regarding shipment to DHL.

What do you guys think?

For many of you it might look like this thread is a “igotplentyofagainstAW” blowout thread but my goal is for other people not to suffer the difficulties I am going through with AW, and for AW not to get away with it so easily, they must not think that everything is going well and that we (customers) can let this happen just like that.

When you get a 2000 € laptop you expected the after-sale service that goes with it...

Thanks to you all

@tomX

 

i agree and good luck with your sale


its worth being noted you did send your laptop in in the middle of a merger

 

I wanted to read all that, really, but than my ADD kicked in, sorry.

Good luck though.

 

gather your info and invoices

tape them saying its shipped

then go to court any judge that has common sense would know it isn't illegal to take forever but nor is it right and proabaly would award you the price of your laptop

 

Mate. I'm in almost the same position. I've had 2 brand new M15X's in the last 8 weeks. They've been in my possession a total of 5 days between them. Both were defective when I got them. AW insisted on repair. I insisted on UK consumer law which says I can repair, replace or refund at my discretion. They've repaired the second laptop and sent it back to me but I refused delivery as I had told them at least 5 times in writing that I didn't want it repaired.

I'm so angry with them that I can't even spend the time to give you all the details of the bullsh*t excuses and runarounds I've had from Customer Support. The latest excuse was that I didn't send my requests to the right email address. Fortunately I've proved that I did as it was the email address on their own website!

I'm about to inform trading standards, have told my credit card company that there's been a fraud on my card and am considering a claim in the Small Claims Court.

I spent £3,000 on a laptop which, although brilliant, is fundamentally flawed. Customer service has been horrific and for that kind of money there's simply no excuse for it. They simply haven't contacted me once throughout this entire process despite me receiving acknowledgements from them that they've got my emails.

I wish you all the luck.

 

I am sorry to hear your story, although I would like to hear the details so we can share a good laught.

I just know they will always have something to say about their conditions being clear, and that in certain conditions they don't apply, and that with vacations there were problems in the repair ans assembly shop and that and that...

I bet they have lawyers specially with dell having bought AW 6 months ago... what chances do i have of winning anything? Lawyer will probably cost me the price of the AW system "award you the price of your laptop" ...

 

I don't know much about consumer law in France (none in fact) but in the UK it's fairly easy to take out a claim in the small claims court. It costs about £50 to do and you can represent yourself.

In my case AW are now saying that the fact that I returned the laptop to them in the first place meant that I accepted a repair - despite 5 emails saying that I wanted a refund. The AW support team said at the time that the only thing I could do was send the thing back which I did but made sure that I had emailed my refund request to them. The lady in Bratislava got really shirty but finally agreed to escalate my claim - particularly when I calmed down and suggested that she was missing an opportunity to put right some terrible customer service.

 

Aw in europe suck

there is no other explanation, anyone that denies this simply hasnt dealt with them

 

I don't know how cheap lawyers are over there but here it would cost a lot more in fees to take them to court than what the laptop is worth.

 

@ OP I understand your position, luckily mine hasn't been that bad YET, but I think all EU users can agree that Customer Support (apparently they dont even have a customer service department) is appalling, and Im having to fight to get my laptop running again; well within warranty. I have encountered a lot of the same poor customer service you have, and, much as I love my M17(when it works properly), I wouldnt buy another AW in the next few years!

I hope my case doesnt reach small claims court, but I am well prepared for the fact I may well have to fight for a refund on the machine, unfortunately it can be quite hard to find decent warranty legal guidelines, Im pretty sure in the UK we actually do have some rules on warranty repairs etc.

 

GL with the legal stuff.

No matter how good your case is it is still very difficult to get a judgment (here in the US anyway).

Most small claims judges don't do cases against large corporations so they end up giving you a dismissed without prejudice (so you can fight it somewhere else lol).

Happened to me a few months ago....

 

Going against DELL.... quite a risk wouldn't you think?

 

hehe

i work in finance, if it got to the small claims and you can prove that the court action can be avoided (ie the defendant wasnt delaying due to your inaction) then you can claim costs from the defendant as well

But it is purely up to the judge, normally if you can prove that you will be awarded costs in the small claim court

be aware you cant just take them to court and claim costs, you have to send them a letter before action, if you need help with that i can help you with that

Pman

 

nah not really for a small claims court they wouldnt even bother too much, chances are they would pay out first

 

I'm trying to get a lawyer right now. 33.3% fee....yikes!

 

33.3% of what you win back?

 

Well I copied in AW to the email I sent the finance company about the terrible service and faulty goods and asking them what I had to do and within an hour I received an email from AW saying that, " As a gesture of goodwill" they would offer me a full refund and arrange for collection of all equipment etc.

While this is a great result for me it's so freaking annoying that people like me have to go to such lengths to get what should be given in the first place. I'm sure they rely on people simply giving in and not pushing for their rights. Just home I'm not blacklisted from AW now!

 

Got the computer back.

- They formatted everything (luckily i had backup everyhthing too), Personalization is gone (user, screen bull, etc...)

- some holding pads (the ones below the laptop, soft cushion pads where the laptop rests on a flat surface) are missing

- they changed the original display (wxga+ = 1 440×900) with a WUXGA+ (1 920×1 200) which is a good surprise.

- the recovery partition is gone... don't know how recovery will work now...

what do you guys think?

 

That's what I though.. Until paypal sent a lawyer from 3 hours away from the courthouse.

I am sure it cost paypal almost as much to pay the lawyer as it would have been to settle with me.

 

yes....

/10 char

 

Can you copy the email you sent, with the sensitive bits removed, on here, just so others in a similar situation might be able to use it to help thier own situations?

Also what email address did you contact for AW

 

The email address I used was [email protected]. I'm not sure why this works better than the normal one. In the past for technical issues I've used [email protected].

Below is a precis of my email to the finance company with bits taken out etc. The key point for me is the Sale and Supply of Goods Act 2002 and the presumptions that it places on retailers about goods sold.


My understanding of the provisions of the Sale and Supply of Goods Act
2002 is that any fault in a product less than 6 months old places a
burden on the retailer to prove that the defect wasn't present or
inherent at the time of purchase. A customer, where the retailer does
not meet the above requirement, can, at their option, demand a refund,
replacement or repair of the product. AW, in my mind, by refusing to
accept my refund request have forced me into accepting a repair which
I expressly refused before the laptop was ever sent to them. This is a
breach of the provisions of the Sale and Supply of Goods Act 2002 at
the very least.

 

AW have offered me a full refund and about time too. Irony is that the laptop is awesome but just with a poorly made case.

Good luck with yours mate.

 

Well looks like Im having to go the same route; have spoken to them today about obtaining a refund, they are meant to be calling us back between 9-11am tomorrow morning.

Probably going to send an email as well so they have it in writing.

 

Well a format is expected. No machine should go in to a repair centre without having been backed up. No repair centre in their right mind would guarentee data.
As for the missing rubber feet. Get back onto them straight away about that. The LCD upgrade = Nice freebie.
But don't let go of the fact that they delayed the machine by weeks and it came back with missing parts (rubber feet are parts after all)
Try and talk to someone higher up the food chain (supervisor etc.)
See can you get any other freebies off them, and tell them you want your warranty extended. I'd be going mad if my notebook came back after all that time with bits missing.

 

Well as I've mentioned in my thread, like Shirtbutton I've escalated my issues to V12 in a rather long email detailing the poor service I've experienced (my actualy email is in my thread), unfortunately AW Europe is a joke.

 

The irony for me is that it was the lack of customer service that made me demand a refund not the actual product. They could easily have kept me as a customer by treating me properly.

When you consider the number of customers paying for extended warranties etc and for a top end computer they should be able to do much better than this.

Surely someone at Dell has noticed this? Right? Guys? Helloooooooooo?

 

It's a shame to hear experiences like these, especially so numerous.

A 24 carat turd is nonetheless still a turd, and much as I am tempted by the marketing, the risk for such an investment (again) would definitely make me re-consider repeating my recent M17x purchase (though I still think I'm one of the relatively lucky ones).

Spending > £4k away was easy ... it's the expectation of what followed that disappointed most, and not being anywhere near as special a purchase as it used to from previous AW purchases. At least on the high-street you can stand in the shop and speak to the store manager face to face. With Dell, you experiences countless promises (to get you off the phone), lack of continuity (explain same thing to new person X after the 5th transfer), poor case logging (after promising they have written it down), and even when they swear they will finally send you parts that should have shipped with the system, they don't turn up, back to square 1 rinse and repeat. If there was sincerity, or even some common sense, I would be more patient, but you really get the sense of being one of the unwashed masses that have to be endured...

In order to get some 'traction' what I find saddening (and maddening) is that people understandably have to resort to threat of legal action, even though basic consumer law (whichever region) which should be sufficient, if not the fact of a premium purchase surely making customers eligible for premium support! Dell really should be fined (and heavily) for such practises (I think this may have happened already but a few $m was probably small change).

I'm more bemused than bitter though (life is full of experiences, not all good), and rather than rage against the system, I express my opinion and then vote with my wallet / custom, and likewise give praise where deserved.

Such service should become extinct through Consumer Darwinian evolution - unfortunately the promise of products and previous reputation has been so high that this has bot happened yet, and customers will continue to cough-up and then suffer until they have a major re-vamp of their whole process from Sales, Manufacture, QA, Fulfulment and Post Sales Support.

Dell seem focussed on their recent multi $bn purchase of EDS though - so this is probably just small fry to them

It's time for a new independent company that follows in the footsteps of the original Alienware to take up the lead, and show consumers how it's really done (and there are a few system builder contenders already out there)!

Trelawney

 

Totally agree...

 

Totally agree, Alienware didnt even bother calling me back this morning like they promised after I requested a refund under the Sales of Good Act 2002! As far as it stands, Im pretty sure they're breaking consumer rights and law in the UK now.

The Finance firm I financed through has also been mailed and are now looking into the case as well; I provided them with a slightly consolidated account of everything that had happened and they've obviously considered it a serious enough complaint that I was emailed back by an Assistant Manager in thier customer care department stating they were looking into it.