Alienware Customer Service rep

I have seen a lot post saying how bad the customer service of alienware is, I wonder if any 1 have a good experience with them and kept their conact info, if so, please make a post here so that we can PM you for it.

 

Only experience with Alienware support was pre-Dell takeover. Honestly they were great. GF's Sentia dc board fried while studying abroad in Ireland and it was repaired and return within a week. The reps are a little heavy on the spanish accent, but i speak spanish so no biggie.

 

i just brought the laptop today with the 4 year advance, im already getting worries abt the laptop would go wrong

 

you can't be worried before you even get the thing lol.. i'm sure they'll take care of you, especially since you bought their most expensive warranty, and i'm sure an equally nice machine..

if they dont cooperate when you need something, just call back and talk to someone else until they do what you want dell's a pretty large company, chances are you wont get the same CSR again.

(although one time i actually talked with the same sales rep on chat three consecutive times..)

 

At least you'll have these forums for majority of issues you have(If any) with your new toy. Don't be too worried bout waranty, from what i've read in a lot of posts here, people have had some great service.

 

yea i know, i had a lot of helps with the people in these forum already for buying the laptop, i got a good deal from the rep that people refered to me

 

Mostly bad experiences on my end. My 3k posts are mostly negative experiences with dell lolz.

 

No issues with Dell CSRs here. Just issues with build quality, which isn't the fault of the CSRs anyhow.

 

My Sales rep was great, The lady (supervisor) who eventually picked up on my replacement has also been great. The rest has been utter crap.

Overall it seems like if you can make the reps happy or talk to some sort of management you'll have a good experience.. If you don't they'll treat you like the rest of their customers - garbage.

 

glad to hear most of you got a good exp

 

Well here's my recent story:

I bought this m17xr1 from a guy on craigslist. Long story short; was one of the best deals I've ever stumbled onto. Total luck. No options spared; killer price; still "new" in the box.

Only problem was that I wanted MY name on the plaque on the bottom. Searched around on the net and read that other people had ordered new plaques, and it was no big deal. Didn't even have to pay for them.

Cool. No prob. Call Alienware, who transfers me to Dell. Then starts an almost 2 hour odyssey of xfer after xfer after xfer, as one befuddled Indian kept pawning me off on another. It was like not a one of them had the slightest f'ing clue of what I was talking about!!! Really know their product there. The straw that broke this camels back was after I ed at the last rep, telling him how long I'd been on the phone, and how many times I'd been transferred. He PROMISED he was going to xfer me to the right person this time. I waited on hold for a while, yet again, when a rep asks if I needed any help.

It was the same jagoff that promised to xfer me to the right person this time. He was a bit embarrassed but I said a few things and hung up on him.

Fast forward a month or so. I was reading about Alienwares new Pc lineup, on a Facebook post. I commented that I love my m17x, but that the customer service is some of THE worst there is.

I got a private message a couple hours later from a man named Arthur L. He said he worked for alienware and was wondering if he could help.

Told him my story.

3 days later I was putting my plaque on the bottom of my m17x with MY name on it.

Thank you mr Arthur L. at Alienware! There are some good people there. I'm not sure why I was transferred to Dell, since Alienware makes the plaques, right?

 

The dell reps are some of the worst I've dealt with. I ordered my alienware with an inspiron netbook for the gf when the netbook was shipped the fedex website said I had the wrong adress so I called dell apparently my rep forgot to write my suite number 2 days 5 calls and about 2.5 hrs on my cell later i finally got it fixed.

 

My Dell rep experience is mostly negative.

When I get a rep from India, I know I am in for a world of hurt in terms of experience because they follow a script and often are focused on trying to upsell everything. Most of the times I have gotten a rep from India on the phone, the noise in their background makes it almost impossible to hear them.

The American reps arent much better with the tech know how and also try to upsell, but do tend to back off a bit easier and are a bit more easy going. I dont know if its culture thing, or what.

Almost everytime I call or chat with a rep, I know more then they do, they dont really supply you with any new information, and they seem more intent on getting the sale then trying to make you happy. They also have lied to me, several times, some might say they are just mis informed, but I have had some just outright lie. ( ie the r3 is made of full anodized alum, and had an rbg led screen, the intel recall not affecting my r3 order and numerous other lies )

I have no idea how they get such high marks for customer service, but I think perhaps a bit of that might have to do with them asking customers right on the phone how would they rank them. Now thats very off putting to me. I am sure that skews the results.

I hear these amazing stories of people with great reps and amazing deals they are cut, and I never experience the same thing, and I am at a loss to figure out why. I am extremely pleasant on the phone and easy to deal with, I just want to be treated with some respect. I have worked sales and I feel many of the reps are just data entry people who got stuck on a sales call. They dont know their products and every single one of them I have talked swears up and down there are never any more discounts. I have followed the guide on ordering to try to get discounts to no avail.

Either I am just unlucky or other people have the hook up.

The Dell/Alienware reps is actually one of the main reasons I was considering going with another brand/company. I like the security of the warranty, but dealing with them always results in a hassle and a headache.

My most recent one was ordering the new M14x, I was set up for a sales call as part of a return I was doing for a defective machine and this would be a replacement, and I was told that the sales person who was going to call would try to get me the best possible deal. He ended up quoting me a price that he claimed was discounted, but I could go to the dell website and configure the exact same system for the exact same price. So I had no idea what kind of discount he was saying he was offering. I think he was lying to me and trying to use the current price reduction for buying the hd wireless kit as his "special discount". When I asked if he could do any better then the quote since I could order that price directly from dell, he said he needed to check with his manager, he came back and said, he could do 50 dollars off. ( I had coupon for 50 bucks off anyway, would simply be using the same coupon ). He also told me that the 3gb 555 card was an upgrade he was providing to me...yet it was still costing me a 100 bucks. His quote didnt save me a dime and in fact he wanted to take away the advanced warranty to lower the price...I was like um no. I ended up politely saying I would look over his quote, but that I probably would wait.

I dont like the deception of telling me he was giving me a special deal and discount when he wasnt. Deceptive and misleading sales techniques just irk me. Be straightforward and honest and I can respect that. However most of Dells sales team and CSRs dont seem to follow that from my experiences.

 

have any of you notice all the dell outsourced sales reps sound more or less the same when I ask to be transfered im not even sure sometimes if it's the a new rep or the same rep with a fake new name and extension

 

I've had to call them for the past two nights because I did a clean install of W7 with my new SSD and Seagate Momentus XT- the first night, none of the WiFi drivers were working, and last night I tried flashing to BIOS A04 but it froze in the middle and then I was having a ton of boot problems and thought I had bricked my new AW. The first night the CSR prob spent close to an hour on the phone with me and was very very helpful, and last night the CSR fixed my problem in about 15 min(I had tried flashing back to A03 and the BIOS had been reset to RAID when it should have been in AHCI). For the record, the name of the CSR rep from last night was Andre(even though he was clearly Indian) and he was very, very helpful and fast.

 

Nice one. I was thinking about calling for a new nameplate since i bought my m17x off of someone, but seeing what you went through when you called i'll just deal with what i have.

 

i want to have the new name plate too, my gf force me to put her name on, well she won even see it

 

Heh, I'd like a new name plate too in case I wanted to sell a machine. I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for it as well. I should search and see if there's a way to order that part...

 

I kept the old nameplate specifically for that reason: if I ever buy a better, used Alienware, I'm simply slapping my nameplate on the bottom of it.

 

Well I've never owned an alienware, but my experience with trying to order one was bad enough. I was chatting online on alienware canada asking some questions about M14x, and the rep was not very competent so I asked for a phone number I could call, hoping that a dell sales rep on phone could answer my questions. He refused to give me a number ( I know I could've looked online for it) and only gave me his personal number. I asked politely a few times and finally he gave me one.

I called and it directed me to the US sales department, and he transfered me back to canada, after which a guy from the wrong department picked up. After another call transfer, a sales rep (I assume) picked up but hung up after 2 seconds? So after looking up canada's alienware number, I called again and a lady who said she was from the sales dept (or marketing dept? forgot) asked if I was calling from US or canada, which I said canada, and she transfered me to another guy who, once again, asked if I was trying to place an order, which I already told the previous lady I was ordering, and he then transfered me to another guy (finally a sales rep, I assume) who picked up and again I was cut off a couple seconds after he picked up.

After that, I gave up. Now, is this process normal or am I just unlucky? I can't even begin to imagine the troubles I might have to endure if I bought an alienware and had problems with it.

Edit: I am seriously considering buying a M18x right now, but am highly troubled by all the negative comments on dell sales rep. I am aware that most people who post on forums about sales rep are those who are having/have had problems with them. But still...whats the approximate ratio of good vs. bad customer service? And for those who praise it, would they still have reason to praise it if they did not have the 4 year next day on-site repair warranty?

 

I have an excellent rep that will give you max discounts if anyone wants to PM me.

Rules are that you have to be nice/polite!

He's very popular, so you can e-mail him your phone number since you're not likely to get through without dozens of attempts

Just to give you an idea of how amazing he is, I saved almost 400$ on my M14X purchase (those discounts are now expired, however there's always news ones available).

Let me know!

 

sorr to hear your story, maybe u should ask some one to get a good canada sales rep, i have 1 but he is us.

 

I hear chat NEVER works for much/any discounts. Read through and get the name/number of Canadian sales reps which are good to work with and start there. It'll save you a lot of time.

 

Yea, if u want to huggle,u need to do it through phone

 

Yep, while I didnt use anyone contact or know a rep.. I called and got the M17x in my sig for $1750.. Retail was $2190 tax/shipped. So definitly call. I had to get a quote and then re call and haggled on the quote with someone else though..

 

I tried haggling, I was like, um I cant hit that price, I need to get it to XXXX amount to use my dell financing, and I was hit with the wall of silence.

I said, is there anything you can do? I was told maybe I need to start taking things off the machine to reach my price. So instead of offering to discount anything, they were taking away upgrades.

I am seriously begining to believe big discounts are a myth. Everyone gets one but I have yet to see it.

Every rep I have talked to lately has stonewalled me on discounts. I am like what the hecht is going on?

Some responses I have gotten are;
-Oh the machine is too new to get a discount on
-No, there is no real discount available
-You can check the webpage or emails for coupons, those always help
-I am sorry I cant do anything with the price, they are set by Dell
-Or I am met with silence until I say, well I need to think it over and hang up, and I dont hear from them again

I think someone at Dell hates me and put me on a do not help list.

Oh and most recently after ordering the M14x, I tried to get NBDelivery, emailing the rep who took my order and she said, sorry, she cant help expedite my laptop while its in production, she has no control over that or how its delivered. So I dont know if shes just stonewalling me on discounts/freebies or just lying to me. I have gotten upgraded to NBD on other laptops I have ordered from Dell or had my machines expedited and I spend alot of money at Dell, so I am just at a loss at lack of discounts I see, especially compared with some of the amazing deals I see.

 

don call your sale's rep, call their 1800 number and tell them you want to cancel it

 

Yup. And hope to get a USA csr, cuz they're easier to talk to and there's no lag with the call, so you won't have some idiot trying to talk over you.

 

Can you ask for a US rep up front? or ask them to transfer you to one?

 

They'll sometimes say they'll try to get you one, or sometimes they'll say there's no way to guarantee it. Doesn't hurt to ask though

 

I have spoken with just about every person in both depts at least twice now in the last 7m0, lol! Andre is a cool guy, he's been there since it before it was Dellieware. A chick from Costa Rica named Leticia as very cool and pretty well known as well. There were a couple more that I have saved somewhere that I can post later. But seriously out of probably a hundred calls and 60 different people... only a handful I care to remember.

Yeah, this treatmet is typical. As far as discounts... just flat out tell them that you know they are authorized to give a 20% discount and that if he/she doesn't want the sale - then someone else will give it you when you call back. Also, something else to note... tech support guys don't normally get the chance to do sales because they're techs, but they still get a kickback on a sale and they are way more knowledgable - they will be much more eager to help you and give you discounts.

Dude, seriously? You gave in? Wow... I hope you were "well rewarded" at least, LOL!

Yes you can and they will transfer you... but it can tick them off sometimes and they will "transfer you immediately" straight to a dial tone, lol!

Another thing to note guys when ordering your system... max the warranty out right away. Go with a cheaper RAM setup or HDD's because those are super easy and cheaper to upgrade late. I have been flat-out lied to about the sell of a warranty after you purchase your machine... he told me that the price was indeed more expensive but "no big deal" and not much more expensive that it would hurt your pocket book. I guess maybe the guy was rich and several hundreds of dollars wasn't a "big deal" to him, but it sure was to me. I tried to extend it just a couple months later and it had almost doubled in price. AND if you have alot of issues with your machine - whether it's your fault or not, that stays on your record and they will NOT extend your warranty for you and if they do, you will be "high risk" and they will charge you out the rear for it. Seriously.

My opinion on their customer service? It sucks. Worst ever. However, the warranty itself is the best ever. You have to fight what you want/deserve, but you will get it if you keep trying. I had one of the worst experiences ever with these guys and it took over 6mo to get it fixed... but finally when I talked to the right guy in charge, he made it up to me and took care of me very well. So although I am happy that they did evenutally come through and I will praise the warranty... especially with the accidental coverage on the advanced plan - it's awesome... it's just dealing with the actual reps is horrible. If possible, ask around for an email address of a good rep. if you ever talk to a good tech... save his email address and always go through him. It's slow rolling through email, but it does help sometimes.

You can read about my issues here and judge for yourself. Again, it starts out bad... get's worse... and then extreme... and then "OMG"... but it does have a happy ending. So it's worth the read and it has alot of good advice there from other people as well as my experiences for you to learn from. The best ammo is being prepared my friend.

 

Also @ mav, what country was the csr that assisted you from? I'm talkin about the FINAL csr that you most recently dealt with who satisfied your needs. (Please don't misinterpret my sentence as innuendo LOLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ)

 

Actually, you will find this funny just because of the long history... but it was a rep out of the Texas offices with an Indian accent!