Alienware needs to step it up. (beware, long thread)

There have been several things that have bothered me about this company. First and foremost, however, let me just say that I am not criticizing the product(s) of the company, but rather their customer support and the help I have been receiving thus far.

I have ordered the m15x about a month and a week ago and since then, I have been on these forums to check up on certain reviews about it and how people have come to like/dislike it. Because things seem to be shaping up for the m15x (the m15x has been gradually starting to get better reviews since May), I have had high hopes for it and regardless of what was said about it, I was still ready to try it out for myself.

The m15x I ordered was estimated to be shipped by July 15th and when it came nearing towards the date, I called in to check periodically (since the online status page was bugging and was still showing that it was at phase 2). Each time I called, the representatives who have answered my calls have always assured me that my order was on schedule and will be shipped by the date given. So far so good, right?

Wrong. July 16th had come and I had called in to check. At the time, I was not worried about any minor delays as I would rather have them take their time building a computer that would work properly than a computer that just breaks upon the first few weeks or month of use. In any case, when I called, they had told me that some of the components for my order were on back-order and that there would be a delay in building the computer.

Feeling a little down after finding that out, I quickly digested what I was told and convinced myself that the delay wasn't too bad. After all, these circumstances might have been beyond Alienware's control and it might not be Alienware's fault at all that they're getting their parts so late.

I waited about 5 days (July 21st, to be exact) before I contacted Alienware again. This time, I contacted Alienware-James via PM on the NBR forums on the status of my order since it seems like he was a credible person to be asking those kinds of question. As expected, his answer came promptly but to my dismay, the answer I received was not quite the news I wanted to hear.

I found out that Alienware was still waiting for the "actual chassis/motherboard kit for this laptop" but was reassured shortly after that it would come in shortly. At this point, I was starting to wonder why my order was taking so long to be built (I mean, I know people who have ordered the same laptop and have received their order already). Indeed I was frustrated with the news, but I still decided I should be patient with Alienware (I don't want to offend the mothership.)

I decided to wait quite awhile longer and today (July 25th), I decided to call in again. This time, I really wanted to know exactly why the hell it took so long and what was delaying my order. When I had called in, the woman that had answered my call said that they were now waiting for the graphics card to come in. What the hell, I thought I was only waiting for my chassis/motherboard kit. I was never told that the graphics card was also on back-order.

So as of this moment, I'll have to say that I'm extremely dissatisfied and am frustrated with the delay of my order. To find out that my order has not even begun to be built yet is just truly disheartening. I hope to God that this delay would not go in vain and I hope the "expedited" service would not affect the quality of the m15x I am ordering.

You know what, I am almost tempted to call in and ask them for a free upgrade and/or to refund my shipping and handling fees simply because it's taking too long. The only thing that's keeping me from canceling my order altogether is the m15x. I firmly believe that it's a great product, but the service so far has just been awful.

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So to make this thread even longer, I am going to list propositions I think Alienware should follow. I may sound a bit arrogant (and may be a bit ignorant on certain propositions) so please do not scorn me for being at the least ignorant on these matters. If you guys have anything you want to add or disagree on certain things, feel free to say so. I would rather have your input on what you think than not having any at all.

#1: Audit the quality of your customer service.
Make sure the feedback you are getting from your customers are linked to the representative that had taken the call. If they already are, make sure the information you receive from those feedback do not go for naught. Use that data to perhaps "revamp" (don't want to be blunt here, but "hire") people who are more qualified for the position. Make sure they speak fluent English, and if they don't, move them towards helping customers who speak the language they do (or funnel calls from people who speak their language to them).

#2: Audit these representative's knowledge about your products.
Build a test of some sort about your products and quiz your customer service's representatives once every one or two months. If they should fail, re-train them again and make sure they are competent enough to efficiently and effectively solve problems.

I have been noticing a lot of issues concerning how Alienware has dealt with certain problems. Some involve sending the wrong replacement part to the consumer (sometimes even multiple times) or not knowing what to do about a certain problem altogether. Make sure this does not happen often (or at all, if it's possible). It looks very unprofessional and it makes it seem like your representatives have been trained poorly.

Also note that customers hate being bumped up millions of times. Properly train your staff so that they would be able to answer certain issues instead of having them resort to pushing the customer around to other representatives when they don't know what to do.

If the representative cannot answer a specific question, have them find out who can and redirect the person to them. Have them ask another representative beforehand if they've ever run into that specific problem or have any knowledge of the inquiry before the customer is redirected towards that other representative.

#3: Be more realistic with your Estimated Ship Dates.
Expect the worst and set a date that seems more realistic towards the trends of delays you guys have been experiencing. I firmly believe people will tend to be a lot more happier with your service when they find out that their order has been shipped early rather than being delayed. Setting a date that gives a window of a week or so specifically for possible delays will generally provide that effect.

#4: Be honest with your answers.
If you guys find out that something is causing a delay in our order, then go ahead and tell us exactly what is delaying it. Email us if it's possible. We tend to be more forgiving when we find out that you're working towards fixing a certain issue that other people have been reporting and that you're working towards preventing that issue on that specific unit. I'm pretty sure all of us here would rather receive a functioning unit without those certain issues rather than being shipped a defective unit with those exact same problems.

If there are certain parts that are on back-order, state every single part that is being delayed (that is, if your customers are asking what's delaying it). Rather than just stating one part that is being back-ordered (and knowing that there are also other parts that are also being waited for), state every single part that is being waited upon. This would prevent consumers (like me) to automatically assume that the wait is not much longer (when it is in fact, a whole lot longer).

Assuming there are delays, if you're going to give a specific date on when the product will finish, stick to it. Giving customers different ETAs multiple times is not a good thing. The sooner you finish, the more happier your customers will be.

If there is a problem that cannot be fixed/solved at the time, just humbly say so. State that you'll work diligently towards fixing it and that you'll get back to them when there is any progress (and mean it when you say that). Rather than letting them think they've been forgotten, email them saying what has been worked on or if there has been any lead to solving the problem.

#5: Notify consumers via email or phone when something goes wrong during production.
If there is a problem during the production, notify us immediately via email or phone. Tell us what the problem is and how it will be addressed. For example, if the notebook/desktop does not pass the 200-point test, then notify us that you guys are working on it so that it does and the possible delays it might cause. Again, if you're giving an ETA on how long it would delay the order, consider adding an additional delay window in-case things don't go as planned.

So if you're telling a person that the delay may take up to 2-3 days to fully address and fix, add an additional couple days as a safety window in case things don't work out as you thought it would be. Tell him rather that it would take up to 4-5 days to fix the issue and give him updates regularly (via email) so that he is aware of the work you are doing (instead of having him think you're idly wasting your time doing something else).

#6: Having good customer service and worrying about receiving good feed-back should be your utmost top priority.
Don't rest when you know you're receiving bad feedback. Find out ways you can improve your customer service and work towards improving it. Perhaps invest more time and money into improving customer support or start prioritizing how you guys will be allocating your time and money.

Listen to your customers. If they have something to say, hear it rather than talk over them. If they tell you demeaning things, don't take it to heart but rather admit that they may be right about you and that you might need to work on certain things. Don't let their words make you fall, but rather see it as a kind of "benchmark" to what you may need to work on.

If they say you suck at English, then perhaps it's time for you to start taking pronunciation classes or even English classes in general. It's not a bad thing that you are facing a language barrier, but if you're going to work over the phone, at least work towards making yourself more understandable. You'll be doing yourself and everyone else a huge favor (and if you're an economist, you could say that you're also building upon your "human capital" or your individual worth.)

#7: Prioritize orders.
First come first served. Place customers who have made an order first have a higher priority for parts over customers who have made orders after them.

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Please do not take this rant as a reason against your order for the m15x. The m15x still seems like a wonderful piece of equipment and my rant is only towards the delay it is taking and the customer support that came along with that. Also note that these are just mere opinions of what I think they should do (It's not an order.) If Alienware wants to improve itself, it might as well invest more time to listen to its consumers and perhaps "implement" their advice and/or opinions.

If any of you guys would like to add anything onto the "proposition" list, please do so. Feel free to throw in your own experiences along with what you think they should do. I'll gladly augment your opinions on the list.

Best regards,
Oceanus.

 

wow your not kidding that was long. I'm sorry to hear about all your issues but maybe it's a sign.

 

i like your points mate. however, i'd like to respond to number 3. according to your suggestion, AW should give an estimated shipping time of, what, maybe four weeks or so to accomodate for a week of delays. the problem is that people will see "EST: in four weeks" and think "oh god it'll take AW ages to ship, i don't think i'll order from them if it takes them that long". which results in less sales for AW.

 

cancel your order and get a sager np8660, before you struggle with the 15% restocking fee.

 

I totally knew someone would mention the Sager. It's on almost every Alienware rant thread. :<

I'm not going to opt to do that. I'm going through with my offer and since I'm an aesthetics guy, I'd rather have the m15x. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Oh and I guess I made a mistake on the numbering. Going to fix it.

 

haha i think i have seen the same thing from you nirvana on like three other threads today is that how you got that many posts

 

The point is to create a window to fall back on, in case there are any delays.

Making the ETA to something that they know they won't be able to make will indeed generate a lot more orders, but they're risking a lot. They're pretty much putting their (first, second, or even third) impression on the line; they're gambling with the feedback they might get (meaning if they do manage to make the ETA, they'll perhaps get good feedback for expedient service, but if they don't, then the likelihood of getting a bad feedback is obviously high), and they're ultimately putting their future sales on the line.

A bad feedback, in my opinion, hurts a lot more than what one good feedback gives, which brings me to the point of doing a safety window or "safety net" in case they do happen to run into delays.

People who can tolerate the extended ETA will have a higher likelihood of posting a good review if they are able to get their laptop before the said extended ETA. If they can generate a lot of good reviews from this, then people will start thinking that it's worth the wait for the "improved," or rather "honest" service. It's not the fastest way to improve the customer feedback, but it's a whole lot better than spiraling down in ratings.

 

it never fails really...

and to be honest, clevo and the associated companies are not doing that great with the gpu issue as of a few days ago....kinda funny and ironic imho....

still like ya though nirvana...

 

Aye, I'm learning to take all the Sager comments with a grain of salt. From research I've done outside of the forums, though, I'm still seeing pretty positive stuff. We'll see when mine gets here.

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Wow. Someone's finally giving me a run for my money on post-length! D:

 

Glad to be of service Fex.

Speaking of post-length, I'm not going to hesitate answering to certain comments of similar length. I figured that since the original post was really long already, I might as well splurge on my responses towards comments posted on this thread.

 

I agree with your points, especially the one regarding educating the staff. I think that is of outmost importance because getting incorrect answers from the CS is not a nice thing to get as a customer.

What would be awesome for the european market is that maybe instead of having to lay of CS agents and/or re-educate them, just create a branch like roswell in the US and put all the know-how there and let the normal CS take care of administrative questions etc.

 

i've had no trouble with the CS in europe so far... have you?

 

That probably explains why I'm in phase three when it was supposed to ship yesterday

 

How does Alienware always run out of parts and get back ordered? I mean if you look at Sager, with the release of the 5796 they had TONS of orders, and yet they still build and shipped within 3 days of release and are still doing so without any delays whatsoever.

 

^^^same question as well. AW are supposed to have larger inventory.

 

I don't know what to say, my AW was shipped in a week and is being delivered tommorow. It's not a quick ship option either.

 

Hi Nirvana,
I admire your respect and dedication for Sager/Clevo. However, the Sager/Clevo solution isn't for everyone. The computer isn't even out yet, and for all anyone knows, it could turn out to be a big disappointment.

Gabe

 

People started receiving the new 5796 since 3 days ago.

 

With all due respect to this thread, id just like to put in that the experience I have had with customer service has been quite good really..I noticed that the reps I spoke to added notes to my account, so that even if I called another rep, he/she knew what I was talking about..plus the reps I spoke to gave me their email AND extension number..so basically it was really simple to get back to the same rep..they were really nice over the phone and remembered every single detail of my order before I even told them my order ID...kudos to AW James too for being of great help..Ordered my m15x on the 2nd of July, shipped on the 9th..got it on the 12th (still on the other side of the planet though)

Well anyway..this is my end of the story...im sure your experience was not pleasant at all, really sorry to hear all this ya...

Yemo

 

Well, it seems like there are either very good representatives or very bad ones. I guess in your experience, you were lucky to get in touch with people who knew what they're doing.

 

In my honest opinion, The Roswell crew and The reps on NBR are the only competent CS that AW has. I've never had problems with the CS stated above, but try and have a conversation with their normal CS? You can hear it in their voices that they'd rather have their teeth pulled then learn their own products or listen to customers.

I think this thread is awesome. You've made very good points and I have to agree on all counts. I even think the m15x COULD be an amazing product, with some VERY IMPORTANT revisions.

Good job Oceanus...

 

Hi Oceanus, should read Your...

+rep for that- you should look to become if not a crm manager/ customer service rep..

 

A few updates.
I called in just a few minutes ago and they said they might delay my m15x until August 21st. What bull**** is that? I had asked them why the parts are being back-ordered so many times and the customer service rep (Roswell, this time) had told me that if they aren't able to get all parts in on time and if they're starting to run out of stock for some of the parts that had already come in for my laptop, they sometimes have to use my parts to finish other people's computers. I mean, COME ON NOW. Can't you leave my parts aside so you can actually finish my laptop instead of using it to finish orders that have been made after mine?

I ordered in June. I DO NOT want my computer to be arriving in August. **** Alienware's service. I have been patient with the company and I CANNOT hold my patience any longer.

 

That sucks man I hope you figure out something to do.

 

I'm still on the phone with them as of this moment (on hold). I'm seeing if I could talk to anyone who has a higher authority over these things. This is getting extremely annoying.

 

Oceanus... having to wait one month more... I guess you know what is the only sane thing to do.
I am always trying to get myself emotionally dettached from AW... but when I see these people being put through all this **it. I wish I had a big chainsaw and an indestructible armour... and I would just spawn inside AW's headquarters!

 

Thinking about running head first into the mothership eh? Anyway, they told me that my parts were going to come in by Thursday and that I should call in again then. I swear, if they don't get in all of the parts and get it in production by then, I'm just going to cancel this order. I'm really on the tipping point and it's sad to say they can't really offer anything else to alleviate these delays. Something about: "Oh, since you already have a student discount from the Alienware University, we can't waive/refund your shipping and handling. Sorry, but you know, we try to nickel and dime you for every kind of service we provide you, even if its bad."

If only they worried more about customer service, which leads me to making-- voila, #7.

#7: Prioritize orders.
First come first served. Place customers who have made an order first have a higher priority for parts over customers who have made orders after them.

 

they don't?

 

Like I said before, if they run out of parts for another order, the part that originally came in for your order becomes the part for theirs. (At least, this is what the Roswell crew told me over the phone.) They don't prioritize orders. It seems like they do this so they could get a handle on the orders coming in so it doesn't get out of control.

I think their reasoning behind it is: "Why try to wait for 3 more parts for this order when the other order only needs one more to start production? Since the older order has the part we need, we'll prioritize that one since we can get it out sooner."

This would explain why they said only the chassis/motherboard kit was on back-order, but like a few days later told me that they were waiting for the graphics card.

I'll have to ask them again about it when I call them again Thursday afternoon. They said they'd have parts in by then. If some other part goes on back-order, then I can definitely confirm what I just said.

 

A little update:
I received an email yesterday from Roswell telling me that my computer was in the assembly phase (thank God). I was relieved to find out things are finally moving after so long.

BUT. This morning I received another email from Roswell saying that my computer had entered the quality control phase (phase 8). Now I'm a little bit worried. I'm not complaining or anything (I'm glad they're finally building my notebook), but after having waited for so long and then suddenly jump to phase 8 in a matter of one day, I'm worried that the quality of my computer might not be as great as the other ones being built. The now super-expedient service could compromise my laptop's quality, you know?

Now the question is, am I just overreacting because I was so used to waiting for so long, or is this completely normal?

@edit: By the by, it'll be a real coincidence if they ship it out tomorrow (on my birthday.)

 

Hehe.. I think a couple of people had a similar thing happen and it worked out fine for them.
Maybe the first email got delayed ? Or your order was the only one that had all the parts so everyone could pay attention to it ? Must've been something like that. I'm sure it'll be alright..

Happy birthday in advance btw !!

 

Haha thanks. XD

 

Yeah, that can happen. Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got... an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it Tuesday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

After all, they want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

 

I think while you were posting, your words got put in those 'filled tubes', got in line, got delayed and so didn't show up as registered - hence the numerous repetitions !! Hehe
Joke

 

Haha, maybe.

 

Happy birthday (",)

I guess they can have multiple orders at the same stage, phase 6 - 8 is testing ans software installation so that means pluggin into a server, sending the software and then running tests. Can be run on multiple machines at once... I'm eaiting for the smart-bay for my order, hopefully it will be in production today and arrive a week later but...

I feel for you, the waiting is bad enough but, to have delays and not be told is worse.

Hope it turns out ok?

OB

 

I agree with the OP. To avoid a random internet battle , i will leave it at that.

 

All very good points, well thought out! The quote above made me smile though!

 

actually, I was quoting Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. it's a shame no one noticed. check wikipedia for "series of tubes" if you want the full story. trust me, it's rather funny. also, hit youtube for clips of his speech.

 

Ah, a little update. Turns out I got an email saying they've shipped the m15x out today. I'm pretty sure they secretly knew my birthday and had waited until this long to ship it out. Well, happy birthday to me I guess. XD This day has certainly been good to me.

 

happy birthday Oceanus! and what a present you're getting!

 

Yeah? I think having a day go out smoothly is the best present I've ever gotten.

 

Grats on the Alien and have a super birthday Oceanus !!

I hope I don't have to wait till mine (11 months from now) to get an m15x..