Alienware stupidity

Ordered a M9750 two weeks ago. estimated ship date was December 23rd, so I figured I might just get it before the new year. Fair enough. I configure the system, order it... and the CSR tells me to send the money in Canadian funds. I confirm this THREE times with him. He never even gives me a USD price on the damn thing so it would have been impossible to send the money in USD anyway. Two weeks pass, and today I get a phone call at 4PM Pacific from my bank. Apparently Alienware has RETURNED my money, refusing payment in Canadian dollars, despite the CSR misinforming me. Now, not only am I not going to get my new machine before the new year, but they want me to pay the wire transfer fee again, and resend in US dollars.

Now, this from their website:

Morons. Now I might as well wait for a 8700M GTX machine, and you can be damn sure it ain't going to be an Alienware.

 

I live in Canada and I used my Visa - it went through instantly. Don't know what to tell you... I love my m9750.

You mean the 8800m GTX's right? in the m17x? Because the 8700m GTX is available in the m9750 right now.

 

Yeah the 8800M GTX.

And hey, I own a M9700 and this would have been my third Alienware. But when a company won't let you PAY them? Come on.

 

Ordered this today:

Sager NP5792

17" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) HD Matte Type Display
Intel Core 2 DUO Processor T7700 / 4MB L2 Cache 2.40GHz 800MHz FSB
Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX with 512MB DDR3 Video Memory
4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
200GB HDD (7200 RPM) SATA
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software

$500 cheaper than the Alienware, 20% faster processor, double the ram, and a 8800M GTX instead of 9750 GTX's in SLI. I'll have to live without a second HDD, but whatever.

Alienware you lost a sale today.

 

Great laptop Tawnos and it sounds like you got a good deal with it too. AlienWare have obvioulsy dropped the ball on this one - I can honestly say though that I've had no bad experience with them to date here in the UK. Maybe there were a few slight teething problems for lauching in Canada?

 

Congratulations on the Sager, the NP5792 is a beautiful machine. A single 8800M-GTX outperforms an SLI Go7950GTX setup no problem.

Problems like this with Alienware make you wonder what kind of training their employees get.

 

Yeah it's going to work out in the end, I REALLY wanted a second HDD bay for a solid state, but I got a 200gb Travelstar in there, and will probably wait until next year to get a 64 or even 128gb solid state drive. I really wanted one, but really only the 32gb are reasonably priced, and that's too small to run as a sole drive in the system.

Just an update, not only did I lose the cost of the wire transfer, but Alienware's bank charged me a fee to return my money. I'm going to Email Alienware and see if they will give me a credit... if they do, there's a chance I might try them again next year... but if they stiff me for the bill on this, there's absolutely no chance in hell.

 

Sent this in to [email protected]...

I guess we will see if they are going to take responsibility for this or add another convert to the Alienware hater crowd. I'll keep you guys posted.

 

at this point I'd rather request a refund instead of credit - they charge you $100, you can do the same. regarding credits, they get lost or expire after a while and NO ONE will mention that to you - I worked as a CSR for a while and unfortunately I know how it works.

and if they make you any problems with that, remember about BBB (not sure if you can contact any institution similar to Attorney General...I've been in Canada only 3 days watching Niagra Falls from the nicer side =P)

anyway, good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

Well since they REFUSED the payment in the first place, I imagine eventually I will get my money back. Up to ten days, who knows how long that is. I suppose I could just send them an invoice for the $100 in banking fees I incurred.

 

Almost a week since Emailing their customer service, and no response.

 

That's a long time. I find that emails go ignored too often by many companies, you need to call to get a hold of someone.

 

I've already eaten the $100 and chalked it up to a lesson learned. If they want my business in the future, they will contact me. Otherwise I will simply not buy from them in the future and continue to point people towards cheaper and at times better alternatives from other companies on these forums.

 

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I'm currently going through the exact same thing with Alienware at the moment. Was there ever any resolution to this?

- F