Alienware: Ordering from Dell is *Impossible*

I am attempting to buy an Alienware 17 (r5) and discovering that this is impossible.
Why not? Dell.

I first placed my order on the 3rd of November (E.D.D. 19th November) and that failed because I used a credit card from a country different to the delivery address. Dell: 1, Me: 0

On the 4th, when they emailed me saying that it failed, I placed a new order for the piece using my UK credit card. A little later in the day, I checked my order status page and discovered that they had only accepted half my order. I had ordered the laptop and a neoprene sleeve and the order acknowledgement only listed the sleeve. I phoned them and they confirmed that only the sleeve had been ordered, despite what the internal receipt said. Dell: 2, Me: 0

... so I tried a third time, this time ordering ONLY the laptop. This order was accepted and the E.D.D. was the 19th, again.

The order for the sleeve was not cancelled and that was delivered, this Monday.

This morning, I checked the status of my laptop order and it was still in pre-production. At lunch time, I checked again and discovered that the order had been cancelled! I hadn't received any phone calls or emails so I decided to phone Dell and ask why.

After phoning Dell, I learned that the payment details were fine; the order was cancelled due to some issue involving incorrect 'power leads' - they were incredibly vague about it. They said that it was not my fault, it was their fault, and that they would reinstate the order but it would now take THREE WEEKS more to be delivered. Dell: 3, Me: 0

They said that the new order would have to be shipped to London from China and that they would expedite it but that they couldn't promise that it would take less than 14 working days: three weeks, even though it was their fault.

When I asked them why I had to phone them to find out why order was surprisingly cancelled, they said that they did not have systems in place to notify people promptly.

I pointed out that someone from Dell had assured me that there was no problem with my order (and that the E.D.D. was, in fact, the 19th) when I phoned and asked about this order, last Friday, because I thought the order had stuck in pre-production for an inexplicably long time. They did not comment on this.

Right now, I am waiting to see if my order will be reinstate, how much they will charge me for that (there were discount coupons linked to the one that was cancelled) and whether they will get the specification right.

My conclusion is this: Alienware laptops are, essentially, off the market. Don't even think about buying one - it is impossible.

 

Sorry to hear about those issues. Sometimes it's complicated to get things going the right way. Let's just hope you get it soon and all your bad thoughts about the ordering system will be gone.

 

The OP is correct. It is virtually impossible to get a machine spec'd as you want it on the UK web site because the UK web site is a bag of crap. I've mentioned it countless times already, yet nothing has been done - even with the presence of our AW brothers here, like your good self, Brother Porras.

Just gotta look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...w-reps-help-get-horrible-mess-sorted-out.html

I've gotten so frustrated with trying to order/configure an AW that I have given up. God knows how many others have done the same......

 

It's amazing how hard it is at times to GIVE PEOPLE YOUR MONEY.

... you wonder why there's a recession.

 

Well, Dell UK/EMEA are doing a damned fine job of making it impossible to place an order or configure a machine easily and without hassle. If Dell like losing money and orders, it's pretty fine effort by them, I must admit. Hats off to them for such a great feat.

 

Tell us how you really feel Steve.

 

Haha! - it just get's on my nerves, mate. Simple problems that can be rectified take months and go unacknowledged. It's not only bad for the customer, it's bad for Dell, too.

 

An hour ago, I received an automated email from Dell.

This was followed by a table that listed the revised E.D.D. as 4 December 2013.

Alarmingly, the order number has NOT changed and that order still shows up as cancelled on my order tracking page. What do I do, now? Do I phone Dell again?

How likely is it that Dell actually meet this E.D.D. - the wording of the email shows that they are hedging and unwilling to commit. Are there Alienware reps here? Can someone please follow this up?

 

You will find that they will not commit to a firm EDD when part stock is a problem. They cannot because they may run into unforeseen complications. This happened when they sold out of 680M video cards with the M18xR2 and again with 780M with the new Alienware 18. Did they indicate what component is the one in short supply? If you can find out specifically which one, it may be something you can revise in your system configuration to speed up the process. Of course, that assumes it's not a killer must-have component like 4930MX or 780M, in which case making a compromise might not be acceptable.

 

The problem was something to do with 'power leads' - read my first post.

I phoned Dell again. Here is a summary...

The email I received, earlier today, was meaningless nonsense because it was for the order number that was cancelled. The date on it, 4 December, means nothing.

My order has not been re-booked yet and, until that happens, they cannot give me an estimated delivery date.

It will take 48 hours to re-book the order that was cancelled because some 'internal team' has to do it.

They cannot guarantee that this cycle will not repeat when the order is, finally, re-booked.

Honestly, this is pathetic.

 

Why not cancel the order, and get a clevo/Sager/msi. You could buy two of those for the price of one AW. Honestly this company will never get my money after I've seen how they do people trying to give them thousands of dollars. It's absolutely unacceptable.

 

Actually, the closest thing I could order, here in England, is the MSI GT70 Dragon Edition 2 which looks hideous and costs £ 1000 more than the one I'm trying to order from Dell. Yes, it has a better processor. Yes, it has more space on the SSD portion of the hard disk but... not worth it in my opinion.

I am open to suggestions, though.

 

Suggestion: XMG

ro Notebooks

PCSPECIALIST - Laptop Computers, Laptops, Custom Laptops, Gaming Laptops, Buy Laptop

Those are Clevos sold in UK, not sure how much was Alienware, but I expect the prices to be lower or competitive, build quality is solid.

 

Ah, didn't know about the UK part


I agree that the dragon editon is goony looking.

 

He told us exactly how he felt

 

The latest: Dell have given me a new order number and emailed me an order confirmation. New Estimated Delivery Date: 5 December.

I don't know whether this means anything.

Alarmingly, that E.D.D. is exactly three weeks away and three weeks is a very long time to wait if they're just going to tell me there was another problem.

 

I'd ask for a percentage of the sale. That's what I did when I kept getting faulty units.

 

What happened to me bud in the other thread. Reordered the day it got cancelled and have to wait three weeks should have been here today! The guy I spoke to knew what PSU it needed so got the right bit on my order. They knew what had happened what I found annoying was that they just cancelled it.

Too true! Lucky I got mine done on the day. I've got a mate who ordered an x51 beginning of September and they have messed about forc2 months he has had zero confirmation got 17 new EDD's. Then Dell rang up saying they couldn't build his machine and wanted him to pay MORE money.

Now he's normally patient bloke but despite me going on saying you need to escalate it he finally did write a nice strong letter. 2 days later got a reply from the Vice President of Dell UK.

He now has 3 offers on the table and a lot of nice money off. The point is is should never have got to that. It seems like they internal structure in dell is too complicated and needs streamlining. Doesn't help when you cannot understand a thing from the Indian guy in the phone.

 

How did he get that right? I tried to escalate my issue and they said that they didn't let you do that at all.

 

Well he wrote back to the sales guy an ultimatum that pretty much super ceded their little script. If I'm not contacted in 24 hours with a resolution I will be forced to take this higher with dell management. Or worlds to that affect. You have to play hardball until you get through to that one person who actually listens.

 

The latest: My order has been rebooked under a new order number, as mentioned in post #16, and that new order is now "In Production" according to the Dell order-status page.

This is one phase further than the old order which never made it past Pre-Production. I hope that means something.

 

Same as me bud went straight into production. Was there a week. Mine shipped out yesterday the 17th apparently with Walsh Western. Haven't had any tracking updates as of yet so I've no idea where it is.

 

Typical production to shipping times can go Anywhere from a week to a few weeks depending on availability of parts and demand at the time. My first R4 was in production for 2 weeks and took another week to ship to me in BC, Canada as it has to come up through the states into Calgary and then over, it really sucks when that happens over a weekend as we don't have weekend delivery on this side of the country so it just sits in the truck.

 

My new order has shipped, apparently. Also with Walsh Western, whoever they are.

Their tracking page shows that it departed the manufacturing facility at 14h45 on the 19th of November... which is today... but they're East of us.

I will continue to post updates. greatgulah: please keep me updated on the progress of your order.

 

I keep checking the page it hasn't updated since the original link was sent by dell. 17th at 1415. I wouldn't mind knowing how far away it is. Isn't that the point of tracking? Ill let you know!

 

My tracking page hasn't updated, either. I did get an email from Dell but it isn't helpful at all:

 

Just had a text message saying my dell consignment will be delivered Monday! UK Mail.

 

Great!

No news, here.

 

I hate waiting knowing it's not far away!

 

greatgulah - did your machine arrive?

I haven't heard anything at all, here. Even my emails to Dell asking for an update (because Walsh Western's tracking page is USELESS) have gone unanswered.

 

It did bud I got a text on Saturday saying it will be delivered on Monday by UK mail. The tracking link is crap it never got updated at all. I got the text checked the tracking and I was like oh it's here then. So it was 8/9 days from sent to arrival. Fingers crossed for you bud.

 

Mine finally arrived, yesterday evening.

... and, guess what, Dell got the order wrong. They charged me for 32 GB RAM (also reflected clearly on the original order confirmation) but only supplied 16 GB.

OHFORSAKES!

I am now trying to get them to post the missing RAM so that I can install it myself.