Guess What - Another Part out of stock for the m15x

my story so far.......

25th march
i moved to phase 5 on the 25th march
confirmed by CS that i should receive my m15x within 5-10 working days.

31st march
rang CS > still in production. should receive an email soon with a shipping number.

4th april
email received. awaiting new screen. parts expected 14th april
rang CS and was told parts may arrive on monday 7th april
computer pulled by 200 point check with faulty screen.

7th april
rang CS > screen delivered. back in production with priority build. expected turn around 4-5 days

9th april
rang CS > 200gb HD on back order and awaiting parts. should be delivered friday 11th

AND IM STILL ON PHASE 5 FOR THE LAST 16 DAYS

ok, i understand about the delays due to the various problems that have occured and dont mind waiting as id rather receive a fully working system than one that has problems and needs to be returned after a couple of days.
after spending over £2000/$4000 on a system you expect to be treated slightly better than how i am at the moment.

my question is this:
if a computer is built but then fails the 200 point check are all the components that were fitted to that system then re shelved or used on someone elses system. if not and when the faulty part is replaced why have i now got to wait for a back ordered hard drive if my original system had one already fitted in the first place.

i will cary on this post late as i am at work and need to calm down first.
so what do you all think to the story so far.....

 

They have a very demanding quality control... I mean, your laptop for example... No screen, no HD... almost made it out of the 200 RIGOROUS control points... but I guess that in the end, the fact they couldn't access explorer and do a chkdsk, made a difference!
MrDJ... it's obvious they do not have the laptop ready for you and they are just stalling!
One thing I hate is being lied to... but well... we have to live with it, I guess!

Go and spin them some music DJ! Good luck mate...

 

Phew !! That's a lot to handle I guess..
Maybe the faulty screen was detected before they put in the HD..? Dunno how they'd test it then..
Only other explanation is - They're stalling..

Good luck
When you get it though, I've heard it's well worth the wait..

Ps. Two Hundred and Twenty Two posts.. Cool

 

Call them up and tell them if your parts are not there friday you expect them to upgrade whatever missing part to the next best or equivalent that they have on stock. That should get them moving.

 

Recalling a conversation with AW and I think its on their site that production doesnt begin until ALL parts are in stock, and picked for your order.
so to tell you that you had gone into production goes against their own statement if they had no hard disks in stock!

So they are a bunch of liars then, this is beyond stalling.

oh and ioaniro, I tried the upgrade approach with them, and they were not willing to even talk about it!!!

good luck, but your money is better spent elsewhere.

 

Oh no - If I get told the same thing about the hard drive now being out of stock I'll be really mad!

EDIT: FRIKKING HELL! It looks like I'm in the same frikkin' boat! The ****ing hard drive is out of stock and why the hell does the same woman pick up the phone everytime I call ?!!?

 

I think you should organise a get-together in ireland, then you can tacke the problem in person , they can't ignore you then!

 

I think someone is happy that they ordered the M570ru

 

Man this sucks.

 

Ahahaha... You have to laugh of it!
Just tell them... Put another one and ship it ASAP!
I'm sure they will come back to you saying... Oh, we are missing some stickers with Nvidia and Vista logos on! It's due sometime next year... Thank you for your understanding (and money that we are getting interests of)!

 

But.. they don't use stickers.

 

I'm not sure what is going on behind the scenes but you certainly have been through a lot of delays.

"Alienware" is a very powerful brand name and they have a strong marketing department. I notice people in this forum get a lot more upset/vocal over issues that would not get more than a casual comment out of buyers of another brand such as Dell. It's no fault of the buyers - Alienware brings all the criticism and harsh comments on themselves by promoting such a high-end and prestigious image. Customers expect flawless service and unfortunately for Alienware, they cannot deliver that. So MrDJ, you have every right to complain like this and hopefully they hear it loud and clear. IMO based on what I've seen, Alienware needs to do some internal restructuring and make things more efficient.

Let's keep the comments non-sensational in here please. Stuff like that does not help anyone, it only escalates the situation.

 

@ Chaz... It was supposed to be a joke (maybe a bad one, but a joke)! Not a sensational comment! I will try to make only very objective and serious posts from now on!

 

I know it was meant as a joke and it wasn't meant to be harmful, no worries. Like I said though, it could escalate situations like these and make them very tense. It chases off/scares people who want to post straight up honest comments and it goes against what I work for on these forums.

Nothing personal, I assure you, I simply need to establish why those sort of comments have the potential to be damaging.

 

Seriously speaking, Alienware UK = Fail. I dont care what anyone says but their organisation skills are less than zero. How can they justify taking orders and customes money when they dont even have the parts for it? On top of that they cant even order the correct amounts to meet the demand and then keep on giving some stupid excuses all the time. They start "assembly" when they dont have the correct parts and when they do finish assembling a system they ship it to some random person? I have nothing against any of the other customers but come on how can they ship systems off to people who ordered the same config almost half a month after me ? I have been in Phase 6 for 3 days now. I dont know if its a 'false' Phase 6 or if they have detected a flaw in the system. If they have then Im scared of what they might do to fix it and I might get sent a defective system. I really dont have the time or patience to send it back in soon after getting it after waiting for almost 2.5 months.

That funny accent CS woman is really starting to creep me out. Its almost as if shes on all the lines at once. Maybe we should go to Ireland to harass the AW employees and find out exactly whats happening. I have a feeling the funny accent woman might turn out to be icredibly hot and all of us would just stand there gibbering and come back without doing anything or rather

 

Firstly, thanks Chaz for bringing us such a great forum. i know its difficult to keep everyone happy as i am admin on 6 other forums i run.
to be honest i think i would of canceled my order by now if it wasnt for this forum and all its friendly members and great advice they offer.
its nice to have a portal to chat with other people in the same boat as myself and to have some lighthearted conversation.
there have been a couple of posts from members thanking me for bringing a smile to their face from some of the wise crack light hearted comments ive made. but there is only so much one can take before the cracks start showing and you start to lose the plot. this is the main reason i started this thread.
i know there have been a lot of other members complaining and rightly so.
their is only (so far) one person that has been really helpful from CS and that is sean. even he cant understand some of the things that have happened to my order and he tries to help out in the best way he can.
he has now arranged for a priority build and as a token of good will will be sending a free T shirt (i wonder witch will get here first).

when i was younger i had goals in life which i would like to put a tick next to.
ive always wanted to go to america and visit florida and las vegas. ive now been to florida 4 times and vegas once. i always wanted a bmw. ive now had 2 top of the range 3 series bmw's so ticked that box as well. before the previous 2 things i always wanted an AW computer as their reputation of spec and CS (yes CS) was highly regarded as the rolls royce of computers, so when i first saw a picture and the spec of the m15x i thought to myself,time to tick another box. sadly like a lot of things in life they change and not always for the better.
i totally understand as a company it is great to be the first to bring new innovations to the world and be the front runner in getting lots of awards, but sometimes these things backfire when they have not been fully tested thouroughly and this is where it could take years to get back their once untarnished reputation.
AW, time to have a re think and pull your finger out.

 

lets not forget that this is now the second or third notebook AW have released that had heat issues, some of them were never resolved just see some of the refund posts on these forums.

But I digress. I am also in the camp that has been envious of every AW owner, they have always looked incredibly cool and been so far out of my reach.

There is still part of me that loves the way the m15x looks, but no matter how good the machine looks, or even performs in a review, if the company behind it cannot be truthful with its customers, there is only one direction this can go.

I was accused of being impatient when I cancelled, back on the 7th March, and orderd from Novatech the same day to receive my notebook on 11th.

But its now the 9th April over one month later, and some people who like me ordered on Launch day still havent received a machine.

Sarcastic comments, and anger are completely justified, misinformation being passed down to customers constantly...its all wrong

and to say that things like Hard disks are out of stock, when they should have been sat there waiting for the chassis for over a month is nothing short of criminal!

You end up with the feeling that alienware never had any intention of shipping before April.

anyway rant over, I still keep my fingers crossed for all you people who I am actually still slighly jealous of....

 

i also agree that when i was little i worship who ever had an AW as a god. i just hoped one day i would get one. Eventually i found out building a comp was much cheaper so i never got one until i needed a laptop. Its just because the m15x looks so cool, has the highest specs of any 15.4 inch still, and has some of the coolest features that i decided it might be good to wait. Lets just hope that this wait was well worth it. I hope Mr DJ gets his laptop soon because if i was in phase 5 for 16 days i would be calling AW everyday and refreshing the order status page hour after hour >>.

 

and so do i exiled (get my computer that is). but i cant see it happening until the week after next. hard drives wont be in until friday. no production line over the weekend so mine wont start until monday. 5-10 days turnaround time so i think im looking at another 12 days wait.
oh the joy of it all.

at least ive got the tee shirt to look forward to. knowing my luck it will be extra small or extra extra large. (at least i will be able to make a tent out of it then.

 

i think that AW only gives out x large shirts just to make sure it fits the person. i doubt they will give u XXL since they wont want to give you more material for a free shirt . i remember a AW shirt i got at digital life and it was XL.

 

The woman I spoke to assured me I will get it by the end of the month but I don't have any hope in that. Stupid thing, at least I hope it won't fail the testing phase and get it sometime in May at the latest.

 

ANOTHER DAY & ANOTHER OUT OF STOCK ITEM.

and there was me going to give CS a rest until next week as its pointless ringing and getting worked up when i know the parts are not in yet.

AND THEN I RECEIVE THE EMAIL ABOVE.....
firstly i was waiting for the screen witch in their original email says delivery the 14th but as mine has been upgraded to priority i was told some were deilvered 4 days ago and i was allocated one of them.
then i get an email saying the hard drive was on back order. spoke to CS and this was confirmed but could'nt understand why as i had already been allocated a HD earlier.
now this email today says im still waiting for the screen, the HD AND
INTEL ROBSON 1GB PCI-E MINI-CARD .... Expected Date: 4/15/2008
(any idea if this is the 1gb cache)

once again another delay.
im now taking bets on what item will be next to be on back order.

im now booking a flight to ireland on monday.

 

Wow.. Sorry to hear that man..
Guess the Intel Turbo Memory is not helping even as a piece of hardware outside the laptop..
Hope things turn around/they send some goodies your way..

 

Hi Wraithers
they certainly have offered me some goodies.
i will soon be the proud owner of an AW tee shirt.

 

Oh yea.. Totally forgot about your mention of CS Sean and the tent joke you made.. The T-shirt will go well with the cap and binder.. All you need now are the AW-emblazoned pants
Made in India of course.. India FTW !!

 

Hmm... when did you get the e-mail saying the monitors are out of stock? I never got that one.

See ^^ I told you we're getting the free fall HD and it will be delayed anyway.

 

i got the first email about the screen on the 4th april

 

yes intel robson is the "turbo ram" you could tell them to chuck it at you later

congrats to all who have received theirs enjoy!

 

ive just got another email from them but dont want to open it just in case its the T shirt on back order

 

It amazes me they have so much trouble giving a straight answer about the status of a build, parts, etc.. That kind of thing should be tracked pretty easily. In my case, I was told all parts were in and that they were personally making sure my computer would be put together that day or the next morning. Each day same thing for a week then they were suddenly out of the processors. Next week a different part. I finally had to cancel since I needed the computer for a deadline at work. I think people would be much more understanding about the wait if they got a consistent and clear answer about where they were in the wait process (e.g. we have 10 X9000's and you are the 20th person in line for it).

 

totally agree with you drbiff. sorry to hear you canceled your m15x.

i couldnt be bothered to ring CS today so instead i replied to the email. ive just received a groveling letter of apology which is a start.

 

So the email didn't have anymore bad news I'm guessing..
And the "groveling letter of apology" is indeed a step in the right direction..
They've upgraded you to priority shipping too right ? Good stuff..
4 more days for all parts to get in stock.. All the best !!

 

Hi Wraithers and thanks.
at least this time the email was from a real person.
it was not only an appology but also offering their assistance.
their records stated that i was only waiting a back order of the 200gb HD and that comes in today.
was added to priority build last week by CS and now added to priority shipping yesterday.

yesterdays automated email quoated i was waiting for a screen 14/4 but CS said i was already allocated one on the 7/4
hard drive was on back order and delivered today.
yesterdays automated email said i was waiting for back order of 1gb intel robson pci e mini card but there was no mention of this from the letter i received from the real person last night.

this tells me one thing... dont take for granted the automated email about back orders and always check with CS if it is correct.

a bit happier today and lots of work to do so will be on later to reply.
jim

 

Good news indeed.. Rooting for ya
Have fun at work !! This is what I do at work - It's a temp job okay !!

 

what a great job youve got i work in a very busy hospital in london and our computer time is capped to a maximum of 1 hour a day for non hospital related internet use. its strange but every day since i ordered my m15x i have used up all of my hour and more (we have ways of getting past blocks)

 

I can't believe this. Just got this e-mail:

I'm going to call them. If I don't get an upgrade of some sort I'm cancelling .. I've had it with Alienware.

 

Hi crytak
i cannot believe that, 24th delivery,bloody heck.
dont call them. if you already have, also reply to the email as it will go to a different department.
it says it can take upto 72 hours to get a reply but it was a lot quicker for me on the same day.
you will then get a reply from a real person from the electronic support team and an incident report will be stored in a section of the american website (doesnt look like its available on the uk site)
you ordered yours the day after me so hopefully they should help you out.
fingers crossed for you mate.
jim

 

MrDJ, this person I spoke to (at this moment it had the same accent and similar voice to the woman I spoke in the past. I don't know if something freaky is going on here or they're only hiring people with this sort of accent!) said there aren't any shipments of 200GB HDD today and the only ones are on the 24th. I made her double check that.


They said they would see if they can put me in priority mode. When I asked her what that means, she said she doesn't know exactly.. - how re-assuring!

 

take no notice.
reply to the email explaining everything from the day you ordered including dates and times and names if possible.
if you ring again and she answers ask to speak to sean or edward.
replying to todays email will be dealt with another department bypassing whoever answers your calls.
look out for a pm from me

 

Good luck crystak and MrDJ! What hospital do you work at? Me too... at Hammersmith Hospital. Very busy and can only use the internet for... 10 hours a day (for non work related issues).
Seriously... good luck guys! Why don't you ask them to put a 160GB HD instead?

 

what a small world, im up the road in harrow at northwick park.
10 hours a day usage LOL.
our rad. students used to come to your place but not sure if they still do.
nah,they can stick the 160gb. id rather have the 320 at 5400 revs, slightly slower but more space and to be honnest i dont think i would notice the difference (or would i)?

 

Wow so you two both work in hospitals - doctors? I'm starting medical school in Southampton next academic year. Hospitals invaded by aliens !!

I've just sent off a long long e-mail reply.. now just have to wait.

 

Small world indeed... I'm not really at the hospital, I work at the Campus though. Not many rad or med students around. Mainly science people.
Anyways... Regarding the HDD, I can't give a conclusive answer regarding the rpm. I had both speeds, and I have to say I've never really noticed any major speed difference. I would still go for the 7200rpm (160GB is good) and get a huge external HDD (I have a 500GB) for storage of data.
I'm just curious to know what would they do if you would ask them to put another Hard Drive in. Whether they would send it to you guys now or keep it on hold for a bit longer.

 

It looks like AW themselves offer you a chart to see the difference between a 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM.

Go to http://www.alienware.co.uk/Configur...-LT-A51M15X-FC&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT&source=413
and click on the System Drive image

 

I think those graphs on performance are quite misleading... The max you get is 20% on performance, although it looks like 7200rpm are 2X better.
I think if you are not a power user, a 5400rpm would be enough. And in any way... upgrading a HD is probably one of the easiest things to do with your laptop.
I hope you guys receive the laptop fast and test drive it... I am feed up of waiting to order it.

 

i think that should read, aliens invade hospitals HOPEFULLY SOON

im not a doctor but work on the digital pacs team in xray.

looked at the HD chart and the green and llue lines make it look like the 7200 is a lot faster but its a little misleading.
the load speed is only 14% faster
windows boot is 20% faster
read & write files are 12% faster

 

This hospital will be invaded after all you guys have cleared your out. Although I think everyone is going to be very jealous... Specially the Mac people, always saying "Oh, I have a backlit keyboard!!!". I will show them backlit keyboard and ... well... lot's of lights.

 

I know you guys are probably getting really pissed at Alienware, but the Seagate 200gb 7200rpm laptop drives seem to be in fairly short supply in the UK. I had a hell of a time trying to find one recently for my M9750, with many retailers upping the price on them because of the short supply (£80 went to £110)
I agree the alienware should've handled this differently but the hard drive problem would seem to be one of Seagate's fault and not Alienware!

 

Hi Simon
the first mention of a lack of 200gb HD was when i received an email on wednesday this week and there were no post from anyone else before that so i would of thought AW would have had a supply otherwise a lot of other people would still be waiting.

 

yes remember everyone the true gripe is that they seemed to have waited with ordering the remaining components until the chassis arrived, which was a very bad move

they were obviously scared of cancellations, so didnt order expensive items like processors and hard disks, in case they were lumbered with excess stock.

its quite obvious really, but really nasty that they couldnt admit it