How has your Dell/Alienware experince been?

Since Dell bought Alienware and we now have two laptops and a few desktops coming out of the Dell side now.

How has your experince been?
Has is been better than before Dell or is it worse for eg. Cusomter service, reliabily, problems ect

how has yours been

 

Mine has been absolutely appalling, however I bought an M17 through Europe, where I understand it is A) AW rather than Dell as yet and B)AW Support here is worse than the US anyway, despite the fact we pay about twice as much.

 

I never experienced AW when it was an independent entity, so I cannot compare.


But I have experience with Dell and generally been pleased with them.

 

So far so good.

 

awsome both with M17 and M17x

 

So far I've had good experiences with them. I've only had to call them once and they were really helpful and were able to solve my problem over the phone. within 15 minutes, and I never go put on hold once.

 

Same here, never put on hold. they keep good track of problems so you dont have to explain everything again if they send you to another tech. Where i live they know what they are doing. and there very nice.

 

I'm about to place my order very soon the sales staff have been ok but I haven't spoken to support or anything

 

pulling close to $450 off my total price was considerably good experience so far ... ))

 

^^^Thats always a good thing

 

I will never buy from Alienware again.....but I would buy an Alienware from DELL for sure.
I think one of the reasons that Alienware support has been so bad is because of the DELL takeover and perhaps a little resignation from some employees but some of the things I have heard and even seen myself from Alienware support beggars belief.
I will probably be buying a M17X from DELL some time in the next year.
DELL seems much more professional and in keeping with what a modern 21st company should be.....with an emphasis on pleasing their customers and providing good products at decent prices.
Some of the discounts had by some of you guys from Dell reps are awesome and is a good way of showing customers they are a good company to do business with.
Along with the fact this new range of Alienware PCs are absolutely stonking gorgeous it would be hard not to want to buy one.

(ps, @Kryptonian......are you the mod from "the windows7site"?????)

 

gimme gimme gimme !!! ))

 

I love my M17X. As soon as my 2nd GPU for SLI arrives, I'll be even happier... LoL!!!

 

Never experienced Alienware before so I can't compare but have been a Dell customer for a while. Dell is ok when you get one of the few "above average" rep to help you (write them down when you get one) or need something that is in not too complicated to get.

If you need a second AC adapter, a second hard drive caddy etc...all things that are not on Dell's web site and need to talk to a sales rep, then you can get lucky or waste a lot of time on the phone explaining what you want and still end up being delivered the wrong part.

So it's hit or miss. You can get lucky or can get the moron which they have plenty of...

 

The only experience I've had with Dell is from my wife buying a basic laptop. We have never had a problem with it and it's around 2 years old now.

I bought an m15x when they were first released and I was surprised at the poor quality of the materials used to make it. The hinge design still amazes me, I don't know how that made it into production. For the money, I expected a lot more, not just an 8800 gtx shoved into a flimsy plastic case.

Although I am disappointed with the original m15x I would probably consider buying a new one, or a m17, from Dell. The aluminum is a much better decision and the cooling seems to be much more thought out and efficient. I don't need all those lights though...a few are good.

 

Were you able to haggle on the phone? Or was this just a offer online?

Just that i've heard your able to get better deals via phoning, though i don't know how much that is actually true.

 

My experience with Dell is pretty good, only that apparently the warranty itself of my machine wasn't transferred, which means they couldn't have been much help to me.

 

I had a Dell before and simple great, fast answers, fast delivery. And now with the Alienware, so far so good, hope keep like that.

 

I Joke so far.
Already filed a complaint about the 1stgen m25x with BBB.

Besides, anyone here know if there is laws in us protecting consumers from product with design flaw that the company can't fix?

 

actually yeah, over the phone, but my discount consisted of EPP and DNA together combined ... nothing really special.

With whom I was really able to negotiate was the Gateway, when I got my old (sold) P-171 XFX. I knocked the price off by 20% !!! )). They were pretty damn flexible with their discounts ... it's sad that they suck @ the quality level of their products ...

 

Dell sold their sole with customer support. The actual service is top shelf. If something breaks they can come to your house to fix it. Pretty fast too.

The problem is getting to that point. Calling India is nice, I like the sounds in the background.. : /

 

I dealt with Alienware a few years back when I was toying with the idea of a new laptop. I also dealt with Voodoo before they were gobbled up by HP. I gotta say I liked Voodoo better than Alienware.

As for the most recent experience. I dealt with Dell's "Team Blackhawk" from the get go. I had an M17x before this one that was returned due to a few defects. I gotta say, it took forever to get them to take it back, but they did. It felt like forever because my girlfriend is mac person, and was upset I spent so much on a laptop.

Upon the "ok" from dell, I placed the order for my current unit. Gotta say I am happy with Dell support for the most part, but always know there is room for improvement. The bottom line, "Complete Care." I know other companies offer it, but no one else sellls such a "beastly" machine.

 

Ordered 17x. Tried to change order 1 day after making it, Dell said no. (I wanted a faster processor than I orginally ordered).

Recieved 17x 3 weeks after order was placed. DOA! Called Dell and told them to pick up this POS. Dell replied - You have to talk to a tech first or they will charge you 15% restocking fee I replyed - But it doesn't work. So, I had to call a tech (luckily I was only on the phone for about an hour). The tech had me taking apart a brand new 17x trying to find the problem. They finally figured it was DOA, so they told me to put it back together and they'll have a tech come out and fix it. I told them - YEAH RIGHT, this is a brand new $3200 computer, you come get it and refund all my money! They did.

2 days after mailing the computer back I get a call from my sales team saying: "how do you like your new 17x"? I won't tell you what I told them... BUT I did ask "don't you guys test these computers before sending them out"? The lady replied - "yes". I told her - "well you didn't test this one".

Great experience.

PS - I've bought 5 laptops from Dell in the last 7 years... 2 of which have been DOA. Not a good track record, but I'll probably still buy from them. Customer service is still pretty good compared to others. I'll say it again "COMPARED TO OTHERS".

 

Really your just unlucky.
I'm pretty sure they flick it on because they have to change the color settings to your personalization and also they change the time zone.

I mean these things are made when ordered, so something must've gone wrong during shipping or something lol.

 

Mine on its way back too finally!, full refund!, after 3 mths of major performance issues & probs, with poor workarounds and no real cures.

The product was faulty, Dell/Alienware Tech support didnt know much, probably learnt more from me and others out there like me but they did what they could and although it was me who found and raised the many issues and concerns, had to keep on chasing and waiting, finally demanding a full refund. The Tech support guys were ok and honest when they admitted they didnt know or didnt have cures or admitted that their were problems etc, but definitely not happy with the upper management / escalation depts... they could have been far better than to keep delaying matters.

Watching the late refreshes, additions & new models to see how things develop over coming months. May re-purchase once AW have a full working and performing M17X even after the 3 mth ordeal as I do need a power laptop replacement.

Meanwhile waiting finalization on my new AW killer desktop being tested & benched as I write....trying to beat Maingear & Skulltrail top end spec machines when done.....No AW or Dell can dream of touching it, not even any of their new lineups for a good time to come. Aiming for Vantage P60-70k+ points.........

Freestylaruk

 

What issues did you have? Im meant to be getting M17x as an upgrade/apology.

 

I was offered upgrades and replacement too but i refused and asked for a full refund prefer to wait and let them develop and final the design at their own expense rather than mine.

I had minor issues as well as major issues. a few days back started a thread but a few here didnt like me being harsh with the M17X lolol anyhow it airs and vents my concerns lolol

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=418675

In short I am a serious demanding power user not just into gaming etc and pretty well versed with pushing and tweaking on hardware, but for me and without being biased (as I still like the concept of it all) the M17X at this moment in time has carried more hype than real performance, is no where near what it could do, if everything was working as it should be.

So after 3 mths of it ........it had to go back, is worthless to me in its current form. Hopefully a few weeks or months and they may have better refreshes and updates with further design tweaks and a possible real peformer in which case I may try again. I know for a fact they are slowly working on the many issues....watch the developments......

Freestylaruk

 

Ouch, looking at that definately looks like you've had similar luck to me (bar your machine kinda worked), my M17 was pulling a higher 3dmark vantage score than that, that vantage score almost seems like it was stuck on the 9400 or something!
Still Im going to opt for the 4870s, hopefully once I can get mob-modded drivers for this; perhaps it will be better off than your machine, (will disable the damn IGP if it gets in the way) plus I like HDMI audio output

The other partial reason for me accepting the exchange is Im basically get £700 of extra goods (supposedly, at least going by Dell charging) worth of machine over my M17, if it still doesnt work for me like yours hasn't, I should have a quicker time with refund anyway given the history.

 

Yep bad luck and bad machine is the polite way of putting it lol, but over it now and into a waiting game, I am making do with the older laptops until the dust settles in the AW camp on releases, upgrades and refreshes, whilst I am also watching a few other camps like Maingear, Rock, Clevo & Sager etc.

The new desktop build in the works should be world upper top ten PVantage scorers for now, at least thats the aim, more importantly it has to crack out the workload the gamings just the bonus end.

I hope you do have far better joy than my last 3 mth escapade and yes it would be worth it if your getting £700.00 upgrades , do keep posting as I am keeping tabs on any improvements on new models, a possible trigger for me to purchase again.

Freestylaruk

 

Forgot to mention in reply to Vantage scores....I assure you, had both 280M GPU's changed in mine and absolutely sure of boost SLi and power modes. The hardware I had should have been capable of far far more.

The most I ended up getting "stable"ish in Vantage was GPU P12122 & CPU P10394 that was in 1280x800 16:10 ratio as per the 1200p screen so round things look round and not oval stretched 16:9. Therefore didnt give me a single P Score due to the change to the default P-run, where as not altering the default P-run (1280x1024 res I think), I dont think I broke Vantage P7k.

I did hit higher individual scores but all others were with eventual freezes or BSOD's either at the time or a few hrs or a few days later, for me those scores loose and didnt mean anything once a freeze or BSOD occurred, but if it matters the most I managed to get GPU P13794 & CPU P11815 eventually suffered freeze on an idle desktop LOL a couple days later.

My 280M GPU's were OCed to 680/1060/1700 settings and CPU on 10 Multiplier with unlinked MEM1162 & FSB1162 couldnt get an iota past that, which resulted in 2.905Ghz on the QX9300!!!. Trying any other method i.e. multi only resulted in freezes or non boot.

I think I was partly stable on CPU in demanding games (Poor FPS) for a small time until secondary background or loading tasks came into play and then would get a freeze or BSOD or just a sudden restart out of the blue.....whilst at other times, tasks such as a very DEMANDING idle desktop with no sidebar!!! no activity, no surfing, nothing on a £3.5k machine just couldnt handle it and would freeze or BSOD for no reason at all LOLOL

The GPU's couldnt handle any OCing in reality as the temps are already too high under stock, I believe the GPU's are already pushed to the max at the default stock settings, thus reverted back to stock on GPU's after pushing them as a tester for a few days (I didnt really want to push on the GPU's anyway) and stayed with CPU OC as long as I could, at most I think a week I survived without a crash but then I didnt siwtch it on for 4-5 days LOL but eventually ended back to stock settings on the CPU too.

With everything on stock, I still had many other issues as well as the odd freeze or BSOD, so it wasnt worth anything to me, very poor and risky for any work related matters let alone gaming or other uses. A couple friends who also purchased have returned theirs too, similar issues if not the same, but saying that, we were the first chaps to run out and buy moments after release, where as the machines now appear to be going through a refresh phase or I would say through a trial and test phase at the customers expense.

Freestylaruk

 

Ouch, perhaps its lucky AW realised how much the M17x was going to cost them, and have changed thier mind and offered a refund, after all!

 

From my end, I kept records of every phonecall, tech support/customer dept & manager names, duration of calls, copies of all minidumps before doing any respawns, screen shots of the window listing all the "Problems & Solutions" link in the control panel, any other relevant screen shots where I could, as well as taking pictures where needed and ensured I kept copying in every tech support rep including the global email addresses and also the account manager to all the findings & data when I emailed them, from day 3-4 of having the machine.

After running into a dead end 11-12 weeks in, delays and a brush off from a manager in the escalations dept, I had to put my claims head on, got the Credit card co. on standby with legal cover, but before taking such action, attempted a formal first and only offer to find sensible quick resolve.

I gave them 7 working days to process the full unconditional refund or they were then knowingly and fully acknowledging all my lost time off work as well as any other costs that I had incurred throughout the 3 mths snagging on a product that was clearly faulty on arrival, which amounted to more than the original price paid for the M17X (over £3,500.00). I also reminded them that I could prove everything down to the pence and asked them to go back and review all the data and emails I had sent them (Copying everything over again) within the 7 days given since it clearly proved my case beyond any reasonable doubts.

This was carried out to demonstrate to any lawyer, solicitor, barrister, judge or court that I had done everything possible to find resolve and that Dell / Alienware were fully responsible for what was to follow and for all the further additional costs involved. (I have legal/dispute/claims background ;-))

Maybe the likely scenario of paying me back well over twice the amount + all the legal costs, had something to do with it. 2 working days later got a call, that it was being reviewed, 4th working day it was fully agreed and I requested the conversation to be provided in writing. It was. Following week i.e. last week the laptop was collected, full refund is imminent.

Just one way of doing it, keep everything.....EVERYTHING, you never know when you might need it.

Freestylaruk

 

Wow what a headache that must have been

Im hoping Dell Australia isnt that bad, but I guess ill never know until I have one and if something goes wrong.

Any one hear had to deal with Dell Aus?

 

For me my experience with Dell has been very confusing.

First I tried to figure out how to get the Alienware University discount. None of the links on that website worked, and it seemed to show old models too. I tried asking a Dell salesperson in chat, but:

- The first one kept asking for my phone number, and didn't answer anything else. I was convinced he was a bot. I told him he failed the Turing test & left.

- I wanted to be sure, so I tried again. This one was definitely human, but didn't know anything. I asked him about Alienware and he said he could only help with Dell.

Excerpt:

Anyway, I finally found out you have to go through "Dell Lounge" to get a university discount, so I got my 7% discount that way.

I then ordered an M17x, an Alienware backpack, and a (Razer) mouse. To my surprise, I got the mouse the next day. On the Dell status order page it still says "in production", and I never got a notification e-mail either. I also selected 3-5 day shipping, so that was super fast.

Even weirder (and I still have no idea), I entered the tracking number on the box, and the package started at a time 6 hours before I ordered it!

Seriously, how is that even possible?

 

Time machines.

Don't laugh. They're real, the governments just hides this fact very, very well.

How else could a package leave 6 hours before you order it?


Yes, you can start being concerned about me now.

And yes, that was all a joke for anyone who didn't realise it.

 

^^^LOL those darned time machines!

 

In all seriousness I'm still perplexed by how it's possible to send a package out 6 hours before it's ordered without either 1. a time machine, or 2. a very good prediction of the future.

 

hahaha sorry i laughed, timemachines yeah right. This is clearly the work of Alien Farstar, the dark side of alienware. His powers are unmatched...

 

In so far, my experience has be relatively pleasant. That said, we'll see what happens when I get my new laptop.

 

i havent had a problem. my m17x was a replacement for my dieing m1730.