My hinge was fixed and now I present my retrospective AW experience analysis

Well gang,

About two weeks ago I shipped out a broken AW. My hinge cracked the exact same way about 12 other forum members have. They sent fed-ex to pick up the system and they fixed the issue very quickly because of that 2 weeks, 10 days was spent in transit. I was happy with the turnaround time but I was unhappy for having to send the system in.

Customer support said they would follow up with me with any changes because I reported that I needed this laptop for work. Customer support never did contact me back.

So here I sit, with my m15x and I figured I would write the "good, the bad, and the ugly."

Good: Well, it was the first 15inch with an 8800MGTX. The asthetics of the case look amazing. The lights are great. It really catches people's eyes more than any other laptop I have ever had. I am a therapist in an office setting and I am older (29) so I don't really care much about the "wow factor" but I must say it is a good looking computer.

The bad: AW customer service. Let's start with the AW reps. I have been disappointed with the reps, even the ones on this forum. I feel AW reps are only told to respond in "crisis." When my hinge broke, and I posted about it, AW reps came into my thread to report that they take every complaint seriously, but they weren't addressing me; they were addressing a poster in my thread who said, "where are the reps now." My inbox was empty. They could have emailed me. They didn't. The reps at AW are even worse. When I ordered the system there was a two week delay because the AW sales person did NOT apply my student discount (was a grad student at the time) correctly and wanted me to "just trust her" I am sorry but I wasn't going to give her my "OK" to go through with the transaction and trust that she would apply the discount when the system was in the Phases. So they had to freeze my account until it got cleared up. AW customer service appears uneducated, not enthusiastic to work through problems and overall, pretty much a let down for me. A BIG part of the buying experience is service and this was a big let down.

The UGLY: What a shame this "pretty" computer has been so buggy. I COMPLETELY feel that this is a BETA product. The thermal design sucks. This computer, as have many, have downclocked, have required NUMEROUS bios updates, have had cracked/BROKEN hinges and have had many buyers ticked off. Could AW have offered a FREE 3 yr warranty upgrade to existing or early run buyers? Should they have? Absolutely. AW truly has lost a repeat and loyal customer based on my overall experience with this beta product.

Has it all been bad? No. It is a pretty laptop with good power and good form factor that WILL suit my needs given that the kinks are worked out. Will I probably be happy with the laptop if there are no more problems? Probably. So not all is bad. But I will not be buying another Alienware computer and if I can deter (not biased but through my honest feedback and insight) a few potential customers that are on the fence, then I will call it "even." They did nothing to help remedy the situation by making it right; only reacted in crisis to the presenting problem and did not take into accuont ANY of the troubleshooting or frustration of owning the ultimate....in Beta laptop technology...

 

so sorry to hear of your experience Dave.
glad you finally got your computer back in working order. so will you be keeping it or are you thinking about a refund?
all i can say is keep an eye on the temps.
it looks like there are 2 types of m15x
perfectly working models that have never had a problem and then theres the re occuring nightmares that a lot of us have owned with one problem after another.

 

I am planning on keeping it unless something significant occurs again. I am going to try to push for a free extended warranty because I shouldnt have to "pay for piece of mind" when I have bought a "piece of...." ;-)

 

good luck i think you will need it.
i spent 24 days in phase 5 waiting for mine to be built and all i was offered was a T shirt. it still arrived with quite a few faults.
try for a mug, OB ordered one and it held his m17x up as they were on back order they seem to be a must have.

 

The Toshiba x305 Qosmio will make our m15x looked 50 years old and out dated. I feel the same way as you bro.

Knowing the way Aussies are they will just fix my laptop and send that piece of crap back to me. But that's ok it will be the last time i buy stuff off Alienware.

I was going to buy the m17x by returning the m15x for refund due to Hyundai car like quality. But i could feel i will get disappointed.

In any case i am going to get a new Macbook Air for my daughter and get myself a new Toshiba Qosmio x305 in 2 weeks time.

Btw did they replace your old cover with the new skull one?

 

the logic behind getting her another overheating, overpriced laptop being?

 

She wants it she said all her friends got one and they could carry it around no problems. Furthermore she wants it for HD video editing.

 

at the age of 8 still is she?

ps - i own a hyundai, and luv it....zero issues as compared to other cars i have owned...just fyi....

 

Maybe its just the American Customer Service but over here in the UK they are fine, reply back to me, get the message, solve the problem, & the one time that I've pm'd an AW guy on this forum he's been very helpful, I can personally say Alienware's customer service is great so far, I can't say the same for the M15x build quality but as long something major doesn't happen again (being repaired right now, little crack nothing major) then I'm happy.

 

Wow, that is bad to see. Let's hope the issue doesn't come back due to a lackluster repair job (apparently several other users had it recur).

 

I for one have pretty much given up on the m15x. I'm just waiting for the reviews to come in for the Sager NP8660.

 

wow, Australia educate genius. 8 years old kid learn how to do video editing. I will move to Australia for the future of my kid in next 10 years hahaha.

 

you have some effed up priorities and whatnot imho... but who am i to judge.

 

The same 8-year old that said that everyone had a Macbook Air at her elementary school?

Please, post something sensible...this is getting rather ridiculous.

 

LOL 10 characters I have to fill here to post, but what can I say.. this is just to good

 

wow i must be way behind my times. when did elementry school need laptops. arent they suppose to be learning addition and multiplication. the only thing i learned about comps in elementry school was how to open a exe for a matching game and how to open a mp3. i doubt most kids in her class has a mba. if she is already learning video editing at that age i must say wow. its really pretty impressive. especially since i have no knowledge whatsoever for video editing

 

I'm really starting to doubt the verity in tyronne's stories now...

 

that or daddy is a little gullible

 

I'm looking at the Sager 8660 too...

 

seriously tho....you just got her a macbook pro and now you are getting her a macbook air. i really dont see the point in that.

 

Or he never got/is getting either in the first place.

 

Can people stop judging other people's decisions? It's his money and his choices. Who are we to judge whatever other people like/plan to do?

 

then by your statement no one should post good or bad about anything regarding laptops be them either AW, dell, sager, HP, etc....

 

Can a moderator please close this thread? This wasn't meant to be checking the validity of other member's claims and to dissect rhetoric; merely my on-going experience with AW.