*** Official Alienware Notebook System Replacement Thread ***

If I have any further hassles, would it be ok if I get those contacts to help resolve the issue? I am tired of getting jacked around

 

email [email protected]

That should get you in touch with exec support

 

I agree With Raidriar I emailed Michael Dell too and his associate contacted me due to being in the UK he was the part of the Advanced Resolution Group. Good luck

 

I'd love to be able to just jump off the warranty like that and take matters into my own hands. Unfortunately, this is my primary work machine and I just don't have the money if something like a GPU or CPU fails.

I'm planning on just building my own desktop once I get out of school and not having to deal with a manufacturer, but in the Mena time I'm kind of reliant in Dell. Anyway, I'm going to try to negotiate my warranty extended for the duration I was waiting for the replacement machine before I send them back the old machine. I was paying for a warranty covering nothing (the old machine was broken anyway) and would like that time to instead cover the new machine (so I have the same amount of coverage if they had shipped me the machine all those months ago). Plus, I have the leverage of having their old machine in the mean time, so that might motivate them to at least look into it. Sound reasonable?

 

Yes that does sound reasonable as you have been through a lot with your laptop. I decided to get my warranty money back because of the way I was treated and I just have no trust in their techs anymore. I could have done the repair myself it was only a dim led on the macro keys but I thought well If I have warranty then Dell can fix it for me. Never ignore your intuition because that easy repair caused so many problems for me. So I trust myself and I can get the parts from people which would be cheaper then buying from Dell. Good luck with your escalation you will need to stand your ground and explain that you have lost time during your laptop replacement.

 

"Da Grease" arrives today!
The third time was the charm to get the order actually promised. I sure hope the QA department did their job and I never have to deal with a warranty replacement again. As nice as the replacement configuration is for the machine that will take the place of "Das Beast", I am looking forward to a long period of my laptop not being a fecking hassle.

B

 

I hope so too, but don't count on it. Mine arrived with atrocious screen bleed around the bezel and I'm not about to go through the 2 month ordeal again.

 

So far so good. The screen looks fine and all systems are go. I am finally downloading Fallout 4 and readying for the trip into the Wasteland!
The only negative is the OS was installed on the 1 TB HDD not the SSD, but I will correct that soon enough.

B

 

Wow, they're still installing the OS on the wrong drives? Good grief... they have been making that mistake off and on since 2013, LOL. Not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but they're obviously not paying attention to what they are doing.

 

I wouldn't suggest a tech to come to your home unless they know what they are doing, The tech came to my house to replace my mother board, He wrecked my laptop no static mat, placed it on a table top scratched the whole top of the laptop while taking it apart , also broke the palm rest clips and the wire for the keyboard leds. The crunch my laptop made as it placed it on the hard rough counter top made me cringe. He is coming back to replace everything again cause the motherboard is faulty(battery issues and amplifier wont get noticed) Just shocks me how he treated my 2015 15R1 like a 100 dollar laptop off craigslist.


I might just have the audacity to record him this time.

 

Good idea. If the same clown shows up, definitely do that.

 

This is my first Alienware purchase after coming from the precision line. Anyhow, I found a great deal at the outlet for a 15 r2 with an i7 6820 CPU, GTX980m, 4k screen and 16 gb ram. Needless to say, the screen had terrible backlight bleed - by far the worst I have ever seen. This was probably the reason why it was returned in the first place. I contacted Dell and was on hold for 25 minutes - so much for the premium support that was included in my purchase. The tech then wanted me to send the laptop into the depot for repair. When I reminded him that the laptop had onsite service he went on to explain that LCD repairs are not done onsite due to "how hard replacing the LCD on this model was". When I told him I could not be without my laptop for 2 weeks for the depot repair he then offered me a system exchange which I accepted - at least I get to keep and use my current laptop.... I have done LCD panel replacements on latitudes and precisions. Are they really that much more difficult on the Alienwares?

 

The System Exchange Specialist who was handling my case added a note to the case notes that I have a 90 day warranty extension. However, he said that he cannot actually extend the warranty since he is tech support. I've asked now multiple times for him to get me in touch with someone who can officially update my warranty. He just repeats that I can refer to the case number and they will honor the extension. Even if this does work (in the case that I need it to, God forbid I have issues with this machine), I can only imagine the hassle that will ensue. Before I send back my old machine, I really would like to resolve this. I've been really busy with final examinations so this has gone on the back-burner for me, but I think my next move is to call.

Anyone know what department I should speak to or any specific extensions?

 

No, they're not any more difficult. I don't know why he handled it that way. Doesn't make good sense to me.

 

Oh wow that sounds bad.

I had a technician twice at my home. The first one was inexperienced with Alienware machines but he did ruin a motherboard by pushing it back into the chassis with the SD dummy card still inside thus pushin git out of place. The second one was much better and just replaced the motherboard and a repaste with my own IC diamond 7.

The reason for these repairs was that I had a problem with the laptop chassis and one of the hinges. They did fix it and now my laptop is in perfect condition again. I rather fix the laptops myself but if they screw up they just give me a new laptop. Thats not a bad deal.

 

Fixed

 

Depends the location. Here in Holland the laptops come fresh out of the factory as far as I know where there are problems. But only after a technician will try to fix it 3 times before that. In know in the US consumer laws are less strict and refurbs are more common there.

 

Damn your EU consumer laws, so nice haha

 

Canada is the same. No refurbs by law.

 

while I'm sitting with my alienware 15 R1 purchased back in august 29th 2015, had a replacement on November 11, which took more than a month, new replaced one throttled as well, got myself a 240w adapter, still throttled, so they sent me a Technician instead of giving me a R2, replaced with a refurb **** mobo, throttled worse even to 800mhz, now they are saying we see that's actually possible to throttle to that extend, which is BS, tomorrow I'm going to dell service center with proof of throttling on most games, unplayable, I tried contacting alienware L-Porra, no reply or any kinda help, in india its freaking hard to explain to that idiotic tech team.. as if they are the guru's..

 

Guess who can't wait to go through all this mess with my 17x r4?
*aims thumbs*
This guy.

2 years left on my warranty at least.


Keep me in your thoughts and prayers...

 

We'll pray for you

 

Same thing is going on with me. I transferred the warranty on my 17x r4 from a friend that simply gave me his cause he went Clevo a few months ago. I'm guessing the reason they do this is because if they simply sent a replacement, I could be anybody random with fake information that would have 2 laptops and run 'for the border'. So we're viewed as a possible theft or fraud case at the root of it all.

Course I may be wrong, I've been married a couple times - obviously making the wrong assumptions each time.

 

I actually had a problem due to an error a technician made. He damaged the chassis while trying to replace the battery. I got offered a new AW15 R2 system as a replacement and I expect it to arrive end of this week.

 

The "Exchange Specialist" promised me a 90 day warranty extension for all my troubles. Turns out that's about all I'm getting...a promise. He claims that if I call with any issue up to 90 days after my warranty expires, they'll honor the 90 days. Yet they can't add anything officially. This sounds like absolute BS. Even when I'm under paid warranty it takes a week for them to understand what that means and start trying to help me. I spent around 4 hours on the phone trying to sort this out, bounced between every department from orders to technical support. At this point, it's not monetarily worth it for 90 freaking days of warranty support. But it really ticks me off that Dell is getting away with this whole past 7 months. Any advice? I still haven't sent back the old machine because I wanted to resolve this first, but have been super busy.

 

Wait... really... 7 months without resolution? If you have been without a properly functioning machine for 7 months and fighting... waiting... fighting... trying to get resolution I would say just ask for a full refund of the original purchase price. Then go buy a Sky X9 and be done with it. If this has been dragging out over 7 months, then that is just totally inexcusable. If they refuse to give you a refund, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and fire off an email to Michael Dell about how you have been mistreated. Be cool and calm... just the facts ma'am. Say what happened, provide documentation, and tell them what it's going to take (refund) to make things right.

After about 90 days without resolution, that qualifies as customer abuse and I would have been looking for blood at that point. You can only dismiss incompetence and service failures to a point and then they need to be held accountable for keeping their promises. A warranty is a promise, and broken promises are unacceptable... especially when you paid money for the promise.

Somebody needs to take ownership of making things right for you. The trouble is, finding that somebody is almost impossible sometimes. It's unfortunate that things have to be this way, but there are times that until you go to the top of the food chain for help and start annoying the big dogs in the ivory tower nobody pays any attention or takes ownership of resolution. If you get the attention of the right person, someone whose primary job is to take care of problems will be appointed to make you and your problem go away.

 

What's hilarious was somebody was offered a R9 M290X xfire machine as a replacement for a busted 980M SLI machine. I couldn't believe what I read, I thought it was backwards at first.

 

It is hilarious in a sadistic sense, but really not funny for the 980M SLI owner. It is terribly pathetic for a company to employ people that are so grievously ignorant about the products that their employer sells, and totally out of touch with things their customers are passionate about. That offer is similar to, " How 'bout I offer you a maxed out Toyota Prius in trade for your broken BWM M3?" instead of fixing what's broken on the M3.

 

Actually coming from a busted BMW that has been a royal pain in the rear, I would have happily accepted that trade.....

but I know what you're saying.

 

Well, I have the machine now and am very happy with it. The only reason I didn't go full nuclear was that I was only really without a usable machine for a little over a week. After a bunch of botched repairs, I was left with a machine with no disc drive and strange power problems (USB devices would randomly stop working, the disc drive was booked, and the computer would rarely just shut off). However, while annoying, the machine was still usable while I waited for the replacement.

Given that the replacement computer is quite a nice upgrade (check my sig), I was happy with the 90 day extension (although I would have liked an extension equal to the time I waited for my machine). But now it looks like that was just lip service. Like I said, I've spent hours on the phone with every department about this warranty issue. Any ideas?

 

If they have the 90 extension documented on their end in your file notes and you have something from them saying they will honor it, that is probably good enough.

 

OK, is an email enough if I hang onto it? There's no way for me to determine if something is actually in the file notes. When I called, no department knew what I was talking about. I gave them the case number the exchange specialist told me to reference and everything. Thanks so much btw!

 

Probably so. Since they knew all about it when you called, there must be some sort of documentation on their end also.

 

That's the problem, they didn't know all about it when I called. I gave them the case number, told them about the email and notes and everything, and they acted like I was making stuff up.

 

Oh, I misread what you posted. That doesn't sound good. Yeah, based on that you probably shouldn't count on them keeping their promise without having to jump through hoops. There should have been some record of that in the system. If you have written proof you could probably push the issue, but it might come at the expense of a lot of rigmarole.

 

Received an aw15 r2 as a replacement after a by dell outsourced technician busted my system. Dell handled it perfectly and the replacement is great as well. Cant complain, the r2 version is higher specced as my original r1 as well. Cant have this type of service with any other brand out there.

 

mine is now scheduled for mobo change...... i tell you what this guy best bring a port folio with his previous work in it... having no cowboy inside my machine, bricked or not...lol

wonder if theyll let me keep the old board..??

 

From my experience, some boxes are marked for return, others for scrap. The latter customers can keep if they want to.

 

Okay, so they had a guy come out here and replace my 7970m (17x r4) and the screen still had a red tint on the dedicated side. As in, it all looks like pinkish filter over top it. Note: We could lean the screen forward and the coloration returned to normal, like it would on the intel, but it was so forward it was 4 inches from closing. After him telling dell that he thought it was the screen, he left, because we had reinstalled all windows 8.1 approved drivers from dell's site for the card. So i called them afterwards, and they said that the problem had to be because they shipped it with win 7, and I had upgraded to 8.1, and this model wasn't 8.1 approved and had to be what was causing it.

Now I may not be that savy, but I've seen plenty of people reporting that they're on 8.1 on the 17x r4 with an 7970m. Or am I wrong?

Anyways, they're sending me the cd to reinstall 7.
Does this sound plausible, or is it just another step, of many, that I've been going through for weeks; that I have to crawl through for a resolution?

By the way, the tech was top notch. I read horror stories on this post, and you guys had me worried, lol. Even used his own diamond gel on the card, and threw away the generic stuff Dell had given him. Which was pretty cool I thought!

 

Did they replace the display cable also? If not, good chance the reddish tint problem is the cable. It may have a broken wire.

I have also been lucky with the technicians they send out. Both of the guys I have had experience with were top notch and very careful not to damage anything. The one experience I had with a Dell Depot repair did not turn out well. I would choose an in-home tech over depot repair any day of the week. At least you can watch them like a hawk, have total control of the situation and stop him/her if they are an ignorant moron... can't do that with a depot repair.

 

No, he never replaced the cable. Just put the same card in, and told me the screen was bad. He was rushing though.. :/

But anyways. After he left, the lighting on the keyboard only lights up halfway now. I noticed that the right side and the touchpad were already waiting like ten seconds before it came on, a few weeks back. And a two second delay from typing, to being able to use the touchpad... But everything became considerably worse. Then, suddenly my hdd crashed and I couldn't even get on it without it crashing with random errors. Tried to install on my ssd, win 8.1, it kept asking for framework 3.5 which I kept installing to no avail nothing changed, still installed all drivers including the video card. It then started to crash. Tried to reinstall on the hdd, it wouldn't let me at all. So they wanted to send out another tech to replace the same video card. I told them, you cant even install windows or open it via recovery stick or cd, so they're sending a box to fix in house at a depot. I've spent around 30 hours so far on the phone I bet, on week 6.

I really hate to send it off, whatever the problem is, but guys, I've been on the phone for weeks and weeks.
Frankly, the spirit is willing.... But the flesh is bruised and spongy.
So I'll send it on it's merry way to a Dell concentration camp.
Now Let us all bow our heads in a moment of silence for Turt Reynolds (its name) for a quick recovery of AMD HPV.

 

Faulty motherboard issue. They had to replace it twice because one refurb was also faulty.
After a month, it's finished. Vote casted

 

Whelp, the Centrino wireless adapter quit working for some reason, so they sent a tech out to replace it. When he took my keyboard off, the lights never worked right when he put it all back together. So he told them on the phone that he basically broke my keyboard lol.

Can't wait til monday so I get to greet a tech for the fourth time this month. I'm slowly but surely getting to know every tech in this area.
Making friends is nice I guess,

Dell support- 2 stars out of 5

 

Hi all,
I have an old M18xr3 with an I7 2760qm processor and 2 geforce 580M cards SLI that has had issues for a while now. It just freezes up after 40 minutes of heavy gaming or use and I have to manually hard reset everytime. I am by no means tech savy at all they tried to diagnose the problem, sent it to depot, same issue persisted, had on site service it, still didnt fix it. They have swapped the mobo twice, both vid cards, ram twice, reinstalled os and drivers and still the same issue. Thought it would be an easy fix I guess I was wrong.

Long story short they are offering me a replacement laptop now. My warranty expires in October 2016.

This is an old laptop and the new m18 and m17s seem to outclass it by miles but I have extensively read these forums and am reading alot of issues with soldered mobo/cpu/cards with the new models. Even then, the new rigs have video cards that even non sli and non xfire run cooler and are more powerful than my 580m sli.

Question is: Should I run and accept whatever replacement they offer given how old my current rig is? (Have been waiting over a week now and they still are looking for replacement options... 72 hours estimate lol). What should the min. replacement rig I should accept? Im guessing they will offer me a m17 since m18 is discontinued?

Live in canada, Only use it for gaming one or two games that honestly aren't graphics demanding at all. I dont overclock or benchmark, just want a laptop that will work for gaming and wathcing movies for the next 2 or three years as I will probably buy a desktop once my warranty expires anyways.

Would love any feedback or thoughts.

 

Accept the swap and then sell it if you don't want it. Regardless of BGA the newer one will blow this old one out of the water.
Which model / Specs did they offer you?

 

They haven't offered me anything yet. They need ANOTHER 48 - 72 hours to find a replacement... I will post it once they offer

 

You have a legitimate basis for asking them to refund the original purchase value of your M18xR1 (you did not have an M18xR3... there is no such thing). Don't accept a downgraded exchange except as a last resort. The truth is that the M18xR1 is capable of destroying whatever they might offer you in BGA with nothing more than basic component upgrades. A 2960XM and 780M SLI will outperform the best they can offer today. Since they are incapable of satisfying the terms of your warranty with their current best, pushing for a refund (something they have already done for others) will give you the money needed to buy a high performance notebook that is better than the best they can offer, or you can use the money to build yourself a decent desktop if you no longer require mobility.

Don't let them get away with the lame excuse that a maxed out 17 is faster with benchmarks and games than what you had. That's a cop out. You can also use the lack of features to support your argument for a refund. The new machines are barebones products in terms of feature set. If you accept the apples-to-oranges exchange with the intent of selling it, you will come up way short short financially by accepting a $1500 notebook in trade for a $4000 notebook. You could literally buy two for the value of one and that's definitely not a fair trade. They know this, so turn the tables and leverage the fact that your old machine was a truly high-end product rather than a mainstream gamer-boy turdbook with some fancy aesthetics. Remember, they created this situation by dumbing down their product line. The fact that they cannot offer you as much is their fault, not yours. They're not bashful about offering a downgrade, so don't get caught up in feeling like you are asking too much by requesting a refund.

 

Mr Fox speaks the truth... Do not take any of the new BGA turdbooks.. An Alienware 18 is the only replacement you should get or get a refund then!

 

I may agree with you here as far as they should give him what he deserves, but they are not going to offer a refund on a system that is 5 years old simply because it failed and has a warranty.
They warranty is not a never fail or we refund your money contract lol. Technically they dont even have to offer an exchange they are only obligated to fix his current system. Which may or may not have the available parts.

The best they will do is offer equal specs or better spec of a newer system.
The dual 580 cards (2323 passmarks per card) gets about as much of a passmark score as a 980M (5702)
The 2760qm scores like like 2k less then the current 6700HQ
With a Skylake 6700HQ + a 980M his system would be slightly more powerful on paper.
Not to mention newer tech like DDR4 / GDDR5, newer chipset etc.
All done on a single video card system so no messy compatibility issues with SLI
So how is it that the old M18x is capable of destroying the BGA they might offer?
How is this not a fair system if they offer it to him?
I know you dont like BGA but so long as its the 17R3 and not the crippled R2 its a more then generous offer.
Dont let your hate for BGA affect your intelligence.
Besides its not like hes goiong to be dropping the money on a BGA Pussy crushing Clevo for $3k-$4k.
And hes defo not going to be able to fetch $3k-$4k for whatever they offer him.

I say push for a 17R3.. If they offer anything less point out the passmark scores and demand equal or better.
A 970M would be less.
A 17R2 has a design flaw that causes crazy stupid throttling.

If I was in the same situation I would be 100% walking away with that system.
I dont mean that I would just accept it. I would make it happen and not take no for an answer.

 

I suppose I could say that your love for BGA has affected your ability to think rationally, but I don't need to resort to saying such things. The people that read our posts will form their own opinions and interpret what is said based on their own perceptions. Maybe the fear that not having the last word will somehow invalidate your argument causes this exchange to continue? Whatever the case may be, I think it adds value because it adds one more post with the opportunity for a person that doesn't know any better to be enlightened that BGA sucks. At the end of the day I really don't give a baby rat's ass who agrees with me. I'm putting information out there for those that will listen. If enough people listen and rebel against the machine we may have a better tomorrow. If everyone decides it's not worth fighting over and reaches for the jar of Vaseline then there won't be a better tomorrow. All there will be is the tomorrow someone else wants that stands to make more money by shafting their customers with dead-end disposable trash. BGA will never be acceptable on an expensive platform to people that know better and refuse to compromise. I am a bit puzzled why someone of your intelligence would feel so compelled to defend it and the lame companies that don't offer any (not even one) superior options to their customers.

And, you totally missed (or ignored) part of what I said. " A 2960XM and 780M SLI will outperform the best they can offer today." That's a fact, and the fact that the M18xR1 is capable of being upgraded is a fact, and that it has been upgraded by thousands of people that own them is a third fact. Those that own them and know how to use them find that to be a very important detail and cannot be convinced it is not important. Remember, BGA haters are not locked into a forever configuration and don't need to rely to external devices to make up for their foundational shortcomings.

I agree that's the best they can do for an exchange, but they are not entitled to take credit for no longer offering anything good enough. Offering your best when it's not equal or better is not an acceptable alternative. That's why a refund is the right option for them. If you think being offered a $1,500 pile of crap in exchange for a machine that sold for twice that much is OK, then you're totally intoxicated on the Alienware Kool-Aid, LOL. Even if they threw in an eGPU and 980Ti in an effort to do the right thing it still wouldn't be good enough. And, I have actually seen them do refunds on a 5 year old systems. The warranty doesn't depreciate or become less enforceable as it grows closer to its expiration date. Tough tit for Dell in allowing it if they didn't want to belly up to the bar when duty calls. If they say no and he pushes hard enough (BBB complaint, file against them in small claims court, etc.) they will give him his money back. Sometimes you have to wear them out and get your case in front of a person whose job is far too important to be bothered by customer riff raff. They don't have the time or desire to battle with a customer that won't submit to their ways or allow himself to be bullied, and they just want the problem customer to go away and leave them alone. I would never suggest burning bridges over something petty, like being offered 7970M versus 780M, but I say pull out all the stops and go for the jugulars when there is such a massive disparity in value and you are not treated in a fair and square manner.

If you want to count features, don't forget to count features lost. eSATA, ExpressCard, HDMI in, ability to have the BIOS unlocked and ability to have a CPU with unlimited TDP, and having sockets and slots... being able to replace a GPU that fails... being able to go from a mainstream CPU to an Extreme CPU for about the same as a nice SSD after the price drops by $750-800... those are all features that add value to people that care. Don't let your love for BGA blind you to the reality that it sucks.

No sure why it was even mentioned, but there are no "messy SLI" compatibility issues. Even if there were some that would not be part of the basis for evaluation. If a customer owned dual graphics system and if Dell cannot produce one of equal or better performance they need to give him his money back. The thing people that don't know any better fail to understand is that SLI and CrossFried technology either works or it doesn't. When it doesn't it is due to a variety of factors, none of which have to do with SLI as much as software engineer incompetence. The beauty of SLI is, in the very rare circumstance when it doesn't work you simply turn it off and enjoy the same performance as the single GPU peasants. Technology is moving in a direction now that will make multi-GPU system more powerful than ever before, and vRAM may even end up finally being stackable rather than mirrored.