Unbelievable Situation. Advice Needed!!!!

Hello

I am having a nightmare of a problem with alienware and my M17. In a nutshell they are trying to rip me off. The whole story is explained in the rather long email I have sent them and attached below for you to see.

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Dear Sir Or Madam

I currently own an M17 laptop which I have had for approx 18 months now which has been in all fairness a great machine to own. About 6 months ago I opted to upgrade the laptop through yourselves and purchased a pair of ATI 4850 Graphics cards for the system to replace the originally supplied ATI 3870 Graphics cards.

Again once these were installed I had a trouble free time with the laptop. Then about 2 months ago I started having trouble with the laptop and in particular the graphics cards. The laptop was returned to your depot for the appropriate repairs. Now upon receiving the laptop back one month later I immediately started it up to test it and found to my amazment that the laptop now had a pair of ATI 3870 Graphics cards in and not the ATI 4850's that I had sent it to yourselves with.

I immediately rung your tech support dept to clarify this error and get it rectified. The tech support guy was helpful and ordered a pair of ATI 4850's to be shipped to me for self replacement and an RMA number to return the ATI 3870's that were in it. All good so far.

The correct video cards turned up approx a week later. Upon unwrapping them 1 of them was extremely dirty and had its insulation rings for the securing screws missing from it. The 2nd one was in a fairl better condition but again with insulating rings missing. I rang up tech support straight away asking why I had been sent components in such bad condition and was advised to fit them anyway and test them to which I agreed.

I proceeded to remove the bottom of the laptop and then the heatsink assy. Once removed i found that 2 screws were missing from GPU 1 and 3 screws missing from GPU 2. The fan also was not plugged in. And finally the two screws that secure the GPU down were in the wrong holes on both of the GPU's. Now to be fair I found this a complete mess and was in disbelief that you could allow a laptop to leave your facility in this state. Again this was told to your tech support dept who said relevant action would be taken to find out why this had happened. And after all this when I installed the correct GPU's that you had sent me the system would not display anything so they were clearly defective.

So again I contacted your tech support and was advised to return the two ATI 4850's that you had sent me which I promptly did. This was followed by another phone call asking to have the laptop returned so you could take a look at it regarding the extremely poor workmanship of re assembling it by your depot.

So today I receive a phone call from your tech support dept saying the laptop had been looked at and was being returned to me as the ATI 3870's that it came with from yourselves are not from alienware so I must have somehow fitted a pair of my own. This resulting in my warranty being voided and me being out of pocket for a pair of ATI 4850's that I have already paid you for.

Now in all honesty I find this whole situation an absolutely disgusting way to treat a customer as its completely absurd. I dont care for a second if the ATI 3870's are not on your system as they came fitted to my laptop after repair. This clearly raises the question why did my laptop come with them and where did they come from. To that question I suggest you have a good look at your depot. If the whole situation was not such a mess I think I would need to laugh.

What your effectively doing is trying to pass the blame onto me for something that has gone drastically wrong at your end and I demand this be escalated and looked into by the relevant people in a position of authority.

I will leave this in your hands for the immediate future but if this is not sorted out then I will have no choice but to pass the case onto the office of fair trading and seek legal advice for this absolute shambles.

Finally I would like to say throughout this debacle the guys in tech support have been superb in everything and I in no way hold them responsible for anything especially [removed by moderator] who has been very helpfull throughout.

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As you can see all I can describe it as is utterly outrageous. I could really do with finding out someones email that can actually do something for me.

 

[email protected]

This is for the global consumer resolutions people.

Fast, Courteous and professional.

Good Luck.

 

Well it was a good thing that you were polite throughout the email. Good job!

Unfortunatly you cant complain to Dell for this model, since it was before the merger. There was also an Alienware rep on these forums and I hope he finds this post and helps you out.

There was a number for the Rosswell Crew somewhere on the forum, but I heard that they might have been disbanded.

The last choice would be leagal action as this is quite a complicated situation. You have multiple service requests on a discontinued item with your word against theirs.

I really wish I could be more help. Might be the best thing I did was keep your post on the front page

 

Hello

Yeah I thought keeping it polite was the way forward. I have no idea how I managed as I was in absolute disbelief and utterly raging.

I have been trying for ages to get an email similar to the dell one but I cannot find one anywhere. Even one for someone high up in AW US as im sure they could help settle this unique situation.

Cheers

 

From what Ive seen of my own 4850s and other similar cards some of the insulation rings on the GPUs are missing......I think that is normal.
You never mentioned what problems you had with the GPUs??? if its overheating then that is most likely the reason Alienware never sold this cards as an upgrade to most M17 owners......its well known that the M17 cant handle the temps of the 4850s......I run mine with the bottom cover removed whilst sat on a notebook cooler. This is the only way I can use these cards without major issues.
Other 4850 owners have made modded mesh covers to replace the bottom cover.
Finally, the 4850s that Alienware have remaining in stock are only for warranty repairs of the few systems which were sold with 4850s......which is not many at all. Meaning they dont have any spare 4850s in stock and are removing 4850s from returned systems to honour cases like yours, this is probably why yours were second-hand.
You are quite lucky to have been able to even get a pair.....I spent £600($1000) on mine second-hand because Alienware refused to sell the cards on their own.
I would just get the cards back as you wont be able to get another pair.

Good luck.

 

Tony

I appreciate what your saying but I think your missing the point of the post. They will not give them back to me as they are trying to say that the 3870's I sent them back came from another source and not them. They actuall sent me the 3870's back after repairing my M17 and not the 4850's they received it with.

 

I still say go to Dell. As the new owners, it is now their responsibility. Give them a chance to make it right for you. Besides, it never hurts to ask.

Good Luck.

 

Well I did take the earlier advice and forwarded my case to the Dell email address that I was provided in this post. I had a quick look around and Dell actually took over AW in the summer of 2006 so they were the parent company long before I got my M17

 

marshall bud have you got your laptop back bud, i had 4850s in my m17 when i owned it and one of them broke and i also had the new cards and laptop shipped back and forth, then they kept it for 6 weeks and i ended up get my money back for the laptop as supposidly you cannot change your laptop purchased through alienware and get i.e dell m17x laptop.... i would have a look at the 3870 cards and see if they have the same part numbers as the alienware ones that have been posted on here when people have had order conformation, as if they have then they must be alienware cards

you will need to scroll through old m17 pages to fin these tho as i no longer have any of that sort of info no more.

i never used insulating rings i only used thick heat spreder pads on both sides of the ram and i never went above 84c.

 

Marshall,

I'm hoping that they take care of you and put in a nice new R2 for your troubles.

Let us know how it goes.

 

They have sent it back but it has not arrived yet. Soon as its back I will start looking for serial numbers. Will let you all know how it turns out.

 

Did you take pics before you sent it away? always take pics.

 

Of course your right......my apologies.

get those cards back and get a good cooler with the bottom cover removed.....Ive just done an all night MW2 session and max temp is 78c.....they never go above 80c with the bottom cover removed.
Im going to do a mesh mod when I get round to it.

Good luck, I know how difficult support for old Alienware systems can be.

 

I did take photos but it proves nothing. They are saying I could have swapped the cards around a taken photos of the "Non Alienware Ones.". Trust me if I could get the cards back I would but they are saying they will not return them to me.

 

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Be sure to CC everyone at Dell. Also attach your records of your M17 purchase, as well as records of your 4850 GPU purchase. Any and all records. Ask for evidence or some inventory done on your computer. Surely they have records from it's arrival.

 

Dell should come through for you. They sent me an M17x R1 with 4870's as a Complete Care replacement for a Studio 17 that they damaged further during a repair. If there is any evidence at all to support your story, I guarantee you that they'll try to make it right.

 

Last time, I voied my warranty by messing with my GPU thermal pads and cooked my 5870MR, I rma-ed it to Sager and got back a new GPU for free even though they knew it as I told them.

For your case, even if they want to put the blame on you and void your warranty, they should at least give the 4850MR back to you as you paid for them. Definitely lodge a complaint if what you said is true.

 

Well I managed to get the UK phone number for Dell's UK headquarters. Had a chat with an english person (A rare treat) who took all the details and has passed it up to their escalation/complaints dept who are gonna call me back today or tommorrow.

I have tried to get the 4850's back but they are saying that they sent me them back when the laptop came back from repair, which they clearly did not but came back with 3870's

 

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I hope you get it sorted. I agree with some of the other posters here: go to Dell and to Alienware - in fact, go to as many people as possible. If you're polite and professional hopefully they'll do the right thing. You've got to ask first though ...

Good luck

 

Yea, sorry for your situation buddy, but I'd really like to know how your case gets handled, whether from Alienware or Dell or whoever is taking a look at it. Best of luck!

 

any news Marshall?

 

No not yet mate. I posted another topic earlier asking for everyone who owns 3870's to let me know the serial numbers and V bios versions but I cant believe only one person has got back to me. Im gonna need a fair few serial numbers as such to help me prove AW are doing one over on me.

 

darn.....dont have my 3870s anymore or else I would have provided some info.

good luck.