Why would anyone buy an Alienware Product

I recently got a deal on a year old M5550 laptop that I could not pass up. After fixing a 1/16" gap between the video card and heatsink that was causing the GPU to overheat and the fan to go crazy, I was off and running until I tried to update the BIOS and drivers (BTW, an old Athlon XP copper shim cut to size and placed between the GPU and heatsink, works great).

Apparently, unless you have a an account with AW you can not get access their support page (where BIOS updates are kept) , and to get an account you have to have purchase the product from them originally.

So I wrote their support to find out if there is any way around it and here is what I got:

"Thank you for contacting Alienware.
Unfortunately, since the Alienware ownership is not transferable, we are not able to provide you with any information to access the support site. Be advised that the only valid information that can be used to access the support site is the one that was originally created for this account"

Generally gamers and enthusiasts (who AW claims to cater to), who have to have the latest and greatest, upgrade their their products very frequently and the old one usually goes to family member, friend, or gets sold on ebay. With absolutely no support (even something as simple as driver or BIOS updates) from AW, why would anyone buy a 2nd hand Alienware product or even an original Alienware product knowing that won't be able to sell it to offset some of the cost of their next upgrade?

 

There are already 100s of threads all asking the same question

 

Alienware=Dell=bad

 

Tell them that you will tell other potential customers of the treatment you have received as an Alienware product owner. Use your leverage as a consumer.

 

this

. . . .

 

not true, they were like this even before dell bought them.

 

if you buy a dell laptop and then sell it on will that person be able to get dell support/upgrades.

if so...................

the above needs changing to.............

 

Maybe you should PM a link to your post and this thread to one of the AW reps who frequents this forum and ask for help or at least his advice.

I know there are AW reps who post here, but I can't find a reference at the moment (sorry, I don't feel so well today and am a little fuzzy-headed). I believe Chaz handles the moderation chores in the AW forums. If you PM him, he can probably help you contact a rep, who, hopefully, can give you an assist. Good luck.

 

that's so naive man! lol

you can still get almost all drivers on the support site without a username/password BTW

 

Taz777,

Unfortunately due to terms and conditions, warranty is not transferable. I will however offer assistance and see what I can do.

Thank you.

 

I am a long time gaming enthusiast and my original perception of Alienware was based on what I read about their gaming systems years ago (always wanted one but could not afford one). I guess things have changed.
I posted this here because I was surprised by the experience, and frankly I don't care if I am able update the BIOS on my laptop or not. It is one of 3 laptops and 3 desktop that my wife and I own, and it is used primarily for browsing the web. However after my experience with them, I won't buy or recommend their products to anyone.

 

That's a hell of a reaction to AW-Armando's offer to try and help you. I suspect he'll still be gracious enough to make an attempt to assist you if you ask, but sure wouldn't blame him if he simply ignores you now. Nonetheless, I hope this works out for you.

 

That's messed up. You buy a used laptop second hand and the company offers to assist even though their policy says they don't and your mad?

 

Ditto, you don't throw someones offer to help you back in their face after you asked for it. Just plain rude Taz.

 

Come on guys... He posted before he actually read Armando's offer for help. Give him a break... If he did read it, well... He is frustrated and with all due right. Why can't the warranty be transferred? That's really an easy way out for AW.
Dell can do it. WHy can't AW?

 

Milcs he had 20 mins in between Armondo's post and the one at the top of this page, not having a go at you btw just pointing it out

 

Yes... Armando is nice and all, but why can't the warranty be transferred? What's the explanation? I can't really see why...

 

so that AW can save few extra pennies.

 

I'm going to guess, remember guys, this is all in the blue, don't take it seriously.

Guy A sells Guy B his Alienware laptop. Guy A likes to muck around with computers and both screwed something up and voided his warranty by doing so. Guy B gets BSOD, video card fries, his girlfriend leaves him for Guy A, whatever. Guy B doesn't know that Guy A tampered with the computer and wants Alienware to fix it. Alienware cries because Guy A voided his warranty then sold it to Guy B, and they have to fix a computer for someone who didn't know Guy A was messing around with it and it's a whole headache.

So basically, people could sell other people defective computers without telling them as such, and Alienware would be required to fix it.
Once again, I have NO clue, I'm just making things up as I go, and this is probably far from what Alienware reasons.

 

Naive? How so? You either don't know what you're talking about or you've never been successful in pressuring a company to be flexible for you. People on this forum can confirm that dealing with companies in this manner when things aren't going in your direction is at least worth a shot, if not sometimes successful.

 

Armando,

Thank you for offering to help, I started my post before you replied offering to help. I was distracted by my 2.5 year old before I hit "Submit Reply" and when I returned back to my computer and sumitted my reply, you and several other people had already replied.

 

@Livre: I love the, "His girlfriend leaves him for Guy A" part of the scenario... priceless!

I'm not really aware of another US company that doesn't allow the warranty to follow the product, regrdless of change-of-ownership. Would that mean that if I bought an AW computer under my name and then gave it to my son as a gift, and then something happened, and he called for support, they wouldn't honor the warranty because it'd been "transfered"?

'Course, my son's 4, so all he'd do is scream, "FIX IT! JUST FIX IT!" into the phone, anyway.

 

Why do you need an explanation? It is their policy, if you don't like the policy don't buy from them.

People complaining about buying new and not getting a functioning product has a complaint. If they complain about the any policy after the fact how is that legit, cause they did not have to buy it.

 

Oh, yeah - I can vouch for how often and completly a 2.5 year-old can distract one from just about anything!

 

Livre... if the laptop is defective and covered by warranty... it doesn't matter if you are guy A B C or W.
Nirvana gave the only obvious and inteligent answer... Save some pennies.

 

Kriznel... The fact something is a "law" doesn't make it right. AW has to change their policies fast. 15% Restocking fee on damaged products? RIght... they should pay us to compensate us.
Warranty not being transferable? Right... No way.

Well, by your very inteligent reasoning, everyone knows the M15x has problems and the GPU might even cause a fire... But as we knew this was a possibility, then let's not complain or say anything.

If you have your voice, if you are inteligent, if you can see things are wrong... then use your voice for changing. Don't just sit there like the rest of the world saying... "I've got to do what I was told.".

 

So, how do those two square up?

 

Maybe you should have bought him a Macbook Air instead? *chuckle*

When I purchased mine, my father was the buyer but I was listed as the owner. And I think the warranty thing is in place because like Nirvana said, Alienware would rather save a few pennies than have to deal with someone selling someone else a busted computer.

But like I said in my original post, I have no bloody clue, I'm just throwing ideas about. I think it's a policy they could do away with quite fast.

Being a psych student, I was reading an article about a woman whose son was diagnosed with depression. The company she worked for gave her rate of pay, and told her to take as much time as needed for him to become well again. What happened? The woman could devote all her time to her son, and he recoved. The company gained a very loyal employee who now works extremely hard at her job and never plans to leave.

That's a bit of a segway, but the point is if a company is kind and treats either an employee or customer well, they'll often recieve strong loyalty in return. And right now it seems Alienware is failing to do that.

 

Don't try and insult me, I am not insulting you.

But I can take it one step farther, I see problems or policies I don't like and I just don't buy it.

 

Well, I was speaking purely hypothetically. I wouldn't and didn't buy it for him (nor do I endorse spending such money to buy high-end computer products for children - 8 year-old Australians or not...)

I just find it unbelievable that the Warranty follows the purchaser and not the product...

 

Oh, I know you were joking, I just felt it had to be said.

And I have no clue why it follows the purchaser, it's a bad idea.

 

I'm really sorry... I had no intention to insult you and I hope I didn't. I was just trying to reason that I see your statement as not being very reasonable. That's all... Sorry if you felt insulted.

To end... as Friar says, I really don't see why does the warranty has to do with the owner and not the product the warranty is aimed at. Is it even legal?

 

Oh, I wasn't insulted at all. And like I said, I disagree completely with the policy, but I was trying to see from their point of view WHY would have something that ridiculous, and that's really all I could come up with. Like I said, it doesn't make much sense, but it's really I could see from their point of view as to why it would follow the purchaser.

The warranty should be on the machine itself, and further, it should spit out candy every twenty minutes! Or would that just make the 8800 overheat?

 

Don't worry, we are arguing on the internet...we both lose.

I don't agree with their policy either, the warranty and restocking fee that is. I do know what it is and I have the option to buy it or not is all I was saying. Buying expensive products should not feel like your gambling.

 

Yeah, it really doesn't seem like it should be legal. It's a product/service that was paid for, and it doesn't seem like they can just take it back simply because the person who paid for it is different than the person who currently owns the product. If either party damaged the product through negligence or abuse, the damage wouldn't be covered by warranty anyway. But if the product becomes defective within the time-frame of the originally purchased warranty, it would seem that they would be contractually bound to honor it.

 

The non-transferable warranty is not a new concept. New Dodge/Chrysler products come with unlimited mile powertrain warranty, that is, until the original owner sells the car... The warranty sticks with the owner, not the car, even though over 88% of Chrysler vehicles sold are eligible. This is on a $20K+ vehicle, not a $2-5K laptop so get over yourselves.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEIR NON-TRANSFERABLE POLICY, DON'T BUY ONE SECOND HAND!

So many people cry about what is CLEARLY stated on their website. Read BEFORE you buy.

 

You should at least be able to buy a warranty if you buy one 2nd hand.

 

OK, reason for non-transferable warranty = save a couple of bucks: understandable.
Not giving 2nd/3rd/4th owner access to BIOS and driver updates: does not make any sense since it doesn't cost them anything. The time and effort (cost) has already been put into the development and obviously it is needed, otherwise they would not have been developed.

Once again, thank you Armando for taking the time to read my post and offer to help, I apologize if I came off sounding ungratefull. As I stated in the 3 emails I exchanged with Alienware, I don't want or expect any kind of warranty or even technical support, all I wanted was access to BIOS updates for their product (I guess unlike other vendors including Dell who make these available on their website for everyone, AW considers these as technical support?).
I hope you don't get in trouble for going against what appears to be AW corporate policy of zero support for 2nd owners. It is sad to see AW support people realizing the importance of customer service and offering to help via forums but not officially through there customer service system.

After years of admiring their systems, I am very disappointed in their customer support.

 

Why is providing a BIOS update a warranty issue? It makes no sence to me regardless of warranty following the primary buyer or not. It costs nothing to provide drivers and BIOS updates to both new customers as well as second hand customers. Granted if the secondary owner screwed up the laptop with the BIOS update, they're SoL, but at the very least PROVIDE the option to do so.

Every manufacturer I know of with exception of Alienware provides all drivers and updates online free of charge. They don't care if you're the first, second, or 80th owner of their particular product, the information is there and is available to all who own the product.

If someone uses the product, all updates should be available. Period. There's no excuse for it.

Also somewhat related.. if it weren't for websites like Laptopvideo2go, I would NEVER purchase a gaming laptop. The rate at which Alienware provides official drivers is ridiculous, but unfortunately is not outside the norm.