Which gaming laptop brand offers the best customer service?

I figure this is relative - some will have good experiences, some will have sucky ones from talking to someone incompetent/a jerk on the other line. I figure I'd post this in the gaming section since I strictly want to know gaming laptop brands, before I post a topic in the "which one should I buy?" forum and choose a laptop I want.

Apparently Asus/Dell/Toshiba aren't that great, though I've heard some people say Dell and Sony are good. Like I said, I know it's relative, different people will say different things, so this might be a "lesser of the two evils" type of thing. For instance, Asus got way more negative votes then positive in a poll in a topic in this forum, which is sad because the G53/73 was one of my top choices - I guess having a 2 year warranty isn't that great after all. Sager seems like the only one (out of the choices I've thought of so far anyways) with decent service, at least from the resellers.

So yeah, I'd like to hear about people's experiences, or their friend/family's experiences, or just stuff you've heard or know. I think customer service is going to be very important in choosing my new laptop, considering I want to be covered this time unlike the other times I've gotten computers and they just break on me..

 

I have to say that Dell's warranty on their Alienwares is probably the best. Sure I have had my problems, but who doesn't. NBD in home repairs replacements if it cannot be fixed, or the last step is a DEPOT repair. I have had Dell, HP, and Asus laptops before, and by far the best warranty I have had between the three was Dell's. If they don't make your laptop anymore they will automatically upgrade you to the newer model with similar or upgraded specs. That has happened to me before and if they still make your model and it needs a replacement it will get the similar or upgraded spec deal as well. Just watch the in home techs carefully as they can break things, but Dell will always side with you and send the parts that where broken or replace your computer.

 

I vote for any company that offers On-Site warranty service (with some it requires paying an upgrade fee).

 

I have a question about on-site - I live in a kind of rural town, will they really drive all the way here just to repair my computer? From what I understand, that's what on-site means, where as depot is sending it in for repairs. As for warranties, is it better to buy the warranty from the brand's company site, or does it really matter? All I know is apparently Wal-Mart and Best Buy are poor at customer service/tech support from what I've read, and with Sager you want to buy their laptops from a reseller.

 

Another vote for Dellienware. So far I've had them out twice to replace my dvd drive and both times it's been on-site within 24 hours. I'm quite happy with my service so far and would recommend it to anyone.

I've also had horrid experience with normal Dell technical services with regards to my old M1530.

 

#1 HP, Dell or Lenovo business class support on their business laptops. ( 0 problems with all 3 in the last 9 years )

Then I would guess Alienware with their onsite guys/gals who get stuff right on occasion. ( had an M17xr2 trashed by the sub contractor for onsite 3 times, which isnt exactly their fault, and lots of phone calls)

ASUS seems to be good normally but like all has issues. ( a family member got 6 ASUS units for her business with no issue, but I have also heard they can be a pain )

Sony, Dell consumer side and Toshiba have been my nemisis for the last 11 years. ( I can give you a 40,000 word book on these 3 )

Apple is ....average IMO, a bit better than many of the consumer side stuff, but worse than high end and pro stuff

 

Any business laptop with a business oriented warranty is the best. Next would be dell warranties you pay extra for. After that it drops off a cliff.

The next best thing is to buy from a very good reseller. We have quite a few in this community for Asus, Clevo, Sager, MSI. These guys will bend over backwards to make sure you're happy.

 

Asus is best. Picked up my laptop from my house, fixed it, deliver it back to my door.

Lenovo should be good, 0 problems with my lenevo laptops tou..

Toshiba is not good. I'm called they about 6 months ago, they have still not returned to me...

 

I have to admit, Dell's XPS(back when it was their top line) and Alienware customer service is quite good.

 

Big vote for Dell. Had a Studio XPS 16 before and the warranty services were superb. NBD on-site fixed basically everything. When my BIOS bricked twice I was given a free i7 system from my old C2D system, and when the ATi 4670 died I was given a free ATi 5730 system instead. That's 1 reason why I am owning an Alienware now and staying away from other brands (just had a pretty bad experience with HP).

 

I've had nothing but terrible experiences with Dell. I've had two laptops from them, and I paid for on-site service warranty with both of them. Out of all of the many failures of those laptops (at least 20 separate incidents), they only ever sent out a technician to honor my warranty on three occasions. Every other time besides that, I had to send my laptop in to their repair depot, losing it for weeks at a time, and on several occasions it came back with new scratches and physical damage. In both cases, the laptops died permanently within a few months after the warranty expired. And every time I had to get support, it was a painful experience of talking to thickly-accented Indians over the phone and getting transferred from department to department for half an hour.

I've heard their business-class support is much better, but that would have cost almost half as much as my laptop itself to add. Having a higher tier of support is no excuse to give sh*t-tier "support" to everyone else who doesn't shell out hundreds of extra dollars on a product that already costs several hundred.

 

?? it shouldnt be, admittedly I havnt bought Dell business class warrantys in awhile but last time it was under $350 for a 3 year NBD on a $4k workstation laptop.

my HP in sig was $385 for a 4 year NBD with accidental so I cant see the price being half as much or close.

 

It was an $800 laptop, not a $4,000 workstation.

 

dells complete care is probably as good as they get

 

I can not say what is best but ASUS is really bad, I have read horror story after horror story about various ASUS gaming models, One dude is ready to do a fifth rma for a video issue. People who can do their own tear downs are also smart enough not to send their machines in for repairs. Turn around time can really be lengthy, machines come back with new issues or scratches or missing upgrade parts. Phone support is pathetic, seems totally scripted. Only the support of the people in the ASUS forums here have kept me from dumping mine, which had at least 5 issues out of box that were eventually fixed with software/firmware/VBIOS updates.

 

Still wanting an answer to my newbish questions, haha. Though rschauby basically answered the second one.

Thank you for letting me know a little bit more about resellers. I think I'll just have to research them a bit. I think from here I'll just make a topic on which one I should get and hopefully before next month I'll settle on a choice.

Thanks to everyone for your input. Seems like Dell is the best, just from seeing the multiple good reviews compared to bad, though I'd hate for my laptop to die after the warranty were to expire...

 

I'm vouching for any reseller amongst the Sager/Clevo laptop models, partly because maybe 99% of them know the innards of their laptops, have good technical knowledge, and seemingly leading you to a better deal if your needs aren't what you think they are. Most of Sager/Clevo resellers have a direct line to support instead of a 10 minute hell-of-a-maze pressing the buttons to get through customer service e.g. Dellienware, HP & ASUS. The support staff are usually the actual staff within the company themselves i.e. he could be answering your questions, then fixing your PC later on as well, instead of having a separate technician going by.

Many of these staff are polite, patient people. One such person actually emailed me during his visit to the bank processing my funds (LPC-Digital) , and another directly confirming my order through a phone call (XoticPC and Logical Blue One). No matter how many questions I asked, none of them falter.

 

For On-Site, I know companies liek Toshiba require you to live within a certain distance from a major city (for Toshiba it's 75 miles).


Regarding resellers, if you need a big box reseller, Costco will have your back. They have carried: ASUS G73, Alienwares, HP ENVY, and Toshiba Qosmios.

They offer 2nd year depot warranty for free, and if the product goes bellyup, they will replace it for a current model up to the purchase price.

How do I know? Bought a 50" SONY LCD TV in 2005 @ $2500. It came down with blue blob syndrome in 2009; SONY said buy a new TV. Costco gave me a FREE 55" SONY Bravia 1080p TV about a year ago; I didn't even ask for it, they just offered to give me a new TV because mine was defective. I was so happy, I also ended up buying my Qosmio at Costco.


Good luck

 

+1 for Dell.

I bought my XPS last december with a UK plug for the AC. Since I move around Europe often I wanted to get the EU plug.
I called the customer service and I asked if they could switch my UK for the EU one, since anyway it was new, and they replied that it was not possible, unless I would pay 10 pounds for the extra plug.
After explain them my situation they understood and accepted my request. They sent it in one day at my house, without take back the UK one or charged me a penny.

 

Couple of year-old articles for ya, not too much has changed so they're still relevant.
Who Offers the Best Tech Support for Laptops?
Tech Support Rating: Apple, Dell, Lenovo Top List
Report: Asus Has 'Off the Charts' Reliability Score
Rescuecom PC Reliability: Apple, Asus, Lenovo

 

Asus is more of a hit and miss thing, you either get awesome service of you can have a terrible experience. My personal experience with Asus has been a blast, but as JOSEA mentioned, others had terrible ones.

 

Alienware hands down.

I've had AW, Asus and MSI gaming laptops before and this is my results:

- AW = 48hrs on-site/ in-home tech (m11x hinge)
- Asus = 6 weeks depot (g73jw-3de emitter & hard drive)
- MSI = 5 weeks depot (gx740 keyboard)
- HP = 1 week debot (dv6 pavillion GPU)

Alienware is light-years ahead of other gaming laptop manufacturers.

I've yet to have any issues with the Sager in my sig, but even so, my reseller would send me replacement parts by mail. I picked up the NP8130 b/c it's the best bang for buck out right now (refreshed version comes with a 560M for under 1200$).

 

So far I've had excellent customer service with HP.

My wife spilled some tea on her Envy 15 and fried the mobo. A tech came to our house within 24 hours, checked it out, said the mobo must be replaced and even provided a shipping box.

We shipped it out and within about 2 or 3 days we received it back with brand new mobo. Been working perfectly since then (more than one year ago).

Also had a similar speedy experience several years back when I dropped and broke my iPaq phone. They gave me a number for Mission Control to check on the status and I got it back within a few days.

However, recently it seems that HP is selling off its entire PC division, so who knows if that will negatively impact customer service, depending on who buys the division.

 

+1 for Dell, i bought a XPS L701x and i thought it had optimus but it didnt, so i sent a email to dell regarding this and they upgraded me to a brand new L702x with the specs below! And even threw in a backlit keyboard!

 

have to agree with most people here the dell/alienware support has been amazing for me no complaining when my graphics card when they just sent a guy round the next day and replaced it great service

Also my dad has had dell laptop and will not change from dell laptops now as he is so impressed with dell support think they gave him a free 9cell battery once even though it was not covered by the warranty.

 

Dell-Alienware eyes closed

 

I'm with Dell XPS and Alienware Onsite / Complete Care Warranties as well. Honestly no company that I know will let you own a device for 2-3 years and still offer you a replacement if an unfixable problem occurs. That's very impressive and very rare. It is on par with the best service you can get, if not the best. Currently, regardless of price, my next purchase is very very likely going to be an Alienware, just because the warranty service is top notch. Customer service can be hit-or-miss at times but overall it's also really good.

 

QFT, My friend got his M17x R2 repaired(on-site) without even shipping it back to Dell.

 

Ha, I got my M17x-R2 repaired(on-site) then broken(on-site) then two more techs sent without it being repaired(broken part on back order) then finally had to ship it back to depot to fix what the first tech broke. Currently waiting for them to fix and return it.

Despite the on-site techs, I still would go with dell/alienware.

 

Another vote for Dellianware. They fixed my broken GPU in 5 days (due to the weekend). Asus took 21 for the same type of repair.

 

Now, I NEVER thought I would EVER say this, but...

Alienware IMHO has the best Customer service. You just send them an email and they come to your house, unlike Acer (ULTRA KRAP) you have to send your laptop and it takes 3 weeks to get it back.

Best thing Alienware has is it's customer service.

 

Amen dude, this is exactly what I do. I email them, have a conversation with the support person. This way there is no misunderstanding between either of us and it doesn't matter to me if they are in india, america or the uk.

 

Ugh. Good to see everyone else apparently gets treated like royalty by Dell, while I got the short end of every stick with them.

 

It happens man. I've been treated great and screwed over by them. It really just depends on the person you get on the other end.

 

Same I have had my issues and I have had great experiences with their support, But I still am overall extremely happy with the level of service they have given me.

 

If you get the accident damage warranty on your dell. You will likely get a good services on it.

 

Another very interesting point for Dell/AW is that on these boards, I've read posters claim to have free replacement upgrades more than any other manufacturer through warranty claims.

For example, let's say a poster has an M11X-R2, and he's had 3~ service calls, Dell/AW will give him a brand new M11X-R3 (sometimes even upgrading the R3 from i5 to i7 + other goodies). I've even seen several M17X-R2 get upgraded to the M18X-R1 (w/duo high end GPU's),

With any other company (at least from my experience), the depots would have to lose your laptop in order for you to qualify for a replacement model unless it's very extreme cases where it's been sent to the depot several times. But even then, several times at the depot can account for several months of downtime.