On the verge, here's my Setup: Sager 5793

17" 1680x1050
Intel C2D T9300 2.5ghz
8800GTX
2 GIG RAM DDR667
Orange Frame
Combo DVD R/W+- / DVD RAM 24x
160GB 7200RPM (Serial ATA II 300 8mb Cache)
Wireless Intel 4965
Standard Sound Blaster Compatible Audio
Li-ion Battery 8 Cell
Standard Dead Pixel
Standard 1 year Warranty
No OS (Have my own XP Pro Disks)

Price: $2295 + Tax + Shipping

What does everyone think? Any components worth swapping out? I'm also leaning towards using XoticPC as a reseller.

 

go ofr 1900 x 1200 res thats about it, nice setup otherwise.

 

Hmm....I picked the lower resolution since games always seem to look better in their native resolution, and being that, it should be easier to get better performance with 16x10, rather than 19x12.

Should be able to get better performance, no?

 

^totally agree ArmageddonAsh!

 

im not thinking from a gaming point, im thinking from like the mains creen and how icons will be smaller, im blind as a bat so i would need them to as big as possible. not too sure about you though

if you get 19 x 12 then you can select a lower res while gaming and have a higher res for othr tasks.

 

I think the 8800M GTX is quite capable of smooth-performing games at WUXGA, save for Crysis.

 

yes it is very comfortable with games like UT3
but if the lower res saves that much money and of course you dont get such tiny text and icons
(yes I know you can change them in setup) but remember its not some huge screen its a 17" one so the lower res wont hurt.

great config otherwise should be fun to play.............well done and good luck

 

BOFH1971, I recently canceled Alienware too, 3 weeks ago, and they are giving me a major hassle about restocking, which is around $450! Once that gets resolved, I'll surely be ordering a Sager. Is this the same model as your Clevo M570ru?? We have very similar specs.

I wish I knew about them long ago, I would have ordered from them. I like the orange look as well.

 

i go with WUXGA myself... other than that the spec looks spot on!

 

what country are you in dozerking, restocking fees for the UK one are illegal, and should be challenged,
and they certainly cannot charge a restocking fee for something they havent even delivered

if you sent it back faulty, you are entitled to a full refund. threaten them with the lawyers

 

Unfortunately, I'm in the States where Corps can pretty much do what they want. My original m9750 they sent to me had problems with the video cards, they were acting up big time, so I returned it and told them I didn't want to do business with them. They made me order another laptop of equal value or they threatened a restocking fee of $400+, which is ridiculous, so I went ahead and ordered it, then canceled it before they started building it. All was good until I got a phone call the other day from their CS giving me hell. Unbelievable. I'm definitely gonna fight it, but I want to get that resolved in the meantime before I order from Sager.

So right now, I have no lappy but I still have my gaming rig

 

"Unfortunately, I'm in the States where Corps can pretty much do what they want." Really? Ummm, not to throw too much water on a lovely little pity-party, but did you read the contract you agreed to when you made the original purchase?

 

I've never had a company withhold 15% of the sale price for faulty hardware sent to the customer. That's BS. Second of all, it's buried in the fine print, an easy indicator that the company doesn't want you to find. What I did read was "100% satisfaction guaranteed" when I was checking out, only to realize that "100%" has nothing to do with an arbitrary stocking fee. As far as I'm concerned, if a customer has received faulty equipment or is unhappy with their merchandise, they shouldn't be penalized. As a business owner myself, I would never treat my customers that way. It's all about building a reputation, something I'm now learning about Alienware, not only from my experience, but many others.

It's also illegal in other countries for a reason.

 

agree with you dozer king that is total bs however you could still probably threatrn them with the lawers and have them back down

 

Dozer, I actually plan on making a similar purchase.

Granted I'm going to go with the 4 gig deal and a 250gb/5400RPM hd instead. Ive to just make a call or two then I'll be making my order.

Now let's pray that it survives going half-way across the world into a warzone.

 

If you paid by credit card then file a complaint with the card issuer and ask for a charge back. Explain the details including the restocking fee and see what happens. It may take awhile to go through the process but it may save you the 15% fee.

I have had charges credited back to me when I have gotten a bad computer and the seller was unwilling to fix the problem.

 

Check the "goods fit for purpose" clauses in your retail laws.
also they send you a faulty machine, which you return using the correct channels.

they then say that you must order another machine from them or lose 15%.

erm........Blackmail/Racketeering anyone?

not only that but then they make you wait an unacceptable amount of time for your replacement machine, which by all accounts still has issues with the graphics card....

Any lawyer would tear their contract to shreds in court.

 

Look, I'm not disagreeing with you that the stocking fee "sucks" and that it's a rotten policy for _Dell to have - just another one of the myriad reasons why I don't like _Dell (or the other big brand names); however, that does not justify any of your statements - corporations don't "do" things, people "do" things, and enforcing the terms of an agreement that was fairly bargained is not lawlessness - as you clearly imply - it's the essence of lawfulness.

Whether the particular term is "buried in the fine print" or not is irrelevant - it's there, it's part of the agreement you voluntarily signed up to, and you have no-one to blame but yourself if you failed to read and appreciate all of the terms of the agreement you were accepting before you signed it.

Yes, a policy like this "sucks" and, as you point out, a business (such as your own business) that cared about customer service and customer goodwill would at the very least be willing to work with you. Obviously, that's not the sort of company _Dell is - probably in large part because they make profits on a thin margin applied to very high volume, not repeat business from individuals buying for their personal use. I've been told that _Dell's business support is much, much better than their consumer support.

Ultimately, you voluntarily agreed to the provision _Dell is enforcing, and even though the consequences of your voluntary action stink, you have an obligation to bear them.

The fact that restocking fees are illegal in Europe is neither here nor there - if the French all decided to go drown themselves in the English Channel, would you follow? Frequently, the folks who make things like restocking fees illegal do so because they thoroughly miscomprehend economics and pricing, and think that by waving the magic wand of legislation they can make it disappear and give everyone a free lunch.

Well, guess what, there's no such thing as a free lunch. There are any number of postings on this forum from Europeans bemoaning the fact that an identical hardware setup is generally significantly more expensive in Europe than in the US (which is why a lot of them want to buy from US resellers, if they can only figure a way around the VAT - value-added tax). One of the reasons (amongst many) that the same computer costs a lot more in Europe than in the US is that restocking fees are illegal there - there is a cost associated with taking back returned hardware, and a company is going to do its best to transfer that cost to the market (no, that's not another nefarious misdeed, it's how basic economics works - it's what makes eBay work). That cost-shifting can basically be done two ways - (1) shift it to the individual returning the system via a restocking fee, or (2) shift it to your entire customer base by increasing the price of every computer sold to take the estimated restocking costs into account.

So, which would you prefer - a less than 100% risk of a restocking fee, or a guaranteed 100% certainty of higher prices?

Finally, have you actually read, carefully, all of the terms of your purchase agreement and your warranty to see if the restocking fee is, in fact, called for in your situation - which encompasses the first system that they actually did assemble and send out to you (that's what the fee is being charged for). Also, check with your local warranty and return laws, even in the US there are, from time to time, local legislatures that would actually follow the French over a cliff - so you may have more rights to deflect that fee depending on where you live.

 

Get real. Enforcing all of the terms of a voluntarily bargained for agreement is not blackmail, or racketeering, or anything else nefarious - it's the essence of personal liberty. I'd like to meet that lawyer, by the way, 'cause I don't think s/he exists.

 

1. Good config for tat budget!
2. You are gonna hate yourself for not ordering the 1920x1200, this display is a topper: an absolute must
3. Consider to take the 200GB 7200 rpm drive, check if you can get the Hitachi 7k200, its one of the fastest around with 16MB cache

 

@Shyster1

what? really? so in the contract of sale it says that you will either
A: Accept a faulty product
B: Pay a restocking fee
or C: Order another item to avoid the restocking fee.

at the end of the day , the laptop was faulty , not fit for purpose
Sale of goods act in the UK takes care of that one, you telling me in the US you have to suck it and see?

I would like to see that sale agreement enforced in this situation.
The buyer has been badly treated.

I reckon AW would back down in this case.

 

Who's asking for a goddamn free lunch? I'm asking for the product in the fashion it was advertised as, otherwise I want my funds back. if anything, corporations are the ones getting a free lunch. This "consumer is always evil" attitude is exactly what's wrong with the current corporate climate. Being in business for so many years, I've met plenty of types like yourself.

Even after reading the agreement (separate from ordering might I add, and if you place the order by phone, you're never aware of it, only told to go to Alienware's website after you make your purchase) it says:

"a fifteen percent (15%) restocking fee may be deducted from your refund or credit"

This gives way for any rational being to assume a faulty or unsatisfactory product would not be penalized. I guarantee if you were to call Alienware, the sales team will specify that you won't have to worry about that. After all, read it, it clearly states "May". This is obliviously not a black and white case, especially in this situation. Alienware worded the agreement in such a way not to scare off customers, but still leave the door open "in case". It also makes no mention that a customer will have to order something else of equal or greater value if they are unsatisfied, leading one to believe that the Alienware CS rep was acting on his own behalf, in my case.

Some points I agree with, but in the big picture, you're still not convincing. Sending customers faulty hardware...hmmm..I don't see the justification in charging 15% of the sale price. For your information, that policy is across the board for all sales. You're damn right Alienware/Dell is taking a hit for sending me faulty/unsatisfactory hardware. That's not for the consumer to bear. It's the corporations responsibility, at least it should be, to offer the exact service and or product a consumer pays for. Period. I frankly don't care what your world view is or how much of a market economy vs. a command economy is better suited for humankind, nor do I care about what the French do in a ridiculous scenario you so pointed out.

Right now, I as a consumer am paying for having no product in hand after being given an unsatisfactory product that had to be returned, yet I'm still paying said corporation in excess of $400 USD. This has everything to do with ethics, not economics. VAT vs. No VAT is either here nor there, the bottom line principle is for corporations to act in a responsible way, hence the purpose of "REGULATIONS". Corporations are amoral, they will do whatever necessary in order to feed themselves most of the time, unless told by mandate otherwise. If you want to go back to the 1920's of zero regulation, have at it. You've obviously convinced yourself of a better time for humanity, bordering on insanity in my opinion.

This charge is arbitrary and unsubstantiated. To add, I would rather pay a higher price in order to guarantee a hassle free transaction, which I thought I was doing in the first place by ordering an Alienware over say an HP or Toshiba. Money isn't the issue for me, thankfully, but that's not the case for many others. One more thing, you act as if the consumer is pulling a fast one, when in fact I've paid for shipping the product BOTH ways. I would further argue that it's not my responsibility to pay for the shipping costs of the product being returned.

 

Gotta love the attitude towards Europeans as well. As an American, this is the typical "Europe is nothing but lousy socialists", I see it everywhere, Corporations first, Consumer second.

 

Look, we can call each other names 'til we're both blue in the face, and it won't prove a thing. Let's put our money where our mouths are (figuratively speaking) - you post verbatim the complete text (including all of the fine print you find so nefarious) of your purchase agreement and your warranty, and then we can see where that takes us. If those agreements can be fairly interpreted to require that you pay a restocking fee under the circumstances you described, that should be readily apparent.

If not, then I may be able to show you precisely where the language gives you an out - I do, after all, have a smidge of experience reading things like this. Keep in mind, there are a lot of actual damages a person might suffer that are intentionally kept out of a warranty - not because of evil corporations but by the considered opinion of the legislators who passed the warranty legislation.

For example, suppose I buy a Sager NP5793 with a fingerprint scanner, counting on that scanner to protect my confidential business information in the event someone gets their hands on my laptop. Suppose further that, due to an undetected problem with the machine that laid down the pcb for that reader, that the reader doesn't work and, in fact, always gives a positive reading no matter who swipes their finger across it. Finally, posit that, while I'm in the loo at my local (non-national, non-corporatized) coffee-shop, the industrial spy whose been shadowing me tries a swipe on the reader, and lo and behold, has enough time to email all of my valuable information to his private, untraceable email address. Boom - I just suffered $1,000,000 in losses that were proximately caused by the defect and that would not have happened but for the defect. Guess what - I don't have a lick of coverage under my warranty for those losses and, in fact, because the spy didn't take the computer, or mess it up, I have no compensable damages under the warranty, and the most I can get is a replacement fingerprint reader - talk about cold comfort. So, it's a total myth that you're not supposed to lose a lick of money just 'cause you have a warranty and aren't at fault for anything.

In point of fact, if your own business involves selling goods for which you have warranty exposure, you should thank the gods that warranty liability is typically limited in that way; otherwise, one incident like the hypo above would ruin you.

Lastly - who said anything about socialism - that's your unfair, uncalled for, and irrational addition to my words - I spoke merely in terms of basic, fundamental economics. As Hugo Chavez is very painfully proving in Venezuela, fundamental economics - the sort that undergirds free markets - will always trump ideology, of whatever stripe; every ism, from fascism to soviet communism, has learned that lesson to its lasting dismay.

If the Europeans have chosen, as a society, to spread costs like restocking costs across all customers instead of leaving those costs to be borne by the particular parties involved, and to limit the ability of any one individual to decide whether or not they want to take the risk of having to bear that additional cost by her- or him-self, that's their business; however, no-one should go around pretending that doing so makes them virtuous, it doesn't.

So, let's stop slinging fantasies around at each other and get down to brass tacks - post the complete, verbatim text of your purchase agreement and your warranty (including all of the fine print) and let's see how that language stands up to the facts of your situation. Otherwise, I will assume that this part of the thread is finished before it gets any more off-topic.

 

Here's the paragraph that's related to returns. The sentence I pointed out in the previous response was the only one relevant to this particular situation.

http://www.alienware.com/sub_pages/warranty.aspx

This needs to be read and understood by everyone considering purchase from Alienware. I didn't read this until after I had placed my original order, nor was I given this information upon checkout, as this is part of the Warranty program, something that only applies to people that are already Alienware customers.

" 30-Day Limited Money Back Guarantee

We take pride in the quality of the products that we sell and, as a direct result, offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all Alienware hardware, accessories, peripherals and unopened software still in its/their original sealed packaging. Shipping and handling fees are not refundable. Also, a fifteen percent (15%) restocking fee may be deducted from your refund or credit. To return merchandise, you must obtain a Return Materials Authorization number. Please call the Alienware customer service department and provide them with the invoice number, item description, and serial number(s) of the merchandise you wish to return. You must ship the merchandise within five (5) days of receiving your RMA number. Moreover, you must also return the merchandise to Alienware in its/their original packaging, in as-new condition along with any media, documentation, and all other items that were included in the original shipment, prepay shipping charges, and insure the shipment or accept the risk of loss or damage during shipment."

Here's the standard Terms and Conditions:

http://www.alienware.com/Profile_Pages/Customer_Terms.aspx

"Return Policy. You may return Alienware-branded products purchased directly from Alienware in accordance with Alienware’s Return Policy, which may be viewed at the following URL: http://www.alienware.com/sub_pages/warranty.aspx. Please keep in mind that, among other things, you: (a) must contact us directly before you attempt to return the product; (b) must return the product to us in its original or equivalent packaging; and (c) are responsible for risk of loss and shipping and handling fees for returning or exchanging product. Additional fees may apply. If you fail to follow the return or exchange instructions and policies provided by Alienware, Alienware is not responsible whatsoever for Product that is lost, damaged, modified or otherwise processed for disposal or resale."

My issue isn't that I disagree with the terms, it's the judgment of a mid level manager using this as a mandate to charge me for faulty/unsatisfactory hardware.

Thanks for at least caring, I do appreciate it Shyster.


-Doz

 

well at least we all calmed down on here a bit

just a quick note that No contract of sale is allowed to detract from your Statutory Rights.

also restocking fees are a joke., and the fact that AW make you pay your own shipping is also a joke, and should they end up in court on a faulty goods case they would end up paying it back.

I can't help but think alienware are getting lots of bad publicity at the moment, considering their glorious history.
Are they taking any notice?

AW need to get some serious support from their now parent company Dell and sort their supply problems, there is a small poll on the aw thread , I think 50% of customers have cancelled orders..........whoops!

plus I have to laugh because I was accused of being impatient after waiting a Month before cancelling (having in mind I was told it would be at least another month before they even built it!)

anyway good luck getting your money back doz, you dont deserve to be penalised for their incompetence.