- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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14 out of 15 people found this review helpful
1.5 stars
"Buyer Beware!"
Pros: Cool case design, powerful machine
Cons: Dishonest Customer/Tech Support Practices, Doubtful Product Longevity
Summary: My husband and I ordered two Area-51M 7700 laptops from Alienware.
We had no problems ordering the laptops, or receiving them. At one point one of the components went on back-order, but it did not delay shipping. We received our laptops and were very excited.
Laptop 1
Seemed fine, but it had a bright green pixel that won't go away. Now, I realize nothing's perfect, but it is a HUGE bummer to have to ship back a brand new laptop the next day to have it switched out. They promise a 200 point quality inspection, maybe they just missed this? Or maybe it happened during shipping. Luckily, the dead pixel is in the center square and they say they'll replace it. We were still giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Laptop 2
My husband was fortunate to have a perfect LCD screen, no dead pixels, and everything seemed to be working fine.
Then, two days after receiving the laptops he has a video issue: the screen goes haywire for a little bit, then returns to normal. It happened once that day. Now it occurs more frequently. It has caused his computer to crash numerous times. I know from experience (it happened to one of our other desktops) that it is a video card issue. It has already gotten worse, and will probably continue to get worse until the card eventually gives out altogether...
Tech Support
He called tech support to ask them to either send out an on-site technician or a replacement video card. They refused, and instead had him open his laptop up, remove the keyboard, unscrew things, etc. He did what they asked him to, being extremely careful. He was then asked to remove the heatsink from the video card processor. He replies that he doesn't have any heat sink goo, which is necessary to safely replace the heat sink after it has been removed. If he were to replace it without heat sink goo, eventually it could overheat and fry the video card, and possibly overheat and damage other parts of the laptop. And he has to tell tech support this! A less experienced customer would not know this and would end up damaging their laptop by following tech support instructions. The call ended with them promising to send him the heat sink goo within 4 days and that when he received it he should call them back for further instructions.
They should NEVER EVER ask a customer to open up their laptop. A desktop, maybe. In addition, asking the customer to do something that could cause damage to the computer is inexcusable! On top of that, this all occurred after they refused to honor their warranty by arranging an on-site technician. Their tech support practices are irresponsible, unprofessional and just down right unacceptable.
So the next day he called back to ask some questions about why they won't send out a technician. They actually tell him that they only send out a technician if they deem the caller to be technically inexperienced and incapable of carrying out the diagnostic/repair themselves. When asked what criteria they use, he was actually told that age and gender were the two main determining factors! (Hmm... nothing in their warranty says that only under-aged females can receive on-site technical support.)
**After asking some more questions about their warranty, out of the blue, the customer support representative tells him that it is illegal for him to record this phone conversation and that it is not permissible in a court of law!! Needless to say, my husband was not recording the call and had made no insinuation that he was. At that point, he became very, very concerned about the integrity of Alienware. And I share his concern.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Alienware is 0 for 2 on our laptops. Basically we ordered two $4000 fixer uppers.
We have decided to return our computers. We are not going to go any further with their tech support. The fact that their warranty borders on fraudulent because they refuse to send out an on-site technician put the nail in the coffin. I suspect that they will try to hassle us when we try to return our laptops. Hopefully this nightmare will end for us soon.
**There is nothing worse than the sick feeling you get in your stomach after having spent $8000 on defective products and not having your warranty honored.**
And to those in doubt, or who would defend Alienware by trying to besmirch my character as a reviewer, I will say the following:
-We at no point in time yelled or were discourteous to the numerous tech support reps we talked to.
-We are both highly experienced with both software and hardware and have built our own desktop PCs many times in the past. We both work in the tech industry, I am a web developer and my husband is a software engineer who built desktop machines for a computer company when he was in college. We are high-end users who purchased what are advertised as being high-end machines. We did NOT accidentally or purposely ruin the machines ourselves.
-We are not complainers/whiners, nor are we out to get Alienware. In my lifetime I have only ever posted one or two bad product reviews. On the other hand, I have posted many positive reviews of excellent products that have been worth the money. Unfortunately this isn't one of them.
-We have had experience with many companies including Dell (laptop) and Apple (desktop) and have never come across dishonest or unsafe policies such as those practiced by Alienware.
-We are not giving up too easily. They promised something, and they did not deliver. If they have no intention of following through on their warranty, they should not make the promise in the first place. It?s called false advertising.
-Can some of these problems be resolved with a big investment of time and effort? Possibly, but the question should be? Should a customer who just spent thousands of dollars have to spend hours trying to convince tech support to honor their warranty? The short answer is NO.
-There comes a point when bad reviews are no longer just a minority and should be ignored or at most taken with a grain of salt. Since having these problems, I have done research and found that NUMEROUS other customers have had the same issues, while others staunchly support the company.
-I suspect that those satisfied Alienware customers are those who were lucky enough to receive a laptop that worked. I see the potential for these to be powerful computers... unfortunately they also have a higher than average potential to be lemons. A $4000 laptop purchase should NOT be a game of Russian roulette. If you go ahead and decide to buy a laptop from them, do NOT say that you were not warned.
BUYER BEWARE!
- 9 replies to this review
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I purchased an Area 51M-7700 from alienware back in March of 2006. I saved money to buy a "high end" system that would last me for a few years without upgrades. i was tickled pink when I finally got after a month of components being on back order. The machine ********* beautifully with no issues for about 10 months. I kept it (past tense) on a desk under a cooling fan, turned it off when I wasn't using it and regulary cleaned fan vents. One fine day in April of this year it crashed on me. The machine just went off with no blue screen or anything. I re-started and it worked for about 10 minutes and hasn't come back on since. I contacted support and since I was 1 month over the year warranty, technical support would not talk to me unless I paid them $39.00 an hour. I was outraged. They instead put me on with customer support who told me to pay to ship it in, pay for labor, pay for parts and pay to ship it back. I understand what a warranty is and I also understan the need to enforce it but this was getting riduculous. There was no "walking me through taking my laptop apart or anything just you SOL and you have to PAY. I knuckled up and bite the $4000 bullet. I took the machine to a local repair shop who diagnosed it as having a fried motherboard due to overheating. I was amazed. How could this be? I kept it cool and did all that I knew to protect my investment so I could get the longevity out of it. The repair shop quoted me around $700 to repair it. The 51M-7700 has a clevo D900T motherboard. After researching that particular board, many other users have experienced the same thing, mainly overheating issues. Alienware said I could not purchase the board through them, I'd have to go to a certified retailer. OK, fine. I gave up the fight for a few months as I was sent out of country for work. I have returned to pick up where I left off. I did more digging and found more 51M-7700 users experiencing the same thing. I have sent my story to a law firm with all my e-mails, order information, billing receipts, warranty information from Alienware and their customer support. Use that system instead of phone calls. That way you have all the documentation and they won't speculate that you are recording the conversation. It's also alot better than waiting 2 hours on hold only to have to ask a rep to repeat themselves 50 times a minute because you can't understand what they are saying. I stated to customer support in one of my e-mails that the 7700 may in fact been produced with bogus components and a product recall should be conducted. To which, I am still waiting for a reply. Customer service felt "sympathetic" and "valued me as a customer" so much so that they offered to pay for me to ship my machine to them and then to pay to ship it back to me when the repairs were complete but I would have to pick up parts and labor. I agree that no reputable company would ask that you take apart your laptop to diagnose the problem. Could imagine Sears telling you to take apart your refrigerator. If I am not mistaked, Sears will still send someone out to your home to fix a product purchased from them even if the warranty is up just keep you as a customer. Those day may be gone but it sure was great to know that companies stood by the product they made and sold. At least own up to the fact that you may have produced a "lemon"
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I ordered an alienware laptop which blew the motherboard three months ago. They replaced the motherboard with old parts, I think, becuase the bios battery was dead when I received it. They also sent it back with a damaged hard drive (worked when I sent it in). Now the battery port isn't working and they want me to send it back to them again. They have NEVER honored their onsite warrenty. The support folks have always been relatively polite and as helpful as peons are able to be, but I am now demanding a replacement or refund and I'm on my third level of management escallation. It doesn't look promising. I've been dead in the water for 3 months with this computer. Trust me, the issue isn't about how many people think Alienware sucks... The issue is that these people do not provide customer satisfaction. They design computers that push the hardware to the limits, which is fine, but they do not stand behind their warrenty which is unacceptable. Only buy a computer from Alienware if you have money and lots of time to waste...
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Maybe you should get a little smarter with buying computers. Did you make sure that your components matched for best performance? That's the usual problem with A/V components is that people just "get the best" without knowing if they're compatable. And just for kicks and giggles, lets say you did choose components that work together and your story is really true; if Alienware wouldn't honor your warranty, why didn't you take it to court. Did you ever think of that?
All in all Alienware systems are solid, fast, and work very well. As long as you know how to order a custom computer. -
I am having similar problems with an Area51-m7700 laptop. I've had it for about 8 months with more or less few problems. But one night the video started tearing and froze Now the machine won't boot reliably, and when is does boot, it freezes up some short time later.
I contacted Tech support and the technician actually had me remove the keyboard and disconnect the display cables and re-seat them among other invasive things. I am an electrical engineer and I work with electronics (exposed circuit cards and development software) on a daily basis, but a laptop isn't something I am prepared to do major surgery on at home. However, I did what the technician asked me to do and after three hours of pull that card and move that memory module, tech support decided that the problem was a bad video card.
Two weeks later I have not received the replacement part and I am not convinced that the video card is the problem.
Last week my wife called Alienware and eventually (2 hours later) badgered someone into sending the card. Thankfully, the card has shipped today (one week later). So next week I will be able to replace the card and demonstrate that it is not the problem and I can start the process of having the next likely component shipped out.
For those considering one of these systems I will say that DOOM3 looks really good on it and plays great. Hopefully, the machine will function long enough for you to finish the game.
Seriously, don't waste your money. You will really regret it in a few months after you get the system. -
Brought the Area 51 Laptop nearly a year ago. Received well except the USB ports were up-side down. The power supply burned out. It runs far too hot and often shuts down.
Its performance I would expect to be exceptional considering 3.8, extra Ram, etc etc but for $4,000 better of buying a Dell or one of the top line mass produced products.
Also this Area 51 is no more than a Clevo D9T Notebook thats been hacked, repainted, fancy cover placed on top and sold at a ridiculous price. Talk about being ripped off!
Well, just praying this one will last for awhile! -
Yes, I have the same machine and it was out of box failure. They had me open the machine first thing. Then had me do every troubleshooting step in the book for the next three weeks. Total crap, what was the 200point inspection all about. I'm sorry you got ripped off. You should report this to the attorney general in Florida. Enough people complain and maybe these greed mongers will start making quality and the costumer first.
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I switched from a Dell that broke 7 times in three years- all defective parts. Each time though they kept their promise of "fixed in 24 hours".
Having opened my Alienware laptop computer countless times to reseat the card (they wanted me to download diagnostic tools to figure out what I already knew) I realize you have to go with a company that stands by their warranty (even if you have to learn the service persons coffee tastes in the process!).
Alienware is officially the worst and most dishonest company I have ever worked with.
To all, do not even consider buying one of their computers! -
I had almost exactly the same experience you did with laptop #2.
I spent 4 months making phone calls to Alienware pleading for them to either fix my laptop or refund the money. I got no where.
In the end, I contacted the Better Business Bureau you convince them to refund my money. (Which they ended up keeping 10% for "restocking fee").
Big waste of time. Stay away from these crooks. -
I don't know why I feel like apologizing, but I do. I am so sorry to add you and your husband to the every growing population of 177,000. Go to Google.com and type in "Alienware sucks" and you will notice there are over 177,000 complaints against them. Please go to The Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. Here is the address:
The bureau that will handle your complaint is:
BBB Serving Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach Areas
2924 N Australian Ave.
West Palm Beach, FL 33407
Phone: (561)842-1918
Fax: (561)845-7234
Email: complaints@westpalm.bbb.org
WWW: http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org
When you finish here, please go one step further and go to FTC.gov and file the same complaint! I wish we could kick them out of the United States!!!!
thank you
L Carlock
