Here's a horror story for all those thinking of buying an Alienware PC. It's abit long but there's a moral and advice at the end.
I ordered my Alienware PC from their website around the 3rd Augustfor a princely some of £3483 (nearly $7000). I received a confirmation saying I would be contacted within 24 hours by phone. A week later I got an email asking me to phone Alienware. So I did and confirmed payment details. They made a mess of the payment saying my credit card was dodgy which it wasn't. I re submitted my details and it worked. However Alienware didn't submit the security number to my bank so payment was refused again and I had to contact my bank to get them to pay. It was now two weeks since I pressed the proceed to checkout button on the website.
The PC was due around the 5th September. However, due to extreme incompetence on Alienware's part it was late going into production. The date got closer and I started to phone them daily to get a delivery date. Everyday I got the same answer 'It should despatch in 2 or 3 days'. The 10th september came and still the same daily answer. Finally I got the 'It's been despatched and will be with you the next day' this being around the 16th.
Finally it arrived and here I was my top rig ready to play Bioshock until my eyes fell out. However, this was when the fun really started. I unpacked the rather cool looking box set up my monster rig and started it up. So far so good. The AlienFX lighting (the lights on the case) was set to red so I thought I fancy something a little more relaxing and set it to a minty green. Not a prayer. It wouldn't work because the software couldn't communicate with the lighting card. So I installed the latest drivers and it seem to work.
Day 2: I start up my PC and guess what - the lighting didn't come on. I phoned tech support who basically told me to take the card out and refit it. Not being a technician I declined. I stuck with the intermitant lighting for another week or so.
A week or so later: I start my PC and the power supply comes on but no actual boot. Oh dear this must be a motherboard problem. So I arranged to send the totally useless but expensive system back to Alienware (after they'd tried to get me to take it apart and re build it.). I was assured I'd have it back within a week.
Three weeks later: I still haven't got it back and I've been informed they can't find anything wrong with it and it works perfectly well so they're shipping it monday having done absolutely nothing to it. I told them if there is the slightest problem when I get it back I want a full refund and they can shove their PC.
Those who're still here the moral and my advice is this:
1- Clearly the so called legendary customer service they advertise on their website is utter nonesense. The staff are utterly un helpful, they don't know what they're talking about and have a set of prepared answers. You can't actually get through to the technician who's supposedly repairing your PC.
2- All the stuff about the PC being thoroughly tested is utter nonesense. Mine obviously wasn't.
The moral is do not under any circumstances buy a machine from these people. They are expensive and the service you receive is absolutely the worst I've ever encountered from a company. Once they have your money they have no interest in the customer. If this story has put anyone off buying from these idiots then good. If you're still thinking of wasting time and money with these morons then perhaps you should go and work for them. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER. DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE EVER.
BE WARNED
I cannot stress enough how useless this company is.
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