MOST HORRIBLE customer care experience EVER - not the first time!!

[Mavericke_m15x]

I ordered an m15x when they were first released and waited MONTHS before I got my machine only to find that they rushed the product out and most of the drivers were crap and caused lots of issues with Vista. A couple months later, my hinges break on the case... DAYS of trying to convince them that I wasn't lying and finally they asked for photos or videos and finally decided to work on the machine. They had my PC forever and finally got it fixed. Lots of argueing and fighting with these folks in India.

So a couple years later I find that AW is now owned by Dell and I think maybe the customer service is better so I purchased a new m17x-R2. First off, the salesman lied to me and said there was no difference in the 900p and 1200p screen except resolution and for $200 I declined because the screen is so small that it didn't bother me. The next day, I find that the 1200p is also an RGB screen with much vibrant colors. I tried calling to have it changed and they told me no because it had already begun production and that I'd have to wait until I got it and then return it. When I got it - I tried this and they wanted to charge me restocking fees and make me pay shipping for it EVEN though the mistake was on their end! Stupid freaking salesman!! So I sucked it up and kept the machine. By the time they took out their 15% and then I paid for the upgrade.... it wasn't worth it.

So, VERY upset about it all... I just kept it. After all, it was a brand new dream machine right? ...and yet within days of owning it I run into major BIOS and driver issues that took me HOURS to fix. HOURS of waiting on the phone with these people who PROMISE to fix it. Yet, EVERY single time the problem returns or there is ANOTHER problem. A few days after I purchase it, they offer a HUGE discount that would have saved me almost $500 on my machine so of course I called an ed. They denied a refund so I said I was returning the machine - only then did they offer me the reimbursement. It took HOURS fo argueing to get them to agree to this. Six weeks into owning it they finally tell me I need to reinstall Windows. I did the respawn thing as suggested and they walked me through all the BIOS and driver installs yet again... the problem returned. So THEN they want me to totally wipe the machine so I do. Then they refuse to send me a disc so that I can reinstall Alien Respawn. They said that once you blow out the system, then you just don't have it anymore. !? That was a feature I really liked and for the money I paid, I should have gotten it. So more argueing and they finally agreed to send it... only after being transfered 3 times to the "right guy".

So I reinstall everything and it runs fine for awhile. I even posted good comments on here. I wait for the respawn disc in the mail. Nothing. I check the website to try to track it... no record. I call them and they say there is no record of it. They then tell me they can't send them out anyways. Back to square one and tired of fighting so I let it go. I've got a great machine, right? Wrong!!!! The driver and BIOS issues hit me harder than ever now! BSOD ALL the time!! I call them and again they walk me through more updates and bla bla bla... 6 hrs on the phone after being transfered 4 times and it seems to be running ok. THEN, I notice that my screen is fading on the bottom left hand corner... omg! It's really bad during gaming... then it spreads all the way across the bottom of the screen! So of course, I call them and I get transfered 3 times and of course have to explain the entire story EVERY time and finally I get to speak with a very competent rep in Costa Rica name Leticia... she's awesome! She double checked my BIOS and made some correction and also ordered me a new screen. For all my hassle, she gave me the free upgrade on my monitor! Woohoo! FINALLY, I'm getting results and I get the screen I originally wanted - awesome!!

I get the screen a few days later and the tech comes out to swap the screen... of course they don't do it the easy way and just replace the entire lid - they make him actually remove the screen and tear the whole laptop apart. It took him over an hour and even though he did a good job, you could now tell that the machine have been pulled apart. Kind of like a car... once it's been pulled apart - it never goes together EXACTLY the same. But I deal with it. FINALLY computer is running well and I've got this amazing screen!! The tech turned it on and everything worked fine. I never restarted it...

The next day, I had an update and needed to restart it. That's when the problems got REAL bad. BSOD's constanty. As soon as it would load up - it crashed. EVERY time. After a dozen tries, I got in to safe mode and dropped the screen resolution and that seemed to fix the problem, I restared and was able to log on again and everything was fine. So I put the res back and it crashed again. EVERY time I tried accessing the resolution screen... BSOD. So I called them yet again. 4hrs this time on the phone updating drivers and BIOS and bla bla bla.... then they recomended I blow out the system yet again!!! So I do. Same problem. They run some tests and realize my HDDs are bad and they are sending me new ones. The promised that I would get brand new ones the next day. Three days later I recieved them and they were refurbished. I called AGAIN and they apologized and I was fed up with apologies and their attempts at repairing my machine - I demanded a new machine. The Customer Care rep agreed instantly and apologized. I was stunned at how easy it was to get a replacement system! He had to put me on hold several times and during the final confirmation we were disconnected. OMG!

He said if we got disconnected that he'd call me back in 10m. 15m later no call so I call back. I have to explain all my problems since day one to someone that can't help me so they transfer me to a specialist and I explain everything yet again... this person then asks if it's a Dell or AW. Then they say they can't help me so they transfer me again to an AW tech. During my transfer - I am cut off again. So I call back and again I have to grit my teeth and repeat it all again. They transfer me to customer care, who then (after I explain again) transfers me to tech support. Tech support then says I am NOT eligible for a replacement machine. Then I lost it. I blew up and told him that another rep was already in the process of doing so and that we got cut off. He repeated himself as if he wasn't listening to me and said again that I wasn't eligible. I demanded to speak to his superior. He put me on hold and then we convieniently got cut off. OMG!!!!

So I called back yet again... I started around 11:30am and by now it's almost 4pm. I have to explain myself to the first person so they can transfer me to the right dept of course and I get sent back to tech support where they again say I'm not eligible so I demnd to speak to customer care... they say it's a tech support problem and transfer me back... then they say it's a customer care problem and transfer me back yet again. Once I get on the phone with customer care, I tell them they better not transfer me and as soon as I said that I was disconnected. By this point my blood is boiling, but I am NOT giving up. So I called yet again and demaned to be transfered to customer carem but of course the person answering the phone won't do it without first knowing why... she keeps telling me to give her a chance and that she is trained to handle anything. So I very calmy explain everything and she is stuck in silence and depply apologizes and says she needs to transfer me. So she transfers me to freaking tech suport!!! OMG!!! I explain the problem yet again and then they transfer me to customer care.

FINALLY the guy says wow.. I see all the records on your file - you've been dealing with this for months. We'll get a replacement out to you in 8 days. I asked him what the specs were and he kept saying they would be the exact same or better... I then explained that I had an upgraded monitor and that I wanted to make sure it would be on the new system. He promised me that it would on there. TWO days later I get a phone call and they're telling me that that don't have the anoodize black case and that I'd have to accept silver! Omg... idiots. I declined and said I wanted black. He said they didn't offer it anymore so I directed him to check his own website and he said dell.com did not offer it so I called him a bad name and told him to look at the AW website where I BOUGHT my system!! Of course, he apologized and fixed the order saying that he didn't know why his system only showed lunar silver. Because of this, my order was never processed, but he promised it would be processed that day. So my 8 day promise has now turned to 10 days. Then, two days later he sent me another email with the build saying that it would be in my hands 8 days from THEN, so technically 12 days now... whatever, just fix the problem. I look at the build and guess what!? The idiots didn't get the 1200p screen in the build and they even downgraded me to Windows 7 Premium when I PAID for ultimate. So back on the phone. I'll save you the details of the numerous times of being transfered and sitting on hold, but it wasn't much different than before. Finally, they say that they are giving me a comparable operating system and that I would get Vista Ultimate, LOL!

So I blew up this trime... just fed up and yes, I resorted to name calling and if the person was in the same room with me - I'd have probably beat him up. Badly. I said I would not accept a machine with ANY downgrades. He then finally fixed the operating system and said he'd have to call me me back the next day about the monitor. Two days pass and nothing so I call them and go through all the hassle of waiting, explaining over and over and of course sitting on hold. Finally I speak to a rep and he says that the new machine will have my exact build. I made him email me the build specs while we were on the phone. They fixed the operating system but the monitor was still incorrect. So I explained once again that my screen was upgraded and that they were replacing my CURRENT system and therefor I should have the 1200p screen. He finally agreed and said he'd fix it, but that it would delay shipping because they'd have to cancel the other order and start fresh. I was pissed, but nothing I could do about it so I agreed. So now it's been over two weeks and the order is starting from scratch yet again.

Two days later I get a phone call and they say my order has just been processed and that I'd get my machine in 8 days, LOL! So now the final countdown begins! 16 days plus the next 8 days... not including weekends - it comes to almost 4 weeks now. I ask for a build sheet to be emailed just to be certain of the new machine... the SECOND machine. He sends it two days later... laptop should be here in 4 days now. Build looks good... oh wait, everything except the freaking MONITOR!!!! OMG!! Freaking morons! All of that trouble and they STILL flubbed up the order with the monitor and set me up with the 900p... omg more phone calls. My phone plan gives me 1200 daytime minutes a month and we only had 150 left. Usually, evenwith my fiance'.... we finish a month and still have 400-600 left and it had alreasy reset from the first two days of calls!!

So I called. I got transfered and cut off FIVE times and probably recited my problem over a dozen times. Same ol' same ol'. History repeats itself. I had to hang up a couple times and start over this time because some of the people were just flat being retarded. Finally, I got through to a guy named Alexander in Costa Rica. The kid seems to think he can fix the problem. He promises that it will be worked out. It's been three days since I spoke to him... I can still track the second machine and it still says it's in production and the screen still shows the 900p. I'm not sure what's going to happen. All I can do is wait.

I do know one thing though.... this is the worst customer service I have EVER had from ANY company in my LIFE. In fact, I have never even heard of anythign worse happening to anyone else. This is just flat out stupid! They sold me a POS lemon... tried fixing it and failed over and over... then tried replacing it with a downgraded system... then fixed only a fraction of the downgraded features... then flubbed that up too and had to resubmit the order and yet again flubbed up the order!!!! I have had this computer since November. I paid around $3500 for it and I have only been able to use it a fraction of the time. I have not been able to edit one single piece of video or audio. I have been able to play SWG for a couple hours here and there... and when it runs smoothly -its a dream, but the out of nowehere it crashes. At least before, I could use the PC in safe mode and patch it up to get me by... not anymore. I have a $3500 paperweight on my desk right now. They are working on their THIRD replacement system and I have heard nothing from them regarding it. I got one call from the rep on Friday (five days ago) and said he was working on it. And email on Monday saying he was waiting for approval... and nothing since. And of course, I have had to inquire everytime. No courtesy updates and again... that second system that has the wrong screen is still in production.

These people have no idea what they are doing and I will never buy another AW/Dell ever again. I cannot tell you what to do, but I CAN tel you what my experience is/was and I can also promise you that there are NO exaggerations. I realy have spent close to 1k hours on the phone with these people. Days of getting nothing else accomplished at home because I have been stuck on the phone. I lost my job back in November... I have no income. I try to make a little money on the side with my video and sound editing work and I can't do that on my old desktop. The new software just can't run right on the old machine. So I can't make any extra money. I can't even pass the time by playing video games. My kiddos have about 20 Blu-ray Disney movies that all came with the Digital copy that I downloaed and saved on my laptop... now they're replacing the machine after owning it only a couple months and those keycodes cannot be used on another machine. They are digitally signed to THAT machine. The manufacturers won't do squat about it. I got hosed out of all that extra money. Not to mention, I don't like the kids ruining the actual discs, so I copy the disc for them to actually handle. It's a legal backup copy so that my original stays in pristine condition. I can't even do that. So I'm losing even more money. PLUS, I put this machine on a Credit card that I have to make payments on every month and I'm kaing payments for a machine I cannot use. My warranty is almost 4 months old and all that time is wasted because I don't have a working machine.

This is horrible customer service. Make your own decision. I will admit, that you cannot find a better machine for the same price. You can find similar builds with everything integrated for cheaper prices or you can find build with only slightly better euipment but twice the price and of course you won't get the cool features like the lighting and the trendy case and stuff... and again, the machine runs like nothing I have every experienced in a computer when its running correctly. Heck, I don't think it's ever ran right... but when I was able to use it - it was amazing. I can't imagine it's power when it's running properly and tuned just right. But does all that really matter if it is constantly being worked on and you can't seem to get anyone to fix it???

I will never buy from Dell/AW again and if I do... it'll be because they make me some sort of offer on this machine that I can't refuse.... and I just don't see that happening. There's nothing to upgrade except the motherboard and the warranty and I don't see them offering me either of those.

I will keep you posted on my progress.

Oh yeah, and good luck ever speaking to anyone that works in the United States. It is impossible and it's sad because all of my issues are complex and they take alot of explaining and I think haf the problem is that the guys in India just can't keep up with what Im trying to tell them. I have to explain everything three times and they still screw up my system. This is unacceptable. I hate to sound like a bigot because that's not what I intend, but I am saying that I think part of the problem is the language barrier. They have a hard time taking in all the information I have to give them and I have a hard time keeping my cool when I have to keep explaining the same thing over and over. Take it as you will. Flame is neccessary, but just remember - this could be YOU. Put yourself in MY shoes. I'm not rich... by all rights, I couldn't afford this machine, but I bought it for work and got fired two weeks later. A job I worked at for 5 years. But of course, I was stuck with the machine.... and I may still need it for a future job. The point is... don't be so quick to judge.

If anyone has any suggestions... that'd be great, lol!

References

I also have plenty of emails I can post to prove my trumoil.

My m17x-R2 Thread - and it's not all bad either!

My m15x Order when it was still owned by AW!

[Mavericke_m15x]

Wow... I didn't realize that was that long. My sincere apologies. What's sad is that what you read above is actually the short version.

[weinstein888]

tl;dr. I had a terrible experience with the techs over at Dell as well. Their customer service quality is disturbingly bad. I feel your pain :P

[BlackestNight21]

It would be shorter if you stuck with the facts more than the emotions.

[aarpcard]

I'm kinda surprised. I've never dealt with AW . . . I didn't even buy my laptop from AW/DEll, but the only horror stories I've heard from CS is from AW/Dell Canada. (and they were quite similar to yours.)

What I'm most interested in is the BSOD issue. I wonder what it was. Kinda sounds to me like a bad video card. Did you do any testing to try and isolate the problem? Like perhaps disabling CF, swapping the gpu's, downclocking each to 2D levels or lower, etc. You said a lot about them telling you to update the drivers, but did you ever update the VBIOS? The 5870 mobility had quite a few problems before Dell's VBIOS update for it.

I feel for you, I really do (I had a similar problem with a laptop screen manufacturer. Sent me the wrong **** screen and somehow I'm supposed to pay for shipping and restocking.), but it seems isolated to me. I can't speak for myself, but I've heard lots of stories of good experiences with AW CS support outside of Canada.

If I were you, I'd just demand for a refund. Pay the restocking fee whatever, with your cash back you can go buy a Clevo X7200 and get a much better computer for $3500 and be happier.

[X3NIA]

Threads like this make me want to avoid Alienware like the plague but its unfortunate that its hard to find better.

The ASUS G73 in Bestbuy I tried for build quality concerns was terribly built and felt cheap.

Sager has absolute CRAP support, repairs, warranty, etc (See HERE)

Origin PC (Old Alienware) is $300-400 more than the SAME EXACT SAGER and they don't have a long standing reputation as being good as they started in 2009... They also never responded to my multiple emails.

Annnnd Maingear is constantly sold out of what I want.

Honestly the only two viable options for me seems to be Origin (Which I'm wary of) and Alienware (Which posts like yours make me wary of)

Tons of decisions to make.. I'm currently working a Part Time hourly job so if I screw up this $2500-3000 buy I don't have the chance to get another.

[Epsilon748]

The thing I noticed with Dell is this: either you bought from the business side or the consumer side. I got my XPS m1530 through my school discount program 3 years ago. This means it was bought through the business side, and it came with a free 3 year at-home warranty.

They sent out a tech exactly four times in three years. The first was when my bluetooth module died. Tech showed up at work and replaced it in 10 minutes. The second was when I had- get this - scratches on my stainless steel palm rest. The tech was out two days later and replaced the whole palm rest/keyboard/media key panel in maybe 20 minutes.

The third time was last week. Most of the laptops of the same vintage I have have been involved in the nvidia chipset fiasco (the 8xxx series had the bad habit of desoldering itself under high load and dying). I was having random blackscreens for no reason. I spent a few minutes in chat saying that I was having black screens and that I thought it was the motherboard/graphics card. Two days later, the tech comes to my office and replaces the motherboard, graphics chip, CPU, power supply, top media key panel, heatsink, and fans. This guy was good- he was done in less than 30 minutes. I'd figured this would take an hour or two. I put the laptop away and go back to work. I get home that night and am dismayed that apparently now it won't charge with my old charger. Back to dell support..

Two days later (and the fourth visit) the tech shows up at work with a replacement charger. Lo and behold, they must have re-engineered the charger and power port between the time I bought my laptop and the time the replacement board was made, this charger works fine.

Long story short, 3 years after I bought my XPS, Dell support has been fantastically helpful and replaced parts with a minimal amount of fuss and on site.

This goes completely contrary to pretty much every other story I've heard from people that just bought their stuff on the dell website instead of through delluniversity.com or similar. The consumer side of the website offers outsourced tech support, mail in repair, and terrible help.

Did I mention that each time I actually called or chatted with tech support they were based in the US and did not go through a script? They actually listened when I said I did x and it did not work, please send me x replacement part and it should be good. Oh and they've also mailed me screws for the hard drive because mine stripped. Screws. Via Fedex overnight. Awesome!

[Bakkasan]

It's really terrible that super premium machines are backed by absolute support. G73 and the long denied GSOD's, and the AW support I got that wasn't too different than yours.

[Dr. J]

To the OP, post this on the Dell forum and see if a rep addresses it at all.

[SpecialEffect]

What epsilon said makes so much sence. I also had a horror story with DELL, that their technician massacered my laptop lol. Caused dell to ship me a brand new alienware... Took about 15 days, production etc etc...

I feel your pain, Dell financial section told me that Tech support is dealt over seas, however their financial department is based in canada / U.S (canada guessing from the headquarters in ontario)

Makes sence though, because every time i called tech support i was dealth with people in costa rica... while when i called financial department it was nice to hear "canadian" accents lol.

But i will admit, tech support (depending who you get) you may get a damn good person. When my video card fried on new years day i called, and the guy was a very nice person and dealt with me amazingly
It all depends who the hell you get; sadly.

PS: Try and get a supervisor... Once you get their name, your good business. I have a supervisors name and thats the only person i deal with. ( funny though, everytime i call and right away mention his name... they ask me why am i calling and why i want to talk to him... they said thats alright and transfer me right away)