RANT! Alienware is the target of my wrath...sort of...

RANT

For those of you average computer users (normal people)out there who have to deal with your respective "Computer" companies, I am beginning to truly feel your pain. I recently had a run-in with Alienware "Customer Service", and it was not an enjoyable experience at all.

Background... My notebook is an Alienware Area-51 M5550i-R3, and it is just over 1 year old. Ioriginally bought it with the 3-year factory Parts & Labor Warranty with Air shipping. The warranty actually had to be used, and it all started 2-weeks ago.

I was peacefully getting my day at work started with the usual reading of the email, checking my RSS feeds on iGoogle, and sipping my hot coffee when all of a sudden letters started to disappear and reappear on the screen. I closed Firefox, and reopened it, and the issue seemed to go away. Approximately 10 minutes later it started again, but this time there were slight vertical lines too. Before I go on I should add that I am a PC tech, and watching all of this unfold was like watching a horror film unfold in slow motion. I saw what was happening and I knew, but would love to have ignored, what was happening. The video card was dying a slow, painful, agonizing death. It was like trying to run from danger in a dream; there is no escape! The video card is of Nvidia manufacture, and I have never had any complaints about there products, until now of course. So I grabbed my Alienware Agent card which basically is my pass into tech support/warranty service at their "A3" level of service. I didn't have any sort of trouble getting tech support to awknowledge what the issue was, but the problem started when they said that I would have to send the old card back first OR be temprarily charged $400 to cover the cost of the replacement card. I should add that this is fairly typical of OTHER pc manufacturers, but it is usually not true of the "Botique" manufacturers. Needless to say I was surprised..sort of..at this revelation, and so I opted not to go with "cross-ship". They said that they would wait for me to send it to them. Alienware does pay for shipping of parts for warranty service both directions, but here again they slipped. I got the return label in my email, and the return method was listed as Ground. I was a little perturbed by this, and I promptly called Customer Service back. They told me that that is the way they do business for warranty. I told them that the quality of their service (which in my mind was getting worse and worse by the second) could easily make or break my confidence in them and their products. The cuban person put me on hold (Alienware is located soley in Miami, FL), and a few minutes later came back and told me that as a courtesy they would send me a 2nd-Day Air label for my shipment. I had no desire to talk to them further, and so I said a hasty "Thank you" and hung up. I printed the label and sent the package off to them. I was in their RMA dept. by early after noon on Friday(this all started on a Wednesday) and then it sat....and sat....and sat...UNTIL THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY WITHOUT ANY CALLS FROM THEM!!! I called three times in the week after they received my part, and they kept telling me that shipping and processing was delayed by Hurrican Ike(missed Miami completely BTW), but that I would have the part by Friday. As I stated previously, they didn't even ship it UNTIL FRIDAY!! I called as soon as I received word that the new part shipped out, and I told a customer service rep in no uncertain terms that I will not be coming back to them for any future purchases. I went on and on about their service, or the lack thereof, what I thought about their over the phone survey, and finally after 5 minutes of non-stop, subdued ranting I hung up.

Fast forward to today, when I received the part there was a IC component that was cleary broken...A BRAND NEW CARD WITH NOTICEABLE DAMAGE MADE IT PAST THEIR "AWARD-WINNING" QoS DEPT!!! YEAH RIGHT!!! Praise the Lord that I was able to fix it, but AGAIN...WHAT KIND OF QUALITY CONTROL IS THAT??!!!!

WARNING TO ALL POTENTIAL ALIENWARE CUSTOMERS....THE PRODUCTS THAT ALIENWARE SELLS ARE PRETTY GOOD, BUT THEIR SERVICE IS LOUSY!! STAY AWAY!!!

I am praising the Lord that the Alien isonce again living, I won't have to use that Celeron based Dell anymore!!! This ordeal has taught me one thing though...buy somewhere else, and never assume that because you are in the same business that you won't fall prey to the same things that everyone else does.

/RANT