Below is a dell Alienware m17x computer I am thinking of buying. Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated.
Thanxs
REVIEW YOUR SUMMARY
SYSTEM COLOR Alienware M17x Soft-Touch Stealth Black
ALIENFX COLOR Plasma Purple
Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee® Security Center – 15-Months edit
LCD PANEL 17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED edit
MEMORY 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (4DIMMS) edit
HARD DRIVE 1.5TB Raid 0 (2x 750GB 7,200RPM) edit
VIDEO CARD 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW) edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology edit
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio edit
Options
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1 Year Limited Warranty w/1 Year Next Business Day On-site Service edit
OS CUSTOMIZATION Alienware Logo edit
Essentials
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Included Alienware TactX Mouse
A/C Adapter Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader
PERSONALIZED PLATE Standard Nameplate
Factory Installed Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed
Alienware makes great stuff! I've been tempted to get one of their laptops for quite some time. Definitely a quality computer.
Well the computer is ordered, the only change is i went to Windows 7 professional instead of home and should be arriving on July 6th
Awesome! Love to hear what you think of it once you get it. Maybe even send in a little tech review for the podcast if you want.
No Problem maybe even a little video
Well Unfortunately the Alienware deal is Dead,
First off when I ordered this computer the estimated delivery date was July 6Th, Once the order was confirmed it went to July the 11,. On July 15Th I was told that my computer would be delayed because on July first Microsoft put out a new service pack for windows seven which resulted in a new sku number resulting in them having to redo my order so that all the part numbers matched. Does anyone find this strange?
Of course I was assured that I was a valuable customer and a customer care specialist would be assigned to my case.
Forward to July11, a customer care specialist phoned to say that all was going ahead fine and i could expect my computer on the expected shipping date.
Forward to July 15, after two customer service reps called me within 5 minutes of each other to say all looked good no part back orders etc, I get another call apologizing because they are waiting for an LCD screen for my computer and the expected delivery date would be now the week of July 25. So I phoned customer care and was told that not only was the LCD screen backordered, but a new network card was needed, which would result in, you guessed it a new order number and the expected date of delivery was now August 15Th.
The customer care specialist admitted they have no control over the production as it is done in the US, no way of finding out anything until they are emailed and no liaison with their US counter Part. All this after they were suppose to be fast tracking this computer and had two customer care specialists working on it, who could only tell me what I could get off the order status page of their web site. HMMM
So up the escalation ladder we went. to A customer care Manager, who gave me the usual, its a popular compute, we are sorry for the delay, we understand, But i ordered this June 25, and had the order canceled 3 times, Not satisfied up to VP of Customer Care, Who begged me to wait a week and he would have a computer at my door in a week and give me a 300. dollar discount on top of the 200. discount i already had. However I reminded him , how is this possible when you have told me you are waiting on parts. No Comment from him.
I then told him that it doesn't matter how great the machine is if you cant get it to the customer, followed by this was my first and last time i would deal with dell, followed by the fact I could buy an ASUS GW73 -XT1 which has the same specs for 700 dollars less and have it in a day, while it has taken them over 6 weeks for a computer I still don't have.
This was followed by I am sorry we have messed up. I replied well this is unfortunate for you as I have had all these problems and I haven't received the computer yet. This was followed by give me a chance to rectify this, I replied You have already had more then enough time and I have already ordered my computer from Tiger Direct. So Please cancel my order.
Keep in mind I have all the paper work, plus all the emails all the order cancellations etc. I phoned back 2 hrs later to find my order had not been canceled so I insisted that it was on the the spot, called Visa which blocked them from making any charges on my account.
The Paper work was forwarded to Consumer Affairs where they will look into Dell Canada's order process. I don't expect anything will come of this. Dells apology letter was especially enlighten, in which they do very little to take accountability for what happened. You can read the email yourself.
Dear JOHN GARDNER,
Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care.
I am concerned to read your email and regret to know that you did not get the most courteous and professional service. This is not the way we train our people to conduct business services.
It is something that we are constantly focusing at, as a daily business practice for improvement. By bringing this to our attention, you have provided us with crucial data in our ever-vigilant efforts to raise the standards of individuals, upon whom we rely to give excellent service to our customers.
Your feedback will be seriously considered in our ongoing endeavors to improve services.
I can understand the inconvenience this may have caused, as I would also have felt the same had I been in your place. I would call this a rare case where we did not meet our customer's expectations.
We, at Dell, firmly believe that we have reached such heights only because of customers like you. It is our endeavor not only to fix the customer's problem but also to make him happy during the interaction.
On behalf of Dell, I apologize that your experience with Dell did not meet your expectations. We hold ourselves to a high standard and apologize for falling short in addressing your needs.
I have also reported this matter to my manager and we would look in to it that nothing of this sort happens with our valued customers in future as your feedback is very imperative to us.
Your patience, efforts and co-operation is highly appreciated on this matter.
Sincerely,
Jatin Jyoti
Manager Dell Canada Customer Care.
Post note, I ordered my new Asus computer on July 15Th and had it upgraded to match the Alienware computer and Had the computer in my hands by 7.30pm that night. Which begs the question, What is dell doing that I could not get my computer before the 15Th of August when I ordered it June 25, before Parts Shortage. If this is the level of competence they have and the way the treat Potential Canadian customers, I hate to think what their technical support is like, and perhaps they should close up shop in Canada, as this type of Customer Service we Can all do without.
That stinks - when you have your chops all set for a new machine - especially one spec'd like that - and you get the run around. Don't blame you.
Was the Alienware a laptop? I thought it was a laptop. If so, how much did you alter on the Alienware machine vs. what you changed on the Asus? Laptops can definitely take longer when you go outside the typical configurations they offer.
Both computers were laptops and the asus was brought up to match the alienware, basically added 8 g of ram to bring it up to 16 and made the operating system premium instead of home everything else was the same, they have no excuse for the delay, not when I can get the same computer here with a different chassie in a day and they had my computer order for a month.
This was basically their high end alienware for which at the time of purchase all parts were in stock the only thing they had to do was add the extra ram and but windows professional on it.
Hmm,... That 1.5 TB hard drive was standard? I'm not making excuses for Dell/Alienware. Just trying to understand why the delays may have happened. The OS upgrade is nothing to do. Literally just a different prod. key is entered. But hardware changes on a laptop are a different matter.
Ram swap is no big deal either you swap for 2gig for 4 4 gig, I saw them do it when they put my computer together it took about 5 min, The big problem I have is they had to redo my order because of a windows service pack update, I find that highly suspicious and stupid that they could not edit my order. This I believe is more of a problem to do with they have no Canadian oversight in the US production plant for some reason, this is according to them.
The thing I find strange is that your order kept having to be cancelled and re-created every time there was a delay or backorder? To me it seems like they were giving you the runaround.
I remember back when I bought my Dell XPS machine (maybe in 2004 or so) they had special support numbers since you were buying 'premium'. I guess they dumped that. Too bad, overall I've always had good experiences with Dell. I know you were talking to Dell Canada, but do you know if the call center actually was here? I'd be amazed if they couldn't access the "US information" etc.
Every time I hear one of these stories I am happy I paid the premium and got my last machine from Doghouse Systems :)
Unfortunately this sort of thing happened to a friend of mine also he bought two of the new inspiron 15rs which were suppose to ship in 48 hrs and it took 2 weeks and they gave the excuse of its a popular machine, The other thing I don't like, is when you put your order together, their estimated delivery date is 10 days, and then when your order goes through they add 5 days, so to me that is deceptive advertising to begin with.
I was very patient with them and gave them the benefit of the doubt, but I was the one who realized that my network card had changed since my order and had to pull it out of them that that would result in a new order number because they had no way of editing it. At that point I was already waiting to august 15Th, and I suspect it would not have been until then that they would have told me I needed a new order number. Somehow I am chalking it up to us being in Canada and the production being done in the US. At This point I could see this dragging on and on Indefinitely and was afraid to find out what their technical support would be.
I think the thing that bugs me the most is I new more then they did, and they just kept saying I understand etc, but the outcome never changed. Also the very fact that my machine with all the updates and software installs was ready the same day and cost 700. dollars less seems to suggest that no matter how good the machine is, the hype is overblown and not worth the aggravation or price. I'm not saying its a bad machine, but if they cant get it to me in a timely manner , then their is a problem.
As you said, it could be the best computer on earth, but none of that matters if you don't have it :)
It was really disappointing because I really wanted this computer, but all this crap happened after they supposedly made my order a priority as I was spending over 3500 on it. As far as I am concerned it is their loss and my gain as I got virtually the same computer at 700 less just a different Cassie. so it all worked out in the end
Heh, you do make a good point iceman, its well known about the hype about Alienware, but I haven't found one person yet who actually owns an alienware machine...know plenty of Dells/HPs though.
King
Alienware was a great little high end boutique shop, even when they were initially acquired by Dell. Seems like as they got more and more integrated into Dell's ponderous structure, the less and less impressive they got. As of now it seems that "Alienware" is just Dell's high end branding that has a bit of historical clout behind it.
I don't have a problem with production being in the US, but when their is no oversight or liaison going on between The Canadian office and the US, it seems to me that that is a bad business practise and the resulting lack of oversight is neither good for the customer or dells reputation.
What really is the point of having a Canadian website to order from, when the machine is going to be built in the US anyway, why not just have one site for all domestic and international orders, as the Canadian office has no Answers for their customers anyways and is really at the mercy of their US counterpart.