Alienware - Customer Service = POO

[RutKiskasca]

The purpose of my post today is to warn you all against buying alienware products, and give you a little personal account of my experience with them.

I am in Germany, but I am from the US. My family lives in Nebraska. I called up alienware and ordered the Aurora 7500 desktop with all the trimmings. I wanted the ALX system, but they told me that the federal government restricts them from exporting that much computer overseas or some such drivel. I applied for the "Alienware credit card" which is basically in house financing with 18 months same as cash. The total price of my monster video editing configuration was $4200.00 US.

In order to process my finance application, they told me that their appliation software (you will see this horrible app referenced later) had to have a stateside address. (I am in the military, so I have what is called an APO address. basically a New York post office that forwards my mail to my military post office anywhere in the world.) I gave them my home of record, which is my mother's house in Nebraska. An important distinction here for all you non-military types...your "home of record" is where you pay taxes, where you get in state tuition, where your driver's license is from , etc. According to the federal government, it's your state of "residence." That doesn't mean it's where you live. I live in Germany, but I am not a resident of germany or a citizen of germany.

They filled out the application and sent it to their bank. Their bank tried to call me at my mom's house in Nebraska to verify that I lived there, which of course I don't. Since I didn't answer the phone, because I was about 2,000 miles too far away to hear it ring, they denied my application for failure to verify my identity. Alienware told me that when I came to the states on vacation later that month, I could call again and reapply with stateside info. So I did.

When I called them from the states, I was at my grandparents house in Colorado. The bank told me that I had to use the same phone number in Nebraska that I originally gave. I beat them up for a while about discriminatory lending practices to service members until they put a supervisor on the phone, and I forced him to verify my identity another way. He granted my application, and I called Alienware with the good news.

While talking to Alienware, I told them that I was approved, and that I had straightened out the misunderstanding with the bank about where I was from versus where I lived. I told alienware to get rid of the Nebraska information, and meticulously spelled out the military APO address they were to send my bills, my credit card, and my four grand worth of computer to. They said it would ship on the 1st of November.

Well, around the end of October, my mom called and said that my credit card had arrived there. I got a little nervous and called Alienware. I said, "where is my computer." They said, "Oh, it is scheduled for delivery tomorrow...in Nebraska." I freaked out. I told them that they could take that computer and pound it up their cornhole, because I was not going to pay thousands of dollars for a system that had been knocked around by the mailman for a month. I fought with them for an hour and a half, finally getting them to re-route it to germany, with an 8-11 week delivery estimate!

ok, so, a week later, I called them to make sure that the computer had gotten back from Nebraska to the factory, and that they were bench testing it. they said yes, they were, and that in 48 hours, they would be ready to ship it back out .... TO NEBRASKA AGAIN! RRRRRR!!! So, another two hours on the phone (note, 800 numbers cost money from europe) and they told me that they were not allowed to change the shipping and billing address unless they ran a complicated verification program that wasn't working for some reason. I called them three times on three separate days, and had the same conversation every day with them, each time being asked all the same verification questions and being told that they were not allowed to change my information without running this program that couldn't find me. Finally they told me to call the bank and change my address with them, then call back and get an agent to call the bank to change the address with alienware. Now, the bank already had my address in germany, so why they listed me in Nebraska was a mystery at first, but when I called the bank I figured it out. ALIENWARE told the bank to change my address to Nebraska.

Long story short, I spent about 6 hours on the phone with Alienware to get them to redirect $4000 worth of computer to the right country, and all because their software sucks and their customer service reps suck even worse.

And the biggest frustration...not a single person at alienware speaks english in an understandle accent. Their office is in Miami, and every single person that got on the phone with me murdered the english language so bad that it took five minutes to get them to spell an address back to me. It's like they have a sweatshop full of Cuban refugees down there. I finally got fed up and said, 'Look, when I go to Louis Vitton in Paris and ask to see their $2000 sweatshirts and $750 coin purses, they speak to me in whatever damn language I want them to. Lucy Liu goes in there with an enteurage of chinese friends, and a french sales person looking like one of the men in black greets her in flawless mandarin. Know why? It's a brand name. You're buying LV, not a handbag. I'm buying Alienware, not a computer. I expect them to employ people who can spell phonetically, and who speak my language fluently. I told Domingo Sanchez that I was through speaking with anyone who didn't grow up with English as their primary language, and gave him five minutes to put me on with someone who could habla ingles, and who did I get? His supervisor, Eddie Ramos! Now, before you go accusing me of discrimination, I'm laying out more on this computer than a lot of people have parked in their driveway. I should be able to expect a certain level of service for my dollar. Let me tell you, Alienware fails hard on customer service.

If you're looking for top end support for your top end technology, stay away from Alienware!

-Rut Kiskasca

[Willen]

I wonder how much of this is due to Alienware being bought by Dell...

Actually, I think ordering a Dell would have been easier...

[Pwolf]

hey you're alive! was starting to worry about you

Pwolf

[RutKiskasca]

hey you're alive! was starting to worry about you

Pwolf

And, judging by your new avatar, you're....ummmm....undead?

Nice to see you too pwaffle.

-Rut

[Orwell]

hey you're alive! was starting to worry about you

I took a look at alienware, but when I took at the equipment, prices and everything, the only impression I got was that I'm going to get fucked over worse than a metal penis in prison. I've yet to encounter a computer company that I've been truly satisfied with their service.

Seriously, your better off buying the parts and building it yourself. Not knowing how is no excuse, I had to rebuild mine from the motherboard up, with no prior experience except putting a card in and installing a new HDD.

[Shazzy]

Their office is in Miami, and every single person that got on the phone with me murdered the english language so bad that it took five minutes to get them to spell an address back to me. It's like they have a sweatshop full of Cuban refugees down there.

Miami decided to add Spanish and Haitian Creole (it's bad French, bad English, and something else mixed together) as "official" languages. Most city meetings are held in Spanish. There are many city officials who do not speak English at all (or refuse to).

[Kariudo]

hey you're alive! was starting to worry about you

I took a look at alienware, but when I took at the equipment, prices and everything, the only impression I got was that I'm going to get fucked over worse than a metal penis in prison. I've yet to encounter a computer company that I've been truly satisfied with their service.

Seriously, your better off buying the parts and building it yourself. Not knowing how is no excuse, I had to rebuild mine from the motherboard up, with no prior experience except putting a card in and installing a new HDD.

x2, I built a pretty good rig without prior experience (about 6-7 months ago).
just make sure that what you get is compatible (don't get an intel mobo and an AMD cpu, that kinda stuff)

$4000 sounds like a lot, and even though Alienware is supposed to be really good...you can build it yourself for a lot less

here's a parts list I just threw together, total is $3942.90
case
Hard drives, 2 included in price giving you 1TB storage (Sata 3.0GB/s interface)
20.1' Samsung LCD monitor
GeForce 8800GTX, 2 for SLI
600W sli-ready modular cabling PSU with a big fan
Keyboard and mouse
4GB (4x1GB) dual-channel ddr2 800
Mobo
Core2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
this is beyond overkill, if you only get 1 graphics card, 2GB ram and 1 HD the price comes down to $2,817.92