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So you didn’t want to wade through my short novel? Ok, here’s the cliffs notes version. For details on each section simply refer to the full article. Alienware’s technical support: Tech support calls originally consisted of ungodly hold times (20-90 minutes). That has now been corrected and a call to tech support now consists of troubleshooting until you drop. You are taken through endless troubleshooting frequently repeating steps. This process will go on literally for hours until you finally have to give up. When you call back, they start you over from the beginning. This is their way of making you say uncle. You can ask for a manager, but most of the time you’ll be told no one is available to take your call. When a manager is available, they aren’t any more helpful. On Alienware computers in general: I currently have 2 computers I built myself with inexpensive motherboards. One has a Celeron 2.0ghz processor, a geforce 5200 video card, and the other is a P4 2.8ghz processor with a geforce 5700 ultra. I have an Alienware desktop with a 3.06ghz P4 and a Radeon 9700 all in wonder and an Area 51m laptop with a 2.8ghz processor and a Radeon 9000m video card. Both Alienwares were configured to be the best the company had to offer and I purchased the 3 year extended warranty on both with the onsite warranty on the desktop. I do a lot of gaming and I load all the same games, programs, and patches on all 4 computers. The two Alienware computers are buggy, unstable and unreliable compared not only to the two computers I built but also to the Dell laptop I own and the generic clone I bought on clearance several years ago. Numerous calls to tech support and a half dozen fresh OS installs on each have failed to correct the general instability and unreliability of the two Alienware computers. My Alienware desktop: I have 4 dimms that hold Rambus memory which has to be placed in pairs (i.e.- if you want 512mb of memory you have to use 2 256m chips or 4 128mb chips). I knew I would want to expand to 1gb of memory eventually, so when I ordered my computer I called and specifically configured it with 2 256mb chips. I was told this would not be a problem. I received the computer with 4 128mb chips which would prevent any expansion of the memory using my existing hardware. I called and complained and was told nothing could be done, and that I would have to live with it as it was presently configured.
The computer came with “alien autopsy” and “alien adrenaline” software. The alien adrenaline was video performance enhance software that cost extra. In the first few months I made two separate tech support calls because the system was unstable. These calls resulted in instructions to erase first one then the other program because they were causing the instability. Finally, earlier this year my motherboard went out on me. I bought my computer with what I thought was a 3 year, onsite, next business day, extended warranty. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sent any documentation related to my purchased warranty and the website has since gone through many changes so I don’t have any way of proving this. I was told that they couldn’t schedule the repair call, on the phone. First, I had to “secure” a new motherboard by giving them a credit card number so they could charge me the $140 the motherboard cost. I asked why I had to be charged for the motherboard on a warranty repair, I was told that this was to ensure that they received the motherboard back. Keep in mind that the swap was actually to be done by their service technician who came in, did the repair, and took the motherboard with him. I had to take the financial risk so that if he had not returned the board, Alienware could charge me for it. I gave them a credit card number, and the motherboard arrived in (I believe) 4 days. I called Alienware back and was told I would be contacted “soon.” Two days later a repairman called and informed me that they could come out in 1 week. It just so happened my laptop was currently in alienware’s possession for the below mentioned screen repair, I hadn’t yet built the second of my gaming rigs, and the first has a geforce 5200 which has just about reached the end of it’s gaming life, leaving me without a gaming computer. Fortunately, I was able to convince the repairman to come sooner and was only without a computer a little over a week. My Alienware laptop: This computer has never been stable, is exceedingly buggy, and most of my friends refuse to use it. I paid for 3 day shipping from Fed Ex on my computer. For a reason that was never explained to me, Alienware shipped my computer to a FedEx warehouse that didn’t have a pickup window in a city 20 miles from where I live. After 3 calls with customer support were I was assured the problem had been solved, I made 3 trips to our local fed ex to find it had not. Eventually, I traveled to the warehouse (did I mention it was in a different city?) and picked it up myself. The warehouse was not meant for customer pickups so a worker left it sitting under a set of stairs and I simply walked in and looked around until I found it. I received my laptop on 3/20/2003. My laptop screen began going bad in the first two weeks, with the display coming up in shades of brown and no other colors. I place my first call to tech support on this problem on 4/17/2003. I spent several months calling them repeatedly about this and each time they would troubleshoot. The problem would correct itself after a reboot or two and they would say it was fixed. I’d call back when it would recur and since rebooting temporarily fixed the problem tech support felt this was a sufficient solution. After erasing the hard drive and doing a fresh install of the OS didn’t correct the problem, I finally had to demand that they let me send it in and have it fixed. By this time the keyboard had also broken and one of the four USB ports was dead. I sent it off in April of 2004 and it was gone for two weeks. During that time they fixed the keyboard and dead a fresh OS reinstall, but did nothing to address the screen issue or the USB port. The screen issue recurred within the first 24 hours so I sent the computer back. This time it was gone four weeks. They said they had replaced the motherboard and screen and fixed the USB port. When it was returned the same USB port was dead and now the other three would no longer auto detect, so now peripherals plugged into these ports wouldn’t function until you went in a manually installed the drivers each time something was connected. The screen seemed ok, so I decided to live with it. 2 months later the same exact screen problem began occurring again. I sent my computer off on September 3, 2004 and to this day, 7 weeks later, it is still gone. I call once a week for an update and no one can tell me anything. The past three weeks I’ve called three times with the last being Monday, October 18th. Each time I’ve been told a note in the computer said they were working on the screen but no one was available who could tell me specifically about my computer. I have left 3 messages which have not been returned. The last time when told I could leave a message, I informed the rep that my messages weren’t being returned and that I needed someone whom I could contact. I was told they could not give me a name or an email address for me to contact to try to resolve this issue, my only option was to leave another message. The end result is that now, October 21st, 2004, I still do not have my computer, nor do I have any idea when I will be getting it. I’ll post updates on this site as more information becomes available. Thanks for listening! Rodney a.k.a. - Easy Meat
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