Posts by NickTs

Alienware assimilates Dell FROM THE INSIDE!

Re: Flawless operation? Not a chance...

@anonymous

You raise a very valid point about the 360s and their RROD habit. I had a Day 1 360 and finally, when it was well out of warranty it RROD'd. Microsoft swapped it out for free, no quibbles. The replacement also RROD'd and one again MS did a no quibble replacement.

At the same time as I had my m9700 a colleague had a Rock gaming laptop. He experienced problems with it, much the same as I was having with the m9700. His laptop went back to base a few times, like mine did. Rock eventually identified the design issue and swapped his laptop out with an improved chassis version which cured his issues and left him as a happy customer.

The OP may think I'm being prejudiced in my decision to not purchase an Alienware again, but I think that's a totally blasé comment. I paid (very) good money for a (very) poor product. Yes, I was looked after in the warranty period (and a month or so outside of it) but the support after that when it was clear the goods were not fit for purpose disappeared, and the customer experience was far less than I received from other companies (Microsoft) and what I witnessed being given to colleagues (from Rock).

Experiences and actions build loyalty, and had Alienware looked after me properly and provided me with a functional product then there's every chance I'd still be buying them today.

Re: Flawless operation? Not a chance...

Trevor,

Prior to my m9700 (which was a rebadged Clevo IIRC) I had an Aurora desktop of some sort, which was excellent, and which influenced my decision to spend the money on an Alienware laptop.

Whether or not they had the resources then that they have now is moot. I bough my laptop and quite literally within weeks I read they'd been acquired by Dell. But that solves nothing. They sold me a piece of rubbish with inherent design / heat transfer issues (how else can you explain it going through 4 motherboards in less than a year?) and never fully rectified the problem.

So where did that leave me? £1800 down and having to use a Compaq Mini netbook as the Alienware laptop I'd purchased spectacularly failed to fulfill its one role in life.

Defend them if you will, I'm really pleased you had a great experience with them - but I won't be buying another Alienware. If they want to make up for the terrible product they sold me and finally swap out this defective lump I have then let them get in touch and I'll gladly review their current offerings. But we both know that won't happen as they didn't care then and they certainly won't care now.

They won't be getting any more money from me.

Flawless operation? Not a chance...

I'm absolutely delighted this columnist enjoyed their Alienware experience. Mine couldn't have been worse.

Back in 2006 I spent a not insubstantial amount of £1800 on an Alienware m9700 laptop. When it arrived it was Dead On Arrival. Sometimes it would switch on, other times it wouldn't. It went back within 48 hours.

A month later, when it returned, all was good. Until it started BSODing all the time a few months later. Multiple clean installs of Windows failed to cure the problem, so back it went to Alienware/Dell where it was fitted with what was now its third motherboard.

Back it came. All was good until the 12 month warranty ran out and it started exhibiting the same old BSOD issues. Fortunately Alienware / Dell agreed to repair it out of warranty for free (after some badgering).

Motherboard number 4!

Within a couple of months the WUXGA screen started playing up with vertical lines showing on the right side, then the BSODs started returning. Then the laptop stopped turning on altogether.

At the time, my wife was having some pretty serious health issues so I didn't have the time to waste badgering Alienware / Dell again. When I did eventually try contacting them I received no response, so the laptop to this day remains sitting in my IT room, broken, non functioning. A seriously good looking, but ultimately useless £1800 paperweight that didn't even give me a year of flawless operation.

I won't be making that mistake again.