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Alienware rules, 'nuff said.

I

InorganicMatter

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 19, 2004
Messages
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Yes, I'm going to get crucified for this topic, but I'm tired of people knocking on Alienware. I have an Area-51m 5500. Been experiencing some problems lately, the laptop would occasionally reboot by itself with not warning, and a "Driver Crash" error when Windows came back online. Spyware/viruses are out of the question. Not only that, but the DVD drive had a very hard time deciding whether it should work today or not. I call tech support, and within 1 (ONE!) minute, I was on the phone with an ENGLISH SPEAKING agent who had no accent and spoke in an audible tone of voice. No putting me on "hold" (read: avoiding) or any of that crap. He had me run memtest thoroughly, each individual stick tested fine, but they would fail together. Since the lappy was never overclocked, the cause was immediately determined to be the motherboard. He, without hesitation, authorized a return and immediately dispatched an e-mail with the shipping information. No questions asked, no putting me on hold, english-speaking representative, and immediate response with shipping info. Overpriced nothing, not all your money goes into the components of the machine. Alienware for life, baby!
 
Cool! About time we had some non-negative posts (about anything, not just Alienware) in here.
 
Their desktops are overpriced marketing wagons for Intel. Their laptops are good, but overpriced. They may have good customer support, but I would never overpay for something from them
 
sac_tagg said:
I was on the phone with an ENGLISH SPEAKING agent who had no accent and spoke in an audible tone of voice.
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If I didn't like building my own systems (and think my brother should just stick to Dell--he is an uber noob), I would buy one for that reason alone. That would seriously put it over the top for a buying choice.
 
the only gripe i have with my sentia laptop is that instead of there being two contact points below the space bar, there is only one in the center, so i can only hit the bar in the very middle for it to work. very annoying. but otherwise a very good laptop (first one sent had a messed up mobo, though, the video processor crapped out after 3 days, rma'd it and it runs beautifully now)
 
sac_tagg said:
I have an Area-51m 5500. Been experiencing some problems lately, the laptop would occasionally reboot by itself with not warning, and a "Driver Crash" error when Windows came back online.

...

I call tech support, and within 1 (ONE!) minute, I was on the phone with an ENGLISH SPEAKING agent who had no accent and spoke in an audible tone of voice. No putting me on "hold" (read: avoiding) or any of that crap...
Click to expand...
So it's not the computers that rule, it's their customer service.



P.S. Paragraphs are your friend.
 
They have service reps that speak english w/o accents? Oh man, they are definately better than everyone else. Now, lets go grab our Confederate flags!


:rolleyes:



As a son of an immigrant, I take offense to that. Though I speak english clearly, I have never once had a problem understanding foreign service reps, frankly I've had less luck with "American" reps.


P.S. I've owned an Alienware laptop before, and when the internal fan crapped out, Alienware was not reluctant to have it changed for me. I had to call three times before they would, not to mention the third guy had a spanish accent and offered to have my laptop fixed ASAP. The first two guys did not have accents yet they blamed me for the broken fan.

I've had better luck with IBM
 
well i think its fair to have a good mix of everyone in a call center so if you get somone you cant understand you can just call back and hope you get someone else :D
 
rayman2k2 said:
They have service reps that speak english w/o accents? Oh man, they are definately better than everyone else. Now, lets go grab our Confederate flags!


:rolleyes:



As a son of an immigrant, I take offense to that. Though I speak english clearly, I have never once had a problem understanding foreign service reps, frankly I've had less luck with "American" reps.
Click to expand...


I dont think it was meant to be offensive, I often find it hard to understand people who have very strong accents when speaking on the phone. I think its natural that for the most part any ethnic region is more likely to understand their own dilect.
 
rayman2k2 said:
As a son of an immigrant, I take offense to that. Though I speak english clearly, I have never once had a problem understanding foreign service reps, frankly I've had less luck with "American" reps.
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Me too. My mom speaks perfect English, but my dad has a thick accent. That has had its benefits, I can easily understand people with accents. :)

In my personal experiance I have had more trouble with american support anything else. I once spent a good hour explaining to someone that laptops have integrated speakers; and that no, the laptop's speakers did not come in a separate box. This call center was located in Texas.

Back on the subject of Alienware, I'd rather have a computer that is high enough quality that I don't have to call tech support. Alienware has excellent tech support because so many people have cronic and ongoing problems with their Alienware systems. :p
 
The best part about alienware is when you bid on one on ebay and you get 20 emails within the next week from people looking to sell theirs, usually from overseas. :p
 
I don't think there was ever a question about their quality or their service. I think the skepticism came from their prices and their publishing of "Guides" vilifying build-your-own vs. buying Alienware.

So, yeah, if I bought a $5000 computer that I could have built myself for 1/2 that, I'd expect customer service to be pretty good.
 
Glad to hear all that extra money you spend on the machine itself goes to something, not just an exec's pockets.
 
cell_491 said:
their lappys are good but id never buy one of their desktops
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why not? some are very resonibly priced. but you could just build ur own i suppose. :cool:
 
I own a Sager 5680.

When I bought it, my buddy bought the EXACT same notebook, but in green, with an alien head on it. He went alienware.

We got the exact same config.

I paid 1600, he paid just under twice that.

The only difference was mine didnt come with an OS, his came loaded with bloatware from alienware that took us a while to get rid of and hogged system resources.


Then came the benchmarks.

I spanked him. Every game. Every benchmark program I was faster. Not by a lot, but I was faster.


Not to crap on your purchase, but you paid WAY too much. I dont even know what you paid and I know you paid way too much.
 
Guess Which one cost more ?

AlienWare ALX system --- or --- Porsche 944

vs1xi.jpg

Hint : Its not the CAR
 
Just for the record, you're just as likely to get a non-accented person at Alienware than one with. They're in damn Miami, down the street from me!

While overpriced, they usually do have some great support, newegg 2002-ish good.
 
EvermoreSG said:
Just for the record, you're just as likely to get a non-accented person at Alienware than one with. They're in damn Miami, down the street from me!

While overpriced, they usually do have some great support, newegg 2002-ish good.
Click to expand...


I had heard alienwares support was decent

But I can promise you its not as good as the people at powernotebooks.com which is where I got my Sager. Aparently they have their own line into sager tech support, I have always recieved killer service going through them.
 
In general though, how many people on the [H] actually use customer/tech support other than for RMA purposes? I know I'm too stubborn...
 
The only reason somebody would buy a computer is if they can't put one together themselves or don't want to put it together. An self-respecting computer enthusiast would want to build their own computer. Alienware is good but overpriced. You could build a computer equal in performance for much less. Most people, I believe, buy it because of the look of the case.

...Dan
 
I bought two alienware desktops before i started building my own. The only thing left of both are the cases and the optical drives. You can see what I and alot of other people really think about them on resellerratings.com. But I did have some issues with them lately(t ried to buy a part) and I must admit they seem to be trying alot harder than a year or two ago. BUT you'll be on hold forever as a rule I must say. Just two cents. Id rather build one.
 
bonkrowave said:
Guess Which one cost more ?

AlienWare ALX system --- or --- Porsche 944

http://img130.exs.cx/img130/1714/vs1xi.jpg [/CENTER]

Hint : Its not the CAR[/QUOTE]


You could have just linked to the thread that you took that from.

Alienware outsources tech support to Costa Rica, so if you got an English speaking rep its cause the CR call line was busy, and you got routed to the Miami based online tech support.

[URL=http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&teamnum=33&username=MeanieMan][IMG]http://www.mentallyretired.com/h3/index.cfm/u_127431[/URL]​
Click to expand...
 
MeanieMan said:
You could have just linked to the thread that you took that from.

Alienware outsources tech support to Costa Rica, so if you got an English speaking rep its cause the CR call line was busy, and you got routed to the Miami based online tech support.
Click to expand...

I did not take it from a thread. I was the one who posted the same message the last time teh Alienware topic came up.
 
bonkrowave said:
Did I start this topic .... no.
My opinion of Alienware is hardly going to change because of a locked thread.
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No one is saying your opinion has to change, but posting a joke of yours that the mods already locked, in other people's threads; completely different.

 
MeanieMan said:
No one is saying your opinion has to change, but posting the samething that mods already locked in other people's thread is a different story.

Click to expand...

Last time the thread was locked because it was in the wrong section ... not because of the comparisson.

It is also not a joke .... simply a fact.
 
just translate the original post into:
I like paying extra for good customer support

or as someone else mentioned, their computers still suck, but their support rules.
thats ok. some people dont mind paying for good customer support. I buy most of my stuff of newegg because their prices aren't the cheapest, they treat me right.

but, alienware hardware, is still WAY overpriced.
 
I think when you buy alienware you buy a name. You buy the right to say you've got the top of the line PC, even though you could build the same PC (maybe even a better one) for much much less.

Alienware laptops are Sager or Sager-clones. They're powerhouses...my mom has one. They're heavy, loud, and they have shitty battery life. If you call that awesome, then you and I must speak a different language...
 
moreover, look at their alx systems. for the amount paid for them, they run far less well than they should
If I was ever going to get a prebuilt top of the line system (which i never would, because part of the fun is building it yourself, and of course it is cheaper), I would get one of the voodoo f:5.
f
 
^^ LOL

And I'm amused when people say Alienware systems are a complete POS. They are decently built and can support some of the highest end components out. However their prices are rediculous and your just buying a name. The systems are good, its just a waste for the $. This is always something people can't seem to get clear (well maybe not in the [H] but more real life ppl :rolleyes: )
 
cell_491 said:
I would soo rather have the 944...whos with me :D :D
Click to expand...

True Story ... My 944 cost me 8000$ CDN
The ALX system I priced out came in at 8130.00$CDN (Before Taxes)
 
I am not even going to read this entire thread.

My take on alienware plain and simple, and everyone should agree with me. If you dont agree, you are stupid.

Alienware makes good computers? = YES

I can build the exact same specs for alot cheaper? = YES

I can build better specs for the price of what I paid alienware to do it? = YES



So why not build it yourself?
 
Well, you'll always have people who don't want to build their own computer, but would like something more than a Dell. Plus Dell's gaming systems are generally mediocre and their CS is traditionally bad, which doesn't really make them a prime choice, even if it's based on reputation alone.

I've owned an Alienware (purchased fall 2002 when prices were less ridiculous), had no problems with it, and at the time I would not have been able to build a computer without losing a lot of time and energy to figuring out how to do things that I didn't know, and possibly even broken a few things. Today, on the other hand, I would much rather build than buy a complete system from anybody, because if you know what you're doing it really is better to do it yourself.

And I think Alienware actually owns the call center in Costa Rica, they just set it up there because (gasp!) the wages are lower. Just an assumption, though.

So yeah if you don't want to/can't build a computer by yourself and AW makes what you need, sure they can be good or whatever. But for people who know about hardware and how to build a system there's no reason to go with them.
 
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