Best way to talk my friend out of a Alienware?

[bob]

I have an alineware and have only had a few small problems.
and they really arent that bad of a company.

Neither is Emachines.

 

[legcramp]

Neither is Emachines.

I ahve an emahine as a download comp that my bro toss in my room... axp 3200+ geforce4 blah blah...the only thing that is crap about it is that the keyboard died in less than 3 months lol... toss my 7-8 year old compaq one and it works great

 

[Scarceas]

My favorite saying for OEM builders is that good customer service is when there is no need for customer service.

You must be young, then... That's such a simplistic and naive statement.

A better saying is that you don't know how good (or bad) a company's customer service is until you actually need it.

For any OEM builder of significant volume, there are going to be some problems:
1. Unknowledgeable customers (creating problems, or thinking there are problems, when there weren't any to start with)
2. Component failures. If you ship any substantive volume, failures will occur. It's statistically inevitable.
3. If you ship systems, there will likely be shipping damage issues as well. Good packaging will help prevent this.

Now, the true test of a company comes when that hard drive dies before the warranty period expires. How polite are they? How quickly do they *correctly* identify and then resolve the issue? Are there unexpected costs on your part?

 

[SJetski71]

Since you're friend sounds hard-headed, better let him buy a pre-built otherwise he'll call you and blame you when there's issues. I wouldn't even suggest another vendor because when that rig invariably breaks down he'll blame you once again. I have a few friends who did that with me until i told them 99% of the issues are between the keyboard and monitor (spyware, goofy software installed or tweaks).

you can only lead a horse to water...

 

[0810]

Show him the computers at www.abspc.com .. Cheaper for the same shit, plus I bet he'll like the looks.

http://www.abspc.com/app/Series.asp?familyno=25&series=75

ya know the second system from the left, i got the almost the same system for 840 dollars at a local PC shop...
plus, i got a 3200, with XP Pro, with DVD/CD-R combo, and the ASUS A8N-E (not sure if that is a plus)

go with a local PC shop, its cheaper.. if something goes wrong, they cant hang up on you... if they do, you do know hwere they work!

 

[EchoMatrix]

or heck just goto Dell

reasonable customer service and prices are ok

 

[klowngoblin]

WTF would you ASK someone else to build your pc and screw it up? build it yourself, and do a quality job in both choosing parts and assembling, then you know you have a quality system, same goes for laptops

 

[JL_Audio_User]

I read the thread title only. No posts......did'nt need to.

Is he using your money? I did'nt think so. So mind your own freakin' business. Tell him your opinion and let him sink or swim on his own. If one of my friends did anything more than give advice I might get offended......and he might lose a tooth.

 

[soulsaver_8229]

I read the thread title only. No posts......did'nt need to.

Is he using your money? I did'nt think so. So mind your own freakin' business. Tell him your opinion and let him sink or swim on his own. If one of my friends did anything more than give advice I might get offended......and he might lose a tooth.

^hes thinking what im thinking^


soulsaver_8229

 

[Shakezilla]

I read the thread title only. No posts......did'nt need to.

Is he using your money? I did'nt think so. So mind your own freakin' business. Tell him your opinion and let him sink or swim on his own. If one of my friends did anything more than give advice I might get offended......and he might lose a tooth.

Me and my friends have been together for a long time, and I have been not mind my own buisness the whole time

By the way I have been talking to him and hes sending his breaking down PC into a shop to get fixed. So now hopefully he wont bitch about that. And I got him to take a look over at abspc.com and he liked it. So thanks everyone.

 

[1c3d0g]

"Best way to talk my friend out of a Alienware?"

...is not to talk him out of it. That's right. Let him have what he's going to be happy with. That's what's important in this case.

 

[Az2]

Just tell him to order a Fostech PC. Fostech uses only the highest quality parts to insure that you get years of joy from your PC. Tell him it will be A LOT cheaper, and of about the same quality. (of course he won't get the alienware case) If anyone wants a fully customized Fostech PC, just E-MAIL ME!

 

[JL_Audio_User]

Just tell him to order a Fostech PC. Fostech uses only the highest quality parts to insure that you get years of joy from your PC. Tell him it will be A LOT cheaper, and of about the same quality. (of course he won't get the alienware case) If anyone wants a fully customized Fostech PC, just E-MAIL ME!

Maybe you should start your own thread and try to pimp that shit in there

 

[soulsaver_8229]

Just tell him to order a Fostech PC. Fostech uses only the highest quality parts to insure that you get years of joy from your PC. Tell him it will be A LOT cheaper, and of about the same quality. (of course he won't get the alienware case) If anyone wants a fully customized Fostech PC, just E-MAIL ME!

Wow was that a comercial? no models? no cute animals? no freebies?

i feel robbed


soulsaver_8229

 

[Eric1285]

I haven't read the thread, but just let him do it. People like that are good for the economy.

 

[towert7]

Ok so my friends current comp was built by his brother and they both ran into problems with random restarts and such.

And he said to me when I get my next computer I am going to get an alienware that way I dont have to worry about anything. I tried to tell him that they pretty much charge double what the parts are worth and you only get a T-shirt in exchange.

His argument was that alienwares are ment for gaming(he only plays DAoC and thats doesnt really require much.) He also said Alienware has to have good customer support and such so if something break he ownt have to worry about that(he might have a pint there.)

I think my best argument would be that he could have a site like monarch make his system and then if he does run into problems he could send it into a shop to get fixed. And in the end the price of having a shop fix it and order it from monarch would still be a lot cheaper than ordering from alienware. Anyone wana help me with my arguement.

An exampe of what I am dealing with was when he had random restarts before doing anything else he ran out and bought a new PSU. And when that didnt fix the problem he got pissed and did nothing. I was like what kinda PSU did you get, he was like "It a 400watt PSU so it has to be really good!" I was like well the wattage doesnt really mean anything. ANd when I looked in his case its a powmax

So anyone got any ideas besides mine to convince him?

If he wants support, don't try and talk him away from getting a OEM pre built. If he is ready to spend 20% or higher for tech support and the peace of mind that comes with a service agreement, let him. Some people are not ready to troubleshoot their own computers.
Just recommend he gets an AMD computer . they are good for gaming as im sure you know.

 

[aerithchylde]

I have a friend who decided to not build his next PC and went with an Alienware Area 51. In the end he enjoys the hell out of the PC and likes the performance and quality.

What he hated was the 2 and a half months it took to build and ship his PC. He would get a messages to call about something wrong, then nothing would be wrong when he called. Turned out they did not have the color case he ordered the whole time. he also had a co-worker later reveal that he had a hell of a time obtaining his PC that was prdered. They are availble at Best Buy now too, so that may be less of an issue.

But he has had the PC for more than a year now and has never had any issues with the PC itself. If your friend wants on, then let him buy one. I was seriously considering buying from them too, until my friend had his nightmare experience of ordering from them.

 

[delusion_2005]

First of all Alienware systems are great quality, and yes they are built for performance, they are very powerful systems, and why do you care if your friend is getting a alienware, its his money, you should just be happy for him.

 

[Himmler]

I have posted this like 2 times on this forum so far about alienware computers. As you can see in my sig, I have two Alienwares. One is a desktop, one is a laptop. They both run GREAT. No problems at all. For all you people saying that their customer service is crap, you need to rethink your statement. I havent really had any problems so I havent really had to call them that much, except when I ordered 2 coffee mugs with my laptop, one was broken on shipping and one had a chip in it. Called them up, had 2 replacements 2 days later (I live in Vegas, they are in FL. So they gave 2 day shipping). Thats not the greatest example since it was only with like $5 coffee mugs, but it still shows something.

I have had to call their tech support I think maybe 2 or 3 times to get help with installing my 2 Raptors and get them into RAID 0. I was talking to one of their tech guys for probably 3 hours until midnight, and he helped me install the new drive, plug it in, get RAID 0 going on a new install of Windows. I have never done a RAID config before so I had no idea how to do it, that is why I needed their help.

Their computers are also perfect for upgrading, their cases are big so they can take a lot of stuff in them. I have only upgraded my graphics card, and the hard drives since I bought it, but it runs everything maxed out at 1680 x 1050, some games even max AA and AF. I have NO complaints, except when I ordered it, it was when the FXs just came out and I got socket 940 so if I want to upgrade anything else, I pretty much have to buy new mobo/cpu. But that was my fault...

Let your friend do it, they are kick ass computers and have the best customer support and tech support I have ever had to deal with. Why would you listen to a bunch of people that have never ordered one and have never owned one but yet they continue to say that their support sucks? Listen to someone that has two of them.

 

[tazzmissionx]

I have an Alienware laptop and it runs great, after I fixed it that is.

I pulled it out of the box that it came in, plugged it in, turned it on and was greeted with a BSOD after POST then it would automatically reboot and keep on doing it again and again, I reformatted the hd and reinstalled windows, then used Alienware's master/drivers cds do updates here and there and then was working like a charm and running great also.