Elite Duck Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 On June 18th my Alienware m15x arrived. They are the most incredible gaming machines I have ever used. They are fast, reliable and easy to use. The only problems I had was overheating and the fact it weighs a LOT. Well, my other problem was the optical disk drive. It's got that 'reel in' feature that Nintendo Wii's and Apple computers have. What happened was I was trying to put a blu-ray DVD inside it and it wouldn't go in. So I pushed a bit harder and it went in. But it wasn't 'reeled in'. All of a sudden it's stuck in there and I can't get it out. So I get some tweezers and pull it out, but the protective layer peels right off. So now I'm left with a broken blu-ray, and optical drive for my M15x. Now, I have a repair man come to fix it. But he says "Uh...I have no experience with these...." but he gives it a go anyway. It turns out that he brought the non-blu ray drive so he had to go and get a different part. But when he was putting it back together, boom, he snaps a connector and now 2 things need replacing. Naturally I told him to P*SS off and send someone qualified. That was all I heard after that. So after a week I phoned up Dell and said "Okay, I'm sick of this, come and get it and take it to your repair center to fix it by non-numskulls. So they came and got it and it should be back by the end of the week. I'm finally happy about that, but you know, I'd expect more from people I actually paid £1500 for a laptop. Anyone else had similar dealings with Dell or other computer companies like this? -ED P.S: By the way, it runs the KotOR games amazingly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrrtoken Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Uh, it's really your fault for trying to wrench out a disc with bloody tweezers, or any blunt instrument; it completely clusterf***s the loading mechanism. Firstly, can your drive even read Blu-Ray discs? If it can't, then that's probably why it's stuck, which is both a hardware and software issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elite Duck Posted July 19, 2010 Author Share Posted July 19, 2010 No, they are custom built at factories and you can and stuff like blu-ray to them. See here: http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/162/demo.png You're right, it is my fault but what I'm mad at is the real lack of help that DELL provides. I spend a lot of money on it and I'd expected more from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
True_Avery Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 I call this bad karma for buying an Alienware. For starters, its a Dell. I don't need to say anything else. Secondly, Alienware is quite well known for its atrocious customer service, its egregious wait times for pre-builts, and so on and so forth. Thirdly, Alienware is the Mac of gaming rigs; overpriced and overrated. Seriously, anything bad that happens to that computer gets a thumbs up in my book since, in reality, all you are doing is buying a really expensive case with some basic internals, most likely put together poorly with pretty much a guarantee of bad followup service. That aside... you tried to rip it out with tweezers? I would have pulled the entire thing out, taken it apart, and removed the disk that way. Your second mistake was trying to force the disk... Your first was getting a "reel in" disk drive. Most unreliable pieces of junk I can think of, especially the cheap ones put into cars. I rarely hear of one still working, or one that hasn't eaten a disk, after at least 2 years. The tray ones may break, but they are much easier to take apart and, hell, if the tray motor stops working it can be replaced cheap. The damn things can even take forcing pretty well. Even if they don't charge you for the repair and shipping for this incident, I still say you should go out of your way to try and find a compatible tray loader. Sure, it may cost you around $100 but I can guarantee you the "reel in" will break again, and will break soon. EDIT: I went through and built a respectable rig with the customization tool for your laptop and am impressed at how high the prize tag went. Could build a comparable rig for half the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimartin Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 Uh, it's really your fault for trying to wrench out a disc with bloody tweezers, or any blunt instrument; it completely clusterf***s the loading mechanism. I’d say the problem even started before that. What happened was I was trying to put a blu-ray DVD inside it and it wouldn't go in. So I pushed a bit harder and it went in.[/Quote] If the Disc would not go in, that is an indication that there may be a problem. Never ever force a disc into a machine. Examine the disc, try another disc, but don’t force. I too bought an Alienware from Dell. I love it so far and I have not had any problems with mine, of course I didn’t get the laptop. First Dell I've purchased that you don't have to wear earplugs when setting next to it. I call this bad karma for buying an Alienware. [/Quote] Avery everything you said may be true, but if I would have built one, I’m sure Evil Q and Astrotoy7 could have set me on the right track, but other than auto transmissions and stereo equipment I’m all thumbs on building anything. So even poorly constructed is better than self-constructed in my case. I rebuilt a lawnmower in 7th grade shop, when started for my final it set the teacher’s desk on fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamqd Posted July 19, 2010 Share Posted July 19, 2010 I just bought a Zoostorm gaming PC for 1/5 the price... and have no problems, in fact its sweet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boba Rhett Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Rule one when working with electronics; forcing something into something else always makes for a more entertaining situation for others. Doing this on an alienware adds a 5x multiplier to the amusement factor per every 1000 dollars the pc is overpriced. It's science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan7 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Why buy Alienware when you can buy a Rock - Speaking as an IT tech, Alienware's customer support sucks - Rock's is excellent about a year ago one of the hinges broke on my laptop after being mishandled by customs officials. Despite it being dropped, and all my security stickers having fallen off (this technically invalidating my warranty), Rock were still happy to have my computer in fixed under their 3year pan worldwide warranty for no charge. Quite simply as Mitch one of the guys I work with, my laptop is the only one he knows which has it's own name and own personality. If you want a high performance gaming laptop, made by people who know what they're going and will guarantee their product like the above, what more can you want? j7's 2 cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Rule one when working with electronics; forcing something into something else always makes for a more entertaining situation for others. Doing this on an alienware adds a 5x multiplier to the amusement factor per every 1000 dollars the pc is overpriced. It's science. You're laughing right now, aren't you? Elite Duck, sorry you had so much trouble with customer service. My husband is in the same category as you: "When in doubt with something stuck, get a hammer and force it in." I'm trying to teach my son "If it's stuck, STOP and see what the problem is first." It's saved me much heartache over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Lion54 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Rule one when working with electronics; forcing something into something else always makes for a more entertaining situation for others. Doing this on an alienware adds a 5x multiplier to the amusement factor per every 1000 dollars the pc is overpriced. It's science. I believe that was Newton's Fourteenth Law. It's largely forgotten as no one knew what electronics were back then, even Newton himself, but it was axiomatic enough that he instinctively knew it to be true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JediAthos Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I bought an Alienware desktop prior to their purchase by Dell and I never had any trouble with it personally, but obviously I'm in the minority. Did I overpay...yeah probably, but at the time I didn't know nearly as much about computers as I do now. Given that, I'd owned it for about five years when I gutted it and rebuilt it. The only thing left of the original desktop is the case @Elite Duck: yeah...I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said, but hopefully once you get it back you won't have anymore issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommycat Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 hmmm I never seem to have any difficulty with Dell Tech support. Granted, I'm on the team(new job... Yay!), so that may color my perspective. What irks me more than anything is people who break their own stuff, then expect a break fix tech to carry every part known to man to their site. er something like that lol. Actually I do break fix, and you wouldn't believe HALF the stuff people do to their machines... one lady "decorated" her case with refrigerator magnets... Ya know, I used to think that those "coffee cup holder" stories were just made up... I wouldn't blame Dell for it. You got an oddball overpriced gaming laptop. For the money you should have gotten a Dell Precision M6500. It is a pretty good machine, and might I add quiet. Alienware, as far as I'm concerned you are paying for the pretty alien head on your machine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Avlectus Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I got a true story... I headbutted a dell off a table in school b/c it was such a P.O.S. and the monitor fell and hit the ground. Funny thing is it was still just fine but the rest of it began acting retarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommycat Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Interestingly, Dell and HP laptops get a lot of flack, but they work really well under some pretty rough conditions. I worked for HP and now Dell. Both have some pretty good hardware. I did a drop test with an HP, a Dell, and a Macbook... Guess which one DIDN'T survive. Note: personal preference is probably leaning more toward HP as the cost versus equipment is better. I use an HP at home. Pretty good. As for a gaming rig, I'll build one when I feel I need one. I built my last one. It's darn near brain dead simple for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 P.S: By the way, it runs the KotOR games amazingly! For $2250.00, I'd damn well hope so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Personal tirades and the highly scientific concept of Karma is staggeringly unhelpful. Here was have a fellow member with an unfortunate experience. As Mimartin eloquently stated, not everyone wants to DIY, and some do like the portability of lappies. @EliteDuck, my advice is to be persistent and patient. I went through a support query that lasted six months, but the outcome was very favourable(I received a $2000 refund from Samsung on a discontinued product almost 3 years after I had bought it) Here are my tips for dealing with customer support. *Ring regularly for status updates and ask for an update, or why nothing has happenned *Make note of who you are talking to and if applicable ask for a ref no for the call. Hence, when you call back, you can say "3 days ago I spoke to X who said they were going to follow this up..." *Get the support rep to clarify your case and its status - in my situation, someone actually messed up my case number with someone elses. It got picked up because everytime I used to call I would recount who I had talked to and what the case's status was. I used to write it all down in my gmail calendar. *Feel free to be forceful and direct, but don't be rude to people on the phone. If you get someone really helpful/nice, remember their name and always ask for them. *Use the fact that your pc isn't around to get more exercise Finally, leave the tweezers on mums dresser next time. Hope you get your replacement soon. Also, any gaming lappie would absolutely benefit from a laptop cooling pad mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N-5/Prudii Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Lol, I'm on a M17x right now, never had any problems... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elite Duck Posted July 21, 2010 Author Share Posted July 21, 2010 I got an email today. Read this: Dear Valued Alienware Customer, We are sorry that your machine was further damaged by a member of our staff. In compensation for this we would like to offer you an Alienware M11x computer to use on the go. We are doing all we can to get your system back in your hands and we look forward to returning it to you. Your new M11x will be shipped to you with your repaired laptop as soon as it is fixed. You should also note that your repair will be finished within the next 7 business days. If you have any questions relating to your laptop. Feel free to reply with any questions you might have. Sincerely, The Dell Team It sounds like they don't want me to sue or something. I wasn't planning on it but there you go. I never thought being a complete tard with tweezers would get me a free laptop. Has anyone been compensated by Dell before? I'm very surprised by this. -ED Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Avlectus Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Well...Don't make a further mistake by trusting Symantec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
True_Avery Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Hahaha, nice. A "don't sue us" bribe! Personal tirades and the highly scientific concept of Karma is staggeringly unhelpful. Well, its a good thing he didn't ask for help then. If you read, he asked for thoughts on Dell and, by extension I assume, Alienware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 They gave you a free laptop? Awesome! Waitaminute. "No optical drive." The ****? Fleabay it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommycat Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Actually it looks like they are going above and beyond what was necessary. You broke your machine, they sent a tech that SHOULD have known better, but now are going to make it right... they didn't have to do that. But all they would have had to do was repair your current one. I think you should look at it as them doing positive customer relations, and even being proactive. I dunno, I just think that when they do something nice, you should look at it as a very nice gesture. Possibly even hoping for positive customer reviews for them making it right by doing even more. BUT I guess, that's just too much to expect. They do something nice for you and you call it avoiding a lawsuit. Typical... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Says the Dell employee. But, yeah, they're definitely going above and beyond, which is cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommycat Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Says the Dell employee. But, yeah, they're definitely going above and beyond, which is cool. Well I CERTAINLY wouldn't have authorized giving him a laptop. Meh Fortunately I am not tied to dell. I still say that for the money I'd rather get an HP. But then I've also worked for them too haha.. Come to think of it the only one I haven't worked for was Fujitsu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 I call this bad karma for buying an Alienware. .....a free laptop..... See Avery, chuck it in the bin. Karma don't work. Excellent news Elite Duck. That is easily the best customer support experience I have ever heard of, and I have waded through thousands at tech forums over the years. Congrats! and be careful next time mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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