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Alienware; we refuse to sell parts to second hand alienware hardware owners
GrimReaper
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Registered User regular
This is kinda interesting, who here hasn't bought a second hand computer/car/killer robot?
Well, some guy bought an alienware laptop second hand off ebay. The poor guy wants to buy a caddy for the laptop so he can connect a second hard drive. Turns out they're treating him as if he were a thief.
I guess that's what people get for buying from companies like alienware, or in this case just buying second hand alienware. It staggers the mind how some companies can be so closed minded as to refuse to sell to you purely because you bought something second hand.
Well, some guy bought an alienware laptop second hand off ebay. The poor guy wants to buy a caddy for the laptop so he can connect a second hard drive. Turns out they're treating him as if he were a thief.
ChrisPaget wrote:Thinking about buying Alienware (now owned by Dell)? Think again. After buying an almost-new Alienware laptop on eBay, I've spent the last week trying to get hold of a Smart Bay caddy to connect a second hard drive (about $150 for $5 of bent metal). Four different Alienware teams have refused to even give me a price on this accessory, instead accusing me of stealing the machine since I didn't buy it directly from their eBay store. They want me to persuade the eBay seller I did buy it from to add me as an authorized user of his Alienware account — they have no concept of 'ownership transfer' and instead assume that if you're not in their system, you must be a thief.
I guess that's what people get for buying from companies like alienware, or in this case just buying second hand alienware. It staggers the mind how some companies can be so closed minded as to refuse to sell to you purely because you bought something second hand.
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How dumb is that.
You're certainly not going to alienate gamers by calling them thieves, are you?
No one in their right mind should buy Alienware anyway.
:^:
Yeah, buying Alienware is a pretty dumb decision.
I wouldn't pay £2,000 for it, though.
Or maybe, just maybe, he was inspired to make it because of how Alienware treated him
but that's impossible
Having bought from Alienware before, I feel I can set your mind at ease. They are utterly execrable. Totally dreadful. In fact, I think I should let off some steam and share with you what they managed to achieve.
It was summer of 2005, and I was a young and innocent chap who wanted to take advantage of the absurdly strong sterling while I was in the US. I splashed out 4000 dollars for the best alienware laptop that was available at the time - a steal at a mere 2000 pounds, where it would have cost me 4000 back in old blighty - and it arrived. However, I soon noticed a problem. Quite a large one, in fact. The computer ran hot. And by hot I mean so hot I had to use my passport to support my wrist or I would burn myself. Be that as it may, a small price to pay for such performance?
And then I installed world of warcraft. This game can hardly be too much of a power drain, I assumed.
It ran wow at 10fps.
Ten. FPS.
A few days after I arrived back in the uk, not so thrilled with it, my graphics card broke. Melted, in fact. I contacted alienware and asked for a replacement, as I was under warranty. They refused to accept it as a repair at their workshop in Ireland, and demanded that I replace the defective part myself. I said OK, accepting it as it was still free. They sent me a card that didn't fit.
I ring them back.
Oh, it's the wrong card.
OK, I'll send it back. And pay for shipping, because I was feeling nice.
They sent me the wrong card again. In the end I just said fuck it and demanded they take it in and repair it, and they did.
2 months after I received it back, it would no longer boot. So once more I ring them, and send it straight off. Except i'm no longer on warranty, as it expired 2 days earlier. Nice.
This time, they quote me 400 pounds for the repair.
OK, I think, might as well.
Then they send a bill for 1100 pounds. And ask me to pay delivery. It turned out that the hard drives, motherboard and processor were all broken.
And guess why?
Because the system used a desktop processor that wasn't adequately cooled, and it roasted everything inside like a devil's furnace. They had known about the problem, and the only way round was to run the laptop on a BANK OF HYPER-SPEED FANS. What. The. Fuck. Oh, and tell you this?
Of course they wouldn't.
So I declared it abandoned goods. They still have it, and I didn't pay them a penny for that repair, but fuck me they are terrible. I would strongly advise any of you considering buying an alienware to tell them to go fuck themselves and buy something good.
I bought an alienware in the past. It couldn't use java out of the box. I tried downloading anything I could find to fix it, but nothing helped. It developed video issues later on. I contacted customer support and come to find out the only nvidia drivers alienware supported were several months old. No way in hell I was going to switch to outdated drivers. Overall my whole experience with them was terrible. The only reason I bought an alienware was that I didn't want to end up in the training room once my unit figured out that I was a new guy that could build computers. I'll never buy from them again.
Was it a P4? If so
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I think so.
Anyways he quit and I had to reformat the laptop and stuff. I had to update drivers and all that. But to get the drivers and basically any info on the laptop I had to go through a retarded process of signing up on their site to prove I was the owner or something.
At the time they had no way to facilitate transferring ownership through any of the account functions so when we sold it we had to provide a driver disc (which they didn't - or it got lost) and told the guy good luck on getting any support (it had a long warranty, too).
TL;DR: Alienware sucks.
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Well, I bet you register ownership of the machine when you buy it. I do that with Apple for example, so if my machine gets stolen, it can always be traced back to me via the serial number.
If I was to sell my Mac, I would let Apple know about it, so they can un-register me. I'm betting the original owner of that Alienware laptop forgot to do that.
Though I doubt Apple would refuse to sell me a remote or adapter if I refused to provide my serial number.
I must be one of those mythical people who never had any problems, because it ran great, aside from the fact that it had to be sent back in due to the graphics cards cracking after I hooked it up, due to the people who gave me it as a gift keeping it out in their garage for half a month in below-freezing conditions.
The cooling system also broke down at one point, but that was due to me using the thing as a server for about a year. They also found a bunch of other problems when I sent it back in as well and fixed them. So their technicians are pretty good in my eyes.
I was even considering upgrading it, as well. I was going to do it myself, but I renewed the warranty, so I assume I can't put the extra RAM I want in myself.
Now, WidowPC. Those guys are fuckers. I got a "high performance" laptop that was made by them as a gift from someone else about four years ago that literally short circuited and burst into flames after locking up and crashing about a dozen times. I must have sent that thing back in about ten times, and they kept sending it back broken until the warranty on it ran out.
When I called them to bitch at them at their service, the service tech told me that "a laptop like that was like an expensive car, you aren't supposed to run it that often".
Absolutely. Fucking. Mindblowing.
Edit: The WidowPC laptop also produced a hellish amount of heat before we sent it back in the first time. I'm pretty sure it raised the temperature in the room I used it in by about ten degrees. Turns out they forgot to install working fans the first time around.
Woooo.
They wouldn't send this guy some metal? Sony sent me some metal for free once. They're swell chaps.
I haven't recommended Alienware to anyone for a long long time, and rightly so.
Alienware has always been overpriced and over the top in some cases, but their machines are hardly 'pieces of shit' as some people have said.
When I used to subscribe to PC gamer, they'd often show photos of of the desktop with its case opened up when doing hardware reviews.
Alienware, Falcon NW, and other high end brands typically looked...
Whereas a Dell or Ibuypower would typically look
or even much messier
Look, I'm not saying that's a huge redeeming quality, but Alienware's certainly aren't pieces of shit. They've always put out well built machines with the latest technology at the highest cost.
I don't see what's to get into a fluster about (regarding Alienware backlash in general, not the specific case in the OP), considering they target a niche market. I mean, I'm certainly not getting an Alienware. Maybe if I had thousands of dollars to burn, I'd look into their high-end rigs that are dripping with ridiculously fast and cutting edge components, but I don't have thousands of dollars to burn...so I don't worry about Alienware. I don't fit into their niche market.
And so here I am, typing on my totally adequate HP.
edit: Man, I've been out of the hardware loop for a few years, but doing some quick research, maybe Alienware isn't as highly esteemed as it used to be. It seems like their customers service has taken a hit, anyway.
Yes, that was the crux of my point.
Personally, when I buy "the best money can buy", I want the best that money can buy. I expect that item to be better than the cheaper alternatives, and I certainly don't expect to buy an overheating piece of crap and then get verbally abused by the people I bought it from for $4000 when I can buy a similar performing system for half the price elsewhere.
Alienware has long touted themselves to be the "premium" high-end computer company, and are proud enough of their computers to charge beyond a premium price. It doesn't matter what expensive parts are in the machine or how pretty it looks when you keep having one part blow up, rendering the entire system useless.
Can we agree that if you're going to go for that super-high-end niche market, Falcon Northwest is rad as all hell?
I remember a few years ago, you could opt to pay a hundred or so extra and your desktop case would have the same material finish that's used on car bodies. Sounds tacky, but the review I read said it was incredibly slick.
And like I said, I'd never drop money on crazy stuff like that, but for the market Falcon goes after, it does pretty well. I mean, I'm talking about these Falcon's like I would some sort of luxury vehicle that I probably will never own. It's not practical for me and most others, but I can still admire the sort of effort they put into creating a rock solid, albeit overpriced, machine.
As an owner of one of those Alienware cases, I my impressions are not that favourable:
1. The actual case is a standard Chieftec case. No aluminium, like Lian Li, just standard sheet metal. And on top of that they put about 3 cm of their own designed plastic cover.
2. Since the Chieftec case inside of all that plastic isn't a very high build quality, the fitting of the plastic covers aren't that great, so opening and closing the case isn't perfect.
3. Alienware's own little "locks" for the side door cover and the front cover don't work that well either, especially after a few years of use.
4. Because of all the plastic, the case is quite larger than average, and lots heavier. And again, because of all the plastic, I guess the heat dissipation is obviously not that good.
It was first launched five or six years ago, so I'm not sure how the line is doing these days, but they were pretty sweet back when LAN parties, starcraft fests, etc. were more common.
They were more affordable, too. I think the launch price was around $1,200
Holy molly that looks sweet.
because believe it or not, people who review these machines work for a magazine, and these magazines like money. So the makers of these crappy machines go, 'Hey, we're gonna give you a metric fuck ton of us cash monies if you say our machine is good' which puts the reviewers in an awkward spot, 'Feed your family, or tell the truth'
Here's what I JUST purchased for $1,250
- HP Pavilion dv7t Entertainment PC
- 17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.4 GHz)
- 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 4650
- Built in mic, webcam, eSATA, all the other stuff.
Pros
--Holy crap the screen is huge and gorgeous
--The 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 is a beast for a laptop. I run TF2 at max settings, Dawn of War 2 on high, Supreme Commander on max settings, and Crysis on a mix of medium and high.
--This sounds minor, but it slowly dawns on you how cool it is--NO PORTS OR PLUGINS ON THE BACK SPINE, period. All jacks, ports, plugins, etc. are on the front or sides. No more tilting your screen forward, struggling to find a USB slot.
--Overall, it's just plain FAST. I've gone through several PCs in my lifetime, but none have seemed so snappy in everything from loading up file thumbnails, to opening programs. Granted, this is my first Core 2 Duo PC. I'm definitely digging the technology
--The material it's made out is a very sleek carbon-fiber-looking material. The keys are smooth like the keys of a piano.
--Most convenient volume controls I've seen in a long time. I despise those buttons that aren't really buttons...you know, the pressure sensitive areas that you sort of 'tap' to activate. Here's an exception. This laptop has a strip, about a quarter inch tall and two inches wide above the keyboard, lit by a while light. It has no texture, i.e. the white light strip is the only thing that makes it stand out...it feels like an ipod screen, and you flick left to turn the volume down, flick right to turn it up...just as if you were flicking through photos on your iphone or what have you. It's so much more tangible than clicking in a volume+ or volume- button.
(I believe the first pick is from the alt color scheme)
Cons:
That same material leaves fingerprints
The upgrade from 4gb DDR2 to 4gb DDR3 was too big of a jump for my wallet at least.
You'll have to take some time to take off the shit HP preinstalls onto the hard drive. Granted, some of it is actually nice, like the built in webcam software that's great for skype.
Other than that, I really haven't had it long enough to find any major flaws with it.
Basically, I never thought I'd own an HP, but this one definitely is rocking my world.
That's incredibly off base, my friend.
Actually, in a lot of cases, if your magazine was doing a review of "holy shit" top end computers, companies like Alienware would hand build the system (sometimes using "better" versions of the stock parts), test it repeatedly until it was tweaked flawlessly and running the highest numbers possible, send a rep/techie with the computer to your office who was there to make changes to the computer or add/subtract programs for each different benchmark test and game, and would personally explain every facet and nuance of the system, so the reviewer would be familiarized with it.
And yet, there were times when the system would STILL break down, blow up, short out, BSoD, or not do something it easily should. I remember reading where one time, the owner of a computer company personally drove to the magazine office after his brand's computer blew up and the tech didn't have the parts on him, so he took everyone at the office to lunch at a posh place while the tech ran back to the computer company, rebuilt the computer from scratch, ran the same programs that the magazine was using to test the system, and then took the new computer back.
The computer scored very highly
Long story short, those "review" computers go through stress testing and TLC that the regular computers they send jerks like us never, ever see.
AFAIK DD3 is pretty pointless.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
They only fit MicroATX motherboards in those things, but aside from that it's nice. You can buy just the case now and build it yourself if you're inclined.
Gaming laptops in general are going to be heavy, overheat-prone, crappy on battery life, and difficult or impossible to upgrade once any of the parts (typically the graphics card) are obsolete.