In the past, I had some pretty terrible experiences with Dell computers. On two separate occasions, I lost my drives just close to when the warranties were up. Part of me does not believe this was a coincidence. Fortunately, laptop drives are pretty easy to replace so I didn’t bother trying to replace them through Dell. However, I did lose some data which wasn’t entirely backed up to one of my spare drives. I did lose my Windows partition because they started to not ship Windows CDs any longer and required you to restore from a special sector on the original disc. Why they didn’t include a spare disc with the system, I have no idea.
That said, my laptop was purchased around the time another person I knew had bought a similar model. Not coincidentally as I believe, both of our drives died roughly within days of each other. And I had mentioned above the warranties were expiring around that time frame. Of course, around that time I think Dell attempted to contact us both to upgrade the warranties. I decided against it previously as I figured that it really wasn’t worth the money. But the experience did cast a very dark cloud over the company in my eyes.
Then almost a little over a year ago, I decided to make my first gaming rig purchase. I had a really crappy desktop system that was dying a horrible death because it was 7 years old. Any new games could not run on it and the only thing I could do with it was play older games. Instead, I was using my Macbook and my company’s Macbook to run games that really weren’t designed for the Macbook, which is why I ended up looking for a gaming machine. Besides, I never had ever spent money for high end systems just to play games and I was doing decently income wise to make that type of purchase. So which one did I go with? Of course, the only one I knew: Alienware.
Honestly, I should have done a significant amount of research prior to picking one up. I think once Dell had acquired Alienware the company suffered an incredible loss in terms of picking up Dell’s “cultural business habits.” I might’ve glossed over the fact that they were owned by Dell, but I figured that the situation couldn’t be that horrible. Perhaps, my bad luck with my laptop was due to the immense amount of travel I would do with it. A desktop ought to be far more solid, right?
So I ended up spending a ridiculous amount for this gaming rig as a birthday gift to myself. Little did I know the monster would be so bulky and loud on top of the fact that it would be almost like running a server. Most of my machines in the past were just sufficient enough to run games that were a few years old; I planned it that way since I really didn’t want to exceed a budget of around $500-800 max. Either way, I thought I would be extremely happy with this new system.
Over the course of the year, the system gradually degraded. First, the wireless device stopped working. Apparently, other customers had similar issues. I had to dig through this abomination of an interior to just push it back into place. While that temporarily resolved that issue, eventually the wireless device just died altogether. Along the way my Blu-Ray drive died. Since I mostly use the internet to acquire new games (e.g. Steam, WoW, etc.), I didn’t have a use for my Blu-Ray drive. However, I got an itch to play Baldur’s Gate 2 and Diablo 2. When I went to open the door, I realized that it stopped functioning. Needless to say, I was pissed and thought that I might’ve mishandled the cable for the Blu-Ray drive when I previously fixed the wireless device. But because it was such a hassle to open the case and go through all the wiring, I pretty much gave up as I didn’t feel the need to play those games at that point in time.
However, during the summer, we had a few brown outs in the area which caused my system to reboot a few times unexpectedly. That along with the stupid caregivers running microwaves and air conditioners that blew the house circuit breaker caused a few reboots unexpectedly. I did not have an APC device as mine had died and I pretty much did not have the money to go out and buy a new one. So my system I think got fried somehow as I would start experiencing odd reboots, occasional blue screens and numerous freezes.
Finally, my system died the other night, leading me to contact Dell/Alienware for support. Dell did contact me around March to renew my warranty on my system. Since I had plunked down a significant amount of change into this beast and that I had a few problems previously, I was a little paranoid about not having the support I needed. So in that sense I was fortunate because I would have access to the parts/labor coverage.
Regardless, the guy from Alienware had me open up the case and attempt to identify the issue. We took out the memory sticks and video card as I no longer was able to see anything from my monitors. There was several mysterious beeps (5 I believe) which led him to the conclusion that the motherboard needed to be replaced. So I had to schedule a repair guy and take the morning off from work just to get this thing serviced as Alienware/Dell does not offer weekend support. That said, I became extremely wary of the situation because I read on numerous forums that other customers with similar systems experienced the same situation. Not just with their system having problems but in how they were treated and how Alienware/Dell would respond by just sending a motherboard.
So I agreed having little choice nor much knowledge in the matter. The one time that my system blue screened badly though, I saw a very specific error message that pointed to the memory possibly being faulty. However, I could not properly test out the situation, which is why I decided to let these so-called experts to make their conclusion for me.
After scheduling the guy to come down, I was greeted by someone who vaguely spoke English. He brought in a new motherboard and switched everything. After plugging it in, once again my system failed to respond appropriately. The fan was louder than ever, the beeps were going off and the technician was forced to call in his support. Apparently, the support is located in India by some deaf guy who could not hear the beeps go off. Both these guys who barely could speak English were having an impossible time communicating with one another. Even the onsite technician was frustrated by the offsite support guy.
Of course, the new conclusion was to bring yet another motherboard in. I was pretty much appalled. He told me that I had to take it up with Dell/Alienware and that he had nothing more to do with the situation. Naturally, I would have to yet more time off for a situation that should’ve been resolved that day. So I decided to contact Alienware immediately and complain. This time the support guy was over in Costa Rica. WTF? Can’t I get a straight answer from someone local? The guy tried to calm me down because at this point, I just wanted a new system. His answer was that they would have to replace the motherboard again because it was “only” the first service call. On top of that when I said I wanted a new system, he said it would take at least a month before I could receive one because they would have to “find one and test it.”
Hold on for a second. Shouldn’t these systems be pre-made or at least have decent parts available and ready to go? Why should building a system take more than a few hours? In fact, why does it take about a fucking month for testing to be done? Obviously, the new motherboard that they gave me wasn’t tested as it didn’t solve the problem. What the hell is wrong with this company?
It’s funny how I read that Dell went private again and that a bunch of restructuring was being done. I mean, what happened? They were supposedly one of the best manufacturing companies around. It seems that somewhere in the 2000’s, they just slumped somehow and decided to trick everyone by providing faulty parts to scare people into buying their crappy warranties. Is that the business model? Shouldn’t the business model of any reputable PC manufacturer be to supply a solid machine that doesn’t fail so people want to buy a new one or easily upgrade the ones that they have? Shouldn’t a company whose purpose is to push out hardware focus on the customer care in an overly saturated market where service and quality make the ultimate difference in customer decisions?
And again, the situation is not just me alone. I’ve read numerous other customer complaints about Dell and Alienware. Apple has their share of issues too but my Macbook has been solid thus far. Outside of the power supply having issues, the system itself just “works.” And that’s how I like it. I don’t want bullshit from these companies trying to upsell me stuff I don’t need by purposefully shipping parts that have a shelf life of their warranties just to scare me into buying their warranties. That’s not a business plan. That’s extortion.
It’s a shame that Apple’s product line up is not as game oriented compared to the PC market. I really like Apple these days despite my aversion for years for their products. But I’m more impressed by them than the Windows platform. If Linux were more popular for desktops, I might even go back. But as far as I’m concerned, Dell is off my list. And it should be the same for you.