Alienware claims to be a high end company delivering premium computers with equally top notch service. When I was looking for a performance beast as my next main desktop machine I decided that I was willing to pay the extra price for a blazing machine and the kind of service that they were promising.
When you look at the Alienware website you are promised that from the moment you place an order with them they will give you a quality experience. You are ordering a top quality machine, they will "build it as if it were your own", and you will be able to track the up to the minute status of your order until it arrives at your door.
When I placed my order by phone with them I was told that it would be about 30 days for my machine to arrive. Knowing that 30 days is a pretty long time in terms of prices I asked if the price dropped before then would I receive the difference and was told of course I would! I was also quite a bit surprised that their order process goes that they charge your credit card right away for the full price of the machine, even before they check to make sure that nothing will be on backorder. Now I actually thought I had heard that by law companies aren't allowed to bill the customer until they are preparing the goods for shipment, but decided not to make a big deal of that.
Now let me take a minute to mention that I am NOT the most patient person in the world when I'm waiting for a new toy to arrive - I's sure this comes as a shock. However, since these guys specialize in selling gaming computers to people who live for first person shooter games, my level of patience is probably pretty typical of their customers.
Now that they had my money I'll tell you that their up to the minute order tracking system is a total mess - they have 14 phases that the machine goes through during the process. It certainly wasn't kept up to date for my order - after not seeing any activity for the better part of a week, so I called their order status person and would find out that it was in a different phase than their website claimed. After phase 3 I don't think the status page was ever up to date once. Nothing like the experience promised before the purchase.
I'd also keep watch on their product page to see if the price changed. Ten days after placing my order I noticed that the price dropped about $50. I sent an email to sales asking for a credit of the difference. Sure, came the response, he'll forward the note to the right person. Then nothing else for a few days, so I called them to find out about the credit. I had to sit on the phone while he went through the entire configuration process to determine that I was correct, then wait while he made the credit. All's well that ends well, I just wish I didn't have to babysit on the phone and that it had been handled by my first email.
Then at last on Friday morning my machine entered Phase 9 (Assembly and Integration)! I know this because I called their order status line - their website still said that machine was in Phase 6. Fifteen days after charging my credit card $2992 they were actually putting some parts together!
I got a FedEx shipment notification Tuesday morning (of course their website still said the machine hadn't been shipped yet). Amazing how they went through assembly, software installation, "burn in", and performance testing in two business days. I wonder how long their "burn in" process takes...
On Thursday morning I'm telling someone about the new hot machine I'm expecting and show it to him on the Alienware website. Amazingly enough the price has dropped to $2754. I called them expecting them to cheerfully give me a credit for the difference. I was informed that since the machine had shipped they would not give me the lower price EVEN THOUGH I HAD NOT EVEN RECEIVED THE MACHINE YET! They said that this policy is documented on their website - After looking through the terms of the sale I still can't find mention of that. All my information about their lower price policy came from the salesperson telling me it was no problem. I inquired about returning the system, but was told that I'd pay a 15 percent restocking fee which is $448!
So the net is that I haven't even received the machine yet and already Alienware has failed miserably in customer satisfaction. Their online order status makes for a good show, but is pretty useless. You can end up overpaying for your system before it even shows up at your door. They have no practical return policy - they can tick you off all they want, but without giving up almost FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS (plus shipping) you can't get away from them.
I have built a number of systems from scratch and bought a few complete systems. Since this new machine is going to be the new flagship system I decided to go for the premium customer experience that Alienware promised. Now I realize that I should have just picked the parts from www.newegg.com, received everything in a couple of days instead of a few weeks, and spent time enjoying my new premium system instead of playing games with Alienware's ordering process. I'd have saved a fair amount of money if I had.
The Alienware site talks about the "Alienware Difference". For me that difference has been nothing but frustration.
I've received a few questions from this website and have a few updates.
The most common question I get is whether the machine is all that it is cracked up to be. The answer isn't going to be completely satisfying, but is "it depends". It depends on what your level of technical experience is, what you want to use the machine for, and what is important to you. In my own case I am very experienced, wanted the machine for software development, picture and video editing, and general purpose use, I don't play games much at all (occasional Flight Simulator user). I rarely if ever have to call tech support and when I do it's to get a part replaced that I have already determined is faulty. When building a machine myself I have strong opinions about what are the "right" brands to get and exactly what items I want, and appreciate build quality. Appearance is nice, but flash is a bit less important. I will mention that my Alienware computers looks VERY impressive, one tip I'd give is to remove the side panel and blast the dust out of the intake grills with canned air every once in a while - aside from giving you the chance to see they wiring artwork and improving airflow, you'll be amazed at how much that dust can dim the light from the illuminated fans. The big door on the front which hides the drive bays and the power/reset switches is something I have come to appreciate even more now that my one year old son has turned off other computers in the house because the power button was right up front.
The build quality of my Alienware computer is top notch. The parts they choose to offer are the ones I'd pick myself, no compromises there at all. The skill in assembling the machine is also top notch. If you open the case you will see the cables arranged and in the case of ribbon cables folded so neatly you'll feel guilty if you ever need to touch them to add something to the system. The irony here is that this doesn't actually mean much technically (some people will talk about improved airflow, but for a long time now computers have had such reduced cabling from year ago that it just doesn't make any difference anymore), the machine doesn't have a window in the side, so you'd have to open the case just to see what I'm talking about, and a lot of their customers would really have little reason to ever do so. Alienwares biggest talents in my opinion are marketing coolness, choosing good high end parts, and artistic build quality, and the build quality is art that many people don't see.
Marketing coolness is what you see on their website, and their order status process is part of that. They make a big show out of the complexity of their process because that custom experience is what they're selling. Here is where I'm convinced it is all fluff and no substance. The order process isn't designed to tell you precisely where your system is in the process, it's designed to impress you. Personally I'm just not impressed when the online status is several steps different from what they tell you on the phone. If this coolness matters to you and you don't dig very deep, then Alienware is where you should buy your next computer.
Now the ugly... When I first got the computer, the remote control for the Soundblaster Audigy didn't work. One thing you may not know is that most video cameras can see infrared, so if you aim a working IR remote at one of them you can see the light flashing. So if you don't see any flashing and you've checked the battery, then you know for absolute sure that the remote is defective. That's exactly what I did. I called Alienware support knowing full well I had a defective remote, no issue with the actual internal or external pieces connected to the computer at all, and certainly not a software problem. When I called to explain this to them and request a replacement, they did not understand this and made me reinstall all the software that came with the Audigy before they would accept that the hardware was bad. I admit that Dell would probably have done the same, but these guys were supposed to be top notch experts so they should have known it was stupid.
After all that fuss they decided they agreed with me and would send out a replacement Soundblaster Audigy (they couldn't just replace the remote - I would have to replace the card in the computer and everything, seems silly, but I guess it's reasonable. They assured me when I asked that I would be getting a brand new replacement, not a refurb. When I got the replacement, it did NOT arrive in new and originally packaged condition. The pieces had been removed from their packaging and were floating around in the box. The plastic tab you usually have to pull to engage the battery in the remote had already been removed. Nothing was damaged, but it was clearly a restock of some kind. I called Alienware about this because for such a premium price I paid for new, not opened. The support person insisted that the unit was totally brand new and unopened when they shipped it and actually blamed Fedex saying that they must have opened it. Now seriously, if you're going to lie to me, at least make it believable! Fedex opened the box, removed extra packaging material, pulled the battery tab, didn't steal anything, wrapped everything back up, and delivered it to me on time - yeah RIIIGHHT! I'm sure that happens ALL the time...
Alienware makes a big deal of the fact that they optimize your machine individually for maximum performace. I think personally that they overblow this, but they do in fact make some changes and set up some overclocking. In my own case this caused the built in networking to become a bit unstable and the machine would often crash when transferring big files over my network. I don't remember the exact details, but after lots of time and hairpulling, I finally fixed this by backing off of some of the overclocking they did. I can't imagine what dealing with their tech support would have been like to resolve this issue.
What's the bottom line? If you want a high performance, hot looking gaming computer, but aren't skilled enough to pick all the right components yourself, then you're an obvious Alienware customer and they will sell you a high quality unit for a permium price. I've seen other gaming computer cases that I think start to look silly, and I think that Alienware provides unique style without crossing the line into tacky. If you are comfortable with picking your own parts, assembling the machine, and installing the OS, then I'd say skip the marketing from Alienware and go build something yourself - I recently built a machine from parts which is just as fast and high quality as my Alienware box without the premium price - check out cases by Cooler Master. I have one of their Cavalier 1 cases in black and it isn't the monster that my Alienware case is, is a bit more understated, but is very solid, quiet, and minimalist/modern looking.