Alienware 17r4 - My pain History, Two Laptops broken in 6 months. No refund, weird support

My Original thread on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...ware_17r4_my_pain_history_two_laptops_broken/

Hello here,

This is my sad history, with a "premium" laptop/brand. I bought my Alienware 17r4 with a 1080 and 7820HK about 8 months ago. It's a laptop that cost me more or less 3000$. I used the laptop for make my freelance job and gaming. I work with 3D package and rendering.

The first issue was in the first three months, the laptop was insanity hot. Cores with 100 and distance between cores about 8-9 degrees, so I contacted with Dell, and they sent me a technician with a new heat sink, they installed the new heat sink and paste. Same result, laptop hot. They sent again other technician with a new motherboard, again hot. They replace my laptop with one REFURBISHED, which I accepted in a good faith. Ok, I got the laptop I run a couple test and It was a little hot, but acceptable.

Three weeks ago, again the laptop insanely hot. 100C in CPU and 90 in GPU, I contacted again with Alienware through Twitter. They sent me a technician. The guy spent almost 4 hours, they mount and dismount the laptop 3 times, with weird noises. And It doesn't START!!!! I was in the middle of a freelance , with no computer to make my job and losing money. I explained that to the technician, he called to his manager and explain the situation. I spoke with the manager and he told me , ok I'm going to escalate the situation for a possible refund, due of you use the laptop to work. Ok 1 week after, I get the call a couple hours ago and They have just told me that it's not possible to refund the money. They want to send other technician with more pieces!, I have screws the laptop it doesn't run. And Alienware is offering me this solution.

Justice, it's to tell the truth to all the people here. Because you are going to pay a lot of money , for a piece of HW, that you should know that probably if you have problems. They are going to offer this solutions.

I'm losing money, I can't make my freelances and this SUCKS.

Thanks Alienware

 

If you want Alienware you have to do your own maintenance. That is a simple fact.

The technician is only going to replace a faulty design heatsink with another faulty design heatsink. Since that is all they can do. I would suggest if you get the machine working again to read the forums first and decide if you want to do it yourself (the strategies to combat terrible temperatures) or sell the machine and move on to something else.

Alienware has had known QC issues ever since 2014 (Echo and forward) and people still buy it.

 

Finally, I got a contact with Alienware tech guys directly, and We got a solution happy for both parts. I will say that they understand all my concerns and they offered my a good solution. As gamer I love Alienware, and when Dell has been apart of the process, all things has been smooth and quick. I will continue buying their products.

 

Well its good that their support is excellent, just wish it wasnt warranted as often as it has been of late...

 

should have done stress test when you first get it when it is still within the refund period. And just keep ordering new ones until you are satisfied. It is much faster this way than going through their service. I have gone through 4 17R4 in a 2 weeks period. The one i kept has being though every stress and came out perfect. No lines in the screen, no stuttering on the GTX1080, no overheat, no core temp differential. 10 month later it is still good as new.

 

You say this after all you've been through.........strange....

That is exactly why Dellienware has dropped the ball so bad and lost their throne as the king of high performance, it’s because of people like you who accept the fact that they buy an expensive laptop only to deal with downtime since the laptop doesn’t work well out of he box and accept having multiple technicians come over to try to fix the issue and at the end of all this say.... I will continue to buy their products instead of shoving the darn thing in their management’s face!

@Mr. Fox @Papusan @bloodhawk @Falkentyne

 

What about me? @Phoenx
And um....yeah...buying a product after it burns you in a face because of blind loyalty and riding Alienware's glory days (BEFORE they became Origin PC?). Like....dude...
that's a woman being domestic violenced by a man, leaving him then running back to him again .....again...........you cant complain about stuff if you refuse to make a change.

 

Brand loyalty is damn dangerous. They will continue screw you if you don't say NO thanks with your wallet. No money from you, means a needed change must and have to come. This apply for all brands. If they can't deliver....

 

First of, my name is Phoenix not Phoenx

Second of all, I forgot j00, sorry, I tagged you now

 

Lol, its a tripod. What'd you expect more?

 

A reason why dellienware and razer still thrive...... Read the reviews on amazon and people buy razer thinking "I'll get a good laptop", which means they know its gonna be bumpy, but still, they'll buy it. Have to agrre with phoenx too

 

Reviews on sales pages around the world are not much worthwhile. A lot of scams even if the owner of the sales sides says the opposite. Use Google Translate.

 

I sitll buy ALienwares even though that I might could expect that it needed to be repasted (I actually didnt have temperature problems out of the box) is that even if it needed a repaste it is a well made laptop. Can buy a MSI with good out of the box thermals but it is hard to fix a poor chassis afterwards.

I have tested a **** ton of laptops and in the end they all have some issues so in the end I choose a laptop with issues that I can fix and which suits my needs.

 

They must have made him happy, or offered him some really good service or something. To state he will continue to buy Dell Products. But, as long as its fixed. That's all that matters.

I'm fortunate to have had a smooth laptop experience with my very first laptop. Its tough to avoid things like this though. I imagine some technicians are not always very good though... Since he kept getting the same results.

 

Dell tends in general after a long struggle to just give an upgraded laptop with better specs. My first Alienware needed a battery swap, technician came but ruined the chassis, came again, could not fix it. After that they gave me an AW15R2 with double the ram, upgraded GPU, double the storage etc.

 

Yea my warranty stretches out to practically the year 2020. It would be nice to have an issue so far out, and they give me something newer! That's a shot in the dark though. But it would be nice!