Long journey to Alienware 15 + GA + PNY GTX 980 TI

I’m Angry!!!!


Goodday everyone!

Sorry for long post.


After almost a month of ordering, canceling, talking to representatives, shipping back, waiting… I feel I’m giving up… I feel I just need to let others know …


So, my story is simple: my old Alienware m17xR3 is old (yet working). Decided to get a new one -> Alienware 15 R2 + Graphic Amplifier (thinking it may reduce thermal load on NB plus better graphics is a nice to have thing) + PNY GTX 980 Ti 6Gb card.

Placed an order on April 3rd (Sunday) at 3pm. Dell billed my card in 3 transactions. Two went through; one (for graphic card) was stopped because bank suspected fraud and notified me. Well, solved a problem with a bank. Received 2 emails from Dell – one with Order Confirmation, another one with a note about card problems. They said I need:

1. talk to my bank
   
   
2. talk to Dell Credit Card department, and If I do not talk to them within 24 hour window they will cancel my order.
   

They also said they would try to charge my card again _the_next_business_day_.

April 3-th was a Sunday.

Dell phone support of any type does not work on Sundays – cannot call them. Ok, I can call them on Monday, right?.

On Monday at 4 am I am receiving an email informing me my order for graphic card got cancelled. WTF? I checked online order status, and guess what? Order for notebook got cancelled too. WTFx2? They probably decided I just need an empty GA to play with….

Entire Monday I spend in attempts to reach support to re-enable my order. Credit Card department, Modification department, Member Service Department, some other departments. On 5 or 6-th transfer to some other department I finally found someone willing me to help… BTW, CC department is close to impossible to reach; wait time is more than an hour on a regular day.

Rep told me there is nothing can be done at this point, but to cancel remaining parts of the order and to place a new one. Ok. However, this particular representative cannot cancel orders; she said I need to talk to some other department for that. Ok. Configured new order placed it. Amplifier was scheduled for delivery on April 14th, Notebook on April 19th, Graphic Card – on _MAY_2_ND_ .

After that representative transferred me over to _cancellation_ department who was unable to cancel the remaining parts of an order because “your account was blocked by Credit Card Department, you need to talk to them first”. REALLY? Remember CC Department wait time was/is 1+ hour, so I gave up.

I tried to call them later and.. this is just beautiful … I’ve never heard anything like this before: “Thank you for calling Dell. Unfortunately, all employees of our department attending a meeting now. Please call us back in an hour”…isn’t it beautiful?

I called Dell next day and cancel order (remaining part) for Graphic amplifier. I did not get any confirmation of order cancellation, but rep assure me “everything is taken care of”… Well, few days later Dell charged my card for GA from old order and for GA from new order and for NB. Graphic card staus was ”In production”

Within next 2 weeks I received NB and 2 GAs. Returned one - used online to submit return request, but never received neither instructions nor shipping label, so have to call support one more time.

Now, I’m waiting for Graphic card. Today estimated delivery date moved right to May 12. Called Dell to figure out why. They told me the card was/is backordered multiple times and I need to talk to modification department so they can solve the problem (free upgrade to a higher grade card was mentioned). Transferred me to modification department. They assure me they cannot do _anything_, because they deal with _computers_, _laptops_, _alienware_, but not with graphic cards. When I mentioned this card is bundled with Graphic Amplifier, and even more, this is Dell Recommended option when ordering GA, they say: “we are really sorry, but we cannot do anything about that” and suggested me to talk to Accessories Department. There rep said me the _only_ card they have is some Nvidia GTX 980 4Gb for $607…
Really? REALY?


You are offering a variety of card in combination with GA - all possible combination of from GeForce 970- to 980 Titan X on your site and none of this cards are in stock???


Really?


So, question is: shall I give up and take my money to someone who is more interested in them? Or wait until Dell have someone more skillful on a support line?

 

Dell has been pretty good about getting me my stuff in a timely manner, but if I were you, I would take my money and go somewhere else. That's ridiculous.

 

I ended up getting a refurb GA for about 125 and a 980 TI on ebay for about 600-ish. I'd buy those from somewhere else, but get the laptop through dell. My 1.5 cents worth

 

Well, I never had such expirience before, not with Dell, nor with Lenovo or HP. My past orders with Dell ( couple monitors, my old Alienware m17x R3) were just smooth and easy - order, pay, get. But this one is... It is like a sign from a heaven . Everything is wrong. I received my Alienware 15 R2 though, happy with it now (but even with it I had few unpleasant minutes at home - started installing drivers & apps and Windows bluescreened with some _KERNEL_SECURITY_FAULT, IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Was unable to even boot it beyond logon screen. Clean install solved everything, but this 30 minutes were... disappointing.. Now it is up and running w/o any problems. The only missing piece is a card for an empty GA...