Why I will never buy another Dell/M14X

Not sure if this is the right forum to post, but I had to get the word out on my experience.

I bought an M14X on black friday 2011.

First issue that comes up: Alienware software would not work and crashes OS. This is after about 2 months of using it. New bios update.

Dell support (Jose from Costa Rica): Tells me I should re-image the OS. This causes me to lose a good amount of data.
I managed to back everything up.

1 week after re-image: Entire laptop won't boot up. Beeping non-stop.

Dell support (Jose, with supervisor Julio): Issues a service call at my house. Mobo replacement.

The technician takes apart everything, scratches some of the plastic. It was painful watching the whole process on a 2-3 month old laptop.

1 week after mobo replacement: Entire laptop won't boot up again.

Dell support: I can't verify your name on this laptop, someone noted that there was a liquid spill on the laptop.

This last dell support is the one that had to complain about. How in the world did these malicious notes make it onto my account? How the heck did the name on the laptop change?! The only people I had spoken to were Jose and Julio. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that there was a malicious act. Although I was an upset customer, to get back at me you modified my notes on my account?

For a supervisor to allow something like this to happen... well... Dell... what do you think?

 

There's your problem

No, in all seriousness, this really does just seem like a large amount of bad luck concerning the hardware components.

However I have never come across dell purposefully changing customer notes.
They believe you spilled liquid - Perhaps it was confusion on reviewing the service tag - One letter or number different can and most always does gives a different machine thats within the same line.

 

Yeah yours is a badluck. My customer service and M14x is great up to now. My M14x was a refurbished model, so they dont include a custom name plate, I just emailed them if there is a way to get one or not and 3 days later it was in my mail box.

 

Customer service is horrendous. I'd post my experience but I've done it too many times already.

 

sorry to hear that. the customer service and quality control suck, but if you get a functional machine it is awesome

 

i dont know what u guys are talking about, the service is generally good much better than average especially for alienware.

yes i had to turn my machine in once after it just died after 6 months.... lots of overclocking =D and abuse, but they recieved it and sent it back no questions asked.

when i got it back, the gpu was not working, just the igpu, and again customer service..... yes after about an hour on the phone (just standard procedures) they sent a tech out who switched the mobo in about 45 minutes.

after that i had a perfectly "new" m14x.

ur problem.... black friday...

 

I have never faced problem with dell tech support in my area. If i am facing a problem, i call them, explain them the issue, if possible, they try standard diagnostics but incase that fails, they simply send a tech to replace the the hardware; no questions asked. In my opinion Dell is providing a pretty good tech support. Maybe your information got mixed up by some other m14x user. Stuff like this happens all the time. botched data entry is no big deal. Just talk to them again and they will rectify it.

 

I am about to be on motherboard number 2, never overclocked the laptop as of yet. My first replacement was DOA (well after 24 hours it died again) so now waiting on motherboard number 2... maybe this time they will apply the thermal compound i give them (and clean off the heatsink etc).

 

ummm....isn't that the definition of crappy customer service that you were given a product that didn't work?!?

 

considering they ship hundreds of these systems out a week There is bound to be some problems. Dell has always been quick to fix any issues I have ever had. Come up with another company that has in-house repairs and an awesome four year warranty.

 

Honestly...who do you know that will replace or refund a customer's laptop within their 1 year warranty?

Bad batches happen and can't be controlled. However, please remember that people with bad units are more outspoken vs people with good units because they have no reason to post about it lol.