My Dell Residential/Alienware support experience.

Okay, So I will preface this by stating that the damage at the beginning of this epic was 100% hands down my fault.

Day 0: (Thursday)
I plugged the coaxial SATA connector that both of my RAID drives are plugged into, into the seemingly like ODD connector.. You know.. For science.
Obviously I fried my bus, fire, smoke, flames.. Hard-disks were still functional, but the socket and connector were fried.

With my device I have played very fast and loose with OC'ing, Custom BIOS (work in progress, please don't ask) and flashing VBIOS for the 780m (I've currently been able to OC both cards to their performance desktop counterparts, but this is a tale for another writeup). This is because I spent a total of 800 additional dollars for accidental damage, next day parts and extended time.
I have extensive experience with Dell on the business side and am a certified tech once again, through business. In the past their support has been instant, and pain free. They ship me parts, I ship faulty ones back.

I called Alienware support, and was told that it doesn't matter who I talk to, what I do, or even if I cry, I have to send it in to their depot for repair/replacement because there was fire and ti's a safety issue. They assure me it will be an expedited repair and I will have it back within the week.

Day 1: (Friday) I receive the box, and ask the Fed-Ex driver to remain in the parking-lot packaged the device, shipping it without the hard drives as I deal with HIPAA clients and have some of their data on there.

Day 2: (Monday) The box was received from fedex and was in signed possession of Dell.

Day 3: (Tuesday) The status on the Depot page was finally updated making me think that there was some type of internal transfer, that... somehow took an entire day.

Day 4: (Wednesday) My device is placed on an engineering hold, No matter who I spoke with, no one could tell me why.

Day 5: (Thursday) One week from original call my device finally was under repair

Day 6: (Friday) Device still under repair

Day 6.5 (Saturday counted as half as it's a weekend) Device released from Depot, and shipped next day.

Day 7 (Monday) I receive the laptop, and lo and behold. It's missing 5 screws and all 32gb of ram.

At this point, I had contacted support 3 times, asking twice why the device was under engineering hold, and once why the replacement mobo took an entire day to place in.

I also need to point out that I work as a MSP, I deal with customer support techs displaying a wide variety of skill levels, personalities and business gumption. I never raise my voice, or curse, or threaten, or really anything unsavory; I simply speak finally, and don't allow for excuses.

I called Dell/Alienware, immediately asked for an L2/Supervisor after verifying my identity and the depot repair case/service tag. I also had on the line a senior account rep from my Premier dell partner account as it was purchased through them, with the acknowledgment that this is a residential class and nothing they can really do other than provide backup.

When I spoke with the L2/Supervisor, they were a bit baffled as to why there was no RAM, and why the case was missing screws. She was unsure, and told me, that even though we are a certified repair shop, she would have to ship the replacement parts to a tech, 80 miles away and that Dell would be offering reperations for the screw up. As I've heard such things before, I had her note that in the case, and opted to discuss these matters when the device was once again in working order.

Day 9 (Wednesday) I receive a call from Dell telling me that my parts are now back-ordered and will take up to a week to get back into the shop. This baffled me as I had a tracking number for fedex, and had tracked it all the way to the repair shop the tech would be dispatched from.

I looked up their number, called them, and they told me that they split the order, installed the sticks in other devices that needed them and back-ordered my order.

At this point, I can honestly say I was livid, it took me about 3 cups of coffee and 8 cigarettes to be able to pick up the phone and contact Dell, again.

I asked for the L2/Supervisor's manager to join us on the call before discussing any details after initial hellos. I explained the situation, and requested that this case be personally assigned to her, and that she contact me once a day until the case is resolved with an update. I had her double dispatch the parts back to the tech, and to me.

Day 11 (Friday) The L3/Manager contacted me to tell me that I was correct, and that the RAM and screws were being dispatched to me before the tech, and that I should expect them on Day 12 (Monday) I thanked her very much and once again, neglected to discuss reparation/reimbursement until the device was fully functioning.

Day 12 (Monday) I receive the box, look down and try and glean anything from my coffee, it stares at me blankly as I cut open the box holding seemingly the most coveted pieces in the dell warehouse. Silver anti-static bags light my eyes and I'm reminded of Christmas, only to turn them over and find in big, black text. REFURBISHED.

. . . ....

I have never seen RAM in worse shape, one seems to have been at one point or another, chewed on. Contacts corroded like pennies that hobo's are too lazy to pick out of the public fountain, scrapes across the IC's just.. a mess... Oh.. And to add just the tiniest bit more of spittle, only 3 of 5 screws.

Again, multiple cups of coffee, many cigarettes and maybe a half hour staring at the sun, wondering who.. Just who I pissed off in the customer support world to deserve this type of treatment.


Upon calling the manager, and no longer being as personable as I had been in my past talks (we had become first name close during the few days they called me every day with no updates) I adopted what is best described as a terse manner of speech. Letting her know exactly how unacceptable this was, and how never.. ever in my life would I have expected this degree of incompetence from the same company I buy $80,000 SAN's from. This, being the highest spec, highest price laptop out of their inspiron, latitude, and even the precision workbooks deserves exactly the amount of support that I paid for, and I am now, willing to talk about what Dell was willing to offer me.

Which turned to be an entirely brand new replacement, not refurb replace, Brandy New. Oh, And an additional 6 months full warranty.


In conclusion, I have to say that the Dell Residential repair team has a large amount of rather ridiculous policy, the hoops I had to jump through, the general lack of understanding from the L1's it's left me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. But I can happily say that I am pleased with the resolution of the problem and would continue to recommend Dell/Alienware to others.

PS If someone wants to contact me, to work with OC'in RAM values, I have this wonderful test rig that seems pretty disposable now.

 

You seem to have pretty intriguing stories for a new member to the forum. I'll be on the lookout for the stuff that you've only hinted at so far..

 

wow lol quite the story !

this is why i never wanted to send my laptop.. i am pretty sure they let loose a couple of monkey at night as guard dog ... and they brake stuff lol

 

I'm shocked about the issues that you had to go through, but I'm truly grateful that you also shared that we were able to give you a good resolution after what happened. If you ever need help with anything like this again, or know somebody that may need help, let me know directly and I'll do my best to help.

 

Just as an update. This is my replacement