Alienware pre-on site repair

Hi,

I was about to make an arrangement for a on-site repair until Alienware requested some diagnosis before a time and place be given. Is this common practice or is something sketchy going on here? I've never had to deal with this issue and I don't want something stupid resulting. What was weirder was that they requested me to send it to their factory in a box and I knew that instance that once I do that, I wouldn't know what would happen there. Lastly, how is their service? I've heard many past horror stories, and I don't want to be caught in between it. I only have a minor crack in the screen, so no biggie if I don't get it replaced. I would rather not risk the system as a whole...

Thanks in advance for any inputs!!!

 

What kind of warranty do you have ?
If it's in home service you can demand that, just say you aren't going to send it anywhere since you paid for that in home service.

 

I'm not sure what Home service is, but I purchased the full coverage for a year so... They won't send a technician to my place until I run their diagnosis. I assume they want to take control of my computer for a while and run some tests off of it or something.

 

Oh, so that's ok, i must have misunderstood you, i though they want you to send it to their depot for a diagnosis.
If it's only remote diagnostics they run on your laptop - sounds reasonable to me.

 

Oh no you didn't lol, they did initially ask me to send it in, and I gave them a firm NO, because I heard how that usually ends up. But if I only requested a screen change, is it really mandatory to run a check on the rest of the system?

 

no it's not, but there's lots of kinds of crazy happening when you deal with tech support
Best course of action would be to let them i guess.

 

Rule #1 of dealing with customer support - if you get an answer you don't like, hang up and call back until you get an answer you do like.

If you paid for onsite or in-home service, then you should get onsite / in-home service. You are perfectly justified in pushing back to their request of asking you to send your laptop in.

If they ask why, tell them that you bought a laptop with onsite / in-home service, because you specifically wanted to make sure that you wouldn't be without a laptop for 2 weeks for them to repair it. Nowhere in the warranty description does it say that the onsite / in-home service only applies to some types of problems, but not others. I would stay away from the entire idea of horror stories from people sending their laptops in... if you are trying to get someone to do something for you, there is no point in insulting them before you get what you want.

And again, if you call, and do not get an answer you like, hang up and call again to speak with someone else. When you are dealing with people in customer support, you will quite often be dealing with people that would rather give you incorrect information, than say "I don't know the answer to that question" or "I don't know how to do that".

 

They explained to me that they wanted to run the diagnostic to see if there are any other problems so that they can address them allin one visit. Its harmless and its part of the bios. I did it while on the phone with them. It checks the functionailty of all the components including a full memory check as well.

 

Thanks for all the input guys!