Below is my complaint to the Better Business Bureau about Alienware. It’s a little choppy since the BBB required the complaint be no longer than 2030 characters (spaces included!)….
My Alienware laptop was damaged on 10/27/06. The casing was cracked, the DVD drive was not reading, and the memory card reader and USB drive were damaged. 10/30/2006 told them what parts needed to be repaired, and I paid $282.18. I mailed the computer in, and waited several weeks before contacting customer support asking for an update. I was told that they were waiting on a video card. I expressed my concern, since the video card was not damaged at the time. Two weeks later, I tried contacting the company via the email form on their support site, but received no response. 12/07/2006 called again and was told that they were waiting on a video card. I expressed my concern and requested that they email me the status of the computer repair. I received an email thanking me for contacting customer service, but no mention of my computer’s repair status. 01/09/07 called again expressing grave concern that I had not received my repaired computer or sufficient information. Agent requested information from the depot, and said I should call in a few days to get that information. Before I could call back, I received my computer on 01/13/2007. The memory card reader and USB drive were repaired, but the casing and DVD drive had not been repaired. The Computer Repair Customer Receipt listed the card reader as being replaced, but made no mention of the USB drive, casing, DVD drive or the video card that they claimed needed to be replaced. Upon testing it, the internal wireless connection was no longer working–this wasn’t damaged before the computer was sent in for repair. Called technical support and was hung up on. I called back and complained about my past experiences and the wireless connection. Agent instructed me to open the wireless card port, which wasn’t seated properly upon initial view. I followed his instructions but it did not resolve the problem. I asked to mail the computer back in, and have them repair the casing, DVD, and wireless card. I have been told this will incur additional costs.
My trip to IL2006 cost more than the ticket, it seems. Here’s what it looked like with the original damage:
And here is is after their “repair”:
Optical drive is still broken, casing is still cracked, and now the wireless card is broken. So I’m mailing it back in (hopefully not for 2 1/2 months this time). When I initially saw it, I reached a state of pissed off I had only seen in movies, but now that I’ve complained to the BBB I feel a little better.
Michelle! Be warned! Do NOT break your computer under ANY circumstances!
