Alienware refused to work with me in the credit of a $600 system rebate which they told me and many other customers "never arrived" to their Washington offices. I was not an isolated case, many people on the internet described the same stories about their $600 system rebate! They continued to give me the run-around on the phone and via email. Their tactic eventually works and leaves you stranded as you can no longer cope with lost time,
In addition to the initial problem with rebate, Alienware's Area51 7700 mobile workstation slowly broke down internally. First the firewire port began to disconnect drives and such. Then the USB ports began to do similar things and now finally its internal drive has started to do it. The system is unable to boot or if it does as soon as it begins to get hot it freezes. The machine has always felt extremely hot so I went online to find out more about it.
The number of dissatisfied users and users that encountered similar problems became apparent in just a few minutes of searching. I realized that in light of what I read from other users I was pretty lucky, considering that my laptop still worked at the time. Extending the warranty was not allowed. Owners of Alienware systems that are out of warranty are left on their own, completely. They do not even what to deal with you.
I became sick to my stomach to think that SO MANY PEOPLE had been bamboozled just like me based on my research, I could not believe that a corporation could remain in business like that. When I first addressed tech support with how hot the laptop was they said the temperature issue would not be a problem and never warned me about the problems that could come in the future.
The 7700 is my business' CORE, it is the system that allows me to run my business and execute my work night after night at live music events. Having it break down has cause me more grief and embarrassment at work than I can explain. Not only have I have suffered criticism because of the system going down or not working properly during a live event but I have been denied payment from customers because I could not perform a specific show. On top of losing my money for that night, I also lost a good customer that won't work with me because to him I am "unreliable".
This are all damages that are derived from Alienware's inability to make a recall or such which could take care of the issue. My time and productivity have been wasted in attempting to deal with their ridiculous customer service staff.
Then I come to find out that part of their operation is based out of my home land (Costa Rica) and many of their employees are of Costa Rican descent. Having my country's name dragged into this whole mess, just the kind of icing on the cake I was NOT expecting.
There is a lot more detail I can provide to the story if anybody needs it feel free to contact me.
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