Dellienware CEO Opinion at Extremetech.

[LyCoS]

What difference will this make for alienware or for dell if they remain 2 seperate entities ...

1) i had a dell 1.5ghz p4 willamet (yeah i know... ), and i sucked, the psu made a buzzing noise, performance was crap, and i had asked for 512mb of ram and it only came with 128... had asked for windows 2000 it came with ME. Worked slow, the pieces were crappy, the psu fried (twice)...

2) got an alienware, 2600+, 512 (of what was advertised kingston ram, turned out to be samsung original...)mb, a messed up a7n8x delux which didnt have any working SATA, a raid array that had to be reconfigured, and a 1 year warranty when i had ordered 3 years, so when it was messing up all of the time i asked to send it back, just to find out that they HAD REFUNDED ME MY WARRANTY EXTENSION 2 DAYS AFTER THE ORDER !!! and then claimed that since i haden't paid for it, i didn't get a warranty.

all i see here is 2 companies who make crappy overpriced computers (YES DELL IS OVERPRICED, you shouldn't be paying for that type of crap). maybe dell likes alienware cases ?!

 

[Krypton]

All these High End computer sellers do not neccessarily deliver after the sale. It is better for an individual to buy components off Newegg or Fry's. If a person does not have the skills to put together and maintain, Fry's will assemble your PC for $100. You pay much less up front, and if you have a problem, you can take it back to Fry's etc. This is a much better way to go IMO. Too bad not everyone has a Fry's, they are the best B/M store for Computer stuff.

 

[Zap]

Honestly, I'd like to see someone say that they're going to start up the best customer service company ever...whose products happen to be PCs.

Won't work. Most customers buy based on price. Yes, there will be those who are willing to pay more for service, but not enough. People buy based on price and don't think about service (or lack thereof) until something breaks. That's just an observed fact.

most here assume that everyone builds their own computers, or has the ability to do so. Well, I would LIKE to build my own but don't know how. I would also be reluctant to shell out $2000.00 for parts, and then be unable to assemble them properly.

That's a perfect reason to buy, be it from Dell, Alienware, VoodooPC, etc. How many threads do we see here and at other forums about people trying to build their own and having problems and frustrations? How many threads asking support questions because if you build your own, you are your own support? How many threads asking or complaining about RMA?

For some people, building their own is the better choice. For other people, buying a complete system is the better choice. There is no one answer.

BTW Kyle: Have you ever thought about creating a subsidiary custom high end computer company with the [H] Logo? The [H] is hot and has instant brand recognition.

Heh, that's an interesting idea. The systems offered will of course have to pass peer review on the forums.

I know I did not charge enough. Next time I will charge $300 for the same service, because they come back asking questions, and know I will help them.

That's exactly why I don't go around telling everyone I "know" computers and offering to help build them. If you think you are doing someone a favor by convincing them to build their own (or you building for them) you have basically just given them rights (in their mind) to lifetime support. I had enough of that shit. These days if someone says they're gonna go buy such and such brand I'll congratulate them on their impending new computer, or correct them if they made a REALLY bad choice by pointing them to another brand/model. Screw giving people free tech support - I value my free time. Only "free" support I'm willing to give is in forums, and that's my hobby and done on my own time, be it over dinner or at 2am, not at someone's phone call.

 

[Chris_Morley]

Won't work. Most customers buy based on price. Yes, there will be those who are willing to pay more for service, but not enough. People buy based on price and don't think about service (or lack thereof) until something breaks. That's just an observed fact.

Velocity Micro's doing a good job of it, especially considering their size. Economies of scale, my friend.

 

[Chris_Morley]

Another announcement DELL made this week was that they are also going to offshore significantly more jobs to India. I can just see the "Assembled in India" (next to Intel Inside) stickers on the Alienware cases, and the hard to comprehend tech support making ownership a horrible experience.

BTW Kyle: Have you ever thought about creating a subsidiary custom high end computer company with the [H] Logo? The [H] is hot and has instant brand recognition.

I think we provide far greater service writing the best system evaluations in the business.

 

[thedude42]

I'm embarassed to say i shelled for an Alienware laptop, solely because, at the time (over two years ago), they offered upgradeable graphics - the only company to offer that in a laptop...

Turns out making custom GPU modules for laptops is expensive. So, they stopped. Right after I got my laptop.

They also censor their support forums heavily - if you so much as hint that you dont like the service you are receiving, your posts are deleted.

If i had seen those customer support forums before purchasing, i would have never touched them... I make sure I tell every gamer i meet to stay away from them now, and in running a large lan party, i meet quite a few gamers.

Maybe Dell can turn the company around... but I hope i know what they've gotten themselves into.

hahaha... i did the same thing! except that i found out that the choice to discontinue the modules was that when you buy an agp based mobile solution, and the future of mobile solutions have PCI-x written all over it, well, win some lose some.

my experience with their customer service has not been grand. it took a 2 week fight with them to force them to finally upgrade their knowledge base article on the actual speeds of their mobility 9600. a 2 week fight and a post on resellerratings.com that finally got one of their manager types to give me a phone call.

i got a 10% discount on an upgrade to the FXGo 5700 and a free coffee travel mug out of it all.

the experience hasn't all been roses, but i can't really complain much either. it was cheaper than the dellXPS at the time, lighter and actually thinner than the XPS, and i have had minimal issues with it the entire time. reminded me of my inspiron 8100 with the mobility 7500 a few years back, which i dropped god knows how many times and it kept on ticking.

but having worked at UT austin's help desk, fixing people's dell laptops, i simply do not see the same quality comming out of round rock these days, and with alienware moving to them, well, we'll see i suppose.

 

[HappyJack]

Velocity Micro's doing a good job of it, especially considering their size. Economies of scale, my friend.

I'm here to tell you this is the truth. Their prices are not stupidly high like FNW or Voodoo, the build quality is excellent, and the support is great. No other company in the US has all this and 24/7 in-house tech support because either they are too small or too cheap. That's why I am excited to watch them emerge into the national spotlight at Best Buy.

I second Chris' comment!

 

[HappyJack]

I saw on this story from Fortune Magazine where Mike Dell say he paid "less than one day's sales" for Alienware. $55 billion divided by 365 = $150 million or less. They must have had bigger problems than we know about for that kind of valuation for a brand that was supposed to be so cool. I'd seen some estimates that were as high as $500 million, but I guess not!

 

[lovemyPC]

they must have been carrying some hefty debt. Lawsuits from employees tired of using port-o-johns? storage for 20 years worth of those lame plastic alien head cases?

In the fortune article, dell says xps is still alive and strong - which is either complete bs or bad news for alienware and their "hands off deal." Alienware should be more than a little nervous at this point.