Cuban Alien Wares
Although Alien(s from Cuba)warez is awesome, never get one.
I recieved my replacement keyboard for my laptop yesterday and was very happy. Customer support won't be around until Monday, so I figured I'd just go ahead and pop it in myself.
A billion screws. No screwdriver. I go to Wal-Mart and spend too much because they only sell complete sets and not just the little micro-utility screwdriver cases that I want. An hour and ten dollars later, I'm ready to install my keyboard.
But two of the screws that need to come out won't really come out. I finally get one of them out without stripping it too terribly bad, but the other one will only loosen, not come out of the socket that's surrounded by a well of plastic, preventing me from just reaching down and pulling it out.
Forging ahead anyway in the hopes that the screw is unimportant (which it's not, because I won't be able to do anything until I can get it out) I attempt to remove the bottom of the case. It will only even pretend to budge in one corner, and I discover a sticker on the seam of the top and bottom casing saying "Warranty void if seal is broken" or something to that effect.
Now, what the fuck is that? Alienware specifically says when you buy your computer and in almost all of their advertizing that they absolutely will not void warranty if you open your case because it's your computer and you bought it and you should be allowed to upgrade at will. Or repair at will, as the case may be.
I considered continuing on anyway, but finally submitted to the warning sticker (after seeing if I could peel it off without tearing it, which only resulted in it getting a mashed corner).
I don't know why, because their allegedly award-winning customer service isn't doing shit. What award was that, exactly? Employing the most illegal, incomprehensible Cubans in a single firm?
They not only send me the part to install myself, avoiding doing any actual manual labour, but CHARGE ME for it, too. They have the audacity to try to charge me for a part that's not only still under warranty, but that they're forcing me to do the repairs to.
They're going to have one pissed off ex-customer on their hands Monday. My first Alienware became faulty as soon as the warranty ran out, this one became faulty during the warranty but they won't service it, and now they essentially charge me to force me to fix a machine they repeatedly promised to care for.
Bastards. See what fame does to you?
So don't buy an Alienware. If you're considering it, chances are probably 20-40% that you could build your own anyway, and even more than that that if you don't, you know someone who could help you do so.
"Wasn't the tower you built faulty?"
My answer to that is this: If I had been on the ball, I'd have tested it quickly and not tossed the boxes/lost the receipts. That is 100% my fault, and if I'd had any sense I could've just sent the defective part back to the manufacturer and had a replacement in no time. With Alienware, 95% of the problems I've had have been in no way user-related (failed keyboard, dead motherboard, cmos failure, fried power source).
I've stuck up for them for a long time and even recommended them to people, but looking back, honestly...the Alienware tower I got, I ended up replacing everything but the case and the graphics card, and only because I didn't have $400 bucks to spend on a graphics card (the case was just cool...really, that's all they've got going for them now).
It's not like I've gotten cheap pieces of crap either. Both of them have been roughly $3000 machines. You make six thousand dollars off a customer, you sure as fuck better threat him well. Not try to charge him another fifteen because your shitty keyboard was defective, then flip him off and tell him to install it his own goddamn self.
Only SyK and I can do that as rulers of the world.
"It's probably because your laptop was a Sentia and not an Area51. Everyone who knows about that stuff knows the 51 is better." Yeah for gaming and stuff, not for officework. Which I got it for. Everyone gets Alienwares for officework...right? Right?
*crickets*
Right. Anyway, I already had a 51, the tower, which we've established also sucked as much as it blew (after I installed the spare exhaust fan with the cool blue lights that matched the case and had the pimp fanged skull on the grill. It's 'toight, beyotch').
I think I'll just go ahead and re-order the part I need for my tower. I never see red LED fans, but as soon as I find one I'm going to find a grill for it that can only be described as "anime tentacle beast."
Homage to the homeboys. Beyotch.
I recieved my replacement keyboard for my laptop yesterday and was very happy. Customer support won't be around until Monday, so I figured I'd just go ahead and pop it in myself.
A billion screws. No screwdriver. I go to Wal-Mart and spend too much because they only sell complete sets and not just the little micro-utility screwdriver cases that I want. An hour and ten dollars later, I'm ready to install my keyboard.
But two of the screws that need to come out won't really come out. I finally get one of them out without stripping it too terribly bad, but the other one will only loosen, not come out of the socket that's surrounded by a well of plastic, preventing me from just reaching down and pulling it out.
Forging ahead anyway in the hopes that the screw is unimportant (which it's not, because I won't be able to do anything until I can get it out) I attempt to remove the bottom of the case. It will only even pretend to budge in one corner, and I discover a sticker on the seam of the top and bottom casing saying "Warranty void if seal is broken" or something to that effect.
Now, what the fuck is that? Alienware specifically says when you buy your computer and in almost all of their advertizing that they absolutely will not void warranty if you open your case because it's your computer and you bought it and you should be allowed to upgrade at will. Or repair at will, as the case may be.
I considered continuing on anyway, but finally submitted to the warning sticker (after seeing if I could peel it off without tearing it, which only resulted in it getting a mashed corner).
I don't know why, because their allegedly award-winning customer service isn't doing shit. What award was that, exactly? Employing the most illegal, incomprehensible Cubans in a single firm?
They not only send me the part to install myself, avoiding doing any actual manual labour, but CHARGE ME for it, too. They have the audacity to try to charge me for a part that's not only still under warranty, but that they're forcing me to do the repairs to.
They're going to have one pissed off ex-customer on their hands Monday. My first Alienware became faulty as soon as the warranty ran out, this one became faulty during the warranty but they won't service it, and now they essentially charge me to force me to fix a machine they repeatedly promised to care for.
Bastards. See what fame does to you?
So don't buy an Alienware. If you're considering it, chances are probably 20-40% that you could build your own anyway, and even more than that that if you don't, you know someone who could help you do so.
"Wasn't the tower you built faulty?"
My answer to that is this: If I had been on the ball, I'd have tested it quickly and not tossed the boxes/lost the receipts. That is 100% my fault, and if I'd had any sense I could've just sent the defective part back to the manufacturer and had a replacement in no time. With Alienware, 95% of the problems I've had have been in no way user-related (failed keyboard, dead motherboard, cmos failure, fried power source).
I've stuck up for them for a long time and even recommended them to people, but looking back, honestly...the Alienware tower I got, I ended up replacing everything but the case and the graphics card, and only because I didn't have $400 bucks to spend on a graphics card (the case was just cool...really, that's all they've got going for them now).
It's not like I've gotten cheap pieces of crap either. Both of them have been roughly $3000 machines. You make six thousand dollars off a customer, you sure as fuck better threat him well. Not try to charge him another fifteen because your shitty keyboard was defective, then flip him off and tell him to install it his own goddamn self.
Only SyK and I can do that as rulers of the world.
"It's probably because your laptop was a Sentia and not an Area51. Everyone who knows about that stuff knows the 51 is better." Yeah for gaming and stuff, not for officework. Which I got it for. Everyone gets Alienwares for officework...right? Right?
*crickets*
Right. Anyway, I already had a 51, the tower, which we've established also sucked as much as it blew (after I installed the spare exhaust fan with the cool blue lights that matched the case and had the pimp fanged skull on the grill. It's 'toight, beyotch').
I think I'll just go ahead and re-order the part I need for my tower. I never see red LED fans, but as soon as I find one I'm going to find a grill for it that can only be described as "anime tentacle beast."
Homage to the homeboys. Beyotch.
posted by red at 19:23
1 comments
