I have to convince someone that customer service at the latter two are just as good as Dell. Anyone have experiences with both to compare?
Every PC gaming magazine I have ever read had nothing but glowing praise for the folks at Falcon and Alienware. They said how Dell was great for selling you a powerful Internet and Word Processing machine, but if were serious about gaming and had the scratch, Falcon and Alienware made systems for gamers, by games. In several years worth of reviews, the only caveat I have seen about these two companies is that their systems are monstrously expensive.
Are they expensive because their components are good or because their markup is particulary high? In other words, if I got a Dell with the same graphics and audio setup as a system at the other two shops would I pay less?
Bwwaaahahahahhaha! Good customer service at DELL?
Every time I’ve had more than a minor, minor problem with my computer, Dell’s customer service/tech support has proven themselves to be complete idiots. Last year I ordered a port extender for my laptop. When I plugged my speakers into it, I got clicky noises and static. Trying to get them to acknowledge it as a problem was like pulling teeth. They then sent me a refurb unit as a replacement for a new one that wasn’t even a week old. I had to yell at them to get them to send me a NEW one, to replace the NEW one that was faulty.
Then I bought my new desktop last summer. It had intermittent problems connecting to the Internet, and it wouldn’t play a particular on-line game at all. One of the main reasons I bought the computer was to play this game, so it was a pretty big deal that it couldn’t keep a connection to it. I spent hours on the phone with Dell, trying to get them to help. No go. They transfered me from one person to another. When I finally talked to a supervisor, she assured me that her top tech support person would call me back within 24 hours. That was August. I’m still waiting.
I finally figured out the problem was a bad NIC, and replaced it with a new one I bought from a local store. Amazingly enough, the new NIC fixed every problem I had, without having to change my connection settings. Dell had insisted the problem was at my end, even though I told them over and over that every other computer on my network worked fine, the connection nor the router was at fault, it was something in THEIR F@#!@# BOX that was wrong.
<whew> sorry to vent. I still buy Dell computers, because they’re the only ones out there that are more or less standard parts. But their customer service sucks ass.
I was a contractual buyer for desktops from Dell. (Ie, I bought desktops from Dell for work.) I did this for about a year. Whenever I had a problem, they were solved right away. It may have had something to do with being able to take the contract somewhere else and working with large quantities (typically 500-1500 pc’s at any one time) though. Hell, I could even open up the machines and send them back individual pieces to replace without invalidating the warranty.
As for Alienware and Falcon, I don’t think the extra cash that you would pay for a machine that you could buy or make elsewhere fairly compensates for the price they charge. You could buy one of the 1337 machines at alienware for 2-3 grand, you could build one yourself with all of the same specifications for 300-400 bucks, or you could buy an off the shelf model (HP, Compaq, Gateway, Dell, etc) for about 800-1000 bucks including a fairly decent warranty. That doesn’t cut it in my book.
Dell’s customer service, at first, is merely ok and I’m assuming it’s because they’re using semi-skilled labor working from a script or some sort of “expert” system. We had a 2.5 year old PC that kept dying, couldn’t see the hard drive, etc, etc - and went through several rounds with their customer service until we had replaced everything inside the machine. Still no dice - and Dell admitted they were stumped.
So, we boxed up our P3 450 and sent it back to Dell for a system swap - expecting to get a refurb’ed P3 450 in return. However, a couple days after we notified Dell that the machine was in transit, another box landed on the doorstep - and in it was a new P4 1.7 machine with another 3 yr warranty attached.
Yay Dell!
Dell customer service/tech support screwed me over but good earlier this year. They were rude AND incompetent in the extreme, over a period of several weeks. I will never buy another Dell.
I guess what Im asking is if Dell and Alienware made the same computer, who would charge more?
Both.
I have bought 4 systems from Dell and had good luck service and reliability wise over the last 5 years. Although I tend to be a do it yourself type and try to find answers from their website, excellent user forum (try it!) or manual prior to calling them.
If I had the money, I would have gotten a Falcon Northwest. But a simailr system was considerably less from Dell, and I could cash in Amex Rewards points for a $250 off certificate (on top of free shipping and a hefty Dell promotion savings too).
Err - not quite.
I checked out Alienwares [biggest system[/rul] on their “Gaming Systems” page. Price $3356, which includes things like rounding cables (IIRC), a very detailed personalized manual, a years subscription to a magazine, a year of 24x7 support, etc.
I then hied over to www.spartantech.com](http://www.alienware.com/main/system_pages/custom.asp) to chech into the components invidually. I did have to substitute a few things here and there, like a Toshiba DVD-R instead of a Pioneer, but generally speaking I got all the same hardware components (minus the video cooler system). The price: $2678. Bear in mind this is with no 24x7 support, and the system will not be built, it’s just components.
The price difference for a high-performance homebuild vs a high-performance alienware isn’t that great, IMHO.
As for my wild guess, if Dell and Alienware built the exact same system, I’d bet Alienware would charge more for it
Based on my comparison shopping a couple of monthes ago-- Alienware by a couple hundred bucks. The key is to watch dell to get the free shipping plus either cash or rebate for free double memory or Free CDRW drive type offers. Nobody quality beats Dell or price. Alienware offers better gaming systems and fancy cases ect but charges a fat premium for that. Personally I di Falcon Northwest, but they charge even more. 
I do game on my Dell without any issues.
Damn. That second link is www.spartantech.com in case you couldn’t figure it out 
I have an Alienware PC (we actually have two, mine and my husbands). I am very happy with this one, but the first one I had locked up playing Diablo II regularly and the Alienware tech guys were not helpful (I have a CNE and do server support, so when I say I have a motherboard problem, don’t have me reset the nic - every time I call you - for three times). The problem did get resolved, and they sent me a new PC, but my husband having dinner with the president of Alienware for business didn’t hurt. (I was also probably too nice).
You cannot get the same system from Dell - Dell generally doesn’t even offer the same gamer geek video cards (I’m not enough of a gamer geek to know which cards - the hubby is - part of his job).
We haven’t had a single issue with my husbands.
My previous computers have been Dells. I think it really depends on if you really need the gamer geek tweaking.
I’ve always been rather blown away by Dell’s tech support. Absolutely no problems here.
I’ve never heard any bad things about Alienware or Falcon’s tech support. I spend a lot of time cruising tech boards and web sites, too, so I guess that says something.
Beelzebubba, you can get cheaper parts than Spartanware or other parts with the same specifications.
I’ve also had really good experiences with Dell (with the ecception of Dellnet internet service but it was in the middle of being taken over by MSN so I’ll forgive it). The people have been friendly and extremely accomodating. They replaced my power supply within a day of me reporting it and sent me brand new speakers even though I called it in 2 days before the 3 year warranty expired.
Hmmm… I’m kind of a medium gamer geek, but go all out on video cards. Dell currently offers both the ATI 9700 and the Ti4600 - the two video cards considered the top of the line for games. What’s yer hubby talking about?