prodj101 Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 ok, anyway, how that I have my nice shiny DIY computer, I've really been enjoying myself. And I wouldn't have it if it hadn't been for alienware in the first place. When I tried to place the order, they said my moms credit card was declined, so I had them cancel the order, which they answered by saying "oh, alright, I just cancelled it. I'm sorry things couldn't work out sir". So, I thought, all is well, until I wake up to the sound of a Fed Ex knock on the door.I stroll downstairs and see a large box labled "NEC 19 inch flat screen monitor" so I figure, "hmmm, best buy must have doubled up the order somehow, oh well, I need a new monitor for my other comp anyway". so I go down, and open the door only to find it was sitting on a box labled "Alienware, High Performance Systems." so now I have to figure out how I'm going to return this thing. I don't think they'll want to take it back without a fee since it was custom made, not to mention the shipping charges. just great, I guesss all those reports about alienware customer service sucking was true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 You really need to have your Mom check with her credit card company. By what you explained, you told them to cancel the order, because her card had been declined. Because you told them this It is not a valid sale And they did not have the Right to charge your moms card. Talk with them first, then if you get the run around, go through your credit card company and have them put pressure on the company! Shaddy at best..........good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PG_Raptor Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 So you said you cancelled the order? I've heard that if someone sends you something that you didn't request, it becomes yours, at the senders expense. you mihgt want to look into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 ---------------- On 3/27/2003 10:53:50 AM PG_Raptor wrote: So you said you cancelled the order? I've heard that if someone sends you something that you didn't request, it becomes yours, at the senders expense. you mihgt want to look into that. ---------------- I think that only applies to the Postal Service, but that may be for anything that has been shipped. I have gotten a book as well as a walkman-style CD player free as a result of companies sending me stuff I didn't ask for. Still, I think it would behoove ProDJ (and his mother, who owns the credit-card) to chack and double check that that order has indeed supposed to be cancelled. Make sure the credit card was not charged. Also, since this is appears to be purely Alianware's mistake, they should be the one to cover the cost of shipping the system back, not ProDJ. Than again, maybe he'll end up with a free system due to Alienware's screwup This is interesting, though - I have always thought Alienware was pretty good with regard to customer service. I guess maybe they have gone downhill since they early days. I guess this just proves that some of the best systems out there are Home Built systems. ProDJ, let us know how this turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 Under no circumstance should you pay a PENNY to get this taken care of. If Alienware want's the computer back, THEY WILL PAY THE COST, and if thay are decent, maybe some extra cash as a apology. If Alienware does NOT want the computer back, e-mail me and I might buy it from you, as you will have just received a free computer and you don't want two. In the USA, consumers are protected from that sort of crap. That is how it WILL work if you want it to. It is THEIR fault and NOT yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 27, 2003 Author Share Posted March 27, 2003 hmmm, things are deffinatly not going well here. now they are flat out lying to me and telling me that I don't know what I'm talking about. I called them this morning, and told them the situation. they answered with "ok, I'll give you our return address, but you do know that there is a %15 restocking fee correct?" now this is were I started to get angry. the computer total was 1958, so the 15% charge came to about 300 dollars, which I am absolutely not going to pay because it is there screw up. I told them that exactly what happend- my moms credit card appeared as denied on their website, so I called them to find what was up. They tried it twice and it was denied both times. So they told me to call my credit card company to see if maybe they weren't permitting such a large charge, which I did, and they said that they were ok with it and it shouldn't be a problem. So, with that done, I called back, and they tried it yet another 2 times, each with the same result. So after that, I just told them, "well if it's not going to work, just go ahead and cancel the order." now this all happend on one day. ok, so anyway, a computer turns up at my house after I've already built a far superiour one, so I am thinking, "what the hell is going on" so I call in to alienware and tell them about how I cancelled it after they retried the credit card 4 times. The lady tells me about the restocking fee, than goes on to tell me that nowhere in her records was there a cancellation request, and that the credit card was tried only once right after the order was made and it went through without a problem. what the hell is up with that? So I argue with this lady for a good 15 minutes, and tell her exactly what happend a good 4 times, and she keeps insisting that I pay the %15 charge unless I want to pay the 1,900 for the computer. I told her that I was going to dispute the matter with my credit card company because I'm absolutely not going to pay 300 dollars just because they screwed some **** up. so after I tell her that she tells me to wait for a minute, which turns out to be about 15 minutes while I'm on hold to some lame *** atmospheric sounding crap. she comes back with saying the exact same %15 BS that I've now gotten used to. so I tell her I'm going to go over it with the credit card company, and hung up. uhg, alienware sucks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 THEY BELONG TO THE BETTER BUSINESS BUEARU. CALL THEM RIGHT NOW!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 ---------------- On 3/27/2003 4:55:09 PM prodj101 wrote: I told her that I was going to dispute the matter with my credit card company because I'm absolutely not going to pay 300 dollars just because they screwed some **** up. so after I tell her that she tells me to wait for a minute, which turns out to be about 15 minutes while I'm on hold to some lame *** atmospheric sounding crap. she comes back with saying the exact same %15 BS that I've now gotten used to. so I tell her I'm going to go over it with the credit card company, and hung up. uhg, alienware sucks! ---------------- And this is why I like to build my own computers! I think you are definitly doing the right thing by going to the credit card company to dispute the charge (if one is indeed on there - which I am certain it is). Also, as Kenratboy posted, it may not be a bad idea to talk with the BBB and lodge a complaint. Also, call Alienware back up and insist that you get ahold of a subervisor/manager, or hell, even the CEO/president of the company itself (my father is really good about this - some of the crap some of these outfits tried to pull on him, like one time when McDonalds tried to pull some crap (a counter clerk was being extremly rude, and they were screwing up orders left and right that one day) - after my dad got done with them, we had enough coupons for free McDonalds food to last a year!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 27, 2003 Author Share Posted March 27, 2003 yeah, I did end up building my own comp skonopa, and ended up with a far better product that I could have gotten from alien ware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 ---------------- On 3/27/2003 5:54:52 PM prodj101 wrote: yeah, I did end up building my own comp skonopa, and ended up with a far better product that I could have gotten from alien ware. ---------------- Yeah, I saw one of your other threads where you mentioned your machine - very nice. Starting to make my 2 year old 1.33ghz Athlon w/ Nvidia Geforce 3, 512megs of DDR RAM, SB Audigy, 19" Samsung Flat-screen display, and about 60 gigs of harddrive sound old. It is still plenty fast enough to run anything I have thrown at it so far (and most games out there still barely push the GeForce 3, let alone something like the GeForce 4, FX or even the ATI Radeon adaptors). The motherboard is new enough that I can simply drop in one of the newer AthlonXP 2300+ or so processors if I need a faster CPU. We'll see in a couple more years though - I figured I should be able to get a good 3 or 4 years of useful life out of it before I upgrade to something faster/more powerful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 My MB is at the end of its useful life. PC133 isn't useful anymore. Oh well, some smokin' fast DDR and a XP2600+ oughta do the trick. prodj101 - did you call? The BBB is a good organization and might pressure Alienware to take the computer back on their tab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 27, 2003 Author Share Posted March 27, 2003 heres a pic of it if anyone cares. and no, I haven't made a call to the BBB yet ken. I don't think this has gotten serious enough to warrant that yet. I'll wait and see how it all turns out in the end, than go from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 ---------------- On 3/27/2003 6:46:26 PM prodj101 wrote: heres a pic of it if anyone cares. and no, I haven't made a call to the BBB yet ken. I don't think this has gotten serious enough to warrant that yet. I'll wait and see how it all turns out in the end, than go from there. ---------------- Ohh, I like that case! When it comes time for me to get something new, I am considering a case similar to that, one of the new aluminum cases. About Alianware, like I mentioned above, I would call them back and insist on speaking with a manager or higher. Don't just take crap from a first level customer service rep - go up the chain - all the way to the CEO if necessary! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 27, 2003 Author Share Posted March 27, 2003 yeah, we'll see what happens. I think they'll be alot more willing to take it back free of charge after they realize the credit card company isn't willing to pay for it. they don't make money by handing out free comps. yeah, I really like the case alot myself skonopa. not only do they look great, but they keep your components icy cold! I have left it running the past 2 days and it is still cold to the touch. I reccoment the American Media Systems brand of them. they have had nothing but good reviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cc1091 Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 Reminds me of the little dispute I had with AT&T Boradband last fall when I had their cable modem installed at my new home. The gave me an offer that included free installation and two free months. Well it turns out, what they were really offering was a refund or reimbursement of the money I pay by using coupons that they send me. Well, they never advertised the offer in this way, nor did they mention it to me when they took my order, but there it was. To make matters worse, since I was a cable modem customer who did not use their cable TV service (I love DirecTV by the way), the coupons weren't even printed up properly to cover the $4 extra I pay per month because I don't also use their cable TV service. So after spending a lot of time writing e-mails and talking to customer service personnel on the phone who had no intention of following the old adage: "The customer is always right", I finally go fed up and contacted the state attorney general's office. The immediate response from AT&T was that they "could have no further contact with me", which of course didn't solve my problem. But it gave me the idea to make the 30 mile drive to their nearest payment office with those coupons. I walked into the office, told them what was happening and they said, "Oh, another one of these." followed by "Give me the installation coupon AND the first month coupon and we will credit your account." as they were making things right, I talked about how ill-conceived the whole promotion was. One of the ladies responded, "well you can bet we'll never do it like this again." I didn't understand the significance of the comment, but now, four months later, AT&T Broadband has sold its operations in Minnesota to Commcast. I know that the state attorney general had several complaints about AT&T prior to my complaint, but I think the guff that AT&T was getting about this final promotion was the final straw. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the state attorney general encouraged AT&T to get out of the market. ANYWAY...Long winded way about telling you to contact the state attorney general's office. Preferably the one in the state where the buisness is located and CC'd to your own state's attorney general's office. But do this only if the credit card company can't help you out first. It is my understanding that the BBB usually doesn't have any ability to pressure a company, where the attorney general has several prosecutorial powers. Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted March 28, 2003 Share Posted March 28, 2003 ---------------- On 3/27/2003 11:15:42 PM cc1091 wrote: Reminds me of the little dispute I had with AT&T Boradband last fall when I had their cable modem installed at my new home. The gave me an offer that included free installation and two free months. Well it turns out, what they were really offering was a refund or reimbursement of the money I pay by using coupons that they send me. Well, they never advertised the offer in this way, nor did they mention it to me when they took my order, but there it was. To make matters worse, since I was a cable modem customer who did not use their cable TV service (I love DirecTV by the way), the coupons weren't even printed up properly to cover the $4 extra I pay per month because I don't also use their cable TV service. So after spending a lot of time writing e-mails and talking to customer service personnel on the phone who had no intention of following the old adage: "The customer is always right", I finally go fed up and contacted the state attorney general's office. The immediate response from AT&T was that they "could have no further contact with me", which of course didn't solve my problem. But it gave me the idea to make the 30 mile drive to their nearest payment office with those coupons. I walked into the office, told them what was happening and they said, "Oh, another one of these." followed by "Give me the installation coupon AND the first month coupon and we will credit your account." as they were making things right, I talked about how ill-conceived the whole promotion was. One of the ladies responded, "well you can bet we'll never do it like this again." I didn't understand the significance of the comment, but now, four months later, AT&T Broadband has sold its operations in Minnesota to Commcast. I know that the state attorney general had several complaints about AT&T prior to my complaint, but I think the guff that AT&T was getting about this final promotion was the final straw. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the state attorney general encouraged AT&T to get out of the market. ANYWAY...Long winded way about telling you to contact the state attorney general's office. Preferably the one in the state where the buisness is located and CC'd to your own state's attorney general's office. But do this only if the credit card company can't help you out first. It is my understanding that the BBB usually doesn't have any ability to pressure a company, where the attorney general has several prosecutorial powers. Good Luck. ---------------- Calling the BBB does a few things: 1. tells the company that you are not a idiot and are serious. If someone takes the inititave to call the BBB, the company in question misght want to stop the problem 2. the BBB cannot do anything legal, but if a company starts to get complaints, they might be taking the BBB plaque down. 3. maybe after the BBB, you might call someone who might REALLY cause a headache to the company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted March 28, 2003 Share Posted March 28, 2003 Not on target but I must post it anyway! Today I just got a shiny new ASUS P4G8X Deluxe,four Corsair PC3500 512MB and a very nice P4 2.4GHZ. The system is stable at almost 3700MHZ!!!!!!! With air cooling(Swiftech/Delta combo) HE HE Who better Will bench soon,I hit over 16000 3D Marks with a puny Ti4400,with my 9700PRO I should destroy 20000 3D Marks easy. Not bad BTW all is juiced by a healthy Antec TruePower 550. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 28, 2003 Author Share Posted March 28, 2003 what is the voltage you're runnin throug the P4? yeah, that 9700 will kick ***, but my 9800 will kick more ***! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeJampton Posted March 28, 2003 Share Posted March 28, 2003 prodj101, Don't waste any more time with Alienware. Get your mother to call her credit card company. She should explain what happened and tell the credit card company that she wants to "put the charge into dispute". They will suspend the charge so that your mother does not have to pay any interest on it and contact Alienware. If your mother's credit card company is half-way decent, Alienware will take the computer back and pay for the return shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted March 28, 2003 Share Posted March 28, 2003 Its top secret for now ProDJ,will post more when all tests are passed.I have a super cooling kit on the way,with this kit I will fly past 4GHz with little problems. My Corsair is rock stable at 433MHz CAS 2(DUH its a certified 433CAS2)nearly $400CAN a pop!Four of them,dual channel.Top of the line memory may be more then most can pay but its crucial if max stable overclock is desired. Post some bandwith this weekend.Should eat over 4GB/sec with total ease There is not an Athlon alive that even touches my Intel powerhouse. Be it raw computing power or memory bandwith.I am also an AMD owner,Athlon 950 and 2700XP.The classic 950 is a piss poor overclocker(1000MHz and it starts to do freegames)and the 2700XP starts to spit its core around ~3100XP. All things considered Intel P4's are true bargains,under $200 you have a CPU capable of at least 3GHz in the worst case!(latest stepping please) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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