Warning to anyone considering ordering anything from Alienware. DON'T! They take the cake for being the worst online vendor that I have ever dealt with before! (And I've dealt with some pretty bad ones!) Here's my story that will be posted on resellerratings.com shortly (the resellerratings one is slightly different just cuz I didn't get a full cut/paste of the text before I posted it)-
---
Ordered a set of Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 speakers from Alienware on Monday 11/26/2001. Called them almost immediately to confirm my order as their web site states. Recieved an e-mail on Wednesday night stating that my billing address for my VISA credit card does not match the billing/shipping address that I gave them, was told to fax over my driver's license and sign a form which sortof makes me nervous in this day and age of identity theft. Called them up and told them that my billing address is in fact the same as what I gave them and told them to re-process. In the meantime, I called my credit card company and was told that the system they use (AVS) is sometimes very picky about addresses, so I matched my address to the one that I gave Alienware since they were not EXACTLY the same (abbreviations and such were mismatched). Was also told by the VISA CSR not to fax that form over because it sounds fishy and is not standard procedure for companies (usually they manually call the credit card company first, which would take care of this problem all together!). Called Alienware back to tell them that the problem should be taken care of and they can run it again and that if it did not go through asked if it I could be called immediately so I could resolve the problem by faxing over the requested document (which asks for my driver's license and has me sortof wary about doing that to begin with) or by some other means. The CSR promised he would relay the information and I would be called in the event that the charge did not go through. Thursday, I receive no phone calls at work that day so I assume that all is well (I cannot check my home e-mail from work due to a firewall). I call them from work just to make sure and speak with Claudia Diaz who had been sending me the e-amils about my address problem. She does not remember receiving any e-mails from the CSR and does not know that my card was to be recharged. She says that she will charge it immediately. To my dismay when I return home, I have the exact same e-mail regarding my address. I call Alienware again and ask what the problem is. I am told my zip code is not correct despite the fact that my zip code is exactly the same on Alienware and in my credit card company's system. I give them my American Express card instead and ask them to charge that card instead. I am told that the billing department has gone home for the day and my card will be charged on Friday morning. Friday morning, I call Alienware and ask them if they were able to charge my American Express card. The CSR does not have any idea what card I am talking about and only has my VISA card on file! He transfers me to accounting. Accounting tells me they don't know where my American Express credit card number went and transfers me to sales! Now that I have the run-around syndrome and am worried that some employee made off with my American Express number and is currently charging up a storm I start to feel like I should have ordered elsewhere. Finally after speaking to the CSR he finds out where my credit card information is stored (apparently somebody physically wrote it on my order rather than doing it electronically, because that way is faster...???). The CSR tells me he has no clue when my card will be charged but it will definitely be charged on Friday sometime. Additionally he tells me that the speakers wont ship out until Monday at the earliest if my charge goes through today, and that the speakers would only be held for me in the warehouse IF the charge goes through, in other words if the speakers go out of stock from this point in time until they finally figure out where my AMEX card went and when they finally feel like charging it... I wouldn't even get them shipped out on Monday!!! After telling him that I don't understand why it takes so long to charge my card, he tells me he will try to push it forward and get it charged quicker (a few nastier tones, but no foul language went into that discussion to get him to try to push it forward). I tell him to call me if there are any problems. Never receive any phone calls Friday. Call them Friday night and the CSR tells me he doesn't know if the card got charged or not but that it is awaiting processing. He says to call back Saturday morning and they will know whether the card got charged or not. Call on Saturday morning, the CSR tells me he doesn't know whether the card got charged or not, in fact, he doesnt even have my American Express card on file!!!! But that he will write down my credit card information again and make sure that it gets charged on Monday morning. I have had enough of this BS so I tell him to cancel my order and to MAKE sure that they cancel my order properly. I order from Klipsch.com directly and now feel like I've just wasted 5 days on shipping time for the speakers since I could have ordered them Tuesday from Klipsch.com (On Monday Klipsch.com didn't have them in stock). Now some of you may say that this is my fault for not having my address in the VISA system properly. But I have made multiple online orders using my VISA in the past few weeks and I have had NO problems what-so-ever using it. Even with other companies like newegg.com that use an address verification system similar to Alienware's I have never had a problem!
---
To make this story even better, they wanted to charge me the same $27.00 for Fed-Ex 3-day shipping (they have no cheaper/slower shipping option) that they would have even though it was now taking them over a WEEK to even ship the speakers to me!!!!
I also asked at one point if Alienware would call my credit card company on the phone to verify my address and the CSR told me that "Thats not the way it works." ... and basically refused to do this. I don't know why this is their policy, but it seems like a stupid one.
In any case, I will never be giving Alienware my business again, nor will I ever recommend Alienware to any of my friends or the companies that come to me for computer buying advice. Buyer beware if you're ever going to buy from Alienware! Their Customer Service reps are very nice, but they seem unable to assist me and were unwilling to call my credit card company to do a manual address verification (which I know they could do if they had to). Additionally I feel as though they lied to me consistently in regards to contacting me in the event that my card did not get charged properly. I would highly recommend not purchasing from them!!!
---
Ordered a set of Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 speakers from Alienware on Monday 11/26/2001. Called them almost immediately to confirm my order as their web site states. Recieved an e-mail on Wednesday night stating that my billing address for my VISA credit card does not match the billing/shipping address that I gave them, was told to fax over my driver's license and sign a form which sortof makes me nervous in this day and age of identity theft. Called them up and told them that my billing address is in fact the same as what I gave them and told them to re-process. In the meantime, I called my credit card company and was told that the system they use (AVS) is sometimes very picky about addresses, so I matched my address to the one that I gave Alienware since they were not EXACTLY the same (abbreviations and such were mismatched). Was also told by the VISA CSR not to fax that form over because it sounds fishy and is not standard procedure for companies (usually they manually call the credit card company first, which would take care of this problem all together!). Called Alienware back to tell them that the problem should be taken care of and they can run it again and that if it did not go through asked if it I could be called immediately so I could resolve the problem by faxing over the requested document (which asks for my driver's license and has me sortof wary about doing that to begin with) or by some other means. The CSR promised he would relay the information and I would be called in the event that the charge did not go through. Thursday, I receive no phone calls at work that day so I assume that all is well (I cannot check my home e-mail from work due to a firewall). I call them from work just to make sure and speak with Claudia Diaz who had been sending me the e-amils about my address problem. She does not remember receiving any e-mails from the CSR and does not know that my card was to be recharged. She says that she will charge it immediately. To my dismay when I return home, I have the exact same e-mail regarding my address. I call Alienware again and ask what the problem is. I am told my zip code is not correct despite the fact that my zip code is exactly the same on Alienware and in my credit card company's system. I give them my American Express card instead and ask them to charge that card instead. I am told that the billing department has gone home for the day and my card will be charged on Friday morning. Friday morning, I call Alienware and ask them if they were able to charge my American Express card. The CSR does not have any idea what card I am talking about and only has my VISA card on file! He transfers me to accounting. Accounting tells me they don't know where my American Express credit card number went and transfers me to sales! Now that I have the run-around syndrome and am worried that some employee made off with my American Express number and is currently charging up a storm I start to feel like I should have ordered elsewhere. Finally after speaking to the CSR he finds out where my credit card information is stored (apparently somebody physically wrote it on my order rather than doing it electronically, because that way is faster...???). The CSR tells me he has no clue when my card will be charged but it will definitely be charged on Friday sometime. Additionally he tells me that the speakers wont ship out until Monday at the earliest if my charge goes through today, and that the speakers would only be held for me in the warehouse IF the charge goes through, in other words if the speakers go out of stock from this point in time until they finally figure out where my AMEX card went and when they finally feel like charging it... I wouldn't even get them shipped out on Monday!!! After telling him that I don't understand why it takes so long to charge my card, he tells me he will try to push it forward and get it charged quicker (a few nastier tones, but no foul language went into that discussion to get him to try to push it forward). I tell him to call me if there are any problems. Never receive any phone calls Friday. Call them Friday night and the CSR tells me he doesn't know if the card got charged or not but that it is awaiting processing. He says to call back Saturday morning and they will know whether the card got charged or not. Call on Saturday morning, the CSR tells me he doesn't know whether the card got charged or not, in fact, he doesnt even have my American Express card on file!!!! But that he will write down my credit card information again and make sure that it gets charged on Monday morning. I have had enough of this BS so I tell him to cancel my order and to MAKE sure that they cancel my order properly. I order from Klipsch.com directly and now feel like I've just wasted 5 days on shipping time for the speakers since I could have ordered them Tuesday from Klipsch.com (On Monday Klipsch.com didn't have them in stock). Now some of you may say that this is my fault for not having my address in the VISA system properly. But I have made multiple online orders using my VISA in the past few weeks and I have had NO problems what-so-ever using it. Even with other companies like newegg.com that use an address verification system similar to Alienware's I have never had a problem!
---
To make this story even better, they wanted to charge me the same $27.00 for Fed-Ex 3-day shipping (they have no cheaper/slower shipping option) that they would have even though it was now taking them over a WEEK to even ship the speakers to me!!!!
I also asked at one point if Alienware would call my credit card company on the phone to verify my address and the CSR told me that "Thats not the way it works." ... and basically refused to do this. I don't know why this is their policy, but it seems like a stupid one.
In any case, I will never be giving Alienware my business again, nor will I ever recommend Alienware to any of my friends or the companies that come to me for computer buying advice. Buyer beware if you're ever going to buy from Alienware! Their Customer Service reps are very nice, but they seem unable to assist me and were unwilling to call my credit card company to do a manual address verification (which I know they could do if they had to). Additionally I feel as though they lied to me consistently in regards to contacting me in the event that my card did not get charged properly. I would highly recommend not purchasing from them!!!