It finally did arrive, the day before Thanksgiving, 2008. I set up the computer. Then I opened up the monitor and noticed it was cracked. I hooked it up anyway, but it didn't work. I get Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving, so I didn't call them until Monday morning. I wasn't too worried -- I'd just get an RMA and everything would be ok.
But it wasn't. The customer service agent (in India) started giving me crap about not reporting it in time. Then he said, "We can't do anything until we've seen pictures of the monitor." So I had to wait until I got home from work, and send pictures. Monday I forgot, but I managed to send them on Tuesday.
You know how you usually get an autogenerated email back from a system after you send an email? I didn't get squat. Here's the email. Read on afterwards, because there's more:
Dear Fulfillment Person,
First off, my order information:
Account #: 000000000
PO#: 0000000000
PO#: 0000000000
I received my system late Wednesday afternoon. I didn't get it set up until Wednesday night. I didn't notice any damage to the box the monitor was in, but upon unpacking the monitor, I noticed the upper-right corner was cracked (see attached pictures). I hooked it up to the computer anyway, but it didn't work. Turning it on allows the display to show for about a second, then it goes black.
Monday morning (yesterday), I called Alienware and spoke to Rob. He asked me why I didn't call earlier. Here is my answer, repeated for anyone else who wants to know: I got the monitor hooked up Wednesday night and assumed you were closed. Thursday I also assumed you were closed. It was a holiday. Friday was the first business day, but for me it was still a holiday and I had family to attend to. The weekend followed Friday. I called first thing Monday morning. After you guys took a month to send me my system, I think that should be acceptable.
Bob said to send you pictures of the monitor, so that you can decide what to do. I'm not sure how this will help, but those pictures are attached. I'm sorry I didn't send these yesterday when I got home from work, but I forgot to. There are three pictures--one of the entire monitor, one as close as I could get to the crack, and a third I took after I realized that the box was damaged.
When I received the box from FedEx, I didn't notice a minor dent on the corner (see picture), or I would have mentioned it. I only noticed it after being asked by Bob if the box was damaged. This dent certainly wouldn't have caused the monitor to be damaged if it had better packing. The packing appears to be original manufacturer packing.
Please send me an RMA so that I can return this monitor and get one that works.
As I said, I didn't hear anything back. So 2 days later, I called Customer Service. The customer service person in India told me that images had to be less than 640K or they would be refused by the server. I resent the email, with reduced images. I pasted in the original email, and prepended it with:
RESEND #2 -----------------------
This is the second time I've sent this request. I first sent it on December 2, but apparently it was ignored because the pictures were too large. After talking to a CSR today (Dec 4), I reduced the image sizes and am resending it.
I didn't get anything back. So I sent it again, assuming that the sum of all image sizes had to be under 640K. So I sent three messages, the first one prepended with:
RESEND #3 ----------------------------
This is the third send. I didn't receive anything back from your system as I was told to expect, so I'm assuming that the TOTAL size of all jpegs is too large. So I'm resending each jpg in a separate message. I'll send two messages after this with the other files.
So I called again, and was told that I should use an image hosting service, and just send the link. So I did:
Reference Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This is my fourth resend. I've been trying to get an RMA from you since December second!!! Please let me know that you are taking me serious as a customer. I'm starting to get nervous that you don't plan to make this right, and that makes me extremely uncomfortable.
Today I spoke to Annie, who told me to use an online hosting service for sending you pictures of this damaged monitor. The pictures that are referenced below can be seen at [URL DELETED].
Big surprise -- I didn't hear anything back. On December 12 (10 days after my first attempt to get an RMA), I called again. I was told that I needed to log into Alienware's site and submit the images that way. Never mind that the other CSRs should have known that. I did as I was asked:
I finally got an email back from their system. But that's after their online submission form locked up twice, without telling me why. Turns out -- my images were still too big.
This story is not over. I still don't have my RMA. I'm not going to tell you what to do. The Alienware box is a really nice computer. But the customer service isn't worth it.
Big surprise -- I didn't hear anything back. On December 12 (10 days after my first attempt to get an RMA), I called again. I was told that I needed to log into Alienware's site and submit the images that way. Never mind that the other CSRs should have known that. I did as I was asked:
I'm pasting in an email that I've sent to you guys 4 times (after initially calling support). The gist is that I need an RMA for a monitor that was damaged. It's 12/10 -- I've been trying to get an RMA from you people since 12/2.
Today (12/12) I called and talked to Lorraine. She was helpful and apologetic, which I appreciate, but I still don't have my RMA. The thread is pasted below.
I finally got an email back from their system. But that's after their online submission form locked up twice, without telling me why. Turns out -- my images were still too big.
This story is not over. I still don't have my RMA. I'm not going to tell you what to do. The Alienware box is a really nice computer. But the customer service isn't worth it.
