I just found your post the day after ordering my Alienware computer, albeit your angst over them would not have altered my purchasing decision. These things happen with ALL computers and computer companies from time to time. I think a more compelling case against a company could be exemplified by an experince I had with Velocity Micro:

I ordered 4 computers from them, one of them their deluxe Raptor model which was over $7,000 the way I had it configured. The other 3 were lower end models that at the time could be found at Best Buy (although they were a tad beefier).

The Raptor came in as ordered. Out of the other 3, one was not even the configuration ordered, another was damaged, another was dead on arrival. I had a team of computer geeks at my offices working on our network and such, but this team was flown out from Texas and was costing me a pretty penny per day. I placed the order and paid for a confirmed delivery time, so as to coincide with my teams arrival. Since the computers were all defective, I was paying for these guys to hang around while Velocity Micro got their act together. They told me they woudl over-night replacement computers. They did not. I cancelled the order on the other 3, and bought those 3 at a local Best Buy. Their failures cost me about $5,000.

The Raptor was my personal computer. It was as specificed and worked well; initially. Over the course of 3 years, every part in the machine has been replaced 3 times, I have lost everything on the computer, which caused great expense and time each time. Even though it has on-site warranty for 3 years, I have had to send it back to VM 3 times, at a one-way shipping cost to me of $75 each time.

In addition to their on-site support, I have hired my own people to come in and work on it…and regardless what anyone does, each time it goes into sleep mode, or each time I turn it off, I fear it may never come alive again (which is what has happened in all other instances). Motherboard, Memory, hard drives, power supplies, video card, DVD…all these parts have been replaced as I said, 3 different times.

Admittedly, their customer support is excellent, but this does not really help ameliorate the unhappiness that results from having to rely on their Customer Support so often. Its like being a mechanic Maserati…you may be an excellent mechanic, but you are still forever working on a piece of sh*t automobile!

Although my Raptor is once again up and running, I am getting rid of it because I don’t want to have to entertain the dread of ‘when will the hammer fall upon me again’. Four machines bought, all 4 were failures. I think this says more about a company than 1 unfortunate isolated incident.