AlienWhere… as in, “Where’s my Laptop?!?” (Update! … Kinda?)
Apologies for the Off-Topic post, but some things just need to be said. Hey, even WE need to rant sometimes! Excuse us while we vent…
For many of you, technology is your life. For those of us at QJ.NET, technology is also our work – but this bit of technology has been more work than we bargained for and has damn near driven us back to the ‘ol pad of paper and abacus.
We like to keep up on the newest bits of computing, and from time to time, we have the chance to get our hands on some primo gear. So when AlienWare announced the availability of their monster laptop series, the Aurora mALX, we were first in line – literally. Order #1. Boasting to be one of the first 19″ SLI notebooks, featuring a Dual 256MB NVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX, can you blame us? So on May 9th we placed our order and tossed down the cash, foaming at the mouth in anticipation of the promised June 10th delivery.
A month later we’re still sloshing around on a floor covered in drool, and have another month of crusty carpet to look forward to.
So what’s the darn hold up? Beats us. According to our Order Status (seen right) we’re stuck in the limbo known as “Phase 3”, which seems to translate to “Thanks for your money, sucka.” As weeks went by, we naturally got a bit curious. Multiple emails to AlienWare went unanswered, and only after a few phone calls did we start to get an inkling as to what was up.
According to the folks at AlienWare, we had to wait for their flagship notebook because they were trying to round up some parts. What parts, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Seems that they’ve been hyping up a product with fancy features without having any of that equipment actually ready for building. SLI Video Card? Nope. 19″ LCD Display? Guess again. At least they have the case though, right? Wrong.
So what we have here is a case situation where AlienWare is selling a product which doesn’t actually exist and that they are incapable of manufacturing. All the bells and whistles that make this notebook the bad-boy that it’s supposed to be are MIA. And as an added kick to the throat, they weren’t even going to bother telling us about it – despite the fact that “in the rare occurrence that a PC component is not readily available, you will be notified via email.”
Oh, did I mention the $4,500 price tag? Apparently you don’t always get what you pay for. And so we wait. Right now our ship date is slated for July 10th, a whole 2 months after the Aurora mALX went on sale, and the exact same shipping date you’d be quoted if you bought one today. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the status of this debacle as it unfolds…
…in the mean time, we’ll be icing our asses, because it fees like AlienWare has given us a good old fashioned anal probing.
If you have a nightmare purchase story of your own, feel free to tell us about it in the comments – especially if you happen to be in the same predicament as we are. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program…
Update #1: Here it is! The magical day has come and gone and now it’s time to share with you the really-worth-it result all our frustration! So, without further ado…
…nah, I’m just joshing ya. You didn’t really expect it to get here 3 months after ordering, did you? That’s crazy talk! Apparently there is no escaping the limbo of Phase 3, cause we’re still there. As if being stuck there wasn’t enough, they insist on taunting us with phrases like “Payment has been received” (thanks for rubbing our nose in it) and “the order is now in queue for production.” Excuse me, but we ARE the queue! First in line! Remember?
As you can see the saga isn’t even close to being over. Hopefully we’ll have another update for you before August 10th.
Apologies for the Off-Topic post, but some things just need to be said. Hey, even WE need to rant sometimes! Excuse us while we vent…
For many of you, technology is your life. For those of us at QJ.NET, technology is also our work – but this bit of technology has been more work than we bargained for and has damn near driven us back to the ‘ol pad of paper and abacus.
We like to keep up on the newest bits of computing, and from time to time, we have the chance to get our hands on some primo gear. So when AlienWare announced the availability of their monster laptop series, the Aurora mALX, we were first in line – literally. Order #1. Boasting to be one of the first 19″ SLI notebooks, featuring a Dual 256MB NVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX, can you blame us? So on May 9th we placed our order and tossed down the cash, foaming at the mouth in anticipation of the promised June 10th delivery.
A month later we’re still sloshing around on a floor covered in drool, and have another month of crusty carpet to look forward to.
So what’s the darn hold up? Beats us. According to our Order Status (seen right) we’re stuck in the limbo known as “Phase 3”, which seems to translate to “Thanks for your money, sucka.” As weeks went by, we naturally got a bit curious. Multiple emails to AlienWare went unanswered, and only after a few phone calls did we start to get an inkling as to what was up.
According to the folks at AlienWare, we had to wait for their flagship notebook because they were trying to round up some parts. What parts, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Seems that they’ve been hyping up a product with fancy features without having any of that equipment actually ready for building. SLI Video Card? Nope. 19″ LCD Display? Guess again. At least they have the case though, right? Wrong.
So what we have here is a case situation where AlienWare is selling a product which doesn’t actually exist and that they are incapable of manufacturing. All the bells and whistles that make this notebook the bad-boy that it’s supposed to be are MIA. And as an added kick to the throat, they weren’t even going to bother telling us about it – despite the fact that “in the rare occurrence that a PC component is not readily available, you will be notified via email.”
Oh, did I mention the $4,500 price tag? Apparently you don’t always get what you pay for. And so we wait. Right now our ship date is slated for July 10th, a whole 2 months after the Aurora mALX went on sale, and the exact same shipping date you’d be quoted if you bought one today. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on the status of this debacle as it unfolds…
…in the mean time, we’ll be icing our asses, because it fees like AlienWare has given us a good old fashioned anal probing.
If you have a nightmare purchase story of your own, feel free to tell us about it in the comments – especially if you happen to be in the same predicament as we are. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program…
Update #1: Here it is! The magical day has come and gone and now it’s time to share with you the really-worth-it result all our frustration! So, without further ado…
…nah, I’m just joshing ya. You didn’t really expect it to get here 3 months after ordering, did you? That’s crazy talk! Apparently there is no escaping the limbo of Phase 3, cause we’re still there. As if being stuck there wasn’t enough, they insist on taunting us with phrases like “Payment has been received” (thanks for rubbing our nose in it) and “the order is now in queue for production.” Excuse me, but we ARE the queue! First in line! Remember?
As you can see the saga isn’t even close to being over. Hopefully we’ll have another update for you before August 10th.
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