Talk:Alienware

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Criticism
Although Alienware is often praised for building some of the fastest systems on the market, they have been criticized recently for various quality control issues and for their poor technical support department. There currently exists a very vocal community of angry Alienware customers who claim to have been victimized by Alienware's allegedly shady business practices. Some such customers have developed web pages so that others may avoid sharing similar experiences. Such web pages include: http://www.nethervault.com and http://www.badsoftware.com/alienwaresucks.

-- Might wanna also mention how alienware is notorious in the tech community for their outrageous prices. Im surprised the page doesn't even touch on this, im not saying we should slander the company, but when i think "alienware" I think markup.

-- I think "Markup, Pointless LEDs, and terrible Air Flow" Smortypi (talk) 23:40, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

--GreenReaper 23:07, 18 July 2005 (UTC)

I've put the Criticism section back in, but made it more Neutral.

Someone took it out again.

But those sites aren't good for an encyclopedia site, I mean a site saying "alienware sucks" in the URL won't be repected you know. Thedarksage 02:34, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

-

The "Customer Service" section seems angry, perhaps it could be made more objective? --Mystaker1 20:18, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

-

There is good cause for the customer service section to seem angry. Granted, I bought my Alienware before the Dell buyout, but it took me more than a year to get my machine. Part of it was not their blame...but their handling of it was craptacular. Ordered a machine and wired them almost 7k (my first mistake...I should have used a credit card to give me more corporate leverage). I got a monitor and a UPS in the mail...no computer...their "support" kept giving me the runaround for 6 months...to the day...then the supervisor told me that it was considered a lost shipment and that I was "screwed" and Alienware would not send another computer to me, nor would they reimburse me...even though they said that the records they had showed that the delivery was not completed. I eventually got what I ordered (only to have it blow up 3 mos later) but it required an attorney and talking to a govt "contractor" as well as paying to ship the box twice....as far as the machine I got...the liquid cooling system crapped out pretty early on (the radiator fans took a big dive)...stock type air cooling kept the CPU cooler than what they had...

Sardu (talk) 18:02, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Why is the criticism gone again? Now it reads like an ad, with no mention of their customer-service issues, nor the massive markups. -- Jay 12:49 22nd May 2006 I'm unregistered, but calling non-gamers "n00bs" I felt was too derogatory and non-neutral so I changed "n00bs" to "newbies and inexperienced computer users". Hope this is okay. I also added citation needed?

Why would the customer service section be 'objective'? They have you talk to foriegn people for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours... until months have gone by and then tell you "sorry nothing we can do, you're outside of warranty!". Must be cheaper to pay Indian call centers then it is to sell functioning equiptment.

Although I have had no experience with Alienware, there is a "community" of people who have shown dislike toward the company and questionable products and activities (I've had 3 friends who all had issues with the company). Surely there must be some reliable source to include for the critisisms? 12.210.215.90 04:30, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Right now it sounds like an ad, I ,myself have had problems with both their computers and customer service. The critisizims paragraph should be added back and kept objective. 24.74.16.11 02:05, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Criticisms really should be added. They overprice their computer quite a bit compared to similar homebuilt systems. I've seen a difference of over $1000 in some cases. Most prebuilt computers are overpriced though, but alienware goes even farther 206.219.74.132 (talk) 18:40, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry for necromancing a nearly 15 year old thread here, but I do feel this could be an important thing. On a side note, it seems things have gotten a little better in the prebuilt sector (and Alienware), but it's definitely still noticeable. Also from what I've seen, the sentiment seems to be coming more from people who build their own PCs. Arguably it's a bit like Apple (though definitely not as extreme) where you're paying for the brand. TheBuddy92 (talk) 02:40, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Nelson Gonzalez
Nelson Gonzalez redirects here. For me that's the same as Bill Gates redirecting to the Microsoft article. If someone knows how to do it - please fix it (or at least let me know. i'll do it :-)))


 * It is not too difficult, just "edit" it. Use this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nelson%20Gonzalez&action=edit and then you can edit the Nelson Gonzalez page. You will see that it says "#redirect Alienware" which makes it redirect to Alienware, so if you delete that rule, than it will stop doing that.
 * I would do it myself, but I have no particular knowledge about 'Nelson', so if you can type us an article: be my guest :-) Kind greetings from Brussels, --Vvim 10:22, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

FYI world: Nelson (and Alex) retired two weeks ago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.63.153.135 (talk) 04:12, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

BUYOUT BY DELL
This article should be somehow changed or merged due to the aquisition by Dell Inc. I'm not sure how this takes place so I have just suggested it instead of doing something wrong. Gsingh 03:17, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I believe that while it is owned by Dell, it should be kept seperate. Alienware will still be run as an independant body. This is completely different from Compaq which was not only made into a portion of HP when it was bought out but also wholly assimilated. The Compaq website in now just a redirect to HP.com which sell both HP and Compaq computers. To my understanding, Dell and alienware are to keep completely seperate domains. Also, Compaq has its own seperate article compared to HP, just as Emachines has a seperate article from Gateway. *shrug* Keep it as is I say or merge several companies. Shyranis 02:39, 23 April 2006 (UTC)


 * You are correct, Sir. And on a related note, you mention "Dell, Inc." which was once known as "Dell Computer Corporation". At the time I wrote the paragraph you (and anybody else are reading now, this article referenced "Dell Computers".  If all goes well, that will read "Dell, Inc." by the time you (or anyone else) reads this....  --angrykeyboarder 10:21, 20 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Well its obvious when Dell means cheaper and put out faster it means outsource all of Alienwares jobs and technology to China, because majority of Dell PCs are made in Communist China, and it will take all credibilty from the name Alienware. Gwag 1:31, 26 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Sounds like your Point Of View to me... If you have any evidence, from verifiable sources, then feel free to add it into the article. If not then that kind of comment is unnecessary, the talk page is to discuss the article, it is not a message board for general chat related to the company. On a side note I know that Alienwares ordered in Europe are assembled in Ireland which is also where their European tech support is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GBobly (talk • contribs) 16:40, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

removed
"== Customer Service == Since customer support claims are often difficult to verify, independent, online venues such as resellerratings.com (see external links below) are one of the only reliable methods of comparing Alienware's support quality to its competitors." It's opinion and really doesn't belong here

ResellerRatings isn't accurate either. Small companies will give free shipping, or even rebates for good reviews which makes the larger companies who couldn't possibly get away with something like this look like they have lower ratings.

I'm confused

 * Ive been hearing great stuff from PCmag and all those other rating companies. Then I hear from you guys that they're pieces of crap.  I don't know who/what to believe.  Someone give me the highlights of these [Alienware] systems,please.


 * That's right. Who really needs laptop for gaming ?? PC desktops are for gaming, consoles, handhelds too - but laptop ??


 * I think that people bash alienware because they need to vent there anger out on something. My friend reacently got an alienware area 51 (intel chip based) and I drilled him on how he likes it and he's said that he's had no problems from alienware or the computer and says its running beautyful. I think that we shouldnt blame the apple tree for a few bad apples. Just because a few people have had a few defective products doesnt mean that the whole company is bad. Its almost that same think as being racist but its with computers instead of people. also if your a big gamer most people just build there own pcs. Pheifdog

Maybe they bash Alienware because they sell systems with engineered periodic failures. I spend $3300 dollars on a desktop replacement that burned up three mainboards in 14 months, and they will do nothing for me.

Well, the fact that they overprice the hell out of the systems doesn't help. You can build a similar system for much less.

Acquisition
Taken from the "Acquisition" section of the article: "This has caused a lot of controversy with gamers. Alienware was a favorite among them while Dell supposedly caters to consumers and inexperienced computer users."

This is false and misleading. The acquisition has caused almost no controversey at all, and furthermore Alienware is NOT a favorite among gamers. Quite the contrary - any gamer you question will laugh at the THOUGHT of purchasing an Alienware machine in contrast to just builindg their own or possibly upgrading a lower end system. Actually, you could say Alienware was a perfect buy for Dell because they, too, cater to inexperienced users. They simply cater to the rich, inexperienced users. -EndTasked 11:50, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
 * You're wrong, EndTasked. Any gamer you question would laugh at the thought of purchasing an Alienware?  How many gamers are you around?  None, right?  I am a gamer and I have an Area-51m m7700 and it is awesome.  And it is not just me, I have talked to a lot of other gamers and they said they would buy an Alienware in a second if they had the money.  --Rigist 02:19, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
 * That's what me, my brother, and his friend all say, Rigist. We would all buy Alienwares.  It doesn't matter if you're a gamer who likes to build your PC, you can still upgrade the Alienware (you can even customize the Alienware on their site). Padishar 00:41, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Competitors
Sin Systems Inc.: how is a company that is only 8 months old considered enough of a competitor to be listed with companies that do millions of dollars worth of business a year? I think that this link is innacurate and, possibly, erroneously agrandizing a wanna-be startup without due cause.


 * Agreed. I also propose that this section is entirely removed. Just like the Acer page, a list of competitors or more accurately; a List of Computer System Manufacturers should be created and then this company listed among them -- Bboyskidz 21:48, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

AMD
The paragraph concerning AMD CPUs could use some work. It really doesn't make much grammatical sense at the moment. I would myself, but I don't have time at the moment, and I'm liable to forget about it. - Im.a.lumberjack 21:56, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I have removed the section as it was unsourced speculation. Racklever 07:22, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

There are far too many sections, perhaps we should put AlienGUIse and Operations under the History section? Seeing that the AlienGUIse section is no more than one sentence long. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Apcolter (talk • contribs).
 * These sections would only belong under history if they were no longer happening. Doesn't make sense to put them there. -Mike Payne 16:56, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

The Operations section is really just the history of Operations, does it really merit it's own section?

Alienware Bot
Who is botting the Alienware article and preventing us from modifying it? Who is this guy Mike Payne, is this the Alienware advertisment bot? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.109.36.46 (talk • contribs). Mike, last time I saw you was at the hospital. I am glad you are okay. I have to wonder why you are bothering to defend Alienware. You know it has not changed. If anything, it's worse.
 * First of all, I am unaware of any botting of the article and not allowing people to modify it. I used to be an employee of Alienware for 3.5 years, and I do know a great deal about the company. I've deleted vandalism, jibberish, and a bunch of other crap. One of the other things I have been deleting is people spamming the article by saying Alienware used to compete with them when I have never heard of them and was unaware of their existence, this isn't the place for 1 person computer company spammers. Anyway, I'm not a bot(viewing my other contributions should prove that much), and I have only been making legitimate changes to the article. I no longer work for Alienware, I haven't for several years, and I have no official personal affiliation with them. -Mike Payne 15:27, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Ahh I see, you're the one adding a lot of the vandalism and crap that I've been deleting. I'll keep doing it if necessary, the fact that you are a disgruntled customer should not allow you affect the public viewpoint of the company. I don't own an Alienware, I'd never buy one, but that's because I know enough that I could build my own and think all manufacturers are overpriced. If you had the money and lacked the knowledge and needed to buy a PC, there's nothing arong with an Alienware, and they certainly don't purposely engineer periodic failures, that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. -Mike Payne 15:32, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Misc

 * The below was unorganized at the beginning of the talk page: -Mike Payne 15:40, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Regarding the edit made 00:57, 30 January 2007 by 70.185.185.178 - is a link to http://www.freealienwarelaptop.info/ appropriate for WP? Rob606 14:15, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I really think the criticism section needs to be added. I also plan to add (in wikipedia-worthy language) how alienware uses tactics like including top quality power supplies and motherboards, but always seems to use inexpensive out-dated CPUs, GPUs, and RAM. They really brag about how cool their systems are, when they are truly pieces of crap that are worth about 1/2 of their sale price. Check www.alienware.com and compare their components to www.newegg.com. (I will write this well, I just don't have time now) Any objections?
 * If you were to do some research, you would realize that Alienware systems are actually pretty competitively priced with other manufacturers, and offer many of the same parts. Alienware's CPUs, GPUs, and RAM are the same ones you will find when you build a computer with any other manufacturer, and of course you will be able to those parts for cheaper when you order everything seperately and build it yourself. It's the same case with any manufacturer. I really wouldn't go as far to call Alienwares "pieces of crap". Vlcmdude 01:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Objection supported. Their new laptops, the m15x, contains the fastest processor and graphics card available in laptops... How exactly is that out-dated? Not only that but they also offer SSD hard drives and smart-bay swapping technology. I'm afraid I fail to see where they are out-dated. I'll admit they're not cheap, but their prices are comparable.GBobly (talk) 16:43, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

This section was removed by an anonymous user (68.100.80.153). It is potentially NPOV, but may still have value:

Copyvio in History
Unsuprisingly, given its tone, the first part of the History section appears to have been lifted from alienware.com Zoganes 21:35, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I took out some of the marketing lingo and made it more objective. Hopefully that's better. :) -Mike Payne (T • C) 15:33, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

4TB HDD??!!
The start of the article reads "Alienware has also released an approximately 4 terabyte hard drive, the largest offered on a PC" This is obviously crap as there are no 4tb desktop HDD's available on the planet. Possibly there's a 4tb array available, if that's the case it should be stated as such. There are also no references so if no one objects I'd like to remove this information. Danno81 09:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

I have removed it Racklever 12:21, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Cheers Racklever, I was on my way back to do that, saves me a little trouble. Cheers Danno81 09:48, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Location issue
It looks like we have a dispute as to the company's location. The company is clearly based in Kendall, Florida, not Miami.

I located, through the InfoTrac OneFile database, a source for this: Gary Shepherd, "Beauty, brawn, brains and bucks: with its vigorous economy and international charm, Southeast Florida is an ever-stronger locale for business," Florida Trend 15 October 2003, 120-125.

The relevant passage is as follows:

"Miami-Dade economic developers said in mid-2003 that the next 12 months would see 129 expansion or relocation projects, nearly 10,000 new jobs and more than $1 billion in capital investments. One such expansion is Alienware Corp., a Hispanic-owned manufacturer of highend computer game systems, which is investing $6 million and creating 155 jobs and 90,000 new square feet at its headquarters in Kendall. The 7-year-old firm now has 300 employees and expects fiscal 2003 revenues of $90 million."

It makes no sense to represent the company as based in Miami when it sits over 10 miles outside of the boundaries of the city of Miami. For the official boundary map, see: http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/Planning/Maps/MiamiRegion8x11.pdf. Alienware's headquarters next to the Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport isn't even in the region covered on the official boundary map!

This is nearly as bizarre as claiming that Apple is in San Jose just because Cupertino is in the San Jose metro area, or claiming that IBM is in New York City just because Armonk is in the NYC metro area. Kendall isn't in Miami, so Alienware it doesn't pay taxes to the city of Miami (except for the in-city kiosk at Dadeland Mall), and it certainly doesn't expect services from the City of Miami! Yes, boundaries do matter.--Coolcaesar (talk) 23:18, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Okay, no one has responded. I am going to change the article to indicate that Alienware is in Kendall in a couple of days. --Coolcaesar (talk) 02:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Product List
Should we put a list of Alienware products in the article (just like the various Dell Product Line pages)? "It's over 9000!" 03:41, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I believe this would improve the article. •ǁ››»»&#124;~'FishSaidNo'~&#124;««‹‹ǁ• 11:47, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Innovations Section Removed
The source was Alienware's website and it lacked facts, but rather listed opinions such as "We are the best and most innovative."--173.20.69.144 (talk) 00:58, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Request to rollback
USER "Gesalbte" made changes to the article with a list of specification. Wiki is not a place to advertise your product. Its not a catalog. I vote we delete any edit made by that user. --216.237.22.181 (talk) 21:40, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is edited by consensus, not voting. --Alan the Roving Ambassador (talk) 21:49, 11 June 2010 (UTC)
 * That doesn't address the user's question. --George100 (talk) 01:30, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

And just how exactly putting page long specifications of possible options that you can buy from a company part of wiki guidelines. That does not qualified as a neutrality or statement of any kind. This is all marketing. --75.32.186.158 (talk) 08:39, 12 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Just deleting some parts of the article is very easy. Gesalbte (talk) 06:14, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

POV and Advertisement template
This POV and Advertisement template has been while since the models and prices have been cleaned up. Is it okay to go head to take this template off now? --JJ98 (talk) 18:24, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

No. Its needs to be re-written. Its not necessary to list all product of a certain company unless its influenced the way of life. Think Ipod. A history of a company might do some justice but cannot be written as advertisement. --216.237.22.181 (talk) 20:53, 6 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Other articles has lists of products. For example the Dell XPS series, processors from Intel and AMD, graphics cards from nVidia and ATI. I use such articles a lot and I am very happy they exist. A way to cleanup this article could be to move the lists of products to a "List of Alienware Laptops" article, and "List of Alienware Desktops"? As long as the information is neutral and is made with technical facts (as opposed to hot marketing air) I really don't see the problem? SplatMan DK (talk) 13:14, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

No mention of its desktops
What?? it's lineup section only lists laptops. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.9.1 (talk) 03:21, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

-This is NOT a advertisement. The lineup should have been deleted. --75.19.39.108 (talk) 05:29, 4 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Perhaps a separate article with the list of Laptops would be in order? And a separate article with the list of Desktops? Surely this can be done without constructing it as "advertisement". I use such pages on Wikipedia several times a month, for example with lists of products from nVidia, ATI, Intel and AMD. And other Dell machines are already listed (for example the XPS series). SplatMan DK (talk) 13:11, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Corrected model numbers for 2013 releases
I have corrected the latest model names of the M14x, M17x, and M18x. Dell has continued is existing naming convention for these models except on their website. All references to these new models, such as support documents, shipping documents and order forms, use the existing naming convention. I hope this will clear up confusion for people googling these models now and in the future. SplatMan DK (talk) 19:42, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok, someone deleted this for some reason. Since it was an anonymous user, and since the use of these model numbers can be documented with URLs to Dells website as well as screenshots of Dell shopping carts (I am working on making such a screenshot and uploading it to Commons as documentation) I have reinserted the information. SplatMan DK (talk) 20:09, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Advert tag
I added an advert tag to the section "Computer systems models (after acquisition by Dell)"

The primary issue is that Wikipedia is not a sales catalog - descriptions of product lines is appropriate, but not full listings of individual models (both current and discontinued). The section is entirely unsourced and simply acts as a marketing tool for the manufacturer. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 18:34, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Copy editing
Corrected the space between "Florida" and the period. Made some adjustment on the last sentence of the second paragraph under "Acquisition and current status". These were minor edits, but I hope they helped. Farzan Ikhlas (talk) 23:01, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Peer Review

Good job on showing the different types of desktops and laptops. I have never heard of Alienware before and did not know that it is involved in gaming. I think it would be a good idea if you included a picture of a console that is made by Alienware. I only made few spelling corrections. My only suggestion is that you can talk about any future contributions to the gaming market. -Mohammed  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maltuwaijeri (talk • contribs) 18:23, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Linux?
I first heard about Alienware before the Dell buyout. What I heard about them was that they were a company that made specifically Linux compatible computers. As in all hardware actively supported by Linux. Then Dell bought them and changed them to gaming machines. --David Garfield (talk) 23:08, 11 February 2024 (UTC)