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Alienware Refusing Customers As Thieves
ChrisPaget writes "Thinking about buying Alienware (now owned by Dell)? Think again. After buying an almost-new Alienware laptop on eBay, I've spent the last week trying to get hold of a Smart Bay caddy to connect a second hard drive (about $150 for $5 of bent metal). Four different Alienware teams have refused to even give me a price on this accessory, instead accusing me of stealing the machine since I didn't buy it directly from their eBay store. They want me to persuade the eBay seller I did buy it from to add me as an authorized user of his Alienware account — they have no concept of 'ownership transfer' and instead assume that if you're not in their system, you must be a thief."
The monster cable of pre-built PCs
Unless you have money to burn or zero skill at assembling a PC yourself, I recommend putting together your own machine.
How does one just put together a laptop? Last time I checked, laptop motherboards and cases hadn't been standardized to that point.
I don't know... I can build a new system in 30min tops if I have the components on my bench and they all are OK. I take probably more to have them ready for production. Depending on the destination I stress test them for at least 24h. After that clean install, clone and be on your way.
And I would advice every one to do this. I enjoy building my computers from parts. It takes me more to chose the right components than to build them.
Take it like a puzzle and enjoy it. And don't worry even if you brake something you are still paying less than buying a DELL.
I see this trend on slashdot and I can't understand it. People saying if you make more then xx$/h you should buy that and don't bother to do it yourself. I would say to you... damn you sleep probably around 8h/day think about all that wasted money.
alas...my point was that the big companies don't make any profit of a second hand laptop, so they make life difficult for end user. Whether it was stolen or not it beside the point. You can't assume something was stolen just because it was bought second hand.
Say NO to unpaid Internships!
If they discover you're in possession of a stolen car, they MUST notify the police...
I call BS. There is absolutely no legal duty to report someone else's possession of stolen property to the police. A dealership might choose to make it a policy, but that's the dealership's own choice and not mandated by law. If there is a law in your jurisdiction that requires dealerships to do this, then it is specific to your jurisdiction only - and would be highly unusual, since such "duty to report" statutes tend to be very controversial and are usually limited to "think of the children" scenarios. And yes, IAALawStudent.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
Well no, he's not asking Alienware to fix anything for him (under warranty or paying directly), he's just simply asking to buy a spare part from them so he can fix it himself.
It's more like buying a used car from someone, trying to buy an oil filter directly from the dealership, and being refused because you're not the original (authorized) owner of the car. You're not asking them to change your oil, which would give them a reason to check your warranty information to make sure everything's in line, or recording your VIN number in their system so they can keep track of what car's they've worked on for the day, he's just someone who wants to buy a part from them. They're just telling you they can't sell you an oil filter because they don't have a record of you buying the car from them.
Really, why should he even be required to be the owner of any Alienware merchandise to buy a replacement part for the laptop? I'm not entirely sure of what he told the CSR's on the phone, but I wonder what they'd say if I called up and wanted to buy a replacement glowing alien head (from their laptops) to decorate something in my house with. Will they deny me because I'm not an authorized owner of the laptop that the glowing alien head fits on, or will they gladly sell me the part regardless of whether I own one of their laptops or not?
If they're denying him the part because he wants it replaced free under the original owner's warranty, that's one thing. Refusing to sell him the part because they have no record of him buying anything directly from them is different.
This is my signature. There are many like it but this one is mine.
as is increasingly the case where people use Wikipedia as an authoritative source for information, for example.
Yeah that's right, an article with references couldn't possibly be trusted if it's on Wikipedia, but we'll trust everything from the media, blogs, and random commenters on a forum without question...
Better analogy. Go to an auto parts store and ask for brake pads for a 2005 Taurus. I assure you they will not even ask for a vin number. They sell parts, you want to buy parts, end of discussion.
Apparently, Alienware has no actual reason to believe the laptop is stolen but chooses to ASSUME that it is because they didn't directly sell it to him.
All the guy wants is to buy additional hardware for his machine. Why should he need a warranty number for that? Should car part stores ask for your VIN number when you want to buy a new headlight?
Perhaps a better analogy is laptop batteries. Why should Dell care how I got my laptop, if all I want is to spend money buying a new battery? They certainly don't lose anything - on the contrary, refusing service to me is what's losing them money!
You have NEVER bought used gear legitimately before? I seriously doubt this guy is a thief. And making that presumption is incredibly offensive. There could be any number of reasons why documentation didn't move with the machine.
But as many others have pointed out, it is clearly their intent to discourage second-hand sales. There are lots of companies and industries that operate this way. To me, the "value" or the measure of what something is "worth" is not what something costs, but rather what you can get for it if you needed to sell it. New cars are not worth what people pay for them. Diamonds of any size or quality are almost completely worthless. Alienware (Dell?) is clearly attempting to devalue the second-hand market and it may be within their rights to deny sale of accessories to people who are not the primary equipment owners. But even this is a disservice to "their actual customers" since it truly lowers the resale value of the gear should they choose to sell it at some point down the road.