Alienware Customer Service Treats You Like An Alien

250 points posted to Service and Support by kaiju 07/17/07

About two hours ago I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new desktop. I first went to Dell.com but was dissapointed in my gaming options. Not only is Vista pre-loaded, but XP Professional is not an option. So I decided to go to Alienware. I got the options I wanted and proceeded to checkout, however during the verification process an unsecured item is referenced and the browser pops up asking if you want to display the unsecured item. Sure no problem, however once you've lost focus the page stops loading. No worries I'll use Chat and speak with a customer service representative and finish the order. Then I'm informed there's nothing they can do, and even though the Survey which was emailed to me while still chatting with the rep asks me if they were able to assist me in my purchase I'm informed there is nothing they can do. I go back to the website and see my item is still in the cart and try to fascilitate transaction again, same error. I call Alienware sales and wait for 20 minutes due to seasonal high volume, I don't know what season we're in last I heard x-mas is in December. I speak to a customer service chat again to see if they can assist me in a new order while I wait for 20 minutes on phone. Well they can't do new orders either. Finally I get a human being on the phone and tell an abrieviated version of my story, and ask to complete the purchase. Sorry the order isn't saved, but I have your information I'll be happy to create the order for you. Excellent I say, and walk through the order when low and behold I'm told he can't complete the order because there are two authorization transactions and he has to wait 48 hours.

So here's my brain storm, test your code before you deploy it to ensure even something as trivial as linking an image with http:// instead of https:// doesn't cause your application to fail. Second, provide a cohesive theme for your customer service, if you set my expectation that the chat customer service representative can help complete my order, it is frustrating when not only they can't but act like it is unrealistic for me to expect them to do so. Third, when processing transactions using credit cards which are obviously batched since I have yet the have an authorization on my account provide a method for your customer service people to cancel. Fourth, provide bundles which make sense, having an entertainment desktop which uses Vista when almost all windows platform games are currently using XP; doesn't makemuch sense. Fifth, If I've expressed an interest in spending $3500 I would hope the first level of customer service would express a little more interest in keeping me a customer besides stating thank you for considering alienware. And finally, if I've now contacted by chat multiple times, and telephone to make a purchase offer alternatives other than sorry I can't finish this order. Like I'm sorry sir but do you have another credit card you can use to finish this transaction. Or, I'm sorry sir would you like to use our no interest for a year credit card to finish this transaction. And if all else fails, say I'm sorry for the inconvience, any thing but "thank you for considering Alienware". It's a slap in the face.