Need a Refund for an online purchase

[xs2k5]

Miami, Fl.
Although I live in Canada, the company I dealt with has its headquarters in Miami, Florida. They only ship to Canada and they have no Canadian offices. The company is Alienware.

I purchased my laptop from Alienware in February, and it arrived in march. Ever since I got it, it had be showing its weaknesses. About a month an a half ago, the hinge on the LCD lid broke. I couldn't just send in my laptop anytime for repairs, because I use my laptop for work. I am a graphics designer and I use my laptop for that work, and I have related programs and software installed on it. Anyways about a month ago I had an opportunity to send in my laptop for repairs. Here's the thing. I only had one week, where I could live without my laptop, because I didn't have much work. So i called alienware and they assured me that the repair would only take one week. So after confirming that I would have my laptop back within one week, I sent it in. A week passed and I hadn't gotten my laptop, I asked why, and they asked me to check back two business days later. So 4 days later I check back, The told me that the parts have been on back order, and it will take more time.

The second week I was assigned a lot of work and I was unable to get it done because I didn't have my laptop. My laptop has everything I need to work. So I received several warnings from my boss, because I was not meeting deadlines. I have also been loosing money. I get the percentage of the project that I am suppose to complete. The percentage is usually 25%. Since I haven't done anything since my laptop was sent for repairs, I have lost quite a bit of money.

Laptop sent on October 9th, 2008. Alienware Guaranteed it would take only one week to repair. So I should have had the laptop back by October 15th 2008.
After October 15th, 2008 I was assigned work and was unable to complete any of it. I also lost my pay due to this.

Today is October 31st 2008. It has been Three weeks and two days. They still haven't started the repair on my laptop.

I want to get refund on my laptop, but they say that I'm over the 30 days return policy. But The reason I want to get a refund is because I I can't deal with Alienware, it has cost me money. Now unless they pay me full amount that I have lost and compensate me for trouble I'll be happy to get the laptop back, but if no compensation is paid, then I want a full refund.

Please help me.
thanks
Edit: just wanted to add that, it was their responsibility to call the repair facility and check if they had the parts before quoting me the time.

 

[Zigner]

Good luck - keep escalating your concerns at Alienware.

 

[TheGeekess]

You're not going to get a refund. It is NOT their responsibility to make sure said parts are in stock, because they don't know what parts will be needed for repair until they have the actual unit in-hand. When they get the parts, I'm betting the repair will only take one week.

How long did it take for the laptop to go from Canada to Miami? It takes at least a week to get anything from the West Coast to Alabama via UPS ground. Did you ship it overnight? No? Then, you can count on it having arrived at the facility about a week after you sent it, especially since it had to go through customs at some point.

If you needed the laptop so badly, why don't you have a backup system you can use? I have 3 or four backup systems myself, just in case one develops hardware issues. (Like the laptop I use at work; the HDD died, so I pulled an older laptop out of the car and brought it into work so I wouldn't be without.)

I don't see how Alienware is responsible for your lack of foresight.

 

[xs2k5]

You're not going to get a refund. It is NOT their responsibility to make sure said parts are in stock, because they don't know what parts will be needed for repair until they have the actual unit in-hand. When they get the parts, I'm betting the repair will only take one week.

How long did it take for the laptop to go from Canada to Miami? It takes at least a week to get anything from the West Coast to Alabama via UPS ground. Did you ship it overnight? No? Then, you can count on it having arrived at the facility about a week after you sent it, especially since it had to go through customs at some point.

If you needed the laptop so badly, why don't you have a backup system you can use? I have 3 or four backup systems myself, just in case one develops hardware issues. (Like the laptop I use at work; the HDD died, so I pulled an older laptop out of the car and brought it into work so I wouldn't be without.)

I don't see how Alienware is responsible for your lack of foresight.

sorry I forgot to mention, that they have a repair facility in Canada. The repair facility in about 50km from where I live. I was asked to ship this to the facility. They said that it would only take a week to repair the hinge problem.

They already knew the problem with my laptop, this is a common problem with all their laptops, so they should have this part handy. I know at least 20 people who have had the same problem as me. So I made sure on the phone that it would be quick, The rep assured me that since the repair facility is in Canada, the process will be quicker for me. Now it is their responsibility to live up to their word. it is their responsibility to see if the facility has the part before hand.

And I'm not rich enough to afford a backup laptop which costs around $3,350.

I don't understand how you don't see it being alienware's fault.

 

[Zigner]

sorry I forgot to mention, that they have a repair facility in Canada. The repair facility in about 50km from where I live. I was asked to ship this to the facility. They said that it would only take a week to repair the hinge problem.

THAT makes this an easy one to answer:

US LAW ONLY!

 

[TheGeekess]

sorry I forgot to mention, that they have a repair facility in Canada. The repair facility in about 50km from where I live. I was asked to ship this to the facility. They said that it would only take a week to repair the hinge problem.

They already knew the problem with my laptop, this is a common problem with all their laptops, so they should have this part handy. I know at least 20 people who have had the same problem as me. So I made sure on the phone that it would be quick, The rep assured me that since the repair facility is in Canada, the process will be quicker for me. Now it is their responsibility to live up to their word. it is their responsibility to see if the facility has the part before hand.

And I'm not rich enough to afford a backup laptop which costs around $3,350.

I don't understand how you don't see it being alienware's fault.

According to Alienware's site, the product was to be shipped back to Miami for repair.

If our technical support agents determine that your product must be returned to our facilities for repair or replacement, we will issue you a Return Material Authorization Number. We will then send you a shipping label for shipping your product, at our expense, to our facilities. You must, however, return the product to us in its original or equivalent packaging. We will, at our expense, return the repaired or replacement product to you. We will pay shipping expenses both ways only if you use an address in the United States (excluding Puerto Rico and U.S. possessions and territories). Otherwise, you are responsible for shipping the product to our Miami Repair Facility and we will ship the product back to you freight collect.

Alienware: Learn More About Our Warranty

And what a customer service rep will tell you and the technical realities are often miles apart. That's why they're CSRs, not technicians. Nine times out of ten, the CSR will not have half a clue about anything. All they do is issue RMAs and calm ticked off customers.

You can purchase a laptop from Dell that would do anything you wanted to do graphics-wise for under $700USD.

And, no, I don't think Alienware is responsible. I've worked as a tech and and as a parts manager and am well aware that if one had to keep everything in stock all the time to fix anything that comes into the repair facility, the resulting warehouse would be hugely inefficient.

 

[You Are Guilty]

OP, guess you didn't actually read the terms of the warranty for the ridiculously overpriced computer you bought, as they are explicitly clear:

EITHER YOU NOR ALIENWARE WILL BE LIABLE TO THE OTHER FOR PROPERTY DAMAGE, PERSONAL INJURY, LOSS OF USE, INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, "DOWN TIME", PURCHASER'S TIME, LOSS OF USE OF RELATED EQUIPMENT, LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, HOWEVER CAUSED, WHETHER FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), ABSOLUTE OR STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, OTHER THAN THOSE DAMAGES THAT ARE INCAPABLE OF LIMITATION, EXCLUSION OR RESTRICTION UNDER THE APPLICABLE LAW.

http://www.alienware.com/purchase/warranty.aspx

 

[racer72]

Something I was taught about computers years ago and it's something I still do this day, backup everything. I have a 500 Gb external backup hard drive, depending on what I am doing, I back up everything at least once a week. It even has a full load of my operating system. If I ever lose my system for some reason, I can plug my backup into any computer and in about 3 minutes I am where I was on my primary system. It cost me just a few hundred bucks and has been worth every penny. I also keep my entire music library on it, thats almost 900 hours of music.


Now tell me what is the first thing you are going to do when you do get your computer back?