Alienware AM18X-8636BK 18-Inch Laptop (Space Black)

I thought you might want to know about a customer service nightmare I'm having with the Alienware Solution Station. My son is 13 and saved up to buy his Alienware M18x. He had a problem and tried to resent to factory settings and made a mistake. His bad...should have looked on line for instructions first. Still, we called Alienware and asked for help. For a fee, they said they would take care of it.

That was five weeks ago. Fourteen phone calls later. Four technician appointments three of which had NO technician show up. First, they did the basic re-install. However, they couldn't get the wireless card to work and came to the obviously incorrect conclusion there was something wrong with the wireless card (it was working fine before we called them). I waited for a technician a few days later. He showed up, replaced the wireless card and it still didn't work. I called back. They worked on the software some more (remotely) and still couldn't fix the wireless. So, they decided that the replacement wireless card was bad and needed to be replaced again.

I received two confirmation calls from Dell but the technician never showed. When I called, I was told it was because the part was backordered. Nobody ever called to tell me (these are three hour time windows I'm waiting).

Then, two more confirmation calls for a couple days later. The technician never showed and lied about calling me and waiting 20 minutes. At that point I said that I wasn't going to wait again for a wireless card that was unnecessary in the first place. The Alienware support person asked what I wanted him to do so I said I wanted him to fix the software. After about an hour, he did. He discovered that the technician who did the initial work (a month had passed at this point and about 10 calls) did it incorrectly and nobody ever went back to check it. Then, however, it turns out we had a problem with graphics that we didn't have before.

He couldn't solve it and instead said that we needed a new graphics card. So, today, I waited again. I got two confirmation calls from Dell and the technician didn't show up. Again, because the part is on backorder, but nobody told me. So now, I've spent countless hours working with my son at times (of course, he has to go to school at some point), taking up time in my working day, and most of it wasted because the support people did the job incorrectly the first time, told me I needed parts I didn't need, and have on-site technicians who lie and don't call customers to tell them they aren't coming.

Today, I asked to talk to someone who might be interested in hearing about this. Tech support transferred me to customer service. They wanted to transfer me to tech support. Finally, I got the woman to understand that I thought they might want to know that their tech support has been terrible and their on-site technicians don't show up. She told me her manager would call me. Who is good for a bet that I don't hear a word?

So...I wait...with my frustrated kid...for the part that is on backorder and the technician who doesn't call and there's nothing I can do, except let other Alienware users know, just as a heads up. It may be a great notebook, but it's useless if my son can't use it.

The m18x is an awesome machine. But the biggest reason people choose the m18x over the m17x is the ability to have dual GPU (and 1" inch extra screen). This model does not offer a dual GPU, so keep that in mind. Another thing to keep in mind, this thing is HUGE. Literally you won't be able to lift it with one hand. You can carry it with one, but it's big and heavy. Heat dissipation is excellent on it. Thing never got hot. In the end I ended up returning this for a m17x. Btw, Amazon rocks!

Buy Alienware AM18X-8636BK 18-Inch Laptop (Space Black) Now

Feels great, very solid.

Put in a 2nd hd ssd.

Unit runs great.

Item plays all games great. I have a 2 560m sli version and had a great amount of fun. Took my unit apart to replace all the grease with arctic silver 5. Since i did that, the fans almost never go at full speed.

My config is i7 2860, 2 sli 560m, 256 gb ssd, 128 gb ssd.

Read Best Reviews of Alienware AM18X-8636BK 18-Inch Laptop (Space Black) Here

I ordered this laptop about a week ago and got it this sunday, i took the risk of buying a laptop from the US since we had different voltages since i live in kuwait but my fear was taken away and this laptop blew me away, In my opinion it had no cons up until now and it doesnt heat up quickly battery life is around 2 hours 30 mins fully charged, it comes with the quaser blue color when u power it up, the sound and graphics are really nice and i dont regret 1 bit of buying this amazing laptop, there is one thing wrong in the specifications when i ordered it, it turned out to be the intel i7-2670 but on the specifications it was the intel i7-2657 which is a minor mistake but the rest is all good ! you will not regret making this purchase trust me :)

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I got this for gaming purposes.

Weight wise, it is hardly practical to take around as a laptop.

It was great for gaming etc. until one night, smoke started coming out of it!

We did get good service, but the smoke was off putting.