Alienware Admit Trying to Fiddle Reviews

An anonymous reader writes "Alienware seem to have admitted threatening review sites with no future hardware unless positive reviews are written about their products. Hexus.net attempted to obtain a recent Alienware system and were rebuffed in an email claiming that their last review had scuppered the chances of them getting any hardware to review in the future. Follow-up emails confirmed this was part of Alienware's global marketing strategy. " I've read through the whole article and it would appear that the above is what the rep said. Now, granted, one would hope that's one person in that company, but still bad form.

This is why you need independent reviewers....

[King_TJ]

Consumer Reports magazine has the right idea... If you're going to review and test products, you need to obtain them the exact same way, and through the same channels, that end-users do. Even if a manufacturer can seemingly be trusted not to withhold new products from reviewers to retaliate for a bad review, it doesn't mean they're not "cherry picking" the products they're sending them!

Especially in cases where there are high numbers of D.O.A. or malfunctioning units, reviewers simply don't catch this problem if they're only receiving pre-tested, pre-selected samples for free evaluation.

Translation back to native 1st grade language

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me translate this back into the native 1st grade language in which this argument was originally expressed before it was dressed up in self-righteous ethical terms.

Hexus.Net: Gimme free shit!

AlienWare: No, you're mean.

HN: Wah! I want free shit! You're a poopy-head.

AW: I don't gotta give you nothin' if you're not extra-special nice to me.

HN: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Waaaaah!

AW: I'm taking my ball and going home.

HN: I'll get you for this. I'm telling!

Re:Surprising?

[joshetc]

Yeh, but alienware should expect poor reviews. There is really nothing they can do about it as they overcharge and it is impossible to get better than top-of-the-line components. The way they price their machines puts it into enthusiast territory and the majority of enthusiasts are capable of building / finding much more powerful machines for the same cost or the same machine for far less. If alienware got rid of / reduced the cost of what amounts to $500 cases they may get better reviews....

Re:No news here

[clickclickdrone]

Not true. I've given very poor reviews of kit and the manufacturer still supplies me with new product to evaluate. I've never had the 'Alienware' problem myself. The only thing like this is if the review is for a magazine/website that the PR company or supplier may think doesn't have enough clout in which case you'll get the 'sure, it's in the post' line and no amount of chasing will make anything actually turn up.
One thing I would add though and this is purely anecdotal, I work within the UK market and there, it is an often repeated statement that US magazines can have very different standards for reviews and often print what the manufacturers give them to print rather than writing the copy themselves. No idea if it's true or not.

Re:Surprising?

[diersing]

Alienware isn't about selling the steak, its about selling the sizzle. If your review is going to quash my sizzle then you are no longer of use to me. By promoting 'good reviews' it furthers Alienware's ability to sell the sizzle and so on.

Re:Surprising?

[Fred_A]

Which is why Consumer Reports has always bought their own hardware.

Not getting any free toys or invitations to events with free drinks and food kind of defeats the purpose of setting up a review site...

At least that's what I gathered from the ones I've seen... ;)

Re:Surprising?

[UncleTogie]

...and thus begins Alienware's "Dell Era"....

Re:Worked for Apple

[Gr8Apes]

You should check Apple's latest prices, now that we can do apples to apples comparisons.

I think you'll find that the hardware is relatively fairly priced, although most is higher level (except for the Macbook - still using a Core Duo - bah). $2500 for a dual Woodcrest system? That's an awesome price.

Now, for the upgrades, they're on the order of Dell's pricing - far too expensive for what you get.

Re:Surprising?

[HardSide]

So very very true, but while on the subject many companies do that, when I used to review games for a site way back in the day, the distributor didn't wanna give us some games because of the bad reviews we gave out. Suprisingly one game company, completely forgot the name of both the company and game.They were so astounished by what their game got as in review points (it was really bad) that they sent us a copy of their next game to review for them before releasing it, thinking we had a better outlook on the game then most of the other websites. Moral of the story is, don't hide your mistakes, embrace it and fix them.

Re:Worked for Apple

[Weston O'Reilly]

That's the problem with PCs and their fanboys - you mistake "flash" for "design". Apple's designs are functional - there are no alien head ornaments or strange plastic bubbles attached for "looks". If you honestly can't see that when comparing an Alienware case to the Mac Pro tower case, you're hopeless.

The email chain hurts Hexus too

[clickclickdrone]

Now I've finally managed to read the full article, the email chain is pretty embarassing. When words like 'moron' start getting bandied about then the author has overstepped the bounds of professionalism IMO.

Re:Build your own!

[Fozzyuw]

Just one more good reason to build your own system.

I would always advocate building your own vs. buying, however, there's becoming a finer line between pricing, power, service, and hassle. I recently (like 6-months ago, so I guess that's like a different era in computers terms) went through the whole, "I'm going to get a new computer" process. I ended up with a Dell XPS 600. I'm quite happy with it so far. Some small annoyances, I shouldn't have gotten the WinXP Media Center, so much crap software is installed on it, and for some strange reason, at random times, my mouse wouldn't activate on boot-up until I re-plugged it in.

The thing is, I can build my own and I've done it enough in the past. However, build your own only works best if you have 'known good' parts you can swap out, should something drastically bad go wrong. Like my last effort to upgrade my old box to the point of building my own. New MoBo, CPU, RAM, etc. Well, the MoBo I ordered was bad, it fried the whole system, and I had to replace all the parts. I can tell you, it was not a pleasure to contact each manufacturer and/or online store to get the warranty invoked for replacement parts. It was taking over a month, and so I just bought a nice laptop instead.

This time around, I could have built a 'faster' computer for the same price as some XPS systems, but then I'd have to still buy a Monitor and such. However, the speed I would get out of the new system wasn't significantly better than the XPS system I built. Nor did it have the 3-year warranty(even if Customer Service is a PITA). However, with my DELL laptop, I can tell you, when parts broke, like a Hard Drive, or RAM, one (long) phone call and I'd get a new replacement part in the mail practically the next day, with FedEx, where I could swap parts, and mail (at no cost) the bad part back. I also didn't have to setup the RAID drives or purchase a WinXP license, install all the software (though it would be better since I can skip all the Dell crap they add), etc. etc. Basically, it was easier and just as expensive, after doing to pricewatch.com and picking all my parts, paying for shipping, buying a monitor, putting everything together, crossing my fingers everything works, and hopping for the best, to just buy a Dell and go from there. Of course, now, I can just upgrade at this point. Which was my whole plan.

Dells prices have gotten to the point that, it's actually not such a bad idea, if you have to get an entire new system, that you might as well get it all at once with a warranty for all your parts from the same place, to save some hassle.

Cheers,
Fozzy

Re:Worked for Apple

[cptnapalm]

Mac G4 Cube.

And example of Apple's flash over function for inflated price.

Where's my alien? =(

[Nux'd]

Now that I've actually RTFA, it doesn't sound like a threat to me.

"We'd love to have a SKU which we can review and activate on launch day, to coincide with NVIDIA's release."

(The offer is made)

"Hello Tarinder,

I'm afraid, after the last review, our ability to send you any hardware for review is pretty much gone."

(The offer is refused)

"Matt,

the email inviting 'Alienware' to submit a G80 based system was sent without my authority."

(the offer wasn't permitted)

Matt was responding to an invitation. He declined because it's not his job to allow for less-than-perfect reviews.

Could it be that hexus is upset by this refusal?

Re:Try Falcon on an artificial playing surface!

[Anonymous Coward]

...a hypothetical person came to me stating he/she wanted to astroturf for company "A". She stated she didn't have the technical expertise to do it on her own, so she wanted to pay for someone else's expertise. I told her I could do it, with the following formula:

1.) Point out superficial problems with company "B", then supply a reference to company "A".
2.) ???
3.) Profit!

Re:Is Hexus is being run from their mum's spare ro

[Nux'd]

I agree. Mr Bettinson didn't have to give a reason for refusal, but he did. This was taken by the people at hexus to be a threat or hint that they would accept so long as a better review was given. Did Mat Bettinson say he'd conditionally accept? It was a straight refusal in my eyes. So any reasons given for the refusal would serve to inform rather than persuade.

I am shocked.....SHOCKED!

[Brunellus]

Somehow, I'm not surprised that hardware reviewers throw massive hissy fits. "Professionalism?" Please. These are guys who are given new, shiny toys to play with. They then get to write about the experience on the internets, and people think they're pretty cool. I would be shocked by the presence of professionalism among the reviewer corps, not its absence.

Re:Skewed logic from AlienWare

[shark72]

"Simply because if Hexus has been critical in the past of a ('our') product, then when they release a favorable review regarding another of the company's products, it appears much more honest (and thus more trustworthy) than a site that has always had glowingly positive reviews of our product line."

Hexus asked for the same sku again. No reason why they would have reviewed it differently.

"The editor of Hexus did kinda come across as a dickweed in his e-mail, but that's forgiven because he's British... I don't think they know how to sound polite."

I doubt being British has anything to do with it. Many of the guys who run review sites are amateurs with delusions of entitlement and no sense of professionalism. As another poster put it, they are "children playing at business."

Back when I was hands-on in providing gaming hardware to reviewers, there was a world of difference in working with the print pubs vs. reviewer sites. Hexus' reaction was nothing new... the review sites all seemed to be run by people with the mentality of 16-year-olds who would pull stunts just like Hexus did: printing your private emails if you dared to refuse to send them free stuff.

Re:No news here

[justsomebody]

I thought everybody just kind of knew that hardware companies weren't going to supply hardware to bad reviewers? That would just be counter-intuitive on the part of the manufacturer. That's pretty much why I don't put too much stock in reviews and try and dig as much info as I can out of user reviews.

It is their product and reviews are part of the marketing. So,... yes, it is a common practice to be precise who will review your product and who will not. Just as company has to have a clue about promotion and advertising material.

What I was disappointed more was the "Hollier than thou" attitude from Hexen.

Emboldening two sentences, where one was put into mouth from them selves? The noisy part was actually written by Hexen and not Alienware as they would like us to believe. Answer Alienware provided was just saying, reviews are part of the marketing and we have to be careful about who will review. Hexen obviously hasn't got enough clue to know how business is running. If you want to make bashing (or even honest) reviews, then buy the goddamn hardware. Suppliers simply are not stupid to provide you with free hardware for a bad review. Not great, but it is how world is turning.

But more disappointing was the fact that Hexen was the attacker here and Alienware acted as bystander.
1. It was Hexen who asked for free hardware to review. Alienware didn't request them to review their hardware.

2. It was Hexen who first attacked with
the email inviting 'Alienware' to submit a G80 based system was sent without my authority.

if i had known that there was any intention whatsoever to invite 'Alienware' to submit any product to HEXUS, i would have prevented that happening.

3. It was Hexen who said ... the only inference which can be made from this is that 'Alienware' will only submit products to publications which will write nice things about 'Alienware'. Off course you fool. Reviews are part of the marketing. Marketing is part of selling the product. So, why pay and cover expenses for bad adds? Maybe in the "merry go round" country where Paul Dutton lives life is rosy. All other people actually live in reality. This is what answer That's was and remains Alienware's global marketing strategy from the beginning. We're hardly alone. means here. Why digging your own grave and putting nails in your own coffin? Hexen was just to childish to swallow "Face it, there is a zillion reviewers in the world, sorry, you're not our choice.". Yep it is hard to be threated like a commoner.

4. It was Hexen who said
you should not contact anyone at HEXUS again. no reply is necessary, or wanted. What a childish attempt. If it was done in e-mail following 4 or 5 previous e-mails it would show simple wish to pose "mexican standoff" to the correspondence or a wish to terminate that talk. But using this in the first e-mail (along with bashing the unprofessional approach of the other side) just dhows Paul Dutton lives in the "land of merry go round" and he's mentally exactly 3 years old.

And my final notes to Paul Dutton
1. You took the wrong pill
2. Grow up or wake up, just pick your poison
3. After nr.2 of your choice be careful to choose the right pill this time and notice that world is not turning around you and Hexen is not the center of the world. Some people don't give a slightest fuck if Hexen exists or not.