Alienware playing cheeky

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

Well, apparently Alienware tried to influence hexus' reviewreports:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7113

 

[Marc]

Biting the hand that feeds. GG Hexus.

 

[Dukat]

I've never heard of 'hexus', I admit I'm not a hardware junkie so I may be out of the loop on this one, but it seems to me that "Paul Dutton" went a little OTT with his response.

I dont really think he's justified in his insinuation that alienware only send thier hardware if they are guaranteed a good review irrespective of the hardware. The marketing guy seems to be a bit of a fool, but if Alienware decide that the review was unfair and that they dont want to send anymore hardware to a reviewer they do not agree with then surely they are within thier rights to withold that hardware without accusations of corruption?

I dont know, I agree that Mat Bettinson comes over as a prick, but I would be surpised if it is really as bad as Paul Dutton makes it sound.

 

[Neffneff]

lol the cheek of alienware.

 

[Elftor]

I dont really think he's justified in his insinuation that alienware only send thier hardware if they are guaranteed a good review irrespective of the hardware.

Did you even bother to read the whole piece?

"… 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’."


That's was and remains Alienware's global marketing strategy from the beginning. We're hardly alone.

 

[Pirkel]

1. Never heard of Hexus, Heard loads from Alienware ... 0-1 Alienware
2. I didn't think it was that bad what they did/said. And then the 2nd email from Hexus (from Paul Dutton) was waaaay to aggressive. Heck even if Alienware did loads of evil evil things (which I fail to see they did) then you don't call someone a moron in a business conversations. 0-2 for Alienware

I stopped reading there.

Oh noes a company that is built almost solely on mouth to mouth advertisment, or at least lives by the grace of its reputation, prefers to get positive reviews... Holy obviousness Badman, what a shocker!

 

[Dukat]

Did you even bother to read the whole piece?

Did you even bother to read mine?

The marketing guy seems to be a bit of a fool...

(snip)

I dont know, I agree that Mat Bettinson comes over as a prick, but I would be surpised if it is really as bad as Paul Dutton makes it sound.

Mat Bettinson is a moron, he said that in the wrong context.

The following quote could be interpretted as Mat Bettinson saying that alienware will only send hardware to reviewers that they see eye to eye with. There is nothing wrong with that. Instead, because Bettinson is a fool, it comes over as him saying that Alienware will only supply reviewers who always give good reviews.

"… 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’."


That's was and remains Alienware's global marketing strategy from the beginning. We're hardly alone.

What I think he may be trying(and failing) to say there is that Alienware's global marketting strategy is to only supply reviewers who they believe are fair, this is something that I would suspect that many companies do - they only supply a reviewer that they know and trust, not necessarily someone who will always give good reviews to, but someone that they know are even handed in their reviews.

As I said in my original post though, "I dont know" - as in I'm not convinced either way, but I do not believe that alienware are as bad and corrupt as the sensationalistic writing talent of Paul Dutton makes them sound.

 

[evzy]

Gave up reading about 1/2 down the front page myself - never heard of Hexus, no intention of ever buying an Alienware.. Still amused me for a minute or two

 

[Naetha]

If you read the review that Hexus gave the Alienware computer, it was a very fair review. The final comment was that yes this system is good, but is overpriced - you can get it for up to £600 cheaper at Mesh and (some other place I can't remember).

For Alienware to then come back and say that was a shit review is naive, and poor business tbh.

Incidentally, I just configured an Alienware computer to almost exactly the same configuration as my Mesh computer that I bought last month, and the Alienware one was £650 more expensive not including deliver, printer and speakers.

Oh, and btw I have heard of Hexus and have relied on their reviews in the past.

 

[cHodAX]

Hexus have been around a long time, I will take thier word any day of the week, thier reviews are always 100% spot, something that can't be said of Anandtech or Tom's anymore sadly.

 

[Krait]

Gotta agree......Hexus do excellent,thorough and up-to-date reviews,with all good and bad points mentioned.

 

[Chronictank]

Hexus are big in the overclockers community, just because the casual user hasnt heard of them is a pretty stupid reason to go on the "omgz they must suck" train.
The fact that major manufacturers such as Ati (http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/latest.html), bfg (http://www.bfgtech.com/7800GS_256.html), Nvidia (http://www.nvidia.com/page/6800_reviews.html), put the hexus stamp of approval on their packaging and website says it all

How many of you have heard of Sun Microsystems?
yet they make some of the best servers and most reliable workstations in the world.

They have very good reviews, and are pretty much on the par with tomshardware in its hayday, in my opinion aswell as a huge wealth of guides for users to do things from using word to volt modding a gfx card.
That said it was a issue in the past of reviewers being biased, but that has been ironed out a long time ago as far as i seen.

Alienware is pretty unreasonable hitting out at a very fair review,
they are now owned by dell afaik so it's a reasonable assumption they follow dell's marketing strategy
That said the guy in the article seems to go OTT tbh

 

[Ballard]

Yup Alienware has degenerated significantly over the years. Now its just a marketing bullshit machine producing half decent PC's off the mass produced assembly line.