Fourth RMA, will be asking for a refund

[cookiedude]

Hi all, I'm a bit at my wits end with this situation. Granted a preface saying that all of the staff at PCS are very nice as friendly on the phone, albeit I am not sure this extends to the RMA engineers. I bought a Recoil series 15.6 laptop in May 2021. The laptop worked great despite a few annoying driver issues and control center stuff that had to go via Tongfang (never again). Until about March 2023.

I use the laptop lightly, mostly casual internet browsing but I like the option to carry a gaming machine with me when traveling back home to the UK (I live in France), which is why I paid 2.5 grand for this machine. Even still, its a rare occasion, the PC is well up to date, well taken care of etc. Come March this year, the laptop is set on my bedside table will good airflow etc. just watching youtube and BAM, blue screen then bootloop, "cannot find bootable drive" or something like that. I had heard the Samsung 970s we're expressing weird failures so I called PCS to request an RMA. I have gold coverage so the technician was nice enough to suggest a replacement drive. I didn't want to believe I had lost all my data, lots of work I had worked on for my PhD (partially backed up), photos etc. but hey what can you do.

First RMA took a few weeks, comes back with a replaced 970. Opened it up to set it up and I encounter a setup loop. Apparently one of the RMA engineers hadnt taken it off of a 'stress test loop' or something, so ok I send it back for a second RMA.

Second RMA takes a few weeks, comes back and its dead in the water. I can get into windows now but my god its as if there's no thermal paste or something, opening windows explorer would freeze the machine. No updates were working, everything happening at a snails pace. The 144Hz screen was outputting about 15 fps. 2 Days on the phone with tech support, ALL DAY. No help. Managed to convince them to please look at the motherboard and CPU.

Third RMA takes a few weeks, nicely offered me a free upgrade to a 990 and a motherboard replacement. Comes back and there are literal stab marks on the laptop... Please check the attached photos. I take very good care of my stuff and this is another level. I called tech support to tell them about this and even they seemed pissed off (not at me but at the damage). They accused UPS of mishandling it but I have the packaging right here and its in perfect condition. This is definately from the RMA workshop. I'm surprised the screen still works to be honest. I have to work aborad so I can't afford to RMA a fourth time right now, so the technician says he will organize it for when I return in 3 weeks. At this point I'm pretty close to requesting a new machine. I told him ok and we will speak in a few weeks. I start using the machine for a few days and yep, ofcourse, snail's pace. Opening firefox litterally melts the PC. I couldn't imagine installing a game and utilizing that expensive mobile GPU i paid for. I'm sure the laptop wouldnt be able to handle anything if it cant even open word without stuttering for 10 seconds. In maybe 1 out of 2 times I restart the machine, it has a little of its regular old speed, but then that quickly deteriorates after about 2 minutes of doing anything, even just leaving it idle. And I'll add I do all neccessary updates, health checks, AMD adrenaline software, Samsung magician software, debloat of win 11 rubbish, fresh installs etc.

I called back today and requested they take it back and give me a full refund. I'm now set to head off for 3 weeks, with no laptop, after not having one basically for 2 months, unable to work and ready to give up and buy a laptop elsewhere. I'm hoping the senior team accept my refund request so I can move on from this because as much as I like PCS, the staff and technicians etc., I can't deal with this back and forth anymore.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi all, I'm a bit at my wits end with this situation. Granted a preface saying that all of the staff at PCS are very nice as friendly on the phone, albeit I am not sure this extends to the RMA engineers. I bought a Recoil series 15.6 laptop in May 2021. The laptop worked great despite a few annoying driver issues and control center stuff that had to go via Tongfang (never again). Until about March 2023.

I use the laptop lightly, mostly casual internet browsing but I like the option to carry a gaming machine with me when traveling back home to the UK (I live in France), which is why I paid 2.5 grand for this machine. Even still, its a rare occasion, the PC is well up to date, well taken care of etc. Come March this year, the laptop is set on my bedside table will good airflow etc. just watching youtube and BAM, blue screen then bootloop, "cannot find bootable drive" or something like that. I had heard the Samsung 970s we're expressing weird failures so I called PCS to request an RMA. I have gold coverage so the technician was nice enough to suggest a replacement drive. I didn't want to believe I had lost all my data, lots of work I had worked on for my PhD (partially backed up), photos etc. but hey what can you do.

First RMA took a few weeks, comes back with a replaced 970. Opened it up to set it up and I encounter a setup loop. Apparently one of the RMA engineers hadnt taken it off of a 'stress test loop' or something, so ok I send it back for a second RMA.

Second RMA takes a few weeks, comes back and its dead in the water. I can get into windows now but my god its as if there's no thermal paste or something, opening windows explorer would freeze the machine. No updates were working, everything happening at a snails pace. The 144Hz screen was outputting about 15 fps. 2 Days on the phone with tech support, ALL DAY. No help. Managed to convince them to please look at the motherboard and CPU.

Third RMA takes a few weeks, nicely offered me a free upgrade to a 990 and a motherboard replacement. Comes back and there are literal stab marks on the laptop... Please check the attached photos. I take very good care of my stuff and this is another level. I called tech support to tell them about this and even they seemed pissed off. They accused UPS of mishandling it but I have the packaging right here and its in perfect condition. This is definately from the RMA workshop. I'm surprised the screen still works to be honest. I have to work aborad so I can't afford to RMA a fourth time right now, so the technician says he will organize it for when I return in 3 weeks. At this point I'm pretty close to requesting a new machine. I told him ok and we will speak in a few weeks. I start using the machine for a few days and yep, ofcourse, snail's pace. Opening firefox litterally melts the PC. I couldn't imagine installing a game and utilizing that expensive mobile GPU i paid for. I'm sure the laptop wouldnt be able to handle anything if it cant even open word without stuttering for 10 seconds. Its maybe 1 of 2 times I restart the machine that it has a little of its regular old speed, but then that quickly deteriorates after about 2 minutes of doing anything, even just leaving it idle. And I'll add I do all neccessary updates, health checks, AMD adrenaline software, Samsung magician software, debloat of win 11 rubbish, fresh installs etc.

I called back today and requested they take it back and give me a full refund. I'm now set to head off for 3 weeks, with no laptop, after not having one basically for 2 months, unable to work and ready to give up and buy a laptop elsewhere. I'm hoping the senior team accept my refund request so I can move on from this because as much as I like PCS, the staff and technicians etc., I can't deal with this back and forth anymore.

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I can't believe the state of that lid, it's awful! Was the box damaged at all that it was returned in?

I'm so sorry you've had so many issues, sounds like you've done all you can. I don't blame you for asking for a refund.

Just be aware as others have gotten confused by this, once the laptop is accepted by them back at PCS, it can take up to 14 days for them to check it over and then issue the refund. Some people expect them just to transfer the funds without checking it first which they have to do as unfortunately there are neredowells out there who will take parts out or swap them for fakes, PCS have to give it a once over to make sure it's as it should be.

 

[HomerJ]

Hi all, I'm a bit at my wits end with this situation. Granted a preface saying that all of the staff at PCS are very nice as friendly on the phone, albeit I am not sure this extends to the RMA engineers. I bought a Recoil series 15.6 laptop in May 2021. The laptop worked great despite a few annoying driver issues and control center stuff that had to go via Tongfang (never again). Until about March 2023.

I use the laptop lightly, mostly casual internet browsing but I like the option to carry a gaming machine with me when traveling back home to the UK (I live in France), which is why I paid 2.5 grand for this machine. Even still, its a rare occasion, the PC is well up to date, well taken care of etc. Come March this year, the laptop is set on my bedside table will good airflow etc. just watching youtube and BAM, blue screen then bootloop, "cannot find bootable drive" or something like that. I had heard the Samsung 970s we're expressing weird failures so I called PCS to request an RMA. I have gold coverage so the technician was nice enough to suggest a replacement drive. I didn't want to believe I had lost all my data, lots of work I had worked on for my PhD (partially backed up), photos etc. but hey what can you do.

First RMA took a few weeks, comes back with a replaced 970. Opened it up to set it up and I encounter a setup loop. Apparently one of the RMA engineers hadnt taken it off of a 'stress test loop' or something, so ok I send it back for a second RMA.

Second RMA takes a few weeks, comes back and its dead in the water. I can get into windows now but my god its as if there's no thermal paste or something, opening windows explorer would freeze the machine. No updates were working, everything happening at a snails pace. The 144Hz screen was outputting about 15 fps. 2 Days on the phone with tech support, ALL DAY. No help. Managed to convince them to please look at the motherboard and CPU.

Third RMA takes a few weeks, nicely offered me a free upgrade to a 990 and a motherboard replacement. Comes back and there are literal stab marks on the laptop... Please check the attached photos. I take very good care of my stuff and this is another level. I called tech support to tell them about this and even they seemed pissed off. They accused UPS of mishandling it but I have the packaging right here and its in perfect condition. This is definately from the RMA workshop. I'm surprised the screen still works to be honest. I have to work aborad so I can't afford to RMA a fourth time right now, so the technician says he will organize it for when I return in 3 weeks. At this point I'm pretty close to requesting a new machine. I told him ok and we will speak in a few weeks. I start using the machine for a few days and yep, ofcourse, snail's pace. Opening firefox litterally melts the PC. I couldn't imagine installing a game and utilizing that expensive mobile GPU i paid for. I'm sure the laptop wouldnt be able to handle anything if it cant even open word without stuttering for 10 seconds. Its maybe 1 of 2 times I restart the machine that it has a little of its regular old speed, but then that quickly deteriorates after about 2 minutes of doing anything, even just leaving it idle. And I'll add I do all neccessary updates, health checks, AMD adrenaline software, Samsung magician software, debloat of win 11 rubbish, fresh installs etc.

I called back today and requested they take it back and give me a full refund. I'm now set to head off for 3 weeks, with no laptop, after not having one basically for 2 months, unable to work and ready to give up and buy a laptop elsewhere. I'm hoping the senior team accept my refund request so I can move on from this because as much as I like PCS, the staff and technicians etc., I can't deal with this back and forth anymore.

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never seen a lid looking like that before 🫣

 

[cookiedude]

Yeah, it's quite disappointing, but more now I'm getting a little miffed as really for this price tag none of this stuff should be happening. Especially poor RMA checks. @SpyderTracks , thanks, and no the box is in perfect condition, which I didnt notice until after we finished the telephone call with the technician who thought it might have been UPS. And yeah I hope they do that this time to be honest. Just running a stress test and calling it a day during one of the rare times the machine is up to speed isnt enough really. I think they should put it through "normal use", running updates, restarting, browsing the internet, file transfers, to see really how it is on a day to day. Regardless, all their components are untouched inside so I hope they agree to just take it back and issue a refund.

@HomerJ , yeah it was quite shocking. If anything, this particular RMA went to the european RMA center

 

[SpyderTracks]

Regardless, all their components are untouched inside so I hope they agree to just take it back and issue a refund.

They still need to do their check so it can take up to 14 days after they receive it for the refund to go through, just to set expectations

With any luck it will go through quicker than that.

 

[cookiedude]

They still need to do their check so it can take up to 14 days after they receive it for the refund to go through, just to set expectations

With any luck it will go through quicker than that.

Yeah thats good I guess, it should take that long to see the issues arrise. It sucks that it's come to this as I do appreciate the sincerity of PCS but in this case its a bit too much and hopefully they'll get that and concede a refund.

 

[ubuysa]

Are you SURE the box that you received it in is the same box that PCS shipped it in? To do that much damage the box would have to be damaged too, perhaps whoever did that en-route to you replaced the box?

If that was done at PCS then someone should be looking for a new job....

 

[SpyderTracks]

Are you SURE the box that you received it in is the same box that PCS shipped it in? To do that much damage the box would have to be damaged too, perhaps whoever did that en-route to you replaced the box?

If that was done at PCS then someone should be looking for a new job....

That's a good point, the PCS boxes are normally marked "notebook"

 

[SpyderTracks]

That case looks to me like somebody was having a bad day and took it out on the lid with a screwdriver...and then threw it on the floor and kicked it around the place for a while!

There's no way that happened during transit....not unless it fell out of the box and was just rattling around in a van all the way from the depot to the OPs home..but even then I don't see the deep grooves being made.

And the damage to that lid I think unquestionably is leading to throttling and cooling not being right, that kind of physical force would have played mayhem with the internals

I don't think you can blame PCS for not testing it, I'm 100% certain it didn't leave PCS in that state.

 

[cookiedude]

Are you SURE the box that you received it in is the same box that PCS shipped it in? To do that much damage the box would have to be damaged too, perhaps whoever did that en-route to you replaced the box?

If that was done at PCS then someone should be looking for a new job....

Each time I've gotten an RMA back its been received in a smaller box with some bubble padding inside, that's packed into a larger box with some styrofoam spacers inside. Its a good system, essentially the PC is suspended within the first box with the bubble stuff, and then the box itself is dampened within the second box by styrofoam. See the attached images, the one with the label is the inner box, it has another customers details crossed out, I believe its the same box I got from the first RMA as I don't have my original packaging so they sent the pink laptop box which is a UPS thing (Heavy duty care box), and I received it back in these cardboard boxes I'm describing. Both boxes are immaculate. This didn't happen during transit. And as @CountingDown pointed out, its not a blunt impact dent like if it were rattling around in a van, this looks like the head of a screwdriver or similarly pointed object (combat knife?) attempting to puncture the lid...

As for the throttling, its been going on since before this damage. Since the first RMA return (well the second seeing as I couldn't get into the machine the first time), it was really really bad to the point of completely unusable, now after a second drive replacement and a motherboard replacement it can function, but only basic browsing or windows functions, and this only lasts maybe 10 - 20 minutes before things start crawling again. Sometimes its straight out the bat on a restart that things just crawl. I wouldn't dare install something like photoshop or even try to run a low impact game like CS:GO.

 

[ubuysa]

This is so serious I would hope the mods would escalate this. If this did happen in the PCS warehouse then the reputational damage to PCS would be incalculable. Someone very senior at PCS should pick this one up.

 

[SpyderTracks]

This is so serious I would hope the mods would escalate this. If this did happen in the PCS warehouse then the reputational damage to PCS would be incalculable. Someone very senior at PCS should pick this one up.

I have already, agree, I think admins need to be aware of this.

 

[Scott]

That's not half in some state. Given the packaging being perfect I think there should definitely be an internal investigation. I would be livid if I received that.

At some point that laptop has had a complete kicking. Someone has had a bad day and taken it out on the laptop. I guess it could go through checks as the next receiving person perhaps thought it arrived in that condition, but at some point that's been done and it appears deliberate to me.

 

[ubuysa]

I would suggest that in order to reassure those who are reading this and wondering whether to buy elsewhere, that a full and frank explanation is posted here once investigations are complete. It's important I believe that we learn not only how this damage occurred but, if it happened at PCS, how it was allowed to be shipped in that state.

 

[moosEh]

Hi all, I'm a bit at my wits end with this situation. Granted a preface saying that all of the staff at PCS are very nice as friendly on the phone, albeit I am not sure this extends to the RMA engineers. I bought a Recoil series 15.6 laptop in May 2021. The laptop worked great despite a few annoying driver issues and control center stuff that had to go via Tongfang (never again). Until about March 2023.

I use the laptop lightly, mostly casual internet browsing but I like the option to carry a gaming machine with me when traveling back home to the UK (I live in France), which is why I paid 2.5 grand for this machine. Even still, its a rare occasion, the PC is well up to date, well taken care of etc. Come March this year, the laptop is set on my bedside table will good airflow etc. just watching youtube and BAM, blue screen then bootloop, "cannot find bootable drive" or something like that. I had heard the Samsung 970s we're expressing weird failures so I called PCS to request an RMA. I have gold coverage so the technician was nice enough to suggest a replacement drive. I didn't want to believe I had lost all my data, lots of work I had worked on for my PhD (partially backed up), photos etc. but hey what can you do.

First RMA took a few weeks, comes back with a replaced 970. Opened it up to set it up and I encounter a setup loop. Apparently one of the RMA engineers hadnt taken it off of a 'stress test loop' or something, so ok I send it back for a second RMA.

Second RMA takes a few weeks, comes back and its dead in the water. I can get into windows now but my god its as if there's no thermal paste or something, opening windows explorer would freeze the machine. No updates were working, everything happening at a snails pace. The 144Hz screen was outputting about 15 fps. 2 Days on the phone with tech support, ALL DAY. No help. Managed to convince them to please look at the motherboard and CPU.

Third RMA takes a few weeks, nicely offered me a free upgrade to a 990 and a motherboard replacement. Comes back and there are literal stab marks on the laptop... Please check the attached photos. I take very good care of my stuff and this is another level. I called tech support to tell them about this and even they seemed pissed off (not at me but at the damage). They accused UPS of mishandling it but I have the packaging right here and its in perfect condition. This is definately from the RMA workshop. I'm surprised the screen still works to be honest. I have to work aborad so I can't afford to RMA a fourth time right now, so the technician says he will organize it for when I return in 3 weeks. At this point I'm pretty close to requesting a new machine. I told him ok and we will speak in a few weeks. I start using the machine for a few days and yep, ofcourse, snail's pace. Opening firefox litterally melts the PC. I couldn't imagine installing a game and utilizing that expensive mobile GPU i paid for. I'm sure the laptop wouldnt be able to handle anything if it cant even open word without stuttering for 10 seconds. In maybe 1 out of 2 times I restart the machine, it has a little of its regular old speed, but then that quickly deteriorates after about 2 minutes of doing anything, even just leaving it idle. And I'll add I do all neccessary updates, health checks, AMD adrenaline software, Samsung magician software, debloat of win 11 rubbish, fresh installs etc.

I called back today and requested they take it back and give me a full refund. I'm now set to head off for 3 weeks, with no laptop, after not having one basically for 2 months, unable to work and ready to give up and buy a laptop elsewhere. I'm hoping the senior team accept my refund request so I can move on from this because as much as I like PCS, the staff and technicians etc., I can't deal with this back and forth anymore.

View attachment 37186View attachment 37187View attachment 37188

First of all my apologies for the issues you've had with this system, especially how you've received the goods in this final RMA.

We've checked this internally and we can see the goods have been packaged incorrectly, allowing the plug to make contact with the panel whilst in transit causing the scratches and dents.

We've immediately addressed this with the team responsible and again we apologies for how you have received the goods as this should not have happened.

 

[cookiedude]

First of all my apologies for the issues you've had with this system, especially how you've received the goods in this final RMA.

We've checked this internally and we can see the goods have been packaged incorrectly, allowing the plug to make contact with the panel whilst in transit causing the scratches and dents.

We've immediately addressed this with the team responsible and again we apologies for how you have received the goods as this should not have happened.

Can confirm that the latest RMA came back with a new backplate and screen so the issue has been resolved. Also, the system now seems to function as normal. The technician had reported that "Initially installing Windows had developed a flaw that caused the processor to lock at 0.4 GHz". System seems to run fine now with correct audio levels, normal CPU processing, and all drivres and control center properly installed.