RMA Time Estimates?

[A-Mac]

To the original poster...I finally received correspondence today, roughly 2 months from sending my laptop away.

To say I'm seething is an understatement and the timescales are just a tiny bit of the problem. I'll post in the forum what was sent and see if anyone has some feedback.

Essentially they said my laptop motherboard needs fixed. It'll cost £910.
My laptop is less than 3 years old and the warranty has not long run out. It was £1,195 when I originally bought it meaning this 1 repair is worth 90% of the laptop. It's a joke. They then say if you want to have it repaired let us know otherwise we will send it back. So I've essentially waited 2 months for them to tell me my laptop is only worth the motherboard and it'll take weeks to fix it and pretty much what you paid for it in the first place, all for £35.

I'm actually lost for words right now and don't know what to do.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

I agree.

I did scour the internet a bit though, and I saw PCS were hiring more RMA technicians about a month ago.

They should probably sack them though as it only seems to be getting worse! 😅

To be fair to PCS, I'm sure it takes time to get new hire processed and trained up... Hopefully that means RMA times will begin to shorten soon?

 

[Ambassador Spock]

To the original poster...I finally received correspondence today, roughly 2 months from sending my laptop away.

To say I'm seething is an understatement and the timescales are just a tiny bit of the problem. I'll post in the forum what was sent and see if anyone has some feedback.

Essentially they said my laptop motherboard needs fixed. It'll cost £910.
My laptop is less than 3 years old and the warranty has not long run out. It was £1,195 when I originally bought it meaning this 1 repair is worth 90% of the laptop. It's a joke. They then say if you want to have it repaired let us know otherwise we will send it back. So I've essentially waited 2 months for them to tell me my laptop is only worth the motherboard and it'll take weeks to fix it and pretty much what you paid for it in the first place, all for £35.

I'm actually lost for words right now and don't know what to do.

That is seriously unfortunate, I don't know what to tell you. I have the same problem in my laptop (bad motherboard), but at least it was under warranty...

 

[ubuysa]

Conversely, however, do you think choosing not to augment staff has not caused PCS to lose potential sales from people who frequent these forums when looking for a new system to purchase? Personally I spent a lot of time (some would say too much time) here before pulling the trigger on my Vyper last year. I had read a few bad stories, but most reviews were good, so I went ahead and bought it. I RMA'ed the Vyper after a few weeks due to several quality issues, and proceeded to buy a Defiance instead. In my opinion the forums have had more and more negative experiences in the past year, which 1) is completely understandable due to covid-related issues, yet 2) has undoubtedly scared some people off PCS systems. Hiring more staff and/or working out a system of letting techs look at RMAs at home would certainly have cost PCS money, but would that have led to less income loss due to fewer bad experiences being posted here? Only PCS can say, but I suspect it would have.

If I was looking for a new computer right now I would absolutely be scared away from PCS due to the quality issues/lengthy RMA times I've seen posted over and over. Indeed, as soon as I sent my Defiance in for its RMA I purchased a stock ASUS ROG gaming laptop from Argos (of all places) right away since I knew it would be weeks until I got the Defiance back and I could not be without a computer for more than a few days due to teleworking. I've been absolutely over the moon with the ASUS laptop, and even though I have full faith the Defiance will be returned in excellent working order next week, I'll be selling it immediately because I cannot risk another lengthy RMA.

I understand the points you're making but as I mentioned (and as every business owner knows) fixed costs are a millstone round your neck. I suspect (though of course I know nothing about PCS's financials) that the lost revenue they are probably suffering now through people going elsewhere is way less in financial terms that the additional fixed costs would be over the usual five year term. No business wants to lose business of course but to stay in business you have to control the finances - and that means the fixed costs - and if you have to lose some custom to remain financially sound then that makes good business sense

 

[AgentCooper]

@A-Mac - I'm also fairly certain that the warranty on the laptop would have been for 1 year on parts, 3 years on labour, I know that's of no consolation to you whatsoever but it's relevant to highlight these things.

 

[SpyderTracks]

To the original poster...I finally received correspondence today, roughly 2 months from sending my laptop away.

To say I'm seething is an understatement and the timescales are just a tiny bit of the problem. I'll post in the forum what was sent and see if anyone has some feedback.

Essentially they said my laptop motherboard needs fixed. It'll cost £910.
My laptop is less than 3 years old and the warranty has not long run out. It was £1,195 when I originally bought it meaning this 1 repair is worth 90% of the laptop. It's a joke. They then say if you want to have it repaired let us know otherwise we will send it back. So I've essentially waited 2 months for them to tell me my laptop is only worth the motherboard and it'll take weeks to fix it and pretty much what you paid for it in the first place, all for £35.

I'm actually lost for words right now and don't know what to do.

Just for some consideration, because of the way laptops are designed these days, unless it’s a DTR, then a motherboard replacement actually includes the CPU and GPU, as they’re integrated into the motherboard and not modular.

So that’s why it’s so expensive, and it’s not particular to PCS, it’s the case with any thin and light laptop these days.

 

[MintyAviation]

To be fair to PCS, I'm sure it takes time to get new hire processed and trained up... Hopefully that means RMA times will begin to shorten soon?

Yeah hopefully!

It will settle back down to the 3-7 days it originally I think after some time.

Just a bad time for my computer to die!

 

[Ambassador Spock]

Just for some consideration, because of the way laptops are designed these days, unless it’s a DTR, then a motherboard replacement actually includes the CPU and GPU, as they’re integrated into the motherboard and not modular.

So that’s why it’s so expensive, and it’s not particular to PCS, it’s the case with any thin and light laptop these days.

Make me wonder why PCS didn't even entertain the notion of offering me a partial refund instead of fully replacing the motherboard and SSD on my 300-day-old Defiance... I would have welcomed a partial refund, and it would have saved PCS a very pricey repair which they are bearing the cost of due to being in-warranty. Not to mention keeping the system for parts...