Some Concerns about PCS Products

[Myrm]

Hi

I have a laptop from PCS which is, in fact, the second purchase I have ever made from PCS. I purchased it in May 2016.

The first purchase I made from PCS was a laptop which was purchased in May 2013.


When I received the first laptop (2013) I had to immediately send it back as several keys were not functioning on the keyboard, which made me wonder how this passed quality control.

My second laptop developed two faults in the 9 months I have had it. First fault the SSD drive died and I was sent a replacement. The second fault, occurred this week, in which the laptop, despite having power (two lights illuminated on front of laptop) would not boot up. When I press the power button nothing happens not even a fan whirring. When I disconnect the power and use the battery there is no power at all. It is currently with PCS pending repair.

My concern is this: PCS custom built computers/laptops certainly are not cheap, yet I have two products of theirs both of which have developed one of more faults within a year of their purchase.

Am I just unlucky or is there a problem with PCS and their products? For the price I would have expected more reliable products. I have, in the past, brought far cheaper albeit low end computers from retail outlets and have never had a problem with them. But I have had more problems with PCS' more expensive products.

I am looking at spending £4000 on my next purchase but now I am wary about buying anything else from PCS.

Would appreciate your thoughts please.

Thank you.

 

[keynes]

I think with laptops it is trickier as PCS is a reseller of those. I have a laptop from them and apart from spilling liquid on it (my fault!) never had an issue with it. There seems to be more complaints related to laptops lately. I sent an email a few weeks ago related to a price match for a laptop but received no reply while a few years ago I got one straight away and that push me to buy the laptop from them. Perhaps getting bigger is having an impact on the personal customer service provided before?
I never had an issue when requesting technical support, they were always prompt to answer any concerns.

 

[Oussebon]

I would say it's unlucky.

I built a PC for my partner and within a couple of years the PSU had died - and the replacement PSU EVGA sent us under warranty had a faulty fan as well. The GPU also had developed a faulty fan earlier that year (also EVGA). But I'm not going to stop buying EVGA products on that basis, since other products are clearly fine and they've honoured the warranties.

PCS certainly do make mistakes, and you see that on the forums sometimes. I had to RMA my PC twice (I think) before a particular fault was diagnosed, and I think once when I sent it back they replaced the wrong fan of the twin fan cooler I had.
Later the PSU died.
A laptop I bought from then developed a fault on the screen within a year as well.

While the initial issues I had with my PC may potentially have been down to poor quality control or errors in the build/assembly, the parts that failed after many months I wouldn't think PCS were at fault for.

PCS don't use bad components, they use the same ones that are available to consumers everywhere and I imagine the odds of getting something that dies are no more or likely with a DIY build - less likely even, since notwithstanding occasional QA issues the parts at least get tested to some degree before being sent out so the chances of getting something DoA must be smaller.

I can't speak as to how robust PCS's quality assurance processes are compared to Brand X's, and I guess nobody here could either unless they had been in the workshop witnessing the assembly and testing.

What I can say from personal experience is that at least when there has been a fault with the system, even if there were occasional errors or hiccups along the way, they've certainly been committed to getting a reasonable outcome.

 

[SlimCini]

When you say they're 'not cheap'... can you find the items/components they sell in a laptop package for cheaper elsewhere? I'd go as far as to say the complete opposite... PCS are actually very cheap.

 

[keynes]

When you say they're 'not cheap'... can you find the items/components they sell in a laptop package for cheaper elsewhere? I'd go as far as to say the complete opposite... PCS are actually very cheap.

I think the difference in price is not very significant in laptops (like for like). Following the depreciation of the sterling I think some sellers are absorbing more of the rise in the price of imports than others.

 

[ubuysa]

I'd agree with the above. In most cases PCS really just install the CPU, RAM and HDD/SSD into a pre-built chassis and whilst it's perfectly reasonable to expect these laptops to last problems do sometimes happen.

It's also important to remember that a laptop is a compromise, you're sacrificing quite a bit to gain portability and one of the biggest sacrifices is in the cooling. There's is very little volume in modern laptops, and people want them thinner and lighter all the time, which makes removal of the heat that builds up inside a real challenge. This is why I believe it's very important that owners clean their laptops regularly, especially the finned heat exchanger next to the fan(s). Even so a laptop is always going to run hotter than a similarly specced desktop tower and heat is the number one enemy of electronic components.