Support and warranty - are you happy?

[RobertoDub]

Hi everyone,
I've been following this forum for a couple of months and am looking to buy a new laptop from PC Specialist (most likely a Vyper 17").

The only doubt I have is related to the level of post sales assistance they provide: do they respond quickly? Do they ignore your emails?

I've read a few bad stories on their subreddit, and also find it weird they have such minimal footprint there.
Yet, there seems to be a good community of happy users here.

What should I expect if my machine breaks after a couple of months, for example? Thanks in advance!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi everyone,
I've been following this forum for a couple of months and am looking to buy a new laptop from PC Specialist (most likely a Vyper 17").

The only doubt I have is related to the level of post sales assistance they provide: do they respond quickly? Do they ignore your emails?

I've read a few bad stories on their subreddit, and also find it weird they have such minimal footprint there.
Yet, there seems to be a good community of happy users here.

What should I expect if my machine breaks after a couple of months, for example? Thanks in advance!

Welcome, nice to have you.

It's a pretty good forum here, we've got quite a few regulars and a lot of buyers / tech enthusiasts / older customers who pop on now and again.

Now, I know my badge says "moderator" but none of us work for PCS, nor do we get paid by them, we just like helping out fellow techies and IT onlookers and geniunely want people to get the best for their money.

I'm not the best to speak to about warranty as I've never had to use it. I did speak to support once about drivers and they were efficient and quick and answered my question in one phonecall, that was in 2014.

I've used the forum an awful lot since buying in 2014, and that has been my main support avenue, they've been great here and as a bonus I've learnt a lot about tech.

Just wanted to link to this thread regarding possible BIOS issues with voltages with the Vyper on battery, PCS are aware of it and are communicating with the manufacturer to get it resolved, but it may take some time, just so you're aware:

Vyper 17 Slow on Battery

Yes Well its not a question of being wise or not, you HAVE to install some drivers from PSC as windows does not install all the drivers by itself. As you know from another forum Tong Fang did not provide Microsoft with all the drivers. I did not reinstall all the drivers from PCS. Just the...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[RobertoDub]

Thanks @SpyderTracks, I've read many of your comments in the past few months and found them very informative .

As you've been here for a long time, even though you didn't have to request assistance, can I ask what your opinion is of it, based on the numerous threads you've replied to?

Should I believe those messages where they claim they had no support whatsoever? Or that support used to be good but has gone downhill recently? Thanks.

 

[SpyderTracks]

As you've been here for a long time, even though you didn't have to request assistance, can I ask what your opinion is of it, based on the numerous threads you've replied to?

Sure. I’ll start by saying, there are definitely some people who fall through the cracks, PCS are by no means perfect, an excellent example of this would be @barlew who had a pretty rough run of it, and now has a Vyper and is working with PCS to get that rectified. There are some that have received problematic support and given PCS a chance and the issue has been rectified, and there are some that get a failed component like an SSD and immediately blame PCS as if they have control over the silicon gods and immediately go for a refund without working through basic troubleshooting.

Then there are the masses, who are extremely happy, remember on a forum like this, 99% of the time you’ll get people posting problems, but probably 90% of the time the feedback on the forum from people who’ve sought RMA’s has been really positive. In conjunction with PCS, quite often we can help pinpoint the issue on the forum and PCS are able to just ship the part next day delivery and we can talk the user through fitting it if required.

For those that have to send equipment back, over the last 6 months or so due to lockdown, nvidia GPUs and now AMD CPU’s, I won’t lie, there has been on average perhaps a 3 or 4 week wait to get it back.

Also, I’ll let you know that most of PCS customer services staff are working remotely at the moment due to COVID and sometimes there have been communication issues between them and the build team.

What I’m trying to say is I think with the current situation, PCS are having to work around the huge order quantities paired with COVID issues and there are some resulting delays and miscommunication issues, but overall, I think they do their utmost to hear the customer and see things through to a satisfactory resolution, if not stellar.

Should I believe those messages where they claim they had no support whatsoever? Or that support used to be good but has gone downhill recently? Thanks.

I think there is some merit to support at times not being as good as it was, I stress “at times” and do believe a lot of SI’s are facing the same struggles with the current climate.

The ones that say they’ve received no support, tbh, without doing them a disservice, I’m almost certain they either weren’t aware of the support avenues available, or didn’t try to use them.

Often if people have difficulties or need things clarifying, we (the mods) can contact PCS through the bat-phone and sometimes help get a resolution a bit quicker.

If you use the forum in conjunction with PCS, you’ll find it’s a very good combination.

I hope that helps

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just to add also, with any laptop / pc, it needs regular maintenance of both software and hardware, being diligent at this will often prevent a whole host of resulting issues that can occur from overheating or drive degradation or something like that. These are things you can find out about on the internet or we can help with here.

We had a user recently whose laptop motherboard had failed and she was really snotty about it. A few photos showed that the chassis was absolutely caked with dust, and it was no surprise to anyone it had resulted in failure and a swollen battery due to overheating. This is all stuff either the forum or PCS can help avoid.

 

[RobertoDub]

Wow, that really helps indeed, as I had pretty much settled on buying from PC Specialist after months of research, and only recently had become very concerned about potential issues with support.

Now, what I'm reading on the Vyper (which you mentioned yourself as well) might cause my purchase decision to get delayed, as I don't see any alternative models that offer similar specs, but at least I'm reassured that the Company seems serious about support.

I'm happy to fix issues or do some basic maintenance by myself, and it's actually a plus for me that PCS lets you open the chassis without invalidating your warranty. I'm not too happy about having to fiddle with various apps to work out optimal thermal values, but I guess I'll live with it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Wow, that really helps indeed, as I had pretty much settled on buying from PC Specialist after months of research, and only recently had become very concerned about potential issues with support.

Now, what I'm reading on the Vyper (which you mentioned yourself as well) might cause my purchase decision to get delayed, as I don't see any alternative models that offer similar specs, but at least I'm reassured that the Company seems serious about support.

I'm happy to fix issues or do some basic maintenance by myself, and it's actually a plus for me that PCS lets you open the chassis without invalidating your warranty. I'm not too happy about having to fiddle with various apps to work out optimal thermal values, but I guess I'll live with it.

Others will post their perspectives too, I’m sure, but yeah, my perspective is that PCS are very serious about support.

The Vyper issues appear to be BIOS related with relation to voltages on battery. On mains it’s a powerhouse and performs really well. Hopefully, PCS and the manufacturer will be able to get a BIOS update sorted fairly quickly, the hardest bit (in duplicating the issue) has been done, so now they know what they’re working with.

 

[AgentCooper]

Sure. I’ll start by saying, there are definitely some people who fall through the cracks, PCS are by no means perfect, an excellent example of this would be @barlew who had a pretty rough run of it, and now has a Vyper and is working with PCS to get that rectified. There are some that have received problematic support and given PCS a chance and the issue has been rectified, and there are some that get a failed component like an SSD and immediately blame PCS as if they have control over the silicon gods and immediately go for a refund without working through basic troubleshooting.

Then there are the masses, who are extremely happy, remember on a forum like this, 99% of the time you’ll get people posting problems, but probably 90% of the time the feedback on the forum from people who’ve sought RMA’s has been really positive. In conjunction with PCS, quite often we can help pinpoint the issue on the forum and PCS are able to just ship the part next day delivery and we can talk the user through fitting it if required.

For those that have to send equipment back, over the last 6 months or so due to lockdown, nvidia GPUs and now AMD CPU’s, I won’t lie, there has been on average perhaps a 3 or 4 week wait to get it back.

Also, I’ll let you know that most of PCS customer services staff are working remotely at the moment due to COVID and sometimes there have been communication issues between them and the build team.

What I’m trying to say is I think with the current situation, PCS are having to work around the huge order quantities paired with COVID issues and there are some resulting delays and miscommunication issues, but overall, I think they do their utmost to hear the customer and see things through to a satisfactory resolution, if not stellar.


I think there is some merit to support at times not being as good as it was, I stress “at times” and do believe a lot of SI’s are facing the same struggles with the current climate.

The ones that say they’ve received no support, tbh, without doing them a disservice, I’m almost certain they either weren’t aware of the support avenues available, or didn’t try to use them.

Often if people have difficulties or need things clarifying, we (the mods) can contact PCS through the bat-phone and sometimes help get a resolution a bit quicker.

If you use the forum in conjunction with PCS, you’ll find it’s a very good combination.

I hope that helps

Fantastically put, good sir. You summed it up perfectly across the board. Poor old @barlew was a great example to bring up. The lad has had a fair few issues with his laptop (always the problem child of the PC genre) but has engaged with the customer services and the forum, he’s got the support of everyone involved and I’ve no doubt that PCS will make sure he ends up with a system he’s truly happy with. He’s also now an official trouble shooter 😁👍

My last system was from another custom builder (who I will say also had excellent customer support) but PCS have been brilliant from day one, even with the extra stresses that the Covid-19 situation has brought to the table. And the forum is an amazing bonus, I’ve joined a fun little family here 🙂

 

[Martinr36]

I've got 2 PCS builds, a desktop which I've had about 18 months & a laptop that i got today & I've been really happy with the desktop which is why when i decided to get a laptop as well, so that i canedit video when I'm away from home I decided to get from PCS.

The guys on the forum always seem to be on hand to give good advise as well

 

[steaky360]

Came here to wax lyrical about my (admittedly) minimal RMA experiences with PCS in the past but ultimately, can't put it better than those above.

But I'm here now so here I go .

For clarity, I've had 3 RMA's - two of which were for peripherals (mouse/keyboard) I got with my first PC and were essentially immediately replaced after some fault finding/troubleshooting between PCS and myself over a phone call or two. The third was for a hard-drive which failed and again, after some fault finding/troubleshooting was replaced with no fuss.

I should add, those were 2012 and 2013 respectively, I still have and use daily, the first PC I purchased back in 2012.

Although this isn't really a RMA as I was out of warranty I did receive support on my SSD when it started developing intermittent faults and although PCS couldn't send a replacement (no warranty) they still spent the time assisting with diagnosis - your mileage may vary here of course, but it was nice to see from my point of view.

Nobody is perfect, but in my opinion given the opportunity PCS would rather see you right than leave a sour taste.

There is also the issue of negativity, it travels fast, and I am not trying to suggest its unfounded, people have bad experiences, as you've seen on Reddit and here. Its just the folk who order a PC, receive it and have no problems, usually don't come here to post (or Reddit, or Facebook etc.).

 

[ubuysa]

and only recently had become very concerned about potential issues with support.

You do need to bear in mind that the posts on these fora are massively skewed to the negative. Everyone who has a problem posts on here - a small few get quite irate about it too. What you almost never see on here is the overwhelming majority of happy customers whose PCs and laptops work perfectly - they either see no point in posting or they're so happy they just don't think about posting.

 

[barlew]

I must say that when I saw I had been tagged in this thread by @SpyderTracks and @AgentCooper first thing this morning it did make me laugh.

I didn't respond straight away as I have spent the day mulling this thread over in my mind (sad I know) because increasingly over the COVID period I have thought about this very subject as more and more angry people post on this forum for both justified and unjustified reasons.

So for the OP an extremely quick overview of my PCS experience and I ask you to bear in mind that I am part of an exceptionally small minority of customers (I would actually place money on being the only customer) to have the experience I had. This background will hopefully provide you with important context for what I will go on to say.

I have been a PCS customer since 2012 and have owned 4 different PCS laptops all of different models. Out of those 4 laptops every single one has had to go back under RMA for repair at least twice for a total of 8 RMA's and I have on 3 occasions either had the laptop sent back to me still faulty, with an entirely new fault or built to the wrong specification.

Again bear in mind that this is exceptionally rare.

So now you have that context I will tell you why I am still a happy PCS customer and remain loyal to the brand.

The reason for this are many and varied but the customer support for me has been the deciding factor (alongside the fact that you could not buy PC's of this specification and quality for the price anywhere else).

I'll illustrate one example for you. I bought a Vortex IX about 18 months ago which I had to send back 4 times. 3 times were under warranty and then just after the warranty ran out the same fault occurred again and I had to send it back for a 4th time. I ended up raising an official complaint and requested either a full refund or a replacement laptop of equal value and specification

Without boring you with all the details PCS without quibble offered me the full refund or replacement laptop and a full apology. again I make the point that by this stage the laptop was over a year old.

I chose the laptop and received a replacement Vyper 17. Unfortunately the Vyper has issues with power delivery to the CPU whilst running on battery. This is a BIOS issue so the fault lies with Tong Fang the manufacturer not PCS. Any way this issue became apparent and straight away customer care offered to provide me a full refund. I have opted to keep the laptop as PCS have worked with me to work out what the problem is. They are now working with Tong Fang to get a replacement BIOS.

As you are looking at the Vyper 17 just a quick note the laptop is an exceptionally nice piece of kit and even with the battery performance issue it is easily the best laptop I have ever owned. There is a temporary fix for the issue and as I said before PCS are in contact with the chassis manufacturer to get an updated BIOS for a permanent fix.

I could not rate PCS highly enough especially their customer service. The only three pieces of advice I have for you are:

1. Be patient. Right now with the pandemic every business is operating differently and in most places these changes are causing delays. It may take a little while for your laptop/PC to get to you.

2. Bear in mind that this is a custom machine put together by hand as per your specification. As this is not an automated process things do unfortunately go wrong. Human error sometimes may creep in, you may have configuration issues due to the highly customisable nature of the product or a component may just fail. Hopefully none of these things happen for you but I can guarantee PCS will sort you out as quickly as possible. Again if unfortunately you do need to carry out an RMA as per point 1 please try to be patient.

3. Buy the Gold warranty.

I will reiterate what @ubuysa has said that the forum will be overly skewed towards people with a negative viewpoint. The reason for this is its human nature to shout as load as possible when something is deemed to be wrong yet when we do good we just crack on and don't acknowledge it.

Finally these forums are an exceptional resource and an awesome community of (mostly) like minded people. If you have any dramas post in here and loads of people will try to help you out.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

I would echo the same, ive been a customer for coming up to 10 years, im on my third machine (2 laptops, now a desktop) and in that time ive had one RMA, it was the first laptop i bought (a Vortex model, cant remember which number now) and the motherboard went after about 18 months and needed replacing.

By then, the full warranty had run out, but I was still covered for labour so it cost me something liike £125 for a replacement board and the courier service. Fixed and returned within 2 weeks (obviously, things are still delayed a bit with CV19 having caused some huge backlogs).
Second laptop I had no problems at all for over 3 years, then the GPU started to go and given the general wear on everything else (battery didnt hold charge for as long as it used to, keyboard was a bit battered, one of the fans on a heatsync was making some odd noises... I really had but it through it all)when the GPU gave up I figured I would replace rather than fix as I could see there were going to be more problems coming anyway.

I think i'd cleaned it out twice the whole time i'd had it, never repasted, and the thing was on 24/7 and got a LOT of use.

Whenever i've had issues PCS have ALWAYS tried to work with me, no matter what it was. Sometimes (more recently, while doing my new desktop build) its meant a lot of emails back and forth and being prepared to wait a few days for an answer, but thats largely due to how many they have working from home still, and so everything just takes longer.

I switched to desktops to avoid some of the issues with upgrades and repairs for laptops generally not being as straightforward, and in the long run its going to cost far less, and give much more performance. Also wasnt a fan of any of the current laptop choices available.

I think the general rule is, as long as you are patient and reasonable with them, they will do everything they can to get you sorted.

 

[smatharu]

I bought my old laptop from PCS 7 years and I remember having a couple of issues which were quickly rectified through their inbox messaging service within my account portal. Can't complain with the service I had and as a result, I'm now waiting for my 2nd PCS laptop to arrive this week. If I had a bad service back then, It would have definitely put me off buying again, but this hasn't been the case.

 

[FerrariVie]

I got my Nova laptop 1 and a half months ago and I'm really happy with it.

I did have issues with screen brightness adjustment (or lack of) that I noticed as soon as I turned it on for the first time, but that was expected as I was seeing people complaining about the same thing here in the forum. The solution was also already found by some people already, so it was just a matter of opening a support ticket with PCS and after a couple of emails and 1 week, I got the correction files sent to me (BIOS update). The update itself was really easy to do and it solved my issue completely.

I also had problems with installing the sound blaster cinema software after a clean windows install, but then I realised that I was better without it and found a much better free third-party solution (Peace + AutoEQ). I also opted for not using control/gaming centre and tuning CPU/GPU performance and fan profiles manually myself, but that is completely out of personal preference.

So thankfully no RMA's yet from my side, but it was a positive support experience with the BIOS update. I think it's good to have someone here that never RMA'd his device, so that you don't think that every single one of us did have to do that

 

[Stephen M]

I have a PCS desk top and have bought about five laptops from them, either for myself, friends or family and have no major issues. As a Linux user I had expected some difficulties but any I had were purely down to software issues and nothing PCS could have done anything about. They rightly say they do not support Linux - with so many different distros it would be impossible to do in a cost effective way.

That said, whenever I have needed answers they have been fairly quick to respond, despite the fact I always use email as it is easier for me and, by their own admission, not the fastest way to get support. I was also kept well informed with one order which took 50+ working days to complete, I knew this would be the case as the machine contained parts which were still on pre-order and held up by the manufacturer. I could have changed the order to include parts already available but as was in no rush and happy to wait.

I certainly do not trust independent sites for the quality of their reviews as in far too many cases it cannot even be proven the reviewer actually had a PCS machine, it seemed they just had an axe to grind or were trolls. I have posted examples of how bad reviews can be on other threads, these are for different products but show the general malaise of the internet review - on Amazon a book by physicist Lawrence Krauss could be pre-ordered but months before it had been released there were a series of one star and very negative reviews from people who could not have seen the book, in another case I contested something on Tripadvisor which was clearly false, their response was that "We do not fact check reviews."

I am not saying all reviews/comments here are perfect, as regular users we will have some bias. That said, we are all customers, including the moderators, and not PCS staff, so we speak as those who have handed over our money and as such will want something decent in return.

 

[ShutterBug365]

Have a PCS laptop from 2012 and it has worked flawlessly and only now giving grief in the last 6/8 months. It is being replaced by a Optimus Pro XI when they come back in stock, I missed out on the last batch by 24 hours due to external events. So when that comes back in stock an order is going in.

My desktop is home built and again was being replaced but I decided to hold off as it seemed silly when the new NVidia cards were due out and then the new AMD Ryzens so as it was working I have held off. 5th November according to the configurator I will be throwing an order in for a new desktop with the new AMD Ryzen 5900 processor but think I will still go for a 2070 given all the lead time and issues with the 3000 series at the moment. The 2070 is far above what I need, just like to live by the adage of get the best you can afford to try and future proof as much as possible.

Both these new builds have been tweaked thanks to the help of the knowledgeable people on this forum. Both these put together will be about £3500/£4000 investment and have no doubts about buying from PCS like I would have buying from elsewhere. The desktop in theory I could build myself but having price checked it - the cost difference is very minimal.

 

[Martinr36]

I know folk say that email is a slow way to contact PCS, especially at the moment, but i sent them an email on Tuesday (13/10) 16:30, and got a reply Wednesday (14/10) 19:26, personally I don't think that's bad at all.