Unfortunately a very mixed bag.

[barlew]

So i am a bit sad to have to write this post as i have had yet again exemplary customer service from PCSpecialist but this is yet another laptop which i am having to RMA to them.

Here is the story. I ordered a brand new Vortex IX last weekend. PCSpecialist zoomed through the build and testing process much quicker than i expected and i received an email this afternoon saying that the laptop was ready for shipping. I called up and spoke to Marcus (who weirdly i get on the phone every time i call and he is awesome and should be commended for work) and arranged for me to drive down and pick the laptop up. So i drove the 80 miles to Wakefield this afternoon and picked the laptop up (meeting Marcus in person and he is absolutely a top bloke) I load the laptop into the car and drive back up north.

When i get home i unbox the laptop absolutely buzzing about the weekend of gaming i have ahead of me. But what do i see upon opening the lid. The shiny 4k Samsung screen instead of the Matte GSync panel i ordered.

Laptop gets turned off and i call customer support straight away. Low and behold i get Marcus on the phone who ran through a couple of checks with me and funny old thing tells me i have to return the laptop monday morning as they have gone screwed up my order. Marcus is clearly quite embarrassed about the situation and cant do enough for me (i really cant fault him he is class). The RMA is going to be rushed through and hopefully i'll only be waiting another week for the laptop i ordered.

I can hear the reasonable reader thinking to themselves "so whats the drama mistakes happen".

The drama is this. I have been a customer of PCSpecialist for years now. This is the third laptop i have bought from them. It is also the 3rd laptop i have had to RMA.

Here is the history.

First laptop i bought was a Vortex (i believe 3). Unboxed it and loved it for approx a week untill the laptop starting alarming and shutting itself down within seconds of logging in every time i turned it on. I RMA'd the laptop, within a number of days of the RMA i received an email to say they could find no fault with the laptop and it was being returned. I phoned up to protest and was told they would not look at the laptop again. I received the laptop back turned it on and straight away the overheat alarm sounded and it turned off. So time for the second RMA for that laptop. Finally it was fixed and lasted a number of years.

Laptop 2 was a Defiance 3. Six months in the screen starts to sporadically flicker untill the point it got so bad it would go black and the back light would flicker continuously. RMA the Defiance they confirmed the screen was faulty they replace the screen.

Laptop 3, well you already know the story.

The companies customer service is absolutely second to none and i cannot fault it but there is something very wrong with their processes (or i am the unluckiest man on the planet).

Ill keep you guys updated but i really am very dissapointed and im not sure i will continue to be a customer after this.

I am starting to think that although their prices and customisation options cannot be beaten it may be wise to stick with the more expensive everyday brands such as Razer and ASUS.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ah, man, that's such a shame, to happen 3 times in a row is just plain rotten luck....

This last one is an outright mistake, there's no denying it, it's not as if it's something that's gone wrong in shipping or something that can be forgiven, there should have been extra checks done at a very early stage that should have avoided that happening at all.

The other two though, more understandable issues perhaps.

I'm so sorry it's been the case for you, and totally understand your frustration. It takes a lot of energy to snap out of that raw excitement on opening the new kit to switching to the energy of having to "fight your corner" to get the thing repaired. Then there's the extra time without it.

Just a damn shame.

I'm sure we'd all be sorry to see you move on, but it's understandable in your circumstances.

I have been one of the lucky ones, apart from needing clarification of where to source drivers on first receiving my laptop, I've had zero issues other than windows related issues that have been ironed out with updates.

Thanks for feeding back, it's always important to have both sides of the story.

If there's anything we can do to help with anything during this process, of course, do post back, and please keep us updated on the RMA process.

 

[Oussebon]

I phoned up to protest and was told they would not look at the laptop again.

Tbh if that had been me I'd have demanded a refund immediately and never bought a thing off them again. You're more forgiving than I am :S

The screen having a fault after 6 months isn't necessarily a failing in PCS's processes. It's a laptop - if something goes wrong with it (other than modern gen ones overheating) it's going to be the screen... my PCS laptop had an issue with the screen, but so did another from a different company.

The last one is a bit ridic. I'd be interested to know how it happened and wasn't spotted.

Shame they didn't give you a free SSD upgrade instead of a free screen upgrade by accident...

 

[barlew]

The screen having a fault after 6 months isn't necessarily a failing in PCS's processes. It's a laptop - if something goes wrong with it (other than modern gen ones overheating) it's going to be the screen... my PCS laptop had an issue with the screen, but so did another from a different company.

I would fully agree with this and be on board with that sentiment if i hadn't had to RMA the first laptop twice.

Its a real shame that it has come to this. I honestly cannot recommend this company to anyone now. The only reason i stuck with them was the value for money (when the laptops work they are superb) and their customer service.

Maybe i should have binned them after the first laptop. You live and learn i guess.

The last one is a bit ridic. I'd be interested to know how it happened and wasn't spotted.

This is what i mean about there being something wrong with their processes. They are supposedly ISO 9001 compliant which makes this cock up somewhat confusing.

 

[polycrac]

I've not been on these forums long, but there seems to be a little disconnect between the amount of Desktop and Laptop problems reported. Is it that PCS have less control of the the things that can cause issues for Laptops or that the quantity of laptops Vs desktops is different? The customer service seems to be good in either case and I know issues happen for any and every company that employs humans.

 

[ubuysa]

It

Tbh if that had been me I'd have demanded a refund immediately and never bought a thing off them again. You're more forgiving than I am :S

It does take a forgiving person to trust PCS a third time, that's for sure!

That said, we all know that if you toss a coin a million times and they're all heads, the chances of a tail on the next toss is still 50:50. Statistically it's possible for someone to buy a hundred laptops from PCS and have a problem with all of them. Stuff happens and lightning does strike twice in the same place (that's why it's good not to stand there!)...

Your first RMA was just bad, and there's really no excuse. But people make mistakes, perhaps it was mislabelled as having been seen, perhaps someone picked up the wrong laptop? Equally, perhaps someone wanted to go home early and just rushed the check? None of that should happen, but we're human and it does sadly.

Your second was bad luck. Stuff breaks, usually at the most inconvenient time too.

This third one is human error, plain and simple. Someone fouled up somewhere - possibly more than one someone.

Don't read me wrong, I'm not making excuses, none of those things should have happened. Two of your three have been caused by people at PCS doing the wrong thing and I would hope that the people responsible for each of your two laptop screw-ups were identified by PCS and either retrained or removed.

I wrote on another post this morning that John F Kennedy once said that 'an error does not become a mistake unless you refuse to correct it'. If someone (or several someones) at PCS are making errors of the type you've experienced I would expect PCS to take some sort of action to prevent those errors happening again. Unfortunately for us their customers, we're never likely to hear what that actions was, or whether there was any action at all.

I'm not going to try and convince you not to go elsewhere, but more expensive doesn't always mean better quality. People will always make mistakes...

 

[barlew]

I agree with everything you guys are saying (especially about the defiance RMA, I can stomach faulty components) however when youre the guy that has had 4 RMA's with 3 laptops you start to question why you are putting up with it even if it's not the fault of PCS.

Quick question for you all, if you received the 4k screen would you just keep it (as I suppose it is technically an upgrade) or would you send it back as you wanted GSync?

 

[ubuysa]

Quick question for you all, if you received the 4k screen would you just keep it (as I suppose it is technically an upgrade) or would you send it back as you wanted GSync?

I believe they only do the Vortex IX with a 15.6" screen? In which case I doubt you can even see 4k resolution on a screen that small, so for me that's a feature I'd be happy to give up for a feature I wanted.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I believe they only do the Vortex IX with a 15.6" screen? In which case I doubt you can even see 4k resolution on a screen that small, so for me that's a feature I'd be happy to give up for a feature I wanted.

I would agree, 4K on a laptop just isn’t worthwhile over high refresh 1080p. The 1080p would give a much better experience.

 

[barlew]

I believe they only do the Vortex IX with a 15.6" screen? In which case I doubt you can even see 4k resolution on a screen that small, so for me that's a feature I'd be happy to give up for a feature I wanted.

I would agree, 4K on a laptop just isn’t worthwhile over high refresh 1080p. The 1080p would give a much better experience.

Thanks guys. I am grasping at straws here to not have to send the damn thing back.

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks guys. I am grasping at straws here to not have to send the damn thing back.

And I know we all appreciate that. After your awful experiences though you don't want to be using a laptop that's not exactly what you wanted or ordered. IMO of course.

 

[barlew]

And I know we all appreciate that. After your awful experiences though you don't want to be using a laptop that's not exactly what you wanted or ordered. IMO of course.

You are not wrong sir.

 

[SlimCini]

To be fair you could justify keeping it, and just fashion a harness to hold it a few inches from your face to make the 4k worthwhile? No?

 

[Oussebon]

If you're planning to use it for any kind of gaming, I wouldn't keep the 4k screen either.

Since it's really a downgrade (no gsync and forcing you to play below native res on a screen that's too small top really even appreciate 4k anyhow).

 

[barlew]

Thanks for all the advice and sympathy guys lol. So the laptop is now with DPD on its way back to PCS. I shall give an update when i have one.

One thing that is interesting is that everyone i have spoken to at PCS is utterly confused. The screen is actually part of the chassis so to accidentally give me the 4k instead of the GSync is pretty hard to do apparently.

 

[de4life]

Funnily enough I had both of your first two issues (alarm beeping followed by shutdown & flickering screen) on my UltraNote II. It got RMA'd twice - once for the beeping and shutdown (which tbf they acknowledged as a known motherboard issue) and about a week after I got the laptop back it suddenly died so it was RMA'd a second time. The screen flickering started after the warranty had expired so nothing I could do with that but wait for the inevitable, which eventually did happen a few months ago where the screen stopped working entirely. I'd had the laptop for about five years by that point though and was ready to upgrade anyway.

Fingers crossed no issues yet with the Proteus VI.

 

[barlew]

Here is the first update.

PCS received the laptop back at 0855 this morning (well done DPD) at 1156 PCS updated my RMA to state the laptop had been received.

Called them this evening at 1731 to get an update on the RMA and a timeline for when i can expect the laptop back.

I have been told that i will receive an update and timeline tomorrow and they will try their best for a technician to start work on it tomorrow.

Not particularly happy to be honest. When i called on friday to book the RMA i was informed that the minute the laptop got back to them it would be on a technicians desk and the cock up would be rectified.

So far its sat around without anyone looking at it for a day.

I was told today they will hopefully have it back to me by the end of this week....

 

[Toxicpanda]

So what ever happened :0, was it a happy ending or?

 

[Shepard]

Hi there,
this was indeed our fault. We fitted the wrong screen and of course, we rectified that. The technicians rebuilt the system into the correct chassis (with the correct screen) and it worked fine after that. Nevertheless, we did a full stress test on it, 12 hours overnight, as we do with all systems and had a second technician confirm the results. All was working fine when we dispatched the laptop on the 21/08/2019.

Once again, very sorry that my coworkers in production made that mistake in the first place.

 

[barlew]

As Shepard has alluded to this was rectified last week (although i had to make a number of phone calls, completely lose patience and then threaten to cancel the order before they even looked at the laptop. However from that point on rectification was swift.).

Now i have had some time with the laptop i will be writing a post with my thoughts and the sorts of performance i am currently experiencing.