Portable One Stops Selling Fujitsu

I'm sad to announce that Portable One will no longer sell Fujitsu machines, effective today. They can't disclose all the details, but my impression is the break didn't go well. P1 will start selling Sony machines instead.

 

What a shame.....

 

I just ordered a Fujitsu laptop from PortableOne last night. I hope this doesn't mean that my order will be cancelled.

Going forward, where would be the best place to configure & buy Fujitsu laptops online? (other than the Fujitsu website)

 

I really don't know of a great place since I've only bought from P1 for years. Time to start looking though.

 

Say it isn't so!!! Looks like the next notebook I buy will be a Portable One as I don't want to miss out on their service and support. Don't wish to purchase through Fujitsu direct, and I'm certainly not buying a Sony. Speaking of support, what kind of impact will this have (if any) on support for Fujitsu notebooks purchased through them?

This is sad, just sad.

 

Aww, how could they? Sony doesn't have nearly the quality that fujitsu does... P1's name might not stand up to Sony's poor QC.

 

NOooooooooooooo! I just placed an order last week and it has not been shipped yet!! Does that mean service .........???
My GOD!!

 

Call them up, and ask. I ended up cancelling my Fujitsu P7120 order with PortableOne, and just ordered a pre-configured one directly from Fujitsu.

 

I don't know what this means for already ordered units, you'll have to call.

 

I asked Ivan about the rest of my warranty- I had the 3 year warranty on my N5010. He said that my warranty was still good and to call him if Fujitsu tried to say otherwise. He also said he would do what he could to help with future problems, but he couldn't do warranty work any more. He suggested from here on out that I have the rest of the warranty handled by T3. He said they were the best fujitsu had.

I assume this is the T3 he was talking about because they link to P1 at the bottom of the page:
http://www.t3computer.com/index.html

Like Brian posted earlier, Ivan couldn't give me the details about why they can't sell Fujitsu anymore, but the way he worded things suggests that he didn't have much choice in the matter. He also mentioned that his lawyers said he can't really talk about it. So, let's not pester him about it. We don't want to get him in trouble.

Edit to add web page for T3

 

I hope P1 offers the similar deals and configuration options to their Sony line up like they did with Fujitsu

 

I'm sure PortableOne is a great company. But Sony notebooks have horrible ratings for reliability and customer service.

PC Magazine 2005 Ratings:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1851349,00.asp

PC World 2005 Ratings:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,123409,pg,9,00.asp

 

Thanks for the info, noahsark. I was going to call them today as well but forgot.

 

Too bad for P1 and Fujitsu , at least P1 will still have their home built brand. This also means that they won't be servicing their Fujitsu customers no more. I have heard pretty bad things about other repair shops!!! As for Fujitsu I bet their sales will drop due to them losing a great dealer.

 

And as much as I love my notebook, that very fact has me concerned. I am casually back on the hunt waiting for P1's new home brand models to appear. As crazy as it sounds I may actually return my Fujitsu for a P1 MX or SX when they finally hit the street.

 

I wouldn't worry too much. Ivan sounded really confident about the folks at T3 being capable and on the ball. Now, had Ivan said I would have to turn to corporate for help I would be really worried.

I already got in touch with people at T3 because my notebook lost a rubber foot. They said they would get me a new one. I'll let you know how they do.

 

Thanks for the info (again). Besides I just read Fujitsu's return policy and they don't accept returns on CTO notebooks, anyway. I would probably take a beating selling it used, so I guess I will just hang on to it and cross my fingers pending hearing what your level of satisfaction is dealing with T3.

 

Sony are awful laptops - built to last 3 months and supported about the same. No way in hell I'd buy one.

Portable One will lose a lot of customers over this. They are a top class vendor IMO - probably the best - but no point in talking to a nice saleman who is peddling a blatantly cr@p product.

Sony? They have got to be kidding.....

 

T3 lists only 2 Fujitsu models on their website: P1510D and S6240. One wonders why they don't list the N6410 or other models. Are there any other Fujitsu dealers folks can recommend who provide excellent service?

 

I think we should start a petition

why doesn't someone convince Ivan to post in this thread to explain why? they have to know how strong of a following this site has developed for portableone and especially buying a Fujitsu through portableone.com

 

I've talked to Ivan, they're not allowed to talk about it. My guess is Fujitsu got pissed they were selling branded machines, but I don't know for sure. I just know it did not end nicely.

 

I purchased my S2110 from PortableOne. I have not recommended my friends from purchasing it from them unless it was one of the P1 laptops. I always read how good PortableOne was when purchasing Fujitsu brand laptops and that you can always have them check out the laptop before they ship it to you. I've sent them numerous emails (which were all promptly answered although I didn't like getting a one-liner reply to my two paragraph emails to them). Either way, I ordered and ask them to go ahead and check the system before shipping it; they never acknowledged this at all in any emails. I thought it was because they do a check on every system they sell.

Lo and behold, a week later, I find out that my laptop is coming directly from Japan. So it was... I ordered and paid PortableOne to have them order it from Fujitsu when I could have done so at shopfujitsu.com for the exact same price (and they were giving away a free 512MB flash drive which I happen to have needed/wanted). There was no extra value-added service from PortableOne whatsoever even though I've heard rave reviews about the stuff they do before shipping your item. So I am actually glad that Fujitsu decided to quit their relationship with P1.

In the end, I am happy with the purchase of the S2110 but I only have Fujitsu to thank for making such a great and reliable product.

 

alpha, eventhough your laptop arrived to you from japan direct, they would have still taken responsibility for any defect. And you would have been able to deal with them / return it to them directly had there been a problem.

In my case I ordered thru P1 but my notebook was shipped from Fujitsu HQ in the US (my choice, to have it ASAP). Turned out I had stuck pixels. So I delt with P1 directly. All it took was one phone call and one week later I had my notebook back with a brand new screen (phenomenal speed if you ask me, since that included 2 way shipping).

Anyway it's good that your laptop was in perfect condition. But had there been any problems you would've avoided having to deal directly with Fujitsu, which some users here don't like that much.

 

alpha, I'd like to underscore what qwester said as well - you cannot beat Portableone for customer service. Perhaps you were unlucky in that there was an oversight in not pre-checking your unit, but that is not the norm for them. And, from personal experience, I can tell you that having them back you up when there is a problem is, well, priceless. I suffered with a Fujitsu lemon and after numerous repairs it was through Ivan's intervention that I received a complete refund. If I was dealing with Fujitsu directly I would have ultimately probably just given up and just had to buy a replacement and eat the cost, because my daughter needed a reliable laptop. My biggest mistake was dealing with Fujitsu tech support and directly through Fujitsu for the work, which just started a downhill spiral; if I had gone to Portableone for tech help at the beginning, at least part of my nightmare, if not all of it, might have been averted. He intervened and helped as much as possible and, ultimately went up the corporate ladder and fought for us to make sure we were satisfied.

Although their answers are usually succinct, they do take the time to fully address each problem. Although it may have taken me a few paragraphs to explain what was going on, that doesn't mean the solution has to be as long-winded. Don't dismiss a short repsonse as apathy; sometimes that's all that's needed. Trust me, I have tested Ivan's patience and was amazed at how receptive, polite and helpful he always was, even if it meant staying at the office late on a Friday evening to help talk my daughter through a problem.

It will be interesting to see how their affiliation with Sony plays out. A lot of people recommended to stay away from Sony because of their customer support- but now that Portableone is an option for Sony they may be worth looking at. I know there are a lot of Fujitsu fans on this board (which is what initially convinced me to buy one) but after my experience with an expensive lemon and clueless tech support, I know for sure I will neither purchase or recommend another Fujitsu. Interestingly, for all the Dell bashing that goes on, I have owned several Dells over the years and every single one has been far more reliable than the Fujitsu s7020 was.... I think severing their relationship with Portableone was a huge mistake on Fujitsu's part; their loss is Sony's gain.

All I can say is that they gained a customer for life with us. I am thrilled with the UX we subsequently purchased (weight was a huge factor for us) and the reliability, durability and customer service of this unit more than compensates for the 12 inch screen versus the 14" screen that the Fujitsu had.

 

I have to agree portable one has great customer service. I bought a returned a laptop to them no fault of theirs. And they were very very helpful. i would recommend them over most other resellers any day.

 

Ok. I can finally report back on service at T3. Eric Ferrari was very helpful. He did indeed honor the warranty I purchased through P1, so you can all sleep well in that regard. The rubber foot came off the back of my laptop and Eric sent me a new plate that had the foot on it, so I just swapped plates myself.

 

I can't ever imagine why... lmao

P1 refuses to sell junk.