Whatt would you guys do?

Received my compal Hel80 from milestonepc and i had the surprise of realsiing I received the version without the stainless steel and the extra media buttons. On their website they have pictures of the laptops when you order and they show the version with the right cover....

What would you guys do ? Return it or keep it? What are the other difference other then the aestetics?

Otto.

Ps.: Link to milestonepc order page, and link to what i received.

What I received (mine has the webcam...) http://www.rjtech.com/hel80.htm

What I ordered: http://www.milestonepc.com/canada/product_info.php?cPath=187_277&products_id=1311

 

I think I should call that you have received the wrong version of this laptop. The one you received has a glossy screen with a lower resolution, and of course no media buttons.
The one you ordered has a matte screen with a higher resolution (1680x1050). The reactions of this screen are very positive!

I think you must return it, because the one you ordered is a lot different if you compares it to the one you have received!

 

I was expecting the 1280*800 screen and a 6 cell battery (as written on their site...). I wasn't expecting the cheaper case, the lack of aditional multimedia buttons and the bad look.

Otto

 

You received the VBI version of this model which you should have received the NON VBI (regular version) of the HEL80. I would deffinately call them and ask them if you can send it back for the correct version.

 

Well it's kind fo confusing as they are selling the vbi model but with the wrong picutres. And I would definitely would have paid the extra money not to get the dang VBI one.

Otto

Well they refuse to do anything about it so I'll just write a review on my experience and report it to reseller ratings, and the local protection of the consumer board here in Canada...... What I think is really funny is that the guy on the phone told me the pictures are only there for fun, and that the real pictures are found ehre on notebookreview.com. What a load of BS. Saving the webpage as a pdf before they modify it too....

Otto.

Ps.: Actually will give em 24 hours to see if they change their minds. As I know someone is lurking these forums from them. However After that I will just plainly scratch them from the place where I buy and make sure everyone knows about this... So whatever you do if you are a Canadian customer, Order from NCIX. They aren't anywhere near the phone when you need to call em but at least they ship what you ordered.

 

Whoa they gave you the wrong laptop and won't return it? Keep talking to them until it gets fixed, because that is just rotten of them. If there's a return period, consider getting your HEL80 from somewhere else, like powernotebooks.com

 

How did you pay for the laptop Otto? If you paid with a credit card you have the capability of returning it and dealing with your credit card company.

Pcitures there only for fun??? What the...

 

wow yeah that is some bs, thanks for the headsup on that. good luck with the return.

 

Wire transfer is how I paid. So guess I am screwed there... I won't be calling them back as I'm pretty sure they won't do anything since they are overloaded with work with a new location opening and I can clearly do without the blanket statements I received so far. Well if these guys do not care about bad publicity on the top 5 notebook review site, reseller ratings and consumer protection office then more power to them.

Otto.

 

Being "busy" with a new store, or anything is a p*ss poor excuse for giving a customer crummy service.

As a side note: If enough people read this, it might make them rethink "group-buy" which seems to have halted in interest anyways..

 

The VBI version isn't toooo much worse I guess.. the High res screen is very nice. I don't use the media buttons, but that's just me. But the whole different colors and stuff are lame.. I like how the non-VBI looks

 

I can't imagine Milestone does not have a return policy. Just stay with that and get them to accept the return.

We don't ship to Canada, but Justin at Xoticpc does.

 

MilestonePC's website (at least now--can't verify earlier) has pictures of the VBI HEL80. I would consider using their return policy if you're dissatisfied.

Donald listed the differences between the two versions in an earlier post so I've got it below. #'s 3&4 have been verified by a VBI owner to be inaccurate, so I've highlighted them in red.

 

Hi, OttoRitter

If you haven't checked your E-mail, please read it here, this was the email I replied to you early today:

Sorry about the confusion from the pictures, the reason they looked different was because we posted the VBI EL80 on our website for pre-order before it came out, we had no actual pictures of the VBI EL80, we just used the pictures of HEL 80, because at that time no one knew how the VBI EL80 looked like. After the actual EL80 being available, we forgot to change the piture back.

Hel 80 is not available in Canada now, we don't want to bring it in before a distributor wants to do so, it is not a matter of $30 difference, it will be a big hassle when warranty service needed.

If you don't like the looks of the notebook, you can ask for a refund, it won't be a problem at all.


Thanks

Danny Li

www.MilestonePC.com[/COLOR]

 

I knew Danny Li (milestonepc) wouldn't do such a underhand notion. ...and, I will leave it as that.

 

As I was the the non-VBI owners you were talking about, I would like to say the following:

I assume the reason why the caps, scroll lock lights are listed as not available is because they're not seen until they light up. They're hidden in the black bar above the keyboard. So there's that. And I'm 100% sure the TPM 1.2 device is available in the VBI-version. Windows installs is automatically, and it can be switched on in the BIOS.

 

Danny as can be seen in the compal Faq

http://www.bizcom-ca.com/main.asp?content_id=1


Enjoy! (now I can't say this was hard to find!!) Hope I helped your business!

As for the laptop I will give you a break if you replace ALL those pictures from your website and admit that the advertising was in no way honest.

Otto.

ps.: You could probably check Ingram Micro Or Supercom too.

Pss.: If you ever open an account with any of those distributor I would be interested in trading in for the non VBI model.

 

Of course I know all of these distis, Bizcom doesn't sell to end users, and has no dealers in Ontario, but I believe couple of dealers in QC, Supercom stopped Compal line because of Asus focus about two years ago, Ingram I am not sure.

You don't have to give me a break, if you don't like it, return it at my cost, it is not a problem at all, don't say we are not honest, what is the point to lie to customers in such a stupid way, it can be found right away when customers receive the notebook if we are tricking them that way, it is just a mishap. I explained the pictures to you already in the e-mail and in my previous post.

We always try to post the info and photo as accurate as possible, but this is hard to 100% guarrantee, we do have notice on our website about this at the bottom of each page:
DISCLAIMER: Pictures of products on this website are for demostration purpose only. Actual product may be different than those shown. Pricing and specification subject to change without notice. Neither Milestonepc.com nor its information providers shall be liable for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or outdated information.

We are NOT placing the wrong pictures on purpose, just a mishap, I repeat once more here. A good example to do that is realty business: Start from: $300,000, and the picture is a million dollar house, also look at the advertisement for the cars, but we are not doing that.

 

Yeah I was pointing Bizcom as a potential distributor not a reseller to end users. Didn<t know about supercom but then again nothing will ever suprise me coming from them. Ingram being one fo the largest (the largest??? ) distributor in north America I figure they would have em.

Thanks for changing the pictures on your website. I will refrain from posting a negative feedback on the review sites. I will give you the benefit of the doubt. However still think it's sad I am stuck with that bad looking unit. But the performance are sweet so I guess I'll have to start modding!

Otto.

 

After all that fuss and them offering to take it back at their cost, you aren't going to take them up on it? Bad dog... *rolls up the newspaper*

People wonder why huge companies hire non-english speakers to answer the phones...

 

Well I would trade it in but for what?

S96J is as ugly, as an ati card that will give me trouble in linux.
The other higher end notebooks with comparable support for C2D and good GPU all run over 2000$ for the same. So basically I would return it but then I m back to square 1 with no one able to ship a non vbi C2D notebook in canada (if I buy from the US customs will add around 100 $ to the price tag...)

Otto.

 

Have you tried an ATI card in linux? Or asking for help in irc channels? This laptop is the first machine I've had with nvidia anything, and I've been using ATI cards since their original 4mb rage with tv tuner (pre-all in wonder). Never had a problem with using either accelerated or non accelerated drivers. Even had success recently with compiz and xgl (I know lots of people are having luck with the x1600's there in the #xgl room on irc.freenode.net)

 

I have been running an ati card on linux for the last year prior to buying this laptop. Performance were subpar and I didn t get access to all the functionality of the card. 3d was working but I had texture problems in most games and things like that.

Otto.

 

from oregon and a fellow linux user
yay...

 

Don't seem TOO excited I'm from Ara-gone! =P