"24 Hour Support" advertised at XoticPC does not exist

I want to begin by saying that I've loved XoticPC in the past, so much that I've purchased many laptops from them over the years. I called Support some years ago, got right in after a short wait and they resolved my issue. They were great. Were great should be emphasized...they aren't so great now.

I have an issue with a hard drive on a Sager NP8268-S which I believe is likely failing and needs replacing. It's within warranty, one I actually paid extra money for. I started calling their "24/7" phone support line on Weds, 12/16. Over 9 days, no one has ever picked up the phone (I've tried all times of the day & night) and repeated messages (at least 3) have not been returned.

Their web "live chat" is also un-manned, it always says no one is there and to leave a message. I've posted on their forums last week, and not one employee has replied. In fact, there's a thread created the same day by a spammer hawking medications that hasn't been seen by a moderator and deleted in over a week.

I saw a bit of light at the end of the tunnel with an email reply from "Barry H" on Friday saying he would call, but no calls have been received and he also never answers his phone. Barry emailed again on Monday saying he's out of the office - I get it, understandable this time of year. However, how about forwarding me to someone who can help?

I'll keep this thread updated as I can, but so far this is completely unacceptable in my opinion. I understand businesses can get busy, but I've never had dealings with any company that you cannot reach within a few hours or even the next day (until now). The thing that really irks me is XoticPC can update their Twitter & Facebook every few hours, but they can't get back to a support customer in over a week or even answer a support phone line they advertise as a 24 hours?

I'm sure they eventually get to me and resolve the issue, but that's what they're expected to do....the key issue is when I am in the market next year to buy more computers, I certainly will be looking elsewhere for a company that has a more responsive support system.

 

I'm sorry that we haven't responded to your requests for help on this. Please, email or PM me, and if you can provide some info like your sales order number or email addess it was ordered under I can help out with that.

With the phone support, if they are all on the phone, then it would ask you to leave a voicemail, and I can make sure that someone gets back to you on that.

For live chat, that is going to be M-Fri 9-5:30 central time that someone should be available to pick up though. Normally we do have someone chatting on Saturdays as well, but it is closed today due to the holiday. If you leave a message, then generally we respond back within 1 to 2 business days as much as possible. On the forums, I'll admit that one I have let slip up just trying to help get all of our emails and chats taken care of, due to the holiday season. I'll try to get responded to hear soon when I can. The twitter and facebook are generally ran by the web guys, and not by anybody in tech support or sales.

But feel free to reach out to me directly here or though email, and I'll see what I can do to help out you. Please let me know what I can do for you. Thanks!

 

Pat, the excuses fall flat. I'd have rather you said "no one was here, we're sorry, we dropped the ball." I could have bought a new 1TB laptop HDD myself; Western Digital models were on sale the week before Xmas for about $60 when I started calling your empty phone line. No one was manning the phones. I can guarantee that. Why? Because I called 1, 2, and sometimes 3 times almost every day from the 16th (not weekends). I just tried again...no answer. I called at all hours - mornings, afternoons, nights, and late night 2-3am...same thing, always kicked to the same person's voicemail. I left messages. My son left one. No one ever called me or him back, even to this day as I write this. A forum PR rep shouldn't have to "make sure that someone gets back to you"...if you have to go to that length to kick your support staff into action, then your company is failing terribly at service.

To rub salt in the wounds, I was finally sent an email this week, and I'm stuck paying shipping charges on a warranty...plus, I had to also be charged UP FRONT for the cost of a cross-shipment of the HDD...just under $100. It said "in case" I didn't ship the defective drive. How trustworthy of a long time customer is that? I could have paid $60 cash on December 17 when I was in a retail store...but no, I trusted you guys to the tune of even paying more for an extra warranty. Sucks to be me; the HDD still hasn't been shipped yet after beginning this fiasco 2 weeks ago. All you guys had to do was communicate to your customers if you had support issues and pay simple attention to at least one means of contact. I've exhausted more time and effort over a laptop hard drive that it's actually embarrassing when I tell people the story.

 

I don't like to hear about things like this happening, and that is why I'm here to help. I know we are all busy with the increase in traffic from holidays, and I know I'm usually on the phone almost the whole day nonstop. But that isn't an excuse as to why someone isn't calling back, and I want to bring that up internally. If you let me know on your order or rma ticket number, anything like that, I'll do what I can to help you out.

As for the charge on the cross shipment, that is something a lot of companies unfortunately have to do. It's not about you personally, thinking that you are going to just keep the new drive and never send it back. But there are a lot of people out there who would try to contact a company, and say "this is broken, send me a new one" for personal gain. It's just an alternative to having you send that one back first, waiting for it to arrive, then sending the new one out after it gets here, to get the drive out faster.

If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know and I'll do my best to take care of you and get this resolved.

 

Once you get your order, I would suggest initiating a full chargeback via your credit card company.

If they don't deliver the service or good that you paid for, in full, they should not get a cent of your money, especially after stealing hours upon hours of your time.

 

Conclusion: thankfully, Sager Computers took over the support from XoticPC a few days before New Year's. I received the new drive on Monday, Jan 4. I called Sager directly and explained how poorly XoticPC's support was...actually, non existent. Sager apologized and issued an RMA for return of the defective drive - something XoticPC refused to offer, even in light of the $99 extra warranty I paid (to them) when I bought the laptop. Sager was very prompt, they answered their phone and emails within minutes, and I had the new drive a few days later....nearly a month to resolve, in all.

Summary: XoticPC will never get my business again, and I've already informed all my "techie" friends, work, and family who are in the market for new electronics this year to judge for themselves and Google any reseller for recent feedback experiences prior to committing to a purchase. I suggest to deal directly with Sager - l love their products.

Oh yeah, neither me nor my son ever received any call back from XoticPC

 

I'm very sorry for any delays in communication, we have all been working extremely hard over the busy season to respond to all of our customers as quickly as possible, however being closed for the holidays made that even more difficult. We are now back to normal and should respond within our normal time frames. If there's anything that I can do for you please let me know. Again i'm very sorry for the delay in communication that you experienced.