avoid kobalt computers

He is most probably from the EU somewhere and did not understand the site very well this happens a lot.

 

I do totally understand what your saying but waiting over 2 months and then struggling to get a refund is a bit of a joke.

 

I have had my gripes with Kobalt many months back before Xmas delayed laptop, delayed refunds, but from what I hear from their customers now, like LaptopNut that I speak to here and on Kobalt forums they are back on track, laptops made quickly and delivered in time. I'm looking to get a g170 so I am very interested in current goings on over there which seem to be overall resolved.

 

Edit: Quote from AlienWarez removed as requested. I still think that Kobalt has been very unprofessionnal with several customers in the past year. However, I hope they will fix these issues and admit that it was their entire fault.

Well said !!!

You are saying that Kobalt can keep the money for at most 30 days but what happens if they keep the money longer?

 

You are within your rights to issue a chargeback.......the biggest problem you have with Kobalt is cancelling. So long as they accept the cancellation you are okay. Theoretically they could refuse to cancel any order as they would claim it as a special order, under the DSR special orders have different outcomes.

 

On my part, I've succesfully received a refund from my first cancelled order. It took a bit of chivving on my part but it was finally put through. I'm now checking how long it takes for my 2nd cancelled order to finish refunding so that I can compare the two.

@Pman: I've sent a support ticket regarding my query as well as a reply to you via PM. Any chance of getting a fix soon?

 

DSR specifically states that PCs made from components are NOT exempt:-

 

If people keep canceling and changing their orders, no wonder it's the mess for the others in queue. It's like you paint the room for somebody and they don't like the finish color. They ask is it very hard to change it. No. I just have to paint it again. At least the preparation is done, but another day wasted in decorators business. At the same time next costumer was let down, cause had to wait for the decorator to start day later. Only because somebody can't make their f***ing mind up.
For small companies it's always a big dilemma when to take new people to work for them. After busy month you could get 3 months of nothing, but then you have to pay wages anyway or let the people go again. After living in London for last 6 years i hate when costumer service is saying something like we are working hard on your order (bla bla blaa). Be honest that's the least you could for me, we forgot to order or our supplier ran out of stock and etc. S*** happens.
I've been looking for new laptop for a year now and the last two left are Sony f13 or Kobalt GS150. Seems like Sony ain't gonna put Sandybridge into old f series case, so the only one left is GS150.

Main things I need are;
1) good matte screen and able to do casual gaming for next 3-4 years (not in highest settings obviously).
2) black, as matte, as minimalistic finish as possible.

But reading this thread got me worried a little bit.

Any happy Kobalt costumers out there?

 

Whilst they havent always been the fastest to respond to me, I have always got a response eventually and most importantly its always been the one I've wanted, so so far they are keeping me happy. I have made 2 changes and both have gone through fine.

I'll let you know in a week or so when mine is meant to be delivered

 

Very good post. A lot of truth in here and good advice for Kobalt.

However, there is another UK company (PCSpecialist) that offers some of the same Clevo range, that are very competitively priced: .

PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Laptop Computers, Laptops, Custom Laptops, Gaming Laptops, Buy Laptop

Unfortunately, they don't offer the 6970m yet, just Nvidia. But they do have the: (Clevo name = PCSpecialist name)

W860CU-3D (15.6" Vortex 3D Vision)
P150HM (15.6" Vortex II 15)
W170HR (17.3" Optimus II)
P170HM (17.3" Vortex II 17)
X8100 (18.4" Vortex Ultimate)

and a few others, which I can't work out which model they are. No x7200 though for some reason.

@Kobalt: Some friendly advice as you're a family business. As I mentioned in a previous post you really need to sort out realistic ETAs or at least keep your customers informed about what is going on with their order if it is delayed. Also if a customer cancels an order for any reason you need to refund their money promptly.

It sounds like you don't have resources or procedures in place to do either. If another competitive laptop performance company starts up in the UK that is more customer orientated, they will destroy you.

Your reputation is still suffering and you need to respond deftly and without hesitation. I think the trouble you experienced last year pushed you over a tolerance threshold of bad practice that is starting to stick. The fact that these issues are still lingering and festering indicates to me that there are fatal flaws in your business plan/structure that need urgent rectification. Essentially, adapt or die. I would offer you good luck, but luck isn't what is needed here. All the best for the immediate future.

 

No offense taken Alienwarez
as you know im only a customer like everyone else so i dont expect to know the ins and outs that go on at kobalt as i do not work for them in any way.
After my nightmare with alienware and then finding kobalt through nbr and as a very happy customer i offered my services on their forum a couple of years ago when they were spammed and it was me who offered to be a moderator just to keep an eye on their forum as due to my disability i spend most of my time on line and run 9 forums myself.
Im not sure about me being the public face of kobalt though
like many happy customers in the past they dont frequent forums like nbr.
i can honestly say kobalt dont give me any info that they think the public wants to hear and sometimes the advise i give is wrong,im only human, i think.

 

You may have noticed that I haven't posted on here for quite a while. The reason for this is simple - the changes we made to our company have had a huge impact on our performance and helped us get over the problems we experienced at the end of last year (the vast majority of which were completely out of our hands). You will notice that Pman posts on here on behalf of Kobalt, being an employee (having previously been a customer!). I would like to add that, as MrDJ has mentioned above he is categorically NOT the public face of Kobalt and does not regurgitate information fed to him. Suggesting this is an insult to our company and more importantly MrDJ and I feel that someone who is a customer of ours, an active and helpful member on nbr and the Kobalt forum and more importantly a very decent guy should be treated with a little more respect.

Gottafeeling - your refund was sorted out months ago. Your case has nothing to do with any other customer or their experience. The simple fact is that we had no communication from you informing us that your refund had not been received and we did not know that anything was wrong. You posted on nbr and the problem was sorted out for you, however the correct course of action should have been to contact us directly as I have explained several times on prevous threads.

People read these comments and draw the wrong conclusions which is an unfortunate side effect of public forums where not all the information is presented. I don't wish to start an argument here but I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to explain that there are two sides to every story.

Harlequin - I actually replied to one of your sales tickets earlier this morning - upgrading to the BluRay drive will be fine and our sales team will get back to you on Monday to confirm the price differences and so on

Alienwarez - I must admit that I have a pm from you on Easter Sunday which I have noticed I didn't reply to which is my fault and I appologise. However, I don't work in sales and though it may be easier in some cases to deal with all sales communication on our forum and over pm, in general it would be an organisational nightmare when we are dealing with hundreds of new customers every month. I can't find a copy of any correspondance from you in our sales ticketing system. If you have sent an email and for any reason haven't had a reply, since Andrew (Kobalt MD) knows you rather well you have his personal company email address and I also understand you have him on MSN.

Any time we are aware of issues we do bend over backwards to try and resolve them, however as you have said you work in retail and usually people only vent their views when they are complaining. As mentioned above, we sell hundreds of laptops, PCs, workstations and servers a month. This thread has a complaint from one person and a second whose identity we aren't aware of. We would obviously prefer to have the number of complaints at zero, equally I would love to have the 99% of our happy customers post their positive testimonials but that simply isn't what happens in the real world.

Unfortunately your suggestions are completely impractical and would be impossible to impliment in our company.

Regarding your comments about cancellation, not sure what you mean here but anyone who cancels an order has it comfirmed in writing by us. We have never suggested that the vast majority of our products are "special orders" and never treat our customers as having bought such a product. However, in fact some of our products are classed as "special orders" because they are completely bespoke - for example the average build time of a Daedalus PC was eight weeks. This was because of a completely custom chassis which was manufacturered for each individual customer and a multitude of other bespoke build options.

Regarding delays, the only ones we have experienced this year have been due to the backlog caused by the Sandy Bridge issue (which as you will all appreciate was a global problem and had a large effect on the whole IT industry) and more recently an SSD problem which was fixed recently with a BIOS update, anyone who was affected by this was updated in great detail about the problem.

 

You should write a review of your system and your buying experience with Kobalt, I think that might reassure some people on these forums myself included

 

I also want to see some reviews from Kobalt customers I don’t think I’ve seen any on these forums.

I just want to add that PCSpecialist currently do not offer the Matte screens with their Clevo P150HM/Sager NP8150 and Clevo P170HM/Sager NP8170. You only have the option for the glossy screen. But you are right about one thing they are “very competitively priced” and word is they build and ship within a week or so!

 

and you most probably wont as a lot of their customers dont join nbr as they are happy and no need to post on forums.
check out their testimonial page on their forum.

 

When I receive mine I'll be happy to do a detailed review/benches for nbr readers. I have on order

G170
72% Matt Screen (AUO v5)
2630QM
6970M
12GB RAM
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
750GB HD

The rest is standard.

I'm told the gfx card is due in next week so it will be a couple of weeks before I have anything to post.

I have no agenda here so if its good the review will say so, if its pants thats what I'll write.

 

Just confirm that I asked LaptopNut before posting this as it is a quote from our company forum and not posted on nbr:

""The G170 that I ordered around mid January has finally arrived (delayed due to the Sandy Bridge recall). This has been a huge test of patience for me and I almost couldn't resist the temptation of buying an X7200 instead. I can't believe how fast the laptop is and I am in the process of doing a complete system image using Drive Snapshot, will do another one after all of my games have been installed and then onto the gaming. Perfect since it is almost the weekend. I am really glad for the USB 3.0 because I will be copying over around 60GB of Steam games from a backup via a USB 3.0 Docking station.

Kobalt have been really professional, with quick responses to all queries or concerns and this is my third laptop purchase with them. Sandybridge problems aside, this has been the best ordering experience I have ever had from Kobalt so far. Really good to see such a vast improvement in their overall operations so thanks to all of the team."

 

To add to what I had already posted in my above quote on their forum. The laptop (specs in sig) has been functioning perfectly, the 90% NTSC glossy screen is really great although I don't have anything to compare it to, it is obvious that the colours are very vibrant and crystal clear.

To elaborate on my comment about Kobalts fast overall communication responses during and after my order, Pman has also been excellent with such fast responses that often feel more like real time with clear communication and empathy. All of which perhaps comes from him having a real understanding of how we feel, since he was a long time forum member and customer before becoming a Kobalt employee.

My laptop arrived well packaged with no concerns about damage in transit, I was given a tracking number and the package was shipped at exactly the time they told me it would be. As has been discussed on this forum, the temps of the laptop really vary depending on game and are greatly affected by what the laptop rests on, particularly elevation.

I was just playing GTA IV for a few hours just now on high settings with the Realizim IV 6.2 Mod, the latest patch (known to reduce performance a lot) View distance and Detail distance set to 100% along with many other Mods that surely cause more CPU usage at fullHD and I was still getting around 40-45 fps, sometimes higher, sometimes a few drops in fps due to the poorly optimised engine and my GPU temp was around 85C.

Yesterday I was playing The Witcher maxed out with high texture mods at FullHD with fps from 60 - 90 fps, sometimes more. I have many other mods installed too. In summary, I have not played any game that I have not been able to either play at high or max out at full resolutions yet and switching down resolutions does not cause as much blurry textures that I remember seeing on previous screens.

Kobalt have had their problems in the past and no one can be perfect, but my recent experience allowed me to compare and contrast to those of the past and I noticed a huge improvement. If I was to make another laptop purchase, I can honestly say I would buy from Kobalt again.

Note that they are perfectionists so even the slightest uncertainty or issue with any of their laptops will likely result in a missed ETA where some other resellers may still ship out the laptop with a minor or unknown / detected defect.

I see this as a good thing but some have accused them of being too strict. As far as i am concerned, their attitude is similar to how mine would be if I was building a laptop I was selling but for myself. You know that what you receive has been thoroughly tested and treated as if it was their own.

 

@Neil, I greatly appreciate your lengthy response. I have to admit that my feelings for Kobalt are not that of anger but of disappointment, the original order for the Mojave was flawless and my order before Christmas did not go as smooth, both you and Andy always treated me with respect and you personally were exceptionally helpful at all times. My troubles came after my money was handed over and I have to admit my one gripe is with the other Andy and subsequent correspondence I had with him, even to be emailed a batch email addressed to someone else really didn't leave me too enamered. I want to make sure too that my post was not of slander, but I wished for it to be of constructive criticism. I appreciate that my suggestions would require a large change in business practices, however I do feel a deposit scheme could be justified and implemented with little problems.

Again I apologise if i may have spoken out of turn, my apologies to MrDJ and my apologies for going off on one....

 

After initially defending Kobalt at the start of this thread, I must express some disappointment with them.

I have an outstanding order with them, it is slow to arrive - that appears to be expected. The problem is I have gone through the official support channels asking for an update and it has now been a week with no contact.

Try to contact them on the phone and you get a recorded message!

I am on the verge of cancelling, which considering I made the order months ago would be a shame.

 

Remember it has been a bank holiday week this week which not only means one 1 less working day but an extra amount that we have to do to get caught up. We havent managed it this week, simply too many emails.

We will get back up to date early next week.

Re the phones, they have been a nightmare and I am not going to go into it here.

You can post on our forum, email or update your ticket and we will get back to you

Pman

 

I cancelled for pretty much the same reason and more. It's a shame my first thread on here has to be a negative one http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/583492-disappointed-kobalt-computers.html

 

Hi there,

I purchased a GS150 over three weeks ago and I have no idea when it will be delivered... indeed IF it will be delivered.

I get no response from the Kobalt other than one group email telling me of some problem with GFX cards of other customer laptops.

The phones don't work, just play a message saying that it will be fixed by 'next week'... this has been the case for weeks now... (this is so dodgy, is the company going under or something?)

Customer service is very poor / non-existant. It could be the best product in the world but I have no idea if I will ever see it...

Why can this company not even give me an ETA when my order is due, no explanation... waiting for parts? there are ten other laptops to build in front of me in the queue all taking a week each? what is the deal? and why not communicate with your customers....?

PMan, you are the only representative that I see answering questions... please help.

 

scooter
have you posted on their forum order queries section?
they have just updated their order page with a brand new system as they have had website issues.
they will not discuss individual orders on an open forum so if you post in the secure order queries section with your order number, name and a contact phone number they will get back to you.

 

I'd like to chip in regarding the customer service, even though my experience was back in 2009 with an M860TU.

Yes I found service to be a on the slow side, with things taking weeks/months to get done.
IIRC it was over 6 weeks to deliver, and then with me sending it back for alterations - changing hard drives, screen, bent palmrest, checking esata port... etc.
However everything I asked for was acheived, and this I cannot fault. I found them to be extremely trustworthy, which seems odd to say for a retailer.
Sadly my laptop got lost in the post in the autumn of that year when sending it back to change to a matte screen, although they still managed to provide a full refund.

So all I can say is when dealing with them you need to have quite a lot of patience - more so than from other retailers. But you can rest assured that they will go out of their way to see that what you want done, is certainly done.

 

Seems strange that this company has so many problems. Blame the watered down beer? KIDDDING! I wish all the best - a 2k+ laptop is more of a soul extending experience then a purchase. Do right by the customer. FTW

 

Hmm, seen quite a few of these recently - i'm just about to order a new laptop and had been planning on using Kobalt however the more I look around the more I am kind of put off them.....

 

On the plus side, they've revamped their order webpage. Whether or not that solves their backlog of orders and delivery speed remains to be seen.

 

Also noticed they are now saying 3-4 weeks shipping as opposed to the 2-3 weeks they have quoted before. Seems more realistic time will tell.

 

Hi there,
Thanks for responding, yes I have posted on their order queries section and on the order tracker itself. Furthermore I have emailed Andy, Neil and PMan.

Posting on this forum is a last resort after getting little if any response through email. And as everyone is aware you cannot ring Kobalt. Seriously at least get a temporary mobile phone or something, surely there is no excuse for this and suggests that this just allows Kobalt to stop their customers ringing up about their orders.

I guess the recommendation from Kobalt is for people that have spend over 1000 pounds to just wait indefinitely and not be frustrated that they can't get a straight answer on what is going on.

It has now been 33 week days since my money left my account into Kobalt's:

• Two ETAs have been missed with two messages sent to me days AFTER missing the ETAs (1-prob with GFX cards of other customers 2-other customers took longer than expected)
• A third ETA was given for the end of this week.
• So far no updates to the order tracking ticket and any response to queries left on the the order ticket or via email.

Andy B, Neil, Andrew R, PMan, mrDJ tell me what you would do if in my position?
At this point in time I still don't know what is happening with my order! I can guess its being ignored and Kobalt will miss yet another ETA…

At the end of the day it is surely all about expectation management. If you tell a client there is typically a lead time of 2-3 weeks and then after 6-7 weeks it is still not clear when or IF it will be delivered then something is going wrong. It is not good enough to simply ignore paid up customers, miss ETAs and days after send a generic internal problems message to all.

I can contrast this experience with another order placed at the same time on a different website. After a week they emailed me to say that unfortunately a part is out of stock and will require a several week wait. They then offered to give me a refund if I couldn’t continue to wait. I continued to wait because of the communication.

I looked on these forums before buying from Kobalt and thought, ohhh the reports of bad CS are probably just isolated occurrences. Guess it’s my fault for failing to do better due diligence.

So then the most reasonable thing I can think to do is to wait until the end of this week and wait for the new ETA. If Kobalt fails to deliver this time surely the only reasonable thing I can do is cancel/get money refunded. I don’t want to believe Kobalt would muck me around with the refund as well but I am fearful.

Cheers
A frustrated potential Kobalt computer owner who has paid but received nothing

@mrDJ:
There would be no need to post here if someone would call me to tell me whats going on. If the laptop shows at end of this week I will be still be happy about it and will post here and tell everyone about it.

 

Hi Scooter
ive just sent a message on your behalf for an update.

 

Hi ScooterA

We had a message from you in our Order Tracking system at 21:43 yesterday evening and we replied to you this afternoon giving you the exact status and when it would be shipping.

I have only just seen your post on nbr, your Order Tracking reply was not prompted by it.

 

Please sticky this thread.

 

Looks like a few more teething problems with the new order tracking system, they'll have to look into getting it fixed soon.

Despite what the detractors will claim, the company isn't out to deliberately take paying customers for a ride. However, patience is definitely required for those used to instant service from the mainstream PC companies or the larger boutique retailers.

 

After many many emails and posts on boards I am pleased to announce that I finally have a laptop!

The (third) deadline as per my last post here was Friday 29th September didn't happen after an apparent muck up through sending via UPS where neither Kobalt or UPS seemed to have the laptop... That being said, the laptop did however arrive via TNT on the 4th of August at the delivery address.

This was after a few calls where PMan rang me and agreed some compensation for all the delays (although i'm still waiting for that...). Thanking u! was nice to finally have some human contact with Kobalt.

The laptop, a GS150 is cool and in general I am happy with it.


Final summary for others considering a similar purchase:

Purchased (money showing as transferred out of my account into Kobalt's):
6 June

Received at delivery address:
4 August

Total time from purchase until delivery:
43 days

Positives

• laptop has everything I paid for in it
• PMan/Pete emailing and calling me in the last two weeks to try and sort things out
• Andy offering compensation for delays

Negatives

• 8.5 weeks to delivery as opposed to the websites suggestion of 3
• a lack of communication on the real order status up until the last two weeks (this is the one big thing that I would emplore Kobalt to fix above all else and warn anyone considering this purchase about!)
• related directly to this, the amount of follow up required though emailing every couple of days, posting on forums (Kobalt's and this one) etc just to get an answer back
• no way to ring kobalt on their sales or support phone numbers(I believe the misleading answer message has now gone, that being said I think it now just forwards you to a number that hangs you up )
• first 'shipping' via UPS didn't happen, and noone knows why
• delivered with a different version of windows installed than that of the included dvd, which meant a night of reinstalling everything for me
• delivered with the plastic cover on the underside of chassis not 'clicked in' properly that meant I needed to unscrew it, click it in and screw it back in

Finally:

For me it was a frustrating experience that has somewhat tainted the arrival of what is by all accounts a pretty awesome laptop.

Kobalt did get their act together somewhat in the last two weeks and even offer some compensation but I would still personally be a bit wary about buying anything else until they sorted their internal issues out. Put simply, if I pay this much money for anything else in the future I wanna be able to make sure I can talk to someone and get a straight answer about what is going on.

Seems as though things have been, and maybe still are a bit chaotic within the company itself but hey, they do make a beast of a laptop !

 

Probably should have waited to post this until after your refund was received

That said, this thread could possibly get moved to reseller subforum?

 

Glad to hear you finally got your laptop

I'd happily wait for 43 days for a laptop with the exact spec I wanted. Unfortunatley I have now come across a number of people who, like me, ordered over 90 days ago and still have no laptop (and hardly any communication regarding it). I would love to have received a phone call regarding my order

I suspect that the compensation may be a long time coming... considering what others on this board have said regarding the timescale involved in getting a refund! But I hope you get lucky

 

I certainly wouldn't and I can't understand why anyone else would. Especially considering when you have places like PCspecialist who even have a system where you pay a little extra to guarantee 3 day delivery. Even their normal delivery time is only about 5 days so why on earth would 43 days be anything but unacceptable?

Maybe we are partly to blame because we are too lenient. They are putting together bare bones, not building an empire.

 

Ditto. There's no reason to wait 1.5 months for a computer, especially with the lack of communication.

 

i agree it took 5 buissiness days for my laptop to arrive, and mine wasn't stock either they had to put a different screen and graphics card into it.

 

This computer company sounds awful. If my laptop took more than 10 days to ship out I'd be pissed. But then to be denied my refund in a timely manner would mean I'd complain to some sort of trading authority.

I've read through all these posts just out of interest and it sounds like Kobalt lies about lead times, whether theyve received emails, and reasons why their phones dont work. Very dodgy outfit.

But seriously, who in the right mind would wait 40 plus days for a laptop? The excuses from Kobalt are BS. Everyone experienced the SB recall and everyone has bank holidays. Its always the suppliers fault or theres a holiday that prevents them to replying to customers.

After reading all this Im not sure how these guys are still in business and have not been reported to Trading standards yet.

 

Seriously, THREE negative "Kobalt experiences" threads? This is ridiculous...the sheer volume of posts should indicate to any buyer on the fence not to give these guys the benefit of the doubt.

 

its a shame but theve had some really bad luck since they moved into their larger premises last year. for a small family run company they have been very VERY busy and this as far as i know is about 2% of of their custom.
the guys at kobalt are upset and angry that theve let customers down but nearly all the thing that have gone wrong have been totally out of their hands.
hopefully things are starting to turn around for them again and get back to normality.

 

I guess this is the harsh reality of retail. That minority you dont deal with will ruin a disproportionate amount of your reputation. Engaging forum members on here is great but then still failing to deliver will seal your reputation as a no go for nbr'ers. Also saying its not their fault is completely the wrong thing to say in the face of these problems. Replying to customer emails promptly is retail 101...having a working phone line...not taking 3 months to make a laptop etc. The ability to deliver on these things is non negotiable and if you think they are, as a company, id venture to say that you prob shouldn't be in business until these things are addressed.

For a small family business I wish them the best. A bit of foresight and contingency planning would've saved them a lot of problems.

 

*implement

 

Slight wall of text incoming - sorry!

But you surely can't be suggesting that 98% of Kobalt Customers are getting their laptops on time and with no issues? Their forums are full of people chasing orders with not one post that I can see where someone has ordered and recieved a laptop within the quoted 3-4week lead time. A lead time which they are still quoting despite typical lead times (based on what evidence is available) being at least double that.

I ordered my laptop at the start of July and had to chase for an ETA numerous times. My first request was met with the answer

"The current lead time of all orders is around 3 weeks"

That was four and a half weeks ago (a week after I ordered my laptop). On July 27th I was finally given an ETA (after more chasing) of August 5th. Great I thought, it's only a week and a bit away, they must be able to forecast their production line accurately at this distance.

A week later and nothing.

I really want to like Kobalt, the lucky few who do recieve machines say they are fantastic and they offer specs you can't get elsewhere. But the lack of communication and continued backlog of orders is getting simply unacceptable for a company trying to operate in a high end market.

Customers who spend this sort of money for a premium product are likely to expect a certain level of service, which at the moment Kobalt isn't delivering

 

as a customer like yourself and only a voluntary moderator just to help them out on the forum i dont have any involvement in the company but i know they are working their backsides off to get as many computers built. they are taking on another member of staff to deal with sales and updates so they can concentrate on builds as they have been doing updates in their own time at home sometimes upto 11pm at night.

 

I'm another unsatisfied Kobalt customer.

My entire experience with them has been nothing but hassle. I needed a laptop for an offsite work contract and ordered from kobalt. Firstly, it took 2 days to order because of their buggy website which is continually being 'fixed'. I then had to chase them at every stage of production to make sure it arrived on time, sometimes having to wait a week to get a response.

On the day of dispatch the laptop was sent to an incorrect address as their software was buggy, had to contact TNT to sort it out. When it arrived i was dismayed to discover they had sent me a laptop with different components to that i had ordered, the driver disk was also damaged and unreadable.

I contacted them straight away (of course not by phone, enough said!) and they did respond quickly apologising for the mistake, some sort of compensation was discussed and was told i would be contacted the following monday with more details.

Monday came and went, sent messages, no response. On the Wednesday I sent it back and cancelled the order for a refund and requested they send me confirmation of this.

Its now been 9 days since i cancelled, still havn't recieved a confirmation email. Have left messages in their forum and via support ticket, also sent emails directly to Neil and Andrew, all have been ignored. In frustration I have now gone to my bank to chase my refund as i've already wasted far to much of my time on this.

 

Well, I have now cancelled my order and requested a refund. The last straw came last night when I had an e-mail informing me that after six weeks of "processing" my laptop was now "in the build queue". Not being built, just in the queue.

As it is only now that I'm in a queue I can only assume (based on the available evidence) that one of the following is true.

1. Kobalt are so lacking on control of their manufacturing chain that they couldn't accurately forecast what was being built a week and a half away.

Or 2. They knew I wouldn't have the laptop on the ETA data, and just lied to me.

Either way, I don't want to deal with a company like this anymore, I tried to be really patient as I've heard the computers are amazing but I won't accept Kobalt so blatenty messing me about.

Of course, now comes the fight for a refund!

One very unhappy (soon to be ex) customer

 

It's really sad to see all these problems and complaints

I myself never actually had much problems with them. Got my G970x only about a week or so late but then again it was ordered during Chinese New Years which delayed some shipment . There was a problem with delivery but it's understandable and it was sorted instantly.

Contact has been really good for me. They replied to all my questions and requests within 1-3 day period. Even called me when they needed confirmation or were giving status updates on how it's going.

I've bought two laptops from kobalt and both times, have been really satisfied ._.