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    BEWARE of PC Microworks .... Do NOT send in your systems for repair

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by kevindd992002, Apr 8, 2009.

  1. attaboy

    attaboy Newbie

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    Too bad you're wrong... You know I have no idea what kind of service Matthew has given you, I know him personally, and he isn't out to "scam" anyone. But I guess people have to get off on something, if it wasn't PCMW it would be something else..
     
  2. L4d_Gr00pie

    L4d_Gr00pie Notebook Evangelist

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    I would suggest reading at least a couple of posts in this thread before making a post.
     
  3. The Voyager

    The Voyager Notebook Consultant

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    First, welcome on NBR.

    Second, since you know Matthew personally can I kindly ask you to ask him to at least clear things out to his customers please?
    After all we paid a fair amount of money for our systems and in my case I paid for the most expensive configuration in the XR5 line, so I would be nice to know where or who to contact for warranty services.

    If I read the 3 year Diamond Plus Blanket Protection Program booklet that was delivered with the notebook I have reasons to assume that I am indeed covered for 3 years after purchase in case some part fails.
    Then when something indeed failed there's is no response on emails and nobody to pick up the phone. So who else should I or we contact then?
    If you say you know him, well that's the least you could do and ask him or let him join in and defend himself.
    In the mean time a lot of people are left out in the cold with broken parts etc even they are supposed to be still under warranty.

    Before buying my system I wasn't aware of this forum but did now what notebook I wanted, I check all the re-branders I could find at that time and PCMW stood out for me on configuration possibility's so I bought it there and was really convinced it was a company with a good reputation and customer support. Only to find out I was wrong after I paid.
    Again It would be very nice if he had the balls to clear things out for his customers.

    Regards
     
  4. pcmicroworks666

    pcmicroworks666 Newbie

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    I've recently had a fried PCMW motherboard. Where should I look for service on a motherboard? I have an Edge
     
  5. Donald@Paladin44

    Donald@Paladin44 Retired

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    ^--^
    You can't send it to PCMW, so the best place to get service will depend on where you are. Riddle me that and I can give you the best advice on where to send it.
     
  6. pcmicroworks666

    pcmicroworks666 Newbie

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    I'm in Miami
     
  7. Donald@Paladin44

    Donald@Paladin44 Retired

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  8. pcmicroworks666

    pcmicroworks666 Newbie

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  9. duane16

    duane16 Notebook Consultant

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    Additionally, you might want to look into purchasing a 3rd party warranty. Examples are Safeware as Gophn has already mentioned and Squaretrade.
     
  10. Deathwinger

    Deathwinger Notebook Virtuoso

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    Update: www.pcmicroworks.com site seems to be down. Thank god for that. They won't be able to take anyone's elses hard earned cash unless they established elsewhere.
     
  11. mmarchid

    mmarchid Notebook Evangelist

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    Attached Files:

  12. teebo

    teebo Notebook Enthusiast

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    I bought the Edge from them back in August 08. Video card overheated recently and I still have the 3 year warranty. First tried emailing tech support but no response so I dropped by their company which is about 15 minutes from my work. I walked in and just like two years ago everything looked the same in their little computer lab room. There were two men sitting and chatting and as soon as I walked in and asked if this is PC Microworks both said no right away at the same time. Their tech support number is now also disconnected so I guess I'm outta luck. I'm guessing those two lied about it not being PC Microworks, please do not buy anything from them. Although I did receive my laptop they are not honoring their warranty.

    Welp guess I should have listened to this forum back then and went with Sager instead. Also any idea on where I can buy a new 9800m GT for my now paper weight laptop? PM's would be appreciated, thank you.
     
  13. BMonk

    BMonk Notebook Consultant

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    Well I have not posted here in quite some time now. If you were to actually read the stories posted by people like me, who got screwed over pretty royally by Matthew Thomas O'Byrne, maybe you'd be singing a different tune.

    So a quick and dirty rundown for ya.

    Bought my XR5 in December 2007 for a grand total of $4,600 which included the 3 year full warranty.

    Late in 2008 one of the two ram slots failed on the motherboard. As it was my work computer I had to make due with half my ram until I had some time off, and could send it in to PCMW to be fixed. A month later the Computer quit turning on at all, and the led lights were telling the same story they had, when the XR5 wouldn't boot with both sticks of ram. So I figured the other slot had gone bad. No matter, it was completely broken, and would not post at all.

    After conversing with my sales rep, "Thomas", who told me I could have it back in about 5 business days, I sent it in. This was in Jan. 2009. After not hearing back for almost 2 weeks, I contacted PCMW to make sure that, 1, they had received the XR5 and 2, if they had made any progress. I was told it was almost fixed and that I would be receiving it shortly.

    Skipping through a lot of painful weeks/months of being given excuses as to why I had not received my computer, I had to resort to threatening legal action. Keep in mind this was after 4 and a half months of waiting for my $4,600 computer to be given back to me. I was able to track down my XR5, which had been sent to mediawavepc to be worked on. They would not send it directly to me, but after expressing how my=uch grief I'd been through dealing with PCMW, I'm guessing they mentioned my dealings with them to Matthew, who aparently they had been waiting several weeks for him to pick up the XR5. Another month and a half passed before I finally, (after 6 months!!!) got my XR5 back.

    So guess what condition it came back in. It came back with only 1 of the 2 sticks of ram I sent it in with, and it wasn't even one of mine. Mine had heat shields. This was generic ram, and only half the amount it should have been. There was no fan over the ram, meaning the computer would only turn on a couple minutes before beeping a few times then shutting down. And to make sure that at the very least, they had fixed/replaced the motherboard, I bought another stick of ram matching the one it came back with, and found out the motherboard was still broken, and would not boot with both slots occupied. Oh yeah and the rubber feet on the bottom rear panel were missing.

    Never heard from anyone(Matthew Thomas O'Byrne) after that. So friend of Matthew, what were you saying about him not scamming people?

    You might also be interested in reading what myself and others have found out about his previous scheme/company in Texas called hybridgear.

    So if he's such an upstanding fellow, maybe you wouldn't mind asking him to send me a new D901C motherboard, since mine was never fixed. I still have 6 months on my $400 3 year warranty.
     
  14. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    Of course it is not PC Microworks....that is how this guy operates. Make a company, sell a bunch of crap and warranties, close company. Set up new company.

    The beauty of LLCs.....
     
  15. KipCoo

    KipCoo Notebook Evangelist

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    Man this is just awful. I kind of skimmed through this thread and a lot of you guys just seriously got duped. You guys really need to take some kind of legal action. Filing a BBB complaint isn't going to do squat with this company apparently. Can't you take them to court and sue?

    Makes me a bit weary of buying sager/clevo in general if this is the kind of warranty service you get from them.

    Also another lesson learned I think: Don't buy overpriced warranties. Only warranty I would trust is probably Best Buy at this point. Only other alternative is to just do the work yourself. This is why I have no problem buying my w870cu on ebay, because I know that I'll just replace the parts if something ever goes bad.
     
  16. Donald@Paladin44

    Donald@Paladin44 Retired

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    These people had nothing to do with Sager.

    Sager is a reputable company that has been in business for 25 years.
     
  17. Donald@Paladin44

    Donald@Paladin44 Retired

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    teebo, did you get the name of what they are calling the company now?
     
  18. BMonk

    BMonk Notebook Consultant

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    Like Paladin said, PC MicroWorks has/had nothing to do with Sager/Clevo. They
    simply bought and resold Sager/Clevo laptops, that a company called mediawave pc bought from sager, at least thats my understanding.

    Buying a full 3 year warranty is great, if its from someone you can trust. Had I bought mine through a reputable source like Sager, or resller like XoticPC or PowerNotebooks I'd probably be much better off. But because I took the "early shipping date" bait, from PCMW, I'm stuck with an unserviceable D901C, unless I want to cough up at least $500 for a new motherboard.
     
  19. Donald@Paladin44

    Donald@Paladin44 Retired

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    PCMW bought Clevo shells from the gray market. Some from US vendors and some from Canadian vendors.

    Sager is a brand of the largest Clevo importer/OEM in North America and should in no way be associated with PCMW.
     
  20. KipCoo

    KipCoo Notebook Evangelist

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    If it's a motherboard why not try ebay, I'm sure there might be deals to be had there.
     
  21. BMonk

    BMonk Notebook Consultant

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    no D901C mobo's on ebay. I've looked. rjtech for $485. hard to spend that much on a 2.5 year old laptop
     
  22. The Voyager

    The Voyager Notebook Consultant

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    This is stunning, It would be great to know under what company name they are operating now, then do some research and report again to the BBB and nail them !

    I'm in a similar situation as you are, I'm stuck with a dead gtx8800m card and still have about 9 months of warranty left, a dozen emails later still no response etc.

    What also puzzles me is why is pcmw still listed in de clevo guide?

    Cheers
     
  23. teebo

    teebo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Sorry for late reply, busy week at work. And no I did not get name of new company but it's pretty obvious it is the same company as they have laptops laying open all over the place, heck the lab even looks the same as it did back then. Also Matthew was the sales rep that sold me my laptop back then, I did try to contact him again about a year ago asking about buying upgrades at wholesale prices but never heard back from him.

    And if anyone knows where to get a 9800m gt and pm me, would be much appreciated, I have a 3000 dollar brick laying at home now thanks to this fake warranty.
     
  24. The Voyager

    The Voyager Notebook Consultant

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    Same here, been trying to contact them since June last year to get a video card replacement... heck yeah even contacted them for an wholesale upgrade but also never got a response.

    You could be the key to a group claim, you said it's only 15 minutes away from work. Please go again to check out the new name? Maybe hop in with the sheriff and confront that dude.

    Cheers
     
  25. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    I'm the OP of this thread and I started this whole mess. I live in the Philippines and I just don't want to remember the trauma that I suffered with this PCMW company. It brings back those sleepless nights I was trying to call PCMW (literally because of the time difference between our countries) because I sent in my system for repair. After about two months, I got my laptop back but the fingerprint reader problem was still there, so I just lost around $120 just to ship the laptop back to them and I received it not getting fixed.

    Until now, I am cursing Matthew O' Byrne and want to take some legal actions but I don't have enough power to do so considering I live internationally. I hope some group of NBR people scammed by this company will stand up and take the right action on this.
     
  26. KipCoo

    KipCoo Notebook Evangelist

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    Why don't you take him to small claims court.
     
  27. The Voyager

    The Voyager Notebook Consultant

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    Not sure if can, I'm in Europe he in the US :(
     
  28. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    We will be red flagging PCMW from the Reseller list shortly. Probably leave a link of this thread too as a warning.

    Hopefully Gophn comes around soon to update the list.
     
  29. teebo

    teebo Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes but I don't have much time during busines hours to go there often and they are closed by the time I get there after work. Lunch time is tough for me too since I travel between the cities for work.

    Has anyone replaced the video card on the M860tu before and can post some screen shots or tips? Thanks in advance.
     
  30. theriko

    theriko Ronin

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    Service manual in my sig
     
  31. KipCoo

    KipCoo Notebook Evangelist

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    This looks like an "as is" deal:

    Alienware m15x MXM HE NVidia 8800M GTX 512MB Video Card - eBay (item 330374945524 end time Jun-04-10 11:55:43 PDT)

    Additionally for those of you with dead video cards I've heard of an oven bake method that might revive it. I mean if your video card or motherboard is dead and you have no way in getting the warranty you got nothing to lose I think. Might work with motherboards too? Not sure. Here is some info:

    Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card resurrected! - [H]ard|Forum

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-kind-guide-how-bake-your-gpu-fun-profit.html
     
  32. Deathwinger

    Deathwinger Notebook Virtuoso

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    I no longer have the Sager M860TU as many things in it have failed, I don't have an extended warranty for it and I have moved to the Asus line of products.

    However, out of curiosity I decided to go to the PcMicroWorks page and they now have a formal apology to all their customers about going bankrupt. They have posted important information for anyone who would like to get their laptop repaired. I believe these companies have been mentioned before, for example, Mediawave so this must be legit.

    Goodbye to this company once and for all. Whoever still has their Sager machine purchased from them, get your closure. :)
     
  33. kevindd992002

    kevindd992002 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Wow. That's something. I never went back to that scam page after parting with my M860TU. Even though Matt apologized formally, I still can't forgive him for what he did to me and to all of his customers. I remember those days and he was very cruel.
     
  34. The Voyager

    The Voyager Notebook Consultant

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    i noticed this as well a couple day's ago, not sure if it would help to get my videocard replaced though.
     
  35. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    Smells like PC Microworks v3.0 is in the works....
     
  36. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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