First time buyer experience: Ask and ye shall receive

Greetings all-

This is intended to help those who are buying their first Sager. There's a lot to consider when buying a custom laptop. I am not going to comment on individual components, just the experience I had while communicating with each vendor. There are many vendors and it helps to realize they are not the same. I am going to try to keep this short, but I want to make sure I cover everything. I want those who think it is ok and normal to wait a month to get your system to know it doesn't have to be that way. All you have to do is ask around and you can have it within a week.

Here's a little blurb about me. I have been an IT professional for 15 years, and have never owned a pre-build PC. I always build my own. This is also the first time I have owned a laptop. I have always been given laptops by my employers so I never needed to buy my own. My desktop is about 4 years old so it was about time I replaced it. I decided to see if I could get a desktop replacement laptop that is not monstrusly humongous. I looked around at a lot of models and settled on the Sager NP9150.

The following is a list of the dealers I contacted and the general response I got from each. For now, I am only going to mention the 2 dealers that stepped up and offered me a rush delivery option. If enough people ask I might change this and name the others.

DEALER A-
I liked their site, and their options were nicely priced. The main reason I was going to purchase from them is because the system they have pictured on their site looked eally nice. It had a nice texture and also had a chiclet keyboard and that is something that really attracted me. I asked them a few questions via email and for fairly prompt responses. Others had complained of random (good/bad) service from this vendor but I was ready to ignore those posts because, according to the pics on their web site, the system came stock with a chiclet keyboard as I wanted it. I was also bothered by the VERY old drivers they had on their support section but I knew where to find updated drivers so that was not a deal breaker.
During thtis time, I ran across a review posted here from a user who just bought his system from this vendor. The pics he posted did NOT match the pics on their site. The pics he posted looked like every other Sager dealer's system (no chiclet keyboard). I sent another email to them asking about this. I wanted to know why there was a difference because I expected the pics on their site to match what they are actually shipping. They never responded to this email, and that pretty much sealed their fate. I am not paying $2400 for something that is not as advertised.

DEALER B:
Dealer B is very active here and I really wanted to buy from them. I contacted them several times and always got prompt responses. Their prices and options were good, and I was in the final stages of deciding so I emailed them to see what their build times and specials are. I was told the build times were 7-12 business days. Then I wanted to add the chiclet keyboard and they said that would add another 4-7 business days. That could mean a total of 20-ish business days, which is one month. This is after I asked them if they had everything in stock. I do not understand at all why it would take them weeks and weeks to put a laptop together when all the parts were there. As I stated before, I know a little about putting a system together and this estimate just doesn't make sense. It would take an expert just a few hours to throw a proc, GPU, RAM, etc into a Sager chassis and then another few hours to throw an OS image on it. This month-long build time didn't add up so I kept looking.

DEALER C:
Dealer C had a great site and a great vibe. They also answered my questions well enough. They also estimated a 5-10 business day build time. That's a little faster, which is a good thing. The problem with them is that they were several hundred dollars more expensive than everyone else. They were also quite happy to tell me they did not offer any discounts of any kind and no free shipping. That made my decision pretty easy.

Sager Notebooks custom gaming laptops - Welcome to Sager Notebooks
Sager Notebooks had nice site and fair prices. They responded quickly to my questions and offer a small discount to everyone and free shipping. They also offered a RUSH option that would have the system sent out within 2-3 business days. This rush service cost $50 but getting my system quickly would have been worth it. This dealer was at the top of my list as I contacted the final dealer...

LPC Digital http://www.lpc-digital.com/:
I had read a lot of good things about LPC Digital so I decided to check them out. Their site looks good and their options were priced just like several other sites. As I was exploring through their site I noticed that it says, in several places, to email Larry to get the best deal. So I typed up an email explaining what I wanted, what the other site (Sager Notebooks) offered me, and I asked what his best deal was. He responded by beating the other site's instant discount and offering a RUSH on the order free of charge. He said they had all the parts in stock and should ship the system within 2-3 business days. 2-3 business days!!! That is just amazing. This was on Tuesday, July 17th. I placed my order early morning on the 18th (Wednesday). My order shipped that Friday, three days after I placed my order. If I had chosen a faster shipping method I would have had my laptop within a week, but it came the following Thursday via UPS ground.
Shipped on the third day!!??!??? This is just amazing service. For one vendor to say 20 days, and another say 10 days, then to have it shipped so quickly beats all of my expectations. LPC Digital could not come any more highly recommended, and I will be sure to post a specific review of them in another post in the vendor review forum.

So the moral of the story is to make sure you contact multiple vendors and give them all a chance to shine. Just because one dealer has a certain policy doesn't mean the others do too, this also goes for estimated build times. The best thing to do is email them and just ask for what you want and what they can do for you. They might surprise you!!

 

good read.
you have to take into account though how many orders each company has in their queue at the time of order especially when new computers or graphics card are released which will make it a much longer wait. 5-10 days is the norn or it has been for the last 5 years since ive been buying gaming laptops. this cant always be a guarantee though as it can be built in a day but if it then fails with the burn in tests it is taken apart and the faulty part is replaced and the burn in starts again. weve seen a lot of this with a ati graphics card in the last two years.
would be interesting to know who your A-D suppliers are.
would also be very handy if someone could update the american suppliers clevo guide like Jaug1337 had done with the http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/652403-clevo-resellers-european-union-v1.html

 

5-10 days may be standard, but that standard can still be somewhat long. I understand there may be busy times, but this is not late November or the Christmas rush. It's barely back-to-school season. If these companies are going to ask us to wait so long then they open themselves up to the possibility that customers will look elsewhere.

I will say that I would not have made this post at all if every dealer gave me the same story and none stepped up to offer a faster build time. I got estimates from 2 different dealers that offered to have my laptop ready in 2-3 business days and since that is so drastically faster than everyone else, I feel that I should get the word out.

Speaking of stepping up, I'll go ahead and edit my post the name of Dealer D, Sager Notebooks. These are, after all, Sager laptops. I figured they could give me a good deal and decent delivery time and I was right. I would have definitely ordered from them if I had not gotten such a sweet deal from LPC Digital.

 

2-3 days to ship your laptop is indeed very good. Hope you enjoy your system.

I suggest you do your own testing, burn-in, benchmarks,etc as soon as you receive it to weed out any possible damaged component. Since they probably won't have time to do much

Btw those are legit seller feedback, it wouldn't hurt to disclose who they are. It may help people trying to make purchases in the future.

 

I have been using the laptop constantly since I got it and it has performed flawlessly. I removed the CPU and GPU and applied IC Diamond paste myself. I have also done some hardware monitoring and will post a mini-review in the owner's section in a day or two.

I will say that gaming performance has been extremely impressive. I have played Batman Arkham City, The Withcer 2, Civ V, and COD: Black Ops. I have been gaming on the Xbox 360 for years and the move to the PC has been breath taking. I am using HDMI to game my HDTV and I notice a big difference in graphics quality. I played the Witcher 2 on the Xbox and it looked ok but not really special. The PC version is light-years ahead.

Look for my review in a few days. It's not gonna be anywhere near as extensive as the HTWingNut review (which is excellent) but it will contain more info about my thoughts on the system.

 

I should have ordered from lpc.... Paid for mine on the 20th July... Still hasn't shipped

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Me too, but last I heard it should ship this coming week. Ill ask for an update on Tuesday.

 

If I had to guess, I would say that:
Dealer A = Malibal
Dealer B = XoticPC
Dealer C = Mythlogic

 

This is surprisingly accurate. ;-)

 

To add on to your reviews, I got the same experience with XoticPC. The wait for my laptop was just too much. LPC-Digital, especially for a two-man show, is a very reputable dealer with unbeatable prices and shipping times. I ordered from XoticPC and I plan on cancelling and placing an order with LPC-Digital.

 

I liked it awesomely written

 

Well written, just 9 days too late for me.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2