Gained all faith in Kobalt Computers

Since the other thread got locked before I had a chance to see it, I thought I would post my experience with Kobalt Computers. I'll add that I have no affiliation with Kobalt so have nothing to gain from this other than giving a small company a fair hearing.

I contacted Kobalt at the end of March to get an estimate of leadtimes for a G170, and got a fairly prompt response back from sales that due to SB recall issues and backlog it would be around 3 weeks. Given I needed this machine by the middle of May due to working away for some time this looked to be OK I placed my order on 2nd April and got order confirmation on 6th April - 2 working days from the point of placing it, precisely in line with their SLA.

As we got closer to the ETA, the issue with SSDs causing BSODs came to light and all production on those machines were halted until a fixed BIOS was released. Annoying, but not really anything they or I could influence so I lived with it.

During this time, Kobalt started to offer the 6970M as an option and since my machine had not entered build yet, I asked to be swapped to this and refunded the difference from the 485M. No problem, sorted and difference refunded same day. i was advised at the time of a 7-10 day lead time due to waiting on stock of 6970M, and since this was at my request I was happy to wait, as this still kept me (just) inside my deadline for receiving the machine.

As my ETA approached, we hit a few snags.

1) The 6970M allocated to my order was faulty. As all current parts were allocated to orders I was given the choice of waiting for the next delivery (which would push the delivery out past my deadline), or they would put a 485M in for me and arrange for a swapout at a later date convenient to me so I could still receive my machine in time. Pretty cool of them to give me the choice, so I took it. DOA parts are not their fault but they did what was needed to get me my machine.

2) During burn in, stability issues found with the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD. At this point we are 1 day away from my deadline for receiving it. I get a phone call from a staff member apologising, offering me an alternative part and the option to switch to an SSD of my choice in the future, again to ensure I get my machine within the deadline.

3) Due to the problems, it looks like my order is going to miss courier cutoff for delivery the next day. At this point, Kobalt offer to have a staff member personally deliver my laptop to my house in the company van 150 miles away to ensure I get it on time.


My machine arrives in perfect working condition the next day, and I am a happy customer.

I think my story goes a long way to demonstrate that Kobalt are indeed satisfying at least some of their customers, and 1 bad experience does not mean all experiences are bad.

People are far more likely to post when they have a bad experience than a good one, and I feel there is something of a lynch mob mentality at play at the moment around this company. I would certainly buy from them again and have since recommended them to several people.

 

Always nice to see satisfied customers. ;D
Hope you enjoy your notebook as much as i do.

 

Hi Brokkah,

I do remember your machine very well

I am very pleased to hear that you are enjoying your laptop and I am sure that it will go on to serve you well for as long as you want it to

and I agree about the mob mentality, people are far more likely to post negative stuff due to the anonymity that the internet grants. Esp from people who have only a handful of posts

All the best as always

Pman

 

Here here, they certainly do try thier best

 

Congrats on the laptop Brokkah!,but there's a mob for a reason.

 

You missed the word mentality

Compared to the amount of customers to actually serve the level of people who post negative comments is tiny, less then 1%.

As we noted above the problem is people coming from nowhere, not having all the facts, posting what they want the scenario to be seen as so they get support and hope to put pressure on resellers/builders.

This is not only about us at Kobalt but goes for some of the other threads that have come up recently such as those against Xotic for example.

Pman

 

Obviously the people posting these threads have come from.....somewhere. I doubt it's a vast conspiracy to tarnish the reputations of all Sager/Clevo resellers. If somebody has a bad experience then they have every right to post about it here. Just as you have the right to post your side of the story.

 

Indeed and I do actively encourage people to come and talk to me when they have issues

What I get frustrated about is people who register and with the first post they spew out something.

Then we have to go through our records to try and figure out who they are (because they rarely post with anything that makes it easy) and then we have to say well actually the situation is XYZ...

Some of the claims on here actually are libelous as well...

And as I mentioned above the % of people who do actually post negative is <1% people who get our machines generally just go ahead and enjoy them

Pman

 

Usually the reason you see a lot of negative comments on a thread like this is because most people that buy a good piece of equipment don't go online and post. They are just getting on with life and using that equipment. Those that get a less than stellar unit are way more likely to come on to a thread because they are looking for answers.

I agree everyone has the right to post, but I also get frustrated when someone goes on any forum and says " I got a bad unit, so ALL units by this company are bad". I read a study a few years ago that said something to the effect of 26 people will comment negatively too every positive comment (in person, via mail, email or online). This had nothing to do with computers, just business in general, all forms and types.

I have 2 locations at work, and in real world application, it seems very close to what I see. What people do not seem to realize is that when they buy something, unfortunately it is made by other people. People that have afternoons on Friday dreaming about the weekend. Or thinking about that fight last night with their S/O. Or come to work hungover Monday. And companies that make/customize computers are no different, in that they have to buy parts from companies with those employees I described.

When I buy anything, I look at the support the reseller/manufacturer gives. The length of the warranty. The over all quality. In the time I took to research buying my last laptop, all these came into play. And I am very happy. If you get a bad unit, RMA it. Use the warranty. That is what it is there for.

Kobalt (or any other reseller) doesn't make all the parts, in fact doesn't make any parts. But if they give the service I have been reading about, they are going far and above what I see in any other type of retail business.

 

G150 owner checking in.

I ordered mine through the bumpy winter period. Can understand the negative feelings going around back then. It's all a distant memory now, though.

Got i7-2720QM, 8GB DDR3 1333MHz, GTX 485M, Vertex 2E 128GB, 1920x1080 LCD. Kobalt gave me a free upgrade from a i7-2630QM. Or, at least, I assume that's what happened because this is the CPU I ended up with.

Been rock solid in Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04 (the latter with a few driver tweaks). Powerful for my OpenGL development on the move, never gets uncomfortably warm. Easy to pull apart and play with the insides, my kind of laptop!