I ordered it Dec 12, 2006 with a credit card
I know Adam and Laura share the same last name, but i figured they were siblings. I know Adam used to own PC Torque and the forum (now Laura works at PCT), but I was told a reseller doesn't own the forum any more. But they still allow PC Torque's out-dated banner in the sager section... go figure. I also got banned a few days for bashing PCT's support.![]()
Back in 03 there was some reseller was giving out fake reseller ratings to PC Torque. They got their name censored. I have no clue if it was xVx or not.
Maybe someone more knowledgble could shed some light on the forum ownership and fake reseller ratings?
Doesn't it bother you that John, is the best rep xVx has? Pretty much all reseller reps can spell, and they have the common sense not to make bomb threats. Sadly these are not John's strengths.
I don't know about that. It seemed like he was legit at one point, since he actually sold people laptops at rock bottom prices. But then he realized he wasn't making much money and he had to raise prices, pay people to write reseller ratings, and eventually float on the customers' money.
But then there's this interesting e-mail he sent the people at reseller ratings which makes him seem like a slimy business man:
(source)
-
So I'll just take it things at face value and assume that email truly did originate from Brian at Flawless, which seems likely given the reputation of RR. Now a clearer picture is beginning to emerge for me. I don't want to make any sweeping generalizations about a persons age relative to their ability to be an entrepreneur, so all I will say is that running a business, any business, should be approached with a certain degree of maturity and professionalism. This message, along with other behavior alleged of Flawless, demonstrates neither of these qualities.
Maybe more facts will emerge that will change my perception, maybe they won't. I'm glad I avoided this mess, and I hope that the outstanding issues for the people posting in this forum are resolved according to their satisfaction. -
no not a word from him. Wonder where hes hiding?
-
-
as for what i was saying about scams and taking peoples money. I never said brian was a scammer. Just looking at threads all over RR and sometimes places like this makes me sick. That there are so many companies out there that do this stuff. Just cause i seen u quote me and comment on it.
-
Maybe I'm just overly optimistic, but I'm hoping that Brian finds a way to get things all sorted out not only for our sakes as consumers, but for his own as well. It seems like he may have become a victim of his own success, and if, as some have speculated, he simply wasn't able to make enough money with the deals he was giving, that's a shame. I got a good deal on a good machine, and I hope that doesn't cause the loss of the company that provided them. -
well put, jcq
-
PM me if I have not gotten into contact with you yet. About four of us are organizing our suits against Brian together.
-
-
Donald@Paladin44 Retired
While I am sad to see the problems FC and their customers are enduring I have to say it was pretty predictable.
Now, don't flame me but when it seems too good to be true it almost always is. When you see a new company offering very low pricing and offering that kind of "dream" warranty you have to ask yourself how they can do it when no one else can.
The warranty that FC customers got on the Clevo laptops would be backed by Sager for 1 year for the barebones, and then each of the components have their own warranty. Memory is usually lifetime, and hard drives are 3 years for all but Seagate which is 5 years. The hard drives have serial numbers and you can go to the manufacturer's website to apply for an RMA for exchange should the HDD fail. Same for most memory companies. CPUs almost never fail but the length of the warranty depends on whether they were Tray or Boxed. Just contact the manufacturer should you have a failure.
Those of you that bought the FC 3 year warranty will have to learn that a warranty is only as good as the company standing behind it.
www.safeware.com only offers accidental damage and theft insurance, it is not a manufacturer's warranty.
Now, as for the comments about PowerNotebooks.com's ratings at ResellerRatings.com, just take a moment to study them. They have been accumulating for about 7 years (we have been in business for 8 years) and they speak for themselves. We have NEVER paid or offered to pay anyone to post a rating there.
PowerNotebooks.com never sold the ATS 3rd party warranty because it too was too good to be true and their inevitable bankruptcy was way too transparent to us. We lost a lot of business to those resellers who did sell that "dream" warranty, but we refused to fall for the ATS too good to be true pricing.
We did sell the Philips Magnavox warranty for Sager laptops through Sager because that was the only extended warranty offered by Sager, and while well over 90% of our customers were satisfied with them we did have a few difficulties with them. However I can assure you that Philips Magnavox and MicroMedics know me very well because I was down their throats every time one of our customers had any difficulty with them. I think the President of MicroMedics actually hates me because I continually held them accountable to our customers (Whew...you should see some of his emails to me...YEOW!). Most of those issues were resolved satisfactorily once I got the Escalation Department of Philips Magnavox involved to force MicroMedics to do the right thing, with only a very few exceptions.
Laura and Adam Alter are married. They started PCTorque and Notebookforums.com at about the same time, and then later sold PCTorque to a 3rd party. They still own and run the forum. However it should be noted that it was Adam and Laura that sold all of those ATS warranties while they owned PCTorque, and the new owner got the surprise of his life when about a month after buying PCTorque he found out that ATS was going bankrupt and he was left holding the bag, never having seen a dime from those sales.
I hope this helps, and please forgive me if my straight forward approach to reality offended anyone. -
Thanks for the clarifications Donald. Sorry I put up a fight with you a few months back. Flawless was too good to be true, you were right.
I contacted a few people here who bought from flawless (6). 5 of them haven't logged on since two weeks ago (some even longer). -
I haven't bought from FC but I've read a few of these posts and a few RR posts as a result of following Gophn's database thread. This FC guy lives in SE "metro" Denver, not far from where I live. If someone can put together a coherent, logical case, you might consider contacting some of the local news investigators that sometimes dog these bad dudes. HERE is a link to the ABC affiliate. At the bottom of the page is a contact link. HERE is a link to the NBC main page. There are CBS and FOX affiliates also. Good luck.
-
-
I for one will wait to see how things play out. Yes, businesses go under all the time. But businesses also restructure and figure out ways to come out of financial trouble, sometimes stronger than before. Until I know which one it will be, I'll just withhold judgement and hope that my computer doesn't experience any failures.
(BTW, reading this message I know it might sound like I'm being too flippant about the whole thing. Basically that's my standard happy-go-lucky attitude towards most things. I can only imagine how I'd feel if I was one of those that was in the limbo of having paid for a computer that wasn't received.) -
I'm just glad I got my Clevo m570U before all these problems started to occur. I Brian even had my first clevo replaced because there was a hairline crack in the chassis above the dvd player. He had me send my system back to Sager and they sent me a replacement. In fact I have a few emails, between myself and Brian concerning the hairline crack problem I had. Although my computer was replaced, he alluded that they might just fix the crack by replacing the case chassis. I expressed that I wanted either a refund or a whole new computer because I did not feel that it was right to receive a system with physical damage caused by shipping. When I expressed that I wanted a refund if my system was just going to be "fixed", Brian became very off-standish in the following emails, stated that I was threatening him, and basically told me I had no choice in what Sager decided to do about my system. He said there was no way I could ever return it for a refund because it was custom built(even though it was the system spec'd and listed on the flawless website). luckily, Sager just replaced it. Those last few emails between Brian and myself got me a little worried about Brian's sincerity.
I must say, after reading a previous post in this thread quoting Brian's letter to RR, I find it a little bit typical that he is only 22. In my mind at 22 years of age, you are still a kid and inexperienced in many ways(no matter how much more advanced you think you are than the average person). If I knew that Brian was a 22 year old kid operating his business out of his parents house, I never would have ordered from him.
I would like to state however, that my experiences with Brian at flawless computers for the most part have been 99% flawless. If I had paid for the 3 year warranty, then I would be pissed. I just hope that my clevo can make it through the next couple of years(at least), without any major problems. If Flawless goes completely under, I will have to deal with Sager directly, and I have a feeling that this would not be a picnic. -
I am with jcq on this one. I will wait to see how things play out. I too will withhold judgment until this whole situation has been played out. MY experiences with Brian have been positive over-all. If Brian can fix his business problems and get flawless back on its feet, then I will continue to support him.
But if not, all I can say is that this is a lesson in buying laptops... -
I always click on the "About Us" section for e-commerce sites, just to get a sense of with whom I'm dealing. In the case of Flawless, it just mentions the fact that the company also dabbles in web development and has employees spread out over 3 states. Not much insight in to what's really going on.
By the way, I see that the FlawlessComputers site appears to still be up and functional. If this guy is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, why is the web site still accepting orders?
-
As for the warranties being "too good to be true", that is also probably accurate, but like others on this site I just thought that it was an exceptional value from a dedicated company trying to make a name for itself. Having experience with custom laptop warranties was not a benefit I could claim, so though all the warranty details you list make sense, it's only after hearing from an expert that I had the proper context to understand this.
Believe me, I did try to get context. That's the reason I spent many, many hours browsing through the posts at this and other notebook forums. I googled flawless computers and looked at basically every pertinent link. I even pulled up the NYTimes website to verify their claim of being mentioned in it. The info I found pointed to excellent value, strong customer service, and a company that seemed to be headed for good things. This is of course before the complaints started to come out. Please, I'm not pointing any fingers or wanting to blame anyone, but if you look for flawless on this site prior to this thread, it will be positive.
You are right, people do make mistakes and have to learn from them. Unfortunately in my case and possibly others', this learning won't be able to be put to use for a few years (assuming that flawless does go under and refunds are not possible). The next time I look for a laptop online I will be more informed, and have better context. However, being a student heading off to university, with my source of income being near-minimum wage jobs that take months of saving, I'll be making due with my several year old desktop for the next few years. Unless I happen to get an applicable scholarship, which in a straight forward approach to reality, isn't likely. Thank you for the warranty insights though, I just wish I had this context a little earlier... or even better, perhaps ordered from PNB. -
Hey, I would not knock on the age thing.
I just turned 24, and I have been deep into the computer industry for over 8 years.. with over 4 dozen clients (not just end-users)
And I have never taken a computer course... EVER.
I didnt even get my BA/BS yet, have not needed it since a Resume is not something that an entrepreneur would need... its just gravy. I am probably just going to go to USC next year and get at least a BA in Business Entrepreneurship.. only should take 2-3 semesters (thats how close I have been to getting a degree, LOL).
I am pretty sure that most people would be surprised, but experience, drive, and attitude (the want to help others) got me to know what I know... age has nothing to do with it.
FYI: it was gaming that started it all for me... wondering why my PC couldnt play a certain game, then learning hardware differences and upgrades (videocards, RAM, CPU, etc...) to give me the ability to play new games. -
Well I just got the heads up about the problems with Flawless...heres my take.
I bought from Brian a few months back (M570U). The initial emails went well and the ordering was fine. When I received the laptop there were immediate problems present, with the fans and motherboard. After trying a few solutions at Brians request, I sent it back and got another one sent right away. The new one worked perfectly. A few days later however, Brian called me very irate and said that I had put glue inside the laptop on certain connectors. I in absolutely no way did anything of the sort and I told him that and that wouldn't explain motherboard/fan problems that happened from the first power on anyway. Eventually he agreed that I was not the one to screw up the inside of the laptop. A few days later he called again and said that while I was doing the suggested troubleshooting on the original broken laptop, that I removed a sticker from the inside of it. He said that if the company that he buys from voids the warranty on the laptop because of this removed sticker, that the warranty on my new working laptop would be voided as well.
I objected to this saying that Brian told me to do anything to try and fix the problem before returning it, and if I happened to remove a loose sticker, that shouldn't void the warranty on the new laptop. The old laptop was worthless from damage anyway, what difference would a sticker make and how could that effect a warranty on a different machine. Brian said he would call back if there was complications with the warranty and he never did so I guess it is okay.
The only problem I still have is Brian owes me $108 for the overnight shipping I had to do for sending the broken laptop back. I was suppose to be credited on my cc but nothing is there yet and its been over a month. I also did not like the nasty attitude of blaming me for glueing something on the harddrive when I didn't. The overall experience hasn't been perfect but the failed laptop wasn't his fault. The false accusations were however and now the months its taking for my refund is starting to worry me. I wonder like everybody else what will happen to my three year warranty if Flawless goes under. I went to a reseller because I thought that it would make things easier but its making it quite complicated.
p.s. The new laptop is working great. Oblivion, Half-Life 2, Prey, Condemned, and a bunch of others are working perfectely. No crashes or problems with anything. -
I'm not knocking age. I have plenty of friends younger and older than me. I'm only 32 and I consider myself more of a kid than an adult, but that is just because I don't see myself as a tight-wad. When somebody who touts a big ego and brags about their above average capabilities, and then runs into major problems running his business out of his parent's house at the age of 22, that just creates a stereo type in my mind of an inexperienced "kid". Don't get me wrong, I have friends that have been running their own businesses successfully since their early twenties with zero college degrees under their belts. I know age and education can have little to do with success and experience.
If a 50 year old man pulled some shady business practice with me that was based on inexperience with a know-it-all attitude, I would consider that person a kid as well. In fact, there is another laptop reseller on these forums who is, I assume, probably in my age group that I completely think of as a know-it-all kid.
I would like to state that I have no problem with Brian's age. Nor do I have a problem if he operates out of his family's house. His Age and living situation is irrelevant if he can pull his act together and come through on his promises. If his business goes under, leaving more than a few customers unhappy with unresolved problems, then I think his age(inexperience), ego, and living situation might have something to do with business practices like what I am reading about. Knowing his age and living situation might have been good warning signs that you might be investing in an inexperienced "kid" trying to be an entrepreneur with the help of his parents or whatever. Weather it is justified or not, I think this knowledge would have kept many people from ordering 2000 dollar plus machines from Brian.
I for one will stick with Brian and support his business as long as he can make things right, and stick to his original promises and warranties.
If Brian comes out on top of whatever mess he might be dealing with, and he can continue with the awesome support that I have received from him, then I will consider him one hell of a cool "kid"! -
"the only problem I still have is Brian owes me $108 for the overnight shipping I had to do for sending the broken laptop back. I was suppose to be credited on my cc but nothing is there yet and its been over a month. I also did not like the nasty attitude of blaming me for glueing something on the harddrive when I didn't. The overall experience hasn't been perfect but the failed laptop wasn't his fault. The false accusations were however and now the months its taking for my refund is starting to worry me. I wonder like everybody else what will happen to my three year warranty if Flawless goes under. I went to a reseller because I thought that it would make things easier but its making it quite complicated." -ProwessIntrepid
-I would also like to state that Brian still owes me the $108 or whatever the shipping was when I had to send my broken clevo back to Sager. I should also note that he became pretty defensive about the hairline crack in my case implying that I might be trying to scam him or something.
On top of that, he still owes me the "free upgrade" he promised and provided some people. Other's received a free hard drive upgrade from the 100gb 5400 rpm drive to the 100gb 7200 rpm hard drive. I thought that was a pretty generous upgrade, and I figured since I ordered my system with the 7200 rpm HD that all that was left to upgrade at this point was the T.V. Tuner. When I asked about getting my "free upgrade", Brian told me that he would send me a 1 gb usb flash card for the free upgrade. NOt as nice as a T.V. Tuner or HD upgrade like the other's received, but it was something at least. Actually I could probably really use a 1 gb flash card because I am now in school for graphic design, and a flash card would make file transfers nice and easy. Needless to say, I have not received either my 1gb flash card or my 108 dollars promised to be credited back to my card for the shipping.
I am starting to seriously worry. I just hope my Clevo runs flawlessly for the next 3 years, so I do not have to deal with any warranty B.S. -
Regarding warranties:
All previous customers have my email. I will honor your warranty personally if need be. No future orders are being taken. -
Brian,
I just need to know what is going on with my laptop. You should have recieved it, and I dont plan on calling and harassing you, lol. You have come through on everything so far and I have sent many customers your way (all who have been happy). I know you are running into problems, please email me at [email protected] with your plan of action dealing with my computer (specifically time frames). I need to hear from you within the next few days, as you know I am in Iraq, so please email me right away. -
Hey there....
I just want everyone to know Brian did NOT pay me for his review. I am honestly a happy customer, and so are three people that I sent to Brian. Brian did pay me the money per customer as it says on his website. And so far all of them are very happy with their purchases.
As some of you know my mobo died. It wasnt cause by Brian..it was a faulty mobo that died after 2 months (it seems to be an isolated incident so dont worry), he had me ship the computer back to him a short while ago and I will keep you all updated on how well that goes. Brian emailed me today and said a a working laptop was on the way, and I hope it is.
If things go wrong, I will let you all know. Brian has always been good to his word and he better stay that way. Give him a chance, he is 22....he has a chance to fix this -
so I finally got in touch with Brian, but he is unwilling to give me a refund for my warranty. As long as he's there in two years if something happens to my laptop, that is fine for me. but how do i know that he will be around?
-
Brian,
You have said you will take care of previous customers. What about the customers that have ordered computers but have not yet received them? -
Justin@XoticPC Company Representative
wiggit, How did you pay for your order? (If you paid with a credit card you are protected and can request a refund for this from your bank) If he is refusing to refund you I would suggest contacting the BBB.
-
I payed with a credit card, but i do not know how to go about asking for a partial refund through my credit card, i know how to contact the bbb.
I dont know how brian expects me to have faith in him as an individual if hes company is in shambles. I am not saying he is scamming me, but come one what guarantee do i have that he will be there in two or three years, or even 6 months from now. -
Justin@XoticPC Company Representative
Wigit, you can contact your credit card company and tell them you did not receive the warranty you purchased with your machine. They will ask the amount you paid for it and will likely put that amount in dispute and credit you for it.
Hope this helps... -
wiggit ~ did you pay for the extended warranty through another company? The flawless warranty is valid only through Brian, if you read the whole agreement crap you would understand that he personally is fulfilling the warranty. in essence, what we got was a guarantee from Brian as a person, not from the company that our computers will be taken care of by him for a certain amount of time.
personally i think that is reasonable...as long as he can actually come through, and god i hope he does or i am so screwed out of an expensive laptop.... -
I payed for the extended warranty, I assumed Flawless as a company was going to be there for the three years i payed for. If brian is going to be around for three years, to fulfill his part of the agreement that is fine, but i am assuming he is shutting his company down.
So if he is shutting his company down, he is asking for us to put faith in him as a person, but i dont personally know brian to give him that much confidence.
I am hoping i either get a refund on my warranty or that he come through. I would have never payed for a notebook from flawless no matter how low the prices were if I knew this sort of thing was going to happen. -
I have to agree with you, if I knew that this would be happening I wouldnt have bought from flawless either. Im basing that statement on the fear that I have of not receiving my repaired laptop. gosh am i worried.
-
When i asked him for a refund for my warranty he told me "you wont be receiving a refund on the warranty as it is not your place to assume the warranty wont be fulfilled." -
i heard that flawless went out of business because they were selling to low, meaning very little profit, coudnt pay there bills.
of course this is what happens. -
Hey Rickster...now dont start throwing rocks at me..
but, I see every time they talk about xVx, it appears you have some problem.
Why is that, you always have a negative view for some reason.
I am very happy with my purchase with xVx, they been only but great to me, and I can say this because I have dealt with them, have you??
See if you would have bought your laptop from xVx instead of FC, you wouldnt be posting on this FC thread right now, didnt it scare you that FC just recently started, I believe back in October of 2006?
Ohh...John didnt erase the thread he posted about the scammer, it was moved to the off topic.
Did you know that Voodoo PC did the same thing that John did... But the president of Voodoo was even worst when they threaten the scammer.
http://www.voodoopc.com/boards/messa...085&forum=1027
Also, I found this about xVx on the Intel website..
http://www.pciexpressdevnet.org/integrators_viewsol.asp?cid=105
Read the bottom, it says both companys xVx and Intel worked together developing PCI express Video cards... arent we using PCI express video cards today?? I think that shows a lot about xVx.
No hard feelings... -
)
-
Well, add me to the list of the people that are waiting on flawless to either give me money or give me a laptop lol. I am not sure I have more of a leg to stand on I have paypaled the money to Brian after he told me they were changing merchant services. I had no idea of this information until i did another google search for flawless to check things out.
As far as I know I am suppose to be getting my laptop in 1-3 days, but I haven't heard from Brian since I last emailed him yesterday.
Let me know any information you all have on this one. I would appreciate it.
Thanks
Glenn -
and funny thing now.. they now have an xVx section over there.
if you think John is unprofessional I would imagine that the president of voodoopc is extremely unprofessional under your eyes... at least John is only a rep.
fixed it...in your eye this should be very bad...especially if the president of voodoo pc is posting it.
[/QUOTE]
-
Donald@Paladin44 Retired
How long ago did you PayPal the money to him? -
I did it on 2/27 via paypal. He wanted a cashiers check and that wasn't going to happen.
Thanks
Glenn -
Donald@Paladin44 Retired
Well, by then he pretty much knew what was going to happen but all of us here wish you the best of luck with it...and if that doesn't happen just go back to PayPal.
-
aren't you the one that was deciding to go with xVx or Flawless?
and I kept telling you to go with xVx...but in the end you went with flawless.. I think it was you.
you sure made the wrong decision.
go over to paypal and ask then for your money back...then they will wait to see what brian has to say, but if he does not respond.. they will give you your money back. -
Can we get back on topic here? This is a thread concerning Flawless computers and the problems its customers are experiencing, not xVx or whatever.
By the way, "see, I told you so" is not very constructive criticism.
-
Thank you Skel, lets get back on topic please.....
-
I also agree its one of the reasons I didn't go with XVX I mean are you on their payroll or something?
Later
Glenn -
Scoobysnack, you said Brian took your order on the 27th? That is interesting, he emailed me saying that company was declaring bankrupcy on the 28th. Can you PM me with a good way to contact you? Four of us are organizing our cases together, we are communicating through IM/phone at the moment so let me know if you have a screenname.
-
I have sent you some contact information Morgan
Later
Glenn -
-
Update still not a penny or a word from brian.
Hey Flawless...Anybody Home??
Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by skel, Feb 20, 2007.