Kobalt Computers - Kobalt's closing-it's Official now

Hi,

The Kobalt Computers forum is now closed. Supposedly because of a security issue.
Given the appalling miscommunication (read: none), non-existent phone, not-working ticket system and blatant ignoring any form of communication for customers who have paid 2 grand and have been waiting for months, I'm dubious this is the real reason. It looks like they've definitely decided to close the last "open" (albeit heavily moderated) means of communication that was left: their forum.

Can anyone from Kobalt confirm?

Otherwise, I recommend we create a new Kobalt forum here, or I could create a new domain and install phpbb.

CM

 

Hi,

A security issue was raised to us regarding the order queries section of the forum, as that contains personal information we are having to perform some upgrades to obide by Data protection laws in the UK

This should be complete in the next few days

Pman

 

What like my laptop will be completed in the next few days...

 

Hi Pman.
Do u know, if there is there any other way of getting an update on ones order, until the forum is back up?

Best regards

 

If the forum doesn't reopen in a couple weeks' time I'll create a new one somewhere. It's a pity the official forum is now closed as it was quite good and was a great way to exchange info and get news/updates about drivers/games.
Hopefully the official KC team will post in the new forums too.

 

@ cookiemunger

I welcome you to contribute here
Our Sager and Clevo section is quite active
NBR is the most popular notebook forum around

 

Yes I also think the closing of the forum is a bit suspect.

I advise anyone who is thinking of buying from Kobalt not too.

I have been waiting over 3 months for a 2 plus grand laptop, support is non existent and I am constantly being told lies about when I am going to receive the laptop.

I am now going through my visa card to get a full refund.

All I can say is AVOID this company.

 

I am incredibly dubious about this, I am incredibly dubious about ANYTHING any of you folk say. Having now trawled the internet and read what everybody else has to say about Kobalt I am ashamed to have invested money in a laptop from them when information was so readily available to warn me off doing so.

Over 2 weeks since I heard ANYTHING from Kobalt - I don't give a crap about the laptop being late, I've said that over and over again - but I do care about customer service - and as a small company, so should Kobalt - as it is one of the few things that small companies can compete on against firms with better buying power and marketing than they'll ever be able to afford.

So much for giving Kobalt the benefit of the doubt, if Kobalt haven't simply gone bankrupt, and I ever get the laptop (or even if I don't), I'll be advising everybody to steer clear and just not bother.

/vent.

 

i have just come back from holiday and can see the forum and it is work in progress on the security update so while that goes ahead the forum cant be live. thats all i know until tomorrow when i speak to them.

 

Let them know that their customers are revolting while you're at it yeah? Although I suspect the way they treat them they already know that.

Badum tish.

 

+1
I am having similar kind of feelings about this company. I gave them the benefit of doubt too and boy... how wrong I have been!
They haven't replied on my status for almost 2 weeks now. They had given me an ETA with the confirmation that there aren't any hardware issues with the order. And have missed ETA and no communication since. And now the forum goes down! No working phone lines, no way to contact.. this all is very very dubious. There are guys out there complaining about not getting refund in time. Darn...I wish I had not ordered!

Nilesh

 

Yes, I got to the same conclusion. Having directly transferred my money (much to my regret now!), I can't use the Credit Card refund scheme. I'm going to leave them another 2 months (then they'll claim that the huge Xmas surge delayed my laptop again), then the 30 days DSR, then smalls claim (AFAIK they seem to be always late paying back), then court - where it'll cost them a lot more as I need to travel from abroad :-(.

 

It is, that was the joke.

Of course explaining the pun takes away the humour, alas

 

I'll forgive you, discussion over english puns is an entertaining way of making the wait for communication with Kobalt a bit easier ;-)

 

@SS - Take a look to see if there is a secondary translation. Revolting has a secondary meaning of rebellious. Also check if "revolt" has a noun listing of revolting to mean "an insurrection or rebellion."

Source http://www.dictionary.com

 

Hahaha @SS haha. I actually thought you were calling him an for trying to correct that guys English. Then I noticed his name.

 

So MrDj, any news on the security patch of the network and on when we're going to get some answers on our tickets (I have a good few unanswered)?

ShadowStalker: Is there such a think as a class action lawsuit in the UK? Do you know if there is a minimum number of claimants? Given that Kobalt reckons they ship 100 laptops a month and that they can't seem to ship a laptop before 6 months, it shouldn't be too hard to find a few hundred claimants.

Eric

 

You might want to check their website, it has just been updated to say that they have ceased trading as of now :-(

Very sorry to hear from their point of view, will be chatting to my credit card company first thing.

 

it is with deep sadness that i have to post this but as Splodge mentioned above as off 3pm today Kobalt have ceased trading

 

Well I'm short 2 grand. Thank you the Kobalt team!
ShadowStalker: any other recourse for us who were forced to pay by draft?

 

No big surprises here - although I see they're still busy blaming other people and their circumstances instead of manning up and taking responsibility for their own ineptness

 

GRRRRRR....

 

Actually about a month ago I sent them an email asking them if they had cashflow issues and if new customers were paying for laptops ordered 6 months before. They assured me they had no issue. Indeed I was right and they were plain lying again :-(.

 

People were saying that they were waiting 3+ months for a laptop build way before this happen. I remember one poster prophetically said that he thought Kobalt had closed down because he could get in touch with anyone via email or phone at all. That thread got closed because at the time it wasn't true, maybe it will get unlocked now.

 

They weren't necessarily lying. Have you ever run a business before? I have, and I wouldn't let my customer service representitives who are in the front line answering your questions, know the financial state of my company. To the CSR, everything may have been fine and dandy.

 

Naivity has no limits. I suspected this problem since 2 years ago when they had the same problems, but at least were refunding people. I distrusted Neil, Pman whenever they claimed problems affect only small number of customers. Now you guys see how much weight their word has, I hope you remember this for long time. Never trust a company employees when they speak publicly even if they are your friends. Finally it came to an end, and no more people will loose their money. Bad luck to those who paid by bank transfer.

Highly unlikely, employees are not blind, there must have been rumors flying in the company long before it happened, they just didn't want to get prosecuted for revealing internal information. I worked in small companies and if you have friendly work atmosphere (people don't ignore each other), such problems are impossible to hide.

 

No, just an observation - their e-mails and communications were full of apologies these past few months for other peoples actions, and they never *ever* apologised for themselves - everything was a sob story because of somebody else.

And now they're back on that train again, and no doubt about to make yet another sob story blog post about how they were ran into the ground by somebody else (no doubt their failed magento system and others).

Kobalt is a company who has failed time and time again at risk management and communication, they deserve to have gone under.

Edit: Note, you don't go bust just because you fail at installing an e-commerce system, not unless you completely suck at mitigation.

 

I have to support the dishonest choice on this one, I have been waiting for a long time for my laptop, I ordered before the issues got as bad as they were, and neivily gave them the benefit of the doubt, by the time I realised they were probably going down the pan it was already to late to get a refund out of them.

I had tried to be supportive as they were a small company, but in the end I felt that they made sure their 'friends' got the machines they were ordering out then miss lead everyone else. I was in conversations with the MD and was given the same reassurances.

I am still very sorry to see them go, and hope that we can get money back from the situation. I am very glad my purchase was on a credit card, as anything brought over the internet should be.

Unfortunately this evening I had just started to try to claim against my CC and order with the obvious other choice, and that was when I found the update. (call center typically is not open after 18:00 though so I just missed that one tonight!)

I personally feel lied too and cheated, and that to me is one of the worst feelings you can get.

On a positive note though, prices have come down since I ordered and I can now order a higher model + upgrade to the CPU so there is a small silver lining for me at least...

Splodge

 

I think what may have caught some people off guard was they just started up some reward scheme for people that had been waiting 6+ months for their machines (choice of PC games or something like that). This may have come across as them getting themselves back on track.

I know Kobalt had quite a loyal following despite their troubles, I feel bad that they have been let down so badly. I guess all the guys with warranties are no longer covered either, and those that had sent their systems in for repair may not get them back. A sad situation indeed.

If I were Neil I would put out an unreserved apology to all customers on the website (which may still happen) and on this forum. As well as answer questions fielded by customers who will want to know what this means for their paid for orders etc.

 

Sadly I don't think we'll see that - we'll see an apology followed by a long description of why it wasn't actually their fault. I'd love to be proven wrong about this however.

 

My post early in the thread was deleted, because I said that the forum closing was the beginning of the company's end. Lo and behold, they soon after announce their closing.

I'm feel so bad for everyone who lost thousands to these people. We've been worried about this happening for so long, yet Pman and other reps continued to assure everyone that the company was doing great. Meanwhile, they're still collecting people's money, knowing they can't deliver machines. What a joke. Don't bother posting any more of your excuses. The gig is up, as the curtain has been drawn on the truth.

The thread title needs to be changed, to reflect the drastic change of topic.

 

So true, hopefully someone with a conscience from the company will answer some questions from their customers. I believe they have a responsibility to do this. Taking people's money and RMAs knowing that you are going to fold is just plain wrong.

 

If the employees knew the company was going under, they themselves would be looking for new work and leaving the sinking ship as it was starting to go down. I agree, it's pretty unlikely that average employees were knowingly taking customer orders or equipment with advance knowledge that both themselves and the customers were about to be screwed by the company.

 

I'm talking about the people who obviously did know. Thanks for stating the obvious, unnecessarily. Maybe you can explain how companies work to all the people who have lost their money, but I think they may have other things on their mind at the moment

 

Even the customer service people start to understand what's going on. I mean, they feel the brunt of the customer dissatisfaction on a daily basis. Do you really think they don't start to realize that something is terribly wrong?

 

The lastest
Kobalt Systems - Performance Notebook & Desktop Computers

 

I started a new thread on the resellers forum before I saw this so would appreciate if folks have a look.

FYI normally Debit cards have the same cover as Credit cards but Kobalt took payment via third party payment sites like Paypoint. Has anyone got a refund from their card after paying via Paypoint? If you got a refund what was your payment route?

 

Then, lets post there
Thread closed ,continue the conversation
http://forum.notebookreview.com/res...kobalt-computers-officially-out-business.html