Ridiculously poor service from Sager - Sager responded and fixed the issue

Edit: as of 12/4, Sager has agreed to make this right and put an end to the problems I've had since purchase. Sager will stand behind their machines when there is ample evidence that something is not right. I'm not getting a free upgrade so don't go bugging them about it but they have agreed to fix my machine for a reasonable fee (compared to what I paid) and I will be getting 980M cards. Don't go flooding them with calls and emails for the same deal, they're only doing it because I have had the problems since I bought my machine in May and it has never worked properly. They are also fixing my trackpad which has had a defective left button since the day I got it and they're replacing the CPU heatsink. This is a reasonable company if you are reasonable with them. Original message below just for the sake of open honesty about what happened.

Spoiler

I won't ever buy another Sager machine! I've had nothing but problems. So first of course the 880M cards. Xotic was able to get them to replace those, the new ones are acting up and I opened up another RMA and asked for a downgrade to the 780M. They said they would do it but it would cost me 160 dollars to DOWNGRADE because nVidia charges more for the cards - I grudgingly agreed to that and then Xotic told me they were checking to see if there were more options available with the new cards on the horizon. I said let me try a repaste or something, found a pad that wasn't completely covering one of the inductors (oh yeah when they replaced my cards they didn't even bother to replace the pads, they're the same pads I had with the old cards which I had stretched and torn with my first repaste because I didn't know it didn't matter what they stuck to at the time), fixed that issue and wrote back to put the RMA on hold (meaning the exchange for 780M cards that I had just agreed to do) but let me know when the new cards drop what Sager can do because they are still broken as they don't hold their base clocks and Xotic took that as me wanting to cancel the RMA so they canceled it back in September.

Well I keep checking to see if they have heard anything from Sager, Sager still hasn't released the cards then I ask if it's normal to have a two month RMA and Xotic tells me they canceled it when I said I fixed it. How is a bandaid a fix? See bold up above. That's still broken. So I had them re-open the RMA with Sager and pointed them to the very thread where nVidia themselves admit they aren't working right. still though no ETA on the new cards which is funny... Because RJTech has been selling them both for weeks now.

So then my master fan starts making a hideous noise - Fan noise: http://youtu.be/xvaQQIKKH7Y - I send the video to Xotic, they send the video to Sager, they send me an image asking which fan needed to be replaced but the machine was of course flipped upside down and open and I chose the slave fan instead of the master. Replacement shipped, got it yesterday, put it in, realized crap wrong side. Wrote back to Xotic and let them know I got confused and whatever but it was the master not the slave. They email Sager.

Their response? We will send the master fan but we want him to send back the other two fans and gave me the address.

Ummm... I tossed the replaced fan last night and since when is it the customers responsibility to send back a defective part at their expense?

I'm so mad right now it's not even funny. I wrote back to Xotic that I already tossed the other fan when I replaced it before I realized it was the wrong fan and that unless Sager sends a label, I'm not paying out of my pocket to send them back a dead fan when I purchased a 3 year warranty on the machine and they aren't doing me any favors except not making me send the machine back for the replacement.

They aren't fixing my video card issue and now they are being like that about FANS?!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I know Xotic is trying but I have a 5k gaming machine that isn't performing how it is supposed to and hasn't since I purchased it in May and Sager won't do anything about it and now they try to pull this with the fans. Watch them try to charge me for the replacement fan now. Unbelievable!

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I'm not try to belittle your problems with them, but I must say that the "cross ship" method requires the defective part to be sent back. If they mentioned they were doing a cross-ship, that's what needs to be done. If someone didn't explain this to you beforehand, then it's not your fault and you should point this out.

 

Yeah it was never pointed out as a cross ship or that's what I would have done. And I wouldn't have agreed to in the first place unless they sent a prepaid label to send back the defective part. They saved a ton on shipping by me having the skill to install the part myself rather than having to send the whole machine back to them, I don't know why they are being such a pain about it and I feel sorry for Tanner at Xotic because he's the mediator and he's trying really hard to make me happy but Sager won't have it.

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Sorry to hear that man, I hope everything gets worked out in due time.

 

I'm just furious right now. I think they are being totally unreasonable.

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I will talk to Tanner tomorrow about this. Sounds like you have been in contact with him a bit but seeing if there can be anything else done wont hurt.

 

Tanner has been in contact with me for months but Sager won't budge on anything with him... I think there is a string of like 80 messages between us trying to get resolution. He has been working his butt off but Sager isn't wielding and I'm furious with their last demand.

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Dont worry about the fan issue, I will resolve with them, as far as the GPU's go, they still are not providing upgrades on machines purchased with 800 series cards yet unfortunately. They did say they will let us know when they do but as far as a straight swap, I am not sure how that will play out as no manufacturer that I know of will upgrade last gen GPU's at no cost but we will continue to work with them for you. Regarding any RMA's there has never been one opened yet as Sager has not released any type of RMA #'s at all, we are just keeping in touch with them regarding Ethrem's requests.

 

Thanks Tanner. As for the video cards, something has to be done because mine still don't work right despite the replacement. That's why I had asked about doing the downgrade. I'm just really irritated with how Sager has been handling things. They're not offering upgrades for 800 series machines yet both RJTech and Eurocom have the cards. I would prefer to work something out with Sager for an upgrade or a swap that way my cards are covered in my warranty but the fan thing was just asinine.

Thank you for the prompt attention to the matter, I'm sorry for bringing it to the forums but the fan request just pushed it over the edge and their unwillingness to do anything over defective video cards is not making me happy either. You can say that no company would do a straight swap and that's true but I'm on my first replacement and really should be on my second, the only reason I haven't fought for that is because the cards are all defective. I haven't seen a single example of an SLI 880M machine that isn't a hot throttling mess. Single card machines don't seem to suffer as much and I'm running dual power adapters so it's not a power issue. I guess I'll just live with it for now but I would appreciate the fan being taken care of asap, that sound is high pitched and irritating so my laptop spends most of its time asleep unless I have to get on it to do something I can't do on my phone. -_-

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Sager should really back up their hardware on their machines! Goodness. Sorry man. I have a machine similar to yours. I havent done any mods, just a clean 8.1x64 install and whql drivers... XTU set to 4cores at 3.7ghz. My gpu clocks seem to stay in the 900mhz (all stock) for the extent of my gaming sessions. 9300 Fire strike score consistently. Fans loud but not too obnoxious. Everything runs great and SLI performs wonderfully in titles that support it. All my games are via steam.

 

Sager will stand behind their machines, they have replaced the two GPU's and a fan, currently mailing out another fan. If the laptop once again is needing GPU's replaced, we can help Op out with that of course, Op is wanting different cards altogether

 

True, however OP is willing to pay some difference for the new cards... when the old cards are the same price. He's even offered to pay some difference and get 970Ms, which is a step down from the flagship.

 

Exactly. I don't find that a particularly unreasonable thing. I'm not outright demanding something for free and I'm even willing to drop down from flagship cards, I think I've been pretty flexible all things considered through all of this mess.

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Not saying any request has been unreasonable Just doing everything we can to try to help.

 

If I had thought this was an Xotic problem the thread title would have said Xotic not Sager. I just wish they would realize that they'd do better to fix the problem than have me sitting here with a broken machine taking it to public venues that will undoubtedly lose them sales once Alienware gets the cards out.
Xotic has exceptional customer service, note my sig that says Xotic gets an A+ from me... Its Sager that is grating my nerves to the snapping point. =/

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Of course and thanks for the kind words! Sager is one of our closest partners and hands down generally handles warranty issues better than a lot of our other partners. I hope to hear from them soon with any kind of update regarding switching the GPU's.

 

Hello Ethrem,

I want to apologize for all the difficulty in your matter. There appear to have been quite a few communications breakdowns in your case. To make sure we preempt any further difficulty, I have asked Allen to attend directly to your problems. Please contact him at [email protected] with the TITLE ATTN: Allen from Ethrem on NBR.

Thanks,

 

Hi Sager, I'm sending an email now.

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Resolution very satisfactory. See the first post.

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congratz on finally getting a machine you're going to be happy with =D.

 

Good to hear Sager is taking care of you to your satisfaction :thumbsup:

 

I know right? And 980M no less. Doesn't get better than that. I was expecting 970M but with everything I've been through, I guess they decided flagship for flagship for a reasonable price was the way to go.

Thank you to both you and Tanner, this would not have had the ending it did if it wasn't for the work that XOTIC has done trying to get me fixed up. Again, A+

I can honestly say Dell would not have made that kind of offer. Extremely pleased.

Going out tomorrow.

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I purchased my 8258-S directly from Sager, and my wife has her 8258 (with the 870M) directly from XoticPC. I'm the tech head, she's not so much so I wanted her to have the better communication support.

With all my dealings with Sager so far, I have to say I'm exceedingly happy with them directly. They're thorough, they're open, their honest from all my dealings with them.

What they also are is extremely blunt. They require you to know what is wrong with the computer and express all the steps you went through to identify the problem.

Let me repeat. Just telling them 'my video card is broke' is not going to cut it.

You need to go in depth how you know your card is broke. All the steps, what you identified, how you cross-referenced. You basically need to let them know that you have enough background with the problem that yes, that's exactly the problem. Once you do, I've found Sager is absolutely fantastic with their support.

When I got mine originally, it had the first edition of the Intel AC drivers. Everyone knows (now) that the versions before 17.x sucked balls. Absolutely horrible. Disconnected, hung, wouldn't reconnect, you name it.
The bluetooth drivers were also skipped over by mistake.

When I talked to Sager, I brought up the connectivity issue. I showed my bandwidth, the router logs of my connect/disconnects. The status of my device when it hung and wouldn't reconnect. How I had to repair it by bringing it down and up, and they pointed me to the beta (that they were reviewing) 17.x drivers mentioning it's a known issue. Installed the driver, problem solved.

They also shipped me the bluetooth drivers. Installed driver, problem solved.

The intermittent issues with the mic/headphones not working when connecting/disconnecting they sent me the newest drivers for those, as well as step by step instructions on the proper way to install them.

Ergo, you can overwrite the realtek drivers, but the hotkey has to be UNINSTALLED completely and then installed a new one, and AFTER the realtek drivers.

Once I reinstalled per the instructions, things have worked fine.

But again, I had to communicate in detail what was wrong, how I identified the problem, the steps I used to debug it, and after that, they immediate resolved the problem, and were quick, responsive, and professional.

There's just a communication issue that there seems to be a lot with people who make assumptions (that go both ways) on expections on what may or may not have been tested, or may or may not have been resolved.

Once you communicate fully, I find Sager absolutely fantastic for support (to date).

Again, that's my own dealing with them, but I'm a massive tech head, and have been involved in computers since 1977.

So I guess in ending I'm glad you got things worked out with Sager. And I'm glad they proved that once everything is explained fully, they really do go to bat for you.

 

I've had the opposite in my dealings. I've had some things resolved easily, but then I've had others be a total screw-up. I remember distinctly explaining to the tech at Sager when I got my D900F that "my sister spilled juice on my keyboard and it no longer works". Definitely sure I mentioned liquid damage a large number of times. I said "I do not believe that is covered under warranty, do I need to purchase a new keyboard?", to which I was told "no, it's fine, just send it with your hard drive (my main hard drive was broken at the time) and we will replace both for you". Paid to ship both items to them, then they got them and informed me I needed to purchase a keyboard because liquid damage is not covered under warranty.

And I have a very bad story about how they flat out SWINDLED my aunt and uncle who where in the US purchasing a second (years later) replacement keyboard for me, selling them the front panel of some macbook with the keyboard integrated into it (I couldn't get them to ship it to me directly, because the shipping was apparently going to cost $160 USD. Not counting price of the keyboard). So while you had good experiences, and while Ethrem had good experiences, and while I had both good AND bad experiences, I can safely say that they are NOT all well and good. Every company has some good and bad things, for sure, but there is a reason that some companies have very mixed feelings in a community. I've had XoticPC apologize to me because the number I got on my warranty was a direct Sager contact, and they said if I had spoken to them first I could have avoided quite a bit of expense and downtime.

 

Been following this thread as a soon to be owner of a Sager and am impressed by all parties involved. Nice works folks!


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Great to hear Ethrem! Let us know how it goes when you get it back.

 

Went out today. Can't wait! Lol. I've heard the fans don't even kick up with the new cards!

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