Rock go into Administration

See here for official announcement:

http://www.rock-direct.co.uk/viewNews.php?NEWSID=107

Ultimately it is the consumer and Rock's customers that may lose out so I have posted this to give people a heads up on the issue (not to boast about the apparent demise of a competitor so don't flame me pls!).

 

thanks for the announcement.

 

wow lots of them going away recently...

 

I thought they had a comfortable niche in the market. They weren't selling at rock-bottom prices.

John

 

Ok so what actually happens to customers who purchased Rock laptops recently?

I was actually once considering the Xtreme SL8 from them, then I heard about Kobalt and I liked their CS and price better.

Neil,I hope nothing like this happens to Kobalt.

 

That's a very useful post; I can't imagine why anyone would want to flame you (well, ok, my imagination's not quite what it used to be... ).

One thing that's an odd consequence of the way things work out, and the interplay between insolvency and consumer protection/warranty legal regimes is that, for the first year, a buyer is SOL if the computer breaks, but if it breaks in the second or third year (assuming they purchased extended warranties), then it looks like the insurance policy covering the 2d and 3d years will still be valid and still cover warranty work for those years.

Bottom line, keep your fingers crossed and hope that, if something has to fail, it does so in year 2 or 3, not year 1 (I suppose you could just put into storage for the first year, and use something else in the interim, and then pull it back out once it's sufficiently...aged).

 

saw someone mentioning this article on another forum, http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/news/Gambler-blew-200000-of-his.3967688.jp

 

Didn't see that one coming, thought they were as solid as a rock.

Quote from ROCK site:

"The failure of Rock is partly attributed to the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee".

What the hell is that all about. I used to frequent the ROCK forums quite a lot but they seem to be disabled now, probably due to a lot of pissed people?

Pity...looks like they were the first to bring the Clevo D901c model to the UK.

Anyone from the (ex?) rockforums know what happened?

 

What a pity, justin's link says it all.

 

Ouch. Rock is a pretty big company in Europe. I feel bad for their custommers...

 

Yes I realize that now. He posted while I was still writing. Damn you Justin...damn you hell.

 

That's pretty sad, though I always thought their prices were much higher than other companies for equivalent products.

 

I concur. This is a sad day. They always went out of their way to help their customers. The only laptop company I know that had very active forums and who's staff frequently answered questions and tried to deal with problems as quickly as possible all in the public domain. Very sad. I hope Nick didn't get too badly stung. The prices were very high, but quality, guarantees and products were far superior to Eveshams UK (which folded not too long ago).

 

Sorry to have 3 quotes in the post but..........

We are currently experiencing healthy sales and have always run the company within its ability - not expanding too fast and sticking to what we know best. I think when you get up to the level of a company like Rock there are many more variables but being a family controlled business I hope we have a less corporate face than other companies

I knew they were having "issues" but had no idea that happened!

We were actually the first UK company to ship the D901C chassis - unfortunately for Rock their financial issues meant that they had to delay their release of the SL8.

Not sure if everyone knows this but a media company called Rok acquired a 51% stake in Rock about mid December 2007. I assume Rok would have gone through the books and realised £200,000 was missing?

 

wow just read that story thats just crazy...id hunt that guy down myself if it was my company...

 

Yup, as well as the customers you've got to feel for Nick the CEO too. He took on a guy at 16 who rose through the ranks and then stole £200k from him

 

EXACTLY...this sucks when stuff like this happens

 

I know alot of people who cancelled orders from them due to long lead times on stock, including myself. I just feel really sorry for their customers who now have no support having spent over 2K. Bit of a waste.

 

Just read the article myself. Being a rock customer, this was quite a shock for me.

Poor lead times, and shoddy repairs were becoming a bit too common though.


I just wish Nick, and all the staff the best of luck.

 

Rock Computers (UK) went bust today, and they were one of the only remaining clevo resellers in the UK .

http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNews.php?NEWSID=107

http://www.kenilworthweeklynews.co.uk/newsl/Addict-stole-200000-from-work.3576225.jp

 

There is already a thread on this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=247891

 

There are other Clevo resellers in UK and I am sure that new companies will arise to take over ROck share of market.

PL

 

It is sad, especially considering the circumstances.

There's always Novatech though.

 

The two threads have been merged...please contine in the current thread.

..........
It is truely sad news indeed.

 

That cheating ******* stole their money....I simply can't believe he would violate their trust after working for them since he was 16!! I guess thats what happens when you're addicted to gambling

 

Simplified here; http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/news/2008/05/08/Rock-Entered-Into-Administration/p1
Announced here; http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNews.php?NEWSID=107

Sadly, the manifacture looks like its going under. I think that the site admin should post somthing about Rock computers going bust in the news section.
I hope Ive helped
Jackle

 

P.s, I don't know if Rock was/is selling In the US, but here in the U.K Rock was a major rival of Alienware and other gaming notebook giants. Shame.

 

hmm only read about this now... this is bad huh.
so now they are trying to sell, and if they manage that their customers will get support back at whoever bought the company. Is that right?
And if nobody buys it, then there will be no support for customers?
arghhh...

 

yeah novatech is good, and i heard this summer they might be releasing there own line of NP9262^^ hope the prices are as good as their prices on the 5962(is that it i know its 5 something^^)

and they have the best prices for them as well

 

Oh dear, that is really sad.

A friend of mine, in not such a big scale, had precisely the same issue. His company was being stollen by its own employes, finances were badly supervised etc etc. He went bankrupt.

A lesson to learn. If you have a business and your are the head, you need to be able to supervise everything to a good detail. Delegation does not imply unsupervision (like random account checkups at 5 in the morning when some good money is concerned etc etc).

Man, I feel my stomach turning as I can imagine the panic of the managers at the moment.

Trance

 

yeah, that's a pity

 

I read that some people were suggesting for Rock customers to immediately get a refund with their credit card companies. (not in this forum)
I understand why one would do this, especially if there are some issues with the laptop, because of the warranty problem; systems arent covered by the insurance warranty unless they are over 1 year old.
Now I really dont know what to do. I really like my rock X770, and there are no problems with it really, but I run the risk to be in deep trouble if a problem arises in the next 10 months.

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope nothing happens to my notebook in the next 10 months (I have it for two months now).
For sure another company will buy them and everything will be back to "normal" in 2-3 months.

 

I feel sorry for the buisness and the customers. The man should be quickly convicted and sent to prison. He will meet Bubba everynight for the rest of his life.

 

well its up for sale, so come on Kobalt or Novatech, you fancy that one?
they have a very big and loyal customer base, heck after my son bought one almost 3 years ago the quaddra ti64 (which was last week declared dead by Rock and he was supposed to be getting a new machine under warranty)
well I had recommended them to so many people, the 3 year warranty was a very big selling point, and so far I dont know of anyone up until now of course that ever had a warranty problem with them.

yes the prices were higher (which is why I went with novatech for the no frills approach) but for your average gamer who doesnt want the fuss of taking care of their own machine when it goes wrong , it was a great deal.

I must have bad luck though, my other son bought a notebook from Evesham 6 months before they went bye bye !

 

This gives a bit more detail on the culprit and supply shortages, in part due to a fire in a Korean laptop battery factory in march.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/05/09/rock_group_plc_ceases_trading/

 

ROCK has insurance backed warranty, so if anything happens to ROCK, you still get to keep your warranty, as it is being handled by a 3rd party then.

 

yes, but teh problem is that this warranty only works in years 2 and 3 of the 3 years. So if you are in year one and get an issue.. your in trouble. Then you gotta wait until your in year 2 to get it repaired.

 

yeh, don't get an issue in year one then.. XD, it's insurance backed, it still is something...

i feel sour for rock, but oh well, good luck kobalt

 

Are there any other competitors?

 

Now there's Kobalt and Novatech

 

Some more news: They are "negotiating" a contract now for the sales of Rock. Wonder who the interested buyers might be.

Quote from www.rockdirect.co.uk

"The Administrators of Rock Group Plc would like to announce that they are in contract negotiations for the sale of the business and assets of Rock as a going concern."

Edit: might just be a rewording of what they have said already though .. hard to tell tbh

 

I do honestly think they have found a potential buyer, it just remains to be seen who it is.........its not Novatech btw ...

 

How would you know its not novatech? Someone on the refugee rock forum said that novatech might be looking at buying. Its all rumors anyways.. unless you really DO know?

 

Right, doesnt matter. This thread on the refugee rock forum is very very useful for any rock customers who want to know whats going. Its updated very quickly, and even the managers of Rock sometimes post here - for example Nick@rock.
So whoever else here has a Rock laptop still under warranty I would advise to follow this thread, it really has all the information on what you can do in this situation and what you should do as it develops.

http://www.techpond.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16

 

just to clairfy on the Novatech forums the big man himself explained it.
just click the forum link on the novatech website and there is a thread about rock administration

thanks for the headsup on the link falcon, I will let my son have it.