Sager ticks me off!

Ok, so I had to order a replacement touchpad and buttons due to a small spill I had. First I just ordered the buttons because that seemed to be the only thing affected. $40 + $18 shipping! Shipping $18 for UPS Ground for a tiny part?

Well, in changing the button, I broke the connector on the trackpad for the ribbon cable Ok, fine call Sager, order the trackpad $50 + $18 shipping!

$10 for shipping is about max reasonable IMHO.

Should I call and complain or just swallow it. Problem is that they said shipping is extra, but they didn't tell me how much the first time, they just said "extra". Shame on me for not checking what they charged me on my credit card, but I did only after I ordered the trackpad.

This cost is atrocious.

 

Do you have any other choice ?
If you can only get that part from them, then you don't have that much choice
Plus how clumsy are you

 

No other choice really, but $18 for UPS Ground? I can understand 2nd day or overnight. I did replace the keyboard for $18 from eBay. Perfect match replacement with same stickers and everything on it. It was $45 I think from Sager. The touchpad is too unique to find it elsewhere.

 

Where I work we would typically charge $8 for ground shipping to anywhere in the US for packages 2 lbs or less. Seems way high to me, and they should have explained how much it would be. nothing worse than the shock of it once it's on your credit card. In the end not much you can do though.

 

Companies like Sager (and many other distributors I order from) have contracts with shipping companies which give them good rates on large orders, but in turn give them minimum amounts they have to charge. I don't know specifically what Sager's situation is, but I have a distributor that has to charge at least $11.50 on every order for ground shipping, even for a stick of RAM or a CPU. The flipside of this is if I buy a large bulk order, I get a reduced shipping rate due to the contract.

I think that's what you're running into here with Sager, that they have to charge at least $18 due to some sort of contractual obligation (or $15 and then they charge you $3 for the packaging).

 

I asked them initially what it was and he said, oh probably $8-10. If there was a minimum then I would have shipped 2nd day, as it probably would have cost the same, but he never told me that... grrr. I live in Detroit, it shipped from CA, so each part took five days to get here. Would have been nice to have it here in two days. Bah.

 

Because i believe in Open Source Philosophy even for Commerce, i'll tell you what are the FOB china prices from Clevo Co for your parts of M860TU (i believe that your have that system) :

Touch Pad cover (w/ or w/o finger) : $2
and the underneath Touch Pad Synaptics (TM-00398-001) : $10
i didn't understand what buttons you are talking about

 

Touchpad mouse buttons, it's a separate board. Although not sure what I'm supposed to do with those prices.

 

ahhh you were talking about the click board ($2 w/o FP and $20 w FP)

For the prices listed above, i showed them just to know the real cost for Sager.

But if you want, i can order these parts for you, the thing is that these prices are FOB china so you have to add international DHL shipping cost on it because Clevo Co. don't use standard airmail service, so for small quantity it will be too expensive, while Sager will add them to their usual orders so almost they will pay nothing for their shipping.

 

Just one thing,

Are you sure that by breaking the FCC cable between the click-board and the touch-pad you have to change all the touch-pad? It seems to me that they are separated because they are sold separated !

Edit : I see what you have broken, it's not the cable. it's the connector molded underneath the touch-pad. Any way, it's strange that they charge you $50 for something that cost them $10 while charging $40 for the click-board which cost them $20 !! (unless you have no Finger Print on your click board and in this case their charge would really be exaggerated $2 --> $40)

 

I have fingerprint scanner, and the touchpad adheres to the actual touchpad surface that you touch. I've already ordered and installed the parts though.

 

Well, Sager is crediting me back $18. Very kind of them. I don't know if they read this forum, but something happened because they called me (I didn't call them) and said they'll refund $18! Thank you Sager!

 

Good !

You make 2 orders. So, they refund you twice the shipping cost, or only one $18?

 

$18 refunded. I spent $36 total. That's more reasonable. Basically $9 per part.

 

Come on Sager !

You have to refund him all the $36, you have already surcharge him with the touchpad : $50 = 5x its cost on you ($10)

 

I'm sure the N.A. distributors paid more to get it state-side, etc, and there's always markups. I agree its a bit ridiculous, but that's the way the world works. I was expecting to pay about $60-$70 total for the trackpad and clickpad but it ended up costing me about $110. I got the keyboard from eBay cheap at least. It works fine.

 

What i couldn't understand is why they sold you the touch-pad more expensive than the click-board w/ FP.

In business world, roughly the CIF price we sell on is the double price of the FOB price we buy on.

So for the click-board w/ FP :
FOB buying price = $20
CIF selling price = $40 (after they had returned you the $18 shipping)
So, It's normal.

But for the touch-pad :
FOB buying price = $10
CIF selling price = $68 ?!?!?!

 

Are those FOB costs to the US or to Saudi Arabia? US customs, recycling laws, etc. likely drive up the Sager costs quite a bit over what you are showing there. In any event, it looks like Sager actually took time to make their customer happy here, and that is a good thing right?

 

FOB mean without shipping cost because the buyer will manage shipping by himself (by sea for example) so FOB prices will be the same regardless the destination.

CIF price means with shipping and insurance

is US customs so expensive? here in Saudi Arabia, it is 6% in average

 

Prices were a bit higher than expected, but not awful. Like I said before was expecting about $70 for both parts (dunno, $40 for trackpad, $30 for clickpad). It would be nice to get the FOB prices, but that's unrealistic.

I am happy they at least made good and reimbursed me for the shipping. Kudos to them for even taking the initiative. It seems you have to threaten to kill a person before any company will do anything for you these days.

 

Haha, that reminds me of when i was trying to get my cashback from kobalt computers. Posted in the large W860CU thread about it after not getting any answer on a couple of emails (for a few weeks), and they got back to me within the hour.
Whether it was coincidence or not, i dunno. But once i added negative feedback to that thread they replied.
A little off topic i know.

Glad you got a price that was more reasonable. Always nice when companies reimburse you.

 

Usually its the HANDLING part of "Shipping and handling" that costs the most

 

Handling for what, all of two minutes? They put it in a plastic baggy, wrapped it in foam and threw it in a box. So let's say it costs $8 to ship, $2 for material, five minutes to pack. That's like $100/hr.