To all the Kobalt PC and Rock owners

Since I've finally decided on the specs and model, it has now come down to choosing retailer. As in previous threads, I've seen sever other ppl having difficulties deciding. Price-wise they are both almost identical for the 9262 models and both have been quite helpful on the phone.

To everybody who owns a Kobalt or Rock notebook, I'd like to hear about your experience in dealing with the respective retailer, pros and cons. Any issues you had that they resolved effectively/not-so-effectively. Any things you might have wanted differently...etc.

Thanks

 

Rock have just come out of administration so in my personal opinion i would not trust them as far as i could throw them, they only con that i can find with Kobalt is that i can't find a con. The service from both Andrew and Neil at Kobalt is first class and that pretty much says it all, they are on first name basis with their customers and they are very very friendly informative guys. I'd suggest giving them a call on Monday and have a chat.

 

Def Kobalt computers. Their service are excellent. Fast respons on both email and their forum.

 

ive not ordered mine yet as im waiting for the first reviews but from the phone calls ive made to the various uk distributors i would say Kobalt all the way. Andrew was very very helpful when i spoke to him 2 weeks ago and its not everyday you get to talk to the managing director of the company.

check out the forum link in my sig below and read the Customer Testamonials.

 

Under no circumstances would I recommend buying from Rock.

2 years ago I had a great experience with them however things have taken a real turn for the worst.

Throughout the whole order process, for my new SL8, Rock continued to lie to me about the availablity of components for my machine, stringing it out to the very end when they asked me to pay the final amount as my machine was ready to be dispatched just beofre they announced their administration status.

Of course as customers with orders we have unsecured creditor status and are very unlikely to be able to retrieve any funds. Spoke to a lawyer friend whose opinion was that I would spend far more trying to get the money than I was actually owed.

Nic @ Rock - I hope you come across this thread and remember how badly you treated your customers and how long they will remember it.

Rant over.

Now considering a Kobalt, the guys seemed pretty knowledgable and helpful on the phone, currently top of my list for a new lappy once I recover mentally from my financial loss at the hands of Rock.

 

I had found both companies' prices more expensive than what was offered on www.notebookguru.de :/

 

That is true. However, as is the case with the US, I'd be exposed to shipment risk if anything goes badly, it has to be sent back to Germany. How are you finding it given that you ordered from Malta (I assume that's where you live from your profile)?

 

could that be because in the uk we have to pay 17.5 vat (not sure what it is in the rest of europe).
also id rather pay the extra and have to ship it back to a uk company than ship it to germany.

 

Actually, I have to disagree that it is cheaper at NotebookGuru

http://www.notebookguru.de/product_...00gtx-sli-p-87&cName=1720-zoll-notebooks-c-32

You currently can't make a valid comparison because they aren't even offering 9800gt's in sli, so obviously the 8800gtx's will be more expensive, so therefore in current terms of availability Guru is more expensive, it remains to be seen whether they are going to be cheaper when they launch their 9800gt's

 

You're right that you can't compare different graphics cards. I had found it cheaper when I compared the same specs prior to making my purchase - Q9450, 4GB RAM, 2HDD's and 2 8800M GTX.

 

I would say that their prices are a lot better than their customer service. I've been waiting for an invoice or some other kind of reply for four days now, and still nothing.

 

My configuration was cheaper from kobalt than notebookguru.de when I bought mine and in addition I got the 3 years warranty.

PL

 

Rock was recently bought by Stone Group so this is a strong guarantee that there won't be any more financial problems.
Rock also offers a 3 year int'l warranty that is very useful.
When I ordered my computer from them, they were very helpful and the support was really good (after the purchase).
I was also undecided between Rock and Kobalt but after some email exchange with Kobalt I went with Rock and don't regret it.

 

That I'd have to agree with but I ain't going to try throw your favour in eiether direction due to forum rules...

All I want to say is basically no rock customer got ripped off because the orders are still beeing shipped after comming out of administration, Also Stones financial backing is awesome. Aswell as that no warrantys of previous customers went to loss, they are all being honoured. Common sense would say that of course problems arise from administration times, companys would not give stock to begin with so giving a estimate on parts was hard, also changing locations had to have new courier contracts set up and a full redirection of the unit at warrick to stafford, plus having to retrain and get new staff because the old staff left thinking Rock was finished, but to come back from that and sort it out is a achievment in it self.... Rock could have easily ignored the warrantys and the orders even after comming out of administration and traded under another name so no one knew but it didn't. And for a company that gets 400 support calls a day its tuff to get through a months worth in the first week or 2 of getting out of administration. Also the customers can't be blamed for beeing angry I'd be angry to..... but rock has not closed the door on anyone. To get through this patch the sales, tech and build team are even taking each others calls to try an take the load off each other.. and once this next 2 weeks of clearing back log is over the future will unfold it self We now have a full convayer production line a huge dedicated testing wharehouse, 2 storage wharehouses, 4x8 tech support pods. And when it comes to trust? Stone group supplys the goverment, emergency services , special crime divisions, schools, unis, cols, you name it. To allow the rock line up to be supplied to those sectors is a statement in it self. Stone would not have bothered with rock if it didn't see the usefullness of it. Rock didn't go sour from bad trading, it was a internal person who had been there for years and was quite a nice person and trusted but then he went sour , but now that can never happen again because stone is so secure, dedicated accountants who just watch the numbers all day That should pretty much explain rocks stance at the current time and give a idea of the next stage. Anyone with futher querys pm me please.

P.S this is not a post to put anything or anyone down, just a true update on whats going on at rock. No jabs at kobalt good guys they are no doubt on that.....

 

I hope that this is a permament change in Rock's attitude towards Kobalt?

 

I know ur both going to be big enough to not turn this into a reseller argument, so please don't And from my more recent dealings with Rock now that they have moved to stone it has been much better, even though my laptop still has not been shipped they have been far more polite in my dealings with them.

 

Of course :] Past behind , and into new times....

 

It's nice to see retailers getting along