Why you should stay AWAY from XOTIC PC

The problem here is that manufacturers don't consider a certain amount dead pixel as a "defect". I agree with the fact that a laptop should ship without a dead pixel but if they trashed every defective screen, everyone would complain that the screens are so overpriced etc.

Its like saying: Why there is insurance coverage for mailed packages? They are suppose to handle carefully every package they have and store them securely in the truck/plane so it does't get damaged.

 

Look Xoticpc told him they will fix the issue with the keyboard and LCD. Now they are changing their mind. I would be just as upset as him. If on the phone they would have told them, we will fix the keybaord but not the LCD due to it only being 1 dead pixel, he quotes "I will ship the unit back and ask for a refund". They did not do that, they told him they will fix it. So I dont see the problem but the " middle man" If they tell you something they should do it.

 

dead pixel is "rare" in lcd screens.
base on the amount of computers i bought over the years, it has to be under 1.5% for me not to see a one single dead pixel in ANY brand of computers.

op does have a valid complaint, he lost $150 becuz of the subpar quality from sager and poor return service with xoticpc.com.

if sage and xoticpc intent to live up to their advertised boutique online store, premium gaming comps, they gotta serve the costomers better.

there are only 4 total reviews on xoticpc sager np 5796 while bestbuy has 80+ on gateway p7811fx. credibility comes from track records.

 

and 30 day no restock fee ~! better then any company out there

 

er, Costco?

From Costco.com I can custom configure a variety of notebooks and if unsatisfied, return it 89 days later for a FULL refund, S&H included.

Just because some resellers treat customers like manure, doesn't mean that resellers that don't are the Crowned Prince of retail, if it did, what would that make Costco----King?


RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

 

1: they said they would fix it.
2: they didn't have any screens in stock at time of replacement. that it would be a 2 to 3 week wait period. sure he heard about the dead pixel policy, because he didn't want to wait on a new screen in like 2 to 3 weeks. he never said they were going to charge him for the new screen, just that they didn't have any flawless screens right now
3: you have the option to return.
4: his complaint also was if he knew he was going to return for a full refund he would have sent all his stuff back at the same time. he still has stuff at home from this order.(speculation of course)
5: dead pixels are becoming more of an issue. i have never had a dead pixel up until just recently. and i have owned well over 40 plus units of different laptops and lcd screens. (but this is funny, the one time i dont buy a warranty, i get a dead pixel. about 4 months down the line. *LOL*)

i think some of the facts and fiction are getting a bit mixed up here. there is only one thing protecting you from a dead pixel. that is the 1 to 14 day return/exchange. and this is starting to be subjected to a 15 percent restocking fee.(which best buy now has) online shopping is harder to get through this, where as at a store.... you can just get your money back and buy another one. big name brand stores usually send you the box to ship your unit off and you don't have to pay for shipping. (should you buy online. a + with big computer companies)

6: a real warranty would have covered all this.... you know...the one for $259.00 and not a separate 200.00 dollar dead pixel policy.

 

You don't seem to have paid much attention to everything you claim to have read about XoticPC, and now you're blaming them for something that is not in the least their fault.

First, and foremost, is the fact that, unless you purchase a system with a customized paint-job, XoticPC never takes physical delivery of the system that you purchase - each system purchased through XoticPC is drop-shipped by Sager on behalf of XoticPC directly to the purchaser. As such, XoticPC never has the opportunity to physically inspect the screen themselves. Had you actually read what you claim to have read, you'd have known that.

Second, that easily disposes of your second whinge - another point you would have known XoticPC had no control over had you actually bothered to read what you claim to have read. Since XoticPC never takes physical delivery of a system unless it was ordered with a custom paint-job, they have no way of knowing whether or not a system does, or does not, have a dead pixel and, accordingly, by definition cannot be accused of "knowingly shipping out shoddy equipment," particularly not by someone who doesn't seem to have bothered to inform himself about the way that business model works.

Third, if you want an absolute guarantee of no dead pixels, then you'd better pony up and pay for the no dead pixel guarantee, because that's what it costs to cover the additional labor and expense involved in inspecting the system specifically for dead pixels. That, by the way, is a cost that is automatically folded into the cost of your dearly-beloved _Dells, so you are effectively paying for a no dead pixel policy with _Dell whether you want it or not, and without getting the explicit guarantee that you get if you pay for the policy with XoticPC (or the other Sager resellers). Take your pick - choose to pay only for what you really want with companies like Sager and XoticPC, or pay for stuff you might really not want with _Dell.

Fourth, the issue of dead pixels is an industry-wide problem, and is not just confined to Sager/Clevo. Yes, you probably do find a lower incidence of reported dead pixels with _Dell, but then again, since you're automatically being effectively charged for the cost of inspecting each display panel for dead pixels anyway, there shouldn't be any dead pixels reported with any _Dell; the fact that there are any at all suggests that you're certainly not getting your money's worth with _Dell.

Fifth, you do, in fact, have the chance to inspect merchandise prior to accepting it - had you bothered to understand what your basic rights and obligations are under the Uniform Commercial Code. Under the UCC, you have the right to inspect and, if the goods are not conforming in exact detail - i.e., not perfect tender - you have the right to return the goods for a refund provided you do so immediately. The fact that you chose not to learn what your rights and obligations under the UCC are is your fault, not XoticPC's or anyone elses.

Bottom line is, there is no free lunch - you either accept a business risk, or you insure yourself against it, and you most definitely inform yourself about the details of the transaction you're getting into before you get into it, and you understand what your rights and obligations are. If you want your little hand held all the way, then please, go with _Dell and its magical shop - unless, of course, you're going to order one of the ill-fated M15 series; seems the magic didn't quite ... take on those systems.

Please, grow up a little before you waste so much time on a thread and start casting aspersions about businesses of which you know nothing.

 

Again, what you overlook is that, with the others you've already paid the extra money for the so-called no-dead-pixels insurance, you just never had the choice of paying for it or not (one of the reasons why those brands are more expensive). The fact that you chose not to educate yourself about these things, and take them into account in deciding what to buy, counts only against you, not against the business that gave you the option of buying the extra insurance or not buying it.

 

The way that is worded, it sounds like XoticPC is going to get the machine and build it for him so there is quality control this time. Is that what you guys are doing for this customer or will it be built at Sager like usual? It appears that the remedy is the standard return policy is it not? He retunred the machine, freigt paid by him, now instead of refunding the money, he's getting another system just as if he had placed an order again. It isn't like something special is being done for the guy. The post is worded and highlighted that it is more than the standard return policy and if it is please correct me.

There is no restocking fee within the return policy of Sager. This is also jusst standard.

I did the homework myself, but I guess I'll do yours too. I will make the " proof" really simple. Look at the domain server for Pro-Star and then for LynnBay.

Primary:
Pro-Star: 205.178.190.17
LynnBay: 205.178.190.5

Secondary:
Pro-Star: 205.178.144.14
LynnBay: 205.178.144.5

Not hard to figure out. We either have hit the jackpot lottery of domain server coincidence or LynnBay is run and controlled by Pro-Star. Now, your assumption that "Pro-Star is NOT a spin-off of Sager and the two companies are not closely held by family members making all decisions jointly" is based on ??? The domain server information is going to be hard to beat as anyone who understands it will tell you.

 

Once again, someone who thinks there's such a thing as a free lunch - if you want the assurance of a flawless screen, you have to pay for it.

 

Mark, this little charade with who owns whom is getting tiresome. Unless you come up with corporate minutes or the share registries, cut it out.

 

lmao, i was going to say the same thing...i run a few dns servers and it sure isn't like that, just because they share the same dns servers...lol. to funny

edit: but in this case...he is correct!..LMAO*

Registrant:
Computer
ATTN: LYNNBAY.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447

Domain Name: LYNNBAY.COM



Promote your business to millions of viewers for only $1 a month!

Learn how you can get an Enhanced Business Listing here for your domain name.
Learn More


Administrative Contact :
Computer
[email protected]
ATTN: LYNNBAY.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
Phone: 570-708-8780

Technical Contact :
Computer
[email protected]
ATTN: LYNNBAY.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
Phone: 570-708-8780

Record expires on 25-Apr-2010
Record created on 25-Apr-2007
Database last updated on 25-Apr-2007

Domain servers in listed order: Manage DNS

NS9.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.190.5
NS10.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.144.5

Registrant:
Computer
ATTN: PRO-STAR.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447

Domain Name: PRO-STAR.COM



Promote your business to millions of viewers for only $1 a month!

Learn how you can get an Enhanced Business Listing here for your domain name.
Learn More


Administrative Contact :
[email protected]
ATTN: PRO-STAR.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
Phone: 570-708-8780

Technical Contact :
[email protected]
ATTN: PRO-STAR.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
Phone: 570-708-8780

Record expires on 21-Feb-2011
Record created on 20-Feb-1996
Database last updated on 04-Oct-2006

Domain servers in listed order: Manage DNS

NS33.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.190.17
NS34.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.144.17


and it looks like they have nothing to do with sagernoteboks.com

Registrant: Make this info private
SAGER MIDERN COMPUTER INC.
18005 CORTNEY COURT
CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA 91748
US

Domain Name: SAGERNOTEBOOK.COM



Promote your business to millions of viewers for only $1 a month!

Learn how you can get an Enhanced Business Listing here for your domain name.
Learn More


Administrative Contact :
Yuan, Tony
[email protected]
18005 CORTNEY CT
CITY INDUSTRY, CA 91748-1203
US
Phone: (626)964-8682
Fax: (626)964-2381

Technical Contact :
Crossing, LTD, Global
[email protected]
14605 S. 50th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85044
US
Phone: 1-800-927-5225
Fax: 602-357-6111

Record expires on 26-Feb-2010
Record created on 27-Feb-1998
Database last updated on 09-Jan-2007

Domain servers in listed order: Manage DNS

NAME.ROC.GBLX.NET 209.130.187.10
NAME.PHX.GBLX.NET 206.165.6.10
NAME.SNV.GBLX.NET 67.17.215.134
NAME.JFK.GBLX.NET 64.212.106.87
NAME.LON.GBLX.NET 64.215.98.147

Show underlying registry data for this record


Current Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
IP Address: 64.208.175.36 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)
Record Type: Domain Name
Server Type: IIS 6
Lock Status: clientTransferProhibited
Web Site Status: Active
DMOZ no listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Secure: No
E-commerce: No
Traffic Ranking: 3
Data as of: 22-Apr-2008

 

Sharing the same domain server and they are 12 IP address apart???

Then by all means show me the information you have. Say Goodyear tires and one of their resellers. Because your statement is just foolish.

 

Come on Mark, either corporate minutes or share registries; otherwise, find something else to talk about.

 

I disagree on the basis that in order to say the other OEM's I purchased from had hidden the cost of a dead pixel policy in the purchase price you would need to know variables that I suspect you don't. You would need to know what I paid, what that same configuration would have cost from a boutique
and what warranty each provided for the base cost.

You would also need to know what ratio of dead pixel complaints those OEM's receive and how they internalize that ratio to a dollar reserved for corrections. That dollar would also be reduced by any recourse they may have with the screen manufacturer.

Also, what does the boutique charge for a dead pixel warranty for anyway? They *should* be testing every single unit as rigorously to ensure that the customer received what was paid for and to be sure their vendor isn't selling them subquality parts. Trace it from the end to the beginning, the customer is being asked or suggested to pay extra to cover the manufacturing facilities inability to produce a fault free product or to detect those defects and sell them to other sources that may not have a clientèle that will be concerned, eg eMachines (if they made a laptop).

Once more, people should start to raise their expectations if they want a quality product for their money.

 

Nope, all I need to know is this: (1) there is no such thing as a free lunch - if you want something, you have to pay for it, and (2) no business does something for free or gives you something for free - the cost is paid for by the buyer, either directly or indirectly.

 

Yes, here is a professional that verifies the statement and posts the inforamtion to back it up.

 

Why does laptop manufactured LCD has such a high risk of getting a dead or stuck pixel comparing to regular LCD monitors!? I dont even know if the world "dead pixel" exist in the LCD monitors world.

 

Come on Mark - you're the one who's making the unsupported claim that requires proof, and the only proof that'll prove your point is corporate minute books or the share registries - pony those up, and you'll get whatever "proof" you want.

 

That is hill billy talk to confuse the facts.

Explain the Costco return policy then?

Any (and all) business(es) would fail if they neglect the customers
concerns. A dead pixel in 6 months is not the same thing as from day one.

And yes, you would most certainly need to know costs paid.

 

No, I don't. All I need to know are the first principles of econ 101: no free lunches, and every cost is accounted for, one way or the other.

As to Costco - first, that is a much, much bigger operation than either Sager or Xotic (or even _Dell) and, accordingly, has different economies of scale that operate in their favor; second, given that only a certain percentage of systems will ever be returned, with a larger customer base one gets to take advantage of the law of large numbers, which allows the per-customer cost for the 0-dead pixels policy to be less than it is for a small operation like XoticPC or Sager.

If you want to summarize the basic principles, think of it this way: the house always wins.

 

Really Mark? I thought the point of the topic was discussing zero dead pixels from systems purchased through XoticPC, not your fantasies about the covert joint ownership of, who is it today, LynnBay, Pro-Star, and Sager?

 

IHOP gives a free meal for your birthday.
No purchase required.

 

look at all the people they charge first though.. *LOL*

j/k!

what up Zen, how ya doing mayne.

 

Ohhh, now that's a telling argument! Let's see, assume that "free" meal cost them $6 in food expense and labor. Now, assume they had 100 other customers that day, and only one birthday for which they gave away a "free" meal; that comes down to a per-customer cost for your "free" meal of $0.06. So, that cheapskate sitting in the booth next to yours? He actually paid $0.06 more for that cheeseburger he scarfed down than he would have had to pay if you hadn't gotten your "free" meal.

Just 'cause someone else pays for it does not make it "free" - notwithstanding the b.s. coming out of a certain presidential candidate these days.

 

But that is just it, you have no idea how many people redeem that free meal.
You lack a common frame of reference on which to build your math pyramid.

The same is true for the OEM's and the hypothetical cost of a dead pixel warranty. Plus you have to extrapolate the cost of a dead pixel warranty away from the standard warranty that would cover a failed HDD or RAM.

You lack the definitive numbers to do this and so your speculating.

 

Not much John...how about you?
It almost feels like the HP form with you here an' all.

 

I think the main problem here is the industry standard. If the industry had higher standards, his screen would have been replaced with no issues at all. It's just a way for them (screen manufacturers and ODMs) to minimize profit loss from the manufacturing process.

 

^--^
That is one way to look at it, but a more accurate way to look at it is that as someone here has already stated, if all LCD manufacturers had to trash any LCD that had defective pixels the PRICE of LCD screens would have to go way up.

So the LCD industry has established standards that have been published showing different grades of LCDs with different tolerances for defective pixels. The highest standard with zero tolerance LCDs are quite expensive, and the more common standards have limited tolerances for defects and are much cheaper. Virtually no laptop manufacturer, other than ASUS branded units and some other expensive private labelers, uses the top standard. Sager's tolerance is no more than 5 while others like IBM, Lenovo, Dell etc have an even higher tolerance.

Before buying any laptop from any manufacturer you should find out exactly what their defective pixel warranty policy is so that you are not surprised later. To expect zero defective pixels, without buying a special guarantee if it is offered (which is included with ASUS and some other expensive private labelers), is simply an unreasonable expectation and not at all supported by the laptop industry.

 

that was the past and this is the future... more and more stores are not taking dead pixeled lcd's back. and if they do, they are also starting to charge a 15 percent restocking fee. this is starting to be a fact and more so...common practice. we have already proven this. he.ll, i have proven this.

as i stated before. the get around for this is to get your money back then buy another one. and the now.... fast becoming the flip side to this is... restocking fee. (meaning, if the only thing wrong is a dead pixel or two, you will be charged)

we can sit and bicker the the standards all day long, but in the end. you will start paying a restocking fee in the near future....

 

That is B-S.

So consumers should expect defects?

Is this also true for other industries? Say the Medical field? Restaurant field?
How about the Airline industry?

That statement is nothing more than a reseller covering his proverbial
tukis. Go ahead and make that your mission statement on your web site and see how many orders you get. If you can make that statement here, then make it on the main page of your site as well.

My wife works for a company that does product testing for companies like DELL, McDonalds, Philip Morris, Brooks Bros, HP, Avon, 3M and LG and many others. They pay her employer (A EU Company) Billions of dollars every year to detect defects and help them develope ways to eliminate them, not work around them by feeding the defects to the consumer.


EDIT:

When we purchased our Sony Bravia, Best Buy did not try to sell us a "dead pixel" warranty and you can bet MY proverbial tukis
that if it had one, it would have been exchanged for free.

When we got the second Bravia from Crutchfield, no one tried the dead pixel con then either.

 

Once again, you've missed the forest for the trees. All I need to know is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that businesses do not give things away - the cost is accounted for directly or indirectly. Anything else is just dickering over how that cost is accounted for. As I've already stated, a big business with a huge customer base gets to take advantage of the law of large numbers, which means that such a business can reliably predict how many of its customers are going to take the so-called "free" meal, and what the total cost of those "free" meals will be, and can adjust the prices of everything else accordingly.

That, my friend, quite handily takes care of the need to know how many take advantage of their co-customers by ordering a so-called "free" meal.

Now, if you wanted me to tell you with a high degree of accuracy exactly how much your "free" meal was costing everyone else, for that I would have to see IHOP's internal numbers, but that wasn't the point - as I said before, once we get to that issue, you've already conceded the point, and now we're just dickering over how much you're taking out of everyone else's pockets; we've already determined that you're taking something more than $0 from them.

The fact remains, there are no free lunches, and a company such as _Dell that pre-inspects every screen for dead pixels has already built the cost of that extra service into every computer they sell, whether the particular buyer wanted to pay for that service or not. Now, if we wanted to figure out how much of the cost of, say, a M15x, was going toward paying for this service, then yes, we'd have to go, hat in hand, to Michael _Dell's "magic workshop" and ask for the detailed internal financials; however, that was never the issue, and we've reached the point where we're

 

You shouldn't expect defects, but it's possible that they occur. People die in surgery due to surgeon error, I've gotten many meals that either weren't made correctly or that weren't what I ordered at said restaurants, and while probably the least unlikely, there are still plane crashes.

I'm not trying to say that it's okay for people to get dead pixels. In a perfect world, nobody would have any. However, in this-non perfect world it is impossible for complete quality control (especially with current LCD standards), and if you purchase a laptop from a Sager reseller (myself, PNB, XoticPC, or any of the others), the best we can do is offer you is to take advantage of our respective return policies.

 

Exactly. So take advantage of it and stop *****ing about it.

Like Shyster visually portrayed, lets stop beating the dead horse and move on.

 

You keep missing my point but since I like you, I'll explain.

If notebook A from HP is $1000 and notebook B from Le Boutique is $1000
and both notebooks are equiped with the same hardware and provide the same warranty coverage for the same period. According to your logic, the larger OEM, HP, has set monies aside for defects so they do not charge extra for a dead pixel warranty. My questions is what happened to those same imaginary mones on the part of Le Boutique? Why do they now charge extra ontop of the computer? Do they require a larger defect reserve? Why?

 

I agree and that meal would be exchanged, without me having to purchase meal protection from the Chef.

The whole point is that the OP voiced concern over his not having purchased a dead pixel guarantee and if the reseller would cover that defect or hide behind the argument that it is normal and in the absence of the dead pixel guarantee not going to be corrected.

I could careless about the frequency at which the dead pixel problem surfaces so long as the merchant isn't expecting me to "take it on the chin"
and offers to remedy the problem either by repair or replacement.

The OP also made another outstanding point, the buyer is never given a choice to examine the computer first, while Best Buy may have a restocking fee, I know from expereince, they will open it and allow you to test it from their Geek Squad counter. A buyer would catch that "out of box" dead pixel and not buy. Again, I am not talking about pixels that pop up 6 months later, that is called a use failure and those I do expect.

 

I would actually disagree with that point as well. You have to realize that a lot of customers have no clue of the manufacturing process and the commoness of dead pixels. Thus, they would expect no dead pixels on something they bought brand new.

Of course, a reseller can only do so much regarding this industry standard, but this is where sacrifices on the reseller's side are made; some resellers increase the overall price of the items they sell and some of the profit made from sales would be allocated to the services under the warranty system. Others reduce the base price of their items, but offer extra incentives (i.e. no dead pixel policy) to insure the buyer and to pay for fixing/addressing issues that potentially devalues the item.

 

It looks to me that people don't quite understand that xoticpc pretty much has nothing to do with the actual hardware. As much as you want to blame them, you really can't. They have no way to inspect your hardware before it's shipped out and the dead pixel policy is clearly stated. As others have said there are almost no companies that ship laptops with guaranteed zero dead pixels. As a mater of fact if this had been a dead pixel Dell laptop and you where trying to return it with a single dead pixel you would be paying a 15% restock fee on top of the return shipping. The only thing I can say there should be any sympathy for is that you where instructed to not ship the accessories back with the laptop. Unfortunately this is a common practice to get you to keep the computer. Alienware did the same thing to me with my m9750 so that once I had sent in the computer for repairs I couldn't say keep it and refund me my money.

Again I can see why you are upset, but perhaps instead of buying a computer online you really should be going into bestbuy and buying someting in person so that you don't have to deal with this kind of problem. These kind of issues are exactly why I sold my laptop and I'm building my own system. If your tech savy enough I would also recommend building a barebone laptop. While the major components are covered under the warranty like the lcd and motherboard you can buy your own hdd cpu wifi card ect. The components can be purchased separately and you can get a better warranty for them.

As I said before, your frustration is mostly a lack of research done on your part. Xoticpc's policies are clearly stated one just has to read it.

 

Regrettably, your analogy is utterly beside the point. First off, we're not talking about Company A and Company B offering exactly the same notebook at exactly the same price, we're talking about the Clevo notebooks offered by Sager and the resellers and the non-Clevo notebooks offered by _Dell.

Secondly, even within the context of the issue, your second point is, more or less, the point I've been making about the law of large numbers - that principle allows a company like _HP to charge each customer a discounted amount for the dead pixel coverage because (a) every customer, whether they want it or not, is being charged that same fee, and (b) since fewer than 100% of the notebooks sold by _HP will ever have dead pixel issues for which a claim can be made under their coverage, _HP doesn't have to charge each and every customer the full amount. In the case of a smaller business such as Sager and each of the resellers, the law of large numbers does not apply, which means that they cannot use the same approach as _HP does so, instead of charging each and every customer, say $190, for dead pixel coverage, they offer it only to those customers who want it, but at the price of having to pay full freight for the premium if you do want it.

 

I don't understand why you're all wasting your time complaining about this. Nothing is going to change. The only solution would be for Laptop production to come to a complete halt while screen manufacturers try to figure out a way to churn out thousands of screens a day with absolutely no dead pixels...which may never happen.

Also, whoever compared screen production to airline and restaurant service...that's just ridiculous. I know this get's said a lot, but there 2,304,000 PIXELS ON A WUXGA SCREEN...repeat that slowly as many times as it takes for it to sink in. First of all the average meal at a restaurant doesn't consist of 2,304,000 parts so it's pretty easy not to mess that one up, secondly you've apparently never been on an airplane. Planes are constantly being grounded and delayed due to technical problems, but there is a service crew on site to fix those.

 

A customer who doesn't do his research before spending several thousand of his hard-earned dollars on a computer that he cannot test-drive before he buys is nothing more than a fool. Those less charitable than I would call such a person a mark, or a sucker.

There is a very good reason why the saying Caveat Emptor is just that, a time-worn saying - because it's so very true.

 

The # of pixels is meaningless.

How many pixels does the avg 46" LCD TV have? Walk into any electronics
retailer like Best Buy or Circuit City and take a look around the TV dept.

They have anywhere from 10 to 20 TV's wall mounted running 12 hours a day 7 days a week, how many have dead pixels?

Thats what I thought...

 

Economies of scale. A larger company benefits from things like employee specialization and improved equipment. These benefits allow it to sell its products at a cheaper price so Le Boutique is always going to be more expensive. At best, it can find a niche where the products in question lack a consumer base large enough to support mass production and so the bigger players either stay away or sell things at an absurd premium. Le Boutique can then step in and sell the same things at slightly cheaper prices despite its larger costs.

Note that when the big firms do go and make a mass market version of what Le Boutique sells and don't up the premium to absurd levels, this version is substantially cheaper. For a good example, see the Gateway P-7811 FX. It ordinarily costs $1450, but I've seen it on sale for as little as $1250. By Le Boutique's standards, the latter price is simply beyond what it can ever reach and still make a profit on such a configuration and even the former is several hundred dollars out of its range (though it may occasionally come near it with a limited time sale).

The dead pixel guarantee is sort of a tax on people who need every little detail to be perfect. The closer one approaches the best of what is currently available, the more expensive each step becomes. It's not just the displays: compare the ratio of the difference in performance relative to difference in price for high end processors and then look at what you can achieve if you spend that much money on upgrading a mid-range processor instead.

 

That's a bit unfair to say. How many articles are publically available that explain the manufacturing process of these systems and the commoness of dead pixels?

 

I don't need a doctoral dissertation from MIT to know that there are quite a few industry-wide problems with dead pixels in LCD displays; in fact, given the amount of coverage the issue has received on NBR, all I really need to do is review some of the threads here - that, I would assume, is something just about anyone capable of earning the money to spend on a computer can do.

 

This argument as well as Shysters is invalid, only a handful of manufacturers produce LCD screens and sell them to everyone else. Neither Clevo nor Sager made the LCD, it was purchased by a company that makes them such as LG.

If LG can send defect free screens to DELL or HP or Sony then it send them to Clevo as well. Le Boutique may be small but Clevo isn't. Le Boutique only needs to inspect goods on arrival and refuse│return those found to have defects.

 

all is well. zen. just trying to get me a "defect free" sager *LOL*


side note:as to the dead pixel at a few stores i went into today.
costco is still honoring a 90 return with or without dead pixels (1 to 1000) they are taking it back.
best buy is sketchy on the fx line of notebooks and they will scrutinize them. when talking about dead pixel exchange. probably why they shorten their gateway supply.
frys electronics is still taking them back. (tv's, lcd's & laptops) no questions asked. (14 day for money back or exchange). a few of my companies i go to will also take back dead pixel ed items. usually 14 day policy as well. same with circuit city, 14 day policy. now this is not hearsay, but what i was told by the managers of each of these stores. they also said if they start to get way to me returns, that they may op to change policy, which some of the best buys have done on the "fx" line of notebook.

so there you have it.

 

send it to meeee

Seriously, buy dead pixel insurance if your that worried about it, I'm sure they fixed your keyboard though.

 

Zenica, your premise that "...LG can send defect free screens to DELL or HP or Sony..." is invalid.

Just read through some of the posts here and in the _dell and _hp sections...they get screens with defective pixels as well, but the difference is that their warranty policy will not cover it if there are just a few defective pixels...there usually have to be several more than just 5, and the higher the resolution the higher the number to get it covered by warranty.

Now a return policy is different from a warranty policy. Sager offers a 30 day no questions asked return policy without a restocking fee. As long as it is returned within the 30 day period, and returned without any damaged or missing items, you will get a full refund of your purchase price. They do not refund or reimburse any shipping costs.

 

Zenica you are missing the whole point, even a mutil-million dollars worth jet engine (Airline industry as you stated) could have certain failure rate. All Rolls Royce can do is throwing 20 chickens toward the engine during torture test, if it doesn't explode or power out then it passed the quality control, but that doesn't necessarily means the engine won't go down in future.

How do you know Dell or HP would sell the same laptop as Sager at the same price?

Bottom line, there is no such thing as "perfect" in the world, how many times have we seen HP, Dell products arrived as DOA?