Worried about Sager's BBB and other sites Ratings

I am seriously thinking of buying a Sager NP8150. But I am really really worried about Sager's F rating at the BBB and their poor ratings at Resellerratings.com as well.

IBuyPower and Cyberpower both have A-B ratings on the BBB and pretty good ratings on Reseller as well.

Any comments about Sager and their support? I plan on paying the $75 for the 2nd year parts warranty.

This will be my 2nd laptop purchase in my life. The first one was a Dell Inpiron 1520 which I am using right now.

Price wise Ibuypower, Cyberpower and Sager are all similar in price but what I don't like about Ibuypower and Cyberpower is they don't sell extended warranties (1 year only).

 

Hey stoneysilence, when it comes to resellers, you'll just have to worry about their BBB rating and resellerratings.com rating as well. Sager will just manufacture the product, but the resellers are the ones that handle your warranty and tech support. They'll handle the legwork for you.

 

Sager is a manufacturer with a direct buy option. Their core competency is manufacturing a product. Reseller ratings is designed for, well....resellers, which Sager is not. Sager relies heavily on their partners to market and promote their product line. That being said, I would not read to much into the BBB and Reseller Ratings numbers. Just look on these forums and other sources such as Xotic PC's forums for customer testimonials.

 

Repeatedly this issue has been brought up . And repeatedly NBR Sager owners will say, "Never look at Sager, but towards its resellers."

e.g. XoticPC, Malibal, LPC, Mythlogic etc.

 

Like others have said, resellers will do all the legwork for you, and these forums have a ton of informed and nice people to help you out in case of troubleshooting issues arise.

 

Like ThisisaLamp said, the general consensus on NBR is to go through a reseller. While there are some who have had good experiences buying directly from Sager, their ratings do certainly speak for themselves.

Also, buying directly from Sager puts you in an awkward position. As an end consumer purchasing just one machine, you are miniscule when compared to entities such as a reseller, that orders in the tens or hundreds. It is no question the customers with higher demand (hence, higher revenue) receive better service. It's the same reason that business customers receive better service from MNCs, compared to just any regular old consumer. Not to mention that Sager probably isn't on the same scale as a Dell or HP to be able to provide similar levels of service without costs going through the roof.

Most resellers are likely small businesses whose bread and butter are regular consumers like you and me, and/or other SMEs. The likelihood that one will receive better service from a reseller is definitely higher. And, if you don't, you can always move to another one, and still be able to get the Clevo/Sager that you wanted.

 

The problem is that Sager still has to do the warranty work. The reseller will "fight" for your side but still only so much they can do.

Not sure I like a company with a F rating even if I am not dealing with them directly.

This is a lot of money for me and can just imagine the headaches.

Malibal is similar in price but has a good rating. Only wish they had the 8130 rather than only the 8150 (their versions of course).

I feel sorry for Sager resellers because even though they may get a great rating, their business is based on one that is garbage. (house built on sand)

If I buy a car, it doesn't matter how good the local dealer is if the product from the manufacturer has issues.

Pretty disappointed, been wanting to buy the laptop today or tomorrow.

 

Our Lotus P151HM1 is equivalent to the 8130. It's on our site under the NOTEBOOKS menu.

 

One thing to note that, some resellers do not go through Sager and are Clevo rebranders, much like Malibal here (correct me if I'm wrong) and my reseller (Logical Blue One).

Sagers are merely rebranded Clevo machines. If you're that worried about going through Sager, then go for a Clevo reseller.

 

First of all Sager laptops seem to be of exceptional quality from everything I hear around here, much better cooled then Dell or HP, I've never had a consumer Brand name laptop run cool under pressure.

Secondly, I'm not sure where you get that from that your warranty is with Sager. It should be with the company you bought it from. A reseller just like Best Buy or any other electronics store offers their own warranty completely independent of the company they bought it from. If you buy a laptop from Best Buy, then you go through Best Buy if you want your money back. Same as through any of the Sager/Clevo rebranders and resellers. It's the final company you purchased from that's held responsible, if they offer a warranty of any kind.

 

I've seen the term "we will do the leg work for you" a few times now from resellers. Can any of the resellers specify in detail what that actually means in real terms? I think new prospective buyers would find that more helpful.

 

I can't speak for everyone else, but Reflexnotebook can pretty much take care of anything in house, the only time we might have to ship the notebook back to Sager is if it's a complicated motherboard issue.

 

Thanks for your reply That is good to know.

Any other resellers want to step?

 

We take care of everything in house, even motherboard swaps.

 

Sweet.. I was curious about this. The people at xotic always pointed out that their machines would get priority at sager for repairs. Guess that doesn't apply if your machines doesn't have to go all the way to sager

When did you guys start participating in resellerratings? last time i checked it appeared you guys didn't participate

 

We've been "participating" for about 6 months or so, however, they were just taking our money and not actually letting us participate, even after 15 emails we still never got word from them, it just "magically" started working. Where's THEIR resellerratings lol.

 

It is true that Sager branded units will have significant shorter turn around time since they are prioritized. Sager does not send out motherboards at this time (even resellers). The complete system would have to go back to Sager and await the repair behind Sager branded units. This was just confirmed with Sager support.

 

Que? Myth?

Maybe they have extra barebones, swap out the bad boards with boards from the extras, and send the barebones with the now bad boards back to sager? Is that allowed? Lol

 

Yes this is true.
_

 

Well two retailers actually answered the question, and seem to do a lot more than just "leg work". I think the glaring omissions from those resellers that have read this and not answered my question is quite telling.

@hizzaah: I'm guessing that Mythlogic buys Clevo barebones from Clevo and put there own components in it, but I could be wrong.


@the OP: As long as the price differences between Clevo/Sager sellers aren't too big, this would be a no-brainer, I would prefer someone who fixes stuff in-house. Any reseller that has to involve a third party (Sager) in order to fix a laptop for non-motherboard related issues are essentially just acting as a go-between between you and Sager. Therefore you are dealing with Sager indirectly.

Saying that I have dealt with Sager before (about 4 years ago), and the guy who helped me was brilliant. However I don't know whether that was an isolated case, or if the service has change since then to now. It would be interesting to know why they have a bad rating though.

 

3 retailers answered

 

A few things to note:

- A reseller will always hold more clout than any single end-consumer


- Online ratings and forums have a higher incidence of users facing issues or dissatisfaction.


- Are Sager's poor ratings product-related or were they user experiences of how their issues were being handled? The latter indicates more of customer service issue than a product issue.


As Win7SP1 had mentioned, Sager's core competency lies in manufacturing and assembly, NOT customer service and relations. The same can be said of Dell, HP, and many other major PC manufacturers, especially if you are not a business customer, or if you are not an owner of a "specialty" product such as Alienware.

This is also evidenced by using NBR's Sager forum as an example. It is a reasonably infrequent occurrence to see a user face such a dire reliability or hardware issue that has put them off of Sager indefinitely. Conversely, one can easily find very favorable testimonials from Sager owners. In comparison, there has been more talk about the provision of bios and drivers, which are more of a customer support/service concern, and also largely dependent on Clevo.

If you remain unsure, and are worried about putting down a large sum of money for a Sager, then I think your best bet would be to either move on to another brand, or try other Clevo resellers, such as Mythlogic or Prostar. After all, you should be confident and happy about your purchase, instead of having to constantly wonder if you made the right choice.

 

Lol, actually 4 retailers answered. One slipped a post in while I typing. However, only two actually answered my question (You and Mythlogic)

 

Sorry missed your post.

As others have stated most resellers will do all the legwork meaning you can come to us to set up a RMA and we will get everything set up with Sager including the shipping label (if it applies) and email the end user back with all the information to set up a repair or technical assistance request.

 

That's kinda what I was worried about. Even though I don't deal with Sager directly there could still be CS issues which would affect me as the end user. I just don't trust that F rating from BBB.

Am seriously looking at a non-Sager branded laptop from Malibal or other similar company.

 

Rest assured when you have a reseller as others have stated we have more clout with Sager and can often expedite the back end processes.

 

I understand your concern. But if you get a Sager you're much better off dealing with a reseller for warranty issues is what pretty much the bottom line is. The only frustration you'll have is not having your laptop for the X amount of days it's gone for repair.

 

If you go to resellerratings.com and or BBB.org and look up the resellers, they have FAR higher ratings. So even though Sager's BBB rating might be low, the resellers have a much higher rating. Just look up the BBB rating and the resellerratings resellers who have responded and you'll find a completely different story than Sager directly.

Random question @ Sager resellers: Where are Sager notebooks assembled? Are they assembled in the US or abroad eg. China?

 

Sager receives the barebones shells of the computer from Clevo. (motherboard, screen etc in chassis) Sager assembles them with (CPU/Ram/HDD/Wifi/Bluetooth/Screens) in City of Industry, California.

 

Well today I did some calling around. Called Malinbal and talked to a Matthew. He claims that Sager doesn't prioritize their brand over other brands in repairs and said the other resellers are lying. For some reason I just didn't hit it off with him and wasn't impressed with him.

Later tried calling XoticPC but was on hold for 5 mins or so before getting an answering machine.

So I called LPC-Digital and talked to Larry. Very nice and personable but it doesn't sound like they do any of the upgrades or building themselves. Sager does it all and then ships it out.

Will do some more calling tomorrow.

Was thinking about calling Mythlogic but they are just out of my budget range so didn't want to waste their time.

 

I saw on TV that the BBB is a scam I think 20/20. If you don't pay them you don't get a good rating. Also for those who had bad ratings they can pay them and get good rating again. Wolfgang Puck refuse to pay to BBB so he gets a bad rating.

 

Different people have different experiences with each company. Mythlogic and PCTorque actually gave me the best feedback but PCTorque couldn't really compete because of their being in New York and needing to charge for tax.

Xotic is right in a lot of ways but their methods kinda rub me the wrong way because none of these companies are "big" so trying the we're much less likely to go under route with me didn't really work especially because I prefer to do repairs myself and wasn't planning on a fat warranty. Also they didn't offer me any discounts when I solicited for them. I like people working for the sale a bit, and I'll pay a premium for service above the we are cheap level.

All that said, everyone who buys from Xotic seem to like them a lot so nothing against them. Customer service is really hard, and a good experience vs a bad experience could be as simple as the difference between getting one rep on a good day and the other on a bad day. Whoever you choose will have upsides and downsides and you just have to weigh everything before deciding. The laptop is beautiful though and performs like a beast !

 

Sorry we missed your call! Feel free to PM me or email me if you have any questions.

 

The logic of the statement evades me

 

Myth gave him discounts on stuff whereas xotic did not, making it seem like myth was actually trying to earn the sale.. That's why he was willing to pay a bit more to go with myth

 

More like myth gave me a packagE cheaper than xotic did and both Malibal and myth beat xotic in price so there was no motivation to go with them without a counter offer.

Also myth preloaded my system with pretty much qn image of my old system I had only 3-4 apps I installed myself after I got it.

 

Uh-huh, it seems Mythlogic are keen on small, nice details, which is indeed an intelligent policy to have. E.g. that they do screen calibration on their laptops - not that the process is too expensive or overly complicated - but what a wonderful (and most useful) icing on the cake it makes. I like the approach.

Still I guess I would choose either XoticPC (again) or LPC Digital next time... I still value cutting edge efficiency and a well-communicated, straightforward procedure.

 

For anyone who's interested. Sager does not discriminate between their Sager-branded and Non-Sager branded customers - on sales or service.

Anyone who knows this and continues to state otherwise on these forums and/or their website is knowingly and willfully deceiving people.

Please call Sager directly @ (800) 669-1624. Ask for Tony and he will confirm this information.

 

And the plot thickens..

So for builders does sager send out individual parts to them for them to repair stuff? Like mobo's and screens and stuff?

I don't think this was answered after xotic said mobo's had to be sent in, then Myth said they did their mobo swaps in-house..

 

Must be when you ask for a quote because their myhlogic's website prices are higher than those of xoticpc and other longer established resellers.

 

I had asked Myth to match a Sager Reseller price on chat and they would not, Interesting!

 

*Shrug* To be fair to Mythlogic, if just any random customer (no offense intended to you, Othonda) requests to price match someone else over chat, without showing an actual quote or something similar, I would probably say no as well.

One of the resellers I had spoken to did do a price match for me. I gave them my configuration from another reseller, and they went to the latter's site to configure the same machine just to confirm the quote, and then not only price-matched, but also gave a discount on top of that.

 

Well to explain a little further. I identified myself with my callsign here at NBR, So he would at least have an idea of who I am. I asked in general terms if they pricematch Sager resellers and was given a emphatic "No". So at that point why should I go further and ask for a quote on a machine that would clearly be over $100 when equipped with the exact same configuration.

I am on the fence right now as what to do, I have this Toshiba (in my Sig) that I had bought as an emergency replaced to my G1, it is closing on 2 weeks before I have to return it for a full refund or keep it. This machine has a pretty crappy screen and is not really what I want long term wise after using it, What I was really set on a 5160.

Final edit: Did not mean to get off topic here.

 

yeah, most will want an actual copy of the quote, or they'll go to the competitors site, configure, and get the price themselves.

if all else fails, you could try going about ordering one, getting everything set up with a quote from myth, then start asking for $ off.

 

Mythlogic prices comparatively go down as specs go up because their upgrades are cheaper so it's unlikely they will match if you don't spec with lts of options.

 

Umm, I understand that people want to save money, however, these companies operate in a HIGHLY commodotized market which drives their margins into the ground. If I owned one of these companies, I wouldn't price match period. At the end of the day, people are paying for good service. I've dealt with penny pinchers, and to be honest, they can go to the other company because they are the ones that typically wind up costing the company more than the purchase itself. That being said, look at the business model the different resellers operate under. Since I don't want to mention any names, one of them assembles and tests in house. So inevitably, their prices will be higher so that their customers get a certain level of service and a one throat to choke reseller.

 

this is true

this is also very true.. you get what you pay for kind of things

 

Well guys, for I can't just seem to put the "Free 2-way Shipping" thing so much to my advantage being not from within Continental USA... I struggled to find the right Clevo P150HM supplier who can assure me of quality parts with reliable name brands & quality build. PLUS, I found out later that they subject their builds to more than just the normal burn-in process! Think I did my homework to discover a company that builds in-house, yet doesn't carry a very, very heavy price tag! Constant communication with them through chats and emails, lead me to discover a lot! Through the same channels of communication was I able to convey to them my dilemma, being a non-resident of mainland US in facing the situation for service and mainly for parts warranty claims...

As of writing, MYTHLOGIC is loading software into my Pollux 1611 and will be going through a couple more stages prior to shipment.

Yes, I haven't received my unit yet. But as early as this point, I can already say that I have a vendor which will support me long after I had my laptop with me!

Gone are the days for telegrams! And the snail mail, is well... Still as ssslllooowww as a snail!!! Technology has its advantages in communicating your needs/wants to any vendor out there... Use it wisely! :wink:

 

congrats on the Pollux! post up your specs

can't wait to get my hands on mine!

edit: emailed Myth for a status update on mine.. hoping for some good news

 

Congrats indeed jima5446! Although I have only had minimal contact with Mythlogic, one can tell from the many testimonials that they are a very decent reseller. I think your post was a very good addition to this thread, as it is a very good example of the level of service one can receive from a respectable reseller.

By the way, why do you sound like a...storyteller?