Xotic PC - Shame On You (Thanks, Ruined Christmas 2011/New Years 2012)

I agree. OP also needs to relax a bit.

However, based on his post, he has every right to be upset. $2K for a NEW laptop and he gets a used one with some funky BIOS. I'd be livid too.

While it's nice this happened, too bad it couldn't have happened initially. I may be playing devil's advocate here, but it looks more like saving face than good customer service that the OP should have had from the beginning.

 

I'm with him on this. We are all in agreement that the OP's conduct was unfounded, but that doesn't necessarily clear Sager or Xotic of cutting a few too many corners to meet the promised deadlines.

The question is, would the OP have gotten this treatment if he had not thrown a hissy fit? Especially in pitching the compensation deal here, it's left to us to wonder how much of this is to make amends to the OP and how much of it is to maintain good PR with us at NBR.

 

IMHO, an apology from XoticPC to the OP and taking care of it without making a public statement is the way to handle it, and let the OP let people know about it, not the vendor. Otherwise it's more like advertising and boasting. I dunno, just rubbed me the wrong way. I wouldn't NOT buy from XoticPC because of this incident, as I believe they're one of the better organized outfits out there. But something to take note of.

I've dealt with XoticPC in the past and can say it is what one should expect from a place where you buy a boutique type computer. Phone hold times are a lot less than say HP or Dell, they know the product, and you're not going to be talking to some high school kid in India. But I can't say if they're excellent or not beyond that.

Take out the emotion of the OP, he had a lot of valid points and a good history of the incident. I'd rather XoticPC say "I'm sorry, we'll look into how to not make this happen again" than "well we GAVE him yadda yadda yadda... he shouldn't be complaining." I'd rather get true feedback on stuff like this than sweeping it under the rug.

 

OP sounds like a heavenly husband. Lucky family. Can't imagine OP would be anything but revered in his (or any ) household. And after the long rant, I also can not imagine why the object of his rant would want to try to show that
A) Perhaps there was human error
B) Perhaps that error was by any one of the other companies involved
C) Instead of just fixing it,, they gave some perks to appease the Father of the Year
D) OP has issues dealing with a laptop, to this degree but relying on it for work, has no backup plan? Other than his wife and daughter paying an emotional price? Really. This has to be a farce of a rant. OP trolling? Perhaps? Lappy goes down in October, and the only option is to get a $2000 lappy in December?
I hope I am wrong, but no one should get that emotional over material things, especially at this time of the year. I would have bought 2 $1000 laptops, and make sure I don't ever get in a position to lose either business, or emotional control with my family, friends, neighbors, strangers or the dog outside my house barking at a cat.

 

Xoticpc dealt with this professionally. I am very impressed!

 

This thread will just not die!!

And why am I posting?? argghh lol

 

it would be nice if the OP would post again

 

Your name wouldn't happen to be "Veruca Salt"? You're rant sounds typical of that person. I've dealt with XoticPC on 3 separate occasions and have not had an experience quite like yours. Hope things turn out all right, and step back from the keyboard, maybe take a few tokes of the mary jane and get your mellow on.

 

I very much doubt he will except with his tail between the legs...

How'd you like to run a company and see a thread title like that? I'd fire the customer where you are blamed for every ill to befall his family since the great flood (you know, like Noah). You know he's gonna be a headache in the future as well. Boutique means you can chose who you work with. I'd say this guy ruined their Christmas.

I posted this in another thread -- and I'd ask the question to retailers as well -- especially with this kind of made to order product: what reason on God's Green Earth would you want to order a PC for Black Friday? Why even promote it? What does it do? If totally over stresses logistically and time sensitive systems and creates an urgency with a crazy looming Christmas deadline... You also create a disincentive for people to order stuff from at least the beginning of October (so when you look at sales numbers you have to normalize for those lost sales to know if you had any bump at all). And what's the value of that bump?

There was a time when you'd never want to buy a Friday car (a car that came off the production line on Friday) as workers had already checked out and there were higher rates of failure and defects (ie lemons). Well I'd never ever want to get caught up in a cattle call like a black friday sale --- the whole reason you buy boutique and custom is so that you wont be treated like a cow --- black Friday sales for this product put you right back in the herd with all the other livestock vying for feed. No way I'd sign up for that.

I'd go further and say -- Note to online retailers selling clevo custom configured laptops --- Black Friday sales are a threat to your business model and will eventually push you out of business. Downward pressure on margins, the Boom Bust cycle of Christmas retail sales, The threat to logistics and supply. I feel like some of these promos make you look like Discount Charlie's ----- I'd actually hesitate to buy from any of you with this kind of sales and discount language being a part of your vocabulary. I'm buying custom -- this language makes me think same ol' same ol'.

 

this thread just keeps getting better and better
popcorn anyone?

 

I feel like a teacher who is taught by a pupil... who also speaks Marsian.
Your logic is alien's one, same as communism was in its time.

 

I was actually in the same situation such that my main desktop failed and I ended up working from my backup laptop, which was also failing... Ordered a laptop from MALIBAL on Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend thinking it was going to come sometime after Christmas (ended up receiving it a week after I ordered). I had a plan to buy a $300 laptop in case my backup laptop failed before receiving the one from MALIBAL...

 

huh?? did you mean "taught"?

and yet another "huh?".

 

Ya - but you once bought a compaq.

 

back-up laptop from 200X years which I got for free... but even if I had bought it I see another your post which I don't understand.

 

I don't know (as you live in the Ukraine) if you understand what Black Friday is -- but basically it's become the epic discount shopping day that kicks off the epic shopping season to Christmas. Retailers in North America often operate at losses throughout the year, and only become profitable if they cover enough volume in Christmas sales. One bad Christmas can mean the end (or significant operating losses) for a business.

As black Friday has become a more prominant shopping day where huge percentages of people total disposable income gets spent (consumer behaviour) the competition for this one shot at the money has driven retailers into deeper and deeper discount wars. YOu can almost not sell a product around this time without some crazy stand on your head discount to attract the buyers. These deeper and deeper discounts mean that reatiler need more and more volume to stay profitable --- it becomes a vicious cycle and in the end only the big money well funded players can survive it. This is in part because you will have bad years -- be it the economy, or just the competition -- only players with the capital to last a few bad years can play the game. The rest go bust.

As a consumer -- I'm buying a custom laptop. I was value, I want good prices, but I want more out of my purchase than the deeply discounted mass market machines that best buy afford. The problem is that as the custom retailers compete with the best buys, that puts pressure on the manufacturer to make cheaper and cheaper machines just to preserve margin. For me -- a guy sitting in Canada -- that means the Clevo I want to buy is not as good as it could be because of the pressure on cost to the manufacturer.

The other thing that happens to resellers is that people stop buying stuff almost immediately after school starts --- say mid September. That means sales literally drop into the toilet or dry up.... because consumers are holding out for the mythic black Friday sales. Ever try to manage cash flow with a 75 day slowdown in sales volumes? You cant even afford the cash to bring in enough inventory to cover off your anticipated black Friday demands --- guess what --- that means you have to finance your purchases with lines of credit, or loans --- Sager certainly isn't offering terms. That costs you even more money.

Now black Friday comes along -- and suddenly you and every other reseller is competing for customers AND SUPPLY. The supply chain is absolutely stretched and burdened by demand... Does Sager have enough machines? Does Clevo? NOw look at logistics and assembly -- the mad rush of the factory ramp up of production means more units with higher defects --- the mad rush to secure and ship units for resellers means overlooked QC issues -- the absolute strain on shipping processes due to volume alone mean extra delays and costs and nightmares. Not to mention you have a boatload of customers literally dying to get their purchases filled before Christmas.

Look at this forum --- Black Friday was heavily promoted this year by several retailers. Ask them what their sales graph looked like. Look at the strain on everybody from manufacturer to reseller to customer --- who the hell wins? We all lose when Clevo resellers behave like Best Buy or discount retailers. It's a crazy cycle -- not a good one at all. And it affects all of us who purchase a Clevo because ultimately the pressure on the manufacturer to push costs down results in less than optimum products.

You ever buy a toaster or kettle? Well my Grandmother's toaster she bought in the 50's is still running good today. I'm 42 years old and I've bought maybe 7 toasters already in my life -- I've bought maybe 15 kettles and 8 irons --- why? Because you can't even find a good one -- they don't bloody make them anymore. My Grandmother only ever bought one of each. They still work.

So if you want to see your Clevo become just another budget machine built to last a year -- keep pushing for discounts. Keep squeezing retailers and resellers -- keep jumping on the black Friday specials because that's the road-map.

We are lucky in Canada that this pressure is not the same (our thanksgiving is in October) so the commercial orgy that is black Friday is not as bad -- but it's getting worse as the global market embraces it. But it still affects me because it affects Clevo -- and the next Clevo I buy will be all the worse for it. Understand Now?

R.

 

Irons? It's really SIMPLE: if you want a great iron that will last for years, troublefree, there is only one game in town--Rowenta. I used to go thru irons constantly until I wised up. Don't say they don't make good irons anymore--you have just been buying the wrong brand.

 

It is a long lesson but I will try in a short way.
1. Real cost of manufacturing and seller's costs+ manufacturer's profit + wholeseller's profit + retailer's (shop) profit = price. It is huge difference between real cost of goods and final price.
2. Every seller wants customers to think that sellers have almost no profit and when they give discounts it means that you are like steal from them but that's surely not. If they will give too big discounts all buyers will understand how big profit sellers get.
3. Black Friday is next day after ThanksGivingDay on Thursday and that's when I bought camera, memory cards, 8GB RAM and else for cheap in USA. So yeah, I kinda know about Black Friday. I wouldn't write anything if I have no idea about smth... like someone does. BlackFriday is the day when all sellers give discounts as agreement between all sellers and also making it look like they are giving you what you shouldn't usually get. Also at this time big sellers can sell not popular stuff on Friday so no one will know about item's bad selling rate.

Saying that all this is BSHt while you don't even have another model of this business is funny. While trying to break this model is: a) impossible; b) disaster.

Today is not black Friday but you can think that it was Free Christmas Gift Lesson

 

Indeed! Way too many points from both sides, either way, I need something to eat

 

I just ordered recently and I won't say from whom but I will say that the person I spoke with was very stressed and sounded anxious on the phone - from holiday orders and black friday catchup. Not really what I expected but I ordered from a top reseller and am hoping that the product will not be rushed or half assed (so to speak). How much actual work does the reseller do (if I ordered the 95% screen, thermal paste, 750gb HD, 6990 etc) in terms of hands on stuff?

 

Hey James -- what's cool about the internet is that you get to meet, chat, and read opinions and ideas from all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds. I find it inspiring that your generation - the first really to grow up from under the shadow of the iron curtain in the Ukraine - is so enthused and interested in subjects like business and finance. It was my pleasure to share with you some of my own experiences, opinions and insights. Feel free to engage me in passionate and open discussion anytime.

 

I think everyone is a little crazy during the holidays .

 

Edit: Nevermind... just a rehash of what I already said. Didn't come out as expected.

 

TL/DR on DogsoverLava long post until this part:

You can't seriously equate a kettle with a complicated electronic computer? When was the last significant feature-enhancement for the Kettle? Was there ever a Kettle 2.0?

Computers change on an almost-monthly basis now. The Kettle hasn't changed in 50 years. And the quality and craftsmanship continues to improve drastically for computers - you might not think so, but ever own and old Compaq laptop? I mean sheesh a computer used to take up an entire floor of a whole building running on gas-tubes, now that same power is in your watch.

Bad analogies are like kettles.. they blow, amirite?

 

HT what does this say about the 'others'?
Anyway I wanted to purchase from them , but they would not even throw in a Sweat shirt. I ended up going with powernotebooks and could not be happier.
In before close.

 

For the 'others' I only had experience from requesting quotes and modifications to my order, nothing more, so can't really say. And I hate to say it, but XoticPC's website is well thought out and organized and easy to configure something. I go there just for a quick price comparison between competing laptops. When I'm in the market for another laptop, I'll probably start with XoticPC.

 

read: intoxicated

 

You missed the point -- the point was pressure on manufacturers to produce a cheap kettle has actually led to the decline of the kettle. Cheaper wiring harnesses, cheaper switches, less robust elements, low grade plastic -- price points in the $9.99 - $19.99 range --- when a kettle sells for that much -- guess how much it costs to make?

 

I have to admit, I just got back from vacation this week, checked the board, laughed this thread was still alive... but now... how have we changed to talking about kettles? Amazing, the power of the internet.

 

I do admit and stand at fault for being “over the edge” about this transaction…. and thank you for clearly understanding my point.

I received my 3rd order from XoticPC yesterday. There were fewer email exchanges between myself and the company this time. I did share something with an employee of theirs about the new order and if he’d like to mention it, so be it…otherwise it remains enshrouded in mystery. I had to remind them again about the 17” notebook cooler (that I didn’t receive) and instantly got an email with tracking after mentioning this to them.

See here: http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/3892/photoxm.png


I can safely say that my 3rd notebook from XoticPC is exactly what was described during our discussion.
I’ve learned that most of the ongoing issues were from Sager to begin with but being that “Middleman” was the position of XoticPC throughout this transaction, I could not go directly to Sager about anything.

Xotic PC sorted everything out with Sager and delivered this time around. I appreciate their efforts and I am satisfied.


I’d like to note that the growth of this thread is very surprising.
Happy New year to all.

 

Another good reason to wait to buy until easter, when the new models are out anyway

 

I'm glad to hear everything worked itself out.. Next time, from the begining a little of this would've helped:

 

Wow, now that's advertising to catch someone's attention. The problem is it's women's shoes with an advertisement that would only capture men's attention.

 

So wait is that not a womans backside? I'm not seeing anything else so I don't get it....

 

Ah, the minds of men (yes I am one too). It is two heels in the advertised shoes up close.

 

Aaaaahhh....so!

 

No it's not... let us married guys have our moments... it's a woman's backside, lol.