sager production delays

would any of the resellers or customers waiting on a build care to comment on any sager factory production delays they've been experiencing these last couple weeks? two things going on, i know: ivy and 7970. as my sig indicates i'm waiting on an order that's been in the production phase for two full weeks as of tomorrow. i trust my reseller when i'm told that the delays are sager's and out of both our hands, but it never hurts to do a little fact-checking or investigation...

 

The 7970 delay is because of AMD, not Sager. Sager found an issue with the 2nd batch of 7970m cards during thier testing of them, so now AMD is working to correct this. Now sure about the IB issue, but in the past, these issues come about because unlike most major names, Sager does their own testing to make sure they find these issues before the laptops get into the hands of the consumer. Some of the major brands do not do this, and end up with a lot of RMA's (and unhappy end users) with significant time involved in the RMA process.

 

i recognize that, but you can imagine a little surge in orders related to the release of ivy and 7970. or maybe not-- that's why i ask...

 

I completely agree there was a LARGE surge in orders, but the 7970 delay is because the 2nd batch were bad from AMD. Nothing Sager can do about that. I am not disagreeing, but I think it was incorrect for your reseller to say it was Sager, at least according to everything I have been reading about the card. But the reseller really has nothing to do with the delay of the cards either, if that is what your asking.
I have seen this happen several times before, with the release of new gpu's, new cpu's and such. But in this case, an entire batch of cards was pulled because of a flaw in the card, so many units that should have shipped are now on delay.

Having followed Sager and their resellers for a couple of years, if you are concerned about the integrity of one of the resellers, most of them have shown me to be very reliable and willing to go the extra step. But if your worried, check out the reseller thread for Sager, and you can see which ones live up to the rep, and if there are any that should worry you. If yours is one of the well known ones with a longtime rep, I wouldn't worry.

 

i appreciate your replies so don't take this to be directed at you, but i think i missed the intended tone of this thread with my big grin. in my short time on NBR, i've seen a lot of reseller feedback threads that display quite a bit of entitlement in terms of expecting more from the resellers than even what i think, to be quite frank, the orders are really worth. it's funny because i actually edited my op to remove 'completely' from "i [completely] trust my reseller when i'm told..." because i thought it seemed a little overexcited about the reseller i ultimately decided to go with. i'm quite satisfied with my decision and completely believe that sager is experiencing delays, because that's what i've been told.

so i guess the other part i now realize i don't quite understand is the production process itself. i'd be happy to get some info from the resellers on this, too. so sager takes a clevo shell and installs what...? this would seem telling. and i take your replies to mean that sager is being held up by amd's shipment delays. components like storage and memory--i think i assumed that a little margin exists in these for the resellers to make some of their money, so they install those? or will this thing come factory sealed from sager?

 

I'm actually in need of a new laptop, and it just so happens to be the worst time to have ordered one.. It's been 3 weeks already and I haven't even ordered the 7970m. My problem is the shortage of matte screens. Apparently this stuff doesn't happen often but with Ivy as you mentioned, created all this crap. So I'm looking at a month and a half for a 2 week job.. Just awesome. I want to push for free rush shipping because I am certainly not going to wait an extra two weeks on top of the delay for the finished product to get to my door, which would lead me to getting it late June. Obviously it's just one of those things that happens, but hopefully all works out. The sales rep at Reflex that I've been dealing with has been great thus far.

 

gloss too, the LCDs in general from what i understand.

from everything i can tell, i don't think it's unusual for these machines to take ~3.5 weeks from date of order to your doorstep even without the near-simultaneous release of a new generation of cpus and latest-greatest gpu. now take into account the sheer increase in number of orders without considering the production process itself and something as basic as the screen is backordered.

 

Yup for sure, every little thing has added up to a bad recipe haha, ah well, hope it's worth it in the end!

 

I know this has been a hassle and definitely appreciates everyone ones understanding on it.
For those who weren't around for the Sandy Bridge release that was even worse. They were first released then recalled all of them and delayed further shipments for almost 2 months because of a possible SATA port degradation.
Hopefully this doesn't turn into something that big.

 

No offense taken, so here is the process for most of the sellers here. Sager gets the shells from Clevo. They get components from manufacturers, such as nVidia and AMD. They, and the resellers are given production dates from those manufacturers, but sign NDA's and can't give out dates until they are allowed to. When the first shipment of, say, the newest GPU comes to Sager, they build the laptop, then they test them, to ensure that it will be something that the consumer will be happy with, and that the component is, in fact, what it has been hyped up to be. If all goes well, they ship, with or without a custom brand name (some companies will use their name, others just go with Sager).

Now there are a couple of brands that actually do the build themselves, same as Sager does. They also get their parts from manufacturers. Usually they test even harder, to make sure that when you get your computer, it will be problem free.

Both ways are set up to make sure that any issues are found before the consumer ever gets the laptop. That way, you don't have to deal with long and sometimes frustrating RMA's. Many major name brand computer makers do not use this process. So at first, it will seem they do not have any problems, but when there are, the consumer now has to go through a lengthy RMA process. So you get your laptop faster, but then have to send it back, and be without it for maybe months.

One of the reasons to go through a reseller is they will cut through a lot of the red tape instead of you having to, with Sager, which being a much larger builder, also has the issue of having a less personal process to deal with issues.

I completely agree with you on your statement of entitlement by some customers. The margins are not large, when a new gen of laptop, gpu or cou comes out, the smaller resellers are going from normal workweeks to high OT weeks, trying to keep up with demand. And all are subject to less than perfect Quality Control by each manufacturer. So when a problem with a component raises it's head, they often are the focal point for the customer, even when it has nothing to do with them.
I took it as you were concerned that maybe you didn't really trust your reseller.

As for it being factory sealed from Sager, it will depend if it is truly a reseller or if it is from one of the actual builders, of which there are only a couple.

My disclaimer: I bought mine from a Sager employee, not any of the resellers. The employees get a great discount, and I was able to get a great deal, as well as insight into the company. I will tell you this, I spent nearly a year researching and reading about these before I finally bought this bad boy. And I love it.
I hope I have been able to help clear up the process, but if you have any questions, please ask. And I would assume soon some of the resellers will be on here to answer, or correct me if I have misstated anything.

Just so you know, I actually thought you were

 

very nice. thanks for that.

and Hoss, me too.

 

LOL, I remember that. Lot of unhappy people. But I waited until the initial rush was over, and then the recall, and received a great laptop. I feel bad for you resellers because you are caught in the middle when components are found to have issues. But know this, many of us realize how tough it is for you guys, and appreciate how hard you work to make everything right in the end. When I buy my next one, I will go through a reseller, and I will never buy a major name brand again ( having owned HP, Asus, Dell, Compaq before the buyout years ago) because they all found out about these types of problems after the customers were complaining in hordes.

 

Mattchau, is that the 11" lappy? I haven't really been on here for a while, but if it is, I did read a bit on it, and it is interesting. Once you get it, please let us know your thoughts on it. This forum and the users reviews are more important to me that reviews by publications and such, since they may or may not be influenced by ads or marketing, and the user is letting us know what they feel about something they paid their hard earned money for. Thanks in advance.

 

no, the 11" is the 6110. i strongly considered the ultrabook route, especially a sager, but i ended up going with the 15.6" 9150 (with backlit keyboard, a finally for clevo from what i understand). as cool as the portability would be, performance over value won out.

and will keep the forum updated. i'm fiending for this thing so i might savor the moment of unboxing by documenting it in some form.

 

After the initial disappointment most people are pretty understanding. Cant' blame anyone though, we realize how exciting it is to place the order, then get a notification you're in production which just makes you more excited, then there's a delay I think it mostly people just wonder whats going on and we're happy to explain.

Abidderman you explained that really well.
Mattchau, fun times!

 

even as many times as we ask? haha, don't answer that.

 

Hah, I remember that too. The first guy to get a revised SB (P151HM) got a lemon, that will be impossible to forget, especially since he was such a charector.

Well said, +Rep. TL;DR version: you put in your order to a reseller, they send that to sager, sager builds and tests it, then if you live in California or require upgrades sager doesn't offer then it goes to the reseller first, then it gets shipped to you.

HTWingNut wrote a really elaborate review on the W110ER in the reviews and owner's lounges section, definitely check it out.

Oh really? I think we can safely use AMD as a scapegoat for this.

There are some people here who have nothing to do but answer questions...

 

Well, it's solely AMD that's to blame. Neither Sager or Clevo, nor it's many resellers...

 

Actually, according to the e-mail Paladin posted that he received from Sager, Clevo found the problem, not Sager. Sager is waiting to hear more back from Clevo.

 

Well, I feel unbelievably lucky and spoiled and like I've been unfairly given some type of reward that I don't really deserve, simply by virtue of having an operational Sager laptop with working AMD 7970m that I received in a timely fashion.

At least I can assure you guys that yes, this product *does* in fact exist, and it is a very awesome thing that I do not believe will disappoint. It *is* worth waiting for, and worth being patient for, and I can't imagine anyone is going to be unhappy with their reseller when they do get their laptop.

 

To clarify, the only reason I felt the need to make the distinction, was not to discredit Sager in any way, but because it makes sense that none of the bad cards made it to market since it was caught by Clevo. If Sager had caught it, there could have been a good chance that some of the bad cards would have found their way to the likes of Mythlogic, Malibal, Eurocom, etc. as they all should have been allocated a portion of that shipment (Sager, being the largest Clevo builder, got the entire 1st shipment). But thankfully, that didn't happen.