The egregious experience of buying an MSI Workstation from Hid Evolution

UPDATE #1: The day after posting this, Juan S. from tech support apologized and let me know that they were shipping a new power brick.

UPDATE #2: @Donald@HIDevolution reached out to me today over the phone, and we went over all the events in the history that I describe below, from both their point of view and mine. We agreed that there were more than a few missed opportunities, on both sides, to confirm the address and ensure none of this had happened. We came to an amicable understanding and resolution, and I've accepted that my reliance on verbal communication alone, which could easily have been misinterpreted, was a bit naive. I do appreciate @Donald@HIDevolution having taken the time to hear what I had to say, and to set things straight.

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On July 9, I ordered an MSI WT75 8SM-005 from Hid Evolution for $5300.00, with the assistance of Donald@HIDevolution. It was delivered as promised, the following week, to my home address in NY.

Upon arrival, the power adapter plug wouldn't fit all the way into the laptop. It fit enough to charge it, but it dangled and fell out without any movement, only by its own weight.

I contacted Donald, who said he didn't have anything to do with it anymore, and that I should head over to the chat on their website and reach out to Zoltan, which I did. It was an annoyingly painstaking process to convince him of the fact that something was indeed wrong, despite sending him multiple pictures of the laptop. It took a few days, until he finally called me and said I should send both the laptop and its power adapter back.

By the time he reached out to me, I was on the road, and would eventually get to a family get-together in NJ. After that, however, I was set to move to Brazil for work, where I'm currently living. Given this unusual situation, I called Zoltan and carefully explained that I would have to send the computer back from a vacation address, but that the laptop should then be returned to its original invoice address, where family would receive it, and bring it to me overseas next time someone traveled. Zoltan told me Fedex shipping prices change depending on sender's address, and that I should provide him with the address I'd be returning the laptop from, so he could generate the shipping label. That led me to write a reply on their help desk message board with the text: "The return address is <address>, NJ". He generates the label, I go to a shipping service store, have it wrapped (original box was at home address in NY), and shipped back to them. This was on July 27.

A month later, on August 24, I received an email from Juan stating he had shipped my laptop back to the NJ address. Clearly, he had no idea what had been agreed with Zoltan. I send them a message on the help desk page. He replies days later saying they can have the package re-routed, and he would have his manager do it. One full day later, he comes back saying there's a $35 fee to re-route, and that I can pick it up for no fee in NJ, a suggestion I found offensive. I called Zoltan, in an attempt to confirm what we had agreed to. He emails me back later saying there indeed is the fee. Feeling like I'm being held hostage, I pay for the $35, feeling very wronged. But then again, on a $5k+ computer, that is nothing, but I was appalled with their service.

On the very last day of Fedex Ground shipping, package is re-routed and delivered to my home address in NY, on August 30. Great, I will just try to never have to deal with them again.

This weekend, family, who is traveling to visit us in Brazil, opens the package to place the laptop in their travel luggage so I can finally have the laptop I bought over two months ago, to realize there is no power adapter in the box, just the laptop itself, in pink bubble wrapping.

It is beyond unbelievable. So I have a nice, allegedly fixed computer, that I can't even check whether it's working or not, because I can't even plug it in. For this price, they didn't even have to be nice, as long as they delivered on what they sold.

Still waiting on a response from them over the fact they forgot to ship it with a power adapter.

 

That picture is blurry. Did you look at the top right hole? Is that top right hole not aligned properly or is that a camera glitch or artifact causing that?
If that top right hole is aligned properly, did you actually try to push the cable in? Because it's supposed to go in with some effort. It's not supposed to go in "smoothly" otherwise it would just come out if you barely touched it.

Did you actually use some effort to push it in?

Why didn't you take a picture of the back of the laptop without the PSU installed?

That would have definitely helped (especially if the PSU just happened to be at fault) and I think since HID does test the systems, you possibly didn't use enough force to push it in (Possibility). But that's only if all of the holes are not partially blocked somehow.
Because that's the -only- thing physically that would ever stop the cord from going all the way in.

*if* that top right hole is actually blocked by something completely, then you shouldn't have needed to send the laptop back. They can just send you a new PSU overnight and have you send the old one back with the carrier (cross-shipment).

Also Donald isn't techsupport or RMA. He's a sales person.
@Zoltan@HIDevolution
@thattechgirl_viv

 

My WT75 also has a loose fitting power plug. I also tried a spare 230W Chicony power supply I had from a Tornado F5 and it too fits loosely, so the issue is with the motherboard power jack. If the jack is the same as the GT75 / GT73, it is soldered on instead of plugged in, and requires a complete disassembly, so it is not a trivial part to fix.

Out of curiosity what was the time frame between delivery (at HIDEvolution / MSI) and when they shipped it back out again? I was wonder if they try to prioritize repairs on workstation models given that Dell / HP / Lenovo offer pretty decent onsite / rapid response depot service for their business models.

 

Hi,
He's saying that the cord won't even go in at all. Not that it's too loose, but either too tight or something is blocking the jack.
I'm going to reach out to HID later and ask them if they can see if MSI is back up to their QA issues again and see if they can specifically test the jack connections. I'm not sure how something like this would have slipped by. My guess is they tested with their own PSU and it worked fine, so in that case, the issue would have to only be one of two issues, assuming HID tested this on another PSU:

1) They didn't test with the packaged PSU and the holes have partial blockage somehow.
2) The end user had a tight fit and was afraid to push it in all the way and the holes were not blocked.

If HID actually did test this and it passed, then the defect has to be in the PSU that was NOT tested, and there would therefore be no need or reason to ship the entire laptop back. That is assuming this WAS Indeed tested with an inhouse PSU.

For what it's worth, I have both a Delta 230W and 330W (330W purchased separately).
The 230W is a VERY tight and firm fit. Almost too firm. Actually requires a bit of force to get in and out.
The 330W is looser. It's nice and snug and doesn't move or anything, but is clearly looser, but snug.

I don't know which is considered 'proper', but I can see both passing QA and being fully acceptable. I can see no visual difference in the holes. Could be something off by 0.1mm in either PSU hole, but the GT73VR is not the issue at all here.

 

In order:
Blurry, sure - artifact, unlikely. There were plenty of pictures, but here was just trying to show how far the plug went in.

I did try to push the cable in. It felt like there was something blocking one of the holes in the power adapter plug, jamming it. But they had me ship the whole set back, and also had to forward it to MSI for repairs, so I'm guessing it wasn't only the plug.

I could be wrong, but when I first got the package, prior to any of this, the sender address was MSI itself. I did ask Donald to have the laptop shipped as soon as possible (since I already knew of my overseas move), so I don't think there was any testing done on the laptop I got.

I don't think they do - they sent it back on August 24, having received it on August 2.

 

I would have been able to see instantly if it was the plug or the laptop DC port if I had clear pictures of both, as I do have one myself.
From what it looks like, it seems to be the top right hole.

If your camera has a HDR mode, or a 4K mode, that helps a -lot- with little details like this

 

I just took these two pictures of you of mine.
These are taken in 4k resolution.
I may have been able to do better with the plug. Background was messing up the camera focus a bit. Probably should have put my hand against the wall so it can focus even better.

*EDIT*.
first picture sucks. Here's (second-edit) is a better one.





*Edit*
Yep, comparing my picture and your picture, you clearly have a plug that was made on a Chinese Friday at 5 pm. Or one made at 7 AM on a Monday Morning.
The power supply should have been RMA'd before HID asked you to send the entire laptop back. But they would have needed clear pictures (like I supplied) of both connections to make this decision for you.

@Zoltan@HIDevolution can you please reach out to the customer on my behalf and take care of him ?

@jehuty0110 do you have access to the laptop right now? Or are you in a different country and it's in the USA?

I wanted to compare your DC in jack with mine, as if they look identical, then your jack is fine.

 

@Falkentyne Laptop is still in the US, and I'm abroad. I should have it next weekend, though. I've since deleted the pictures from my phone, but I'll dig into my backup to compare with yours. But as you've said, lighting in mine is pretty bad - should've used hdr.

An important update: without too much friction (just asked for pictures of the box the laptop was sent in), Juan at HIDevolution has let me know today they're shipping a new power brick.

 

yeah maybe ask a moderator to change your thread title because "egregious" seems a bit too dramatic over a power brick issue

 

I never claimed the original problem was the store's fault - that was just annoying.

What I've complained about is:
- needing days to convince tech support that something was wrong with the computer to begin with;
- having instructions given over the phone to tech support dismissed as having never happened (if it's policy no communication should be done over the phone, and everything needs to be in writing, that should be part of the instructions on the RMA);
- having the company be ok with delivering to the wrong address, after going through the mis-communication issue multiple times;
- and, on top of that, to deliver the laptop without its power brick.

How one classifies such an experience is, of course, very subjective and personal. I've found this series of events to be quite stressful, and lacking in the customer service quality other customers in this forum seem to have received from the company.

 

Thank you for updating your experience.

We appreciate your patience and understanding, and are pleased that we were able to reach an amicable resolution.