Tough Experience with Razer Support

Hey all, just wanted to share a recent experience I had with Razer Warranty Support.

I bought a RazerBlade R2 about a year and half ago directly from Razer with no discounting or coupons. I also sprung for the extended warranty, a mouse, 2 messenger bags (one broke out of the 6 month warranty, so I bought another one from them) and other misc. accessories directly through them. Unfortunately at the time, they had no primary SSD option on the R2, so I did open it up and upgrade that part which technically voided my warranty…

After a year and a half of good use, my screen stopped working a couple weeks ago. So I contacted Razer, and they asked me to send it in under repair. I put the old hard drive back in knowing they may have taken issue with the upgrade I did. Anyhow, they detected I had opened it up, and would not repair my laptop. They offered zero tolerance for the situation. I asked if there was anything they could do and they simply kept stating that I either pay the $100 diagnostic fee (which they did not prepare me for), or pay for a new motherboard and monitor which was about $1350. So, I know I took a risk upgrading my SSD, but they were really cold and unreasonable with me considering how much money I spent on this laptop and extras. I would of at least expected a discount or perhaps a deal on a new laptop (which I would have taken) considering the problem was clearly unrelated to a simple HD swap.

So if I had to do it all over again (while knowing I was likely to do a minor upgrade), I would have bought used as there seems to be no real consideration for the customer relationship by going direct. I know I committed a small crime for popping it open and replacing the HD, but they prosecuted me like a felon from the start instead of seeing it as more of a misdeameaner and helping me with either a small discount on the repair or new laptop.

So, your mileage may vary, But personally I will be no longer recommending or using Razer products after the treatment I received.

 

I understand your point (in a world of 100% honest people, we could work like this) but i also understand the zero tolerance of Razer, since they must deal with hundreds of customers each day, some % of them trying to cheat the warranty process somehow.

I personally think that the laptop should have at least a separate warranty module for the upgradable parts such as HDD, because definetly a malfunctioning screen has nothing to do with a HDD replacement.

 

Why would they give you a discount?

why should they provide you with support, given that you knowingly violated the warranty terms?

its interesting but companies don't care if you bought several of their products, specially people that deal with support.

Those people that deal with support have absolutely nothing to do if you knowingly violated the warranty terms, nor they can offer anything for you. They are bound by rules as you are.

at least its not an iOS product, because those would be dead weight if you opened or replaced anything outside of an AASP, apple store or RMA the devices. Though that is also listed in the warranty terms.

 

There are actually plenty of companies that do consider the relationship. I understand now that Razer is not one of them. That is their choice, and I can understand some of the reasons why they don't care. However, that does not change my attitude about it as a consumer.

 

why would they give you preferential treatment? whats that special that you bought some things from them?

its interesting that I mentioned apple care, because those guys will treat you like you were there babies carrying you and feeding you. However the line is drawn by the warranty terms as any company.

warranty terms are warranty terms, its a bound contract between you and the company, you violated the terms and want to be carried as a preferential customer?

Im not saying those things out of sympathy for the company, and I quite understand what you are feeling, being denied warranty because of clearly some other stuff happening to your system that aren't related to whatever you have done with the machine. And sincerely I wouldn't be happy at all, given that what you described wouldn't be caused by what you changed.

I said those things because it doesn't hold any logic. Its the same thing as being given a cookie after you disrespected a teacher or a colleague or some other form of very very very mild misdemeanour.

 

I understand and appreciate your points. I also agree I should not get a cookie for knowingly voiding my warranty. I was only asking for a less sever punishment from a company with a lot of competition in the gaming laptop market considering my history as a customer and the circumstances. They could have offered me a discount and still made a profit on the sale, but they obviously do not care. They have every right to not care as they conduct their business. Maybe it makes sense for them to conduct this way, I don't pretend to completely understand their business. But that doesn't change the fact that I feel like I was thrown in the slammer for jay walking. So for only $500 more then the cost of their repairs, I have bought a brand new MSI Stealth with 2 year warranty and no need to open it up, it has 3 SSDs in in, I've got my needed IOPS, lol

Anyhow, again, just sharing my story. And as I mentioned, your mileage with Razer may be different then mine, and that is cool. They are sweet looking laptops, especially 2 years ago... There was nothing else on the market like them.

 

Actually this is not entirely true. Apple retail stores can and do have discretion to perform service or do replacements outside of warranty. Whether or not it happens is a case-by-case basis, and probably also varies from store to store. The point being that it does happen.

@midibach: Have you tried emailing or tweeting the CEO? Sometimes that can help with better customer care. If you're in the U.S., I believe warranty law prohibits the voiding of warranties in the installation of aftermarket parts, but that may require the installation be performed by a professional.

 

Hey jashsu, I decided not to go nuclear on this one and just call a spade a spade, move on, and do the post here as a sort of "Yelp" ( while trying to be %100 honest with my posts as to not mislead anyone). I guess I am just getting too old now to ask more then twice for something. Anyhow, the whole thing prompted me to remove the brand loyalty from my thinking and look outside of Razer. The thinner, lighter gaming notebook marketplace is much more interesting now then it was a couple years ago, so I have already done some research and got a new MSI Stealth with three SSDs in it (no need to void warranties this time, lol).

 

Given that I work for apple, I'm pretty much aware of the exceptions.

Outside warranty replacements are quite normal, you are just asked to pony up for the expense.

Now for the exceptions those are quite a different story.

 

When a company has a policy that a simple hdd or memory upgrade voids the warranty i just dont even bother with recomending them. I understand why they do it but dosent mean i like it or that i will ever buy it. Asus in my coumtry voids your warranty for any upgrade on any model except g750 and you are still pretty limited there.

 

I totally get you, and any company that would reject service on the basis of a correctly performed HDD or memory upgrade is just acting asinine, warranty conditions or not.

I would recommend taking a look at the Aorus X3 plus. If I had been more patient, I probably would have gone for that over the RB2014. Specs are better all around (16GB memory [as removable SODIMMs], 6GB on the 870M, i7-4860HQ, 2 M.2 slots, a significantly more robust cooling system). Thermals look great based on the Hexus.net review: Review: Aorus X3 Plus - Laptop - HEXUS.net - Page 8

Good luck with whatever route you take.

 

Wow, thanks for the heads up on the Aorus brand. I missed this in my research. My MSI gets here tomorrow but I may leave it the package and request from Amazon if I can get a x7v2 instead. Looks like I get much more power for very little money more then the stealth pro. Plus it looks nicer.

 

i would go for the x3, the x7 cooling is just... bad.

 

Razer support is ridiculous! Two and a half weeks and still no restore drive.

Also, they denid a coworkers warranty claim because he was not the one the originally registered his laptop. He had the receipt and it was only four months old.

Razer can't have it both ways. If your going to sell and overpriced laptop, we expect exceptional customer service. This is one part of Apples strategy they have yet to clone.

 

"Hey all, just wanted to share a recent experience I had with Razer Warranty Support.

I bought a RazerBlade R2 about a year and half ago directly from Razer with no discounting or coupons. I also sprung for the extended warranty, a mouse, 2 messenger bags (one broke out of the 6 month warranty, so I bought another one from them) and other misc. accessories directly through them. Unfortunately at the time, they had no primary SSD option on the R2, so I did open it up and upgrade that part which technically voided my warranty…

After a year and a half of good use, my screen stopped working a couple weeks ago. So I contacted Razer, and they asked me to send it in under repair. I put the old hard drive back in knowing they may have taken issue with the upgrade I did. Anyhow, they detected I had opened it up, and would not repair my laptop. They offered zero tolerance for the situation. I asked if there was anything they could do and they simply kept stating that I either pay the $100 diagnostic fee (which they did not prepare me for), or pay for a new motherboard and monitor which was about $1350. So, I know I took a risk upgrading my SSD, but they were really cold and unreasonable with me considering how much money I spent on this laptop and extras. I would of at least expected a discount or perhaps a deal on a new laptop (which I would have taken) considering the problem was clearly unrelated to a simple HD swap.

So if I had to do it all over again (while knowing I was likely to do a minor upgrade), I would have bought used as there seems to be no real consideration for the customer relationship by going direct. I know I committed a small crime for popping it open and replacing the HD, but they prosecuted me like a felon from the start instead of seeing it as more of a misdeameaner and helping me with either a small discount on the repair or new laptop.

So, your mileage may vary, But personally I will be no longer recommending or using Razer products after the treatment I received."

Can't say I appreciated the treatment that team Razer is displaying here. Recently My wife accidently closed her MacBook Air with her earphones sitting between the screen and the keyboard thus cracking the screen. We called apple to see if we could do an out of warranty replacement. They promptly took it in and replaced the screen for free. We really were not expecting this kind of service, they were just amazing.

I agree with OP, frankly if I was given the same treatment that he receive chances are I would most likely boycott said company in future. Had Razer considered doing something to help the customer out, they probably would have won a customer for life.

Going forward from here, hopefully Razer will take note that customer service is just as important as making great products. I love my Blade but I do want to love the company that makes it as well.


Sent from my Razer Blade using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the heads up maven1975. I've been holding out for a new laptop trying to wait for the new maxwell chips. I was almost ready to succumb and just go order a RB14, but your review snapped me back into waiting. No way I'd spend $2k+ on a laptop from a vendor that behaves like that.

 

Small update, I did go ahead and get the Auros x7 ( tripple ssd and 1T platter drives) as I need the bigger screen since I use it for work and need the extra screen size for what I do. I would put the cooling noise while gaming a little less then my Alienware 17 R2 which was a beast and a half. So far I am very happy with it and amazed at the form factor considering dual GPUs. I am continuing to purge my Razer items, just bought a new laptop bag, etc. I guess I have a grudge, lol. Anyhow, despite my experience, I truly hope everyone fairs better then me with Razer support. Thank you everyone for this forum and for your feedback. I really appreciate it.

 

I don't use any Razor peripherals. Having gone through a few keyboards (Lycosa, DeathAdder, Orochi), i've come to the conclusion they're mostly overpriced cheap products. Now that they're no longer even using real Cherry switches in their mechanical keyboards, there's almost no reason to continue using Razer.

Personally I use a CMStorm QuickFire Rapid Stealth keyboard ($80) and CMStorm Recon wired mouse (was $25 AR recently). They use high quality switches (Cherry Browns on the keyboard, Omron microswitches on the mice) and also have more conservative styling. I highly recommend them over competing Razer products. ymmv

 

this is completely ridiculous. people go and sell their property and so forth, the warranty has nothing to with this. you are supporting the product not the owner.

 

Uhg, I contacted them today because I did not get back my unrepaired laptop yet after they charged my card their $100 diagnostic (ransom?) fee. Their support said they had no record of the actual charge and will not send it back until that is done. it's been 10 days since they charged it ( shows on my statement ). This is almost like I am getting punked. Where is Ashton Kucher? Lol

 

You could always say you are disputing the charge, I bet they will figure out that happened pretty quick.

 

talk to support say that you are charged, ask if its possible to send the statement from the bank

I don't know how the banking system works, but by the number of the transaction their accounting dept should be able to sort it out, at least in brazil we can do that.

 

midibach: I'd write to the CEO of Razer at this point and tell him exactly what has happened. So far what I'm hearing is that they won't fix your laptop since you replaced the SSD (despite being under warranty!), charged you $100 just to look at it, denied that they charged you, and now are holding it ransom (Not sure about the legality of this, especially if you didn't agree to the charge in the first place). To be honest they sound like a terrible company. What a shame since they have really nice (though flawed imho) hardware.

 

They found their accounting error today. They are sending back the unrepaired laptop with a recovery USB drive and "swag" as a parting gift I guess. I'll give it away as I am done with Razer.

 

Hey Midibach,

Official MSI Rep here. I wont comment on your situation between you and Razer, as I am sure they have their reasoning to not grant you the warranty repair.

Congrats on your new purchase of our stealth pro! i hope you decide to keep it over the Aorus.

Recently some users on NBR asked me here about our warranty policy regarding modifications/upgrades to their MSI notebooks. Our official stance on this issue is that, we do not want end users to be modifying/upgrading the units by themselves. However, unofficially speaking, if you have an issue with your laptop, and you have done modifications/upgrades yourself or by a 3rd party, you can still send it in under warranty for work, even if the warranty sticker is broken off. The issue lies with what the problem that the customer is facing. If we look over the unit, and find that the issue is caused by the end users work, we will not honor the warranty. If the issue is unrelated to the modification or upgrade, we will honor the warranty.

TL: DR - don't be a n00b and install/modify things incorrectly on your notebook, and we will still honor your warranty.

 

Razer support and warranty is for crap, period. Any laptop, premium laptop at that, that a user cannot swap/upgrade RAM and SSD/HDD at a minimum on their own is not worth a penny. Unfortunately people keep buying their overpriced experiments and it isn't until they have an issue that they realize it's a $2500 paperweight. With the 900m series GPU's due out soon, all the thin and lights will quickly put Razer out of the laptop business unless they can loosen up their warranty practices and treat people like humans instead of a dollar bill.

If they are really holding your laptop hostage, that's extortion, I would definitely dispute the charges with the CC company. And if you have to, call their local authorities and tell them they won't release your laptop. Sounds extreme, but I know users who have had to do similar things. Report it as stolen if they won't return it, because it's yours, not theirs.

 

I told someone on another thread that just because you pay a premium, it does not mean you are getting premium. You did violate their contract but I agree with everyone else: I wouldn't get a laptop that is so strict. I think people think you are getting better "build quality" when you pay this much but, sorry to say, you are paying more and getting less. Better off with the MSI laptop. I was almost convinced that Apple stood out because they had good "build quality," but they break as much as anything else. And I heard on the news today about a serious security breach with Linux and OSX; nice. I wish you best with your new laptop and I think you helped others to stay away from Razor. I know from reading about their tablets that they have garbage support.

 

I see some more replies to this thread and views, etc. So I thought I would update everyone on the outcome.

There was a mix up in Razer accounting, so I had to push them a couple times to finally get the laptop back AFTER I paid their diagnostic fee. I had since, and still do use my Aorus X7 which I am happy with. (I will look harder at MSI next time as I really appreciate the straight talk feedback here from them on this forum.

So, of course, a month or so after I received the laptop back from Razer, I finally opened it up to see about selling for parts, etc, and low and behold they had replaced the screen. I followed up with the service rep, who went and checked and verified that they had indeed fixed it. That was nice, but wow, amazingly terrible communication and customer management here. All they had to do was offer me a discount on the repairs and they would have saved a customer AND made a little money. If a Razer exec is reading this, I’m sure he/she is frowning.

Anyhow, I am happily setup on my Aorus, so I handed down my Razer to someone that works at my company. He has been using it for a couple months without issue.

All said and done, I continue not to recommend or purchase any more Razer myself as I do not want to subject any friends/family/customers to this level of customer service.

 

Wow, I am surprised by this. I remember hearing Ming(?) say that they aren't going to invalidate the warranty just because of opening the laptop to change the drive. He said unless you caused some damage or something to that effect. I think it was in a video but that was 6 months ago so I can't be sure.

I'm not even sure HOW they would know that you opened it up. Any "warranty void if removed" stickers don't mean crap, they can fall off/wear off with normal use and there is no guarantee it even had a sticker on it when you get it (seen that before, one person has it, next one does not).

 

There are no stickers, and two of the T5 screws on the bottom were stripped straight from the factory.. So I don't have any idea how they would know you opened it..

 

Recently I had some battery issue on my blade, was pretty apprehensive of having it RMA due to all the bad reports I've head about Razer customer service. Dragged my feet for a couple of weeks finally brought it for servicing @ Razer Singapore as the warranty period was drawing to a close. Was mildly surprised by the friendliness of the support staff (Particularly Michael the tech guy who fixed my blade). Will definitely consider buying a Razer system in future after this pleasant experience with Razer support.

 

Sorry but the story seems fake. Too many bad things happening then magically receive a working laptop? Smells fishy =/

 

Seems legit to me. Check his/her post history.

 

Lol, I don't blame you for thinking I made this crap up. I wish I was, it was a rediculous train of events. I can say that the orginal razer is still in use and working with the replaced screen (I handed it down to someone that works with me). I am still happly using my Aorus.

 

Glad to hear something worked out for you. The whole story was just a WTF type thing. Bad after bad.

 

Sucks to see situations like this, but in my own experience the customer service from razer has always been phenomenal. I had a problem with my R2 when I first got it. They fixed it free of charge even though it was opened and the hdd was swapped with an ssd,

 

This is why i'm glad I waited and bought my Razer 15 from Microsoft. Two year accidental warranty for $130, no questions asked, 30 day return period including warranty. No offense Razer.

 

None Taken, we appreciate the support for Razer and the outlets that carry our products.

If you choose to not go with a Razer Blade, but are still PC gaming, that's a win as well.

 

Same page as you! I just ordered my 2015 blade earlier today from the Microsoft store Canada. They just updated with the new blade today so I ordered. Best part is not only the extra warranty but the education pricing (save 10%)! Will write a review when I receive it.