Xotic PC - not so satisfied experience

First of all, I want to state that working with Xotic PC agents was very pleasant. Heidi and Hutsady were very helpful and respond to my question in detail with great manners; my Xotic PC rep Michael was very responsive and show extra effort in dealing with my case. It is just that beside the pleasant customer support, I can't say that I'm satisfied with the service from Xotic PC. I don't want to blame anything on Xotic PC, as I understand they were just doing what's on their policy. It's just that after all the good things I've heard about them, I honestly expected a much better experience. Since this is the Reseller feedback forum, I guess I should let it out.

I plan to buy a new laptop have been doing research about this for the last few months. At the end, the options boiled down to Malibal and Xotic PC. I have had good pre-purchase customer support from both, but in the end I decided to choose Xotic PC due to their closer location, which I supposed should make shipping back and forth faster. Also by that time Xotic was offering a 900p option, which I prefer more than the original 1080p screen since not only it help lower the total cost, but also suit better for my eyes. This help strengthen my decision of buying from Xotic, and I made my order with the 900p screen on Monday, November 7th. My goal was to have the order sometimes before Thanksgiving, so that I can do all of the necessary performance test during my Thanksgiving break.

Thing didn't start very well. I got some issue with incorrect billing phone number, which take up 4 days to settle down. That was not as bad as being informed that the 900p screen ran out of stock. So apparently even though I've been constantly asking about the screen and made my order mostly because of that option, and even though my order is in the stage of being "processed", no one could bother to at least show some act of courtesy and shoot me an email tell me something like "hey we got only a few of that screen left, if you can solve your issue right now then we will keep one for you."

In the end, what turn out is that I had to pay extra for something that I don't want: the 1080p screen. I agreed to do so, knowing that it's my fault at the beginning, and Xotic has offered me discount on both the new screen and for the Rush build (1-4 business days), which I asked to upgrade to in order to make up for the days that were lost. Everything went smoothly this time, and my order was processed and sent for custom building on Friday, November 11th.

Little did I know that it was not the only problem that I have. I figured that since my order was processed on Friday, the building process should take up at most until Thursday the week after that (November 17th), and since it's a Rush order, they as well ship it on the same day. Add up 3 days for shipping and the order will still make it before Thanksgiving. On Thursday, Novermber 17th, haven't seen any changes in the order status, I contact Michael for question. I was then informed that my order will not be shipped until the Tuesday the week after that (November 22th). I spent the next 30 mins talking with Michael about how little sense that make, which in the end I was told to be contacted back by 5pm the same day for update.

I never received any update back this afternoon or anytime during the weekend. I would have email them myself during the weekend, if it's not because that the last time I sned email to Xotic on weekend, my email was not responded until the Monday after that. On Monday the week after that (November 21st), I received an email from Michael saying that he managed to get my order shipped earlier, and following the tracking number, I found out that it was sent out at 11pm the Friday night of the week before, which in another word, will be shipped on Monday.

So finally the order was shipped. You might guess that since it takes 3 days to ship, the order will arrive sometimes on Thursday or Firday this week, which will still fit the original plan. Unfortunately, due to Thanksgiving, my order will not be transfered around during Thursday and Friday, which mean it will not be delivered until Monday, Novermber 28th, which just totally go way off my plan. Today is Saturday November 26th, and my order status is still "1 business day left". So it's official that my plan is ruined.

Again, I have to say that working with Xotic agent, especially my Xotic rep Michael, was a pleasure. Do I appreciate the extra effort from Michael? Yes I do, very much. Do I happy about that? No, I do not. Michael wrote in the email that "there were numerous variables that went into your case unfortunately. That is one reason it is our policy WHY we cannot guarantee rush production times. Due to the restrictions from our manufacturers we are sometimes held up." Being held up by the building process of the manufacturers is something I can buy, but since you were able to made the order to be shipped on that day, couldn't you somehow modify the way it was shipped? I'm willing to pay for shipping upgrade to have my order arrive on time, if Xotic somehow bother to provide me the situation. Instead, not only they did not contact me about my situation -twice, they also never seem to look at the record of what I've been asking and request to make a decision that would benefit their customer the most. Is this something too much to ask for? From all the good feedback about customer service that I have read about Malibal or LPC-Digital or any other good resellers, it doesn't seem to be so hard. There's this one thing from Xotic that quite impressed me, is that before I make my payment, not only they keep me update on my payment process via email, they also called me to verify my build order, as well as to inform me about situation. I wonder why such responsive behaviour was absent after I made my payment to them.

TL;DR: I paid for a screen that I don't want and for a service that I don't need in order to have my order deliver on time as I plan. In the end, my order still doesn't make it on time, which totally ruined my plan. The agents were all very nice and responsive; it is just the process that was such a hassle for no good reason. I don't want to blame anything on Xotic PC, as I understand they were just doing what's on their policy. It's just that after all the good things I've heard about them, I honestly expected a much better experience

 

I am sorry to hear of these concerns and about your original screen running out of stock. Unfortunately we are at the mercy of the manufacturer and we get little to no notice once a part runs out of stock. We do our best to make contact immediately if any problems arise. I am sorry you didn't get a confirmation back that it was shipping that day (Friday).

I show we provided you a 50% discount on the upgraded screen and a 50% discount on Rush Production to accommodate your deadline. Later we provided an additional discount on the Rush Production since the build took 1 business day longer then expected. We did all of this for you and to help with your unique situation. We did all of these discounts for you as we deeply sympathized with your situation and wanted to help.

We are sorry to hear with the Holiday that your package is taking longer to deliver via UPS.

I am sure you will be nothing less then pleased with the system once it arrives and if there is anything myself or Michael can do please don't hesitate to ask.

 

Yea, I can definitely related to this. I placed my order on a NP8150 on Friday November 4th via XoticPC. My order has not yet arrived, scheduled for delivery tomorrow (11/29). For various reasons (some my fault, some manufacturer) that is 25 days after order was placed.. which IMO is a little much even without any RUSH build/shipping upgrades. I plan on writing reseller feedback of my own once I get my rig and inspect it, but suffice it to say that while XoticPC team is very friendly and answers all my questions nicely and promptly (Brett is my rep), I was a little disappointed in some of the communication gaps that exists which I now find out is not unique to me & my order.

 

I got my laptop from Xotic pc as well and I was not able to respond to this until today. Before I discuss a few things I want to state that I had a great experience with Xotic and they were very helpful both through email and on the phone.

One issue that Justin responded to that I want to highlight is XoticPC is a reseller. They deal with the customer support and making sure all of your issues are dealt with. They have NO control over the manufacturer and cannot do anything to change that. It is a difficult job, they are the middleman. I graciously pay for that because if I ever have to deal with the manufacturer directly, who knows if I would even get my computer back. The other thing I wanted to point out that you were frustrated about is that they did not respond to your emails over the weekend. Most businesses do not respond on non-business days and I cannot think of another reseller that does. Last difficulty you mentioned was the holidays.... It was really the manufacturers fault that it was not out earlier and it is just something that cannot be avoided. You can't make people work around the clock on Thanksgiving...

Please do not take this post as hostile. I just want the subsequent people that read this to know that this almost never happens. When the rare person on this forum receives a faulty part from the manufacturer we call it a lemon. This is a "lemon" for your experience, just a series of unluckiness that was not you or the resellers fault.

 

These posts lose a lot of credibillity when they have "some are my fault and some are .... blah, blah, blah. If you give wrong info, delay making a choice, etc. That is on you. Any reseller can only deal with what they have on hand, and it is first come, first serve. If you spend 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months deciding what you want, until you finalize the order, it is not an order. Go to the corner and cry. Everyone else makes a decision, and if we get our order in on time, we win. If not, we lose. Get some cheese, but please, accept YOUR responsibility in YOUR order not coming to fruition. In retail, there is a saying.... No Crying Babies!!!Sorry to be honest, but for crying out loud.
I wanted, I needed, I couldn't decide... No tolerence Wednesday.