XoticPC = Not Smooth

So on Monday of this week I finally decided to go ahead and buy a NP7330 13" monster from Xotic. I mainly went with them because they had the cheapest stated price and because of their presence on NBR. So here are all the things that have happened. Some of the mistakes were on me so I'm not speaking ill directly...but it has certainly been a lot of trouble for just one laptop order.

1. Many weeks ago I talked to Derek via XoticPC's chat system to ask some questions about arrival date and discounts and such. He did mention something about 2% and free shipping but didn't really go into it in detail. I only understood that one could not stack multiple discounts like a student one and NBR member one.
2. On Monday i put in my cash order online.
3. Monday afternoon I sent out my check in the mail.
4. I get an email with asking for the check but it had an increased amount for the total. Turns out that Free shipping turns the cash discount to 2% and not 3%. Personally saving $30 to wait half a month for a laptop is not worth it so I decided to change my order to a CC transaction
5. Call up sales and talk to a person who walks me through how to get my CC into the mix
6. Missed a call from a verifications dept rep saying that she needs to verify all is well on my CC + Order
7. Call her back immediately, left a message, no beans...it's the end of the day
8. I notice that she also emailed me, I replied to the email, no reply.
9. This morning call her back, no answer
10. I then call customer support, no answer, but I left a message to be contacted back, no call back.
11. A few hours later I call the rep again, no answer, leave another message.
12. So now I am sitting here waiting for the company to call me back so that I can vocally tell them that all is well and please proceed with my order? All the while some guy in the back could be building my system...pretty annoying to say the least. I just hope that after my check arrives they actually read my order number and shred it as requested. Would hate to try to go through a check cancellation with a non-responsive customer support staff.

 

They dont build them there. Once they get their money they put the order in at Sager which adds a couple more days to the mix or processing before things get rolling.

 

Oh wow...didn't know that. Yeah now I'm thinking if it is worth even waiting. The price for the config I wanted (cheapest) was around $60 more going through Sager direct.

 

I hear dealing with Sager direct is a real hassle and most people use a reseller like Xotic and other fine resellers. This gives you more direct tech support, customer support and they can go to bat for you when dealing with warranty issues etc.

 

Hello There,

We do tend to be on the phone the entire day, especially the processing team, as there are a lot of customers we help out with day to day with a relatively lean staff. If you're having trouble contacting your processing analyst directly, feel free to call into the general line, don't dial an extension, and one of us sales guys will be available to help 99% of the time. With the processing team being on the phones with orders all day, they try to get back to their messages as fast as possible but they can sometimes be a delay to that. You'll always be called back the same day at the very least, but typically within a couple hours depending on the time of day you call.

 

So Derek is correct and the key is to dial 1 instead of 2 where you get sent to a queue instead of a VM system. Ironically I got Derek on the phone and he assisted in getting me to the rep.

 

Yeah I am usually a Lenovo and Asus guy so this will be my first Sager machine. It'll be an interesting evaluation to see how the hardware and Xotic support vs. the more well-known operations.

 

We'll always be around to help, we try to help everyone as fast as we can, there are just so many of you wanting that help it sometimes takes a bit to get back to you if you have the luck of catching us at the wrong times

Plus since I'm your Sales Advisor on the order, just come yelling at me when you think something is up. I'll be able to help you get it sorted out pretty fast.

 

Can't agree more

 

Isn't the free shipping offered by Sager though? Wouldn't think that would knock the cash discount down, esp considering it's included as part of most the orders.

My understanding the only thing to knock the cash discount from 3 to 2 is if anything else was added on, like referral discount, student etc.

 

We can't discuss discounts and such on the open forums, if you wanted to discuss the discounts specifically I'd need to be contacted directly.

 

Did you recieve your laptop yet? How did it turn out? I too am interested in buying from xoticpc

 

Nope not yet. Late last week I got the email saying that everything is in process to build (longest time). Afterwards it should update to say shipped then I get it. The beginning of this transaction was rough but right now it's where most online orders are...the customer waiting. I would recommend to others to just pay by credit card and be next to your phone to answer the "confirmation" call from the company. Why? Because at least for me, free shipping and less than a 3% discount equaled to only a $30 difference for around a week to a week and a half more waiting.

If I totally was not in a rush (willing to wait upwards of 3-4 weeks from order to receiving laptop) then doing the whole cash transaction may be worth it...but for me I already sold off my desktop machine so I wanted it sooner.

I will say that everyone I spoke to at Xotic (When I was able to get them on the line) was very friendly. Nobody had that "tone" you get when you call people at Lenovo, HP, or Dell so that was a bonus. But when it comes down to it, it'll be about after sale customer service. I hope I will never need it but am a bit interested to see how well their service/support dept performs.

 

So would you be able to send me a referral?

 

I'm not sure if they give any referral bonuses. Just go to their website or contact one of the sales crew on the forums.

 

I've contacted them and they said I would need to provide a previous order number or email/name So that they can look it up to apply the referral discount. If you don't' mind you can pm me the info: [email protected]
If you feel uncomfortable that's OK too
Thanks

 

Make your account able to receive PMs

 

I've been trying to activate my PMs, but it doesn't seem to want to work. Or allow me to PMs anyone else. That's why I posted my email

 

You need 5 quality posts before it allow you to accept PMs or send them. You now have 5 posts and should be active.