XoticPC Experience

Hi All,

I guess I'm posting here with the hopes that I can get a straight answer from the XoticPC employees that frequent these boards.

To preface all of this, I am (or should be) a second-time customer with XoticPC and would like to say my first experience with them was perfect. I had ordered a Sager NP8170 through them January 2012 and it was a great experience. At the time Hutsady helped me through the entire process and reassuring me of any issues I had during the experience.

Fast forward to a a few weeks ago:

The old laptop has held up admirably, but I decided it was time for an upgrade. The MSI GT72 barebones system caught my eye with pricing/performance and I contacted Pat J. with a few questions regarding possible discounts and availability.

I eventually placed an order on 11/21 for the system and at the time only requested the rush build process. I communicated with Pat J. through chat that I would need to receive the system by December 9th or else I would be out of the country and was really hoping to bring the machine with me. He told me to add the rush build process and potentially change the shipping options to meet that date. I was also told to note the date in the comments, which I did. I understand that the holiday seasons are around, but I thought that the system should be able to arrive in time as did Xotic.

I continued conversation with the sales team regarding a difference in the billed amount vs correct price with discounts. On 11/23 I was chatting with Pat J. again, basically I was being overcharged 45 dollars. At this point, I decided to check with him on RAM placement. The GT72 has 4 dimm slots, two are easily accessible by removing the bottom panel and two would require the keyboard to be disassembled. Pat J. confirmed this and at that time I asked to be upgraded to 16gb of RAM and to have noted that I would like the 2x8gb sticks installed under the keyboard. Because of this change, I would instead owe 10 dollars.

Thanksgiving comes around and on the 26th, I was emailed by Pat telling me to call their sales team because a new website upgrade wiped out the old payment information and they would need me to provide my CC info plus CVC. Since the sales number is not available on the weekend, I did just that yesterday on the 30th. Once I provided this number, I was almost immediately charged $25 dollars and was sent an invoice for the RAM upgrade.

First the $25 dollars was incorrect as the difference should have been 10 dollars. I called in at this time to inform them of the mistake and initial $25 was voided and supposedly a new charge would appear. At this time the CS rep I was talking to assured me that the delivery date of the 9th was still manageable. He mentioned something along the lines of having the machine built and ready by 12/4 and if needed I could upgrade the shipping at this time.

Unfortunately it was after the call which I realized the invoice listed an SKU of a ram part that isn't even selectable. I was assigned 16gbs of RAM via a 8gb +2x4gb. I called back to inform them that the charge was incorrect and the RAM was as well. I called again to point out this error and was answered by Cindy I believe. I don't think she was quite sure of the error, but I tried to explain the difference between a 2x8 and a 1x8 + 2x4. She said she noted something down on the order.

This morning I saw that the new 10 dollar charge was still not issued, so I wanted to call to make sure everything on the order was understood. Cindy picked up my call again, I have no problem paying whatever difference I owe, and I repeated that upgrading the shipping was not a problem. When I mentioned the December 9th hard date to her again, she responded that there was most likely no way that could be met, which contradicted the response I had gotten from both Pat and the other CS rep. It seems like the MSI machine will still need to be shipped from the retailer and there was no way the build would complete even with rush + others. I responded that I was even fine with removing any changes to the machine and asked if it was possible for Xotic to receive the unit and slap another label on it to ship to me. I would cancel the RAM changes and upgrade myself. She told me to wait and see if there was anything that could be done, but she still doubted that the delivery window could be made.

As of right now, Cindy told me to wait for an email from her to see. I doubt I'll hear back from anyone today, but at this point if there was 0% chance that I was going to receive the machine by the date, it would've been nice to know beforehand. I feel like I've been trying to keep on top of this order and that everything has been reactionary on Xotic's side.

What I am hoping for is more transparency from the Xotic team. I understand that there will be variables on production, but at this point I felt that for the sake of making a sale, I was completely misled by being told that a certain date was doable. If I had known that prior to making the purchase, I would have considered other options. Xotic was able to process and charge me very quickly - 11/23 to be exact, but from my recent conversations, it seems like nothing else has progressed.

I would hate to turn my back on a retailer that did so well in the past, but at this point I feel like I should just cancel my order and just accept my losses (I had bought more RAM and 2 SSDs in preparation for receiving the laptop).

 

From my experience Xotic is great, but they take quite a long time. My laptop took about a month... Hopefully it works out, as I like them as well.

 

Hey pqi8,

Sorry for the frustrations you've had on your order so far. If at any point you have questions though, you've got my contact info, please reach out to me directly.

I checked on the order, and it looks like the notes on it should have everything with the ram getting corrected. Looks like Alex was checking in to that already (he's around here on the forum as well). I'm not sure why you would be told something isn't doable on the time frames though. Basically at this point, we have an order of more of those models coming in to stock right now, and that is where the wait is. With the price on that model, as low as it is for a 980m GT72 basically, it has been one of our best selling models for good reason. So we are trying to order in as many as we possibly can at this point just to keep up with demand on it. With the rush on the order you do get priority in build time and parts allocation, and I'll do I can to make sure it gets in to production and done as soon as we get them in. I'll have to check on tracking though to make sure we are still good on getting it to you in time. I don't want you to think that I was just trying to say yes, just for a quick sale. I do think that we will be able to get it to you on time. I'll do what I can to make it happen, or if anything comes up I'll let you know otherwise.

I'll follow up on this and let you know what I find out tomorrow. If you have questions or need anything, just let me know. Thanks!

 

That's great to hear. Again I was fine until today, when I was told there was no way the order will arrive in time. As I alluded to earlier, I'm willing to do whatever is needed. Please let me know if I will have to upgrade shipping or provide anything else. I understand the high demand, my frustration is definitely with the conflicting message I received today. Thanks for your reply.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure if maybe they were just quoting the standard build time on that, and not the rush times. With the standard time frames, it would be close, but you've got the rush production to get priority anyways, plus I'm watching the order to try to get it moving forward as soon as possible. I'll do what I can to update you on it, and if you have any questions, just let me know what I can help with!

 

Emailed you with an update.

 

Got it. Thanks for all of your help. I'm glad you guys should be able to pull through.

 

Just wanted to say thanks again for coming back to us and purchasing your new computer. Hope you enjoy it when you get it in a couple days, and I hope you have a great trip!