XoticPC and Gigabyte P34W. Is this normal service?

March 12th, laptop ordered.
March 20th, laptop received in the morning. That night, the laptop stops recognizing its GTX 970M GPU. RMA for exchange request sent.
March 23rd, first reply received around noon asking me to update the BIOS. Immediate reply sent stating I already attempted it, reflashing the firmware as it was already up to date and still no GPU detected in GPU-Z or device manager.
Sent an email to and called my technician and left a message asking him to call me when he had a chance. Never received a reply.
March 24th, entered live chat in the morning to ask if there was a way to receive service over the phone as I don't want to wait a day between email correspondence. Representative spoke to my service tech and assured me that I would receive an update on my RMA and it would be processed this morning.
At around 3:00 PM PST I receive an email saying my RMA was approved. I go to UPS immediately and ship it out.
*UPDATES*
March 30th, XoticPC received my laptop.
April 2nd, I receive an email saying my RMA credit has been applied. but only after I contacted them to ask what's going on. However, only $1571 of my $1599 was credited because I have to retroactively pay for the original order's shipping. They say I can call them or place a random order for any item and put in the note that I am paying for shipping for my other order.
I call them but I am told no one is available who can help me. They give me a link to order an item called an "Order Change" and pay $28 for shipping.
I place the item in my cart but there is no way to adjust the price so I just buy it and add the UPS ground shipping which is only $13 for that item.
April 6th, I contacted customer service to see if only paying $13 for shipping was a problem or if they could use my payment information I provided and adjust the price accordingly. The customer service rep says he will try to get in touch with one of the people who do RMAs and find out. I stay on the chat for almost 90 minutes and he says that he'll email me later because the person hasn't responded.
*MORE UPDATES*
April 7th, I received an email (which was apparently sent by mistake) asking me to call them to provide payment information again. I called and they said that everything was handled, but they're out of stock so now I'm waiting for them to receive more laptops.
*SMALL UPDATE*
April 20th, one month after receiving the original defective laptop. Laptop still out of stock, estimated time for them to receive stock is this week. Hopefully this is accurate. I'm a little miffed that they didn't keep one in stock for me while my laptop was being returned and instead shipped out all their remaining stock for orders placed after mine even though they already had my payment.
*LAPTOP SHIPPED*
April 24th, I received a UPS Ground shipping notification. Laptop is expected on April 30th.
*LAPTOP RECEIVED*
April 30th, laptop received. I've re-pasted and stress tested it. Build quality on this one is better so far, no software or hardware issues.

My timeline:
March 12, laptop ordered.
March 20, laptop received.
March 20, RMA requested.
March 24, RMA approved.
March 24, laptop shipped out.
March 30, laptop received by XoticPC.
April 2, credit applied to new laptop.
April 24, new laptop shipped.
April 30, laptop received.

Total cost: $1668 ($1599 laptop + $28 for original order's shipping + $41 for shipping back defective laptop)
Total time between ordering a laptop and receiving a (hopefully) functional one: 7 weeks/49 days.

Overall rating: 5/10.

Pros:
3 points for doing the bare minimum of getting a laptop into my hands after I paid them for the product.
2 point for the customer service reps being polite and friendly.

Cons:
2 points lost for the inability to connect the customer to anyone who can actually give them details about the handling of their RMA and for promises to contact me with answers to questions but never following through as, even when I was told that they would, I had to initiate contact every time. Details can be found in post #10 by me.
2 points lost for the archaic system by which you provide payment information for a previous order and for also being given wrong/unclear directions for doing so.
1 point lost for not keeping a laptop in stock for me during the RMA process even though they had my payment already. This is a big one for me but I can see how people would just say the business was looking out for their own interest.

At the end of the day, they got my money so I suppose this thread was pointless other than as a therapeutic exercise.

**I understand this isn't a Sager/Clevo but I didn't see another Reseller feedback section.

 

well that sucks man, hopefully they will be able to have to send it into....or you could just send it back and get a refund and buy from someone else? but I would give them a chance first maybe they had a power outage or something who knows? Good luck, keep us updated I am getting ready to order a NP9377sm-a and something like your situation has always been a worry of mine so I dunno who I am gonna use and it seemed like when I asked some places questions I was just a bother to them like me planning to spend 2.5-4 grand on a laptop isn't a big deal (well its a huge deal to me) but powernotebooks lpc-digital and pro-star are the places I am most considering!! but seriously I am sure it will all work out in the end GOOD LUCK

 

I'm actually pretty confident I will get my replacement eventually, it's just that I'm disappointed in that it's taking a lot longer than I expected.

Yeah it's surprising to me too that service can be pretty lackluster for such expensive products.

Thanks for the response, I hope everything goes well with whoever you decide to purchase your machine from!

 

Hello Colin06,
I do apologize if the length of the RMA process has been longer then expected.
I did talk to your service tech that is on your RMA to get some details to see whats going on.
I see you mentioned you have requested an RMA for exchange, however we have it set up for a repair. Since it is a repair that would require it be sent to Gigabyte to get fixed since that part is a Gigabyte part. We did hope to have RMA information from them by this morning so we could pass it along to you, however the RMA has not be issued by them yet. We are still waiting on that so we can pass it along.

If you did actually want it to send it in and exchange it for another one please do let me know or your service tech and we can get that changed for you.

 

My tech responded and set up my RMA for an exchange. I just dropped the laptop off at UPS. Thanks! Now I play the waiting game.

 

Good to hear we're moving in the right direction. Feel free to contact me directly with any questions or concerns, or you can keep post any updates here and I'll help check into things.

 

I have read in the P34W owner thread and a lot of people are having this issue with their video card. That's why I decided to go with a P650Sx instead. Hope you get yours fixed soon man.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Gonna update the original post. Still haven't gotten a replacement. Laptop hasn't even shipped out yet. Tried several times to get answers and all they say is they will email me later and nothing happens.

 

I hope you don't mind that I deleted the original part in the quote and will address the "*UPDATES*" section, since we already talked about the original post.

As you mentioned we did get your computer back on March 30th, if you would refer to the information on the RMA instructions it is noted: "RMA processing time is 5-14 business days. We make every attempt to process your return as quickly as possible." As you mentioned you got updated on April 2nd so it took us 3 business days.

The credit amount is $1571 as you mentioned. When you send a computer in for exchange or refund we do subtract the original shipping costs, this was noted in Barry's email "minus original shipping". However we do understand computers can have issues so we do offer sending it back in to us for repair, this was also noted in his email

"Another option you would also have would be for us to setup an RMA and have your computer shipped to XoticPC for Repair under our DOA policy, which means that if it's not a easy fix then the system would be swapped out for new system. At which all repairs and shipping would be covered 100%."

What this breaks down to is for us to be able to check out the system and see if it is something we can fix, and if so then we do cover all expenses. However if you want to exchange it for another computer without us checking out the original computer, then there is shipping costs taken out of the refund amount. We do extend the free shipping for the new computer.

I see you did place the order for the "Order Change" to submit card information on April 2nd. That is correct as you stated that we do not allow customers to change prices during checkout. Our system does not automatically charge cards, we do so manually, so the reason we asked you to place that order was to get your card information submitted securely on our site then we will manually charge it for the appropriate shipping costs.

I hope that answers some questions if not PM me here, call me, or email me directly and I'll be happy to let you know what the concern is.

 

OP updated.

I appreciate your help Hutsady, although I would like to clarify that I had no issues with paying for shipping for the original order. The issue I had was the unintuitive system in place for retroactively paying shipping on previous orders and the lack of a direct communication channel between the customer and the RMA department.

As an example, the email I received for providing my payment information gave the option of calling (method 1) or placing a separate order for any item and adding a note that the order was for payment information for my previous order (method 2). I decided to call (method 1) as that seems the simpler route. The customer service rep notifies me that the (apparently only) person who can help me is too busy, so here's a link to place an order online and leave a note in the order stating it's for updating payment information for your previous order (method 2), so why even give method 1 as an option?

Then I have to place a second order and receive updates now on 2 different orders to understand what's going on with the canned responses being the only information provided to me in those email updates. This is the exact line from the email I received from Alex P about placing my "Order Change":

"Make a $28 Payment with the credit card through this form.

http://www.xoticpc.com/change_order_request_form.php"

However I was unable to edit the price to pay $28, is this user error? Is this a problem with the checkout system? Is this a technical problem from my end or XoticPC's? Can I be blamed for the confusion?

As for the lack of communication, after I sent an email detailing my problems with the laptop, a day later Barry sent me an email to suggest updating the BIOS on my laptop, I responded saying I already tried. A day after that I called Barry, my tech and (I'm assuming) RMA agent and left a message asking him to call me since I didn't want to have a back and forth, with day-long waits, of suggestions and responses for technical support, and never received a call back. The only correspondence I received from him was him telling me, days later, that my RMA was approved but only after I contacted customer service and asked for that rep to contact Barry. On the occasions I called customer service I was told that only two people handle all the RMAs and not once was I able to get in touch with either of them and was simply told that one of them would contact me but that never happened.

When I called with the question about whether or not XoticPC would be able to charge my card with the appropriate amount, the representative again told me that he would find out and contact me. But the only reason I received an answer is because I received another automated email asking for me to update my payment information again (which apparently was sent by mistake) and contacted customer service again and was then transferred to you.

Basically I don't believe XoticPC has lived up to this:
" Complete Customer Satisfaction:
At XOTIC PC, our goal is to serve our customers; by pampering them with the quality of service they deserve and offering Industry leading low prices."

The funny thing is, all the customer service rep time I wasted on hold or waiting for replies (one time for 90 minutes as I mentioned up there) to answer my questions could have literally been taken care of with a 30 second phone call or an email from an RMA agent simply stating, "Your RMA was approved and the payment can be charged appropriately even with the wrong total cost for the order you placed to provide your payment information. Thanks and have a nice day."

 

It does sound like the communication did break down in parts of your RMA process.
When you call we should be able to get you an answer right away. If the person that answers the phone does not know the answer they should be able to transfer you, ask another rep, or IM another rep to get you an answer.

I am bringing your concerns to the attention of both dept managers so they can work together and come up with way to make it easier.

I will give Alex a revised version of how to place the order change so it is more clear on what to do.

 

Thank you. Now I'm just looking forward to getting my laptop and playing some GTA V/Battlefield on the go.

 

OP Updated. Laptop is in transit.