Xoticpc experience - NP8150

My NP8150 will arrive later today, so I thought I'd create a new thread as indicated by the sticky on my reseller experience thus far. Note that this is my first Clevo/Sager machine, as well as my first time purchasing a laptop from anyone other than Dell, Amazon, Circuit City, or private party.

I spent a lot of time initially on these forums and Youtube doing research, finally picked Sager and zeroed in on the components I wanted in the laptop. For those interested, the basic specs on my new Sager NP8150 are:

• Proc: Intel i7 2630QM
• RAM: 8GB (4 SODIMMs)
• GPU: Radeon 6990M
• LCD: 95% Gamut Matte
• HD: 750GB SATA
• Optical Bay: 750GB SATA
• Wireless: Intel 6230 w/ Bluetooth

After looking around the forums to see if there was a particular reseller that appealed to me, I felt that they were all pretty similar. I went to each site and configured the machine that I wanted, and the prices came out to be very similar between the big 4 or 5 resellers. So, I sent an email to each of them, requesting a custom quote (I originally had some more custom features to the build that I couldn't price out using the online configuration tool).

The responses that came back to those emails were largely disappointing. One reseller didn't respond at all, one couldn't accommodate the custom build, one closed out the ticket I opened without a response or reason why, and another told me to just use the online configuration tool. I was surprised - was this the vaunted "personalized, exceptional customer service" I had read about?

The exception to this trend was XoticPC. I received a detailed reply from Brett within 15 minutes of my initial email. Not only did he supply a quote, but he provided additional information and did so with exactly the friendly/helpful tone I would expect from a smaller PC vendor that offers custom solutions.

With XoticPC being the only reseller that responded quickly, professionally, and with overtures of actually selling me what I wanted, they basically won my business by default. I'm not sure if the other resellers were all having a few bad days, or if they are simply more responsive on the forums or via PM. Whatever the case, I would advise them to adopt the methodology of XoticPC, who, in my opinion, are doing it right by giving equal attention to emails from customers.

I emailed back and forth with Brett for a day or two before leaving for vacation. I had hoped to place my order before leaving, but I simply ran out of time. Upon returning from vacation, I re-initiated my email thread with Brett. He continued to be highly responsive, accommodating every question I threw at him (usually within minutes of my emails) and instilling confidence that a real person who cared about me as a customer was on the other end.

The only area that I would offer constructive criticism on pertains to discounts. I made it clear in my original correspondence to the various vendors that I was cost-sensitive and wanted information on additional discounts, be it NBR member-exclusives or anything else they could offer. I did not feel that my reseller was completely forthcoming in a proactive fashion about possible ways to save money (other than the standard 3% cash discount). I noticed another XoticPC rep mention certain discounts on this forum, and when I asked Brett about them, he detailed them well. I suppose it is a small nit to pick - I wouldn't necessarily broadcast cuts into my bottom line if I was selling something either. That said, I didn't feel that I should have to work to "pull" the information out.

After my chosen specs were finalized and I was confident that I was making the right choice in terms of laptop and reseller, I placed the order online. This process was straight-forward. I chose to use the cash payment option and wire the money in to reduce the cost by 3%. This ended up being a little bit less savings than I anticipated - my bank charged me a $20 fee to wire the money. No worries, though - savings are savings and I still came out ahead. After placing the order, I received an email several hours later from XoticPC billing with details on how/where to wire the money.

I wired the money on Wednesday, 9/21 and received notification on Friday, 9/23 that my payment had cleared and the machine was in the "build" phase. This delay was not unexpected, as I had missed the wire transfer deadline for the day on 9/21.

On 9/27, XoticPC emailed me to let me know my order had shipped. This was actually faster than I had anticipated. I had read stories from folks on this forum indicating 3-week build times - I think that 2 or 3 business days from payment clearing to laptop shipping is pretty fantastic, certainly better than what I've generally seen from Dell. An extra bonus was that the package shipped from California... I'm in Seattle and was expecting a longer transit time via UPS Ground from Nebraska. Again, very happy with overall turnaround time; order placed on the 21st, will be received on the 29th, and there's a weekend in between those dates too!

Although the customer service aspect could potentially continue (if the machine has a problem or I have questions), I consider the overall purchase "experience" to be complete at this point. Am I happy with my choice? You bet I am! XoticPC seems to be very professional while still providing personalized service and smiling during the whole while.

While I don't see my rep (Brett S) on these forums, I do see Justin and Alex (at least) posting here regularly, and I'd like to point something out about that. Based on my (admittedly short-term) exposure to the resellers on the forum, I really like the way XoticPC carries themselves here. I've seen other resellers who seem to want to post in every thread, offering limited or abbreviated information in many posts, likely because they are stretched so thin from trying to post so often. I've also observed other resellers (one in particular) actually insult their competition and try to pick fights with them on threads. This is such a huge turn-off to a prospective buyer. I want my money to go to someone who understands business and customer service, not some spaz who can't keep track of their communication and is too busy flaming people on forums to pay attention to me as a customer. I hope I don't offend anyone by that, but it does seem appropriate feedback for the "Reseller Feedback" forum.

I'm happy to answer any questions about my experience so far, so feel free to post in this thread!

 

I'm glad everything is going okay so far. If there's any issues (hopefully there's not), let us know!

 

Thank you for the very positive review and comments! We definitely do everything we can to try and ensure experiences such as this and I am glad we could help you out on that. Let us know what you think of the machine when you get it!

 

Sounds like an overall good experience. I'm not sure about you, but I have dealt with HP and Dell, and their CS compared to this one is a joke.

I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience with other resellers....you're right, maybe they had a bad day. But then again, it's your business they're going to lose.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Yeah, there's still room for improvement from any reseller or any business at that, and every business that is humble about that wins my vote and my money. In any case dealing with reps that sell Sager machines I've found are worlds better than dealing with the likes of Dell and HP.

I have to say that Sager notebooks are top notch. My only complaint about them is they don't offer many options with decent power AND battery life. But that's Sager's design decisions, nothing to do with XoticPC or other resellers.