Why you should never buy from PCS (and/or Clevo).

I am posting this thread in the hopes that I can save one person the trouble and money I have wasted on my purchase.

I'll try to keep this short, although it will be difficult.

1. Laptop took 28 working days to build, while I was assured MULTIPLE TIMES that it would be ready a lot sooner than that. According to them, it was even placed on internal priority, and still took ages. Normally, this wouldn't be a big thing if they didn't mislead me repeatedly.

2. 3 days after laptop arrived it had to be RMA-ed. (faulty CPU if I recall correctly, nice quality control testing)

3. After nearly 2 years of use, the fan controller problem, which was supposed to be resolved 2 years ago still plagues Optimus laptops. Obviously this is on Clevo, but again, something to think about.

3a. At one point I asked for a BIOS update to sent to me, hoping it resolved fan issues. They took down my EC/BIOS version numbers the same day, and never actually sent me the update. Customer service is literally out of this world.

4. Laptop has been RMA-ed 3(or 4?) times now, each RMA taking roughly 3-4 weeks. One involving CPU replacement, and one a motherboard replacement. Even after all this they refused to accept a return of the laptop.

This is where it gets interesting. Although the RMA states the motherboard was replaced, what they actually did was re-soldered a new capacitor, because the old one had blown out. I would have never found this out, had the exact same capacitor not blown out again 2 months ago, and I had to spend £40 replacing it.

5. In general, absolutely terrible build quality, at least on the Optimus V that I have.

6. An insane amount of minor problems, as a result of (5), including, but not limited to:

a) The finish of the laptop coming off after 1 month of use where I rest my hands.

b) Dying pixels

c) Have had to personally take the laptop apart at least to fix problems which, if I was not a power user, I would have had to RMA the laptop for (which as I already said take nearly a month). These included RAM stick coming loose preventing laptop from booting, keyboard/touchpad cables coming loose, etc.

d) Just today I discovered that, when I move the laptop screen, the crystals in the display at the bottom left corner get squished or something, so it's as if I'm pressing down on the screen.

e) Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that backlight bleeding has also started to appear.

f) Absolutely terrible speakers - I'm no audiophile, but these speakers are literally the worst thing I have ever heard.


NOTE: The laptop is barely ever moved and has never been dropped or anything like that - this should tell you how absolutely garbage it is.

Final thoughts:
I'm sure I've missed some things, purely because of the number of issues I have had with this hunk of junk.
Just take this into consideration before purchasing anything.

Sorry to hear about all the issues, I guess you were unlucky as this does not reflect the experience that most of us had when ordering.

It is a shame you seem to have been let down on a couple of different occasions mostly due to internal processes at PCS that we have no idea about.

Normally PCS will refund the machine after 2 RMAs with the same cause. Sp if you are saying they refused to refund the machine after 2 separate CPU faults I would be surprised.

The third time I RMA-ed the machine I explicitly asked for a refund, I was told there was nothing wrong with it and they could not refund me.
Also, there's a difference between being unlucky and having literally every possible problem occur in less than 2 years. But hey, maybe I'm just biased.

Did you have 2 discrete CPU failures/replacements? if so then I believe it is the policy to issue a refund if requested. I do not believe they have a policy to offer a refund if it is 2-3-4 unconnected issues though.

I'm not going to take sides, i have been burned before. I do think the majority of time people are unhappy because of communication errors within PCS or from PCS to the consumer, you seem to have had your fair share (and then some) of this issue as well.

it is possible that the CPU x2 and motherboard problems were related in which case you would also be entitled to a full refund, as they missed the diagnosis on the 1st and 2nd attempts. However after 2 years i suspect you will have a hard time getting one.

I just checked my logs and the first RMA was a CPU replacement, the second I sent in because the CPU was acting weird still (temperatures are fluctuating like crazy to this day) and they chalked it down to nothing being wrong with it - it was during that time the motherboard 'blew out and was replaced'. So technically they only replaced 1 CPU and 1 motherboard, my bad. I still think the CPU is defective in some way, but they won't admit it and there's nothing I can do about it. And this isn't about getting a refund anymore (although one would be lovely) - it's about trying to make sure people don't make the same mistake I did.

Hi Delinja,

Gutting to hear about your problems also. Although i cannot add any additional support i just wanted to advise you to contact PCS using their complaints procedure too, unless you have done so already

12 Complaints about our Service
12.1 We hope that you will not have any complaints about our Services however if you do have an issue please contact us at [email protected] and we will do our best to respond within 5 business days.

As its been with you for about 2 years in not sure what the out come could be but maybe worth a try.

SmokeDarKnight said:

Hi Delinja,

Gutting to hear about your problems also. Although i cannot add any additional support i just wanted to advise you to contact PCS using their complaints procedure too, unless you have done so already

12 Complaints about our Service
12.1 We hope that you will not have any complaints about our Services however if you do have an issue please contact us at [email protected] and we will do our best to respond within 5 business days.

As its been with you for about 2 years in not sure what the out come could be but maybe worth a try.

Click to expand...

I just started reading some stuff on complaint procedure after your post, and I saw this - 'You can also ask to speak to a manager, they will always endeavour to rectify an issue or any other matter.'

That's actually hilarious, because I have been refused the right to speak to a manager when I have called before, instead I was told to write a formal complaint. What a complete joke.

I'd be severely pee'd off with some of the goings on that seemed to have happened here so I sympathise. But the wording of quite a few bits like "do NOT buy from PCS" and "you WILL regret buying from PCS" smack of wanting to punish PCS rather than inform others with a useful review.

If a company who'd ever sent something out faulty lost all their customers then there'd be no companies left in the world!

But yes, communication and customer service does sometimes seem to be a bit lacking in some cases.

SlimCini said:

But the wording of quite a few bits like "do NOT buy from PCS" and "you WILL regret buying from PCS" smack of wanting to punish PCS rather than inform others with a useful review.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a fair point, it was really hard to stay objective while writing this, for obvious reasons. I will try to edit those parts.

Hello,

I would first of all like to take this opportunity to apologise that you have had problems with your order, it certainly isn’t something that we would have expected.

Please send me a PM with your order number, email address and contact number, I will then start an internal investigation and email you directly.

To send me a personal message please click on the below link;

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=6

If I can assist you any further then please do not hesitate contact me

Kind Regards

Mustafa Ramzan

UPDATE

Once again I apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss this over the phone with you.

We never expect a problem to happen but when something does go wrong we put every effort to make sure the level inconvenience is at a minimum, we also make sure that if a system is returned back that every effort is made to get it fixed.

Majority of the issues you have raised can be processed by me directly, which is why I have emailed you my direct personal email, it will also help with continuity.

Unfortunately to check the quality of the system and Screen issue the system will need to come back for inspection.

We specialise in selling Computer systems, based on that we have designed our building, testing and quality control department, we also use the highest quality branded components.
Please note we do not replace capacitors on Motherboards, we simply return them to the manufacturer, and they will either replace the Motherboard or repair it under warranty.

Your feedback has been passed on and will be handled internally, our main priority is to work with you to bring the matter to a resolution.

With any further assistance please send me a personal email.

This forum is not an official medium of support so we are unable to take this any further on the forum, I think it is prudent to lock this thread.

If you wish to create a new thread please feel free to.

Kind Regards

Mustafa Ramzan