Wierd things happening

[tonlev]

I understand what you are saying ubuysa but as I have already said the laptop has been repaired so what can they investigate?

I do not expect any company to make a judgement based on photographs and of course its not PCS's fault that I do not want to be without my laptop for a considerable length of time, but for good customer service and reputation maybe there is a middle ground if they are really interested in their reputation.

I am not refusing to give PCS the opportunity to investigate my complaint but they want to do it at my expense! I feel as I have already had to pay to repair my laptop then it should at least be investigated at their expense, obviously my thinking on good customer service and reputation is misplaced.

 

[tonlev]

Finally after several more e-mails from me back to PCS they have responded, and i am absolutly disgusted with their findings. Apparantly my laptop suffered 'normal wear and tear' expected of a machine that is under two years of age.
If this is the case then I will never purchase from them again
I have submitted my pictures and all the responses from PCS to the Computer magazine that they advertise in and hope it is published as a warning to potential customers NOT to use PCS.
I did not expect an admission of poor quality but to say what they have said is an insult to all users of their laptops. I have never heard of a laptop life expectancy to be under two years whatever the daily usage is.
Hope you all fair better, but i for one will never use PCS again nor recommend them to anybody, in fact quiet the reverse

 

[ubuysa]

Finally after several more e-mails from me back to PCS they have responded, and i am absolutly disgusted with their findings. Apparantly my laptop suffered 'normal wear and tear' expected of a machine that is under two years of age.
If this is the case then I will never purchase from them again
I have submitted my pictures and all the responses from PCS to the Computer magazine that they advertise in and hope it is published as a warning to potential customers NOT to use PCS.
I did not expect an admission of poor quality but to say what they have said is an insult to all users of their laptops. I have never heard of a laptop life expectancy to be under two years whatever the daily usage is.
Hope you all fair better, but i for one will never use PCS again nor recommend them to anybody, in fact quiet the reverse

Perhaps you'd care to submit your pictures on here? Even with the pictures there is no way for any of us to know whether your issues are due to normal wear and tear. Laptops are a lot more delicate than people appreciate and non of PCS's laptops are marketed as 'rugged'. For example, opening any laptop by the corners rather than in the centre puts excessive strain on the screen. When my Optimus IV arrived there was a note not to open it by the edges, only at the centre.

PCS seem to have determined that your issues are not due to a fault or defect that was present when the laptop was new and that the problems have been created since. Only you know how the laptop has been treated in the two years you've had it.

 

[tonlev]

I understand what you are saying and I have tried to insert the pictures on here but for some reason it wont work.

I treat all my personal equipment with extreme care as i want them to last for as long as possible, I never open the la[top at the corners nor does my wife, and we are the only people who use my laptop. Isent PCS a picture of the tracking pad's wear and they say this is normal for the age and use of the laptop, utter rubbish I have never seen this sort of wear on any machine, and whilst I was working my work laptop was treated with a lack of consideration and still never wore like this one has, nor did my previous laptop which was much cheaper than this one and supplied by Dell, who don't have a great reputation, no sorry I do not accept their findings, nor their lack of even a gesture of goodwill, given that the repair cost me 100 euros, with a new screen and heat fan (that was not including with the original), yet PCS offered me the cost of £70 plus postage and packaging for the journey from Spain back to the UK plus the cost of the repairs ie a new screen but no labour charges, not a very good gesture at all.
this is the only photo that will download, i dont know why the others won't.

 

[ubuysa]

Well as I said, nobody on here is better qualified than PCS to determine whether your problems are due to normal wear and tear or not. What I can say from personal experience, and from comments from many others on here, is that PCS are very responsive to customer problems so they must be pretty certain that your problems are wear and tear.

In your last post your biggest complaint seems to be wear on the trackpad. I've seen lots of trackpads that show wear in my time, a lot depends on the environment in which they are used and how clean your fingers are.

£100 to repair a laptop sounds pretty cheap to me and paying the postage to and from Spain is a very nice gesture. Remember that PCS are a UK based company so those of us (and I'm in Greece) who live outside the UK normally have to accept the high cost of postage.

I realise that nothing I (or probably anyone else on here) can say will change your mind and you're perfectly entitled to your opinions of PCS. For every one person who does not recommend them there are a hundred or more who who do.

It's sad and unfortunate that you are unhappy but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

 

[tonlev]

Sorry you misunderstood PCS did not offer free postage and packaging, in fact quite the opposite, which is part of my complaint to them. Yes 100 was a good price to repair my laptop I have no complaints about that, but it was not PCS that repaired it.
My issue is that is would have cost me around £250 to send it back to PCS and get it repaired, that is not resonable, and they have made no sort of customer service offer of goodwill to me whatsoever, so spending another £250 for a repair is not worthwhile as a new laptop of similiar spec would cost around £500. They have been evasive, not answered my e-mails or just ignored them even when informing me that they would respond within 24 hours, funnily enough the e-mail never arrived even though they said they sent it to me the same day. As an ex emloyee of the Justice Ministery of the UK i just don't believe in coincedences like that.
Coincidence of course the one e-mail they told me that they had responded to as promised was the one that never arrived.
At one time the representative took over a week to send the photo's I sent to her, to the technicians, after informing me she would respnd back to me the same day, and on another occasion she managed to be ill (of course this is entirly possible) and only responded back to me when i sent her a further two e-mails.
No my whole experience with dealing with there representative has been poor and not the standard I would have expected or deserved.
You might have seen a trackball with bad wear and tear but not on one that is less than two years old, that is not overused or treated badly. I have had laptops from PCS previously as well as a desktop and have never encountered these issues before.
So my issue isn't just about the laptop but about PCS's their whole way of dealing with issues, customer service is poor. as you can see on other posts on this very forum complaing of the poor customer service from PCS
But as you say you cannot please everybody all of the time, I for one will never use them again nor r ecommend them to anybody, and i will continually warn potential customers about the issues I have had and the resonses i ahve received.
I wish I could post the keyboard pictures on here but for some reason I cannot.

 

[tonlev]

Ok i have managed to shrink the photo's but I think you can see the broken laptop screen hinge, held on by plastic lugs and the wear and tear on the tracking pad.
This is 'normal wear and tear' on a laptop costing over £500 and less than two years old??

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok i have managed to shrink the photo's but I think you can see the broken laptop screen hinge, held on by plastic lugs and the wear and tear on the tracking pad.
This is 'normal wear and tear' on a laptop costing over £500 and less than two years old??

View attachment 9172
View attachment 9173

The ultranote is a cheap custom laptop chassis, it's like buying a £350 quid off the shelf bargain laptop from PC World or somewhere. £500 on a custom laptop is a cheap build. They're not the best quality. If that was a high end gaming chassis, then I'd say yes, the wear and tear is not normal for the age, but on that chassis, it does seem to be the norm.

 

[tonlev]

Thanks for that SpyderTracks
I am gobsmacked as my previous laptop was cheaper than this one (I thought this was an upgrade) and asked originally about the qualtiy of the chassis and was assured it was better than my previous laptop (also from PCS), If I had known the life expectancy of this one was this poor I would not have purchased it.
I have had two Dell machines previous to this one both under £500 and neither had this sort of wear and tear before.
Basically i wasted my £500 as i could have spent as you say £350 and got one off the shelf.

Not sure what i will purhase in the future, but PCS wont be an option as they do not warn their potential customers of the poor quality of some of their chassis's.
I know its a competative world and things are not made to last but am very disappointed to find a laptop under two years of age is basically rubbish, as the screen hinges although repaired i was told due to the poor quality of the orignal fittings, will not last that long either.
Thanks again everybody for your comments.

 

[ubuysa]

Sorry you misunderstood PCS did not offer free postage and packaging, in fact quite the opposite, which is part of my complaint to them. Yes 100 was a good price to repair my laptop I have no complaints about that, but it was not PCS that repaired it.
My issue is that is would have cost me around £250 to send it back to PCS and get it repaired, that is not resonable, and they have made no sort of customer service offer of goodwill to me whatsoever, so spending another £250 for a repair is not worthwhile as a new laptop of similiar spec would cost around £500. They have been evasive, not answered my e-mails or just ignored them even when informing me that they would respond within 24 hours, funnily enough the e-mail never arrived even though they said they sent it to me the same day. As an ex emloyee of the Justice Ministery of the UK i just don't believe in coincedences like that.
Coincidence of course the one e-mail they told me that they had responded to as promised was the one that never arrived.
At one time the representative took over a week to send the photo's I sent to her, to the technicians, after informing me she would respnd back to me the same day, and on another occasion she managed to be ill (of course this is entirly possible) and only responded back to me when i sent her a further two e-mails.
No my whole experience with dealing with there representative has been poor and not the standard I would have expected or deserved.
You might have seen a trackball with bad wear and tear but not on one that is less than two years old, that is not overused or treated badly. I have had laptops from PCS previously as well as a desktop and have never encountered these issues before.
So my issue isn't just about the laptop but about PCS's their whole way of dealing with issues, customer service is poor. as you can see on other posts on this very forum complaing of the poor customer service from PCS
But as you say you cannot please everybody all of the time, I for one will never use them again nor r ecommend them to anybody, and i will continually warn potential customers about the issues I have had and the resonses i ahve received.
I wish I could post the keyboard pictures on here but for some reason I cannot.

Yes, apologies. I did misunderstand the £70 offer, but as I said it's not PCS's problem that you (and I) don't live in the UK. Sending stuff back is always going to cost us a lot of money, we knew that when we bought from them.

I don't think your employment status is very relevant to anything. PCS are known for not being terribly responsive to emails. That has been an ongoing issue and has resulted in a number of complaints. You're quite right that it's very poor service but I don't think PCS are avoiding you in particular, they're just not very good at answering emails in a consistent and timely manner it seems.

Your complaint now seems to be based on three things then; the broken hinge (who knows how that happened but it's unlikely to have fallen apart on its own) the trackpad wear (which is excessive in your photo, but the level of wear all depends on how it's been used) and PCS's poor response to your complaints via email. As I said, only PCS can really determine whether the broken hinge and trackpad wear were due to faulty equipment or wear and tear and they seem to have determined that it's wear and tear. Obviously you're not happy with that decision but that determination does not of itself make PCS a bad company, just one that disagrees with your interpretation. As far as the email contact is concerned it is a very weak area for PCS and one they need to improve. It's also well nigh impossible for those of us outside the UK to call PCS which would be the most effective way to get help or process a complaint, but PCS are a UK company and as I've said it's not their fault we don't live in the UK.

When you recommend that people avoid PCS I trust you will explain to them that part of your problem is that you live in Spain? I also trust you will explain that the determination of whether the problems are wear and tear or not is a point of dispute between you and PCS, you can't for example say that 'PCS will always say that any problem you have is wear and tear and refuse to fix it'. I also hope you will point out that you have '...had laptops and a desktop in the past..' and not had any issues with those?

As far as other posts complaining of poor customer service, you have to remember that the posts on here are not a representative sample of PCS's customer base. They are very heavily skewed towards those with problems, so it's no surprise to find that a lot of them are negative. If you take the time to look though, you will find a great many posts that praise PCS's customer service - including a couple from me.

 

[tonlev]

ubuysa I have to disagree with you.
You said 'As I said, only PCS can really determine whether the broken hinge and trackpad wear were due to faulty equipment or wear and tear and they seem to have determined that it's wear and tear.' Why should they be the judge and jury of their own work, when I have used an independent repairer over here in Spain who's conclusion is contrary to PCS's. Its like the police policing themselves, that just cannot be right, An independent technician is the only way to establish 'wear and tear' or poor workmanship and not the manufacturers.

As for my work experience I was merely pointing out that PCs sending me an important e-mail that I never received was a strange coincidence, and in my previous employment coincidence was to be treated with suspicion.

Could you also explain what me living in Spain has to do with the state of the laptop? That is only the added cost for sending my machine for repair, and I feel any decent company would offer that as free as a gesture of goodwill. The machine was purchased whilst I still lived in the UK.

I don't actually seem to find where I said as you quoted 'PCS will always say that any problem you have is wear and tear and refuse to fix it'. I am sure I never stated that.

I will of course point out that I have bought other machines and that I have never had any problems with them but that will have to include all the machines I have purchased that were not always from PCS to offer a balanced view.

I know you are an independent moderator but your take does not seem to offer a balanced view unlike SpyderTracks, but thanks for your comments.

 

[ubuysa]

ubuysa I have to disagree with you.
You said 'As I said, only PCS can really determine whether the broken hinge and trackpad wear were due to faulty equipment or wear and tear and they seem to have determined that it's wear and tear.' Why should they be the judge and jury of their own work, when I have used an independent repairer over here in Spain who's conclusion is contrary to PCS's. Its like the police policing themselves, that just cannot be right, An independent technician is the only way to establish 'wear and tear' or poor workmanship and not the manufacturers.

I understand that you disagree, that's why we're having this discussion.

Name me one computer vendor who use a third party to determine 'fair wear and tear' on their computers. I know of none.

As for my work experience I was merely pointing out that PCs sending me an important e-mail that I never received was a strange coincidence, and in my previous employment coincidence was to be treated with suspicion.

Emails do go missing, often because of screw-ups with your ISP or indeed with PCS's ISP. I simply don't believe that PCS were ignoring you on purpose nor that they lied about sending the email. Stuff happens.

Could you also explain what me living in Spain has to do with the state of the laptop? That is only the added cost for sending my machine for repair, and I feel any decent company would offer that as free as a gesture of goodwill. The machine was purchased whilst I still lived in the UK.

The added cost of sending it back for RMA was my point about living in Spain, and it matters not that you bought it in the UK. The cost of sending it too and from Spain is yours alone and I see no reason why PCS should offer a goodwill gesture and pay for shipping if they think the laptop damage is down to 'fair wear and tear'.

I don't actually seem to find where I said as you quoted 'PCS will always say that any problem you have is wear and tear and refuse to fix it'. I am sure I never stated that.

No you didn't. My point is that if you are going to recommend that people do not use PCS you need to make sure that you do so in a balanced and fair way and that you restrict your comments to the one laptop with which you have had an issue. You can't (as many people do) extrapolate from your specific example to suggest that PCS treat everyone a certain way.

I will of course point out that I have bought other machines and that I have never had any problems with them but that will have to include all the machines I have purchased that were not always from PCS to offer a balanced view.

Fair enough.

I know you are an independent moderator but your take does not seem to offer a balanced view unlike SpyderTracks, but thanks for your comments.

My being a volunteer moderator is neither here nor there, my posts are wholly and entirely my personal views and my contributions here are not in any way shape or form associated with nor endorsed by PCS.

As far as balance is concerned I'm trying to present a contrary viewpoint to yours in the interest of balance. You think you've been hard done by and that PCS have deliberately acted in an underhand manner to deny you a free (or subsidised) repair to a laptop you claim was defective. I'm saying that PCS, who know these laptops better than anyone (except Clevo) are clearly quite convinced that your problems are down to 'wear and tear' and I'm inclined to believe them. Especially as, in post #11 you claimed that 'there was no thermal paste inside the machine' which is just not possible if it ran for two years, and in post #19 you were clearly resistant to sending the laptop back at all and wanted them to agree to fix it based on some rather poor photographs. Even back then, and before PCS had even looked at it, you were saying that 'I will never use PCS or recommend them to anybody every again'.

You are right though that we will have to disagree.

 

[tonlev]

Disagree I am happy with but please do not continually put words into my mouth that I had no intention of saying
'You think you've been hard done by and that PCS have deliberately acted in an underhand manner to deny you a free (or subsidised) repair to a laptop you claim was defective'
They are your words not mine and I take exception to the innuendo implied by your statement, that is not a contrary view at all
But sure lets disagree

 

[tonlev]

Customer Service is a joke

I had no complaints about pcs until my laptop went wrong, and then since September 2016 help.
Customer disservice would be more appropriate, even now after giving me continuous mis information and having my laptop to repair, one department tells me different information in regard to the state of repair and cost involved.
Even this morning when I had already received an e-mail last Friday informing me that a charge had been dropped as a gesture of goodwill, I receive another e-mail from the customer service department informing me that I still had to make the payment.
This has resulted in yet another telephone call from Spain to the UK to sort it out.
Apparently the customer service department had not been informed of the technical departments decision.
Amazing
They also informed once I had told them about the technicians e-mail that the technician could not make the decision to waive the fee, yet the techies manager knew about it.
Really had enough of this company, and have told them that unless I get the correct information and confirmation of the return to me of my laptop I will seek legal advice with a view to taking action about the whole incident going back to September 2016.
Awful customer service, let's hope all your equipment from pcs does not go wrong.

 

[ubuysa]

I had no complaints about pcs until my laptop went wrong, and then since September 2016 help.
Customer disservice would be more appropriate, even now after giving me continuous mis information and having my laptop to repair, one department tells me different information in regard to the state of repair and cost involved.
Even this morning when I had already received an e-mail last Friday informing me that a charge had been dropped as a gesture of goodwill, I receive another e-mail from the customer service department informing me that I still had to make the payment.
This has resulted in yet another telephone call from Spain to the UK to sort it out.
Apparently the customer service department had not been informed of the technical departments decision.
Amazing
They also informed once I had told them about the technicians e-mail that the technician could not make the decision to waive the fee, yet the techies manager knew about it.
Really had enough of this company, and have told them that unless I get the correct information and confirmation of the return to me of my laptop I will seek legal advice with a view to taking action about the whole incident going back to September 2016.
Awful customer service, let's hope all your equipment from pcs does not go wrong.

I have merged your two threads because they appear to relate to the same laptop and the same complaint. If that's not the case let me know and I'll unmerge them for you.

 

[tonlev]

The latest
After my repairs and compkaints have eventually been sorted out my laptop was sent back to me via a company called DpD. I was given a link to gecable to track the return and today was the day of the return
At 1730 I was getting a little concerned that it had not been returned so I checked the tracking link in case there was a problem.
Well there was according to the information supplied my laptop was delivered and signed by me at 1620 today.?
Certainly not signed by me or delivered to me? So where us my laptop ?
I contacted PCS who telephoned me back but do not know where my laptop was delivered too.
Great!!!!!
PCS you really suck, I am now awaiting the results of their investigation, but unless they can find the laptop or replace it I will sue them
What disaster and a terrible experience with this company. Never ever use them so totally unprofessional.
Absolutly disgusted with them

 

[Rakk]

The latest
After my repairs and compkaints have eventually been sorted out my laptop was sent back to me via a company called DpD. I was given a link to gecable to track the return and today was the day of the return
At 1730 I was getting a little concerned that it had not been returned so I checked the tracking link in case there was a problem.
Well there was according to the information supplied my laptop was delivered and signed by me at 1620 today.?
Certainly not signed by me or delivered to me? So where us my laptop ?
I contacted PCS who telephoned me back but do not know where my laptop was delivered too.
Great!!!!!
PCS you really suck, I am now awaiting the results of their investigation, but unless they can find the laptop or replace it I will sue them
What disaster and a terrible experience with this company. Never ever use them so totally unprofessional.
Absolutly disgusted with them

I realise you're not happy, but the missing laptop is DPD's doing not PCS's, DPD are a global courier company and if you search for reviews of any delivery company you will get many complaints, unfortunately that seems to be the norm with couriers.
PCS will get it sorted for you, but they will have to go through DPDs investigation procedures (that may not be fast) - I don't know how losses through DPD are dealt with, I guess it would mean you end up getting sent a brand new laptop as a replacement if yours cannot be found as you will not be left out of pocket.

I really hope it gets sorted soon.

Edit: and yes, I've had that happen to me before as well, about 8ish years ago (can't remember the courier - wasn't DPD though), I was getting a new TV delivered (as my previous one had been stolen) and it was signed for by someone else, needless to say that one was never seen again, but the company sending it to me sent me another as a replacement, but yes I was very pee'd off til the replacement arrived.

 

[tonlev]

Just another amazing coincidence which is something I find hard to believe like the very part I disputed the quality of and then it gets accidentally damaged by PcS to which they have to repair for free, along with the others parts I qestioned being repaired as gesture of goodwill and then all the disputed parts and the repaired laptop sent back to me so I can take them all to an independant technician so I can submit my findings to PC Advisor for them to publish, and the laptop goes mysteriously missing??
Naw I really don't believe this amount of coincidence, especially given the industry I used to work in, ie law enforcement
PCS will do all they can to absolve themselves of their responsibility
Yes I know the courier is responsible for the delivery issue, but how conveinient that I now cannot investigate the initial question of poor build quality ??
Will I ever get compensation or a replacement laptop, watch this space!
Amazing

 

[Oussebon]

Well, if your concern is that PCS have done everything they can to avoid having to answer questions about the initial build quality in order such as pretending they accidentally damaged it, presumably to save face, and that they are somehow responsible for this delivery going AWOL, you can at least be fairly confident that you will get a replacement. There wouldn't be much point in doing all the above if they and DPD were crooked enough, as you imply, to make your laptop go missing.They'd have just made it go missing at the start and saved themselves the hassle

I find it hard to believe PCS connived with DPD to make your laptop go missing tbh. I'm far more likely to believe incompetence /human error. Not that incompetence is a good thing... https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_faq#faq_forumrules

It's worth bearing in mind that the forum rules don't allow for, as the rules put it, tarnishing the good name of PCS. Pointing out a string of errors on PCS's part is one thing. Implying that they deliberately caused your laptop to go missing is arguably something else. I'm sure I'd be at least as steamed as you have every right to be over the issues you've experienced and the cash and time you've spent on this laptop, but I thought it was worth mentioning that in case the thread progresses to a stage where mods need to review it.

 

[ubuysa]

The latest
After my repairs and compkaints have eventually been sorted out my laptop was sent back to me via a company called DpD. I was given a link to gecable to track the return and today was the day of the return
At 1730 I was getting a little concerned that it had not been returned so I checked the tracking link in case there was a problem.
Well there was according to the information supplied my laptop was delivered and signed by me at 1620 today.?
Certainly not signed by me or delivered to me? So where us my laptop ?
I contacted PCS who telephoned me back but do not know where my laptop was delivered too.
Great!!!!!
PCS you really suck, I am now awaiting the results of their investigation, but unless they can find the laptop or replace it I will sue them
What disaster and a terrible experience with this company. Never ever use them so totally unprofessional.
Absolutly disgusted with them

Just another amazing coincidence which is something I find hard to believe like the very part I disputed the quality of and then it gets accidentally damaged by PcS to which they have to repair for free, along with the others parts I qestioned being repaired as gesture of goodwill and then all the disputed parts and the repaired laptop sent back to me so I can take them all to an independant technician so I can submit my findings to PC Advisor for them to publish, and the laptop goes mysteriously missing??
Naw I really don't believe this amount of coincidence, especially given the industry I used to work in, ie law enforcement
PCS will do all they can to absolve themselves of their responsibility
Yes I know the courier is responsible for the delivery issue, but how conveinient that I now cannot investigate the initial question of poor build quality ??
Will I ever get compensation or a replacement laptop, watch this space!
Amazing

Since you 'used to work in law enforcement' you will be well aware of the importance of obeying rules and regulations. When you signed up for these fora you implicitly accepted the forum rules which clearly state that:

You ARE NOT allowed to use the PC Specialist Ltd forums to:

Use the forums as a medium to tarnish the reputation or good name of PC Specialist Ltd, we value all feedback positive and negative and have support channels for this. Unconstructive negativism about the services of PC Specialist Ltd will be deleted without hesitation.

IMO these two posts of yours are getting perilously close to breaking this rule. If you wish your voice to continue to be heard you need to moderate your tone somewhat.