Lousy Warranty support

In the UK we pay more money for most things, but our consumer rights seem much better.

It's usual that if something goes wrong in the first month or so it will be replaced with a new one. I've read threads on this board of people buying new motherboards and having to wait for weeks to have them repaired if they arrive faulty.

The one year guarantee will cover all of the purchase and it's the sellers responsibility to either organise the repair or replacement.

Of course the downside is the price we pay in the first place.

Well, i don't know if you still subscribed to this thread, almost a year passed since the last post.
Thomas Mackey sent me a link to this forum after another forum, there are more than 6 confirmed cases that all have the same porblems:

Quote:

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Originally posted by PcInfinityTech
In all honesty, I have NEVER seen anyone break off one of the legs let alone both of them. I have also never seen anyone pull the ground plug out of the desknote casing. This is obviously user error, and it is not our fault that it has happened. ECS has stated the same to us. Now that I have tried to help this guy and have gotten nothing in return except threats, verbal abuse, and just plain rudeness, I’ll think next time before going out of my way for a customer.

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[list=1][*]The power connector is getting very hot, after a little while of use.[*]After a little while of use (when it hot), the connector is getting half melted. at this point is getting harder and harder to plug/pull out the connector.[*]Again, After a little while of use you may have unexpected reboots, this means that the next (and unavoidable... :() chapter to the horror story is going to happen... to YOUR laptop.[*]Because of it's hard to pull out the connector, it might be (and probably what will happen) that the third prong will be pulled out with the connector.[/list=1]
End of story...

the PC Review forum had a lot of people who are in all the levels i counted above, and all of them know that some day it will happen to them also...

i went to a electronics engineer, and he told me that the connector (or the cable inside the laptop that connects to the third prong) is not designed to hold the 4.74 Amper of the output and this make all the heat.
the plastic connector is just melting by the heat.

this is obvious that this is a design flaw, and ECS is trying to avoid this issue, by telling "user error" or "phisical damage". after this happend to unconnected people all around the world, is telling something about the product and about the manufacturer.

all the people that bought this computer, ECS Desknote A928, A929 (maybe other models also have the problem, let us know) and has the above problems, please contact by email me: [email protected] or Matt Horne: [email protected] and send:
1. Your name
2. Email
3. Date of purchase (and where)
4. Serial Number
5. And a short detailed stroy about your problem.

if ECS don't want to hear us as individuals, they will hear us from a lawyer... maybe this will help.

I forgot to attach the pictures of my own old connector.
so here it is:

You go girl :D

Oh, and welcome to VDr! ;)

Girl?!
i'm a boy... (Menachem)

you - a sympathizer of macabbi don't know that?! :)

Yeah, I know that, its just a phrase! :)

didn't know...

i'm not an american, so my english is not so good...

Your English seems pretty good to me. In any case, have you bought a new laptop?

Quote:

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Originally posted by usil
Your English seems pretty good to me.

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Thank you. :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by usil
In any case, have you bought a new laptop?

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no. i didn't. i don't have enough money for that.
i want to buy an Compaq presario one, becuase a friend of mine have this, and it's working very well.

i just finished the army (Golani), and i'm waiting for the release bonus, and to my first salary of a web site i built lately.
all of it together will be about 6 thousand shekels (1500$ USD) and i'll take a little from my parents, and buy a new compaq...

i'm waiting for that day... ;)

maybe also i'll find a buyer for the ECS Laptop, but the problem is no one want to buy it, after i tell him about the heat problem. :( i won't lie to the buyer.

I bought a top of the line power desktop from Gateway in 1994 for $5,500 plus. Unfortunately, the computer that they shipped came with several hardware defects.

After months and months of trying to figure out what the problem was (and being lied to by Gateway reps) within my 1 year warranty, time ran out. Eventually, I hired a tech support company to test my system and it turned out there was a defective cache rom on the motherboard. By the time that I got finished paying for tech support company and paying for a new motherboard and memory, it cost me an additional $2,000.

Anytime anyone asked me for advice on who to buy from, I always told them to avoid Gateway.

It has turned out that Gateway took short cuts in the manufacture of their computers and treated all of their customers this way.

They have now filed for bankruptcy.

Moral of this story:

Eventually, word-of-mouth catches up with the bad behavior of major companies, so that they can't find a sufficient number of suckers to keep their corrupt enterprise in business.

Linda

;)

We need to start sending letters to Major Magazines and posting on all computer web sites. I have already fought my battle with ECS and I threaten them and http://www.pcinfinity.net The problem is these OUTLETS KEEP SELLING TO THEM.


If PC Infinity and others would stop selling there product they would have to fix the product or be force out of business.



The one computer company That we do buisness with is Dell, they are top notch and there turn around time is about three days. I would buy either Dell or Micron.



I wanted to also say they did fix mine but I donot know how long of a fix it is. If you could get this infront of a judge of a civil lawsuit and show him that evidence those people would have a chance of getting there laptops fixed irregardles of if they are out of warranty or not.

Like Said in a post in PC Review that I can no longer take a chance of playing 3D games on my laptop fof fear of melting the plug.

Quote:

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Originally posted by LindaHewitt
They have now filed for bankruptcy.

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Since when ?

According to this they seem to be going alright

Quote:

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Gateway announced on March 11, 2004, its successful acquisition of eMachines, one of the world's fastest-growing, most efficient PC makers, for 50 million new Gateway shares and $30 million cash.

This acquisition makes Gateway the third-largest PC company in the United States, with nearly 7 percent of the U.S. PC market and growing sales in Japan, the UK and western Europe. The company is expected to be profitable for 2005.

More details on the integration will begin emerging in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, this section of Gateway.com is dedicated to providing further information and timely updates about the company's plans as they unfold.

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from http://www.gateway.com/about/news_in...egration.shtml

and this doesn't sound to bad either.

We are talking about www.gateway.com aren't we ?

Hi Nix,

What I have been reading is that because of poor net profit reports, they have had 3 major layoffs of their employees and each included thousands of employees.

Since Gateway is not one of my favorite companies, I do not follow their news that closely, so maybe I am incorrect in my statement that they are going to or have filed for bankruptcy.

I do know that their strategy of the Gateway stores have cost them a lot of red ink and that they have a lot of dissatisfied customers but that is neither here nor there.

My point was that companies that do not create their customers fairly usually wind up on the dust heap sooner or later because the word spreads. Just as the word spreads about good companies and good products.

Linda

Ok.

They closed all their Australian stores about 3 years ago and all support is now done through Malaysia.

Always good to get the extended warranty, my old boss wouldn't let me leave the store without getting extended warranty