Anybody else have experiences with Maingear?

I'm wondering if anyone else has had any experience with Maingear and can share it with me.

I ordered a Maingear EX-L 15 on February 19th. I got the usual "thanks for your order" emails afterward but then I didn't hear anything for a number of days. I checked my order and my emails again, looking for a ship date. None was listed. The emails said "it will be shipped in accordance with the estimate on our website" and I was not able to find that.

So I started writing in to them, asking for an estimate. It took me 3 tries to get a response. Finally someone who signed the message as "Maingear CTO" replied and told me it would be another 3 weeks until they took delivery of the latest chipsets from Intel, and at that time they'd start kitting and building my laptop.

Wow! I thought. Another 3 weeks before I get it? It's been 5 weeks total now and the latest update is that it has entered the "kitting" stage. Meaning they have all the parts and it will enter "build" stage soon. This seems to be taking forever.

It turns out that the "estimate on our website" is a small ship date shown next to the button you press to configure and buy a model. I certainly wasn't paying attention to the ship date that early in the process, and by the time I went back to look at it, it had shifted even further into the future.

I guess for a craft build laptop, you should expect some wait. And I guess that's fine. But 5 weeks sure has been a long time to wait and it looks like it will be at least 1 more week now.

The thing that really bugs me is that they charged my credit card immediately upon ordering. I paid them over 2 thousand dollars well over a month ago now. It's unusual to me to pay before the item ships. Usually an online retailer will wait until shipping time to bill you if there are going to be delays in getting the item. I asked the CTO about this policy, twice. I was polite about it, but I never got any answer.

One of the reasons I paid the crazy Maingear prices is for their supposedly great service. So far they have been slow and poor communicators. I'm not impressed.

Should I hold on and wait for the computer? Is it going to be worth it in the end? Is their post-sale support better than their communication during the fulfillment process? I sure hope so! I am feeling nervous at this point and would like as much information as I can find.

What has been your experience with Maingear?

Thanks! I will update this thread as things progress.

Fingers crossed!

Well things seem to have sped up now. It spent several days in "kitting" mode but then it whizzed through build, burn-in testing, and shipment. I have a tracking number from FedEx! The wait is almost over...

Ship date is March 29th, but estimated delivery isn't until April 5th. I had been hoping to hole up with the new toy over the weekend

Well... a few months into owning this laptop, I wish I hadn't bought it. It was not worth the very high price. 

 

The GPU has started overheating periodically - at least that's what Maingear support seems to think. Artifacts start to appear and the screen goes dark. 

 

Support from Maingear has been completely lame. I have to send every message multiple times and nag them to get a response. They've gone as much as 10 days without a reply. They advertise "angelic service" but it's BS.

 

The computer itself is okay but not fantastic. The battery life is abysmal and performance is extremely degraded when not plugged in. The keyboard annoys me. The laptop isn't smart enough to go to sleep when you close the lid. HDMI out to my monitor has been flaky. I often need to reboot to get the computer to recognize my USB keyboard. Sigh.

 

If they'd accept a return at this point I'd give it back.

Okay...over 3 weeks after the initial report, I finally have an RMA number.

 

They claimed to be switching between one support software and another, hence the 10-day turnaround time on replies.

I've tried to convince them to take a return.

 

They said they only accepted returned within 30 days of purchase. 

 

I pointed out that it took them 45 days from purchase to deliver the machine. DOH!!  

 

I admit that the service is the most frustrating part here. They make a big show of the "angelic support" on their site and I fell for it. Support is the main reason to go with an OEM in the first place, in my humble opinion. But I am probably hoping for too much, huh? There's just no way to get good support in a commoditized field like Windows PCs, an industry which is now in contraction to boot.