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MicroMedics Sucks!

post #1 of 60
7/23/04 at 11:26pm
Thread Starter 
Just thought I'd put this out there:

My 5670 died (locks up during boot, or within a minute of booting), and the extended warantee was through Phillips, who had me ship it to MicroMedics. Took a week, due to the 2-day shipping from CA to IL (what's up with that? Nobody fixes laptops in the LA area? Hell, Sager HQ is a 1/2 hour from me, but they aren't set up with Phillips for repairs!!)

Anyways, I finally get my machine back, in the same box I sent it in, but it's really beat up looking, and the special foam guards aren't in there... it's wrapped in one small piece of bubble wrap and some packing peanuts.

I open it up, glad to see nothing is obviously broken, but the screen is really dirty and dusty, which it was NOT when it left here.

And guess what? Same problem, IT'S NOT FIXED!

So I call them around lunch, they say they'll have someone call back. I call two more times over the next couple hours, and they promise they will be open late and someone will get to me. Nothing. I call back again, and get an answering machine telling me they are now closed for the weekend.

ARGH!

They SUCK!

It makes me sick to know my machine has been bashed around in a thin layer of bubble wrap for 2000 miles, all for nothing. And now it will most likely take another week and another FedEx beating to get it repaired.
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post #2 of 60
7/24/04 at 3:21am
I had warranty work done by MicroMedic on my 8886.
The first packaging they sent was too small. Took another week to get the right packaging to me. When I got the machine back, the frame around the screen was sprung open, nearly 3/8" at the upper right corner and across the top and down the right side. The latches are jammed. I was able to close the sprung frame except for about 1/8" at the corner but the latches are still jammed and useless.

I called MicroMedics when I got the machine, was told someone would call me back. Nobody did. I called again the next day and was told again someone would call me back. Nobody did. When I called the following morning, I asked to speak to a supervisor, was given a number and when I dialed it, I was instructed to enter a password. Obviously, I don't have any password. Calls back to MicroMedic have been useless. Ditto with emails to MicroMedic, Warrentech and the dealer I bought the machine from, formerly Mobile Peripherals, but they've changed their name and I can't find them any more but the person I dealt with hasn't returned my emails.

Frankly, I will never do business with any of those firms again and I will advise anyone else to take the same attitude. The only thing these people understand or care about is money. The only way to communicate with them is to withhold business from them and support those businesses that do stand up and do right.
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post #3 of 60
7/24/04 at 3:51am
Thread Starter 
Wow... sounds like I was lucky.

When I talked to Phillips today, I did make it very clear that I will not send this machine back to MicroMedics... they will have to use a different repair business.

I also told them there's bound to be at least one place they work with in California, and they should try to use them... I don't want to ship this thing further than necessary.
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post #4 of 60
7/24/04 at 4:14am
Thread Starter 
Sounds like we're not alone. A quick search of MicroMedics came up with a couple more complaints:

Quote:
They just want to keep fixing it, or so they call it. Every time it gets "fixed" it comes back from MicroMedics with cosmetic damage and things don't quite fit the same way. My screen falls open and closed now, as an example.
Quote:
I have an extended warranty so, after a complete reformat and reinstall, I shipped the notebook off to MicroMedics and was "without computer" for 23 days which, as you all know, was like being without a phone, car, AND hot water. They replaced the logic board and the CPU module.

When I powered it up, it died within 2 minutes.
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post #5 of 60
7/24/04 at 2:22pm
Keeping sending it in for the same problem. There is a "Lemon" clause in the Phillips warranty that will provide you a new machine. I'd take a look at the policy for further details.
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post #6 of 60
7/24/04 at 3:07pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks, but... that would be ok if I didn't need my machine for my work.
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post #7 of 60
7/24/04 at 3:28pm
Exactly Heath. If I had a secondary machine, I'd bankrupt them sending it back in. But I work for a living and my primary tool is my machine. That's what peeved me so much about the first time they sent the wrong sized box. And that certainly didn't give me much reassurance about how they'd fix it. Unfortunately, my misgivings proved correct.

And its not so much the warranty company, its MicroMedics. However, it is the responsibility of the warranty company to use a good repair service. So, I won't do business with any warranty company that uses MicroMedics. They're Micro all right.
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post #8 of 60
7/26/04 at 8:44pm
Thread Starter 
Well, now I've spoken to a supervisor at Phillips who is seeing what they can do. At first they said I had no choice but to send it again to MicroMedics, and told them that under NO circumstances was I sending it back to those hacks. I've been given until the end of tomorrow to hear back what they decide. The options I gave them were to find another repairer and overnight it both ways, or I was to get my money on the extended warantee fully refunded. We'll see what they choose.

In the meantime, I'm ok since I went ahead and bought a Toshiba laptop (they had a decent one on sale for about 1300 bucks at Office Depot). I'm giving it to my wife once I get my Sager repaired, but this will hold me just fine for now. So now I can drag it out as long as it takes to annoy the hell out of them.
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post #9 of 60
7/28/04 at 12:09am
Thread Starter 
Well, guess what. Phillips lied to me. They said they'd call me back absolutely, positively, no excuses at all, by 5pm today. 5pm came and went, not a peep. So I called at 5:15pm, and they said they were waiting for me to call them. What?

The supervisor I spoke to yesterday was, you guessed it, gone for the day, and even though she said I could leave her a voicemail, I was informed that she does not have voicemail. Nice touch.

So I end up speaking to a different supervisor who seems to have absolutely no noted on what was said yesterday. And he tells me I have no choice but to send it back to MicroMedics. There is no other choice. **** them.

So now, I'm waiting until tomorrow a.m. when I will be calling back to speak to the previous supervisor that promised me they would call back. I figure she can;t back out of the lie that I would receive a call by 5pm. She also seemed more interested in doing something to make up this horrible mess to me.

Tomorrow will be TWO WEEKS since my Sager died. Under full warrantee.
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post #10 of 60
8/1/04 at 7:57pm
Thread Starter 
Going on three weeks with a dead Sager now... and it's now enroute to MicroMedics a second time. Tis is terrible.

Phillips gave me no choice... I had to send it back to MicroMedics via 2-day fedex. They would not do ANYTHING to speed up the process of fixing their mistake.

I cannot recommend the Phillips extended warantee at ALL. They have done nothing to satisfy me.

I took LOTS of pictures of my Sager right before I sent it, with their paperwork in the shot so they know it was right before I sent it to them. There's not a scratch on it, and if MicroMedics messes it up at all, I will hold them responsible for even the smallest scratch...
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post #11 of 60
8/1/04 at 9:08pm
Out of curiosity, what was the *original* warranty that PCTorque offered, and now they added a new one? Is Warranty Tech the new one or the original? If it's the original, and Phylips is the new one and people are having problems, then this will suck big time, because now we have no decent warranty to choose from, period!
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post #12 of 60
8/1/04 at 9:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Black_Barney
Out of curiosity, what was the *original* warranty that PCTorque offered, and now they added a new one? Is Warranty Tech the new one or the original? If it's the original, and Phylips is the new one and people are having problems, then this will suck big time, because now we have no decent warranty to choose from, period!
I bought directly through Sager... they have a standard one year warranty, and anything more is through someone else, even though you pay Sager for the extended warranty. The first year ended a few months ago (I did have Sager repair it once, and they were very easy to deal with), so now it's through Phillips.
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post #13 of 60
8/5/04 at 10:17pm
Sorry to hear about all your problems.. Sucks to pay good $$$ and not be able to enjoy your purchase
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post #14 of 60
8/6/04 at 4:11am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Black_Barney
Sorry to hear about all your problems.. Sucks to pay good $$$ and not be able to enjoy your purchase
Yeah... it's now back at MicroMedics, where they say they've ordered a new motherboard... again. So now it's been over three weeks since it died, and probably at least another week before I get it back.

But it's not just a matter of enjoyment... I rely on that machine for a chunk of my living. I design all my sculpture on that machine and deal with clients via email, etc. That's why I almost immediately went out and bought the Toshiba I'm using right now. Not quite the beast my 5670 is, but it's getting the job done, and it was only about $1500. Lucky for me I'm fine enough financially to run out and blow that kind of cash on a second laptop (and luckily I had my entire hard drive backed up on an external drive), or I would have been screwed.

I'm giving this machine to my wife when I get the Sager back, so it's not like this laptop will sit gathering dust at that point.
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post #15 of 60
8/6/04 at 8:25am
You should definitely report this to the better business bureau and also leave your story on resellerratings.com for the (Reseller, Sager, Philips and Micromedics). It sounds like everyone is passing the buck at every point and leaving you holding the bag. Anyone that has been in your position knows how horrible it is. It seems that with warranties you either get brillant service or something short or your little brother fixing it with his erector set, elmers glue and playdough.

It is 100% unacceptable to buy a warranty from reseller, who buys it from Sager, who contracts it through Philips who passes it on to whoever does it cheapest. Put the blame on the people you purchased the warranty through. They sold a product which is not up to snuff. You paid someone for a product ( a warranty ). If that warranty is not what you expected let them deal with it. The people you purchased it from.

If I purchase a new BMW with a warranty and they send it off to some fly by night repair shop, I am definitly not going to get in a fight with the repair shop. I will go into BMW and ask for help and cause a MAJOR scene if it's not fixed.

Don't take this lying down. Trust me. Give whoever you bought the pc from bad feedback on resellerratings.com as well as bad feedback for sager and philips and send in Better Business Reports on all of them. I had this same exact thing happen to me with Sony and I freaked out in thier store in Berlin and had the press come with me.. I got a new laptop that day. I had spent a month going through thier silly bureocracy and this was on a laptop that was 2 months old. I had to send it off to belgium and they wouldn't fix it because I put an English version on XP on it, when it came with a german one. I was nice at every turn. Sometimes nice doesn't get the problem fixed. The point is that people will use any excuse to pass the buck or not do what they promise once they have your money in thier pocket.

Sorry that I am ranting but I know what you are going through and the consumer should not be suffering because no one can deal with the problem properly and keeps passing the buck. It is one thing in the computer business that makes me livid.
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post #16 of 60
8/13/04 at 2:41am
um...i just sue the **** outta that company. i would immediatly contact my lawyer regarding this matter.
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post #17 of 60
8/14/04 at 1:49pm
Thread Starter 
Got it back, and it works now, but they broke two keys on my keyboard.

I have to wait until Moday to contact them, because they are closed on the weekend.

They obviously used a blue ball-point pen to pop open the keyboard and were very rough about it. They also left out a screw.

There was also a lot of dust and what looked like white cat hairs on the screen, which I had thoroughly cleaned before I sent it in.

These guys are total hacks.
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post #18 of 60
8/17/04 at 6:18pm
Thread Starter 
Well, they will not send a replacement keyboard, they want me to send the whole computer back in yet again. Bull. Looks like I'll be paying for a new keyboard out of my own pocket, they can burn in hell... there's no way I'm sending this machine back to them yet again... they already had it for a month.

Hacks, useless pieces of dung.

Anyone out there considering a Philips extended warrantee on their Sager, you might want to reconsider.
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post #19 of 60
8/17/04 at 6:32pm
What should you get then? Warrantech? Don't they use micromedics as well?
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post #20 of 60
8/17/04 at 7:03pm
Thread Starter 
Beats me. I think next time I'll just skip the extended warrantee and take the risk. Sure as hell not giving any more money to Philips.
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