Kobalt warranty woes

[PhilHibbs]

http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/ have had my laptop for 7 weeks now, and I haven't heard anything from them for 4 weeks. The graphics card was overheating, last I heard they were waiting for a new card to be shipped, they expected to get it three weeks ago. Maybe posting on a public forum will shame them into replying to my repeated requests for an update.

[EviL Ras]

Ouch. Good luck matey!

[Johnmcl7]

Have you posted on their own forum?

John

[PhilHibbs]

I... hadn't actually checked if they had their own forum.

[PhilHibbs]

Hm. I posted on their forum, got a reply to my support ticket this morning, but last night's forum post is gone from the forum. They say the card turned up at the end of last week.

[PhilHibbs]

Turns out someone moved the post into a private forum so that they could reply privately, but the post didn't show up in the search any more so there's no way I could find the reply. Only when I complained on another area of the forum did they post me a link to it and then lock that thread. Pretty damn clumsy.

[LtScunner]

Sorry if I'm opening up old wounds, but how did things go with your laptop in the end?

I'm mulling over the idea of buying another laptop since it looks like I might be working away from home again in the near future and I was considering Kobalt, since they seemed a bit like Rock in the good old days.

Any feedback gratefully received.

[PhilHibbs]

I've had quite a few issues with my Kobalt laptop, but they fixed them all... eventually. When the machine was new, they had it back three or four times in the first six months, for hard drive controller problems and a faulty graphics card.

The last time they had it, it took 10 weeks to get my machine back. Mitigating factors for that are, that the machine was nearly 3 years old and the graphics card it has is not made any more so they had to find one and import it, and I ended up with a free graphics card upgrade because they couldn't get the original one.

So... if you are prepared to deal with the issues that are inevitably with bleeding-edge laptops, then yes I would recommend them. They always made good in the end.

[EviL Ras]

10 WEEKS?!!! no way, wouldn't live with that. i was kicking off with dell when they said it would take a week to sort my XPS. i bought it for gaming, and thats what we do on it! and always used the arguement that i had a LAN competition that i needed the machine for. brining out the "not fit for purpose" arguement if they couldnt source parts. after all, you buy a 3 year warranty so its working or 3 years. if they had it for 10 weeks, i'd be getting them to add an extension to the end of the warranty!

Still, kobalt are a smaller company, so you probably dont get the same big corporation level of support as dell/alienware.

[LtScunner]

I've had quite a few issues with my Kobalt laptop, but they fixed them all... eventually. When the machine was new, they had it back three or four times in the first six months, for hard drive controller problems and a faulty graphics card.

The last time they had it, it took 10 weeks to get my machine back. Mitigating factors for that are, that the machine was nearly 3 years old and the graphics card it has is not made any more so they had to find one and import it, and I ended up with a free graphics card upgrade because they couldn't get the original one.

So... if you are prepared to deal with the issues that are inevitably with bleeding-edge laptops, then yes I would recommend them. They always made good in the end.

Thanks very much for the update - much appreciated.

If I got the laptop, it would be my main machine, so I'm not sure I could be as understanding about the returns and delays.

Looks like I might have to rethink my plans.

Thanks again.

[Tappy]

I wholly expect a "I'll never buy from Rock" type response. But Rock do an onsite warranty these days, I don't know how long it takes them to turn up, but if you didn't want to go down the Alienware route, that could be an option. Their current line-up looks good and competitively priced. Has anyone bought a Rock in recent times and had to use this?

If I were to buy a machine today, I think it would be a Kobalt. I like the options available and, for me, as long as it got repaired eventually, a return to site warranty isn't too much of a problem.

[EviL Ras]

i miss the dell gaming XPS range. the support was second to none! NBD on site! couldn't beat it!

[Johnmcl7]

I have to admire your patience with Kobalt as I wouldn't accept being 10 weeks without my PC. I can handle a return to base warranty if the machine is good enough but I wouldn't be prepared to be without it for a long period of time.

I checked through the rockforums a few weeks ago but it seemed very quiet so I don't know how things are with them these days.

John