Laptop goes back to Gericom

[The Negotiator]

Yep....after 2 weeks of switching off and on due to a PSU socket/plug fault it's going back to the gerries.

Hoping to be resolved:

Paint problem
PSU problem
New battery (haha, about as likely as me becoming pope, though then again, any of this being fixed is about as likely!)
New NUM LOCK key to be fitted on since it never sat on properly.

Reasons they won't:

They will say I damaged PSU socket/plug
I have added another 512MB of ram hence breaking warranty sticker.
I have removed the HDD (or my technician did according to the RMA form ) since no German IT monkey is getting hold of all my data to look at, laugh at, nick and then format.

However, I have told them about this several times and they just ignore me and tell me to send it back, it's quite funny really as I don't think they understand my English so just tell me to send it back.

So awaiting DHL phone call for them to come and collect, will it be the last time I see my laptop?

P.s. it's about 16 months old but I have 2 years warranty and insurance (including accidental damage) included for free so here's hoping...

If i get it back, I will be selling a reconditioned P4 3ghz HT laptop... Going to go centrino I think

 

[hmallett]

Gericom? Never heard of them! Should have got a Dell Latitude, with on-site warranty. Costs a little bit more, but at least you're not without the laptop for ages. Alternatively, if you had accidental damage cover on it, you could have dropped it you know... :devil:
H

 

[The Negotiator]

The all risk insurance has an excess....which I would rather not pay yet!

Gericom are one of the largest european laptop manufacturers, in 2004 they were the most advertised laptop company in Germany, they provide the official laptops for MOTO GP, my specific laptop was the model used in 2004. They are the provider for Suzuki and Kawasaki in particular.

Dell's warranties are total rip offs and the fact is, if the guy can't simlpy fix it he has to take it back anyway, £300 odd for that? If i wanted a comparable dell at the time a 2 year warranty and insurance I would have paid the best part of nearly £2k, I paid £999. Since PSU sockets often go wrong the Dell would be just as likely to go wrong in that way, however, the paint problem is something I am not pleased about at all although everybody I know with Gericom laptops haven't had similar...

So yeah, I could have bought 2 of these for the price of a delll...!

 

[hmallett]

...in 2004 they were the most advertised laptop company in Germany...

In 2005, the crazy frog was the most advertised ring tone. Doesn't mean it's the best though.

Dell's warranties are total rip offs and the fact is, if the guy can't simlpy fix it he has to take it back anyway, £300 odd for that? If i wanted a comparable dell at the time a 2 year warranty and insurance I would have paid the best part of nearly £2k, I paid £999. Since PSU sockets often go wrong the Dell would be just as likely to go wrong in that way, however, the paint problem is something I am not pleased about at all although everybody I know with Gericom laptops haven't had similar...

If you get a decent Latitude (the business range), they have 3 years on site warranty as standard. That's on a laptop that costs less than a grand. The Dell insurance isn't that much. £120 + VAT for 3 years. We don't bother with it though, because we'll just claim on company insurance if it gets nicked, and if it gets dropped, we'll just buy a new one. No idea what the on site warranty service is like TBH, as we've got about 50 desktops, 4 laptops and 3 servers from Dell, and the only thing that's gone wrong is a failed hard disk.
H

 

[The Negotiator]

No, I am just showing that they are a major player in the laptop market, just as Crazy Frog is a major player in the ringtone market!

Lattitude probably doesn't come in a spec that I want, i.e. high end graphics etc.

 

[The Negotiator]

Well laptop received yesterday by somebody called KNOGLER in Linz, Austria, great!

 

[whatoncewas]

Gericom/Tevion/Medion, all those Aldi brands are brilliant.

Warrenty service is excellent, and the products are *so* cheap for the spec.

If you do ever go Centrino, make sure its the same make again. I think a year later after you go yours they had a top spec Centrino one for a grand, and this year it was the same + widescreen, DVB and other media center goodies as well.

 

[The Negotiator]

I agree, just a high powered laptop like this being on 8-10 hours a day+ for 15 months is never going to be perfect, I think the damage was done through heat to be honest, but since it has always been used on my 'passive cooler' I designed that's a bit annoying.

They have had a few centrinos since, I am of course hoping they will send me a nice new centrino top spec laptop to apologise

 

[The Negotiator]

So far:

09.06.2005 09:49 NEWRMA New RMA Request not acitvated

09.06.2005 09:50 ACTIVATED Waiting for Pickup

09.06.2005 11:03 PICKTRANS Pickup Data transmitted to Shipper

17.06.2005 13:52 IN_HOUSE Notebook reached the Service Center.

17.06.2005 15:09 CONTROL2 Controlled customers information

30.06.2005 10:53 IN_PROGRE1 Repair in Progress

30.06.2005 11:08 WAITPART Waiting for a needed Part

30.06.2005 12:10 SPECIAL Special Service Status Change


No idea what that means!

 

[dave]

so what was that am i going to grays then? i thought your laptop was there

 

[The Negotiator]

My new laptop was there, I didn't realise how far it was from you until Sammi told me where you lived, the bloke drove it up to me, for free!

 

[dave]

My new laptop was there, I didn't realise how far it was from you until Sammi told me where you lived, the bloke drove it up to me, for free!

he could have gave me a lift to get the panda

yeah it quite far away, i dont go there much its a bit of a rough place

 

[The Negotiator]

Well my thinking was you popped in, picked it up, drove it up when you were going up to pick-up-a-panda (thinking pick-up-a-penguin) and I met you off the M1 and paid you the postage. Of course I had all this planned without asking you BUt it's 50 miles from you, didn't realise Essex was so large!

Anyway, I have my gorgeous new laptop so am happy, just got to wait to see what Gericom will do with my old one!