He'd painted over the gas tap and I couldn't turn it on

[venta]

Some time ago, I wrote Saga, part the first of my quest to get my laptop fixed under warranty.

I'm sure everyone's avid to hear this:

Saga, Part the Second

For two months I've been playing an interesting game with Evesham. It became apparent after around three weeks that their estimate of "seven to ten days" before the laptop was returned to me had been, er, optimistic.

There were two problems: one, they'd had to order in a part. Two, the laptop is out of statutory warranty period, so they had to clear the repair with their underwriting insurers. Both these things were known when the 7-10 day estimate was made, of course. Apparently it was mostly insurance red-tape which was taking the time; I don't see that that was really my problem, but there we were.

There is then a interval of six weeks or so which can be summarised as me emailing or phoning Evesham regularly, saying "Are we nearly there yet?" and them replying "Just round the next few corners".

Current opinion of Evesham: bad

Yesterday, my laptop landed back with me. Sure enough, the volume thumbwheel was poking neatly back out of its slot again. Like it should.

Unfortunately, I think it's meant to go round.

After considerable faffing - Windows needed reactivating, and that involved interacting with an automated phone system and typing 50-digit codes into a phone keypad - I discovered several things about the laptop:

Some "system preparation tools" to which the end-user really shouldn't be exposed had been left running.
All my software has been uninstalled, and a clean reinstall of Windows has been done - unsetting all my preferences and tinkered-with options, of course.
All my data has been removed.

Some exploration (done by a colleague, since I was scared of breaking things) revealed that the volume thumbwheel could be turned if you jam your fingernail into one of the ridges and force it round. I'm reluctant to do this much, since it does involve excessive force, and I don't want the damn thing to come off again. Particularly not when the laptop is nearly out of warranty now.

Another phone call to Evesham. The guy on the other end didn't seem all that surprised, or sorry. But my laptop will be picked up again tomorrow, and put on some sort of "priority" ticket in the hopes it won't be so long this time.

Current opinion of Evesham: really quite bad


Current plan: get my laptop back in a working condition, then play hell with their customer services department.

Comments

[zandev.livejournal.com]

I'm currently boycotting Evesham for spamming. Your tales of woe make this easier.

However, this does leave me with the slight problem that I'm vaguely looking at getting a new PC somewhat soon, and there seem to be very few decent system builders left. About the only two I've found are Mesh and Alienware.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[pm215]

People I know seem to like GND, although they're very much at the 'pay money for quality kit' end of the scale. I bought my Alpha from them ages ago and was generally happy with the service.

[zandev.livejournal.com]

Hmm. They do look quite good. Their systems are probably not quite what I'm looking for at the moment (which is a new games PC), but are certainly a company to consider for 19in rackmount servers which bateleur and I might need to get shortly.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

What are your criteria for decency? Do Dell not count?

[zandev.livejournal.com]

Dell are just about OK (and are one I might have to consider in a pinch), but historically at least have tended to use non-standard parts (like power supplies) which can make upgrading awkward. They also are a bit limited in the configurations they offer, for instance they usually are Intel only.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

There's always Systemax - they're not record-breakingly cheap, but I've quite liked both of the machines of theirs I've seen (one of which I own).

[zandev.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I had previously rejected them as their systems didn't look very customisable. However, on closer inspection they are not as bad as I had initially thought. I'll have to look into them further.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Alienware? Consensus on the games industry website TCE was that they were overpriced.

[zandev.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they are clearly overpriced. That is the main reason I was asking for recommendations, as otherwise I would just buy from Alienware and be done with it. :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yup, I bought my laptop before Evesham had officially been declared anathema.

It's a shame though: the actual machine itself is rather nice. Though clearly the support sucks ;)

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

Is there any particular reason you don't want to build one yourself?

(Sure, there might be some unforseen incompatability somewhere, but it's not a proper Windows install without at least one inexplicable glitch! :)

[zandev.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously, building one myself is an option, and indeed for two of my old PCs I did exactly that.

It's just that I now feel I've had quite enough of odd hardware incompatibilities (see my old lj entry about the mysteriously failing memory). Thus, if I can find a company that will build a system with the parts I want then I can let them do the integration.

I think I should post an entry in my LJ about this rather than taking up more space in venta's journal. :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think I should post an entry in my LJ about this rather than taking up more space in venta's journal. :)

Nah, all these comments make me look dead popular :)

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

Be a Real (wo)Man!!!

Order a bunch a parts and throw them together yourself!!

though, typically I start with a bare bones case / MB / processor combo.

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

Build your own? Doesn't work for laptops, but for desktop stuff it's worth considering: especially if - hypothetically speaking - you had a large number of bits left over from other computer upgrades...

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

For desktop machines, building your own can save a bunch of money.

www.ebuyer.co.uk is a supplier I recommend if ever you go this route.

I have just built a couple of no-frills machines (XP2400 CPU, 256MB memory, DVD-ROM drive, 80GB hard drives) for just over £400 inc VAT each - which included TFT monitors and Windows XP licences. You could do it for £300 if you substitute a CRT monitor, and less than £250 if you also transfer an existing Windows licence.