Mojave XI

[1dcroft]

Fantastic laptop, solidly built and very fast. Haven`t found a single thing to complain about except the laptop kept missing keystrokes every 40 to 50 characters or so.

I typed a message in the post sales support forum and got help from the MD himself! Andrew delt with the problem quickly and helpfully even replying to one message at twenty to eleven at night, now thats what I call customer service!

The problem has now been resolved without needing to send the laptop back to Kobalt which is a great result, I couldn`t have asked for more.

I`m really glad I purchased my laptop from Kobalt as even though it had a fault the whole level of service from ordering through delivery to fault fixing was exceptional and professional. I highly recommend this first class company without reservation and look forward to buying from them again.

[1dcroft]

Hi all,
Just under 2 years ago I purchased a Mojave XI. The system was and still is brilliant with the exception of a new graphics card fitted about 2 months ago and in the last 2 weeks it's gone back again for a new motherboard (headphone socket broken) and processor (?). It's a high performance machine that gets used every day so I think thats fair wear and tear which was the reason why I paid for the 3 year warranty. The engineers certainly seem to know what they're doing and get to the faults quickly. I paid over £2k for the laptop and the repairs I fully accept without complaint, however the customer service side of things is completely unacceptable.
"I'll ring/email you" - I've lost count of the times I've heard this and never recieved a reply untill I contact them. You just have to keep chasing and chasing and chasing...........
The first time my laptop went back it took 2 weeks to arrange ( keep chasing and chasing and chasing...........). When Kobalt finally arranged collection of my laptop they didn't even realise they hadn't got it for 3 or 4 days (should have been delivered next day) untill I told them TNT had sent it to Bristol. Chasing, chasing, chasing..........
The 2nd time my wife stayed in and wasted a whole days annual leave waiting for TNT to arrive which they didn't. According to Andrew the booking system was broken and Kobalt didn't know so it never got scheduled. As a gesture of good will Andrew then offered to refund the £70 3 year warranty "plus a bit", if he'd have checked the invoice properly he would have seen I paid £100 - after correcting him I accepted the £100.
Now they've got it for the seccond time and guess what -
"I'll ring/email you" - I've lost count of the times I've heard this and never recieved a reply untill I contact them. You just have to keep chasing and chasing and chasing........... Sound familiar?

Wonder if I'll get a call tommorow or if I'll still have to keep chasing and chasing and chasing...........

Laptop 11/10
Engineers 10/10
Customer service - I'll get back to you .................................................. ....................................

Dave.

[neil@kobalt]

Hi Dave

I don't remember what happened with the first pick up however the second was definitely not our fault and as you mentioned we did refund you for the warranty because of the issue we had with the TNT booking system as a gesture of good will. Just to clarify the amount - the cost of the warranty isn't listed on the invoice or laptop order confirmation so Andrew would probably have offered the £70 as that is the upgrade cost is now.

With regards to the current RMA, it did take a while to correctly diagnose the problem and we have had to order in the components to swap out. RMAs often go through periods where there isn't any new information to report to our customer, this can be during a tricky diagnostic or when the system is being tested. This is more likely to happen when the laptop model in question is eol (in your case) as we can't simply transfer to a new chassis. So the main reason that we might not give an update for a day or two is because we don't have any new specific information to give, however when we do have information to pas on we will always inform our customers.

I tend to hover over the RMAs that come in as the problems I see people having make it easier for me to report and obtain resolutions from the component manufacturers - I saw two emails sent (I believe) yesterday and also one today late afternoon. I will ask Andrew to re send that to you tomorrow morning, especially as there was a problem with receiving one of the above mentioned two emails.

I apologise if you have been promised an update that hasn't been given, as I mentioned above it might be because there isn't anything new to report or possibly because we have simply been too busy to reply before the end of the day. Rest assured that any delay of an update doesn't mean that work has stopped on the RMA.

[1dcroft]

I understand what you're saying about the RMA which is why I said "the repairs I fully accept without complaint" but when I get promised a call back I expect that call. On Tuesday Andrew promised to call me Wednesday afternoon when the processor had finished overnight testing. If there were no problems then where was my call to arrange delivery? If there were problems then how about some info on the problem? How long would my laptop have sat in Bristol if I hadn't kept an eye on the tracking and phoned TNT myself? As to the emails I have nothing in my inbox or spam folder sent Tuesday. Last week I emailed for some info and recieved a reply that a reply had already been sent that day - the first email arrived 7 hrs after second one. Is there a problem with the email system, I use Yahoo mail and I haven't seen anything about problems there.

Dave.

[1dcroft]

OK Kobalt office hours are now over and guess what......
NO PHONE CALL, NO MISSED CALLS (Kobalt have my mobile number and home number) NO MESSAGE LEFT ON ANSWER PHONE, NO EMAIL AND NOTHING IN THE SPAM BOX (I checked just in case)
Just goes to show even when you complain in public like I feel I have been forced to do they still don't listen.
In a previous post I said I'd get back to you about the customer service score -

Customer service 0/10

[andrew@kobalt]

Hi Dave

I sent you an email at about 11:45 this morning quoting the email I sent you yesterday afternoon at 4pm, explaining that the engineers were still working on your laptop and that they wanted an extra couple of days to test in order to ensure that the new motherboard and processor will be ok for the remaining duration of your warranty. I also said that I will contact you tomorrow to let you know if it is ok to ship.

We don't have any email problems so if you didn't receive my mail from today then I would suggest there is something wrong with your Yahoo account. I sent over40 emails today and no one else has reported problems. I would re-state Neils comments above that I am certainally not ignoring you, we will update you when we have something definitive to report and I did do this yesterday and today.

I see no point in leaving this thread open - we are dealing with the RMA, we have contacted you to give updates and when the laptop has been approved for return to you we will ship it back.

[1dcroft]

Andrew,
So if your saying you sent emails and I'm saying I didn't recieve them then why not phone me - you have both of my numbers. I came on the forum with this problem because of a lack of comunication and you close the thread in your first reply.
I thought these forums where open and honest so why not let me reply in the original thread?

[Axionknight]

I thought these forums where open and honest so why not let me reply in the original thread?

Why not send them an email instead of airing disagreements on a public forum? I'm sure that customer matters are more likely to be resolved that way.

[1dcroft]

If you read the previous post we seem to be having problems with email.

[neil@kobalt]

Andrew,
So if your saying you sent emails and I'm saying I didn't recieve them then why not phone me - you have both of my numbers. I came on the forum with this problem because of a lack of comunication and you close the thread in your first reply.
I thought these forums where open and honest so why not let me reply in the original thread?

David

Andrew wouldn't have known that you didn't get his email until you posted on the forum this evening so he had no reason to phone you.


The RMA of your laptop hasn't been a straight case of swapping RAM out, the diagnosis took quite a while and we then had to order parts in and replace the motherboard and CPU. It hasn't taken an extraordinaly long amount of time and all being well the laptop will be shipping back to you tomorrow. The only fault on our part could be that we have missed a phone call but as stated above it isn't because we aren't doing anything. We want to make sure that the problems are correctly fixed and when our engineers are confident about this we will ship the laptop back to you. During most RMAs we can't give everyone an update every day, most of the time it is three/four times during the process when we have updates to give and we are pro-active in doing this.

These forums are open and honest, however as As Axionknight said this forum is not the place to air disagreements of this nature. You could have phones us, emailed us (we seem to receive your emails even though you have a problem receiving ours) or even pm'd us on the forum.

We successfully contacted you by email on Tuesday and had no reason to not use that method again. Email is easier for us and usually easier for our customers as we can relay information more accurately and more efficiently.

I have merged your 3rd thread with your first and second seperate testimonials and someone will be in touch tomorrow to confirm shipment.

[Andy]

I think what probably should have happened is that you (1dcroft) could have first tried to arrange a time of day to call them, this could have been done via this thread, rather than coming on here all guns blazing (MRDJ: why doesnt this forum have an emoticons with a machine gun? :D). I do understand your frustration, I have had the same experiences (although definitely NOT with kobalt: kobalt have given great customer service for my experience), im sure all will be fixed and resolved very soon.

Cheers,

Andy

[1dcroft]

I did, on the phone Andrew said he'd let me know Tuesday afternoon when overnight testing had been completed.

[Andy]

What i meant was you could have tried again and maybe agreed that he would call you at a specific time on a specific number before starting this thread. But this is only my opinion and what I would have done.

[andrew@kobalt]

Dave,

Have dropped you an e-mail with a TNT tracking number and confirmation of delivery of the fixed machine to you tomorrow. If you haven't got it, drop me a PM here and I'll make a point of logging in tonight and forwarding it to you.

Brgds
Andrew