Laptop repair from hell: MSI stole my parts!

[BigJ]

Taken from Quiky's blog: http://technichell-support.blogspot....-my-parts.html

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I am a computer technician working for a small business in Maryland. My job is to repair clients machines, and sell new systems.. but dealing with one of our suppliers has been a nightmare and want to expose them for being downright horrible to their resellers.

MSI - Micro Star International

The big company that makes motherboards, laptops, video cards, and SCREWS OVER THEIR PARTNERS.

July 2006;
Bought a new notebook for myself, as a replacement for my three year old Dell(coincidentally, the one I am writing this post with):
MSI MS-1036, a 17" widescreen Turion notebook.. With the MT37, 1GB ram, 80GB hdd, and the wifi/bluetooth card, it cost about $1500 without shipping... fast machine, nice cost.. at least I thought. The initial reviews on the system were amazing, and I thought it would be a great deal price wise compared to the Acer Ferrari notebooks- nearly the same internally.. at least I thought.

Within the first week of owning the system, I began to have issues with the system- after shutting off, it would not boot back into any OS. Would read the hard drive and get to the loading windows screen, then completely stop all access to the hard drive. Did the same if you put in a bootable cd, or tried to run Ubuntu. I contacted MSI after jumping through a few hoops, registering the system and following their typical support system.

After a few days of waiting, this is the procedure that MSI told me to follow;
-Shutdown the notebook, remove the battery
-Unscrew the bottom access panel for the notebook
-Remove the wireless card from the system
-Power the system up using the AC adapter
-Remove all drivers for wireless and bluetooth, along with any software for it
-Power system off, reinsert card, power back on, reinstall drivers.

Oh joy! It fixed it! Actually, it didn't. That mearly let me boot the system for another couple of days before it did it again. This time, I was at a job site in Virginia with no screwdrivers handy... got home, did the wireless card removal, fixed the issue.. repeat it again every couple of days, and you get tired of it. REALLY TIRED OF IT.


The second issue right off the bat, was the amount of pressure required for the keyboard to recognize presses. You had to pretend the keyboard is a piano to get it to respond- TYPE HARD. I could live with it, but it just fatigues your hands quickly by having to press that hard.

After sending a few more emails, I never got replies back from MSI to RMA the wireless card.
Sent a few phone calls and requests to MSI for service, got nothing back on the issue. Mention anything but the 1036, and you could get a call back the same day from technicians..

Fast forward to October;
After two weeks straight of phone calls to MSI about ongoing issues, we finally get a call back about the notebook, and got an RMA number to have it sent back. They would diagnose the wireless issue, and replace the keyboard under warrenty, which would be fine by me. Told me to send only the laptop with no other parts- no battery, cpu, hdd, ram, wifi.
Sent the laptop during the beginning of November, waited a few weeks, and got it back the first week of December.

Great, they fixed the keyboard! It doesn't require a lot of effort to type! But here is where the major issues started;
Booting the system up on my Windows XP install, the system would go black then throw a BSOD claiming the video drivers were the culprit.. Strange, because it is the same system, and ran perfectly before I sent it out. As it turns out, they corrupted the bios on the system and you cannot use higher than 640x480 with 256 colors. Formatted the hard drive and loaded a fresh copy of XP- same issues.

Sent more requests back to MSI, and landed a call back on a friday morning, and spent 15 minutes arguing with the technician about the video card in the system. Their internal support sites all showed the 1036 came with a ATi Mobility Xpress 200, the integrated video, which is what they flashed the bios before sending it back to me.. OOPS! So I wasted another 30 minutes loading the xpress 200m drivers.. obviously not working. So rather than listen, the technician wanted windows updates and

After finally convincing the technician to check with the person who did the work on the laptop, and check the sales site rather than their support page, he finally agreed that the video card was a Mobility X700 (256mb), and sent me new drivers for the system, which did not work either.. so after two hours of phone support, they gave me another RMA.. this time, they wanted all the hardware to go with it (CPU, Ram, Wifi, HDD) so they could test and see exactly where the issue was.

Took two days for DHL to deliver the system to California for testing.. radio silence from MSI until today..

December 28th, Fedex delivered the system back to me...
What they did to the system:
-Swapped the chassis out for another 1036
-Took my Turion MT37 (that I put in the system as it was a barebones unit), and replaced it with a MT30.
-Damaged the battery port on the chassis, so the battery does not fit hook properly in-place
-Damaged the touchpad's buttons. You can push them, but they don't respond.

So if course, being a reseller, I get "top level" support.. which means waiting on hold for 15 minutes to leave a callback number.

Got a call back about an hour later, where they guy took my RMA number and put me on hold for 10 minutes while he looked up the information on what was done.. "Oh, let me call you back later when I get more information.."

Another hour later, I get a call back about those issues..
"All we did was swap the parts from your broken notebook to this new one, and we don't care what you sent, because that is what we swapped. I will not do anything, because our record says we only swapped your parts."
Oh, so STEALING my parts and putting lesser items in is called "swapping"? That technician that I spoke to would not pursue the issue further.. but he did issue another RMA for the touchpad to be looked at.

So far, I have not threatened the technicians about it, but THIS IS THE LAST STRAW.

I already mentioned this, but I RESELL MSI'S HARDWARE!!! Providing absolute horrible support to small businesses who push their products is a disgusting way to treat us.. and it is downright DISGRACEFUL to treat your partners in this fashion.. especially when you try and sell us specials that cost more as a partner, than buying it from a retail channel.

MSI, I will not take your incompetence any longer. If a major company like Dell can make a $300 laptop that is more reliable than your $1500 one, then there is a BIG PROBLEM that you need to fix.

You still have my parts, and I am not happy.

[Quiky]

Everyone has seen me bitch on IRC about that laptop.. so as a summary, STAY AWAY FROM MSI!

[epp_b]

Wow!

Thanks for the heads up...I know where not to go for hardware now! Too bad you have to be the example for this

[FATMOUSE]

My desktop (built it a couple of years ago) has an MSI motherboard. Runs pretty well, it seems to be a case of a company that gives crap tech support with sometimes decent hardware.

I guess I lucked out by not having to call them, ever.

[Hidden_Hunter]

I had a look at MSI because i'm considering getting a laptop for studies next year but I think i'll go with asus (they haven't done me wrong yet)

[hokiethang]

That really sucks. I'd call back and escalate the problem up to a manager / supervisor until someone says something useful. I'd also check and see if you have the receipts for the parts, as it will at least show you purchased the parts. Since it was a barebones machine, I don't know of a way to definitively verify what parts were in the box before you shipped it :-\

[Alok]

Originally Posted by Hidden_Hunter

I had a look at MSI because i'm considering getting a laptop for studies next year but I think i'll go with asus (they haven't done me wrong yet)

I'd advise you to think twice. This is very similar to the ASUS experience I had a while ago, when they stole my RAM and refused to give it back and denied responsibility and cut off contact. I ended up buying a gig stick out of my own pocket.

They do make some really good laptops, but i dont know, i mean in the two year period I owned an M6N, it broke down, if I remember correctly, seven times. And these are the times when I had to send in the computer for repairs due to the severity of the problem.

[Dsemaj]

Holy shit..

If I were him, i'd be making a complaint to consumer affairs or whichever respective authorities he should be going to since he is a reseller. That is just freakin' crap. He'd have the receipts and everything.. He's got the proof.