Overall process was very smooth and personal. I worked with Donald, and he helped me every step of how to make payments and explained details of the computer. I knew which computer i wanted (Sager np8662) and so i made an order but i couldn't make payment for about a month because i was out of town. So when i was ready to pay for the computer, Donald emailed me saying the price dropped and gave me a new price! So i made the payment easily and i even got a discount for paying it through direct deposit. then i got an email saying that the laptop will be delayed because the parts did not come in time. i was a bit dissapointed since i needed the computer before school started. however, i got a voice mail from powernotebooks.com and said the parts are there and they mailed it to me the next day. super fast delivery. I am very please with the computer and i will definitely recommend powernotebooks.com to my friends and family. Thanks!!!
The battery, not covered by the three-year extended warranty, died within 13 months, less than one month beyond the deadline for free replacement. This is a $130 item, enough to sour me on this vendor for all time. The DVD drive also failed, but fortunately in a more timely fashion; however, it took more than a week to actually receive the replacement. The good news: they don't keep you on hold for ever and ever before telling you that you are screwed.
After this experience, I would NEVER buy another computer from this vendor.
September 24:
As you can see, this vendor and I have had stormy, unpleasant exchanges, but I expect, with nearly two more years remaining on the extended warranty, that these are behind us--that civility and excellent service lie ahead. Kudos to Donald Stratton for publicly eating humble pie on this forum and for waiving the charge for replacing my dead battery.
There is good and bad about this company.
Pros: If know what you want, you can precisely tailor a computer to fit your needs and budget; you dont have to accept the one-size-fits-all compromises in preconfigured offerings. Notwithstanding my problems with the tech support, there is much about it I like: you can call, 24-7, and quickly connect to a person who (1) speaks clear English like a native American and (2) I have been working with PCs for 25 years and frequently suffer the reality that the expert on the phone knows far less about the equipment than I. Not so here. It quickly becomes obvious that the tech support personnel at PowerNotebooks.com are very knowledgeable about the equipment under discussion
Cons: They make mistakes like the rest of us, but would prefer not to admit it. Go through the admittedly rare negative reviews on this site and read Donald Strattons replies. Although I have no first-hand knowledge of what occurred with other customers, there seems to be a tendency to try to shift blame to the customer; indeed, this perception heightened my dissatisfaction with this company. Perhaps my experience has taught Donald Stratton to be less thin-skinned in the future.
This review was modified by its author, samcohen, on
9/24/09 1:35 PM.
Reseller Reply
Posted
by
9/21/09 12:23 PM
As this customer proved to himself after he LISTENED to us, there is nothing wrong with his battery. We asked him to download a little utility called Mobile Meter to test his battery, which prior to making this post he refused to do. Once he finally did it he found the battery only had 14% wear and was not the problem.
There is apparently a problem with his charging system which is covered under his warranty and will be repaired, including 2nd Day Air shipping both ways.
As for the DVD replacement, he forgot to mention that it took him 4 business days to return the form authorizing the cross shipment of a new DVD drive to him. Once he returned the signed form to us the replacement was promptly shipped to him via 2nd Day Air.
I think his behavior and his language gives you all the insight necessary.
EDIT AND UPDATE:
First I must address my erroneous comment that it took this customer 4 business days to return the required form to get a new DVD drive shipped to him. In fact, this was our dilatory behavior in not getting the form to him until July 9th after he informed us of the drive's failure on July 6th.
I offer my sincere apology for not only the delay WE caused in getting him the replacement drive, but also for erroneously and PUBLICLY attributing the delay to him.
As to the battery or charging system failure, upon receiving his laptop we were able to determine that even though Mobile Meter showed only 14% wear, the battery was indeed dead. Apparently one cell died which killed the whole battery.
While the battery was indeed out of warranty, we have agreed to replace it without charge as a small and unworthy token to apologize for our unacceptable handling of his DVD replacement, and for my unacceptable behavior in this forum where I publicly chastised him for causing the delayed procedure when it was indeed our fault, not his.
Powernotebooks was EXTREMELY helpful and easy to talk to. Donald's professionalism and helpfulness was impressive. I received the laptop two days before I requested it, which I thought seemed needy to begin with. The computer came in good shape, no pixel or heat problems so far, and the packaging was very protective. I am very impressed with Powernotebooks and WILL NOT hesitate one bit to do business with them again.
Not much to say: the order came as expected after a minor glitch that had nothing to do with PNB.
Even though it wasn't their fault (Sager discontinuing the chosen model), when we re-ordered the equivalent Power Pro it arrived with the upgraded screen resolution option.
I hadn't ordered that, so I take it as an apology for the delay- thanks PNB :)
I did unfortunately need tech support right away, but that was due to moving straight to Win 7 causing a driver conflict- again not PNB's fault- and their service was the best I've ever known: my three calls were picked up within five rings, no hold time, and then concise instructions were given in clear English.
Brilliant service, I'm looking forward to doing more business with PNB in the future.
I had ordered a top end system from another vendor, to be delivered in early Aug since I am headed to Iraq in mid Aug. They let me down so I ordered a 9280 system from PowerNotebooks.com on 7 Aug and it was delivered in 5 days. So far it seems a very nice system, no problems.
I just received my Powerpro 15:2 notebook yesterday which was a few days before I was expecting to have received it. However, upon loading up the newest Nvidia graphics drivers and benchmarking software (3dmark06) I found a problem with the system's cooling. After the second test the graphics card would overheat causing the system to shut down. While the problem may be Nvidia's fault PowerPro says they test each notebook they send out. So obviously there is some flaw in their testing process. So I decided to call their "24/7" tech support last night. It said all their representatives were busy at 11 at night and to leave my name and number and they'd call me back and I did. At 11 o clock this morning I called back again and did the same thing and have been calling the number nonstop for the last half an hour hoping someone will decide to pick up. Overall, not a pleasing post sale as I really needed this laptop for college next week.
Update: Just received a phone call from Donald Stratton promising to fix any problem and get me the laptop by the necessary date. I was impressed to receive a phone call from him on a Saturday so I'll keep this review updated based upon what happens in the following days.
It seems I shall have my notebook on time if everything goes according to plan. They will overnight me a new notebook and send me a UPS label to mail them back the broken one. Very impressed with the dedication.
Update2: Donald was able to get everything to me on time. UPS was even aware of the issue and got it to me early in the morning which was awesome and gave me plenty of time to swap the hard drives and double check to make sure everything has worked as it should. Updating this review from the laptop now and everything has worked fine. Also when I was able to get through to support they were very knowledgeable. So things worked out in the end.
This review was modified by its author, mburst, on
8/23/09 3:04 PM.
I found powernotebooks.com because I was looking for a place that sold high end laptops with out an operating system pre-installed. Not only are they one of the few companies that provide this wonderful service still but the laptop itself works beautifully. After ordering it took just over two weeks for my Sager NP8662 to get to me. It started right up and is running like a beauty - runs Ubuntu wonderfully :D
Their customer service is also wonderful not even an hour after placing my order online I received a phone call from a real person (Gasp! I didn't know there where places that cared enough to still do that!) confirming my order. I was then kept up to date via email on the status of my system.
Would definitely buy from again and will be referring friends and customers to them for custom laptops.
~Jeff Hoogland
This review was modified by its author, Jeff91, on
8/13/09 11:58 AM.
Powernotebooks was an excellent company to buy from. The sales representative (Donald Stratton) was especially helpful in explaining the available options and in helping me get an excellent notebook for a good price. Would definitely buy from again.
We have a PowerPro I 8:17 purchased in September 2008 and after almost 10 months usage can speak with some authority about the quality of this notebook - It is EXCELLENT! The purchase experience was most pleasant and shipping prompt. The computer was shipped without unwanted bloatware. I purchased Vista Home Premium 32 from PowerNotebooks and asked that they install. Tech Support is knowledgeable and responsive and phone calls are answered promptly. In some 5 calls (for consultation and minor issues), only one time was the phone not answered by 3rd ring and I had to request a callback. If I need another notebook computer, I will talk with PowerNotebooks.com first. I recommend the Company and the PowerPro I 8:17 notebooks.
This review was modified by its author, kmarcas, on
8/15/09 6:42 PM.
Excellent company to deal with: knowledgeable about products, decent pricing, helpful staff. Good customer service after the sale thus far, and the product (laptop) meets all expectations for performance and quality. I would deal with them again.
After shopping at Best Buy for a notebook, I finally decided to give custom gaming laptops a try. Powernotebooks has a lot of positive customer ratings, so I gave it a try and I bought a Sager Np8662 from them. I have to say that I am very satisfied with my laptop. I can run Crysis on High at native resolution pretty smoothly. The customer service from this company is pretty good so far. I received several confirmations along the way. Shipping was very fast as well. It's always nice to receive something you are expecting a little bit faster. Strong recommendation for this company.
Great product, great service. Purchased Sager 9280 and it is a high quality and very fast notebook. Also very quiet when doing normal computing. I will buy all of my future notebooks from Donald Stratton at PN. Very satisfied.
Great customer service. I already knew what I wanted before ordering from powernotebooks.com, but I called them anyway to confirm that my order would arrive before I went out of town. They confirmed that my specific laptop and processor were in stock and would ship in time, but promised to call me for an alternate shipping address if there was a delay. As it turns out, there was no delay: my new laptop shipped exactly when they said it would and arrived in plenty of time to take on the plane with me.
Specs for the record:
PowerPro P 12:15, 15.4" WSXGA+ screen, Core 2 Duo P8700, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD @ 7200 RPM, Bluetooth, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit (running Windows 7 RC at the strong recommendation of Mr. Stratton, had Vista installed for the upgrade coupon), 3-yr parts & labor w/lifetime 24/7 tech support. The laptop replaces a desktop built by my brother. I shopped around online and never found a configuration that beat these specs and warranty/support for the same price.
The entire process, from shopping for to ordering to receiving to setting up and finally to using the computer, was pain-free. I communicated with Donald several times via email and phone before and after I placed my order and he was always happy to answer any questions I had, however mundane they may have been. Show me a "major" computer reseller where you can communicate directly with the owner about your specific concerns!
Charlotte helped resolve a minor credit card issue (as you might expect, I had to verify the purchase with the CC company), after which there were no problems with payment; PN processed and charged my CC within a day of placing the order. It took about a week to build and ship and another week to reach me in Missouri from Nevada (actually California near NV); I had my computer two weeks and two days from the day I ordered it and would've had it a day earlier were someone around to sign for it.
The computer arrived exactly as specified and is running smoothly out of the box, excepting a glitchy fingerprint reader which isn't a huge deal and appears to be Windows' fault anyway. And PN uses only top-shelf brands for the RAM and HDD; I have Crucial and Seagate, respectively. A "major" brand won't assure you that kind of quality in their parts.
Overall I'm very happy with my experience with PowerNotebooks and will definitely consider--no, go to--them for any future laptop needs. I've heard horror stories about many of the "major" computer brands so it was nice to work with a company where customer service never got in the way of buying a computer.
This review was modified by its author, pmr912, on
7/26/09 12:44 AM.
