Oh well, you should never get your hopes up with this company. The unit is not new. Its a frankenstein now! They replaced the digitizer, the motherboard and the upper cover. Well when they put it back together they somehow messed up the wlan on/off switch so now it doesnt work. And also in watching a dvd you would think the thing is going to blow up there is so much noise and vibration in the cd-rom. In other words the parts inside are no longer a perfect fit since it was manufactured. Its going back again. Im going to keep sending it back until everything works. here we go again. Thats 3 times now I have sent it back since i bought it. I havent even got to use it yet and here it is now 2 months later. :helpsmili

Well, it has come to this. Here is a letter to the customer service manager at averatec. Lets see what happens now. Anyone needing the email here it is:

bbridges@averatec.com

Barbara Bridges,

I recently acquired your email from the BBB in your city. I am a new customer of Averatec and I do like the specific laptop I purchased which was the C3500. This letter to you is not intended to threaten you or Averatec in any way. I have had my new unit two months but I have yet to use it even for one day.

The problem started with a malfunction in the digitizer, in which I patiently went through procedure and produced an RMA. I paid for the shipping to Averatec. I received my supposedly repaired unit within the normal turn around period. I discovered within 5 minutes out of the box that the problem was fixed but I noticed a new problem still with the digitizer which I didn’t have before! In frustration I generated yet another RMA and stated that I would not pay for shipping again. The repair facility issued a call tag with fed-ed which wasn’t picked up until two weeks later (to add to my frustration). I received my supposedly repaired unit again within the normal turn around period.

Inspecting the unit I noticed several things that were different. At a first glance the unit appeared to have been replaced with a new one but not true. Some major parts were replaced instead to a new housing. I had new stickers (which I had removed on my original unit). The install key was also different. Going further, the problem with the digitizer had been completely repaired.

So why am I not happy? I have new problems which I never had before. The WLAN switch which turns on and off the wireless connection doesn’t work. The DVD-ROM is excessively noisier than my original unit. The power and Ethernet connections are now sloppy and loose (as if it were used). To top things off I found my serial number sticker had been tampered with. Apparently the repair department removed my serial number sticker from my original unit to the repaired one (maybe this is procedure).

In conclusion I feel that I do not have a new unit anymore and think that it has been frakensteined! I do not have the capacity to go through a third RMA. I am terrified of the outcome if it were to come to that. Also, the factory defects (rma 1) and lack of quality control (rma 2) have cost me two months of my one year warranty.
Here is a quote that I made to the repair facility when this all first started. “I would prefer a new exchange (minus the problem) rather than a repair. I do not want to establish an ongoing RMA relationship with Averatec for a seemingly buggy unit.” How did I know this was all going to happen? I didn’t! I am forced in believing that making that statement has actually caused my chaos. If you wish for something hard enough you just might get it. Please let me know how we can work out a solution. I am not a hard person to deal with. My only goal is to have my C3500 problem free and my warranty to start when that is achieved. Thank you for your time in reading this. I am looking forward to your response.

Dear Mr.. xxxxxxxx,

I would like to start with my sincere apologies for the problems you have faced with your unit. This is an unusual situation, but I assure you, we will take care of this as quickly as possible.

I have forwarded your email to the repair facilities manager and asked him to get back to me by the end of today with an explanation.

In the meantime, I have asked my Level III Technician, Brian to handle this case for you. He will be in contact with you this morning and will make arrangements to get you a new unit as I see your original unit was less than 2 months old. We will handle the expense of picking up the defective unit so that you do not incur any further shipping costs. I have asked him to have the new unit shipped here to corporate for him to go over, as I am confident that Brian is the best person to make sure the replacement unit is working at 110%, before shipping to you.

Please do not hesitate to contact Brian with any questions or concerns, and please feel free to contact me as well.

Their going to inspect and send me a shiny brand new unit and start my warranty over.


xxxxxxx,

Below you will find the information for your Air pickup request.
The sooner it gets back to me, the sooner I can make sure this is handled appropriately for you. Please let me know if there are any issues.

I've merged your two threads so that people can read the ideas. It would be better to merge all of this but you've deleted the thread that states you have the replacement unit.

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Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

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I know its all over the place, sorry. Should have used one thread for everything

No problem. I was just trying to make it easier for everyone to read.

Hope this all gets resolved to your satisfaction.

__________________
Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

Please do not send private messages requesting technical support. Place your request in the proper forum and hopefully someone can help you.

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Tablet PC Blogs | Technology Questions | Tablet PC Post | Windows Vista | What Is New

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Insane Politics