unethical brand(s), yes I'm talking about you msi (Might Suffer Indefinitely)

I believe it's unethical for a company to have profit as its only intent. It's ok if you want to make products that benefit other people while profiting from them but making profit as the only goal is I feel unethical. True, a company has to make money but it should not be its sole purpose. As someone said it very aptly "we breathe to live not live to breathe, in the same way, companies make profit to stay in business but they don't stay in business just to make money".

For one, you're taking someone else's hard earned money so the least you can do is respect it, imagine someone who's been saving his whole life to purchase his dream laptop and was given a run around by the incompetent customer support department when his laptop breaks.

I believe, at least in the laptop business, it is due to the nature of the business not to retain customers but gain new ones that they spend most of their money in marketing and leave little to nothing for customer support. I mean, who buys a couple of laptops every year (although I might do that), most people buy one in a few years.

The proceeding argument was not just an accusation, it is a result of a mini and kinda informal 'investigation'. If you check newegg's customer reviews you'll see that some companies do respond to negative comments and seem to offer some assistance. What I would like to know was whether those were genuine attempt to right their wrongs or merely damage control, it turned out to be more of the latter.

Now since I didn't buy my msi laptop from newegg, I can't leave a comment on their website so instead I sent an email directly to the address provided by replies to those negative feedbacks. Below I provide the email exchanges between me and msi (nothing has been altered except that names have been removed to protect identities of the parties involved)


My original email (Jan 8)

I recently purchased a GS60 4K-80 through GentechPC with an additional 128 GB SSD. The machine arrived on Dec 24 2014. After a while it shutdown by itself, even though the battery said it was still at 40% capacity and I couldn't turn it back on, only after plugging in the charger it would turn back on.

Later that night it happened again, I ran the battery calibration tool the next day, and the same thing happened, at around 40% capacity it shut down by itself. I then ran HWMonitor by CPUID and the wear level was at 16%, which is very high for a new battery.

I then contacted gentechpc on Dec 26 2014, and called them again on Dec 29, I was told later that they would ask msi to ship me a new battery, but on Wed Dec 31, I waas told that msi would want me to send in the laptop, I replied that I would still prefer that they ship me a new battery, I understand that the battery is internal and I don't mind changing it myself. On monday Jan 5 I was told again by gentech that msi would want me to ship the laptop back, I replied that it would take around 2 weeks for the shipping alone and would prefer just a new battery.

I then called msi customer support directly and was told that I should ship the laptop but have to pay the shipping fee, I completely disagree, I have a DOA system and should not be liable for shipping it back, but the rep was adamant. Later that day I got an email from msi for a cross RMA for the battery but I was still required to pay for shipping tha bad battery back to msi.

My sister then called the customer support again but this time managed to talk to a supervisor that granted a free shipping for the laptop. The next day my sister reached out to another msi rep to see if they can just ship the battery for free, she was told that it's possible but I need to ship my battery back first and then msi would whip me a new one, but, it came with a caveat that I might void the warranty if I did any mistake installing the new battery. I asked a few questions yesterday through email about this last option and still waiting a reply.

This whole process took almost 2 weeks.

All in all, my options are not good, if I ship the laptop for RMA I would not be able to use it for a long period of time, cross RMA requires me to pay for shipping, and the last option might void my warranty.

For a $2000+ laptop I feel that I went through too much trouble, especially with a DOA system. Hopefully whoever reading this review at msi would do something pleasant to resolve this issue, this is quite a horrible customer service for the price I paid. I attached the screenshot of my laptop showing a high wear level battery.



Thank you

MSI's response (Jan 13)

Dear User,

Sorry for the troubles. Our general warranty policy for notebook is customer would be responsible for 1 way shipping to us. As you stated as a courtesy we provided you shipping label which we paid for shipping fee to us. Regarding your issue since the unit have built in battery and under warranty we will need system to send in for services. Please use the shipping label offered to you and ship the system to us. We will try our best to have unit turn around in a timely matter for you. thank you for your understanding.

My response (Mar 10, after the Gentech RMA)

Thanks for the reply. While I understand your general warranty procedure, asking a customer to pay to ship a DOA (Defective On Arrival) laptop is just plain wrong. It means that the customer is responsible for the defective product he/she receives. A defective unit should not have been shipped out in the first place.

As for the battery problem, several users have reported the same issue, please check NBR forum, a lot of them reported high wear level out of the box, I've raised this issue with Geno, MSI rep on NBR and also Henry, the technical supervisor in California. Well, Henry did not reply my email and call, while Geno only directed me to Henry. All this shows that MSI does not stand behind their product to which I am extremely disappointed.

MSI's response (Mar 10)

I did see we provided you with shipping label which you can use to ship the unit to us at no cost. Thank you

My response (Mar 10)

I guess you missed the whole point, first, you didn't provide me with free shipping, I had to talk to a supervisor and he finally gave me an exception. Second, how about the defective battery issue?

MSI's response (Mar 10)

If your capable of removing and replacing the battery. We can issue you an RMA for just the battery base on availability.

At this moment the only issue you have is with the battery correct?

My response (Mar 10)

Yes, the wear level is ridiculously high for a brand new battery.

MSI's response (Mar 10)

Did you get the RMA number and instructions? If so you can ship just the battery. Thank you

My response (Mar 10)

Actually the battery is not the only issue, the CPU fan makes annoying high pitched noises at 2900 RPM, the GPU fan rattles at high RPM and the keyboard bulges around the enter key (I believe that's where the RAM heatsink is located), so all in all the build quality is very disappointing as well.

But even if I just ship the battery I still need to pay for shipping, right?

MSI's response (Mar 10)

So base on your issue reported this is why we requested that you ship the full system to us. MSi stand by our product and would like to resolve your issue under warranty services. Thank you

My response (Mar 10)

If msi really stand behind their product then I'd like some proof, because so far it doesn't seem like so, 

1. What's the deal with the widespread high wear level of the battery? is it a BIOS problem not reading the battery sensor correctly or are the batteries themselves defective or some other defects? please give me a reply since both Henry and Geno sidestepped this issue.

2. Shipping should be free both ways since the laptop is obviously defective out of the box and I should get priority service for the RMA, remember that RMA means I have no access to my laptop for an extended period of time and let me reiterate that defective products should not be shipped out to customers in the first place.

If you can satisfactorily reply both questions then I'll agree that msi stand behind their products

End of communication, no response from msi thus far.

The funny thing is that the first time I contacted them back in December the only problem was indeed the battery, the new units have more (minor) defects and yet the msi rep used this as an excuse as to why they wanted me to ship the laptop back (and pay for shipping) originally.

You can also see that there are questions that they did not answer at all. It is therefore clear that the reason they respond on newegg feedback forum was just damage control, they didn't make any extra effort to help their customers.

My main point is that they should not ship defective products, especially ones that are premiumly priced, it is unfair to ask the customer to do anything about this (including waiting for an extended period of time for the RMA) since the fault is entirely theirs. Well, it's msi (might suffer indefinitely) after all ...