Flimsy, breaks instantly, not user upgradeable. Worst Customer Support EVER!!!

The only thing worse than the flimsiness of this product is their so-called "Customer Service."


To make a long story short, the following is a summary of my 10 or so calls to Averatec's Customer Support:



FIRST CONVERSATION (a few days after I received it)
Me: Are recovery, or, preferably OS CD's available.
CS: No. And they won't be. You should use the "Recover Pro" partition on your hard drive to reinstall the OS along with the adware.
Me: Recover Pro wants money from me to use after 30 days, and what if I want a different partition scheme or dual boot?
CS: That is not supported.

NEXT CONVERSATION, ABOUT A MONTH LATER
ME: I'd like to upgrade the memory from 512 MB to the 2 GB sticks I just bought. Could you please send me installation instructions or tell me how to access the memory bay?
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook and we will upgrade it for you. The price for upgrading from 512 MB to 1 GB is approximately $250-300.
ME: Really? But that's more than I just paid for 2 GB of quality laptop memory. . . . if you just told me where to put the memstick in . . There's no user accessible memory bay cover.
CS: That is not supported.
(Ultimately, I disassembled the notebook without a manual -- involved a lot of careful unsnapping and keyboard removal to access memory bay. I'm a pro, so don't try it unless you really know what you're doing). You may well void the warranty in this process, since the notebook's opening screws are sealed with a "will void warranty if broken" sticker.


NEXT CONVERSATION, ABOUT TWO MONTHS LATER
ME: The cap has fallen off the notebook hinge. It's a 50-cent part that just snaps on the exterior and now is lost. Could you send me a new one.
CS: You will have to send us your notebook for repair.
ME: But if you have the part, why can't you just send it to me? I'll happily pay you for it.
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook. Do you need a keyboard letter? We can send you those.
ME: Thanks, but what I really need is a hinge cap. If you have the part, why can't you just put it in an envelope and send it.
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook.

NEXT CONVERSATION (a couple months later)
ME: My hard drive died. I've replaced it with a new one. May I send you my old one for replacement.
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook.
ME: Why can't I just send you the dead hard drive. I've already replaced it and the dead one that came with my notebook is sitting in an anti-static bag ready to go back to you.
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook.

NEXT CONVERSATION, A COUPLE MONTHS LATER:

ME: The BIOS on your website doesn't self-extract nor include a flash utility. I believe it's an incorrect version. I finally installed it, but now the notebook won't fully boot. Could you please send me the original BIOS so I can reinstall it.
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook.
ME: Are you smoking crack? I just want you to e-mail me a BIOS or post it.
CS: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU THINK I SMOKE CRACK? WHAT COULD HAVE GIVEN YOU THAT IDEA? WHO TOLD YOU THAT?"
ME: Really, it's just a figure of speech. Could you just send me the BIOS please.
CS: I DO NOT SMOKE CRACK!
ME: Please, I just want the correct BIOS.
CS: That is not supported. Send us your notebook and a fax of your original proof of purchase.
ME: Could we escalate this please?
CS: What do you mean by "escalate?" You think my supervisor smokes crack?
ME: Look, I just want the BIOS file. Please put me through to your supervisor.
CS: He'll tell you the same thing: "It's not supported. Send us your notebook."
ME: Please put me through anyways.

SUPERVISOR (finally): I'll write up a trouble ticket and see if someone can find the BIOS.

NEXT CONVERSATION (NEXT DAY)
ME: Forget about the trouble ticket. I used an unzipping utility to unzip your non-self-extracting self-extracting executable posted on your website, found the BIOS in there, and used MSI's afudos.exe utility to install it. I changed the switches to "overwrite critical sectors" and now the notebook boots and my BIOS is updated. By the way, any possibility of getting a hinge cap or RMA for my dead hard drive.
CS: That is not suppported. Send us your notebook.

I think you get the idea.

Incidentally, the 1394/Firewire port is worthless on this notebook; it serves no purpose other than cosmetic. It's a cheap unstable chipset. If you want to actually run anything via Fireware, you will need to purchase a PCMCIA firewire card from a reputable manufacturer.

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GREAT

I bought this at costco about a half a year ago and it works great!
This is an awesome deal since it has a cd/dvd burner, ati graphics card, amd turion processor. I love this thing. I upgraded the ram, it's located under the keyboard, there are two 256mb cards in there, i swaped them for two 512mb cards and it runs a little faster. The wireless card sucks though, you have to constantly push the repair button, but who cares, i get connected. I can even play on xbox live through it. I also have the creative notebook sond card on it and tons of software, and still have 3/4 of my harddrive left!
Don't hesitate to buy!!!

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