UPDATE: For More Discussions about the NEO Laptop model, please visit the Philippine Laptops Website.
My Neo Endura Laptop did not ‘endure’ its daily use. After only 8 months of use, it decided to go bust on me yesterday. I was able to watch the extended version of “Lord Of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” on it just a day before. When I opened it yesterday, the screen was totally blank. The laptop’s power LED was on – but nothing was showing up on screen. I hooked it up to a projector just to see if it would show anything on the screen. Nada.. nothing there.
It’s still under warranty so I just decided to have it serviced. I promptly called NEO’s tech support number. From 9AM to 12NN, I called around 5 times. There was no answer on their hotline. I called them again after lunch and finally somebody answered. I described the nature of the problem. He told me to bring it over to the service center just along Shaw Boulevard. I asked if they needed my warranty card. The tech guy explained that they just need my name and the serial number of the unit. By 3:30pm, I was at the service center.
When I got there I discovered one tech guy on the front desk working on another busted laptop. Another guy was just to my right and was on the phone. Apparently, this guy on my right was the telephone support guy. I discovered that this guy would go to their back office (which seemed to have more tech people) and leave the phones up at the front desk. It rang incessantly. Now I understand why it took me a while to get in touch with them. For a “hotline’ number, the people here sure aren’t trained to answer it effectively. They didn’t seem to have a ready script for incoming calls.
The repair guy looked at my computer and then checked the memory and the CPU. After an hour, he told me he needs to do some more diagnostics and I’ll have to leave the laptop overnight. So I signed a ‘deposit’ form.
Today I called them up to follow up on my laptop and they say that a “cable” part is busted and it will take 3 weeks for them to get it from Taiwan. In my mind, I was shouting “WTF?!!”
I was rather polite with them though and asked if they could provide me with a replacement unit in the meantime (so I could do some work). They said that they don’t do that.
Ack.
I decided I would just get my laptop’s hard drive for now as I have a lot of important files there that I need to access. I’ll get the hard drive tomorrow and insist on getting a replacement unit.
Let’s see what happens.
By the way… I can’t tell you about what I did just yet. You see involves somebody else and I have not been given permission yet to blog about it. I’ll keep you posted.
Philippine Laptops » Buying A Neo Laptop? 5:34 am on September 26, 2007 Permalink
[...] think the difference is the quality of after sales support. Take a look at Jozzua’s website and you will see the amount of talk going around about Neo’s tech support. Take a look at [...]
Fritzie 3:34 pm on October 1, 2007 Permalink
Hello you guys!
It’s scary to read all your complaints. I bought my Neo laptop last May, and so far, it has only been the LAN that I had a problem. Nasunog dahil sa kidlat…So I had to buy a router and am using wireless for internet connection. Am here kasi in Mindanao now. I was planning to bring my unit for repair when taking another vacation there in Manila again. But hearing from you guys, I think I will spend more having it repaired there…Anyways, thanks for all the feedbacks! Iingatan ko na lang to. Sna naman humaba pa ang buhay!
MacBookPro TAYO 11:34 am on October 3, 2007 Permalink
this is the problem with most people. they will and want to expect a unit to perform flawlessly without a single hitch. but guess what? they are not willing to spend! everything has its price! your KIA budget will not buy you a FERRARI performance! how can a p20k laptop measure up with a same specs p40k unit? ofcourse they have to cut corners!
granted some units are lemon. but don’t expect them to replace your unit outright. ofcourse they still need to check the problem of the unit first! and usually warranty covers repair not replacement. and ofcourse physical damage voids warranty! any idiot knows that. say you happen to buy a lemon toyota car, you think you can just return it and say “hey this car is defective, give me a replacement now!” good luck!
and if all else fail? buy a MAC BOOK PRO!
MacBookPro TAYO 12:14 pm on October 3, 2007 Permalink
come to think of it, it’s all a numbers game!
defective units average about 7% of total sales. if you sell more, then you will surely come up with more defective units. so if brand x has about 7 defective units and sells only 100 units as against Neo getting 70 defective units but sells about 1000 units, well guess what? the same 7% defective rate.
MArieeeeH 9:32 pm on October 3, 2007 Permalink
waaah… im planning to buy n the pink neo empriva laptop s saturday, prang ngkaron me 2nd thought… help nman.. 40k lng budget ko, can u suggest a good laptop? thanks
jozzua 5:12 am on October 4, 2007 Permalink
Hello everyone, this thread has gotten longer than I expected. I’m dedicating a new website for all Philippine laptop related discussions and closing this thread. Please post your comments and questions there from now on.
jozzua 4:22 am on October 17, 2007 Permalink
Hi everyone, Nicole left an interesting comment over at the new Philippine Laptops website:
“I would like to give an update to the post that I made over a month ago. Here is my recent experience with NEO’s service:
To: NEO rep,
I am very disappointed that after our email conversation, NEO’s service still falls short…”
You guys might be interested to read it. You must leave a comment on the Philippine Laptop website to be able to see follow up comments. Thanks.