Razer Blade Owner's Lounge

[saturnotaku]

Thanks! Anyone have experience with this company or a similar company? Seems pretty reasonable. Do I ensure the entire laptop cost including tax? $3025 for the blade? It looks like $185 for a year of coverage with a $100 deductible is this expensive? Thanks for the help!

Sales tax typically isn't covered. If you're making a claim, I'm guessing you would have to provide some kind of invoice/proof of purchase, and you'd only get a check for the actual amount of the laptop.

[xninjagrrl]

Yeah your situation with the dust is intolerable. I think I understand what you are saying... the truth is the switchblade buttons are very cool on the website and in reviews. However when your holding this aluminum beauty you realize the cheap plastic buttons is an eye sore and extremely unstable.

I'm not terribly concerned about the refund policy. Their website states a 14 day RMA process on gaming systems/laptops and 30 days for everything else so long as purchased directly from their store. If I have too I'll take care of it through my credit card company, no biggie.

Its unfortunate however because I wanted to love this machine but there are quirks and concerns about it that leave me very uneasy about keeping it.

Based on what I read, their refund policy requires the purchaser to eat the cost of shipping the item back to Razer. The box weighs about 30 lbs. plus I can only imagine how much UPS would charge for insurance on a 3k laptop. I am going to call Razer tonight to see what my options are. I managed to get the Synapse stuff working but ten minutes later it crashed and I had to restart the laptop.

ps it is 14 days from the date of purchase, not receipt of product, so if it took a week to get to ya, basically that gives us about a week or so to test it out.

Just read your review. I think you should stick to Macs lol. As for the fan, mine doesnt seem that loud to me. Sure I can hear it but I guess Im just used to my crappy Hp Pavilion fan which never shuts up even in idle.

[HTWingNut]

That is kind of a crappy return policy. 14 days from date of **purchase**? Really? And buyer pays return shipping? In the case of the fingerprints in the buttons they need to pay for round trip next day, that's entirely unacceptable for a $3000 laptop. Any laptop really.

[thoughtmatrix]

I've got an RMA now with them to return it - will mail later today. See how it goes.

[xninjagrrl]

That is kind of a crappy return policy. 14 days from date of **purchase**? Really? And buyer pays return shipping? In the case of the fingerprints in the buttons they need to pay for round trip next day, that's entirely unacceptable for a $3000 laptop. Any laptop really.

Maybe the RMA is different for exchanges vs refunds? Not sure. I will call them later. Imo they should overnight a brand new one to me so I can check it out, then I would mail the old one back to them on their dime. Thats how Dell would do me. Thats what Dell tried to do when they sold me a non- working M11x but I told them to shove it and refund me.

Also, I have not seen this mentioned anywhere. The Switchblade LCD keys can only be viewed from a certain angle. If you get off angle, like hunched over the keyboard looking directly down at them, they appear blurry and unreadable. Is this normal? They start to blur even if I just move a little closer to the laptop, but fine when Im leaning back. I guess thats why we dont see keyboards made entirely of these types of keys. Not a huge deal just seems kind of cheap for such a pricey laptop.

As for the fingerprints/dust issue, I probably would have never noticed it at home because the lighting is poor. But it was noticeable at work with the spiffy track lighting. Principle of the matter, I know they are there and it irks me. I am trying to not care but the crashing Switchblade UI is doing nothing to squash any thoughts of opening an RMA. I am def not eating a hundred or more dollars to return or exchange this item. State Attorneys would come into play at that point lol. Im just hoping Razer has something good to tell me later. I will post their response.

[thoughtmatrix]

RMA process is same for exchanges/refunds. They always do RMA in your warranty period and they basically send you a replacement once you've sent yours in. I could tell when asking for a refund they don't really like to do that, but since I'm in my 14 day window there wasn't much they could do. Their website clearly states you are responsible for return shipping so not sure how much leverage you have there to be honest. They are not a fraction of the size of Dell. Living in California the return shipping with insurance and signature will cost me like $50 so thats not bad to get 3k back - minor investment

You are absolutely right about the LCD keys. If you are holding it in your lap or at a desk the keys are cut off, or at least the top ones. Plus they are blurry and pointless. And like I said in my review and you noted, the software crashes constantly.

They sent me an RMA email within a half hour of calling and I'm shipping mine out. They don't give too much of a fuss. If you want them to foot the bill that will be another thing. And to send you a second one so you can try it out? Given they are only making batches of a 100 (haha I'm kidding) I doubt they have a spare to even send you. Good luck

[HTWingNut]

I would hope RMA would be free of charge considering it's their issue and not yours. As they say, a product is only as good as its warranty and customer service. In any case hope it works out for you. I really want to see one in person.

edit (after thoughtmatrix): Well I wouldn't doubt if it was only batches of 100. If they give you grief about returning it, that shows me an unprofessional company right there. If they offer 14 days return, there should be no questions asked, well unless they get it and it's completely destroyed by abuse... They really would have been better of releasing the switchblade UI as a USB accessory like all the other stuff, worked out the kinks on a $200 accessory, and implemented it in a full laptop after it had all been debugged. But I'm just a peon talking...

[Mechanized Menace]

Wow, this is extremely shocking...Razer is definitely not going to get anywhere with these policies.

[thoughtmatrix]

edit (after thoughtmatrix): Well I wouldn't doubt if it was only batches of 100. If they give you grief about returning it, that shows me an unprofessional company right there. If they offer 14 days return, there should be no questions asked, well unless they get it and it's completely destroyed by abuse... They really would have been better of releasing the switchblade UI as a USB accessory like all the other stuff, worked out the kinks on a $200 accessory, and implemented it in a full laptop after it had all been debugged. But I'm just a peon talking...

You are absolutely right. What surprised me because I hadn't thought about it until just now was how in all their marketing videos they talk about successful switchblade UI is. How incredible that it's in two products now (the blade, and the star wars old republic keyboard) and how much time/energy has gone into that with partners.

What I failed to realize is: that keyboard hasn't gone for sale yet.

So Razer launched a $3000 laptop with a gimmicky touchpad option that has never gone to production or seen the light of day with crashing software...

So you nailed it.

[HTWingNut]

When I first saw the laptop, I thought, wow, nice, something I might consider. Then I saw the price tag...

I just think it was rushed to market.