My Review of Xotic and Malibal

[Burtonjp]

Personally, I believe that everyone has to remember that there's two sides to every story. I've seen too much bashing of companies (my experience is with music companies not computer) where the company is made to look horrible only to find out that the story was incredibly skewed/biased/dramatized from the story tellers perspective. I don't know the story but think its important to remember to take everything with a grain of salt before piling on.

[hizzaah]

Once someone gets mad about something, even little issues can be twisted into giant faults.. While we do see good reviews for companies here, you also have to remember that a lot of people come online simply to complain and stir things up. That's just part of the game..

[dasgnurgen]

I think it's like any problem, when you're happy people usually don't bother posting about it, but when something goes wrong (even the lightest of things) they come and do this whole "OH NO YOU DIDN'T" routine. Some people do get bad experiences, but that's what it's like dealing with this type of stuff. I think for every product I've ever bought there has been that whole THIS WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE type post. A great example was when I bought my Vertex 3. I think like the majority of comments you would run across online were of people saying that OCZ was the worst company ever, their SSD's were awful, they fail all the time, BSOD machines of doom etc.. Yet mine has no problems? It's just the way things are.

TL;DR: When people are happy with the product they don't write about it, because they are happy. When people are mad they vent steam in sometimes exaggerated forms.

[Kiol]

Unrelated to the issues mentioned.

Mr Malibal when I receive the email announcement about the forums. Thunderbird or Gmail flags it as a "scam" and warns me when I click the links.

So I had to come here and confirm you actually have a forum.

I'm sure there is nothing wrong but you guys may want to look into it.

[MALIBAL]

Hi Kiol, thanks for the heads up - that's the first time I have heard that... we use mailchimp.com to send out all newsletters/email announcements - so I'll report the issue to them, thanks.

[Allport3]

It's interesting that they offered you free shipping when just a week ago they told me that they don't when I had asked about discounts. I was purchasing one laptop for myself and also doing the grunt work for two of my friends who were also purchasing sagers (I convinced them to ) so was trying to find any group discount rates considering all 3 were going to be over 1500. I had asked malibal how much shipping would cost which they referred me to their website to estimate shipping but originally couldn't find the link so I just gave them my address asking if they could put it in for me which they wouldn't. He did however email me again telling me the "exact" location on their page and after a few extra minutes I did find it. However when choosing a reseller among the many options sometimes it's the small things that help make the decision. After comparing the price with shipping and all discounts both would offer Xoticpc was cheaper by about 10 bucks only, but if Malibal had gone that extra mile I would have been more inclined to contact them again asking for a price match as I originally wanted to order from them.

So in the end I ended up going with Xotic because they were overall just more friendly in their pm's and went that "extra mile" for me when asking about shipping and the such. Then 10 minutes after I ordered mine, I helped both of my friends order theirs. So now all 3 of us are patiently waiting for our laptops to arrive (got the amd card in all of them so have a little time ).

P.S. Malibal did respond quickly and knowledgeably mind you just felt slightly cold is all.

[MALIBAL]

Hi, when customers ask how much shipping is, we refer them to the shipping charges link on our cart page, because the exact cost is determined by the price of the notebook (insurance purposes) so the shipping costs on a $1500 P150EM-SE will not be exactly the same as the shipping costs on a $3000 P150EM-SE, even if they are shipping to the same location - so that's the reason we ask customers to configure the notebook they want and then add it to the cart and then click the shipping charges link to get the exact shipping costs.

P.S. You don't need to create an account for the shipping link to appear on the cart page.

[Allport3]

That's a great response. I would have loved to have been told that so I would be more informed of the reasoning behind your response instead of just telling me that it depended on where you guys were shipping it to originally. Never mentioned anything about pricing being different dependent on cost of laptop (did tell you it would cost a bit over 1500 ). Tis also a shame when asking about discounts other people were being offered free shipping when I wasn't though. . Thanks for informing me your shipping procedure for pricing, gave me a bit more insight into your reasoning for some of your response.

[Destx]

Since I bought my laptop I had no real need to get back on these forums for a while but I checked back to day to just check and see where this went. Who would of thought Malibal would cry foul and make me look like the bad guy.

I am not going to waste my time anymore with the site because its just hearsay. I wrote up a truthful, honest review. Take it or leave it.

Here is my build for those curious

Free Shipping FREE!! Continental (U.S. Lower 48 - UPS Ground Only) Ground Shipping on ALL Sager Laptops (Enter Coupon Code: "SAGERFREESHIP" during order process)
Display 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R303)
Monitor Calibration NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
Dead Pixel Warranty Standard Dead Pixel Policy
Processor Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3610QM (2.3GHz - 3.3GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU – S2R174)
Thermal Compound - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
Graphics Video Card nVidia GeForce GTX 670M 1,536MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology [User Upgradeable] (SKU – S3R517)
External Display Video Adapters No Video Adapter
Ram 8GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) - SPECIAL! (SKU - S4P369)
Branding Sager Branding
Exterior Finish Standard Finish
mSATA SSD Drive No mSATA SSD
Primary Hard Drive 750gb 7200rpm (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R306)
Optical Drive Bay Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
Optical Drive Bay Hard Drive Caddy No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
External Hard Drive (Back Up) No Back Up Hard Drive
External USB Optical Drive NO External USB Optical Drive
Memory Card Reader Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
Back Up Software No Back Up Software
Bluetooth Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
Wireless Network Sager - Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module (SKU - S8R112)
Wireless Network Accessories No Network Accessory
Camera Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
TV Tuner No TV Tuner
Sound Card Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
Case Basic Black Business Case - Included
Battery Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
Car Adapter No Car Adapter
Spare AC Adapter No Spare AC Adapter
Port Replicator / Dock / Adapters No Dock/Hub/Adapter
Fingerprint Reader Integrated Fingerprint Reader
Headsets No Headset
Keyboard Accessories No External Keyboard
Mouse Accessories No External Mouse
Notebook Cooler No Notebook Cooler
XOTIC PC Redline Boost™ Extreme Performance No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
OS Redline Boost No Operating System Redline Boost
Operating System ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's + Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included with OS Purchase
Microsoft Office Software No Office Software
Software Bundle (Not Installed) No Software Bundle
Warranty Sager 2 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty w/ Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Customer Support (SKU - S9R206)
White Glove Premium Packaging No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
Outside of U.S. Shipping Coverage No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
Xotic Gear No Xotic PC Gear

[SevenK]

P.S. And one more thing before I go... as I've said many times before and I will say one last time. We have zero complaints with the BBB in 8 years, which is the best record in the industry. We take great care of our customers and will never wrong you. I can't - because I have a conscience.

On BBB website it says "A BBB Accredited Business since 04/08/2010"
Also says the following:
BBB file opened: 04/09/2010
Business started: 11/18/2004
Business started locally: 03/24/2010

Unless my English is really bad, it seems to me that you have been with BBB only since 04/2010, which if you calculate until today 05/2012 is only 2 years 1 month. Not 8 years you have been quoting in almost all your extremely defensive responses. You are giving NBR members misleading information and I think you should rethink your strategy. If I am wrong, please do correct me.

For a company rep that gives misleading information, how accountable can I hold the company for? We make decisions based on the wrong information so can they actually be sued?