Thinking about an X31 ...

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zyphria · #31 Post by **zyphria** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:22 pm

JHEM wrote:
zyphria wrote:Anyone aware of a Bluetooth 2.0 CompactFlash adapter?
Google is your friend! Just search for CF bluetooth, there's tons available from every manufacturer you can think of and even more from ones you've never heard of.

Regards,

James

I have, no dice.

stickman · #32 Post by **stickman** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:45 pm

Here is a post from an Ars Technica user who just got his X31 from Retrobox. It really seems to be an A-looking laptop.

woohoo! just got my X31 from retrobox! Smile

My only major complaint is that they did a piss poor job of packing it with the foam stuff. The laptop was sitting on the bottom of the cardboard box, right up against one side, with one foam piece to the other side and the second foam piece on top. Contrast this to the way my L400 arrived, sitting happily on top of one foam piece with the other on top, perfectly insulating it from the world. I think the main problem this time was that the box they used was just too big, so the foam thingies + laptop couldn't fill it as well as before. grrrr.

But, hey, what can you do? The laptop itself is beautiful. Maybe someone like Hellion Prime who has spent a lot of time working with these machines could spot more tell-tale signs, but to my novice eyes, it looks like it's almost never been used.

It does look like somebody took the keyboard off at one point, and didn't manage to get the sucker back on correctly. The lower left-hand corner isn't snapped in completely and, as a result, the A, S, Z, X, Caps Lock, left Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys look like they have a bump underneath them.

It also looks like there used to be a Windows COA on the bottom, which has since been removed. I knew I was getting a box with no OS, so that's fine, but I would've played around with XP if I could have. The recovery partition has also been wiped out, so this'll be a linux-only box for now.

I've also got an Intel Centrino sticker on the case, so I wonder if it actually has the Intel wireless card installed. The listing specifically said "no wireless", so I guess we'll see.

Edit - update: ARGH! Mad The Fedora Core 4 installer bombs out right after selecting packages, saying it couldn't update the kernel about changes to /dev/hda or something like that. It's done it twice now, so I'm off to search for FC4 installer bugs, hoping that some dolt hasn't killed my harddrive with his stellar packing job. Roll Eyes

zyphria · #33 Post by **zyphria** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:57 am

Here's the thread if anyone is interested. Link

coolname1 · #34 Post by **coolname1** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:31 pm

Any update on this deal? I've ordered a x31 from them as well...

kodell · #35 Post by **kodell** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:08 am

coolname1 wrote:Any update on this deal? I've ordered a x31 from them as well...

I ordered one on 4/3 and one on 4/4. The one ordered 4/4 now shows that it shipped today (4/12), while the status of the one ordered 4/3 now shows "Shipping". The original shipping dates were shown as 4/18 & 4/19, so it looks like they may be a little faster than expected.

My credit card shows that both were charged at the time of the orders.

If these turn out to be "excellent" it will be worth it, but in all honesty I'll think twice about ordering from them in the future.

I've also noticed in the arstechnica thread that a couple people have reported that the Windows CoA has been removed ... this seems a little bit strange to me. I can't imagine why this would be necessary I do have one spare retail version of winXP pro, but I was hoping not to have to buy a second one. I emailed them about this, but haven't heard back yet.

edit ... I have heard back now - the windows COAs have been removed. I don't know why. My (limited) understanding is that if the machine is originally sold with an OS, that the COA is specific to that machine and can't be transferred or sold - Bill Gates doesn't give refunds. I know on our work machines where we have corporate licenses for the OS & reimage the disks, we still get the original COA for whatever OS the machine shipped with.

Kevin

zyphria · #36 Post by **zyphria** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:55 am

Yep, mine shipped out today as well.

JHEM · #37 Post by **JHEM** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:31 pm

Mine shipped yeaterday and should arrive tomorrow.

The only problem with that is I won't be back home until next Tuesday!

Regards,

James

zyphria · #38 Post by **zyphria** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:01 am

ArsTechnica updated with pictures.

Someone in the packing department needs to get smacked around a bit, but otherwise I've got my hopes up.

zyphria · #39 Post by **zyphria** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 3:36 am

My bag arrived today!

Link

brainpicker · #40 Post by **brainpicker** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:06 am

Mine arrived 10 minutes ago. Delivery woke me out of a sound sleep. It took me 3 MINUTES, not 3 days, to call for an RMA. Absolute garbage for Grade A. I'd call mine maybe Grade C physically. Lots of wear on the upper lid. All the rubber coating is off the corners and chiped off elsewhere too. Latches have been broken off so the lid won't close. Laptop won't properly attach to the Dock right now... maybe I could fix this but I'm sending it back as is. Mine was "packed" in a box with the laptop, dock and a/c adapter actually just thrown in together. The laptop wasn't even attached to the dock. No padding inside and everything just moved around freely for the whole trip here. I didn't even bother to turn it on. It's going back FAST. I already called my credit card company to notify them that I will accept nothing less than a complete refund due to the blatent misrepresentation of this unit. I will never buy from Intechra / Retrobox again and I urge all of you to stay away if you expect Grade A to be Grade A (I would hate to see what the Grade C units look like!!!). If you post to other forums where people are thinking about making a purchase from them please feel free to include any or all of my post here to warn them.

pianowizard · #41 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 11:03 am

brainpicker, thanks for your very helpful report. I will definitely think twice before ordering from them.

brainpicker · #42 Post by **brainpicker** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 11:23 am

pianowizard wrote:brainpicker, thanks for your very helpful report. I will definitely think twice before ordering from them.

Yeah, and I think I figured out how the latches snapped off too. The front right corner has a nice thick dent and the lid doesn't close flush (it's kinda off-center to the left noticeably) so the impact must have broken off the plastic latches. That damage didn't happen because of the poor packing during shipping as the latches are not in the box. The cord of the a/c adapter also has chew marks like the kind mine get when my cats want my attention badly. I placed it back in the box exactly as it was when received (laptop set on dock but not attached, cords tangled and like spaghetti), taped it up, and will await my RMA hopefully Monday so I can get this the heck out of here. They made no special effort to assure the condition during shipping yet took 11-days to get it here so I'm not expecting my refund to be swift nor painless. Since I'm likely the first one here to actually return theirs I'll also report back on how they handled the customer service and return proceedures too. Sometimes a better judge of a company is not how often they screw up, but how they respond when they DO.

- Yak

stickman · #43 Post by **stickman** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 11:44 am

The way you describe the laptop you just received reminds me of the ones they were selling on ebay, that certainly didn't look like Grade A, as yours, they had lot of wear on the upper lid and they had chips everywhere, as well as broke latches...

This is the first report of a grade A laptop looking bad, maybe it was their fault and they sent you a grade C.

I assume you haven't been able to talk them yet to clarify this issue?

pianowizard · #44 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:15 pm

brainpicker wrote:I placed it back in the box exactly as it was when received

Are you sure you want to do this? What if they blame YOUR poor packaging for the damages, and refuse to give you a full refund?

kodell · #45 Post by **kodell** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 1:47 pm

So far my luck is a little better .... I received mine about 30 minutes ago (& I'm using it right now). The packaging exactly matches the pictures posted on the arstechnica thread.

I order a lot of stuff over the internet (the other day my kids were amazed that a UPS truck came down our street and actual stopped at someone else's house! ). I'm trying to think of a worse job of packaging ... I've bought dead laptops for parts that were much better packaged. Retrobox needs to invest in a roll of bubble wrap.

Anyway, as far as the condition of the unit ... I would say that it's fair to describe it as "A - excellent". There is one stuck pixel, a few very light scratches on the exterior (probably done during shipping) The keyboard itself looks like it's hardly been used (it does look like someone did a pretty poor job of cleaning it BTW ... I can see some streak marks that look like someone used a greasy rag from some diner to wipe down the screen/keyboard) The battery looks like it's good for about an hour (the cycle count only shows 9 and the first used date is 2/2004 ... I'll try reconditioning it)

The computer itself ... I love it, this is the absolutely perfect laptop for me ... small enough, light enough, fast enough for everything I do, decent keyboard. (this is only for personal use, surfing, email, quicken, word, excel & already looks like it'll replace the desktop I've been using).

Kevin

stickman · #46 Post by **stickman** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 1:56 pm

Well, that's great... I hope brainpicker's laptop was an error and that all the A laptops look at least as the ones we have came to hear about in the last days...

Let's hope you can recover that battery.

Any chance we can see some photos?

brainpicker · #47 Post by **brainpicker** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 4:01 pm

stickman wrote:The way you describe the laptop you just received reminds me of the ones they were selling on ebay, that certainly didn't look like Grade A, as yours, they had lot of wear on the upper lid and they had chips everywhere, as well as broke latches...

This is the first report of a grade A laptop looking bad, maybe it was their fault and they sent you a grade C.

I assume you haven't been able to talk them yet to clarify this issue?

I called them immediately but could only leave voice messages. I'm sure my tone was such that even if they WERE around today I wasn't getting a return call anyway!

I absolutley can't believe that a company can stay in business when they have a website that's hit-or-miss as far as ordering (took me 2 days and I had to finish by phone), they misgrade inventory this badly (mine isn't CLOSE to an A-excellent), they take almost 2 weeks to deliver product, and to them "packaging" is just throwing your item in a box and wishing for luck! I bet their thinking is that they can make quite a bit of money off shipping and restocking fees, sell the good stuff to corporate accounts, and if they happen to actually sell a few of the crappy items to the "world" buyers that's OK too.

Some would say it's worth about what I paid so why go through the hassel? I figure THAT'S Retrobox's thinking too. Well, I didn't buy this because I wanted a $470 laptop that looked/performed like a $470 laptop... I bought it because a true Grade A-excellent X31 with X3 & Combo Drive would be worth far more than $470. I bought it to sell to a 16-year-old high school girl (for $525 by the way) who wanted an inexpesive laptop she could be proud of owning. I'd be embarrased to sell this... even on eBay! Besides, she'd never be able to get warranty work done on this (especially for the screen) as IBM would know the item was dropped HARD on the top corner where the screen is because of the dent and broken plastic latches. So unless it's a user replacable part the warranty would be useless (by the way I never bothered to check if it even HAS warranty left like some have).

Boy how I'd love to hear that mine is an anomaly to the point where they offer to overnight me a proper replacement and pay for the return shipping of this peice of crap. But we all know THAT isn't going to happen.

I hope we hear from more people who purchased soon.

- Yak

coolname1 · #48 Post by **coolname1** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:21 am

wow that sux, I bought a grade B system so I'm expecting some flaws on it. I hope mine wont be as bad as the way you've described though. GL with your refund.

zyphria · #49 Post by **zyphria** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:15 pm

Mine arrives tomorrow, will give my own update.

JHEM · #50 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:36 pm

zyphria wrote:Mine arrives tomorrow, will give my own update.

Mine arrived Friday, unfortunately I don't arrive until late tomorrow night!

I'll report on Wednesday after I've opened the box. I'll take numerous photos as I do.

Regards,

James

kodell · #51 Post by **kodell** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:31 pm

I hope brainpicker received some satisfaction from retrobox (& hasn't had a heart attack). I would really like to have been able to recommend these folks - I've emailed them three times and had prompt replies each time. I don't believe that they are dishonest, merely incompetant.

The x31 I received Saturday does have wireless-b mini-pci installed and the windows COA has been scraped off. Given the lack of a COA and the stuck pixel, I would say this is probably worth around $550 or so (it looks like comparable systems with no bad pixels are currently selling on ebay for around $650-$700) ... still an okay deal, but not fantastic.

I did take a terrycloth rag and buff the cover which made the scratches pretty much invisible. It does look like most of them were from the power adapter bouncing around in the box along with the laptop.

I’m expecting the second unit tomorrow. Given the insanely inept packaging of the first unit, I’ll think seriously about refusing delivery/insisting on inspection if there’s even a trace of damage to the box.

Kevin

brainpicker · #52 Post by **brainpicker** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:53 pm

I received responses to my e-mail AND phone call today (they actually called me three times though I was out all dang day). The caller claimed he really wanted to resolve this. I'm thinking positive and that they really DO want to make things right. As I said before I judge a company most by how they handle problems that arise. Should they take care of me responsibly I would surely consider another purchase down the road, and that could snowball into dozens each year. I will call them back in the morning and report back here with what transpires. My hope is to exchange for a true Grade-A excellent X31 (with my return shipping pre-paid by Retrobox), or for a full refund including all shipping if that isn't possible. Since I don't see anything like this available on their site right now I guess I'll just have to settle for the full refund option if possible. I'm crossing my fingers AND toes on this one. Wish me luck. It would be a shame for both sides if it doesn't end well as I could end up being a regular customer who buys dozens of laptops each year from them. Their price range is right where I need to buy for all the high school & college kids I outfit. I never heard of Retrobox or Intechra prior to this thread.

- Yak

kodell · #53 Post by **kodell** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:09 am

brainpicker wrote:I received responses to my e-mail AND phone call today (they actually called me three times though I was out all dang day). The caller claimed he really wanted to resolve this. I'm thinking positive and that they really DO want to make things right. As I said before I judge a company most by how they handle problems that arise

Just a long shot, but did you check the serial number of the unit you received against the order on their web site? Perhaps it's just a shipping error.

Kevin

brainpicker · #54 Post by **brainpicker** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:16 am

kodell wrote:
brainpicker wrote:I received responses to my e-mail AND phone call today (they actually called me three times though I was out all dang day). The caller claimed he really wanted to resolve this. I'm thinking positive and that they really DO want to make things right. As I said before I judge a company most by how they handle problems that arise
Just a long shot, but did you check the serial number of the unit you received against the order on their web site? Perhaps it's just a shipping error.

Kevin

I didn't check that. I wasn't able to place my order via their website, and when I went to check on the order a few days later I was unable to do so. The sales rep. I dealt with by phone did respond to my e-mailed request however. [edit: OK, I checked that now prior to sealing the box. Everything is marked correctly. I figure either the unit was incorrectly graded, or someone switched the stickers in error and a buyer who ordered a lesser grade actually got my laptop!]

As an update... this morning at 9AM I awoke to the ringing of my doorbell by FedEx (don't laugh, I worked LATE last night). A young man was here to pick up my laptop and I hadn't even called Retrobox/Intechra back yet! I was impressed with their service here. Because of this I asked FedEx to come back tomorrow so I could prepare the box better. I figured if they are going to be courtious enough to handle their end properly I wasn't going to be an [censored] and return it as it was shipped to me. Mistakes happen and this likely WAS a mistake based upon how seriously they are handling my complaint. I marked all the big defects with blue painter's tape (the chewed areas with bared wire, the corner dent where the lid is off to the left, and the missing latches), attached the laptop to the base, neatly wrapped the cords, then packed the box with pleanty of packing material for protection. As I'm finishing up I received another call from Retrobox/Intechra (that's 4 calls to me before I was able to return one of them... impressive!). The gentleman was very nice and I thanked him for their excellent service before we even spoke about the laptop. I explained my disappointment and he listened. It was a very nice conversation. He explained that it must have been a mistake, and never once got defensive. Their wasn't another unit available so he agreed to issue a refund instead. I made it known that if the refund was handled as well as the rest of the process has been that I would surely give them another try. He assured me it wasn't representative of their Grade-A excellent merchandise and that personal attention would be given to my return. What more could I ask for at this point? So tomorrow I send back the box I packed and then wait for the refund to be proccessed.

I will update here again as soon as I am made aware of the refund posting. In the meantime, if any of you used my earlier comments to post to other forums and such I'd appreciate it if you ammended your posts with this current information as it appears they really are trying to handle thier mistake honorably so far [fingers and toes still crossed however].

- Yak

kodell · #55 Post by **kodell** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 11:49 am

Well ... I don't think I could bring myself to recommend them or to order another unit unless they fix their packaging. I'll at least send them a polite note to that effect.

Kevin

zyphria · #56 Post by **zyphria** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:51 pm

Sounds all good to me. If we all send one e-mail regarding the packaging I'm sure that will elicit some kind of response, given their effort to make this right.

zyphria · #57 Post by **zyphria** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:03 pm

Well mine arrived. There was a moment of uncertainty when I had an issue with the cardbus ejector (wouldn't pop out), but then I popped a card in and it worked without a hitch.

Same crappy packing though, definitely going to send along my own note.

Update: 4 hours of testing later, looks like a crash and burn here. System powers down and requires battery to be reseated any time the AC plug is inserted into the system while it is on. Tried another X30 series AC adapter, no go. Updated the BIOS and embedded system, nothing.

The unit itself was almost perfect cosmetically, slight scratches but otherwise met my expectations as a Grade A product....except for the fact that they never tested the motherboard for faulty power handling.

Oh well. Hopefully they can provide me with a replacement.

Wait, aren't these units still under IBM warranty? Couldn't I call up IBM tech support and mail the unit in? Some additional cost but at least I'd know the system I would get back was adequately tested. Any takers on the idea?[/b]

brainpicker · #58 Post by **brainpicker** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:35 am

zyphria wrote:Wait, aren't these units still under IBM warranty? Couldn't I call up IBM tech support and mail the unit in? Some additional cost but at least I'd know the system I would get back was adequately tested. Any takers on the idea?[/b]

Go check the warranty and see. If I'm not mistaken most of the people who DID check found their's to have ONSITE service too. That would possibly solve you issues. You speak of "cost" involved but there are none that I'm aware of (other than your time). If you have a unit that is cosmetically close to perfect I'd give this a try first. They'd likely have it fixed by tomorrow.

FedEx picked mine up just now, so all I have to do is wait for the credit to be given (no emoticon for "still kinda' nervous"). They had none to exchange for.

Good Luck.

- Yak

kodell · #59 Post by **kodell** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:10 am

I still haven't received my second unit yet. It turns out that FedEx Home Delivery is a vastly different and (for me a) vastly inferior service as compared to normal FedEx. When I get a package with signature required with the regular FedEx, I can just drive down the same day to their local facility (2 miles away) and pick it up as late as 7:30 pm.

With the Home Delivery service you can't do that (it's done through a contractor, and it just sits overnight in the contractor's truck if it's not delivered). If I do try to arrange to pick it up it would be an 80 mile round trip to a completely different facility. I'm not really sure it's worth it given the number of problems people have had. (Are we 1 for 3 in this thread?)

zyphria · #60 Post by **zyphria** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:49 am

brainpicker wrote:
zyphria wrote:Wait, aren't these units still under IBM warranty? Couldn't I call up IBM tech support and mail the unit in? Some additional cost but at least I'd know the system I would get back was adequately tested. Any takers on the idea?[/b]
You speak of "cost" involved but there are none that I'm aware of (other than your time).

- Yak

Ah, there *is* onsite warranty, I thought I'd have to suffer the cost of shipping it.

Thanks!

Thinking about an X31 ...

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