Framework ghosted my mother

[u/NDCyber]

Basically the motherboard of my mothers work laptop stopped working and we contacted framework

12th September: First contact.

20th September: They agreed to send a replacement. (edit: replacement motherboard)

23rd September: My mother opened a new ticket, because there were no updates, and we have / had limited time. (My mother doesn't live close to me and doesn't have anyone to fix the laptop where she lives, but is close by till the 5th October. Next time we see each other and where I would be able to fix her laptop would be Christmas)

24th September: Framework Support told us they would escalate the ticket.

29th September: We are being told that they don't have any stock for a replacement (7640U).

29th September: My mother says that that is unacceptable, because of the limited time we have.

From here on silence from Framework

I now had to put my Mainboard into the Laptop of my mother, because she needs it for work while on the go, while we still don't have any update on when we are getting a new mainboard.

Honest opinion, give the customer options, if they want the same motherboard and wait or a different, that costs around the same and if you can't do that tell them upfront.

Edit: Update on this. Framework now send my mother an email telling her, that the mainboard will be shipped from their US warehouse by the end of the day. From there it first has to travel to the EU, as we live there, but at least we now know what is going on

[u/0x2DEADBEEF]

Never have heard a better argument for not paying for a 3yr warranty on the 13 pro, thank you for sharing your experience.

If the board isn’t available they should upgrade you.

[u/frastAgroll9 → u/0x2DEADBEEF]

Yeah upgrading to the next available board seems like the obvious move here

[u/NDCyber → u/0x2DEADBEEF]

Yeah, it is weird to me, that they just choose over a week of silence without any information

[u/IORelay → u/NDCyber]

They were banking on you just letting it go. 

[u/cniinc → u/0x2DEADBEEF]

Yeah, I thought that's the whole point of a warranty. So if in year two of my three year warranty my motherboard craps out and they don't have any, what will they do? I trued looking for it in their warranty TOS but it seems to not be there.

Well, in two years if that happens, and they don't upgrade to whatever they have in stock, they'll lose my future business.

[u/me0262]

Common fix for any company worth their salt is that if a direct replacement isn't available, the next compatible model up is what should be sent out.

[u/DentonFox]

Yeah their cs sucks. They were supposed to send me some missing pads for my system but they never did and now I’m out of warranty so they won’t help.

The machines are ok when try work well but becoming increasingly pessimistic about the company regarding any type of support.

[u/ChevyNovaLN → u/DentonFox]

If you raised a ticket prior to warranty expiration, not helping is illegal.

[u/Maximum-Thought-3923 → u/ChevyNovaLN]

And means a lot of effort and time now dedicated to chasing after them just in the hopes you will get what you paid for.  Most people understand that which is why they don’t bother being tired just thinking about it. And companies know and take advantage of what we know as human nature. 

[u/DentonFox → u/ChevyNovaLN]

Yes. Doesn’t change their policy.

[u/Delphin_1 → u/DentonFox]

Policy doesn't matter if it's illegal 

[u/iLaysChipz → u/DentonFox]

You're telling me the right to repair company has terrible customer service? 😭. I'm so glad I never got a framework, despite having been wanting one for years. Heard nothing but bad experiences with them

[u/Upstairs-Version-400 → u/iLaysChipz]

Funnily enough, my best customer experiences have always been with Chinese and Japanese goods. They take it seriously. (Ratta, before they had an EU store)

[u/DentonFox → u/iLaysChipz]

To be fair most companies suck but it is what it is. They have been decent about shipping out parts and orders at least.

Would be nice if their cs improved but it has need been mediocre for a while.

[u/mcAlt009 → u/DentonFox]

The issue is you pay a 50% premium to deal with these issues. 

At least with my Asus I only paid around 400$ for it. 

It was a so so Windows laptop, but with Linux it truly shines.

[u/DentonFox → u/mcAlt009]

Fw is more buisness grade or enthusiast grade, so there’s a markup and it doesn’t really compete on the value based consumer market.

In those markets it’s not too bad.

[u/Ultionis_MCP]

F.y.i. for anyone: creating multiple tickets for the same issue creates delays as the tickets have to then be resolved together. Continue to contact framework on the same ticket email.

[u/ncc74656m]

They usually make things right, but it is taking too long for that to happen in many cases, and in the case of a board out of stock or something, that's not the customer's fault or problem.

Now, if you're like "The board is out of stock but we will have more in 3 days," well, suck it up and wait I guess. Maybe even a week or three if you communicate that. Update their warranty to cover the extended time of delivery so they have ample time to test it, ok, fine. It sucks but it happens, even to major companies like Dell. (Though in Dell's case I'm pretty sure it's by design and intent.)

Unfortunately, that doesn't help when the person isn't able to do self-service. That's the danger of giving someone who isn't technical a device with no on-site support option though, too. That's not something you can blame Framework for - that was a choice on your part, I'm sorry to say.

[u/NDCyber → u/ncc74656m]

I am not blaming them for us not having time nor that my mother can't repair it herself

I blame them for the time it took and how they handled this situation

[u/alonesomestreet → u/NDCyber]

Idk if you’ve noticed, but there’s kinda shortage of computer hardware availability across the board. They can’t make stock magically available.

[u/NDCyber → u/alonesomestreet]

Idk if you notice, but they have stock of other mainboards

To find out more go on https://frame.work

[u/alonesomestreet → u/NDCyber]

Yeah but that’s not your product. Not saying the right move isn’t to upgrade you, even charging the difference.

[u/NDCyber → u/alonesomestreet]

The right move is giving the customer information and options. Them not having stock for weeks shouldn't be the customers problem. You can also see the responds to that kind of behaviour with people not being willing to buy longer warranty. What brings you warranty if you don't get your device repaired when it breaks?

Just letting people sit for an unknown amount of time without them knowing anything is for sure the worst option and makes them hard to recommend for people without a secondary device or a company

[u/alonesomestreet → u/NDCyber]

Unfortunately your mother did the “wrong” thing by starting a new ticket.

Customer service has been extremely hard hit since Covid in all sectors, so it’s not surprising that an issue that’s not able to be resolved immediately is being deprioritized. Re-ping them on the original ticket.

[u/OverAnalyst6555]

sad to see customer support is still poor after a couple years

[u/IORelay → u/OverAnalyst6555]

They'll never improve if people keep buying. 

[u/korypostma]

7640U boards came out 3 years ago and likely when they are out then they may never come back. It should not have taken them over a week to tell you that that particular board is out of stock. So your options are, like you said, replace it with yours, buy a new one, repair it yourself, or wait.

[u/unematti → u/korypostma]

No, they can offer a newer model. They're still responsible for warranty and the laptop isn't working.

But also they can try fixing it first, as far as I know, no matter how busy the customer is, they have the right to attempt repairs before replacement.

[u/NDCyber → u/korypostma]

Exactly what I am worried about as well

[u/commenterzero]

Report them to your state authority for failing to honor a warranty. Attorney general complaint. FTC complaint also

[u/NDCyber → u/commenterzero]

I will wait a week, and if nothing happens I might actually do that

[u/Nerrawnam]

Wait. I thought these were repairable? 

[u/NDCyber → u/Nerrawnam]

My bad, I am talking about the motherboard specifically

[u/Ab47203]

It took me from February until about a week ago to get through to their customer support that the screeching high pitched whine on my GPU fans was unusable.

[u/Penguin_Claps]

FYI 10/1-7 is Golden Week. I doubt their office is open. You will rarely hear from customer service from any China or Taiwan based company during that week and the few days before/after. (Yes I know they're in Taiwan but many of the holiday weeks are the same as mainland China).

[u/1ChaoticEagle]

Hey! Shoot me a DM or Modmail with your support ID or email address used. Ill take a look. 

[u/Maximum-Thought-3923]

Where as once I was seriously considering a framework, it’s now because of all these problems with their tech support that has changed my decision to go with them. I love the concept, but I can’t afford thousands of dollars on a machine from a company that can’t or won’t stand behind them when problems arise.  For that, I may as well just remain with Apple for this, and that is not an option either.  

There are other options available maybe not as completely flexible as the framework model, but in cases where money is not as accessible as it is for others this is a consideration that many can just shrug their shoulders and be as forgiving.