It all began when I was looking for a laptop. I’ll skip up to the moment I decided that Tuxedo’s notebook was parameter-wise acceptable (in some respects even good) and I was quite happy to support a linux-friendly company with my purchase.
First problems were already with the delivery: Tuxedo didn’t provide my phone number to the delivery company, which meant that the company didn’t even try delivering it. It was up to me to notice that the delivery was taking quite long, check package tracking and figure out how to get in touch with someone at the delivery company to fix Tuxedo’s negligence.
Next problems were with the laptop upon unpacking. One, one touchpad button was like half-way depressed (I decided not to return the laptop just because of this). Two, the key “O” couldn’t be pressed. Nonetheless, I managed to fix that by myself.
By the way, Tuxedo chose to ignore my explicit request to spare me of their marketing junk and shipped it to me anyway (I tried returning it but they sent it back again!).
Just a few months later, the laptop display started to flicker every now and then. I had to send it back for a repair. To be fair, I’d like to mention that they provide prepaid shipping, which is nice. Two weeks later I wrote them a question regarding the state of the repair and explicitly asked them to make sure to provide the delivery company with my phone number to avoid the same situation I experienced when I bought the laptop (even though I printed my phone number in bold and in red in the attached form and explicitly asked them there to put the number on the package). Silence. Silence for 10 more days. After 10 days, I received a surprised e-mail from Tuxedo saying “i’m surprised that you didn’t receive the tracking number!” (don’t you say, me too!) and “That being said, UPS couldn’t find you!” (I was hiding under my bed, I guess :·P). Only then I learned that the repaired laptop had already been returned to Tuxedo, because (surprise!) Tuxedo didn’t put my phone number on the package. Again.
They promised to send it again. Within 10 days I sent them 4 e-mails. Asking for a tracking number first, later even offering them to keep the laptop, which not only had not arrived yet, but I didn’t even know whether they had already sent it or not. So it took yet another 10 days to get a response from Tuxedo, to get a tracking number, to find out that they again didn’t provide the delivery company with my phone number.
Since I bought the laptop without a disk, I took it out before sending the laptop for the repair (to be sure no one accidentally erases it or something). I stored it untouched in my closet and put it back in when I finally received the notebook from repair almost 2 months later.
I immediately noticed that there was something wrong: sound card didn’t work when the notebook woke up after being suspended to RAM. The laptop also couldn’t shut down (it kept running) nor restart (it would shut down(!)).
So I wanted to see a repair protocol – none was attached to the laptop. However, Tuxedo refused sending me one when I requested it. Essentially, they refused to tell me what exactly was done to my laptop, except a vague “Well, the technician has reported that the LCD-Cable was replaced.”
As I was sending the laptop for a repair anyway, I requested repair of the touchpad button too. No – Tuxedo claimed that the button was “inspected and found working, a little wear was noted but was within normal range.”! They ignored my claims that this was the state as they shipped it to me, not “used,” together with photos from unpacking where it was visible. Nonetheless, I was offered another repair. I agreed. And then nothing happened. In the end, they retracted the offer and said: “Touchpad key “issue” cannot be solved”.
And finally, they played down the new problems that they apparently caused by damaging the laptop during the “repair” – they told me to reinstall the OS and that was it.
So, few more months had passed and I found that the laptop charging was malfunctioning too. There were many different manifestations of the problems and I captured them all on videos, to have proofs, so that Tuxedo couldn’t deny the existence of the problems. First, they asked me to upgrade UEFI and EC. Didn’t help. Then they asked me again and again to hop through many loops. Things that didn’t even sound helpful (and, of course, OS reinstall). Why? They told me:
It is possible, that there is something wrong with the charging electronics, but if not, we should test every possibility before taking in the device for service, don’t you think?
It took them over 3 months to accept the laptop for another repair.
A whole month passed. Silence. I waited for a few more days. Then I acted. This time, I knew that my country’s law required warranty repairs to be processed within 30 days. Both EU law and Tuxedo’s business terms agreed that my country’s law/consumer protection applies. So I sent Tuxedo an e-mail (actually, it was 3 e-mails until I got a confirmation of receipt) with contract withdrawal and (therefore) a request to return me the full purchase price (this is what the law mandates). Silence. After 6 days, Tuxedo sent me a cheerful e-mail that they had sent me the repaired laptop. Just unbelievable. This started many months of arguing and haggling. In short:
To that last e-mail, I repeated again my frustration with their actions despite the ongoing lawsuit. Still, I couldn’t help but mention at the end that if they agreed with refunding me the full purchase price + the court fees, I could withdraw the lawsuit. To my surprise, they suddenly agreed. I suspect these e-mails were related to the court taking action, because the next e-mail from them said: “The letter from court just arrived at my desk.”
From there on, everything was swift and seamless. All it took to make Tuxedo Computers respect the law and their customer was to bring them to court. Good to know, I guess!
I’m never ever buying anything from Tuxedo Computers again. And as I found out, I’m not the only one having bad experience with them. In the end, it’s a bit like a story from Louis Rossmann.
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Written: 2024-09-06