Thank you. I’ve sent support a link to this thread (i.e. to this forum thread, complete with its link to the Reddit thread). I note also the following.
A post within the Reddit thread explains the scratchiness: ‘my up-arrow key scrapes the upper edge of the aluminum cutout when depressed’. (I had not thought of that, but it is obvious now that it has been pointed out.)
The same Reddit thread has a putative solution that does seem - according to testimony within the thread - to work. But it involves dealing with some twenty-five screws.
Oh, bottoms! I was going to have a go in the hope of fixing the problem. But your - ultimately, helpful - information puts me off. And/but if I don’t do it then I fear the problem will persist forever or at least until Framework brings out a better keyboard and I pay good money to replace my current one with it - or, rather, with a new ‘input cover’.
Framework gets the screws in, so maybe if one takes their time, has a quality screwdriver, and applies the proper technique it can go fine. Enough downward force to prevent cam out, especially when starting. They are PH0 and Philips is evil for cam out. Particularly when small & when starting removal.
~edit~
Where’d you get 25 screws from?
I went to look, and it’s much worse. I counted 71 total, 23 black PH0 screws + 48 silver PH0 screws.
I’d recommend having a separate quality PH0 driver on hand besides the included Framework one. Some people claim the Framework bits aren’t the best.
Thank you for the information. (I am afraid I forget where I got my (mis)information from. It was from somewhere on this board though, I think. Perhaps the person who supplied the 25 figure - which that person said was approximate - was counting only the ‘PHO’ screws.)
For the bezel rattle, it’s the tolerances on the camera and mic hard kill switch sliders.
Doesn’t bother me at all, but if you want to change it for yourself you can look into that area. If you have some parts 3d printed with tighter tolerances you could remove the rattle.
The key board key removal is a bit of a pain, I’ve done it on some Dell laptops in the past. Not a difficult procedure if you’re slow, methodical, keep track of the screws etc. There’s a chance they will strip if you use too much force since the screws are thin, yes, but they won’t strip if you are careful and can purchase the replacement screws if you do strip one, something most hardware companies don’t offer.
For the tech support side of things, see the forum post where I outlined my thoughts.
Framework support is now insisting that I send the computer away for repair (or else return the whole laptop for a refund!). The support people seem to be ignoring my point that so doing is inconvenient and unnecessary. It is unnecessary because a keyboard need not be attached to a computer for the fix at issue to be carried out (and ‘seem to be ignoring’ because the poor English employed by Framework makes it hard to tell). Perhaps Framework wants the keyboard in order to analyse the problem. In that case though my sending the input cover would suffice.
I add: it took Support almost two weeks to reply to my most recent email.
If someone knows of a formal complaint mechanism, then I would be glad (for a certain value of ‘glad’, as it were) to hear of it.
It definitely shouldn’t take two weeks to get an answer—I’ll share feedback about this internally.
That said, I see that you’ve been offered two very solid options: sending the laptop to the repair center for detailed analysis and repair, or returning it for a refund.
Calling support agents unintelligent (literally three times in this thread) and belittling their language skills is not acceptable behavior.
From what I understand, you believe the issue could be resolved by adjusting the keyboard back plate under the keyboard, but you’ve stated:
You were sent two replacement input covers, but you declined to provide any pictures or videos with the second cover, stating (and I quote):
“No. I have had enough.”
Now, you’re being offered the option to send the unit to the repair center—where technicians can repair the unit and test the laptop, not just the input cover—or to return the laptop for a refund. However, you’ve refused these options and expressed a desire to lodge a formal complaint.
Please let me know if I’ve misunderstood anything.
I called their behaviour unintelligent - and claimed that they wrote poorly. Those things might be true - I think they are - and you have offered no reason to believe that they are false or that I ought not to say them.
2
I made it clear in this thread that I do not want to do the job myself because it is a rather difficult job.
3
Each of the two previous replacement input covers displayed its defect before being attached to the laptop; I could press the key and feel and hear the scrape. [Edit: the second replacement input cover had exactly that problem, just as the first replacement did. Perhaps my reluctance to provide a second - or, by this stage, third - set of identical documentation starts to become understandable here. Also: I am unsure that you, Destroya, ought to be quoting, here on the forum, from my emails - which I think you just did. ]
That is why fixing the problem does not require the whole laptop. Also: one reason I bought a Framework was that Lenovo broke my laptop whilst ostensibly fixing it.
The support people continue to refuse to implement the best solution or even to acknowledge its existence, despite my having described that solution to them multiple times. The solution is: take an input cover; ensure it works properly; post it to me. Instead of doing that, support keeps offering me the choice of either returning the whole laptop for a refund or sending the whole laptop in for repair. Let me stress here - as I have stressed to support - that the problem at issue manifests itself even before one attaches it to a laptop.
So, what is going on here is the following. If I understand the support people - and I am afraid that hardly ever do I find them clear - they are ignoring my repeated mentions of the best solution and failing to mention the unfortunate fact that they are not in a position to implement the best solution and must instead inconvenience me. I refer you to the title of this thread. What a large waste of time my correspondence with support has been. I will either fix the problem myself or else live with it.
Of course, I don’t know all of the exact messages and responses you’ve had with them, or who you’ve dealt with.
But customer service reps can have a certain list of solutions that they can provide, and a flow chart of when they can offer what. They also can have a large queue of customer requests to go through, and limited ways in which they are supposed to respond to things customers may say. It seems you may be asking for something that is outside of normal procedures, something standard fulfillment warehouses may not even have a single person trained to do.
Even if the customer service reps agrees that your idea is ideal, it may not be an option, nor the place / role of who you’re speaking with, to try to put that through. And they may not have the freedom to say “Hey, look, that’s a great idea. I’d love to be able to have that done, but I can’t because x, y, and z.” Point is, combine many elements together, and you get what their responses have probably been. You have to look at it from the other side, including limitations and other elements. Calling it unintelligent is just not appreciating everything involved, in my opinion.
They are offering what they can at this point. Having the laptop sent to someone who’s trained to assess your issue and try to solve it, unfortunately at the inconvenience of having to send it off for that. Or saying, essentially, we see you’re unhappy with our procedures and perhaps acceptable tolerances / quality control. So alternatively, we can offer you a refund (perhaps beyond their normal return window) and we can part ways.
My dealings with support have also been quite painful. They will not give direct answers for anything and keep asking me to run tests to no end. It really feels like a game of attrition where they hope to waste enough of my time that I give up and go away.
My main issue with support has been that they often ask for pictures or videos, even if I already have sent them some and it’s unclear what addition angles or locations they need.
Sometimes it feels like they’re just asking for additional pictures just long enough until you say “screw it, I don’t want to disassemble the laptop again to take more pictures”.
I wouldn’t call the support people unintelligent, but the flow charts or whatever they have to follow definitely could need some improvements.
It is not even that in this case. The OP wants someone to test a keyboard before it is sent to him. Bu the support person can only enter a request for a new part to be shipped, and that request then goes to a warehouse which could well be half way across the country - and where there is no facility to test any parts - to pick and ship the new part.
The only way any testing is going to be done will be to ship the laptop to a repair centre.
Rigid procedures make people behave like crude robots, i.e., behave (and note thatI stigmatise the behaviour) stupidly. But what has made things worse is that we (or you) have had to speculate about why the sensible solution is not on the flow-chart.
So, and as I have said: the sensible solution is not being offered, and support has not even told me why that is so and, indeed, keeps ignoring me when I point out that there is a sensible solution. Hence my frustration - especially since (partly because of the demand for videos) this has been going on for months.
I will live the problem or else try to get it fixed if and when something else goes wrong with the laptop. Or else, perhaps, I will fix it myself.
