How can Framework decide to proceed with replacing my laptop, then decide my replacement also needs diagnostics and repairs, then not get around to diagnosing and fixing the replacement for a month?
It’s been 11.5 weeks since I mailed the laptop to Framework, and 3.5 weeks since Framework said they’d replace it.
At this point, I feel like Nirav should be personally picking out a brand-new laptop, flying it to me, assembling it for me, testing it for me in front of me including the famous RAM shuffle, giving me another 12 months of warranty, and giving me a $500 Framework store credit. Or something like that. Unreasonable, sure, but that matches my unreasonable experience so far.
No, anyone buying a brand new laptop gets it in just a few days.
The issue is when you receive a defective laptop which can’t be fixed with replacement parts – Framework asks you to send computer to a service center, doesn’t send you any replacement laptop to use while the laptop is in service, and if during service they decide your laptop is unrepairable then they apparently still don’t send you a new laptop but try to find someone else’s broken laptop to repair and send to you instead.
Finally after my latest irate email after weeks of waiting patiently, Framework magically suddenly has a laptop ready to send and has actually provided a shipping number.
That’s really dumb to me that waiting patiently is apparently bad. Anytime I waited patiently, Framework would do nothing for a month. Finally I’d send an irate email, and magically the very next day there’d be a major update. That’s a terrible way to handle customer service if you don’t actually do anything until the customer reaches a certain level of frustration.
Finally got the replacement on Nov 7. That’s 12 weeks / 84 days turnaround.
Thankfully the major issue of my macropad having stopped working is now fixed, so at least the service center did something for me.
Performance of the repaired system is worse than when I shipped it to them, but I guess I’ll deal with it since it’s not too far off. Scoring Cinebench R23 multi of 15737 which is still 600 points lower than NotebookCheck, but I guess I’ll deal with it for now.
Other frustration of a USB-A video device not working in my left-nearest port is still not fixed. So that’s extremely annoying, but I can get the device to work in any of the other five ports so I guess I’ll deal with it for now in light of the ridiculous support experience for a $2000 laptop.
Framework Team member Destroya shared that they have found root cause for some thermal issues. I hope they make it right for all Framework 16 owners regardless of warranty window. Long-term record with FW13 seems to be good, so I am hopeful for FW16 now too in spite of my frustrations so far since release.
To be clear, I know everyone is within warranty today. What I don’t know is
How long it will take Framework to make a solution publicly available to at least one person,
How long it will take Framework to make that solution available to everyone, and
What Framework will do for the small number of people who will inevitably not realize they are eligible for that solution until they are outside of the warranty window.
I am assuming for legal reasons Framework can’t make specific promises to people in that third group, so I can only hope Framework makes it right for FW16 owners.
And to re-iterate, Framework has a good track record with the FW13, which speaks for itself.
The first step was finding an actual solution (engineering), which took the most time. After that, we will implement the solution, deliver it to customers, and create policies around it (support, logistics, and reverse logistics).
For the RTC battery issue they still support the 11th gen intel devices that are out of warranty, so I’d imagine depending on the cause they would give a similar level of support:
I had almost the same thing happen to me with FW16 thermal issues. I asked a question about benchmarking numbers, it got slotted into some thermals-related script, and then it was hardware emails from there, never any support message acknowledging anything I sent to them (until after an escalation), and at least a couple demonstrating a clear lack of comprehension of prior responses. Some kind of LLM-on-rails thing would do a good job explaining that… You know… they even sent me slightly the wrong instructions to email them back values from some /sys/devices files. That first several rounds of emails really did feel very script / LLM-esque…
I get the feeling that Framework’s various partners are dropping the ball real hard. I hope they’ve got some kind of contractual terms that put the partners on the hook for egregiously poor performance. On the one hand, I’m sure these kinds of errors happen occasionally with any large (especially, outsourced) company, but on the other hand, holy crap.
I have no experience with that program, but it is my understanding both procurement and (perhaps more crucially) support are separate from the consumer marketplace and support structure/teams.
I agree. Basic residential and business support should offer nearly the same service level. The only difference is that the business side usually pays for premium “downtime mitigation” options in the form of service level agreements and on site support visits.
I did a video on the display this replaced but I can’t post it because it shows my address (had the packing slip on video and didn’t realize it). It was more for Framework anyways not for the public.
This video was also for Framework but I just need to show it now. This is getting ridiculous.
Don’t mind my voice. So frustrated that I can’t keep my voice up.
Yikes. What a shame. I wonder if the top cover is warped or something? Although, you did say one display was good. Hopefully you can find a way to be satisfied with the machine. Mine has a bit of a thermal issue that I’m working on, but the display doesn’t have light bleed like that.
Oh, for sure. And the fact that one display didn’t have the light bleed issue (it was just scratched) I think lowers the likelihood of a warped case being the issue. Just a thought. Either way, I hope you can get the issue resolved.
