Previously in https://community.frame.work/t/responded-no-response-from-support/47478/6, it turned out I was placed in support blacklist due to an attempt to change email right after my order was blocked at a manual review, it was seen as trying to circumvent the system. Twist reached out, I explained that I had a legitimate reason for the email change, and he helped me resolve the issue and said I was removed from the blacklist.
What is concerning is that when I attempted to place an order for a Framework 13, my card declined. When I reached out to support, there was no response. It has been more than a week since I got the ticket confirmation email.
If it helps, I’m ordering with payment method and billing address from an unsupported country, with the shipping address of a relative in a supported country. I thought this was fine because my pre-order for the Framework16 went through pretty smoothly under the same circumstance.
Is it an EU country? That’s allowed.
Otherwise, I don’t believe it’s allowed. The billing address and payment method determines who is buying the laptop. And Framework is just not yet approved to sell to persons in unsupported countries.
They are the same rules that all companies are supposed to follow. Each country has their own laws and regulations concerning foreign companies selling there.
The irony here is that the US is not the bottleneck in these regards. The countries in question who control what is required to sell within their economies. The laws around this are pretty clear, and it is NO trivial task either. That Framework, as such a small company, has managed to sell to so many different countries is truly impressive, and a reflection of their convictions to bring the necessary changes to the industry they are trying to resolve. They are committed. There efforts can only be lauded in this respect.
I know it is frustrating when your country is not supported, etc.
However, saying customer service is at fault because your order triggered fraud measures is not really fair. Fraud kills companies. It is something that MUST be taken seriously.
Trying to put the company on blast on their forums because of that is pretty disingenuous. Also understand that customer support volume right now is high because of the 16 recent release. You are not dealing with Dell or HPs outsourced customer support with unlimiting employees. Rather, a small team of dedicated customer support professionals.
I’m not saying customer service is at fault, I simply need a response. The response could tell me that it’s impossible to order in my current region no matter if I’m shipping it to a supported region (actually, I’ve just re-read Twist’s email, and it did mention that I must input a billing address from a supported country, so this is entirely on me), but no response makes it difficult to understand whether if it’s a technical difficulty on the ticket system or if I am unable to purchase the product. I may move to the EU in the near future, so even if I’m unable to purchase a Framework now, I need to be assured that I can contact support when needed.
My intention is not to “put the company on blast”, but to understand why the support team is ignoring my ticket and resolving the issue. I am unable to take the matter privately because the only channel of private communication is not responding.
I understand that response time may be longer now due to Framework 16’s release, and so that’s why I’ve decided to give it a week before attempting to contact Framework about this.
Please understand I have no malicious intentions, and can accept that I am unable to current order a Framework laptop if it’s really the case, but I do need a response from support to assure me that I can order in the future, when I am in a supported region, without worries.
I am indeed not in an EU country, I suppose ordering a Framework is simply not possible as of now. Thanks for the response.
But the other problem I’m still looking to resolve is determining whether or not I’m still in support blacklist. As stated in my post above, I would like to be assured that I can contact support when I’ve moved to a supported country.
Thank you, I have brought this to the support staff. I don’t work for Framework and can’t promise a resolution, but I genuinely appreciate your attitude on the matter.
No, you have to arrange with the tax authorities in the country to pay the appropriate sales tax and import duties at source, so they are all included in the purchase price. FW then pay these to the tax authorities in your country on product shipment.
So go harangue your local tax authorities to see if they are holding up the process, is FW are actively attempting to set up your country as an allowed purchaser.
my country is supported, I was just asking ppl to think this through with me here for a second - all these tough laws, restriction have to be followed regarding them selling their products, where you can pay the taxes, but can’t even forward it; stay with me here ok… then why is it that I can have any products shipped to me where they don’t have any tax system in place for my country, so it would get stuck in customs and I could just pay extra to get it cleared (but not with FW laptops? to the point its forbidden/black-listed??)
This here feels more like they don’t even want you operating the device in said country; hence my wild conspiracy theory.
You are from a country and Framework is not currently allowed to sell to citizens from this country.
You are, by virtue of posting in this forum more than once, drawing attention to your issues of trying to contact/purchase a product that your country is not allowing Framework to currently sell in.
They have a really small number of people trying to support a major rollout compared to HP, Dell, Lenovo, yet you want help with your outlier issue.
Your e-mail address issues is yours alone; if you had an issue with your e-mail (especially a non-US e-mail domain) the smarter choice would be to use a Gmail address or something more universally accepted; additionally so because you are from a foreign country that Framework is not setup to do business with legally.
A support “blacklist” is not the same as potential fraud “list” of which Framework (as with any major company) takes seriously when they are trying to do business correctly first. You are trying to skirt the issue because of the desire for their product though the reality is they are likely doing what their legal team advised them of and flagging potential fraud/misuse.
Ultimately, you are the one trying to get something done that is not yet approved for purchase in your country and pointing the finger at Framework.
Here is a simple answer for you: As long as you are from a supported region and do not do something to warrant suspicion; all companies are interested in doing business with paying customers.
Do also remember that FW have to abide by the USA ITAR regulations, which can be a surprising thorn in the side when attempting to get various items that originate in the USA. An example of this is the current restrictions on shipping CPU chips to China. So without appropriate approval from the appropriate US Government department they may not be able to ship.
I don’t recall you saying which country you are resident in, so can’t offer any further suggestions.
I had no Idea about that, I’m from Germany, so that’s really not an issue - but those restrictions are making more sense now as I do remember something about chip manufacturing being important to politicians.
That does however play perfectly into my conspiracy of chinese vs western backdoors being allowed in a country - the chips they control are the ones they want you to use. They might give other reasons, but its mostly that I bet as tax laws seem rather lax with the example of customs that I gave before.
I understand that you are trying to order a Framework Laptop from an unsupported country. Our support team cannot and will not help you bypass the rules and measures we and the payment processors have set to prevent this.
If we start supporting your country in the future or if you move to a supported country and still have issues ordering, you can let us know then.
Hi, though inconsistent with my past ordering experience, I’m past that already.
I’m just wondering why this isn’t sent to me in the support ticket, hence the title “No response from support” (I’ve now realised I should not have detailed what my ticket was about, it only derailed the topic). Ideally I want to make sure that I can contact support now rather than when I need to and can’t.
It’d be great if you can check for me whether my ticket is there and it’s just not replied to, or if it’s actually missing. If not, I suppose that’s fine too, this is indeed low priority now since I don’t expect to be able to order for at least a couple of months. Thanks.