Please give Framework Support a chance before posting on social media when possible

Framework Team
#1

Hi friends,

We’re seeing a growing number of posts here in the Community Forums and on other social media channels where customers run into issues and report them before contacting Framework Support. We absolutely encourage everyone to utilize the awesome Community for quick troubleshooting tips as it can be a surefire way to resolve simple issues that may not be covered in our Guides or our Knowledge Base, but for issues where the Community has neither the knowledge or the access to resolve reported issues, we encourage customers to contact Framework Support first before posting to social media. This includes shipping, payment, RMA, or general order issues.

Framework Support responds in less than 1 day typically as our front line support is available 7 days a week, and if the issue requires assistance from our Escalations teams, they are available Monday through Friday during business hours, Pacific Time (US). Please give us the opportunity to resolve these issues before posting on social media. We make mistakes, and things do get missed with the volumes we’re seeing, but I’m sure most folks here will agree we’ve done right by them more often than not.

Thanks!

34 Likes
#2

Yes. I really don’t like social media, don’t use it. It seems like bullying by putting people under public pressure. Nasty business, but no doubt profitable for those that like to run the show.

6 Likes
#3

Going to check social media now…what have I been missing?

And yes, give Framework Support a chance…seriously. If you want fast response, they do that. If you want fast resolution to issues, they do that. If you want fast shipping, that do that too.

3 Likes
#4

Hi you missed

. . . and If you want to whinge what better than to do it publicly on social media

:slight_smile:

1 Like
#5

As someone who’s been able to peek behind the curtain and see some of this from the inside, I can confirm that Framework’s support team does a great job, and they genuinely care about their customers. They’re some of the best in the business.

7 Likes
#6

EDIT October 17, 2022: Okay, I will eat the humble pie. Recent interactions have been fair, to the point and with solutions, quickly.

In my experience your L1 support responses are about as useful as an uncomprehending chatbot’s responses.

It feels insulting and patronising. Once you’ve experienced that it feels like the only way out is community support!

2 Likes
#7

Can confirm that Framework support is great. They’ve worked with me extensively to figure out why my microphone wasn’t working. It wasn’t the fastest process, most of it was me not realizing I got a reply, but in the end everything was sorted out.

5 Likes
#8

In this context I am an end user but I spent a few decades as level 3 desktop and server support and have run help desks. I agree that many/most people are unfortunately conditioned to assume that level 1 tech support is frequently a waste of time, and my experience with Framework so far has been far better than that. That said: I can understand why Framework may prefer users to contact tech support before posting here, but it is also the case that a user community may have seen and solved issues that tech support haven’t heard about yet, they may have wider experience with overcoming compatibility problems, and I’d add as well that I think Framework tends to attract a customer base which on average is much more “technical” than many other manufacturers. Additionally, many issues may be solved here and thus lessen the burden on tech support. I recently posted about a problem here some days (I don’t at this second recall how many, maybe 3-4?) after contacting tech support; I did not intend to signal dissatisfaction, but rather hoped that another user might have seen and solved my problem, and/or that my experience might help others. FWIW.

5 Likes
#9

Just positing here to check: I’ve written to framework on Monday that my laptop screen has gone dead. 48 hours later, not even an acknowledgement of my request. Is the 7-day a week support still on?

#10

You should’ve received a confirmation email immediately and a response within 1 business day. If you didn’t, it means that either they’re not getting your tickets or you’re not receiving their emails. Are you using a custom email domain or server?

2 Likes
#11

I did not receive an email confirmation despite receiving a confirmation on the site that my request had been accepted. I’ve created a new request, and have received a confirmation of my submission. Will chalk it up to an error somewhere

5 Likes
#12

Hi, its been over two weeks of trying to deal with the CS with no proper fix(admittedly 3 of those days I was away). I’m being given the run around with piecemeal steps that could have been done in one go. I’ve now opened my laptop over 15 times, with various fixes. I was told that the issue was with the display and I’ve received and replaced that with no result.

As i use this laptop for work, this has seriously hampered my mobility. Thankfully, i can use a desktop at home, but i have had to curtail my travel / mobility because i now do not have access to a proper work laptop.

I’m really disappointed with the kind of support you guys have. I’d just like to highlight the issues I have with your support:

  1. I bought a laptop for repairability, not to be able to repair the laptop myself.

  2. Maybe because I bought a DIY laptop(I had spare parts), CS assumed I would be fine with my own laptop diagnostics / teardown / repair.

  3. Ok, fair enough, I am game BUT there is absolutely no guide on how to do your own diagnostics!

  4. I’m expected to repair my own laptop, but at the same time being treated as some kind of inexperienced luddite. I am being given piecemeal steps by the CS everyday, at a time that is beyond reasonable in Europe (11pm, 12am, 4am, etc).

  5. Each day, i wake up to find another absurd step. Steps that a single guide could have easily solved.
    (“Please send me a picture of your display pin, to make sure that its not bent”). Well, no if its bent, it because you’ve made me pull it out and put it back 5 different times!. I was perfectly happy with it stuck on. Are you gonna now blame me if it was bent?

  6. There has been one single POST error all this while but neither CS nor any guides will say what that failing LED means (Its the first blue after the orange light).
    (maybe they don’t know either, but that doesn’t inspire confidence)

At this point, I am sure its going to be at least another week of “unplug this, send me picture of that…”. This is not what i paid for. If you want me to diagnose and repair it myself, send me a toolkit of everything, and i know i can figure it out.

But also, figure it out guys. Not everyone has the patience or acumen to actually sit down an open up their laptop every night.

Lastly, as this laptop is only a few months old and is still under warranty, can you please let me know what my rights are in this case? Can i ask for a refund or a new device? I really believe in the cause but also I’m a little tired of the lack of transparency and honesty.

3 Likes
#13

Hello!

So you’re saying that you bought the laptop for it’s statement/mission but you don’t want to use this concept yourself? That’s … a bit counter-productive.

That’s correct. There are the base versions and especially the DIY are mostly meant for tinkerers and people knowing what they do.

Because the support is sitting in America, they’re still expanding/young.

This problem is because you bought a laptop to repair yourself but you are not experienced and willing to repair it yourself. Normally Framework is quite generous when it comes to issues, even if the user caused them.

Did you specifically ask them about this?

You bought a laptop that is supposed to be repaired by the user and not run the full RMA process in some warehouse in nowhere that needs weeks to ship and return and complain that actual human beings try to figure out whats wrong and how to repair your own hardware?

You can just go ahead and ask the framework support for a return. That should be alright.

To summerize, thank you for supporting the Framework mission. Sadly you were buying a product that is not a fit for you.

(Hint: I am not an Framework employee, these opinions are mine alone and I had trouble myself before with the Framework laptop. By no means is Framework perfect, there is a long way to go. But please try to see it from a different perspective)

#14

@Anachron please read my post properly. There is a difference between repairability and having to do it yourself.

To make it easier:

  1. Repairability is the ability for the device to be repaired, whether by yourself or by a technician. It has got nothing to do with someone having to repair their own device. Some of us just want to go to a Louis Rossman who can fix it for us. By extension, someone buying a Dell or Macbook is not necessarily against repairability.

  2. I know how to fix PCs. Why? Because there are tons of guides out there. Every motherboard manual these days come with a post guide. This laptop(and most laptops are) is specific and we can only rely on Framework to provide the guides.

3)I’ve stated clearly that I’m game to repair the laptop myself. But here, they have no specific guide on what to do when you encounter these issues. For heavens sake, they don’t even tell you anywhere what a failing POST light means. To save you some time, since you’re not keen to look, here is the link to the article with… no guidance on the POST.

Here is a comment from 2021 that i just replied to, stating there is no guidance on the post:

4)Of course i’ve sent them the video of the codes MULTIPLE TIMES. Its like chatGPT. Some other person asks me the same thing a few days later.

5)Unless you know about the RMA process more than I do (and I’ve not found any guides on that… ha!), most of your statements are not valid

To summarise, thank you for your unhelpful post. Yes, I know I am venting, but better here than in some other social media. I’d like to assure you supporting a cause doesn’t mean you have to be some kind of fanboy

#15

@Chironjit_Das I would have to disagree with the tone, but agree with the meat of your post. There really should be a Framework Hardware Maintenance Manual. Not just a how to replace this part or that part, but whatever internal documentation customer support is working off of. How many flashes your power button gives and what they mean should be no mystery, you should be able to go to customer support list the code, and any troubleshooting steps you have taken and move on from there. Live chat would also be incredibly helpful shortcircuiting unreasonably long times to diagnose problems. I don’t mind the email support for most things, but live walkthrough to get some sort of resolution the same day/next day is definitely what Framework should be shooting for, but yeah start with the low hanging fruit.

2 Likes
#16

@Chironjit_Das This describes my exact experience with support to a T which is sad as that was about a year ago and seem little has changed.

Like you I was not able to get a response to more than one question at a time, given steps to do that are directly in opposition to advice on the forums (eg reseat the EMI shielding on the type C ports) or things that were seeming unrelated to my issues.

Being based in the EU and the time differences this slowed down troubleshooting progress unnecessarily.

Regarding post code I had to directly ask for the post codes meaning over multiple emails eventually got given a link to Framework Laptop port80 codes · GitHub.

Frameworks mission is (as I understand it) to make electronics repairable not to make everyone repair their own electronics. It is this very distinction that a lot of people misunderstand about RTR and caused them to reject the notion “I don’t want to be force to repair my own device!”.

In my eyes buying a repairable laptop does not mean buying a laptop that requires DIY to repair rather a laptop than can be repaired. Framework would be foolish to think they can “change the electronics industry” by serving only customers than can DIY and from a business model than is a small user base…

Buying the DIY Framework should not make any difference to the level of support being offered and if it does it should be made clear before purchase.

I think you are missing the point of what you quoted here, they steps they ask you to do are illogical if you know what you are doing which they seem to not have.

Framework’s model allows the option to ask the customer to fix their own device, this should be seen as the advantage it is and not an expectation of the customer. Any a customer should be well within their rights to RMA within warrenty.

3 Likes
#17

Maybe I should make a few things clear here:

  • Nobody claimed you couldn’t do an RMA here. What I said is that the possibility of self-repair would prevent a long RMA process.
  • I guess it’s not the standard to support RTR but not actually want to repair things yourself, which is why it causes some issues along the way.
  • Currently most of the users that buy these niche laptops are people caring about RTR and also being able to repair themselves if something breaks. A lot of users even expand the Framework products by creating expansion cards, modifying existing ones or even creating tablets, NAS-systems and alike.

I guess what would be good in this process would be a “Let me just RMA this, I dont have any experience and I want you to fix it for me” support option that skips most of these questions.

#18

Perhaps it is just a misunderstanding but to me this reads as you saying you are meant to fix it yourself.

RTR is the right to repair as opposed to devices that cannot be repaired. Think fully integrated Apple M1 vs Framework. Supporting this mission is about reducing environmental damage and e-waste from making a whole new board rather than fixing/replacing the bad component (even if you don’t have the skills or experience to do the repair).

Yes indeed that is indeed true that is not what I understand FW goal to be, to serve this thin slice of the world. If we care bout RTR we need to have it the norm not the nerdy…

1 Like
#19

Whatever harsh words i have for the company boils down to this. If the above is not the company’s position, they have fundamentally misconstrued the RTR

1 Like
#20

@Usernames I’m not sure how to interpret this. My POST is green except for BLUE on first blink of the second set would you know what that means? Alternatively, how do i get these port 80 codes?

Blink Description
White Start of diagnosis
1 Red/Green Battery connected check
2 Red/Green Power Good 3V5V supply
3 Red/Green Power Good VCCIN_AUX
4 Red/Green CPU deassert sleep S4
5 Red/Green Power boot core VR
6 Red/Green Touchpad detected
7 Red/Green Audio board Detected
8 Red/Green Thermal sensor detected
9 Red/Green Fan detected and spins up
10 Red/Green CPU reached S0 state
11 Red/Green DDR initialized OK
12 Red/Green Internal display initialized OK
Orange Start of post code section
Post code bit 0 Blue=1, Green=0
Post code bit 1 <======= Blue here
Post code bit 2 Blue=1, Green=0
Post code bit 3 Blue=1, Green=0
Post code bit 4 Blue=1, Green=0
Post code bit 5 Blue=1, Green=0
Post code bit 6 Blue=1, Green=0
Post code bit 7 Blue=1, Green=0