Hello,
I’m writing today because I’m basically out of options, and starting to get quite wound up with the customer service. My father (70yrs young) bought a Framework 13, AMD AI 300, about 6 months ago, but recently has been having issues with the modules.
Specifically, random disconnects.
I personally have the older Framework 13 AMD 7040, and have had no issues with it whatsoever. My dad bought the 13, on my recommendation, as Framework are the fix it for everyone company. The laptop to buy because is repairable, upgradeable, made by developers and engineers, for reliability. The company with the best experience and great customer service?
Well, let me take you through the history of the last few months (I might have forgotten a few details, but you’ll get the jist);
- USB-A module randomly disconnects. Dads mouse wont work, and USB sticks don’t show up. He has HDMI, that seem to still work. The laptop was still charging.
- Got in touch with Customer Service (CS), and they sent out a new USB-A module.
- The problem persisted, so we got back in touch with CS. They gave us a list of things to try, the usual suspects. Update BIOS, try the module in different ports, verify the ports work. etc.
- I jumped on team viewer, and tried some tweaks to the USB drivers, to disable power downs. But couldn’t do much remotely. Few days later, problem again.
- CS again, now he’s been escalated to Tech CS.
- I went round to his place, and followed instructions from CS. Open the laptop and press the case button for 2sec 10 times…. Did not help.
- They ask us to check if the USB is not working in the BIOS. Luckily the module was not working when i was round their house, and i had my laptop with me. So i had verified the USB stick was working and detected by my laptop. Plugged into dads laptop and Windows did nothing.
- Rebooted into BIOS, and the BIOS didn’t detect the USB stick.
- OK, now we know it’s NOT a Windows problem.
- This is either BIOS or Hardware.
- At this point its getting really strange, and slightly annoying. Having a month long email chain that contains people asking us repeated questions that have already been answered.
- So now, what do we know?
- Windows 11 - Upto date, but not the issue
- Bios - Upto date
- Full reset done multiple times.
- Dad leaves his laptop in standby sometimes, and also does full shutdown.
- RANDOMLY
- Cold boot - USB-A not responding.
- Standby start - not responding.
- Take out the USB-A module and reinsert…..USB-A Working.
- Back to Tech-CS, they have had us send pictures of the mobo, send videos of the module, proof the USB-A isn’t working. Sent video of the laptop not working…then taking out the module, re-inserting and it working again.
- Found the newest BIOS update was released a few days earlier, and even contained fixes for some of the module stuff.
- Got this installed, reset BIOS to factory.
- I suddenly have the bright idea, it might be the £4 USB mouse hes has. My thought was cheap mouse causing a short when he wakes up the laptop.
- Tell this to Tech-CS, and we both agree to monitor the situation.
- 2 days later…borked again.
- Get back in touch with CS (all through the same email chain for consistency) but this time we’re back with normal CS.
- Now they are asking for Event logs, more pictures, and more videos.
- Dad getting very stressed about all this now.
- I write the emails back to them, just to be sure somethings not getting missed between Dad and CS.
- Again we get escalated.
- More emails back and forth, with no help. It seems now, that the problem we are having isn’t being understood by CS. Its like they don’t even read what I’m telling them.
- I start doing some googling…..turns out there’s more than a few people on reddit and others, with similar (but different modules) issues.
- Today:
- “Thanks for your patience. After carefully reviewing the issue and the submitted photos, we’ve concluded that there is a need to replace the USB-A expansion card. Can you please provide the information below? This will ensure we have an updated address for sending the replacement part.”
I’m sorry, are you giving me customer service or the run around?
Because this is starting to feel like were not being taken seriously. 2 months ago, Dad was sent a new module. That is NOT the issue. If customer service would read the account, read the email chain that we have been deliberately replying to, you would know. So now theres no point continuing with the emails. Whats next? Ask if we’ve updated the BIOS and Windows?
This is incredibly frustrating. The problem is not the module, as proven by simply removing and re-inserting. The problem is not Windows, as proven by the BIOS not detecting the module after its malfunction. I understand CS offices are full of many staff, I understand things can get lost when being transferred from 1 department to another, but this just feels like someone is taking advantage of my father.
The laptop itself has a bug/issue/malfunction that is causing the module to stop working. 2 months of back and forth through customer service is now ending up in repeated questions, and repeated attempts to fix. What else can we do? Start complaining? Create a twitter account and complain there? Cry in the street?
At first the customer service was amazing, direct answers, first thing we got was a replacement, then escalated to Tech support when the issue got interesting, but now?
