Warranty Woes Part One: Core Innovations

Warranties are great! Well, until you have to use them… No two companies have the same warranty policies. Here at Badgerland Computers & Networking, we offer a “white glove service” so our customers don’t have to deal with any of the hassle.

So, let’s talk about how Core Innovations treats their customers.

Core Innovations laptops are similar to Chromebooks, but they run on Microsoft Windows 10 and not the Chrome OS. Our client brought us their Core Innovations laptop because the keyboard stopped working. We verified the issue and determined it was under warranty. So, we began opening a claim.

When going to Core Innovations website, you will find the usual Home, Products, About Us, and Contact Us pages. Naturally, we would also expect to find a Warranty or Support page, right? With none to be found, We had to resort to using the generic contact page as our next best page to investigate.

Here we see nothing about warranties, but we do have a support Email and Phone Number. Nobody wants to sit on hold with a phone call, so I filled out the required information in the form boxes and waited with anticipation. Remember, at this point we know nothing about their Warranty(s) or any other policies because there is no information on their website.

My Message:

Model Number of the device you need help with (e.g. CRTB7001): CLT146401RD
Message: Hi,

My Keyboard has stopped working and I was hoping to send it in for a repair.

Thank you,
Candi

After two days of waiting, we finally get a response from DP Audio. They’re not going to repair it, just replace it. Good thing there’s no data on it or that would all be gone. The first part of the requirements for Return/Replace are pretty normal things: who we are, where it’s getting sent to, how to contact us, computer model, and your issue. Now the last part could be difficult depending on where you got your computer. 

                **The manufacturer's warranty is valid for 90 days from the original date of purchase or estimated date of delivery. If you have exceeded this timeframe, you may still complete the form and a pay link will be sent to you via email to have your device replaced for a fee (determined upon model number). Please note that DP AV only covers shipping within the US and does not cover international shipping costs.**

Most new computers come with at least a year warranty, but this warranty only has 90 days as a new computer. Also, remember the Italicized portion, it will be important later.  We send out all of the info immediately and get this response three days later (we’re about a week in now):

A few hours pass and we get our next email from DP AUDIO.

Now we finally know how long it will take to get the new computer AND that we have to pay to ship it out, they pay return shipping. Other companies like HP and LENOVO pay for both ways or send you a box. So, we ship it out and wait another 10 days for them to send the “Received” Email.

This process has taken 17 days and we now have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to send us a new machine. We started the whole process at the beginning of February, it is now April and we still don’t have the new computer.

 

Core Innovations would get an F on my grading scale for these reasons:

 

-No warranty information on their website

-Long response wait times

-They do not fix their products, just replace them

-They have a 90-day LIMITED warranty for parts

-They don’t tell you how long the replacement will take to get to us until you are almost done with the process

-We have to pay the shipping to send it out

-and finally, it’s been over 6 weeks and we still don’t have the new computer.

 

If you don’t want to deal with your warranty issues, let us take care of it for you.  Stay tuned for part two of Core Innovations to see how this turns out.