First off, if I'm posting in the wrong part of the forum, I apologize, please move it where it belongs.
I don't know if anyone has had any recent experience with Norco, but for the past 2 weeks I've been trying to resolve an issue with them that should have been correct from the start.
1st, I ordered a 4224 chassis. One arrived promptly over the weekend, I was beyond happy until I opened the box. It wasn't like the 4224 I expected. The USB ports are on the wrong side, and pointing side-way, which is a stupid design if this thing was put in a multi-rack setup. The backplane was vertically mounted instead of horizontally for airflow. No redundant power molex, no thumb-screws holding the backplane in. The rear exhaust fans aren't even dual blade.
I bought it off of ebay so I filed a case with ebay, the seller was very helpful and cooperative, he even forwarded my request to the vendor, Norco in this case. Turns out this is their "new" version and they just dropped ship it through the vendor without any warning/notice that this is the "new" version. That's strike 1.
Ok, fine, I talked to Norco, explained how this is a downgrade compare to the original version, they offered a swap or keep it n have some more free stuff, I opted for swap, they paid for return shipping, crossed ship, everything was nice and danny. Until I received the "original" version.
The thumb screws are plastic, not metal. The planes are horizontal now but lack the redundant power connector. The trays don't have closable vents. But all those aren't nearly as important as the fact that the exhaust fan is still single blade, not dual-counter-rotating blades. I pointed that out as one of the bad points of the "new" version in my very 1st e-mail to them, and yet that's still the case. Strike 2.
The rep replied, and I quote "We order case fans from our vendor, they might not be the same between batches, no fan vendor can guarantee that." So he's basically telling me that they ordered dual-blade fans but single blade arrived and they just say "yes ok we're good" and move on? Am I missing something here? Strike 3.
At this point I was pissed. He offered to replace the trays but I responded emphasizing I said the trays, screws, redundant connector isn't as important as the fans. He replied offering me to send him the pictures of the fan I want so he can send me those. I don't have the fans nor does their spec say anything about the model of the fan, add this to his last e-mail, I wanted EVERYTHING to be the same, nothing just the fan, so send the backplane and the screws and trays and fans, and I included the chassis' pictures on their website showing how the rear fans are significantly thicker than the fans in the front.
So all this takes 2 weeks to sort out. My chassis originally arrived on 5/12 from the seller on ebay, and everytime I responded to this dude, I didn't hear back from him, gave him another day to respond, still haven't heard back by mid-day. Only when I sent a follow up that I hear from him. Coming from a customer service background, this dude is worse than third rate. Strike 4?
So, all this boils down to getting things right. I'm posting here for 3 reasons. 1 is to vent, 2 is ask others about their experiences to see if this is an isolated incident/warn others, 3 is to ask if anyone has any contact within norco to escalate the shit out of this before I go to consumer.ftc.gov and file complaint and/or go to small claim court. This has gone beyond getting what I paid for to getting even.
I don't know if anyone has had any recent experience with Norco, but for the past 2 weeks I've been trying to resolve an issue with them that should have been correct from the start.
1st, I ordered a 4224 chassis. One arrived promptly over the weekend, I was beyond happy until I opened the box. It wasn't like the 4224 I expected. The USB ports are on the wrong side, and pointing side-way, which is a stupid design if this thing was put in a multi-rack setup. The backplane was vertically mounted instead of horizontally for airflow. No redundant power molex, no thumb-screws holding the backplane in. The rear exhaust fans aren't even dual blade.
I bought it off of ebay so I filed a case with ebay, the seller was very helpful and cooperative, he even forwarded my request to the vendor, Norco in this case. Turns out this is their "new" version and they just dropped ship it through the vendor without any warning/notice that this is the "new" version. That's strike 1.
Ok, fine, I talked to Norco, explained how this is a downgrade compare to the original version, they offered a swap or keep it n have some more free stuff, I opted for swap, they paid for return shipping, crossed ship, everything was nice and danny. Until I received the "original" version.
The thumb screws are plastic, not metal. The planes are horizontal now but lack the redundant power connector. The trays don't have closable vents. But all those aren't nearly as important as the fact that the exhaust fan is still single blade, not dual-counter-rotating blades. I pointed that out as one of the bad points of the "new" version in my very 1st e-mail to them, and yet that's still the case. Strike 2.
The rep replied, and I quote "We order case fans from our vendor, they might not be the same between batches, no fan vendor can guarantee that." So he's basically telling me that they ordered dual-blade fans but single blade arrived and they just say "yes ok we're good" and move on? Am I missing something here? Strike 3.
At this point I was pissed. He offered to replace the trays but I responded emphasizing I said the trays, screws, redundant connector isn't as important as the fans. He replied offering me to send him the pictures of the fan I want so he can send me those. I don't have the fans nor does their spec say anything about the model of the fan, add this to his last e-mail, I wanted EVERYTHING to be the same, nothing just the fan, so send the backplane and the screws and trays and fans, and I included the chassis' pictures on their website showing how the rear fans are significantly thicker than the fans in the front.
So all this takes 2 weeks to sort out. My chassis originally arrived on 5/12 from the seller on ebay, and everytime I responded to this dude, I didn't hear back from him, gave him another day to respond, still haven't heard back by mid-day. Only when I sent a follow up that I hear from him. Coming from a customer service background, this dude is worse than third rate. Strike 4?
So, all this boils down to getting things right. I'm posting here for 3 reasons. 1 is to vent, 2 is ask others about their experiences to see if this is an isolated incident/warn others, 3 is to ask if anyone has any contact within norco to escalate the shit out of this before I go to consumer.ftc.gov and file complaint and/or go to small claim court. This has gone beyond getting what I paid for to getting even.
