In late December 2023, I purchased a new FW13 with Ryzen 7 7840u to replace an old Vivobook that wouldn’t run Win11 (constant bsod watchdog timer violations - these never occurred on Win10 but I digress). After my purchase I joined the Framework support forum and, while waiting for my delivery, began helping troubleshoot Linux installations (have about a decade of experience running Linux desktops, even rolled my own DE back in the day!).
Upon receiving my unit, I noticed that the “input deck” was not flush with the bottom housing of the chassis.
In fact, in the photo, the overall warping of the body is clear. This warping is probably why the input deck does not sit flush with the rest of the chassis. Upon realizing that my unit was warped, I contacted FW support and had an easy RMA completed in a few days. To their credit, FW support are great - very professional and timely frontline techs.
The replacement unit arrived in the middle of January. Unfortunately, this unit was warped in identical fashion to the first unit. I mulled over simply keeping this second unit as I was pretty dismayed at this point. $2,200 is not a price point at which I expect to see such poor quality control.
It was at this point I decided to google my issue and see if anyone else was experiencing the same. Maybe I’m just picky, and this is the price paid for repairability! But no, I could see very nice units posted on the Framework support forum, with straight lines and nice fit and finish. My assumption today is that those nice units came from a different manufacturing site which has since been shut down. I found this: https://web.archive.org/web/20240309225457/https://old.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/17zf7ye/fw13_diy_ryzen_batch_5_bent_chassis/ which details identical warping units in DIY laptops shipped weeks before my initial purchase. This warping issue was acknowledged by cmonkey, a representative of FW on Reddit, as resulting from improper storage in the warehouse. The company claimed to have addressed packaging issues that led to this damage before my purchase was ever even contemplated.
It was at this point I essentially demanded to speak to someone within the corporate hierarchy at Framework, and informed support that the only condition under which I would accept a second RMA was if the unit was personally inspected by a representative of the company if not a direct employee. They were willing to complete this request for me, however my discussion with Framework’s global head of customer experience essentially broke down into an argument and ended with that head of customer experience unilaterally fulfilling a full refund well outside the 30 day policy. While I appreciate this since I have zero trust that FW would be able to ship me something like a replacement screen panel without major damage in shipping, I did find it do be a less than customer-forward experience. That same head of customer experience wanted to argue with me as though I was somehow the bad guy or at fault for the warping of these units.
My concern is that these warped units are still floating around and FW cannot exert sufficient control over logistics to address the warped units, i.e. eliminate them from regular stock. This causes me to question whether FW is even capable of the logistical nightmare that is stocking and shipping a litany of replacement components for their customer base.
A second concern is in the way I was treated. I believe in FW as a company, and having had negative experiences with laptops in the past I wanted something I could work on myself (without tears and half a dozen spudgers). The FW business model necessitates a long term relationship between customer and supplier - I need to trust that you can ship me parts in a timely fashion so I can maintain my machine. I need to trust that you remain a going concern for the next decade so that I can still source those parts, since many are not commodity parts. A problem arises: if I buy a FW laptop, and am not happy - do I complain? My complaints may impact the ability of the company to remain a going concern, thereby threatening my supply of replacement parts and upgrades. So there are disincentives to complain.
I wonder to what extent this is distorting the online perception of FW laptops - as I hear, support and Panurgy the OEM RMA contractor, are extremely busy at the moment. You may have also noticed very cheap factory seconds coming onto the FW marketplace now. I would probably try again at the $499 factory second price point, but never again for $2,000 flagship units.
I just wanted to share my experience in light of Wendell’s recent purchase and some questions on the forum. I obviously have a bit of an axe to grind but ultimately I just want FW to do better (and will not post this on their website or subreddit as I don’t want to be pilloried by evangelists).
I think FW laptops are beautiful, and mine performed well for the several hours that I used them (I don’t use units that need to be returned as it is a liability). I think FW support is excellent. But I think there are deeper issues at the company that prospective buyers may wish to investigate before making their purchase.
Framework is not a panacea. In fact Nirav Patel was involved with Occulus whom, if you’ve read the news recently, you should be familiar.