European Service Repair Details

[Guest]

[adamg]

From Charlieboy:

I am based in the UK and I know you have a UK support operation at the moment. I wounder if you can give me an idea of the types of repairs that are carried out in the UK, ie quick turnaround and which need to be sent back to the USA.

I recently sent one of my OQO's to the UK for a logic board replacement under warranty and think it was a 3 week turnaround.

I have an older OQO that is out of warranty and needs the Antenna covers replaced, but dont really want to send it off for a long trip to the US. I have already been quoted $50 for this and do not have any problem with paying it is just a timing thing.

I am sure others on the forum would be interested to know what is the policy for UK and European repairs. As I know a lot of people wanting to have things repaired but do not want to wait for 2 months.

Perhaps if you are able to answer this you might do it as a new thread called something like "European Service Repair Process" so others can easily find it.

Best wishes

Charlie

Our European support depot is supplied with replacement power supplies, batteries, OQO reimage CDs, and may have a few other minor accessory bits. 

All unit repairs and exchanges are done from the US. 

We know that repair times from Europe used to be poor, and that's why we streamlined our process so that we could directly deal with our customers, rather then having them go though their reseller, which was adding a lot of time to the process.  Now, we are able to do repairs in weeks where before it was months.

As long as parts are in stock in the US, turnaround time should be significantly less then the 3 weeks you experienced.  In fact, for an antenna cover repair (if that is indeed the only thing that needs to happen), I would expect more like 2 weeks.

I would recommend that when you are inquiring about a repair, ask about parts availability and get confirmation that the part in question is in stock.  This will not always be possible of course, as we won't always know what the problem is and therefore what part might be required. 

--adam

[charlieboy]

Adam

Thanks for clarifying the process so quickly. To be honest with you I was happy with the 3 weeks turnaround on my last repair, I had not realised it would have been sent to the USA for the logic board replacement. Even with big players such as IBM/Lenovo for their Thinkpad range the turnaround is  around 3 weeks as well, so for a small company like OQO this seems to be within an acceptable range.

Just to clarify are you saying we Europeans should expect a worst case scenario of something like 10 days longer on a turnaround compared to someone in the USA? I am basing this on allowing for the double shipping and a bit of margin of error. If that is the case then it is a far better position than people were experiencing in the past. But if the diagnosis of the fault indicates the job can be done in the UK then it will be the same sort of turnaround as a US client?

[adamg]

Thanks for clarifying the process so quickly. To be honest with you I was happy with the 3 weeks turnaround on my last repair, I had not realised it would have been sent to the USA for the logic board replacement. Even with big players such as IBM/Lenovo for their Thinkpad range the turnaround is  around 3 weeks as well, so for a small company like OQO this seems to be within an acceptable range.

That's good to hear!

Just to clarify are you saying we Europeans should expect a worst case scenario of something like 10 days longer on a turnaround compared to someone in the USA? I am basing this on allowing for the double shipping and a bit of margin of error. If that is the case then it is a far better position than people were experiencing in the past.

Yes, as a worst-case, that's about right.  Because, again baring parts supply issues, we're only talking shipping here.  Units typically spend 2 days or less in the repair center if required parts are in stock.  Of course there are outliers and things can rarely go wrong, but I would guess that 90% of delays are due to parts issues.

But if the diagnosis of the fault indicates the job can be done in the UK then it will be the same sort of turnaround as a US client?

The UK does not do any repairs.  They are only set up to do exchanges, and only exchanges of certain accessories (batteries, power supplies) at that.  Any issue that involves an OQO computer will need to be dealt with in the US.

[stuartguthrie]

The UK does not do any repairs.  They are only set up to do exchanges, and only exchanges of certain accessories (batteries, power supplies) at that.  Any issue that involves an OQO computer will need to be dealt with in the US.

Hey Adam,

I'm just curious, will this always be the case or will repairs also be carried out in the UK service centre at some point down the track? Also, I've never needed to RMA my OQO so I'm only asking out of curiousity, but does OQO plan on establishing more of these support centres world wide? Has OQO ever thought of selling machines through major distributors like Harris Technology that could also carry out repairs?

Stu

[scoobie]

I had mine repaired - it definately went to the USA to be repaired via UK. This is a better setup than shipping myself to the USA in terms of cost I guess, and means I don't have to deal with customs,  but it also adds a couple of weeks non value add shipping time.

[adamg]

The UK does not do any repairs.  They are only set up to do exchanges, and only exchanges of certain accessories (batteries, power supplies) at that.  Any issue that involves an OQO computer will need to be dealt with in the US.

Hey Adam,

I'm just curious, will this always be the case or will repairs also be carried out in the UK service centre at some point down the track? Also, I've never needed to RMA my OQO so I'm only asking out of curiousity, but does OQO plan on establishing more of these support centres world wide? Has OQO ever thought of selling machines through major distributors like Harris Technology that could also carry out repairs?

Stu

We don't have any immediate plans to enable direct repair anywhere else.  That being said, we really feel that enabling direct handling of all European RMAs has resulted in much improved repair time.  If parts are in stock, I think you will find that turnaround time is pretty good.

While it certainly is not rocket science, OQO unit repair is a very specialized affair.  Documentation, training, certification, parts logistics, field data reporting, etc etc all make up a very significant effort that we look forward to doing in the future sometime, but not in the immediate future.