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My Buying Experience

I think it's significant to detail my experience with buying this, since some of you will want to know how it went for me. Matt Miller has a similar log about buying from Dynamism, so I thought I'd start my log for buying from Japan Rush Kemplar. (See the list of vendors.)

I'm trying to track down other buying stories like this one, so I can post them on-line for the small (but growing) Sony U101 community. Do you have a story to share? Tell me!

You can read other stories here.

Saturday, December 13, 2003:

        Well, it's a little over six months after buying it, and I thought it would be good to report in. Suffice it to say that I'm pretty happy overall.
        The dead pixels are still there, but they're not really noticeable. The screen is still sharp and brilliant.
        The keyboard is usable. It's very small, and my friends do complain about it when they have to use it, but I don't mind, and I've gotten good enough with it that I can type on it when I want to. For programming, it can get a little tough, because they moved around all the punctuation keys, but for e-mails and web browsing and even general word processing it's fine. I picked up a small-footprint (but full-size) external USB keyboard for it, and that works fine when I want to use the laptop for programming or long writing projects.
        The WiFi networking is nice. I haven't attached an Ethernet cable to the thing since July, and doubt I will again unless I reinstall the OS.
        It's smart about sleeping. When you hit the "sleep" button, it turns itself "off" almost instantly, but it's not actually off. It turns off the processor but leaves a little bit of juice going to the RAM, and if you turn it back on within about ten or twenty minutes, it fires right back up. If the timer elapses, it will save state to the hard drive and turn itself off for real, which causes a slightly longer delay when it starts up next time, but not much.
        The battery lasts a fairly long time. I get about 2.5 to 3 hours out of it when I'm using the machine. It does drain down when you put it into sleep mode, though; if you just leave it sitting in sleep mode, you'll burn off a fully charged battery in about four or five days. It would be nice if it didn't have that problem, but it's not really a big problem, since although it's usually in sleep mode, I usually have it attached to the charger at night.
        During power outages, which we have all too frequently around our house in the summer (lots of lightning), I've used it to watch anime on DVD. It makes one heck of a good DVD player, although the DVD-ROM drive draws enough juice to limit you to 1.5 hours of movie time on a battery. (Thank goodness for our generator!)
        As for the financial mess below, after calling my credit card company about it, I never heard a thing. They credited my account back in July, and presumably got the money from Japan Rush. There's a lesson here, folks: A good credit card company will go to bat for you; Paypal definitely won't. I haven't logged into Paypal since, and probably won't for a long time to come. The trust I once had in them is very much gone, and I don't plan to ever use them again for any purchase larger than $100. And even that is pushing it.
        I still have Japanese XP Home on there, even though Kemplar did give me a copy of English XP Pro. I'm keeping Home on there until I get SpaceMonger 2.1 finished, because it has helped me a lot to have a foreign-language version of Windows to test on. Eventually, I'd really like to get an English OS on there, but it's still too useful for me to have a Japanese version floating around right now, and it hasn't hindered me all that much.
        In short, it's a nice gizmo, and unfortunately for anybody who wants to sell me the next model, I'm gonna hang on to it for a long time.

Thursday, July 10, 2003:

        Well, folks, it's been awhile since I last updated. I've been traveling, Away From Internet, and haven't been able to update in a long, long time.
        I got the CD-ROM drive while I was in Midland, Michigan, and ran Sony's Restore CDs. The OS is fine now, even if it is Windows XP Japanese. There was a minor screw-up with the company that I bought the CD-ROM drive from, but nothing worth reporting.
        So it works. I'm going to begin adding new sections to this site about it, and this blog will remain restricted to purchasing-related stories...

<begin anti-PayPal rant>

        ... such as the story of trying to get my refund from Japan Rush. They still haven't done a thing about it, and at this point, I'm beyond dealing with them. The credit card bill is due in seven days, so I don't have a choice.
        So yesterday, I called up PayPal. They have what they call a "Buyer Complaint Process," and I wanted to try hard to treat them right, since they're not the ones at fault here. However, after what I experienced with them, I doubt I will ever do any business with PayPal again.
        First, the Buyer Complaint Process takes thirty days minimum. That's right. A whole month of your money in limbo. Second, they do not, cannot, and will not guarantee any results. There's no guarantee you'll ever see your money again if you do it. The lady on the phone suggested that I pay my credit card company the minimum balance, and then go through the Buyer Complaint Process. I told her that I've got a spotless credit rating: I pay off everything, every month; I don't have thirty days. She then explained that I had to go through the Buyer Complaint Process no matter what, because their official terms of service required it. She told me that I was not permitted by their ToS to have my credit card company issue a chargeback. I told her that I was not about to give up the sole piece of leverage I have in this thing, the leverage of the chargeback. She also claimed that by using the service in the first place, I was legally bound by the entire ToS document (including the parts they changed after I signed up), and was not permitted to issue a chargeback. And that if I did issue a chargeback, I would be obligated to pay any of their costs involved. I told her that was not a legally binding contract and no judge or jury in the country would honor such a thing. She told me it was binding. I told her I'd see her in court. And that was pretty much the end of that conversation. Let them find my signature in their records if they think they can.
        So I called my credit card company, and they've initiated the chargeback. This is a fairly straightforward case for them, since no merchandise was ever delivered. They got all they wanted to know from me in fifteen minutes, and have credited my account accordingly. As I see it, I'm more than happy to let them fight it out with PayPal. I know who's gonna win that one.
        But this experience has led me to remove the credit card number and bank account number from PayPal. I don't trust them anymore, now that I have had a chance to really reflect on their business model. Legally, they fall into a very grey area. They're not a credit agency, since they only transfer money after it's been given to them, and that means they're not covered by any credit laws. They're not a bank, although a couple of states are planning to sue them over that since they operate a little like a bank, but in the meanwhile, they're not covered by the banking laws. They're not a loan company, so they're not covered by any usury laws. They're not a securities company, so they're not covered by the SEC. In short, there isn't a financial law in the country that applies to them, and now that I know that, I highly doubt I will ever do business with them again. They've demonstrated that, unregulated, they're untrustworthy. That's a tough sentence for this Republican to admit. Either way around, they haven't got access to my finances anymore, and I'm glad of that.
        In short, I strongly recommend to all readers of this site that they avoid PayPal for any transaction of more than the cost of a decent cheeseburger. Don't expect to see your money come back if something goes wrong.

<end anti-PayPal rant>

        Sadly, my perfect screen is no longer perfect. Sometime around the 1st or 2nd of July, it developed two dead spots, one near the top center of the screen, and one near the top right. Neither one is a true "dead pixel" in that they're merely fuzzy gray spots, as if a dark piece of dust landed on the screen (but unlike real dust, you can't merely clean these away). But the rest of the screen is sharp, and given what I've heard, two dead spots isn't really all that bad, since the average seems to be three per display. It's not bad enough to make me want to give up the laptop, that's for sure.
        Oh, by the way, this last update was written and uploaded via the U101. So yes, you really can type on it. There are more details in the section on the keyboard.

Sunday, June 29, 2003:

        Went to CompUSA when they opened at 11:00 AM. Returned the USB CD-ROM drive, and exchanged it for a FireWire one. Had the laptop in the store, and I still couldn't boot.
        One of the CompUSA tech service guys overheard the problem, and said, "Yeah, you can't boot off anything but a Sony CD-ROM drive. We keep a special one in back for just such an occasion." Nuts again. Well, can I use that drive? "I'll have to ask my manager."
        The manager came over. I explained the problem. "So what do you want me to do about it?" he answers. Well, I explain, you've got a perfectly good CD-ROM drive in the back there. Is there some way I can use it? "Service is $129 an hour plus $30 to get it expedited," he says, without skipping a beat. Expedited apparently means "we may or may not have it done within two days," also. I explained that I've been in this industry for 17 years, and have a degree in computer science from a major university. I'm perfectly capable of doing the work myself. "You obviously can't do the work yourself if you came to me," he said. "I can't let you just use the drive. I gotta worry about my liability." He said that word a lot, "liability." Fine. Is there a form I can sign? How about if I waive any potential liability on your part, and pay you like $30 for an hour's use of the drive. "I can't do that," he said. So you can't help me? "Service is $129 an hour plus $30 to get it expedited," he repeated. I walked out.
        I think I would be less angry at them if the manager's responses weren't quite so curt. It was patently obvious that the guy didn't give a s*** if I was a satisfied customer or not, that he was only worried about saving his own butt in the event I might consider suing. I suppose that, if in his shoes, I would have come back with similar answers, but his attitude of "I'm right and you're dirt, pay me or get the hell out of my store" is infuriating. I've gotten good service at CompUSA in the past --- well, sometimes. They seem to wax hot and cold there: one minute, they're replacing a dead product long after its warranty expired, no questions asked. The next minute, they're telling me to fork over my wallet or leave. I've bought a lot of stuff at CompUSA over the ten years or so since they built that store, and directed a lot of business to them too. I think I may have to revise my policy somewhat, and track down somebody with better customer service. I'm on the East Coast; they're not the only game in town. Overall, I give that store a grade of "C," but that really means that sometimes they're an "A" and sometimes they're an "F". It's pot luck which one you'll get when you walk in.
        In any case, no dice on the CD-ROM drive. But the BIOS has the ability to boot over a network: can I get that running? Maybe.
        Forget the whole network thing. Windows software for network booting and network installs (Intel's PXE standard) costs mega buck$, and Linux software for it... is still working its way up to beta, and the documentation is working its way up to alpha. I might get this working, if I had a month to do it in. But I gotta leave Monday night. Gonna have to try to fix that broken XP install as is.
        Not happening. XP is toast. I uninstalled everything, and cleaned out the Registry by hand, and it still won't log in. With every successive removed Registry entry, the thing gets quirkier and quirkier, and I doubt I'm gonna get anywhere with it.
        Nope. Got nowhere. I cleaned out some stuff under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft key that didn't seem to be relevant (or at least didn't have any purpose I could see, based on the keys I know from Win2K), but now the machine doesn't boot. Black screen. Time to spend big money.
        Sadly, Kemplar doesn't sell Sony's CD-ROM drive that they made for their VAIO line; I would trust them to get me one on time if they had it. I know they have a PCMCIA drive in stock, but it's not a Sony brand, and given my experience, at this point I feel safer just sticking with all Sony parts ("Is Sony guts", like the man used to say on Saturday Night Live). What I have to do is order the thing and have it shipped to where I'm going, and take the spare time I've got out there and install the OS (and bring the rest of my work on CDs). So I hunted down an official Sony retailer for the stuff they sell in the States, who actually did sell the drive (not all of them do). The salesman went and got the drive from their warehouse while I was on the phone, and it was in his hands the rest of the conversation. It'll be shipped tomorrow, with severely expedited red-eye service, and arrive Tuesday, around the same time I will.
        So, in short, I'm going to burn some CDs, and hope this will be working on Tuesday. Talk about last minute! But I really did get the computer, so Sage made good on his promise. He said this is the first significant problem they've had with any of the units they've shipped, and I honestly do believe him. He's trying very hard to be the knight on the white horse, and it's not his fault if Windows XP is a piece of junk. Lucky for him, I'm a tech guy, and know how bad you feel when one of your clients has broken equipment and the only thing you can do is stare at a phone.
        No reply from Japan Rush, either, on my refund.

Saturday, June 28, 2003:

        It's here! It arrived around 12:30 PM East-Coast time.
        However... The install of Windows XP Pro that Sage put on there has a problem. It appears that in the rush of trying to get everything on there, something conflicted, and damaged the login sequence. I can log in, but then it pops up one of these two dialog boxes that ask "Yes" or "No" or "OK", but with no error message or title, and as soon as I click any of the buttons, I get logged right back out. Called Sage. It was working fine when he checked it before he shipped it. He was very, very apologetic, and put in a call to his tech service guys in Japan, but that doesn't help much, since it's 2:30 AM over there and they're quite asleep. I don't really think they can do much about it anyway.
        At least the screen really does have no dead pixels. Gorgeous, beautiful sharp display, and when the computer is running, I can tell it's very fast. It's not my Athlon screamer, but then I can put this computer into a backpack on a biking trip with room left over for a folding chair. That's a fair trade, I think.
        Been trying a hundred things to get Windows to let me in. Seems I can boot in "Safe Mode" but not "Safe Mode with Networking." I've begun uninstalling stuff in Safe Mode, but nothing seems to work.
        I think this install of XP is toast. So all I have to do is reinstall it; the original Japanese Sony restore CDs came with it (the CD for XP Pro will be in the mail shortly, since they get it from a different supplier). I don't mind the Japanese version; it could be fun. But I gotta buy a CD-ROM drive for it, first, since I can't do it via the network (nuts).
        Bought a USB CD-ROM drive, and a wireless access point for the network (I figure I'll want that once it's working). The USB CD-ROM drive, however, while able to be read by Windows, is not readable by the BIOS. And sure enough, if I'd read the U101's manual, I would have seen the text and diagrams on page 162, which state in plain Japanese that you can only use a FireWire (i.LINK) or PCMCIA CD-ROM drive to boot. And now CompUSA is closed.

Friday, June 27, 2003:

        No laptop today. Well, it happens. As Waters pointed out in his e-mail, overnight isn't always overnight. Presumably tomorrow morning, I guess. I trust Sage Waters when he says it was sent, unlike some salesmen I might mention.
        I sent an e-mail this evening asking Japan Rush what the status of the refund was, since I haven't heard anything from them for over 48 hours. I wrote the e-mail yesterday, and thought I sent it last night, but there it was, sitting in my "Drafts" folder, waiting to be sent. Guess I didn't hit the "Send" button. But even so, I shouldn't have to send such a message; I shouldn't have to send message after message to check up on somebody who's supposed to be a competent adult.
        Well, I sent an e-mail to Sage Waters, as he requested, indicating the laptop wasn't here.
        <laugh> I got a response back from the e-mail I sent to Waters. This is one of the funnier e-mails I've ever received, and I've decided to post it verbatim:
On the shipping front, I called USPS and talked to "James". After I told him that I paid for Overnight on Thursday morning and the customer had yet to receive the package by Friday afternoon, he acted genuinely surprised and perturbation, responding, "Well, of course it won't be there overnight when shipping from Colorado to Pennsylvania." I explained that I was told Overnight shipping indeed meant overnight, and that if I had wanted 2 day shipping I would have saved myself $25 and shipped the package 2nd Day Air. He then retorted, rather oblivious to the irony of his won statement, "Well then it wouldn't have gotten to Pennsylvania until Monday." I responded with quite a bit of yelling (as our exchange was beginning to take a form similar to the Dead Parrot Sketch from Monty Python.) He apologized, but offered no compensation. At any rate, "James" assured me that the unit would arrive by tomorrow (Saturday) at the latest. Please let me know if good ole James' prediction is correct.         The moral of the story, kids, is that "overnight" is not always "overnight," depending on whom you talk to.
        But it's good to know the laptop will be here tomorrow for certain. Sage has been very communicative, and even offered compensation for the fact that the laptop wasn't going to be here when he said it was. That's good customer service, and I don't think any of the other importers of these things would do anything close to that, based on the stories I've been hearing from visitors to this site.

Thursday, June 26, 2003:

        Mr. Waters sent me an e-mail stating that the U101 was shipped out at 10:30 AM MDT, or around 12:30 PM my time. He told me in the e-mail that he wanted to know when it arrived: "If the unit comes at all late (like Saturday instead of Friday) please let me know. I have experienced difficulty with USPS, UPS, and FedEx when dealing in overnight deliveries. They are more than happy to charge one for overnight service, but often delivery comes a day late. I have still yet to find a completely reliable postal service.
        Again, if that happens in this case just let me know so that I may have a good, clean debate with USPS (and so that we may compensate you in some way. We truly aim to keep our promises around here.)" That's good customer service. Even better, from the same e-mail: "I'd taken the liberty of setting up your user account on WInXP already. SO it should be all ready to go for your trip when it gets there." I'll probably modify the account settings, but that's good customer service: these guys really seem to actually care if I'm a happy customer! Very refreshing.

Wednesday, June 25, 2003:

        I neglected to mention yesterday that Kim had offered me the option of a refund because of their mistake. I didn't mention it because at the time, I didn't think it would be relevant; I want a U101, but I really need it before I begin traveling.
        Over the last few days, I've been trading e-mails with a gentleman at Kemplar, and yesterday night, he offered (A) to match Japan Rush's price and (B) to get it here by Friday. They have U101s in stock, and want my business. It's nice to feel needed :)
        I agonized over this over the past 24 hours, and when Sage Waters (yes, his name really is Sage Waters: his parents happened to like that name) offered to throw in a copy of Windows XP Pro English, he sold the deal.
        So I've called Japan Rush and canceled the order. Considering that just about everything that could go wrong with them did go wrong with them, I think it was the best decision. They seem to be nice people, but somewhat disorganized. Hopefully, they will figure out how to actually transfer the money back to me through PayPal (and if they don't, I'll simply tell the credit card company that I'm not paying the charge).
        Mr. Waters has checked the U101, installed the appropriate stuff, and will likely have sent it by the time you read this. He assures me that it will be here on Friday, and whether it is or isn't, he wants to know. Kemplar has been very proactive (ugh, I hate that business-geek word, but there don't seem to be many alternatives) in courting my business, and they have been quite responsive. At the peak of communication, I traded two phone calls and two e-mails in one day with them, which is pretty darn good.
        So we'll see. I hope I see a computer on my doorstep on Friday morning. I have my fingers crossed.

Tuesday, June 24, 2003:

        As of noon, still no tracking number or FedEx truck. I think I better call Kim again to find out what's going on. Japan Rush seems to have a habit of telling me they're going to do something and then not doing it.
        2:30 PM. Got through to Jihoon Kim on the phone. Asked why it wasn't here yet and why I hadn't received the tracking number. "Mmm," he says. "Er. Give me your phone number and I'll find out what happened and get back to you." So I gave him my phone number, and asked him if that call would be today. He said yes. Presumably I'll hear from him in a few hours. Hmm.
        3:45 PM. Kim called back. He was very apologetic, but the upshot is that they screwed up. On Friday when they shipped the laptops out, they shipped mine to somebody else. And they have no more in stock until the next shipment arrives on Friday the 27th. I politely reminded Kim that when I first called him on the 11th and said I needed it by the end of the month because I was going to get on a plane, that he laughed and said, "Oh, it will certainly be there by then!"
        So they've agreed to FedEx the thing overnight now, but since their next shipment doesn't arrive from Japan until June 27, it is quite possible that I won't get it before I have to get on a plane on the 31st (although I have no idea how I'll get all my stuff onto it in such a short time). I told Kim to call me as soon as they get the shipment so that I know what the status is; however, I plan to call them on Friday the 27th if they don't call me first.

Monday, June 23, 2003:

        Still no tracking number. No FedEx truck either.

Sunday, June 22, 2003:

        Still no tracking number.

Saturday, June 21, 2003:

        Did not receive an e-mail with the FedEx tracking number like Kim said he would send me. Maybe he forgot.

Friday, June 20, 2003:

        Didn't hear back from Jihoon Kim. So I called PayPal, and they told me that the money had been transferred to Japan Rush's account.
        I called up Jihoon Kim on the phone, and he told me that they had gotten the money yesterday (apparently PayPal had sat on it for over a week, but the lady at PayPal was right: Japan Rush had gotten the money). They were shipping out my laptop today, and since they use only FedEx 2-Day service, I should have it on Monday or Tuesday. Got my fingers crossed.

Thursday, June 19, 2003:

        I sent off an e-mail to Jihoon Kim at about 3:30 PM asking about the status of my laptop, since it had been two days.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003:

        Ah, the waiting game! I sent off an e-mail today asking Jihoon Kim about the status of the order. After all, it had been almost a week since I'd heard anything. I wasn't too worried; after all, they had a very good seller rating on eBay (only one negative , and that guy seemed kinda looney anyway), and had been selling for over a year there.
        Kim sent back a puzzling reply: "I just confirmed that the payment is not processed yet. As soon as we receive your payment, I will let you know right away."
        I asked what happened: "Is there something wrong on your end, or is PayPal being slow, or did I not do something right when I sent it, or do you just not know what the cause is?"
        And Kim told me what he believed to be the culprit: "I personally think that either you and us did something wrong. It might be just a delay from Paypal side. Let's wait one or two days more, and I will call to Paypal to find out what happened." (I think he meant "neither" there. His spoken English was really good over the phone, but it is a tough language to write correctly, even for people that speak it natively.)
        I guess that PayPal is sitting on the money for some reason. I'm not a "confirmed buyer" with them (where they get access to my bank account), but I'm working on it, and should have it done in a few days. Little else to do other than wait until Friday, I guess.

Wednesday, June 11, 2003:

        I was satisfied with everything I'd seen from Japan Rush, and the other vendors weren't able to make as good an offer. I called Japan Rush around noon, got Jihoon Kim on the phone, and placed my order.
        Interestingly, Japan Rush preferred that I wire them the money using PayPal rather than tell them the credit-card number over the phone. Kim explained that they preferred it that way because they use PayPal Business for credit-card transfers. I figured out later that if I wire it via PayPal instead of them requesting it through PayPal Business, they save about 2% that would have gone to PayPal. Fair enough.
        Anyway, after I hung up the phone, I went onto PayPal and sent off my $1,699. Kim had told me on the phone that it would take three business days for the money transfer to clear, and then two more days for the shipping (they ship everything FedEx, and New Jersey to Pennsylvania is close anyway). So I would most likely have it on Friday, June 20. After I sent the money, Kim sent me my order number, so everything seemed to be in order.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003:

        Kim wrote replies to both my questions: "We do carry accessories for U101, but we haven't make a price for it yet." and "Unfortunately, 1 year warranty is the maximum you can get it, but I will try to find out there is any other way." Fair enough; Sony is only offering one year, so it's pretty hard for anybody else to offer more.

Monday, June 9, 2003:

        Jihoon Kim at Japan Rush wrote back that I could buy it directly from them for $1,699, or over $200 less than the auction's Buy-It-Now price. In regards to dead pixels, Kim wrote: "Absolutely, we guatantee no dead pixel."
        I sent back an e-mail asking if they sold the U101's leather case, and if they could pay to extend the warranty beyond the one year that comes standard with the laptop.

Sunday, June 8, 2003:

        I sent an e-mail to Japan Rush asking them about the U101 laptop they were selling on eBay. I wanted to know what their policies were regarding dead pixels and new eBay buyers.