Thundermatch puts customer through misery; Laptop purchase turns into a nightmare!

Being a digital products retailer, one would expect you to get technically inclined salesperson to handle technical deals. This should especially be the case if the product in talks is a gaming laptop worth close to RM5K. However, this was not the case that happened recently at Thundermatch, a notoriously huge digital chain in Malaysia.

An anonymous friend of ours recently had a very bad and traumatizing experience with Thundermatch in Mid Valley Megamall. Looking forward to a new gaming laptop, he had chosen the ASUS ROG Strix GL553V series as his preference. Being slightly technologically literate, he knew he needed a machine that houses an SSD in it.

This is actually the unit that was purchased and it’s in our Pokdelab right now!

However, the salesman at Thundermatch assured him that he didn’t need one with SSD and opted him for the GL553V-DDM635T which comes with Intel i7-7700HQ 2.8GHz CPU, 4GB DD4 RAM, Nvidia GTX1050 4GB, but a measly 1TB 5400rpm HDD. We have done countless reviews with hardware that uses this hard disk and the experience has been nothing but sore. Recommending this to someone who already wanted an SSD configuration doesn’t look like it’s going to turn any good.

This is not where the story ends. In fact, it gets worse.

The HDD is worse than any hard disks we have ever seen. I was told by our dear friend that the HDD was hitting 100% usage even on the most basic tasks. I mean, it is a 5400rpm hard disk, I wouldn’t expect stars and moon on it, but how basic can basic actually be? So I took the unit over to our labs to test this out. Here’s our finding.

The hard disk REALLY was a bottleneck to the entire experience! More than anything that we have ever seen before! The above process is a screenshot of opening up Windows Explorer window. I’m not kidding! I booted up the laptop, let it settle down, clear all the background processes, turned on the Task Manager, and fired up the Windows Explorer. Not even browsing around it, not even transferring any files. The middle spike was just me moving the mouse, and the final spike is for closing the Windows Explorer window. This is batshit crazy lousy performing HDD!

So I asked him to go back to where he bought the laptop; Thundermatch at Mid Valley. When he explained his situation, he was actually presented with an answer that no one ever would like to hear. “Who asked you to purchase the laptop without SSD?“. That is as ridiculous as it gets! But look, the problem is there, and it has to be solved! So he asked how much it would cost to replace the dreaded HDD with an SSD?

“RM479 for 128GB SSD plus RM100 installation fees”. That’s what was quoted to him. We do know that computer prices are spiking, but this is downright ridiculous! I could easily get a 256GB SSD for that price at Lazada itself! So I asked him to just get back home, pass the unit and I would do something about it.

Rextech Saves The Day!

So I asked my friend to send the laptop back to me and I promised him we’ll fix this situation ourselves. I reached out to my man at Rextech and asked for a quote on any affordable SSD that he has in his inventory. Considering my friend had just spent about RM4.6K on the laptop, he didn’t want to burn his pocket.

So I was quoted RM435 for a 256GB PNY CS1311B SSD from Rextech. To even sweeten the deal, he threw in a free 16GB thumb drive. Now that’s what an SSD price sounds like in January 2018!

If you guys need to reach out to Rextech, you can find them on their facebook page here. Afterall, we are all in for companies who are genuine in selling and technically inclined in understanding sales matters for customers on budget.

Don’t hate the brand!

Following this case, it didn’t end just here. The damage was overflowing beyond expectation. Having such a bad experience, and sharing it among his friends, a falsified perception was getting created. Our immediate circle of friends were also hunting for gaming notebooks and were looking for recommendations. Upon recommending this same model, the responses were turning dreadful. The stories about this experience had spread among the circle and people were on the verge of thinking that it was the laptop’s problem. This whole fiasco has nothing to do with the brand. It could have been any other gaming laptop brand in the picture. It’s not the brand’s fault here. Please get that part right as a consumer.

We plugged the SSD into the gaming laptop and everything is blazing quick now.

Pokdepinion: I’m sorry Thundermatch, this was totally unethical on your side. In the case of my friend, at least he had a friend who could assist him in solving this matter, but not every laptop buyer has the same privilege. This guy entered your premises just like a normal joyful person excited about purchasing a gaming laptop, but you have caused damage beyond just this one person, and we stand up for what is right and needs to be fixed as we share the same industry, just different medium.