Hi Illegear team and everyone,
I am posting my story here as a keepsake and a warning to others about the situation that I am dealing with at the moment. Yesterday (23/1/2021), I dropped off my Raven SE laptop (bought in PC Fair Sept 2019) for a problem that I have been facing (BSOD and occasional shutdowns during usage). I had contacted the Illegear support through Whatsapp and they have advised me to backup all my important files before dropping off my laptop at their support centre in Oval Damansara. When I dropped off my laptop, they have confirmed to me that is there a faulty chip in the SSD, which is causing the problems. I know this is a widespread issue as my brother who owns this exact laptop model is facing the same issues. Nevertheless, I dropped off the laptop and expected the SSD to be replaced.
Much to my grimace, I got a text from Illegear support later on stating that they found my laptop had a swollen battery and proceeded to remove it (without any permission from me and no proof of it swollen so far). Before this, I had no issue with my battery and there has been no structural indications that my battery was swollen. Since removing the battery from my laptop, they now want to charge RM395 for a battery replacement or I go with always having to keep my laptop plugged in.
Imagine this, I have only owned this laptop for a little over a year and now I am facing a cost of RM395 to have the battery replaced. Of course, I have went online and found that many others have been facing issues with their laptop batteries being swollen and almost breaking the whole laptop chassis in half. Most of the users also were only mere weeks or a few months over their battery warranty just like me. In this case, I offered to pay half of the cost to have my battery replaced (a solution that has been offered to other users before by Illegear). But, the person I am in contact with says that they can only provide a RM50 discount at best.
So far, no attempt has been issued from their side trying to have this problem resolved besides the usual run-around "Your battery only has 1 year warranty as listed in our warranty policy." I am not sure how my situation will pan out, but I do advise
any existing Illegear owners to check your laptop batteries and have them replace it if you are still under warranty. For any prospective buyers looking into getting Illegear laptops, please beware of this issue and rethink your purchase with them.FYI, I have made this account just to post this. And I have attempted to get into contact with someone in charge to discuss my issues without any success.
Update (28 Jan): I had a discussion with Illegear and we managed to come to a mutual agreement that I am happy with. Credit where credit is due. Kudos to Illegear for proving me wrong.