PC runs fine but their customer service is extremely bad. Rebate not processed correctly and eMachines will not help get it processed. Managers and employees refuse to escilate problems, refuse to allow customers to talk to their managers and their managers (Mike, tech support) refuse to even give out corporate office numbers. Mike said "my manager is a corporate office and he does not talk with customers". Maybe he should.  
 
Corporate relations office did not resolve problems, in fact made them much worse. Corportate relations office (Dustin) extremely unfair and lacks personal integrity.  
 
Would not buy from them again, would not recommend to anyone. Would never trust them to help me.

I have bought many emachines over the last 3 years and this is how to make the experience fairly painless. First make sure you understand that you are getting alot for a relatively small amout of money compared to the rest of the computer box sellers out there. Cheap parts, few models, no custom configurations are how they survive. Another overhead item is tech support and service. You can bet that it's a bare minimum service. So with this in mind DO NOT buy through the website. If a model looks interesting use a compusa or best buy type store and GET THE STORES SERVICE PLAN. I normally would say that store service plans are a rip off but not in this case. It's just good risk management. Closely check the details of any plan before you commit. See if it covers a computer that you can use if they decide to send it out to emachines. You don't want that to happen, the machine will be gone for a long, long time. So sounds bad but this past Christmass I went to compusa and bought my mother an emachine that still works fine. The Christmass before I bought my sister an emachine that works fine (and it was a refurb).  
Last week I bought my son an Walmart W1500 package and it's being burned in with no problems. I have bought many emachines through best buy for my business with some failures. The failures were power supplies and a modem.  
Best buy replaced the computer s with a bad power supply and replaced the modem. Emachines are cheap, buy one but cover you rear with store insurance.

It amazes me that companies like E-Machines are allowed to stay in business after their despicable technical service, abhorrent customer service, and absolutely appalling corporate service. In what should’ve been a simple notebook purchase became a three month nightmare.  
 
We purchased a refurbished m5310 from TigerDirect.com (which is a fantastic company with excellent service), knowing that “refurbished” doesn’t mean new and presents possible risks in the quality of the product. Nonetheless, we purchased an extended warranty to guarantee the life of the notebook.  
 
The notebook came damaged right out of the box; the CD-ROM drive failing to eject. We immediately returned the notebook to TigerDirect and received a replacement. Less than a month later, the hard drive of our second notebook fails to retain data, eventually booting the notebook with an “empty” drive. However, instead of replacing the entire notebook again, we decide to take advantage of our service and warranty plan with E-Machines.  
 
E-Machines not only fails to send us a box with the correct shipping information, but fails to repair the notebook as well. On our dime, we’re required to obtain the correct shipping information to send the machine back. However, their repair tech simply reinstalls the restore CD, ignoring our recommendation to thoroughly examine the drive. We’re sent back our faulty notebook. Discussing the matter with their technical support department proves to be a waste of time, as none of the half dozen people we speak to for hours on end during this debacle demonstrate ANY knowledge or experience with computer technology.  
 
We send the machine back again, only to receive it still not repaired and unable to retain data. While they did replace the hard drive, they still did no technical troubleshooting or service to the machine. A thorough, yet two hour examination by a local repair service shows the machine’s motherboard is damaged. E-Machines spent no time doing a true examination and test of the hardware, both times sending the machine back the same day they received it. So, three months, two machines, and two shipments to a service center later, we still do NOT have a working notebook.  
 
We decide to contact the corporate office in an attempt to make our displeasure with the situation known to somebody who cares. Shipping the notebook across the country every single Friday has become a tedious annoyance. Not ten minutes into a phone conversation with “Dustin” at their corporate office, we are hung up on twice. A couple days later, we’re given a defensive, belligerent, and hostile attitude from “Christine.” Our phone calls were never in any offensive posture, but simply detailing our problems with E-Machine’s constant blunders and asking them if they can go outside the realm of their standard technical service to send us a working notebook. We’re denied requests to speak to supervisors, the last names of the representatives who are virtually spitting at us, and basically treated like idiots. I wish I had recorded the phone calls. I'm sure the BBB would've loved to hear them.  
 
E-Machines was eventually willing to replace our refurbished piece of garbage with another, but their corporate office was too cowardly to contact us directly with the offer and had one of their technical support lackeys break us the not-so-wonderful news. Luckly, TigerDirect.com was more than willing to take the machine back and replace it with a completely different brand. There were no questions, no arguments, no BS.  
 
Perhaps we were just unlucky and given two cursed machines. Perhaps this isn’t a typical situation and something rarely dealt with by E-Machines. Nonetheless, their service and support with the matter was terrible and should’ve been handled much more professionally, not to mention their technical support never demonstrated any kind of actual technical support. I will never recommend E-Machines to anyone.

This review was modified by its author, Cleamer, on 7/26/04 3:26 PM.