I felt compelled to share the pain. I foolishly ignored the warnings, yep, all the millions of them, and got a shiny new Gamer SLI, price, about $2600. The joy when it came FedEx. Titanium Raidmax Samurai case, yay! I plugged er' in and fired er' up. It's all fine on that late July 2005 day. It boots flawlessly. After awhile, to my dismay, SLI was not functioning. Tech support had me install the video drivers, and SLI soon works. So for the next while, I happily play Doom 3 on "ULTRA", and Half-Life 2 maxed out. Advance to today, November 25, 2005.  
It has crumbled at its foundation. Here's my almighty list of all things screwed up: slowdowns, crashes, freezes, BSODs, mobo fan crapped out, no hyper transport, screen flicker, WRONG gpus, my pricy meter desplay does nothing but glow blue, my DVD drive DOESN'T RUN DVDs!!!, hmm... did I forget anything? Oh yes, ahem*, they thought it practical to use plastic zip strips to bind my wires together, and my gpus seem to be STUCK in their ports, and they gave me the honor of connecting my extras. Okay dear reader, as you may see, I AM TICKED! I call tech support (for what, the 20th time!?) and get a strongly accented Mexican man, who I can barely understand. By the way, the previous person I had spoken to was very annoying and rude. Anyway, I give him the lowdown, as he seems to be shocked at how completely screwed I am. After roughly 45 minutes, he tells me Ibuypower will call me to flatten out details, as they are to take it in for the, dreaded by many, factory maintnance. They were to call me monday, 5pm central. They called, tuesday (wednesday?) at around 2-3 pm, while I am busy at school, LEARNING. They have yet to call me back. My next line of defense is to demand a refund of an amount close to my purchase price, or to request a new system, from scratch. And onto tech support worker issues, because this scenario would not be complete without them. Issue, wrong gpus. I get "Steve". I inform him that I had ordered two 16x graphics cards, but I recieved two dusty old 8x ones. First excuse not to give out an order, "There is no such thing as a 16x graphics card." B.S! Second excuse, " When you use SLI, two 8x cards function as 16x." Sure, nice try. After a small bombardment by me, he gives in and places an order. Later, I call tech support for a different cause, that I will share momentarily. I, during the call, inquire about my order for my new gpus. He, "Luis" I believe, tells me, "Sir, there never was an order made for that." Uh huh. My call was for the connection of my media card reader/writer. After braking my back over a 35 pound computer, I manage to somehow connect my accessory. I, however, will not go into detail, as most of my text would be words that I would be banned from a website by saying. The only way I could reccommend them is if you are a person with limit-less money and nerves of steele. Oh, just to fancy this, check out their website's gooshy customer testomonials. In conclusion, heed my words. I didn't listen to others, and now I have a $2600 footrest. Good day.  
 
EDIT: Well I was redirected to Ibuybower itself to get my RMA label. Now here's the good part. I call and say I need to contact the RMA department. The man on the line says, "I'm sorry, they are not open today." "Well when can I reach them?" "Monday." "Oh, thank you. Goodbye." click. This is after trying to reach them day after day by the hour. I find this not to my liking... If I am going to go through with what many others have had to, then why would they NOT be open. My patience is depleting...  
 
UPDATE: I get through to them. They send me an email. I check email. Nothing. I call back, they resend... still no email. Well I spelled my email out for them. Now I have to call them... again. I'm sorry, what customer service? Will continue to update.

This review was modified by its author, Gunner_45, on 12/1/05 5:09 PM.

I normally do not make big purchases online. I wanted to buy a computer but I wanted one built around my needs. After 3 months of research I purchased an AMD from ibuypower.com in late April 2005. At first I was happy with the results. The computer arrival in a timely manner and well packaged. I finally got it set up early May. July 2005 it stopped working. They advised it could be defective hard drive or memory but to send both back for replacements. I though it was going to be a hassle to get any help from them but got a RMA # without any hassles and the rep was very nice BUT that did not last long. After I returned the hard drive and memory for replacement I emailed to check the status on a Thursday. They emailed me indicating it was leaving Friday (the next day) 3 day UPS. Wednesday and Thursday of the following week I sent 2 emails to advise that I had not received the replacements and they never replied. Finally, late Thursday afternoon I called and I was on hold for about 10 before I got a rep on the phone and then he proceeded to tell me the hard drive was on back order! I was highly upset so I requested to speak with a supervisor and was on hold for another 10 minutes! The supervisor acted like it was no big deal. He did not apologize at all. I wanted to know why they told me it would ship out on Friday and then not contact me to let me know the information they gave me was incorrect and he did not answer my question. All he said was I was not the only one waiting for that hard drive to come into stock. He did offer to upgrade my hard drive but I would need to install it myself plus I would need to obtain a floppy drive to do it. Three days later I got an email from them in reply to the two that I sent and it said “SHIP OUT TODAY 10/28/05 FED 3 DAYS”. That’s it. No “hello, sorry, we apologize, let us know if you have any further concerns or problems” nothing. HORRIBLE customer service! I work for an internet company myself and I told everyone at my job about this and they could not believe it. In fact, we plan on using this experience and email for our customer service training classes. My company prides itself on excellent customer service. I would not recommend iBuypower and if you have purchased something from them I hope you will never need to return it. I still have to install my hard drive so hopefully it works.  
 
This is what is posted on their site “That's because the customer satisfaction is our number one concern. We're here to meet your needs.” WHATEVER!  
 
UPDATE:  
Lee from iBuypower called me and spoke to me about my experience. He seemed genuinely concerned and sympathetic. He offered me the one thing the others didn’t, an apology. He assured me that the company is concerned with customer care and with the kind of customer service their customers receive. He followed up with me 2 days later to reassure me that he was looking into the situation.  
DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE!  
I got the blue screen of DEATH!! They sent me a new harddrive and memory and it does not work! All that and I still can not use my brand new computer. I just want to cry. I'm photographer and I have already lost all my new photos and software setup plus spent alot of money for a computer I can't even use. That's it!! I will NEVER buy from them again!

This review was modified by its author, esh0nte, on 11/23/05 11:24 AM.

I own one that I bought about 5 years ago. A 900mhz pentium. It is still working great. I have tried again once 2 years ago and again just recently. I needed to return both. My last attempt I received one that was DOA! Worked with tech support for about 5 hours and they had me send it back. Waited for a month to see it again and once again it was DOA! I inspected it and the SATA cable head was broken. Replaced it with one of my own and the drive was defective (had 2 identical drives but one only showed 1/2 the space of the other).  
 
Was willing to wait and try to make the system work but wanted to make sure I could return it if it they did not fix it. I asked when my 30 money back warrantee began... they told me it had already run out. I have had the computer for about 4 hours at my home total. They let me send it back that day but would not try to fix it and give me 30 days from the day it began to work. This is twice I have been treated poorly by them and I will never deal with them again.  
 
Regardless of what they said they resolved nothing with me after I wrote this review. They did talk to me and offered to sell me another system. If they wanted to make me happy they would have reimbursed me for the $150 in shipping to and from my home that I lost on a system that they would not warrantee or make work. I might then have been willing to not be upset with them. All I got to do was pay for shipping 2 ways for a system that never worked. I would not have complained if I just decided in 30 to send it back because it didn't meet my expectations (but at least turned on) BUT THIS WAS DEAD AND DEFECTIVE FROM DAY ONE AND NEVER FIXED. Fot that I got the privilege of paying $150.

This review was modified by its author, DonRodgers, on 11/1/05 10:39 PM.

Took quite a while to receive the computer. When I finally got it, the case latches were broken and the video card was so bent it wouldn't fit in the motherboard. After sending pics to tech support, they said it was dropped, and send the whole unit back for repair. I did and RECEIVED THE SAME BENT VIDEO CARD back from them two weeks later. So, no computer now for six weeks and TWO defective computers received (or maybe the same one twice). I won't give them a third chance to screw up, but they are making me eat the shipping costs both ways in order to get a refund for their p.o.s. Won't be buying from them again, there are other REPUTABLE companies out there.

Computer arrived Friday of Labor day weekend wouldnt power up spent nearly 2 hours with tech support on phone they determined it was the motherboard took almost a week and half to get it to me then after checking with them for another half week on status of service with no contact from them I called ibuypower and got no sympathy from them, it seemed like they had my money and now longer cared. this was the 4th computer I had bought from them and other than a minor problem with the motherboard on the first(which was fixed very quickly) I thought they were great NO LONGER VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUPPORT THIS MACHINE COST ME MONEY FOR NOTHING. SO THANKS FOR NOTHING.

SOMEWHAT HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! READ THE UPDATE BELOW  
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Update  
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Ok, I was happy at first. I called them and got someone on the phone. Asked to get my shipping set to one day. Next thing I know, my PC was shipped and arrived on Friday the 16th. Yay!  
 
Now the bad part. Got the PC, hooked it up and hit the power button. No power. Went behind the PC to flip the powersupply switch to make sure it was right. Still no power.  
 
I took the PC to the table and looked through the glass side. "Oh, look, the ATX plug is not plugged in." I opened up the PC and plugged it in. Still... no.. power.. I repeated this in frustration a number of times.  
 
I called their hired tech support. "Someone will call you back as soon as possible." I was pissed off. I called IBUYPOWER, and reported that my PC was DOA (Dead on Arrival). They transferred me to 'their' tech support department. I got some teenager sounding kid. He put me on hold a bunch of times before helping me, finally he tells me to reseat the ATX plug (again, which I also did another time while on hold) and call him back. At this point, I am really pissed off. "No, I ain't gonna call you back, I can tell you right now that it isn't going to work."  
 
I am not stupid. I think IBUYPOWER must realize that not PC newbs buy their PC's all the time (and god help a PC newb if they do). I bought the PC cause it was cheaper and less hassle then building it myself, but I do know how PC's work, I also know how to build and fix them. So his comment about reseating something I already did 10 times is just disrespectful. Especially since it takes 10 seconds, and it sounds like he just wants me to go away. Really nice customer service /sarcasim.  
 
So after I object to hanging up and reseating the ATX cable to the motherboard, he says very annoyingly "Fine. I'll send you back to customer support, you can tell them your power supply doesn't work and get a replacement." He sends me over there, guess what happends, the line disconnects. I assume he hung up on me.  
 
So now, I am 2 seconds from calling back and getting my refund, when I notice that the control panel plugins for the motherboard (ya know, the stuff that makes your power switch, reset switch, and hard drive light work?) isn't even plugged in.  
 
HOW DID THEY TEST THIS THEN!? The wires were STILL bound in plastic, as if it was never plugged in. I cut the plastic, and with a lot of percision, plugged the "Power Switch" cable into the motherboard, using the diagram from the motherboard book. The computer was so crowded with the video cards that I couldn't get any of the others in.  
 
The PC, then worked.  
 
Wow, so, if I didn't know anything about PCs, I would of had to return this PC all because someone didn't plug in a few cables. They can't say they came undone in shipping, because the cables were still bound by a plastic zipper.  
 
From this experience, I will never buy a PC from this company again. I bought this PC so I wouldn't have to deal with fixing it, or opening it up, or what not. I felt like I had to diagnosis a PC I just built. Plus the customer service, except for Danny, is absolutly horrible. If I acted like that at the call centers I worked at, I would be fired immediatly.  
 
The PC works pretty good regardles, now that I fixed it, but otherwise, I would be very careful of getting anything or dealing with anyone at IBUYPOWER.

This review was modified by its author, Sarvoth, on 9/19/05 12:23 PM.

Purchased a system from ibuypower.com based upon a recommendation from a friend ... a friend who after the fact warned me that their customer service is not very good ... unit did not power up upon delivery ... after being put on hold for 10 minutes (oh sorry, I forgot about you!) ... and three other phone calls (call back in two hours because we don't have any power due to rolling blackouts ... idontbuypower.com I guess when that happens) ... I had the privelege to speak with customer service manager (extraordinaire???) Steve Wong. Let's leave it at this .... incompetent. Not only did his logic not make sense and his comments appear insulting although I don't think he knew what he was saying, but also when I snickered at something he said (another stupid comment), he told me not to laugh at him in very challenging way. The problem with ibuypower.com is not their product per se. It is their approach to customer service -- which is embarrassing. I will leave it at that. I will not buy another product from these guys ever again. By the way Steve, I am laughing at you.

This is the worst company I have ever dealt with as my Battalion 101 has broken down 3 times in the past 6 months and the 1st time it took them 3 months to repair it! I am waiting for it once again and it has been another full month! They could at least send me a new one to replace this lemon. They just don't care about customer satisfaction and service is non-existent as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to selling it as soon as I get it back to buy a decent Dell.  
Avoid them unless you don't mind buying junk...

This is the worst customer service experience i have had in my life. In the end, I had to have my bank reverse the charges because i couldn't get Ibuypower to help me. This was a 2 1/2 month disaster. I wouldn't take a computer from this company if they offered to give it to me free!

I have now sent a laptop (Batallion S-Turbo AMD 2) back for repair twice, and it's looking like we're going to be going for a thrid try. After receiving horrible customer service, I feel I need to vent some frustration here.  
 
I ordered the laptop in November of 2004, with an esitmated shipping date of Nov. 23. Due to a mysterious "backorder" on the processor (which I was never informed of until after calling twice), the laptop finally arrives in mid December.  
 
Upon receiving it, I immediately start to update Windows and install software. Any memory or graphics intensive operation freezes the computer. After emailing tech support and trying some driver/BIOS upgrades at their request, they issue an RMA number and I send it back (at my expense for shipping). I mail it January 13th.  
 
It takes over one month to get it back. I fianlly get a shipping notice on February 24, and I arrives within a week. All is well at this point, things are installing, everthing is great.  
 
3 weeks later all of the USB ports fail. No USB devices are ever recognized or function properly. Again I can tech support, am told it's a USB controller problem (you think?!), and again Is end it back. Mailed around 4/5/2005.  
 
After calling to remind them they still have the laptop and I'd like it back at some point, it gets mailed back to me 5/12. 5 days later (today), the computer speakers are emitting random noise. I suspect a bad sound card (it's telling that all the devices I have trouble with are built onto the motherboard).  
 
After calling and first asking for a refund (after 3 tries to build a computer, you strike out). I was told that after 30 days I could not recieve a refund, and that I shold call RMA to send it back. When asked for some assurances that if I sent it back I'd actually get something that worked, I was told that they make "every effort", but could not get a promise of replacement or refund.  
 
Final tally: I paid my money over 6 months ago, and have had a workable computer for approximately 4 weeks out of that time. All the rest of it has been time spent in the mail, time talking to tech support, or time being "fixed". It's still broken.  
 
The price was good - a little too good it seems. I would not reccommend ordering here unless you have infinite patience for bad tech support and long wait times.

They shipped me the wrong processor, the case was a little scratched and was missing a side screw, and the front USB and audio jacks did not work. I contacted them and they said the front ports were incompatible with the motherboard. Why was this never stated when the purchase was made? When I order the computer I expect everything to be fully functional. The printer was defective as well, when I plugged it in it would make extremely erratic noises and was just screwed up. I returned my order, except now I'm short $130 in shipping fees because of their stupid mistakes.

After reading other reviews, I've expanded on mine to give more detail about the entire "ibuypower experience".  
 
The computer was only about 10 days late after purchasing it. First I was told it was stability issues when I called, then I was told that it was on the dock to ship, but I didn't recieve a shipping notification for 3 more days. Luckily it did make it in time to be the present I intended it to be for my girlfriend. When I opened the box, the outer case had some black marks on it in the yellow paint. I tried rubbing them out, but it can't get them out of the paint. They aren't too big, so I WOULD HAVE ignored it, except that the painted facings on the floppy and CD drive had unpainted edges, and the color beneath had bled through. Looks like the facings just got a quick once over with a spray can that didn't cover everything. Took me 3 agrivating phone calls trying to explain what was wrong (see sentance above... can you understand those statements?) and finally I got a replacement CD drive since they can't just send the facings. Whatever. At this point after talking to several people that were abrupt and not very helpful, I think the company is just a joke and decide not to do business with them again.  
 
Fast forward 6months. The computer was on earlier in the day, then won't start. At all. I check it over... try a new monitor since case lights went on so I know there is power. Nope. Try rebooting with some tech disks and Win Boot Disks I have. Nope. Talk to the service people... agrivating to go through all the BS since I know a blown MB when I see it, but I screw with all the RAM swaps and card removals they want me to do to finally say the MB is blown.  
 
Replacement parts will be shipped in 7-10 days... uh... 12days... yeah.. that's it... so I RECIEVE the parts 15 days later, the guy comes to install them... I'm ticked and figure if your box blows, you get to pay to have it installed, I'm not gonna do it for free for you. As the tech is removing the MB, a copper grounding post for the MB falls out. We look at each other... get the other screws out, and most of the 8 other posts are loose in their mountings. The tech confirms with me that it looks like a shortout due to poor grounding from not having the posts tightly in. Although in another review here they talk about bad power supplies... which I'll have to check because I wondered why ibuypower sent a power supply replacement with the blown MB.  
 
Ok... now to return the old parts like they want me to do. No return label in the box. Dang... check the site, yep, item 9 under onsite service, 'return with prepaid shipping label'. Ok... these idiots are at it again and can't keep their business straight. So its late, I know they aren't at the office, so I email RMA. No response in two days. I email RMA, Tech, and Sales. Only get a response from sales with the words "Erwin find out what this customer wants."  
 
I wait. No response. I wait. Screw them. I just sit on the box. I'll see if they remember that they want their junk back. Yep, in 40days my credit card is charged for the parts. So I call up, get Brian Win, who says he is the "guy in charge and I make the decisions". So I tell him, this is how it is going to be, you are going to send me the label and refund the money. He says, "Refund after return." Not good enough. Your business is flawed, you suck it up and refund the money, you guys always have messed up, just do it. So this launches a huge argument by Brian where he categorically denies that they have any problems and that the fault is mine for not "taking to minutes to call". Uh... I emailed... twice. "What if the email got lost?" Uh... I got a returned email. "What if Erwin didn't get the message? The server crashed? <More excuses> <More excuses>" NEVER did I hear, "Yes, our mistake. Very sorry."  
 
Now I'm yelling to get a word in because this guy keeps interupting me, screaming "Don't you see how this is YOUR problem, why are you trying to make it mine?" Brian starts the same game I've seen others here complain about... putting me on hold, then popping in "You done yet? Huh?" Then telling me not to yell at him, continues with his "You should have called". When I say I WON'T be paying any finance charge on the bill from their breach of contract, Brian says, "Hey, do whatever. I'll send you the label and not refund the money until we get it."  
 
I have not talked to anyone there that seemed competance and courteous. They have a flawed business. Really, they need help. But not from me for free. Let the business sink. It will be fun to watch. If you order from them, pray you don't have any problems... or order from a reputable company instead.

This review was modified by its author, Cycleboy, on 5/5/05 10:22 AM.

I bought a iBuyPower Battalion 101 SC notebook.I am very knowledgable of PCs and how they are built. I have built many myself. When my hard drivs started to act up, I scanned them and saw some bad sectors. This got worse and worse, until both hard drives had so many bad sectors what windows crashed. I couldn't even reinstall windows because the hard drive was not recognized by the BIOS. Also, the graphics card was going crazy when I played games. I couldn't even play games because of the weird particles that pop up for no reason. The monitor developed a weird spot in the middle, where there seemed to be some dull pixels. It was about half and inch in diameter.  
 
Well, I got an RMA from ibuypower and I sent my computer in. It looked almost brand new, except that the headphone was worn out. It got to ibuyopower in february. It is April 26! And I still haven't gotten it back!  
 
I keep calling them and they tell me that my system is "physically damaged." I ask them, how is it physically damaged besides the headphone jack? They say, there was a liquid spilled into the computer. And they emailed me pictures of it. I was horrified! My computer looked like new when I sent it in! My roomate was there when I packed it, and I have multiple friends that can confirm that I never spilled anything con my laptop. I told them, there must be some mistake. But Erwin, the "supervisor" said that they "NEVER" make mistakes. They kept on talking about how great their buisness was and how they had never made a mistake, which is all a bunch of lies. Instead of fixing my problems, Erwin kept telling me how I was mistaken. I would later find that I was right, and Erwin was mistaken.  
 
In the first call I got, they told me that everything was fine except for the headphone jack. Now they tell me that there is liquid in it that messed everything up! It's a new story! I think this is grounds for fraud. Erwin was clearly lying to me up and down, and treating me like an idiot, putting me on hold for hours when I asked that he prove to me that it was indeed my computer with acid on it.  
 
Their customer service and tech departments are a joke. I have never been so angered in my life as I was by Erwin. When I asked to speak to the manufacturer or to their boss, Erwin said that the manufacturer does not speak to customers, and he said he was the supervisor.  
 
So who is in charge here? Steve or Erwin? It's just a bunch of lies and now they are framing my by either spilling a liquid on my computer or mistaking it for someone else's. Either way, they tell me I have to pay.  
 
I have been without a laptop since february, and I am in college. I desperately need it, however, they do not care about their customers as they say. Actions speak louder than words.  
 
I was practically forced into paying almost $400 to fix and ship my computer, or else they would have returned it with that liquid spilled on it.  
 
UPDATE: I finally got my computer back a week ago. And as I suspected, I was right about them giving me a fake picture of my computer. My computer speaker was not as badly damaged as the one in the picture which had extensive acid damage. Mine didn't, and it still had the black paint on it. I know now that I was screwed into paying more than I had to. I was forced into it.  
 
When I got it back, the computer still had tape stuck to it, and the case was scratched a lot more than it used to be. To top it off, the monitor didn't work, but I managed to fix that myself. I'm so dissatisfied with this company that I will never buy from them again. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE and RMA!!! Avoid using these services from this company. They lied to me and conned me out of several hundred dollars for a bogus repair. They also changed my CD drive for no reason. There was nothing wrong with it in the first place! They also refused to fix the bad pixels in my monitor and to replace both of my hard drives. I hate this company with a passion. I urge you not to buy from this bunch of con artists. What they did to me is illegal. But they are very careful to write out a disclaimer on the receipt where it basically makes it very hard to sue them.  
 
Update: After a few months of use, I can conclude that the hard drive problem is fixed, since they did replace those under the warranty. The monitor however, still has those bad pixels, which they refused to repair since they could not see them. Also the video card still has artifacts on the screen, just not as much as before. I also noticed how badly assembled this laptop came. The case is not put on right, and one corner is slightly broken as if it was forced into place. I just want to sell this laptop and build my own system. If you want something done right, do it yourself, because Ibuypower did so many things wrong. At least I care about what I'm building. That's not the impression I got from ibuypower. Picking ibuypower was a mistake, and I regret it deeply now.

This review was modified by its author, xtreemze, on 7/30/05 8:26 PM.

Worst computer ever! Poor support! Have cought them lieing to me. Had to send back after replaceing motherboard and power supply. Computer returned back to me multipal scratches, 2 case fans not pluged in, modem card sitting between power supply and side panel and graphics card defective. I could tell there was a problem when I started it. Was told it ran 2 days before sent back and that why would they send it to me like that. I have only been able to use this computer 28 days since I first received it and its still needs repair. I wish I never seen there add!! The really are a bad company to buy your PC from!

So far the computer has come to me with a broken motherboard. I've tried to get a replacement but they are "back ordered." I wasn't notified of the "back order" at the time I received the defect, I had to call and double check why I haven't received the replacement yet. I'm under the impression that they just didn't process the order and are scrambling to get it sent out now.  
 
So far I'm not impressed, wish I would have purchased from anywhere else. Basically I'm thinking this transaction is going take around a month to a month and a half to get fixed.  
 
EDIT:Called on March 31st, original trouble ticket called in on 3/23/05. Returning the entire shipment for a refund. Screw em, I'll eat the cost of the shipping on the return (which you have to, by the way).  
 
EDIT: Computer was received by them on the 7th. Called in on the 12th for status of the refund. They said the refund will be done that day (on the 12th). Refund wasn't done. Called back in on the 15th, refund still not done, talked to Erwin. Said the refund was going to be done on Monday. Not holding my breath.  
 
EDIT: 4/20 no refund yet. Called in, placed on hold for 15 minutes after being sent to RMA and to customer service. Talked to Steve who said the paperwork is in accounting and they should get to it tomorrow (not holding my breath again). He said that it might take until Monday to see the charges reversed. Anyone want to take bets that this IS NOT going to be done by Monday?  
 
EDIT: 4/22 No refund.  
 
EDIT: 4/28 received refund. They charge $85 shipping and handling for the return plus you have to return the computer yourself. So, I'm out around $130 on this deal. They suck, buy a Dell.

This review was modified by its author, NotBuyingPoer, on 4/28/05 8:04 PM.