1/5

posted Aug-30-2006

"Mix up in Models. Vendor would only accept wrong model back at a charge of shipping plus 15% restock.

WOULD NEVER USE THIS VENDOR."

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1/5

posted Feb-17-2004

"My last purchase of 11 pc's for my office was through a GSA contract. This in itself is tedious. I have previously purchased 4 systems for my office. Since had good results then with both the systems and service I decided to return to ABS for this last purchase. Again I had good results in configuring and recieving the pc's that I wanted.
The problem this time is their current service policy on returning defective parts.
Since I am employed by the Department of the Navy, my systems may contain sensitive information. Thus when a hard drive crashes it has to be destroyed. With the previous systems that I ordered, 1 hard drive in one system crashed. The system was still under warrenty so I called ABS. I explained to them that I needed a new drive and that I wasn't allowed to return the defective drive. They understood and promptly shipped me a new drive.
However, with this latest batch of 11 pc's that I ordered for $13,000, I had a drive crash. I wasn't too worried because of my previous experience with ABS's service dept.
I was PROVEN WRONG!! I explained my problem and told them I could not return the drive because of DOD procedures. I was told they would not send me a replacement drive without me sending them the old one. I again told them that Department of Defense procedures would not allow me to send the defective drive, unless the platters were removed. They still would not accept this.
I called the sales representative and told him my problem. He said he would look into it. A week later I called him back. He gave me the Service manager's phone number. I left "Ginger" a message explaining the situation. NO RESPONSE!!!!
I now feel that if ABS can't replace a $30 drive then they don't need any more business from me or my office....
An aside, it was my supervisor's pc that crashed. He has made it very clear that he is not happy about not having his NEW system."

This review was modified by bakerr on February 17 2004 01:56:45 PM

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1/5

posted Jan-13-2004

"end of story: after almost 4 weeks of computer h*ll, the problem was finally solved, BY ME, by simply reading the motherboard manual. they sold me a system with incompatible components, a motherboard that was known to support only 2 ram modules, with 3 installed (the motherboard had 3 slots because one of it's subtypes did support 3 chips)
my computer had severe problems from the moment i ran it, wont go through the details of all the attempts to correct it, the various parts sent back and forth, tech support making 3 trips to my house for various replacements, all the calls to tech support, customer support, sales, managers, hold time, reinstalling windows and all my programs over and over.
suffice it to say that it was the result not of an honest mistake, but of negligence by ABS.
They advertise one of their main selling points is that they sell only compatible components, the sales department should have known my system parts were not compatible, 1st incidence of negligence.
there is no way they quality tested my system, the problem was evident immediately to me, a lie and further negligence.
the many many tech support people, one of them should have discovered the problem, it's right in the manual that comes with the motherboard, negligence
x 3.
all those calls and even after i found the problem, never was there an apology, never did anyone assign this very big problem to a higher manager (once i spoke to a manager when i insisted because each time they sent me a part it didnt ship for 2-5 days)
they have a long, long way to go to become the kind of company they appear to be on their website and in their caring responses here. they should have exercised that same care when i was pulling my hair out every day trying to get what i paid for and was promised.

however, bottom line, i would buy from ABS again (unless some better company comes along by then)
simply because they do use the best brand name parts at the lowest prices i could find anywhere

UPDATE
thank you for responding
although i would request that you please respond to me also personally via email, so that we can actually discuss the situation. it might be helpful to you to have your response posted here, but it doesnt help me much.
i havent heard anything by phone or email about a new motherboard being sent to me.
in addition i have been told that installing a new motherboard would require me to install windows again and all of my programs which could take me about 15-20 hours, i would like to avoid that, even if it means settling for less RAM than i originally had contracted for.
But i would hope that a senior person from your organization would contact me to discuss this, and actually try to resolve my problem, instead of just posting your response here.
If this ever gets resolved i would be happy to post an update here

thank you

**************UPDATE************

customer support did contact me and was willing to do what was necessary to solve the problem. unfortunately there was no good solution available at this point.

***********UPDATE**********

developed a new problem, windows not recognizing my 2nd hard drive. called tech support during the daytime hours that they are supposed to be available. "tech support not available at this time". they took my number to call me back tomorrow!!, unfortunately the next day i would not be able to stay home by my computer all day waiting for a return call.
i did take off an hour of work today stayed home at the computer and called tech support, again, not available! when will they call me back i asked? "probably sometime later today" !
has anyone ever heard of techsupport that is not available, that will call you back at some later time when you may or may not be able to take the call or be at your computer?
draw your own conclusions"

This review was modified by feivel on February 19 2004 11:09:59 AM

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1/5

posted Sep-16-2004

"I paid 1400 for my comp last year. At the time ABS was changing its warranty from 3 to 1 year. Sales rep. Eddie Maldonado said they would honor the 3 year warranty since I had contacted them a few days before the warranty would take effect, although I would not pay in full until a couple of days after then. I was thankful for that.

The computer arrived, and the invoice said 1 year warranty. I called EM several times about this with him insisting that the invoice he sent me lists a 3 year warranty and that my account was noted to show the correct warranty.

I told him I wanted something in writing. I had to threaten to send the comp. back before he aggreed to honor my request. Later, I got a faxed invoice with a handwritten note in the middle of it, "3 year warranty on complete system" dated 4/16/03 and signed by Rosemary Castro. I cant say that I felt comfortable with how I found ABS doing business. I did not trust the company, but I had read mostly good things about the company so I kept the computer.

Since then I have had some problems with the computer, that I felt were not even worth dealing with their inconsistent tech reps. The one thing that did happen every now and then, that other people had complained about on this site, is that my comp would just restart on its own while I was in the middle of a document. The wireless keyboard and mouse died after less than a year. I just dealt with it on my own However, recently an annoying GRINDING started coming from the hard drive and on 9/1 the comp. POOFED! I have not been able to turn it on since! Of course, for this I HAD to call for tech support!

I tried to get tech support, according to them, I my warranty expired. I called this company a few times, was on hold forever before I finally got on the phone with Maria Gonzalez. She told me to fax a copy of the handwritten note signed by Ms. Castro.

I tried the next day when I got to work. The fax just rang. I left a message for Ms. Gonzales saying that I needed to get this situation settled soon as I just started my last semester of grad school, and really needed the use of my computer. I got no feedback.

On 9/3 I got Ms Gonzales on the phone. I reminded her of the nature of our conversation. She said, "Did we receive your fax?" I told her about my experience trying to fax the document. She told me to try again. I trie, and had the same problem.

I called back, and spoke with a customer rep. named Al. I asked to speak with Ms. Rosemary Castro, the woman who had signed the invoice. He told me that I would have to speak with Ms.Gonzales, but he would try to help me with whatever problem I was having. He said he would check on fax machine and stayed online while I tried to fax the invoice. It went through. He said there was no paper in the fax machine, and that was why I was having a problem. He had the fax in his hand, and said that he would give it to Maria Gonzales, and things should be ok. This was late Friday while I was at work. This meant that I could not get this situated before Monday.

Last week, I went to classes instead of coming home to call ABS. Currently, I am using the ABS monitor with my 97 IBM which, surprisingly has not let me down although it is need of some repairs. Tonight, I skipped my class so that I can come home and call tech support. I am here writing this instead of getting help because of course, according to them, I had a 1 YEAR WARRANTY!

I have this expensive computer that is just sitting in the middle of my office. I have left home, cell, and work number for Ms. Gonzales. I have yet to have her return a call since having first spoken to her on 9/1. This last call, I told her I would contact consumer advocacy groups and look into filing a small claims case against them. I will talk to a lawyer at my job tomorrow about that.

They have handled this very poorly, and I find that the attempt to not even give me a written document of my warranty was something that was at the least suspicious; at the worse dishonorable! If they had said in the beginning that there would only be a one year warranty, I would have bought a computer from a local place where I can take it in for repairs, instead for relying on the honor of a company that is on the other side of the country!

I am sure I should take the computer into a local place and have them look at it, pay for it, then bill ABS. But, I just don't have the money to even start that process, and I should not have to. They should honor their warranty. The sad thing is that maybe it is something small, but unfortunately small or not does not help me when I have no money to find out, and I really need my computer which has both my professional work, as well as my school work on it. "

This review was modified by CompDied on February 08 2007 09:44:02 PM

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1/5

posted Sep-04-2003

"returns are impossible, i had a defective cpu and have got nothing but the run around"

This review was modified by mike333 on November 09 2003 01:58:38 PM

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1/5

posted Jan-26-2004

"Originally ordered system in at the end of March and received it around April 3 or 4, 2003. When I first plugged in the system it shocked me and I found that a little suspicious. I passed that off as it just being a new PC. My DSL speeds were not very good but that was blamed on the DSL system. Then in October 2003 my PSU went out. I payed to have them send a new one out to and I put it in. My DSL speeds went up dramatically so I believe the PSU was jumbing in to the NIC that I was plugged into on the mobo.

Then in December 2003 the CDRW chewed up one of my daughters games. The game was in excellent condition until the CDRW caused it to bust into hundreds of pieces. This also destroyed the burner so I called again. Paid to have them ship me another. I keep paying to have one shipped because their policy is that you pay they ship and then you ship old back to them and they refund you. Also when the burner went out I called tech support and left my name and number 5 times before getting totally irrate and going off. Everytime they would call back it was when I was not at home and they would say call back but when I called back they would have to take name/number again. See a pattern here.

January 22, computer would not start up when I came home from work. Cathodes was working, burner and DVD would flash their lights at me, etc. So I shut down and when it restarted it gae me a CMOS checksum error. Called tech support and when they wanted to take my name and number I went ballistic and started cursing the guy on the other end of the phone. Needless to say they got my message and 5 minutes after I left my name and number I got a call back from tech support. We went through troubleshooting and found out it is a bad mobo. So now I am waiting on a new mobo to come in but I must say that the tech support guy, Tony, went above and beyond the call of duty on this one. He pulled alot of strings and is to be commended.

Overall, the total experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. My dad and other people kept saying for me to buy a Dell or Compaq but I wanted to give these people and opportunity. Don't know if I would ever buy from them again.

01/28/04: In response to Rosemary-- I received the mobo on 01/26/04 via Fed Ex. Rosemary did not call on 01/27/04 either. Now I am waiting on the on-site people to come install it. Also I found out this is not a trustworthy company. Tony in tech support said that ABS and New Egg was not connected in anyway. I found out through investigation that they are indeed connected. This is definitely not the way to earn my repeat business.

02/05/2004: Ok. So I contacted the people that provide on-site service for ABS, 2NET. They sent a technician out to put in my new mobo. Well when he put it in he didnt put the memory in the correct config to be running in DDR mode. He also didnt install the drivers for the new mobo and said it was because he couldnt login to the system. I informed 2NET it was because he never called me after I left my name and number at work and at home. I only work about 10 minutes away so that was no excuse. I had to call and reactivate the Windows install, one of my fans mounting brackets was broke, the 1394 cables was not connected to the board because he was so stupid he put in the sound card which is where the cable should have plugged in and instead of taking the card back out, plugging in the cables and reinstalling the card he just left the wires laying in the bottom of the case.

OH one last thing. I would trust much of what they say at ABS because when I questioned them about being affiliated they assured me that they was not affiliated but that was a lie.

Overall I would say that what should have been a pleasureable experience has been everything but. I find that as this time I am unable to recommend ABS to anyone.

I am changing my rating to Very Dissatisfied because I hate companies lying to me.

07/11/2004 - Update on this Wonderful computer. My video card has now died. Being that the warranty period is over with ABS I contacted ASUS. They gave me an RMA and address to send it to. I paid shipping to them and they fixed the problem and sent it back to me. The problem was a fan had went out.

Again let me warn any potential customers. Stay away from ABS. I have read some of the other posts where the people was offered for ABS to pay shipping to and from them. Well even with all the trouble I had I was not offered that. I was offered to pay for shipping to ABS and then they would completely go through the computer, fix it and ship it back to me. It would have been nice to have them offer me both ways shipping.

With ABS, BUYER BEWARE!"

This review was modified by leebaldwin on August 04 2004 08:24:55 AM

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1/5

posted Nov-19-2005

"Words cannot convey how terrible my experience with ABS was. However, I will attempt to highlight a few of the "low points" in the hope that I might help keep someone else from going through this same experience...

The product itself was faulty. I purchased a laptop and after running for a few minutes the case would get so hot you couldn't even rest your hands on it to type! Customer service told me that it was "normal" for laptops to get hot like that and "within their alloted range" because they had tested it. I've owned and used several laptops before, and I've never had one get this hot. In addition to the sheer pain and inconvenience, the laptop undoubtedly would have broken after a few months of use due to the heat. Heat is like kryptonite for computers and eventually the hard drive would have shut down. But hey, at least it was "within expectations" for ABS because "they had tested it."

Also, ABS was selling two versions of the laptop I ordered: one in a black case and one in a silver case. I specially asked for the silver case, and even had them make a special note on my invoice that I requested the silver case. Sure enough, the laptop was black when it arrived. No attention to detail whatsoever!

Finally, the first two problems could have been solved if it weren't for the DREADFUL customer service. Please, please listen to me if you are thinking about buying an ABS: their name is wrong. You don't get "Always Better Service." In fact, it's false advertising, because this company represents some of the WORST customer service I have ever had the misfortune of encountering. They barely speak english. Worse, they don't answer your questions. Instead, they just read to you from what must be a "script" that they all have with pre-written answers. Their answers in no way address your question or help you out, they just serve to annoy you. It's like talking to a brick wall. Oh, and from what I can figure, they don't track your history at all, and the different departments don't talk to each other. Each time I would call, I would have to re-state my ENTIRE problem because the person I was talking to had no idea about my situation. Worse, they had no record on the computer. I mean, they had my name and invoice number, but they never made any notes about my complaints. On the bright side, that did solve the mystery of why no one ever called me back when they promised to (because there was no record ever made).

The ONLY positive thing I can say is that they finally took my laptop back on a return when I threatened to call MasterCard and dispute the charge. ASK YOURSELF THIS: do you really want to go through this? NO!!!!

The sad thing is that I bought an ABS laptop two years ago and it was great. The service was even great back then too. Something has happened in the past few years, maybe a change in management or something, but trust me, ABS is a company you want to avoid, at least until they fix their production and customer service problems.

F minus.

(oh, and I guarantee you someone from ABS will write back to this post and say something to the effect of "our door is always open to you, please call us and we'll help you." If they don't write that here, just check out all the other posts, they have written something like that to nearly every bad review. This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about with their pre-scripted responses. That have these great one-liners but then they never stand behind them. ABS is the epitome of having a nice glossy exterior with ZERO SUBSTANCE on the inside. Don't get sucked in!!!)"

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1/5

posted Jan-08-2004

"Terrible experience, from the intial order, to having it dropped on my doorstep with no signiture, to no Owners Manual (out of stock), to being hung-up on with "Customer Service", redialed and was tranfsered to Tech Support, on-hold then back to Customer Service, I hung-up after on hold for 3+hours (tip, call 800 sales#, not customer service with problems), problems booting it up, "24/7 Tech Support" not 24/7 (misleading), too many problems for a $2300 unit.

UPDATE (1/9) When I originally called and advised them I was returning unit, they said it would take 2-3 days to issue credit once it was received. They received 1/6, and told me today (1/9) I would need to check back with them next Tuesday 1/13 (no they won't call me to let me know). Here we go.... They never answered the e-mail I sent discussing my disappointing experience, but sent me a Customer Survey to participate in(Zoomerang). I've got a funny feeling I won't win the Amazon Gift Certificate drawing for completing the survey.... just a hunch.
1/13/04 Update; called Customer Service on hold for 30 minutes; can't wait need to call back.
1/14/04 Received v-message from Rosemary; credit would be issued in a day or so. …Moral of the story, customers are hungry for a painless buying experience, but they are unfortunately, too few and far between. ABS presented some minor service issues that collectively resulted in an overall bad experience, culminating in the unit not booting. I hated to send it back, but we vote with each dollar that we spend, and they unfortunately didn't earn my vote on this order. It was a lose-lose situation, I wasted 2 months in the search, ordering, etc., and they lost a repeat customer and have a unit sitting on the shelve. Wait, add another "lose" in there, I'm out shipping on the original order and return, about $110. For those that have had favorable experiences with ABS, fantastic. For those others, I can sympathize with, but realize based on the other comments for other vendors it’s a matter of selecting the best from a group of only so-so companies. What will I do? Well I’m going to order a Falcon or HP Media Center through Costco, ....yes Costco, primarily for their 6 month return policy. If I don't like it, I'll walk it down to the local store and return it no questions asked, NO on hold with Customer Service, NO self diagonostic work, NO follow-up phone calls, etc. I’ll sacrifice performance for piece of mind.
"

This review was modified by Big Daddy on January 14 2004 05:28:29 PM

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1/5

posted Aug-27-2003

"IF YOU ARE SHIPPING TO AN FPO/APO....I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BUYING YOUR PC SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!
When I purchased a computer from ABS, I knew I was going to get a top of the line machine. While I cannot vouch for the computer itself, I had, and still am having, a very aggrivating experience with their customer service. My shipment has been "shipped" for more than 40 days. My efforts to coordinate with the customer service department were slow, and ABS was unable to answer my inquiries and needed 8 days just to give me a tracking number, which ended up being invalid. ABS was unable to track my computer for me and needed constant prodding to provide any kind of information on my system, and have to date still been unable to　provide any kind of assistance. Im only asking for the company that billed me over a month ago to locate my system for me. With this kind of customer service, Jimmy Hoffa will find WMD's in Iraq before ABS will find my system. As far as I am concerned, ABS Customer Service doesnt exist. I fully plan to send this system back for a refund if it ever gets here.
Jon M.


Update: Today I got an email from Customer Support stating that I had to wait a minimum of 6-7 weeks before ABS would look into my problem. I finally recieved the tracking number and went to USPS.com to track my order. To my suprise, USPS.com has no record of this shipment. So, I again ask the ABS customer Service department, WHERE IS MY COMPUTER?????
You guys should be very interested in finding this "shipment", because according to your warrenty, I am not liable until the sender acknowledges reciept. I have no idea where Ms. Salina Rocha got the registration number she gave me. I have never experienced such haphazard service from any company. If you are a military customer or are shipping your order to an FPO/APO address, save yourself the long wait, terrible service, and uttre dissapointment by shopping somewhere else.


Update 7/29: I was finaaly able to speak to a Customer Service rep. While curtious, they couldnt figure out how my package was sent. I have the Order confirmation that says it was sent Fedex... and a two Customer service reps telling me it was sent USPS Registered mail. Either way, they dont have a tracking number for me, basically meaning their not sure which postal service they used. So, still not sure where Ms. Rocha got the number she gave me that turned out to be invalid. Realizing that this was a lost cause, I asked for a refund. I was told that they would be happy to refund my order as soon as they got the computer back. Well...I guess that translates to sitting around and waiting for it to show up.

Update 9/1: Got an emali from Customer Service today telling me that my package was sent back to the company. I asked for detail as to why it got sent back, but still no answer. I requested a refund, and was told I would be refunded soon.

Update: 9/7 Still no sight of a refund for this lame company. Prime example of a mickey mouse operation. DONT BUY HERE!!! You're taking a huge risk.

Update: 9/11 I called again and was finally sent a RMA reciept on 9/8. Still no refund. How can people do business like this?"

This review was modified by jdmorg3 on September 10 2003 10:25:02 PM

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1/5

posted Aug-31-2004

"********************************************
Update: Thanks for the shipping refund. Unfortunately, it takes a forum such as this to get a response and the response does not address the problem. I don't think it's worth purchasing from this company with this type of customer service.
**********************************************
I've ordered from abs pc in the past without problems. I recently ordered a pc that was dead on arrival. After about 10 minutes of troubleshooting, I found the power supply was set to 240V and non-functional (even when I put it to the 120V setting). I called for a replacement power supply, and was told the power supply would ship out later that day. I paid extra for overnight shipping due to my schedule being inflexible. Unfortunately, the power supply did not ship out that day and was a day late causing me to make an emergency trip to best buy to purchase a power supply. I called abs to see what happened and Rosemary told me that they could not promise same day shipment of any component.

I tried to address this with Jennifer who originally promised the same day shipment and she claimed that it should have shipped out same day. She said something must have gone wrong for it not to ship out same day and she agreed it did not ship out same day like she promised. However she refused to refund the extra shipping charges I requested based on her telling me it would ship same day.

Beyond the extra charge, this problem cost me the expense and time for a best buy trip and several wasted emails and phone calls. Very poor customer service in my opinion after I save them from having to ship the DOA system for them to troubleshoot and return to me - I will not purchase from them again due to their response to their initial dead power supply."

This review was modified by glennassoc on September 06 2004 08:55:57 AM

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