1/5

posted Jul-22-2004

"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 Cleamer on July 26 2004 01:26:23 PM

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posted Jun-30-2002

"Judging by the customers comments,I've come to the conclusion that most of you have no business owning a computer.Cheap computers attract newbie buyers which equal morons who don't know how to program a vcr.j00 = teh geigh please go away KTHXBYE

[H]ard| For Life"

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3/5

posted Sep-05-2002

"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. "

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1/5

posted Aug-05-2004

"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."

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1/5

posted Jun-01-2005

"JUNK... maybe I didn't say it clearly enough JUNK!!
Didn't work correctly from day one. Tried to add memory and nothing worked with the eMachine supplied memory so had to totally replace. Sent it in to the repair depot twice and it came back broken both times. They have trained the tech support people to be "polite" while doing absolutely nothing. After the 2nd trip to the depot I asked them to replace the box as a "lemon" and they said that they couldn't do that. Well, not yet. I asked them how many times did it have to go in, 17 and they said "not quite that many". DVD burner didn't burn, hard drive had errors, software errors too numerous to mention.
Bottom line... get ANY other brand or you'll waste your money. Replaced it with an HP and have had ZERO problems."

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5/5

posted Dec-26-2002

"I bought 7 T1400s for my office and set them up on wireless. They run AthlonXPs with Winxp and have proven to be very reliable and stable. I have been inside the cases and don't find any 2nd rate hardware. OIn fact I have WD hdds in all the machines. Very happy, No complaints. Had a problem on one with poor tech support, but after restoring Windows, everything hums. Nothing is forever, so the fool who doesn't back up is deserving of what he gets. Like any machine, It is good to have a tech do a tuneup on it from time to time to keep it running good. I do need to say that I bought these machines from a store (Frys), but don't look to them for service."

This review was modified by tototu on December 26 2002 11:51:11 AM

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1/5

posted Aug-17-2010

"Screen and speaker issues. Won't stay connected to the internet. This is a known issue with the Realtek rtl8191se wirless adapter. I have to pay to ship it to them to fix it."

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1/5

posted Apr-29-2004

"purchased an emachine last Christmas. Within a week lost first harddrive. Got a new one, lost it, got a new one, lost it. Sent in computer 3 times for a new motherboard, harddrive, cdrw. Received back yesterday. Lost hard drive again. Won't replace even though it is still under warranty and has been in the shop much more than in my house and is 4 months old. Don't but emachines if you need a computer that retains it's memory. Poor customer service and trashy computer. I'm calling Better Business Bureau."

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1/5

posted Feb-14-2005

"I Purchased an E-machines M5310 from emachines and it is the biggest piece of shit i have ever purchased, at first the hard drive failed, then the IDE Controlers went, then the motherboard went, then the harddrive went, then the CDRW went, then the modem went, then the harddrive went again, ITS A STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! Company."

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5/5

posted Jan-08-2003

"I know that there are a lot of negative reviews, but my Emachine is great. I haven't had any problems, the price was right and I couldn't be happier. I purchased mine at Circuit City"

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