1/5

posted Apr-29-2008

"Oh iBuyPower.... Have fun reading folks!

THE GOOD:
1. Its fast. Its pretty.
2. I called for the customer order number I forgot to write down. Curteous phone call, prompt response.

THE BAD:
Where to start... lots and LOTS of bad....

1. The 8800GTX videocard was not screwed in (ever) and was bouncing around inside the case. NICE.
2. There was another card, AirCruiser pci bouncing around in there too, probably unseated by the 8800GTX or just thrown in there by the installer. Ever heard of screws folks?
3. The front fan doesnt work and it appears to be part of a larger harness including the cathode tubes. The pci switch driving both doesnt do anything.
4. The big side fan (its a Thermaltake Armor) was not connected.
5. The SATA drive (single) had become disconnected. Can't fault iBuyPower there since SATA connectors are always loose.
6. The exhaust fan near the powersupply isnt working.
7. The memory card reader was not connected.
8. They didnt bother to connect the frontside USB. I use a hub anyway, but that was annoying.
9. Old NVidia drivers for the 8800GTX. 163.xx or something.



I will never trust them again that's for sure. The reason I didnt complain directly to them is because I got the machine working and I want to game, not deal with RMA for the unimportant broken stuff. Plus they would probably break something important if I sent it back. I'll take some responsibility for this disaster since I was dumb enough to place the order.


"

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1/5

posted Sep-29-2006

"I checked other computer companies, built identical pc's and those came out to be anywhere from $200-500 more than Ibuypower.com. I thought since they were the cheapest, that I would buy from them. I guess you get what you paid for, because I've had nothing but trouble with this machine.
I've had so many problems with this computer. First off, I never recieved any of the driver discs, or any discs that came with my computer, the PSU that came w/ the case wasn't enough power to run both my video card, the led display on the case, and the processers. Called Ibuypower they didn't help me any, argued with them about it a little, I was pretty much crap out of luck. Went out bought a 600W PSU, and installed it myself. Purchased 2 WD 74GB Raptor 10,000RPM HDDs, installed them and tried installing Windows XP pro on the computer, kept randomly shutting down on me. Called IBP, asked them about the driver discs they neglected to send me and told them the problem that was going on with my computer and they told me to send it in which is what I did. They had my computer and replaced the motherboard, but told me they couldnt stress test it when I called because there was no operating system, now I wanted to make sure it worked and everything was fine so I purchased Windows XP Pro Serial + CD from them. When I got it back, they shipped it without the powercord, and still without all of the discs for drivers, and utilities. Called them after I receieved it told them that they did not send me my powercord, nor the discs still! They ended up shipping me 2 of the 5 discs I should have gotten, and never got my powercord back either. They just gave me the run around on the phone. I ended up getting the computer working for a few months myself, and then thats when the real problems started to happen. In July, I had to send it in because it kept randomly shutting down, and I couldn't leave it on for more than 20 minutes. I called them and they insisted that I send it in to them. I sent it in, and this is where it got messy, I called them and asked them what the problem was with my PC and they told me it was the motherboard again and to check back in a day or so after they replace it. A day later, I called back asked what was wrong with it, they told me the processers were overheating, and to give them another day to replace it and test it. Another day later, called them back asked them what the problem was, they told me it was the video card and that it was defective, and to call back tommorrow after they replaced it. Called back yet again the next day, asked them what the problem was, they then told me that one of the harddrives were bad and that they already replaced it! Now, this is where I got angry and said that those hard-drives were not theirs and that they should not have even touched them. They replied to me with its ok, we exchanged them with the manufacturers warranty, and that it was no problem. Now, I was so frusterated at that point I told them that it was whatever and just get the damn computer working. I called back 2 days later after they claimed to be stress testing it and they claimed that the video card was defective yet again! I finally call back again the next day, and they tell me my computer is being ready to get shipped out to me. I received my computer without the powercord, without the cd's still. I hook up everything, and turn the computer on. Windows XP Home boots up... you've got to be kidding me. I bought Windows XP Pro from them and they install Home on my machine. I called them up told them the problem I had, they apologized for the inconvience. Now here is where it gets real fun, because I only had 2 discs that they sent me (Soundcard drivers + Video card drivers) I could not install Windows XP Pro on my computer!! I told them that they need to send me the XP Pro disc because I did not have them and I could not install it. They shipped me the Windows disc.. but ended up shipping me a Windows XP Home disc instead! Now furious as I was I called them yet again to complain about their service, and they apologized yet again and said there was a mistake when they put the order in, and that I'd get my Windows XP Pro disc soon in the mail. Now, this has been almost 2 weeks since I've gotten the computer and I could not install Windows XP Pro. I finally receive the disc and install Windows XP Pro, then I go to install my soundcard drivers, install those just fine, go to install my video card drivers and this is where they forgot to tell me they replaced my video card with a 7900GTX Nvidia 512MB card instead of my old 7800GTX Nvidia 512MB without sending me a new drivers disc.. After that my computer was still randomly shutting down I called and told them they told me to send it in, I told them that I will not because they seem to never fix anything when I do send it in. It is now September, and I cannot go a full hour of using the computer without it randomly shutting down on me."

This review was modified by endorphins on September 30 2006 02:39:33 PM

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1/5

posted Dec-31-2008

"Not a happy person at all. After doing lots of research, I took a gamble on iBUYPOWER because of their great price. You get what you pay for I found out. My computer arrived on Christmas Eve as a 50 pound paperweight. Here's a list of all the problems, none of which can be contributed to shipping but POOR quality control:

NVIDIA 280 VIDEO CARD - DEAD
Xion METER DISPLAY - only 1 of 3 sensors worked
DVD PLAYER - Had to press HARD to get door to open (2nd DVD player worked as advertised)
CASE - 1 stripped screw that held (or was suppose to hold) the gigabit wireless card.
CASE FAN - Cables were hitting it that made it very noisy
WINDOWS WOULD NOT BOOT PROPERLY - After I swapped out the bad video card with an ATI card that I had, Windows would boot up but after 1 minute, all dialog boxes would disappear, internet connection would be lost, and you could only turn off the computer by holding down the power button. You couldn't use Windows to shut down the computer.
SUBSTANDARD PACKAGING - They don't even follow their own guidelines for packing computers. The computer was inside the case box that was inside another box. The outer box had a 1" piece of foam on the top and bottom, but nothing on the 4 sides. The inner box with the computer in it had about 4 inches of movement to bang against the sides. NOT GOOD

NO DOCUMENTATION/INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS/THANK YOU - There was the computer, a box of power supply cables, and a bag of CDs/DVDs and that was it. There wasn't anything in the box to tell you to inspect it before powering up, what all the extra cables were for (I knew as a techie geek), or even a thank you for buying iBUYPOWER.

So my experience with iBUYPOWER is that they are more concerned with volume than quality. Get it out the door and let tech support fix the problems.

All in all I'd say iBUYPOWER has a SEVERE quality control problem that needs serious attention."

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1/5

posted Mar-29-2009

"Ordered my machine from ibuypower 10/24/08, shipped out 11/03/08 and received it within 5 days. I went all out and spent over $2000 on my new desktop from Ibuypower.

I spoke with customer service about ddr3 pc 1600 memory being in stock prior to ordering since they were having stock issues when I spoke with Pauline before. Ibuypower said they had them in stock and put 2x 2 gigs of ddr3 pc 1600 ocz gold to my order. Instead they sent me 4x 1gig corsair pc 1600 sticks, side fan was leaning inside case with screws missing, and slight damage to my case. It was like pulling teeth to get the right memory sent to me and they dropped my call so I had to wait another 30 minutes to talk with customer service again.

I got a great customer service representative the second time I called. Lee at customer service sent me the right memory, screws for side fans, and said they would take $10 off for the slight damage to my case. I never got a $10 credit on my card. Called back about the $10 credit and got Pauline who said she would have it refunded to my card. Still I received no credit. This was the first strike against ibuypower for me. My computer had to be reformatted within the 30 day return period due to a missing windows file.

After two months my computer started locking up and due to the holiday season ibuypower's wait time for customer service was over an hour wait which is understandable. I called ocz and spoke with Jamie who replaced my 2 gig stick of ocz gold that was generating errors on windows vista memory tester.

Thought my problems were over with lock ups, they continued and I reformatted again thinking the bad memory may have caused a corrupt system file. Still got the computer lock ups in windows vista 64bit home premium edition. So I called ibuypower up again and spoke with Luke who was great at understanding my problems with the machine and determined that my Asus Rampage Extreme Intel x48 board was defective, new board shipped on 02/25/09.

Got the board in the mail which was not packed well at all and had bent power sockets, missing heat sink, and broken pci express port. The board looked like it was used and abused. This was another strike to ibuypower for me and when I spoke with Steve he was not helpful at all. They actually wanted me to pay for the shipping to send this broken board back to them. After telling ibuypower that was completely unacceptable they budged and offered to pay shipping to send it back with my original defective board once they sent another new motherboard to me.

The new board shipped on 3/05/09 and was packaged right, nothing broken and so far my computer has only frozen up once when I left it on over night. Sent both broken boards back in the same box, spoke with Steve on the phone again and he brushed me off when I asked if RMA would have both boards tagged to my new RMA number I got. I just did not want to be charged on my credit card if RMA did not know. Another strike to Ibuypower.

Last but not least my 120mm liquid cool cpu fan starting making squealing sounds and was making loud noises. I was able to talk with Luke from tech support and I must say he is the best employee that ibuypower has working for them. He was straight forward and did not give me the run around like everyone else in customer service and tech support I spoke with about my lemon of a computer. He sent a new cpu fan 2 day fedex and I paid for the shipping to send the defective one back.

Finally my computer is working as intended, however I will be telling all my friends, family, interested computer buyers to not buy at ibuypower. This was my second machine I have bought from ibuypower and was a complete nightmare because of overall poor customer service and bad tech support. The only good experience I had was Lee and Luke, they deserve a raise and a pat on the back.
"

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1/5

posted Jun-30-2004

"Buyer Beware! I never thought I would leave this message. I've been happily doing business with people online for almost ten years now, and this has got to be, by far, the WORST experience I have had.

I purchased a Battalion-101 SC from them for a little over $2,300. This was advertised as including 24/7 phone tech support. This is a scam, btw, I called the first day I received the laptop (6/18) because the OS couldn't find a hard drive. They said they would call back.....they never did.

I called again three hours later, and was told that they were only backed up and would call me back that night for sure.......They NEVER did.

I called again the next day and was once again told I would be called back. I told the girl on the other end that I was higly sceptical of that happeneing, but she assured me. THEY NEVER CALLED BACK.

So I tried their sales number, they couldn't help me but did give me a number to try during regular business hours. So I called that 2 days later and by this point I only wanted an RMA because their 24/7 tech support is non-existant.

Now today a guy named Steve (ex. 147) called me and said I hadn't returned some parts that I didn't even receive in the original shipping.

Good grief. Now I'm forced with leaving this review and dealing with them through my credit card company.

Buyer Beware! "

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1/5

posted Apr-24-2008

"UPDATE:

computer sent back for full refund

had to haggle them to pay to ship their paperweight back...

told the process takes up to a week by Pauline

Pauline, the only person worth talking to unless you're writing a letter to their board of directors, sent a message over to their RMA department this morning and forwarded this email to me...

I also emailed "Paul" in the RMA department, no response...

with less than two days left in this "week" they speak of I am not confident at this point...

If for some reason they don't issue a full refund after this hassle (look for my other review it's back a few pages under the handle 'pragmaterialism')

I will probably deny the charge with the credit card company to ensure I get a full refund...but this will take another 6-8 weeks... oh well this hassle has been going on for months already...

they had two chances to send me a stable machine and failed both attempts... I don't buy into the ideal of "third time's a charm" so back it went...

updates forthcoming...

"

This review was modified by pragmaterialism on July 14 2008 01:23:42 PM

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1/5

posted Oct-05-2007

"Here is my experience so far with this company.

If you want customer support this is the wrong place to go to. This company brags about customer service yet does not notify the customer of any order delays or items on backorder. I ordered a system on the 20th of September without reading reviews about this company beforehand, on the checkout page it stated that it would be shipped on the 1st of October. Well it wasn't shipped on the 1st, I called in on the 3rd and they said it would be shipped on the 5th and arrive the following Monday, yet again it wasn't shipped.

They also said it might take 4-5 EXTRA days to process because of "factory upgrades". When was this mentioned while I was ordering? or after I ordered?. Heres an idea, let your customers know where their order stands. I'm a Waiter, I don't have 1500 dollars to throw out of the window, I know what customer support is, and you guys certainly have none. As soon as I call the company a woman picks up the phone (same woman both times I called), the first time she was rude and transfered me while I was speaking, then the second time which was today she was sleeping or something. The woman was mumbling so low that I could barely understand her. The man who picked up after I was transfered wasn't very helpful either, he promised me my order would be here on the 8th after I said I wanted a refund and it obviously wont be here by then. The second time around I couldn't even get to the customer support because from the looks of it after waiting 30 minutes and listening to their radio I was probably hung up on. So I couldn't even talk to the company to get my refund back.

Now I'm just going to wait the 4-5 days that I was not notified of to get a system which will most likely be either broken or damaged. The only thing this company has done so far is frustrated me and taken my money. They charged my credit card on the 21st, and thats the LAST update I have on my order. Avoid this company people, you're better off buying individual parts and building a computer yourself like I did with my first one."

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5/5

posted Apr-02-2008

"I recently ordered two laptops through iBuypower.com and was really surprise to get such nice notebooks for such a reasonable price. We had a few problems with our order because we had a spending limit on our Visa limiting us to a $500 dollar limit per transaction plus a $1.00 transaction fee and we only loaded enough money to cover the price of the order and thats it. After I got all of this straightened out with the help of Danny from iBuypower it then took a few days for the order to be built and shipped even though I paid $109.00 for a Rush next day shipping order. After talking to Danny he helped me understand how they were backed up and upgraded my shipping to the most advanced overnight shipping because we had waited over a week just to get our order built and still wasn't built when I called. My girlfriend and I both really appreciate what Danny has done for us and we even want to throw in a thank you to Bryan who help me resolve my Visa issues while Danny was out sick for 2 days.

Glad yolur better Danny and thank iBuypower for the notebooks. We really appreciate everything.

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

I was told the day that I made that review that my notebooks would be built that day and, shipped out that night before they closed or the next day and I would receive them by Friday. Well, Friday came and I had no update on the order status and my notebooks were not here. So, i proceeded to call IBP and asked for Danny, and Danny told me that a technical support member was looking into the problem and would call me back in 30 minutes.

Steven called me back and told me that they were out of the Intel® Core 2 Duo Mobile T5450 Dual-Core Processor (2x 1.66GHz/2MB Cache/667FSB) and were experiencing problems with it so their next shipment of this CPU would not be until May. he informed me that the computers were built but they had to use the next step up in the processor which cost $120.00 apiece but he could give me a 50% discount due to the trouble and I would get both for the price of one, but the problem with that was I couldn't afford to throw more money at them due to them not letting me know in the first place about the processor. The only way I could do that was to take the Rush!! Next Day Shipping off of my order considering it was $118 per computer. The free shipping that they had been upgrading all this time was taken away due to the fact that I have a rush order. They told me that there was no way I could have over night air shipping without the RUSH!!! Next Day Shipping.

Basically, STeven told me in-order for me to get my computers I would either A) wait until May for the new shipment of new Intel® Core 2 Duo Mobile T5450 Dual-Core Processor (2x 1.66GHz/2MB Cache/667FSB) processors, B) Give them more money and keep the Next day rush and free shipping even though I can not afford it, C) remove my Rush!!! Next Day Shipping and pay for the new processors that way but I have to wait for them to be "built" (even though he said they were already built with the next step up processor but I never got the order status saying that materials were gathered and were proceeding to assembly.) and then wait for the normal ground shipping once shipped out, so therefore I will not get my computers until 3-4 weeks after I ordered them with the RUSH!!!! NEXT DAY SHIPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This review was modified by E1 on April 07 2008 11:40:17 AM

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1/5

posted Mar-26-2008

"Just read my status update e-mail I received:

Status Date Status Notes/Tracking#

3/21/2008 5:17:15 PM Processing Materials required gathered. Proceeding to assembly.
3/20/2008 2:52:37 PM Processing 3/19 already started, left note also to let them ship it out asap
3/14/2008 9:22:02 AM Processing Short of materials. CS-NT-MT-BLK
3/5/2008 11:46:00 AM Processing Credit Card Approved
3/4/2008 9:18:00 AM Processing Order Received/Processing
3/3/2008 8:25:36 PM Submitted Order Submitted by Customer

These are the e-mail from Mark:

3/14 Waiting for meter display. It takes 10 business days for your system to be ship out after the credit card is approve on the 5th.

3/19 Meter display is still backordered…do you still want to keep it? It will arrive on 3/20.

3/19 We can ship you out the system first and then ship the meter display, other than that I recommend just removing because it’s only for show.

3/21 That mean we will be sending out your system hopefully by today.

3/25 It seem that we having issue with the cooling unit and the AMD cpu, it will not function correctly. So your order is pending at this time...let me know if you want to continue on.

I will repost a new rating pending the arrival of my computer (if it ever comes). This is the 15th business day. None of the status update matches up to what reply I got from Mark. I was told they can ship me the computer on 3/19 first and they can ship the back order item when it comes in. Come 3/21, it is just now being built. Then they ran into a problem with my motherboard and cooling system. I'm at a halt and stand still. When asked about a sort of compensation, they clearly dodged it. I only want then to do it right. If I would have known and not taking my sister's b/f's advice (cause he owns a IBP computer) and done some research I would have found out about this rating site. They are very fast to lose a business and suggested if I wanted to cancel my order. All I hope for is if they can make it right.

Update as of 4/3/08:

Computer arrived on 3/30/08.
Set it up. Worked for a few hours. Got a BSOD. Got another one last night. I'm really pissed off about this. I don't even want to call IBP for help. I can find more information online about my situation.

Called IBP today. They were supposed to refund my some money because some parts were not compatible and never did. I can't get a reply from Mark. Last reply he e-mailed me was:

Why did you post a negative comment about me on resellerratings? I’m just doing my job…Thanks to you I’m getting in trouble for trying to help you…

Spoke to Lee. He "supposed" to refund my c/c. We will see.

All and all...I'm really not happy with my experience with IBP. Buyers BEWARE.






"

This review was modified by sirsaechao on April 03 2008 12:11:24 PM

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1/5

posted Apr-25-2005

"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 xtreemze on July 30 2005 06:26:39 PM

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