1/5

posted Mar-03-2008

So...you've read the sharply different reviews and you've seen Visionman's (VM) responses. This is important, because I want you to read and apply those to my recent experience. On Feb 25, I ordered a well-priced 1U server, fully realizing that it takes 5-7 BUSINESS days to receive, b/c VM builds and tests the equipment before shipment. Fine. I expect this for business products. Now, I have a *firm* deadline of 1.5 weeks with a critical client (time includes a Gentoo Linux install), so I chose 2nd-day shipping, and asked my rep to please contact VM and try to get a little time shaved off the end (at the very least this indicates my deadline is firm). He said that he has had trouble reaching them, but he knew who to call. Today, Monday, March 3 (7 days later), we contact them again to find that the motherboard is on backorder (?!), pushing shipment out to Friday, making my total time-to-product more than 2 weeks. Even if I *receive* the machine this weekend w/a next-day option, weekend access to the hosting site, which put in new equipment expecting me to come this week, bills around $200/hour. So here I am--no server, an angry client, a host with whom I pulled an unnecessary favor, a professional client-locator whose reputation is also on the line, and my sales rep trying to find an alternative giving time to install--smack in the middle of a political nightmare. To say that I am extremely dissatisfied would be unfair--I don't have a product to say they did it right--but I am NOT by any stretch happy. I stand to lose a large sum of money, but realistically I am returning to a vendor who WILL get me a more expensive, discontinued machine in 2 days. To be fair to VM, it is OK for a company to sometimes be out of stock, but it's NOT OK to fail to communicate. I have heard complaints about their communications, and I note: how long did it take for them to respond to customer complaints on ResellerRatings? 2-3 years? If they are so organized that they can blame the customer/retailer after that much time, it is bizarre that they aren't more responsive. While they might have come through for my business--and let's be honest, I know they tried, so this could be an unfortunate fluke--the nature of business is that you don't have time to screw around. I will pause on returning to this vendor, but if you have the time to wait--and they drastically improve their communications--at their prices they may be worth a careful second shot. And folks, if they work for you, don't forget to say so; sometimes it just takes some deliberate feedback on what went wrong to make significant improvements.

comment on review | report?

Is this review?… Helpful Cool (1) Share