4/5

posted Apr-15-2004

I did not know I was ordering from these guys, I had ordered from a web site called pcsuperdeals.com, which is unrated here but had a fairly high rating from another service.

I received my ordered parts in two days, in good order, no problems. However, the goods were shipped UPS signature required, which is always a pain for home delivery, getting home and finding the UPS slip and having to go to the UPS distribution center to pick the parcel up. That lowers my rating for them, other than that, no problem.

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4/5

posted Nov-18-2003

This vendor sells only one item that I know of - A paint additive that increases the reflectivity and emmissivity of paint, thus making standard paint into a poor man's thermal radiant barrier - which hekps keep a home warmer in winter and cooler in summer if intelligently applied.

I ordered a small quantity of the additive and tested it in a "hot box" of my own design and determined that it does work - it makes a difference in how much heat moves through the walls of the box within a given time compared to the same paint without the additive. Thus I am now ordering larger quantities to use on my home.

This additive, ceramic microcapsules, is available on several web sites but koolcoat is by far the best price, less than half of most of the others.

The only reason I really have to recommend this particular vendor is price. The web site is quirky, payment can only be made through paypal (forcing you to open an account if you don't have one) and customer service is non-existant (emails, voice mails go unanswered).

I suspect it's some guy operating out of his garage and ordering this stuff in industrial lots then dividing it into smaller quantities as orders are received from the web (the product arrives in big household zip-lock bags).

The only shipping option is USPS slow boat, so delivery is one-two weeks, and you have to plan ahead if you want to include this in your household painting projects.

Still, its a very good price compared to other vendors and worth the quirkiness and the wait for significant savings when deal with large quantities of additive for large paint jobs.

This review was modified by ljdunn on November 18 2003 08:36:16 AM

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1/5

posted Nov-07-2003

In short, avoid this reseller. Received merchandise which became defective in short order. Emails to costomer service go unanswered, messages left on customer service voice mail are never returned. They are quick to take the money and they do ship merchandise, but are a complete no-show for problems.

hey turn my problem over to the manufacturer to resolve only when I threatened a VISA payment dispute, and the manufacturer stalled and avoided the problem and said they weren't associated with the reseller. Finally had to open a "defective merchandise" dispute with VISA in hopes of recovering my money.

Very bad experience overall.

This review was modified by ljdunn on December 19 2003 10:36:51 AM

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5/5

posted Oct-29-2002

I found this business shopping for the cheapest price for ink cartridges for my Xerox printer on PriceWatch.com.

I was initially reluctant to order as their web site looked like a senior high school class project, and you have to carefully read the product descriptions to be sure you are ordering the right item. But the price was really good on the ink and the shipping cost was low, so I took a chance.

I was given an order number immediately on the web site after ordering and got a follow up email later that day, a fairly standard practice for web orders. Since they ship via USPS, there is no way to track a shipment.

My cartridges arrived two days later (USPS Priority Mail) in good order. They are generics from Taiwan (nothing more was promised) and so far are working just as well as the original Xerox cartridges.

Even with shipping I only paid about half of what it would have cost me to buy Xerox carts at the local office supply store. I can't see any difference in the quality between the generic ink and the original ink, but I do not use the printer for digital photography so I'm not extremely critical of the color output.

The packaging and the invoice, like the web site, was a bit on the amateurish side, so its appears that they aren't spending a lot of money on overhead at this operation. When my credit card statement arrived the charge was made to their mother company (CNR), so I wasn't able to initially identify what it was for. However, all the small negatives I've mentioned were, in my opinion, minor inconveniences worth putting up with for the major price savings.

Overall, based on this one purchase, I'm very satisfied with this reseller.

This review was modified by ljdunn on October 29 2002 07:06:40 AM

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5/5

posted Sep-23-2002

I have used this reseller several times for HP inkjet cartridges. Every time they have had the best price, free shipping and relatively quick delivery (Their free shipping is via USPS, so it sometimes isn't fast, but thats the post office).

On my most recent order they shipped the wrong part in the box. One call their their 800 number fixed this, no argument or stalling, they shipped the right part immediately by priority mail, and included the pre-paid shipping container to ship the wrong one back. I understand that sometimes things go wrong, and I am impressed with a vendor that reacts immediately to correct problems, as this one did.

The stock of items they sell online is rather limited, which is too bad, as I have high regards for this reseller and would purchase a wider variety of stuff from them if they offered it.

They only sell new cartridges (as opposed to refilled carts. or refill kits), which is also too bad, as I am starting to use refilled and haven't found a vendor for that yet that I like as much as these guys.

The web site is a bit more difficult to navigate than comparable vendors (it's not bad if you know exactly what you want, but just "shopping" is rather difficult, and there is no way to verify online that an item is actually in stock today (that takes a call to the 800 number), but I regard these as minor problems.

This review was modified by ljdunn on September 23 2002 09:36:53 AM

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5/5

posted Apr-19-2002

The price I paid for some CPU coolers was considerably lower than I could find it elsewhere online, the shipping charge was actual cost, and the units arrived in good order. Plenty of emails keeping me informed of the status of the order. They had a bit of a long time getting the units into the hands of UPS to ship (long processing time) so I wouldn't use them for anything I was expecting urgently, but other than that I'm quite satisified.

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4/5

posted Apr-19-2002

This retailer came up as best priced for Seagate drives no mater which comparisson shopping search site I used. I had read the comments here about outrageous shipping charges and poor customer service and just skipped over them. However, I required multiple drives and prices was an issue. Even with the highly inflated shipping fees, these guys were the best deal, way ahead of number two. Hoping that the odds would play out for me, I placed the order. It arrived in several days, no problems, everything in order. Therefore I have no customer service experience to report, which seems to be the second biggest complaint with these folks. Their over-the-top shipping costs causes me to rate their prices as merely lower than others, whereas if they charged fair shipping, the prices would have been outstandingly low.

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1/5

posted Apr-12-2002

AVOID THIS RESELLER

This is my third and hopefully final comment on my experience with this reseller (see below). I did finally get a partial credit on the returns I shipped them, although since I took a beating on restocking fees and paying shipping both ways, it was less than 50% of what I originally paid. Since they absolutely refused to take back the defective unit, I opened it and did a "post mortem", and sure enough, found a solder bridge between a voltage line and a signal line on one of the PCBs. This retailer absolutely refused to accept that the unit had been defective and would absolutely NOT stand behind the quality of what they sold. SInce I started this saga with them I have connected with a couple of other people who shared similar experiences - good price and fast shipping, but shoddy merchandise and total lack of customer service.

BELOW IS MY SECOND REVIEW

This is a major change in my rating of this reseller based on continuing experiences related to my first (and forever to be my only) order from this reseller.

The mobile rack I ordered from them destroyed not only the fixed drive I placed into it but also two others in the same machine. I spent hours on the phone with Seagate Tech Support verifying that the problem was a mis-wiring in the mobile rack. I had three more un-opened that I wasn't about to use. That was 5 months ago.

In the past five months I have had the worst run around of any merchant in my life, including instructions on their web site to use email, instructions in email to call directly, and instructions on voice mail when called to use their web site. After several circles through their communication "screen" over the months, I finally reached a human being on the phone who then told me the order was aged far too much to issue an RMA.

To compound their inappropiateness of their reply, The RMA person at first told me that no returns were accepted after one month fromn shipping date. When I informed her that I had proof that I had been attempting to contact them since two weeks from the shipping date, she said "Did I say one month, no that's incorrect, it's one week, no returns after one week from shipping date". Considering that this outfit uses the cheapest (and slowest) possible way to ship any order, that (if true) would mean that no returns are accepted, since the clock usually runs out before they are received by the buyer!

I escaculated this to the owner of the company, who finally, after much long and repeatitive discussion, during which he accused me of being unqualified to install a hard drive (I am multiply certified by national organizations for IT hardware and software installation), and of using "crap" drives (SeaGate), he finally reluctantly agreed to give me a partial refund only on the unopened units (which I have yet to receive - there may be more on this later).

What started as a pleasant buying experience (below) quickly went from bad to worse and finally descended into the pits of hell.

AVOID THIS VENDOR!

My original review follows:

"Please note this reseller is NovaTech Computers at www.novapcs.com and is NOT Nova Computer at www.novacomputers.com, who is rated (very negatively) elsewhere here. This was my first experience with this reseller. I ordered a few small components which for which Nova had the lowest price I could find on the web. The order arrived in good order a few days later as expected. The shipping price charged was a few dollars more than quoted, but the pieces I ordered were heavy and the original shipping quote had been very low, so I have no problem with that. I belive the shipping charge is exactly what was paid to UPS for delivery. Overall this was a very satisfying first experience."

This review was modified by ljdunn on October 22 2002 06:14:35 PM

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5/5

posted Apr-10-2002

I placed a small order with this outfit just as my bank had erronously listed my credit card as stolen (who knows why, some clerk entered the wrong number somewhere). The guys at this place stayed with me through two days of long distance calls, mostly at their expense, while that was straightened out.

I know any profit they made on my order was more than wiped out by the telephone expense they had, but they hung in there and completed the sale, making me a very satisfied customer.

As things happen they have a somewhat limited product line and I haven't re-ordered anything from them, but whenever I need something I always check their site and when they carry something I happen to need, I will happily give them another order.

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1/5

posted Apr-10-2002

I deal with this outfit through their used equipment division "SurplusComputers.com". I ordered a used monitor which they stated was refurbished and checked by factory trained technicians. It wasn't a great deal, it was merely a fair deal for a working used monitor.

It wasn't even clean when it arrived, the "refurbishing" process seemed to consist of a new plastic bag and box. The minute I turned it on it was obvious that nobody had ever checked it before shipping - the image was clearly defective and the screen had burn-in marks.

I contacted their tech support who agreed it was garbage and there was nothing to do but return it, which I promptly did, at considerable expense (it was a big heavy monitor), exactly in accordance with their instructions.

That was almost two months ago, and despite two contacts with them, the first of which they completely ignored and the second of which they responded to only because I threatened them with a VISA dispute, I have not gotten back one penny nor any status update on the RMA.

I am now in a VISA dispute with them, which I am confident I will eventually win, but I'm out the money for awhile.

I learned my lesson about buying used equipment online and I learned my lesson about dealing with this reseller.

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