"This review was not intended for this store. They have the same name as the one I had intended to review."

"I am very pleased with avapc. Ordered a configured amd system on the 12/31/02 & received my computer 1/10/03. Computer was packaged well, double boxed and peanuts, & the driver disks & motherboard manual were included. I waited about two hours for my computer to reach room temp & then spent the rest of the night installing xp, drivers, & my favorite software. I have been running the pc now for about 11 days & have yet to experience one sys crash. Everything runs perfectly. After reading all the negative comments I was also very afraid of this company. I made the mistake of ordering before checking the seller ratings. Well I am glad that I did so or I would not have this wonderful computer. I would recommend avpc to others & would also encourage them to read about avpc on this message board. Just for fun read the ratings for well know companies such as amazon & you will see that there are just as many people dissatisfied.

***I will have to unfortunately rescind my positive feedback of avapc. This is just an unbelievable story. My avapc died
in about 7 hours after I wrote this positive review. Computer will not start up. Starts up and dies while loading. PC is
now at local shop. Has anyone had a positive experience with this company?"

"I bought the following custom pc:
* AMD, Athlon XP 2100+, 1.73 GHz, Socket A
* COOLER MASTER, Socket A Coppermine Cooling Fan
* ECS, K7SEM, SDRAM, Video, Audio, LAN, Retail Box
* MAJOR, MAJOR, Qty 2 x 512Mb PC133 SDRAM, Non-ECC (1Gb Total) (Lifetime Warranty)
* WESTERN DIGITAL, 40.0 Gb,ATA-100, 7200rpm
* ACO, 64Mb 3D Video Accelerator (Integrated)
* ACO, 32BIT AW SRS Sound (Integrated)
* MITSUMI, 1.44Mb 3.5 Floppy Drive, oem
* ACO, Black Mid Tower, 300 Watt PS, Front USB, ATX
* MICROSOFT, Windows XP, Home Edition, oem
* GENERIC, Windows Keyboard, PS/2
* GENERIC, 2-Button Mouse, Scroll, oem

I found this company off of pricewatch, found a good deal then ordered from them. After coming here and reading all the negative comments I got a little worried, ok, really worried. So I called them daily to check up on my order. I got in touch with a rep. everytime I called and they were very helpfull. Besides being a week late(probably due to ordering during the x-mas season) I received everything I ordered and in working condition. I waited a month to see if anything would go wrong and so far so good. I'll think twice about ordering from them again though due to all the horror stories out there. Hopefully they got their act together and I'm not the only lucky one that ordered from them."

"Once again I had to be in contact with AVApc, since my motherboard broke. So first I wrote them an e-mail to get a RMA# following this, I actually received an e-mail from an Alvio (same company) representative. He asked me to reply to this e-mail with detailed info regarding the motherboard, which I did. Two days go by still no answer, so I call them. The person I was trying to get a hold of was not in his office, so I called the technical support line, and they found the person I was trying to get a hold of and put him on the phone. So finally I received my RMA#, but I was only allowed to ship it with anything but USPS, which is very inconvenient for me, and the RMA# is only valid for 8 days.

According to the Alvio Corp. representative, withing two days after they receive the shipment they will test it, and then act. Well they have received the package last week Thursday, and it is now Wednesday. I have since called them several times, and left a message. I have also written them another e-mail, but of course, no answer.

So please if you are considering doing business with them, do it ONLY as a last resort, avoid this seller at all costs. (AVApc and Alvio).

Update: 01/02/03

I just called them at AVApc and amazingly someone answered the phone, and after about 2 minutes on hold, he got my name and rma# and then told me that I lived in Hawaii, which is correct. But then a minute later he told me that he could not look anything up because of a system update because of the new year, and if I could call them back tomorrow at 10.

Update: 01/17/2002

I called AVAPC on January 3rd and talked to someone there, and I was told that they would send out my motherboard either January 7th or 8th.

When I called them on the 8th, I was told that they still had not send out my motherboard, but that they would send me a better motherboard the next day, January 9th. Then this morning I called them (January 17th) just to see if they could give me a tracking number, and I was told that they still had not shipped out my motherboard, but that the motherboard is ready to be shipped out, and that they will e-mail me the tracking number as soon as it is shipped out. But when I got home I did not get an e-mail with a tracking number, and they are closed already, so I can not reach them until tuesday, since monday is a holiday.

Update 01/28/2003

I have called AVAPC every single weekday since the last update and I have finally received my new motherboard today.

Summary:

12/18/2002 Broke my motherboard
12/19/2002 Received RMA#
12/20/2002 Shipped item
12/26/2002 AVAPC Received MB
12/28-01/27 I called about 20 times
01/24/2003 AVAPC Sends new MB
01/28/2003 I receive new MB

So there you have it, you can get your own conclusion for this.

Sylvan"

"Ordered a custom system on the 14th, my credit card was charged on the 15th despite the website claiming not to charge credit cards until the system ships. Repeated attempts to contact this place is fruitless. Still the website shows that the order is still "PENDING" but I'm already paying for it. Still unable to get anyone to talk to me via email or phone. They have the right prices, but EVERYTHING else is wrong about this place.

Update: Gary contacted me via email and was very hostile. Basically blamed everything on me. Quotes from the last email to me:
"First, we had a problem with the billing/shippig address verification upon charging your credit card. There were several attempts to contact you at that point. However, you had not responded and seemed not to care. Then, one of the components that you ordered was on back-order. At that point again there were both messages left for you and emails sent to you; this has been done for the past two weeks. Again, you have not responded. So based on our log, if you had done your part of the bargain and contacted us in a timely manner, everything would move in a timely fashion. However, because of your mistakes not to contact us, you encountered a problem." I, of course, laughed my a%s off because this is not how it happened (never spoke to him on the phone and this was his third email to me, and this is the only one I didn't respond to). Anyway, he claimed to have cancelled the order, my credit card is still charged the full amount (as of today Dec 8th). I can't stress enough how far you should stay away from this place.

(Update: As of today Dec 17th, I still have not received a credit or any product- AVApc=fraud)

(Update: AVApc is still taking the fraudulent route and has made no attempt to resolve situation. I have disputed the charge with my credit card company-Dec 30th)"

"Never again will I order from these people. They took 3 weeks to send us a "barebones special". Trying to get ahold of coustomer service is a joke, The phone just keeps rining. When I call the phone # on the website, the guy on the other end give me a different phone number to call. Again, the phone just rings, when I do get an answer, I get put on hold for nearly 10 minutes.

I e-mailed them 2x with no response.

I recieved my system today, but haven't had a chance to test it yet. I really hope all is well with it, as I have read the horror stories of trying to get an RMA# or a refund. (I cannot attest to this till I find out for myself)

Slow service, slow shipping, non-existant e-mail/coustomer support service."

"I would use this company AGAIN. I ordered an upgrade kit, av7-333 mb, xp2000, 512 pc2100. I received e-mail confermation form xtech, OK, just so I get what I ordered. And I did, in one week I received exactly what I ordered. My new motherboard was allready asembled. I installed the new mb; it booted first time, no problems like so many reviews I have read.

I did not have to deal with customer service personally, so I can't comment on that. But the price was great and I got what I ordered and it works."

"we bought :HOUSE BRAND, PENTIUM IV Barebone System Featuring DDR 1 340.74 340.74
* INTEL, Pentium 4 1.5 GHz, Socket 478, Retail
* COOLER MASTER, Socket 478 Cooling Fan
* ECS, P4S5A, Socket 478, SIS-645, DDR & SDRAM, Audio, Lan, Retail
* MICRON, 512MB PC2100 DDR, 266MHz, Non-ECC
* GENERIC, 32BIT AW SRS Sound
* SUPERCASE, Mid Tower, Deluxe, 300 Watt PS, 2 Front USB, ATX .
we received the system and we were excited to open it and start to put it together.
when we installed the 512MB of DDR we noticed it said 256 MB ddr in the bios..so they sent us 256MB instead of 515MB as we paid for..
then the horror part starts..
I returned the wrong memory as soon as we could after getting an RA# from ava's one customer server person.i called 4 times and got their answering machine before I reached him..he said he was surprised to hear we received 256MB and not 512MB and he wanted us to return it for them to make sure we werent lying. I sent the 256MB back to them (with the 512MB sticker on it)and they recieved the memory on 9/3/02..i called them 9/6/02 to make sure they sent my correct memory to us as the system can't run without memory.Andre the customer service person (the only one there ever) had his machine on for 1 week i called.i left messages and messages..finally i called again and he answered the phone===9/12/02.
he apoligized since he received our memory on 9/3/02 and it was 10 days now they did nothing..he said he would send the new one out overnight to make up for their error..at that point i gave my home address since i was to be home the next 2 days.i NEVER received the Memory overnight, nor the next day.I called Andre again and also airborne to see where my memory was..they said ava sent it ground and i would have it left at my home door ..i said I can'y believe that, i wont be home all week , i will be at work. I neded to have it re-routed to my job..they said they can't do that unless AVA calls them. i was ready to scream at this point!!!I was in Washington ., Dc that day and rushed home to see if the package came 9/16/02 , since it didn't arrive 9/13,or 9/14..
The package finally arrived 9/16/02 and left at my door which is risky and dumb... luckly i got home by 6pm and saw it there..
I will never buy anything from AVA or its sister company ever again as they are liars and cheats!!!!
lrp

"

"I have to disagree with all the negative comments I have read about this site. I have ordered two computers form them and both times have been very satisfied. Micah has been very nice and courteous to me. They have kept me updated about the purchase and even included things for free. I know that there are 9 messages out there that are all negative but what about all the people that they have serviced with out complaints. I do not want someone to get a bad feeling about this site because of 9 people, and on the same hand I don' want you to buy form them because of one good message. Just know that I have worked for multiple large web sites before and no matter how good they are you typically only hear about the horror stories. I challenge you to use them and tell us about your experiences. As far as a site going by multiple names that is more common than most people realize. That is all I have to say about this."

"#1 It took me a month to recieve my 2 Geforce 3 TI-200s. First they called and told me the Asus cards were discontinued, then, I decided to go with the MSI brand and didn't receive them until a month later. This was very pathetic considering I had to call them a total of 4 times to recieve them after the guy I talked to "Anton" told me they had shipped it. It took atleast 10 calls to get through to someone I could talk to all an hour apart. This service was horrible.
#2 - They sent me an incompatible motherboard/proc combination.
* ASUS, A7V133C, Socket A, Retail Box
This is what they told me i was getting when in fact i recieved the incompatible motherboard model A7V133.
* AMD PALOMINO XP, Athlon XP Palomino 1800+, 1.53gig
The A7V133 will not run the 1800+ over 1150mhz."

"Worst experience I have ever had with any company. Never again will I even think about using this company for any reason."

"I ORDERED FROM MGE THE OTHER STORE TO AVAPC ORDERED A GOOD DEAL SO I THOUGHT UNTILL I GOT MY EMAIL CONFIRMATION AND IT SAID FROM AVA WHAT??? I CALLED UP MGE AND TALKED TO sales moron "Miesha" HE SAID THATS OUR SISTER SITE. I SAID I ORDERED FROM MGE NOT AVA THEY SAID O WE PASS ON TO THEM TO MAKE IT FOR YOU.I SAID I WANT TO CANCEL MY ORDER I SEEN THE STINKY REVIEWS OF AVA AND CHANGED MY MIND. HE SAID NOONE POSTS GOOD OBOUT US ONLY BAD...HMM WONDER WHY?? GAVE ME A LONG DISTANCE PHONE # AND THEY KEPT ME ON HOLD FOR 10 FRIGGIN MINUTES THEN SAID O SORRY THE COMPUTERS ARE DOWN AND I GAVE HIM MY NUMBER AND SAID CALL ME WHEN THEY COME UP AT YOUR DIME. THEY DID AND CANCELLED MY ORDER I GAVE MY CREDIT CARD COMPANY MY CANCELATION NOTICE JUST INCASE THE TRY TO RE CHARGE MY CARD ANYWAY."

"i dont have an invoice number, because they are clueless. i have been a tech since 1984 and AVApc is the poorest excuse for "computer company" i have ever came across. 2 weeks and no email confirmation, no service, and no product. i STRONGLY recommend the exclusion of anything to do with this company. i got nothing when for information from their sales moron "Miesha." if my company did business the way these guys do business i would be out of a job. these guys probably cant even spell customer service. Currenty, i am sending massive emails to all the techs, companies, and people i know, not to do businees with this "garage reseller." "

"Horrible, horrible, horrible !!! I called them on a Wed and said "I will ONLY order this if you can have it here by Friday" -- I live in Michigan and they are in Ohio. The salesman said 'No problem!'.

From that point on, it was a bad experience.

Item never shipped on Wed. I agreed to pay NEXT DAY shipping on Thur to get it here by Fri.

Item did not ship AGAIN.

On Friday, the rude person @ customer service said that it didn't matter what the salesman said and wanted to charge me 25% to restock something that they never shipped!

I will NEVER order from AVA PC again! They are the same as ALVIO.COM and they stink.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL TIMES."

"Ordered case,mobo,cpu,DDR memory,HD,CDRW, Windows XP. Paid for build & testing. High shipping charges. System arrived DOA. AVAPC tried to say my monitor was not compatible. Actually, the mobo jumpers were wrong. Setting jumpers properly did not fix system. Returned for service. System booted. Tried to register Windows XP. Microsoft reported my copy as previously registered. AVAPC said it was not copied or on any other machine. System would crash, quit programs, disconnect internet and reboot without warning. Windows had many run errors. I decided to return for refund. "Daniel" told me that 15% would be deducted, even though the system was defective. Shipped system back. Nearly one month later, still waiting for refund.
VERY Hard to get people on the phone. People I have talked to are little or no help. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AVOIDING THIS COMPANY AND IT'S PARENT COMPANY ALVIO."