"So far, no good. I placed my order on 1/18 and the system showed shipping in 2 - 3 days. I requested 3 day shipping and received my confirmation email on 1/22. I would have thought this meant my order had been shipped but I hadn't received it today. I called to check status and didn't even get an answer on the phone until almost 5pm PST. (their time zone) The woman was polite but background noise made it sound like she wasn't even in a store, more like she was at home. I was told my order might ship today or Monday. "

"I would not recommend this company at all. I ordered a case from them on 12/8/02 and it arrived damaged. I contcted them on the day that I received and was told that a new face plate would be shipped out to me. On 12/26/02 they say that they shipped out the package, but I never received it. I called them back on 01/02/03 and was informed that another face plate would be shipped out and I would receive an email. Yet again no packaged shipped out. On 01/15/03 I contacted them again and again was told that one would be shipped out. Here we are on 1/24/03 and yet no face plate. I have contacted them again and again was told that one would be shipped out. I won't hold my breath on this one and I do not recommend them."

"I would NOT recommend ordering from this company. To be direct, let me list the things that make me feel this way...No 800# for customer service---they prefer you do all correspondence through email--even though they NEVER email you back; They do provide a local number, but unless you live in the town where they are, it's not local, now is it?! After placing the order on 1/4/03, my cc was charged on the 7th---I had to call their office in CA to find out the UPS tracking #...customer service (which by the way seems to be 1 woman) stated that there was no tracking # "but let me get you one"; after getting the #, it couldn't be found in the UPS system for a few days...then after the case was shipped to a town in CA on the 9th it stayed there sitting for 5 days...they had to reschedule the shipping; it finally arrived on the 16th. Now, once I got the package open, I found the packaging material was jammed in there---the styrofoam was broken into pieces because it wasn't made for the box; When I took the actual case out of the box, it wasn't the correct color---it was tight---don't get me wrong---but it wasn't white and black like I ordered...it was grey and black; Next thing I know, I hear something...what?! It was all of the screws and pins that hold the face of the case together---all broken off!---pieces EVERYWHERE!!!; I couldn't believe it! One side of my case was scratched up near the top. The "invoice" that they send with the product is merely a printout of what you --the consumer-- prints out when confirming order online...no official letterhead...no business like format...very unprofessional looking. And then there were the bag of washers, screws, and little pieces of God know's what. I must have a pouch of 100 pieces of hardware with no directions or diagram or anything to know where they go, what they're for, or how many I'm suppose to have. I guess they just assumed that since I bought a case with power supply that I would know every little detail of every little screw. The only screw I'm sure of is the one I got from this so called company!"

"I ordered a case from this company with two USB ports on the left edge of the bezel. One of the ports was defective. As soon as I plugged my USB wires into the motherboard, it started smoking. I contacted Upgradecenterinc.com by e-mail first. I had no response. I went to the BBB, and found a contact number. I called them this time, and they told me to send them an e-mail, and hung up. I sent three more e-mails, one to tech support, one to sales, and one to RMA department. I still didnt' get a response. I finally got a response on January 9th. Which informed me to send an e-mail to the RMA department. I replied telling them I already did that. I informed them that I needed to have this system shipped by the 15th, and how much of an inconveinence it was to me to wait on them to get me the part I needed. They replied back again on January 10th, letting me know they forwarded the message to the RMA department. I still haven't heard anything. I will never purchase anything from this company again!"

"I ordered a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live on December 28, 2002 from Upgrade Center, Inc and the website stated it would ship within two-to-three business days. It has been over a week and still no sound card. I have sent them an e-mail asking if there was a problem with my order and no answer yet. I received an e-mail from them saying that my order was shipped but when I go to track my parcel it states: “The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper or shipping partner on January 05, 2003 to expect your package for mailing. Status is updated every evening. Please check again later.” I received this message a few days ago and still no sound card. I like their prices but their customer service is poor. It would be really nice to have my order when they promise it and for it to be via the carrier that they state it would because the last time that I checked the USPS is not UPS.

I am very disappointed with their customer support and shipping methods.
"

"very slow to ship - ordered 12/31/02, shipping confirmation 1/7/03.

the e-mail updates are nice, but fast shipping (like the 2-3 days that was promised) would be better."

"I ordered an inexpensive ATX computer case with an approved 400 watt power supply in early Dec. 2002. I received a confirmation e-mail promptly after order was placed, and my new case was delivered in only a few days. Great shipping time, proper product packaging, and awesome prices make this company a winner in my book. The only thing I have to complain about is that the case is different from the one I ordered. They were both the same price, and the style wasn't a major concern for me. I didn't bother contacting their store for this problem, and am a happy customer with the service I received. I will do future business, and would recommend to friends. I haven't completed the system I am building yet, and am anxious to verify that the power supply is working properly, so I will post a follow-up in regards to functionality with fruition of system. Give them B- but only for the incorrect item being sent. It can happen to anyone, and once again, I am just as happy with the case I received as I would have been with the one I ordered."

"I order a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 card from them Friday. For what it's worth I didn't get an email confirmation. I'm pretty sure I gave them my email adress for that purpose. That's it for the downside.

My credit card was not charged (so I thought) since the order had not shipped, only verified that it was a good number. I gave them a thumbs up for that until I found out it was charged. To give them the benefit of the doubt, originally Visa said it was verified, but today (Jan 10) they said it was actually charged.

I decided to cancel the order because a friend of mine is practically giving me a better card. Customer service told me that it would ship today, but said if I wanted to cancel, there would be no charge. I give them two thumbs up for that. (This may be why I was charged. I cancelled the day it was supposed to be shipped. Who knows.)

Other than not getting a confirmation email, I'm happy with them. I will consider purchasing from them again.

Update:
I just checked my credit card account. They *did* charge me for the sound card even though I cancelled before it shipped. Now to find out if it was an honest mistake.

I called Visa and they said to try up to get it reversed by the company before taking formal action.

I emailed Upgrade Center asking for a refund and 35 minutes later I got a response saying it was refunded. I didn't get an explanation; however, I was very pleased that I got a response that quickly and I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I get the impression that they are small and the refund was overlooked. The person I originally spoke to was polite and prompt and I suspect that the person who answered my email was the same person I talked to a week or so ago.

Thanks Khai. Shay shay.

(According to Visa, it will take over the weekend for the refund to post, so if I don't update this again, you will know that everything went through smoothly.)"

"TO the ONE WHO POSTED THIS!!!!!! 6/1/02 10:45 PM
I went through all the trouble of creating an account here because others need to know about the horrible service of this company.

I bought a new case from them, needing to upgrade from my existing case (everything was working fine before but I just wanted to install a new drive). To my dismay, after I moved all the components to the new case, the thing started smoking and set off the fire alarm. In my 15 years of building PC systems, I've never had this happen to me before. When I called up Upgrade Center and told them what had happened, they didn't want to talk and hung up on me. I drove 2 hours out to their store (I luckily lived within driving distance) to show them the damage but they wouldn't even look at it. I had just lost $2000 in computer components because of their stupid little case and they could care less. This company doesn't deserve to stay in business.

LOL YOU MORON you need to make sure that the power is 115 volt not 230 Volt that is for over seas sockets HAHA thats what you get for not checking your computer over
Next time you will check the Power Voltage...."

"No prblems at all. Shipped very quickly. No complaints!"

"I had no problems with this merchant. Their prices were as advertised, and the product worked. My only unhappiness is that they shipped via USPS. For one stick of RAM, that isn't so bad, but I much prefer the other shipping services. At the least, the RAM was well boxed and well packed."

"Very poor service... 2-3 days for an email reply. Very shady product line, www.junk.com. The Power supply I ordered had QC stickers that were tampered with, i.e. had been opened and probably swapped out components. Shop somewhere else, trust me. I would return my power supply, but do not want to deal with those folks again. DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!! Please read other complaints… "

"Purchased an ATX case with 400W PWS for $38 shipped. The shipped a different case than the one I ordered, but the one I received is listed for a higher price on their website so I'm not going to complain. The case was supposed to come with front-mounted USB ports, but though the mounting holes are there, no ports are present - rather disappointing.

I also ordered a 56k Intel chipset PCI modem for about $10 - no problems.

Shipping was fast (and free), prices were exceptional, and all the hardware works as advertised. I'm quite satisfied."

"I bought a 400 watt ibest power supply unit and an AMD cpu fan.

I sent my money order, and my goods arrived promptly.

But when I opened the box, I had been sent a CASE fan instead.

I called upgrade center inc and they said they were sorry, and they would send me out the fan, and please keep the case fan!

They even sent me the new fan, 3 day delivery!

I checked the tracking number, and the next day, there it is, a package coming to me, 3 day delivery.

So I give these guys a big thumbs up for service.

Mistakes are made, but these people more than made up for it! The case fan is 5 inches wide, and I am using it now. It is VERY powerful, and is also brushless. It is a $19 fan!

The PUS is working fine also. I am using it now."

"Not that anything more needs to be said here about this company, but just wanted to provide some more facts. I purchased a cheap 400W power supply ($15, including shipping... should've been suspicious.) Card was charged the next day and I had a UPS number to go with it. The estimated shipping date from UPS came and went and I receivedno power supply. The status still said, "Billing Information Received." Finally, I got the power supply another few days later. I plugged it in to the motherboard, heard a momentary sizzling noise, and that was the extent of the functionality the power supply provided for me. E-mailed for an RMA and got a response to call. I called and they were actually pretty pleasant on the phone. I was transferred to "Tony" who said he would send me out another one right away and would test it before it was sent out. When I asked him when it would be here, he said ours would probably "cross" in the mail. Right. I FedEx'ed mine from work the next day because I thought that maybe they weren't telling the truth and wouldn't send out (or remember anything about me) until they received the dead one back. Sure enough, a week later, still no power supply. (I did get signature verification from FedEx that they received it in 2 days.) So I bugged them 2 or 3 times for an update and finally got a tracking number the day before I received it. It arrived about two weeks after they received the defective one back, which was about a month from the original order date. I plugged it in, and it seems to work still.


I have corresponded with a few of the people who've posted here and have pieced together what Upgrade Center, Inc's business practices seem to be, at least through collective experience:
- They charge the credit cards right away
- They issue UPS tracking numbers right away, but hold onto them for about a week afterwards. (No one knows why, but this explains all of the postings that mention "Billing Information Received." According to UPS this means a shipping record has been started, but no one has given a package to UPS yet.)
- They use what appear to be refurbished parts. (The power supply I originally received as well as the replacement - both different brands, by the way - both had the factory Quality Check seal broken.) Refurbished is not necessarily bad, but it does explain the low prices.

My opinion of this company is that they're overburdened with the volume of sales they get from their low-priced equipment and don't have any real customer service practices in place. They ship late, but they did honor their warranty and give me a new power supply (it took almost a month between the time of purchase and the receipt of a working product, though!) I would say if you're not in need of parts right away and their prices are worth the risk, you could try them out. But if you're going for must-have-now or must-be-the-best-quality products, look somewhere else and spend the extra money. I will not be buying from them again, though."