Gamers Nexus investigates Rise and Fall of Artesian Builds prebuilt PCs

20,000,000 a year to Bankrupt everything is going to be auctioned off I never heard of them but maybe someone did
 


20,000,000 a year to Bankrupt everything is going to be auctioned off I never heard of them but maybe someone did.

Yeah, they were hiring influencers, and they had a contest to give out a new gaming PC to their influencers, and the person who won "didn't have enough followers"[1], so they revoked the PC after announcing the winner live on stream.

Then everyone went wild over it and the company folded. Although it looks like the guy who made the decision to screw over a supporter was already in the process of wrecking the company.

[1] I'm simpllifying a little, but not much.
 
Yeah, they were hiring influencers, and they had a contest to give out a new gaming PC to their influencers, and the person who won "didn't have enough followers"[1], so they revoked the PC after announcing the winner live on stream.

Then everyone went wild over it and the company folded. Although it looks like the guy who made the decision to screw over a supporter was already in the process of wrecking the company.

[1] I'm simpllifying a little, but not much.
That is pretty much what happened. That company got shredded like some balsa wood in a tornado in like a week.

Forgot to add some some streamers stepped up and got the person that won a computer.
 
"repair units that existing customers sent in for repair with their files .... they will never be able to get them back because all of it is being sold at auction."

Why wouldn't that be illegal?
 
I'm just thinking whoever officiates the auction for property that is owned by private individuals is eligible for 1 FREE FELONY per box over $500(value determined by who owns the box), at least where I live. That's if we don't put a dollar amount on data. Although I have little sympathy for someone who didn't back up. Some sympathy. But only a little.
 
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I'm just thinking whoever officiates the auction for property that is owned by private individuals is eligible for 1 FREE FELONY per box over $500(value determined by who owns the box), at least where I live. That's if we don't put a dollar amount on data. Although I have little sympathy for someone who didn't back up. Some sympathy. But only a little.
From a legal perspective, you can't really put value on data as its value is highly subjective. Not to mention the fact that anytime you send a PC in for service there are usually all kinds of disclaimers about data loss.

Typically in these cases, the company has to return the property to its original owners even if the company can't repair it. However, I'd wager there isn't enough money to do that. It's shady practices that got the company into this mess, so it's not surprising that its not being handled correctly.
 
I'm watching the video now and holy crap, the claims: the guy had employees buy GPUs individually so they could be put in new builds at serious markups, then disputed the transactions where he paid his employees.
 
This is about a chad who is very charismatic who once probably built a PC and tried to make a business about it.
 
And this is why I don’t buy pre-builds.

I remember working for two guys similar to the CEO of Artesian Builds.

First one had us cold calling, and hounding businesses into buying computers, create fake work orders to trick businesses, and if an employee wasn’t aggressive enough he wouldn’t get paid, and eventually would get fired.

I was on the latter since I have a clear moral guideline I like to follow in life, and screwing people over isn’t a part of it. The good thing is, about six months after I left the owner got sued into oblivion.

The second one ram a PC repair shop, now he wouldn’t have us do anything wrong, we just repaired the PC’s. Problem is he didn’t have a price sheet, he charged based on what he felt it was worth to the customer. I lasted about six months, I examined roughly six systems, and would have roughly four to five repairs a day. I got fired in the shitty way—accused of stealing money that was stored in a room I had no access to. No cameras in the place so it was my word against his. I feel though I was let go because I wasn’t profitable enough, he wanted me to focus more on laptop repairs and I just couldn’t get soldering down because I’m legally blind in one eye so my depth perception is off.

I heard five months after I left he fired His golden egg employee in the same manner I was fired, and then was arrested on multiple counts of fraud, unpaid child support, and numerous domestic violence charges.

People like this are the scum of the earth.
 
And this is why I don’t buy pre-builds.

I remember working for two guys similar to the CEO of Artesian Builds.

First one had us cold calling, and hounding businesses into buying computers, create fake work orders to trick businesses, and if an employee wasn’t aggressive enough he wouldn’t get paid, and eventually would get fired.

I was on the latter since I have a clear moral guideline I like to follow in life, and screwing people over isn’t a part of it. The good thing is, about six months after I left the owner got sued into oblivion.

The second one ram a PC repair shop, now he wouldn’t have us do anything wrong, we just repaired the PC’s. Problem is he didn’t have a price sheet, he charged based on what he felt it was worth to the customer. I lasted about six months, I examined roughly six systems, and would have roughly four to five repairs a day. I got fired in the shitty way—accused of stealing money that was stored in a room I had no access to. No cameras in the place so it was my word against his. I feel though I was let go because I wasn’t profitable enough, he wanted me to focus more on laptop repairs and I just couldn’t get soldering down because I’m legally blind in one eye so my depth perception is off.

I heard five months after I left he fired His golden egg employee in the same manner I was fired, and then was arrested on multiple counts of fraud, unpaid child support, and numerous domestic violence charges.

People like this are the scum of the earth.
One of the shops I worked at had a quota of 7 repairs a day. They weren't super strict about it. Some days you'd have a bunch of stuff waiting on parts and other days I could knock out 20 machines or more. At the Best Buy centralized service center I worked at, I can't remember the daily quota, but I think it was around 10 machines or so per day. I remember doing well more than 100 in one month.
 
One of the shops I worked at had a quota of 7 repairs a day. They weren't super strict about it. Some days you'd have a bunch of stuff waiting on parts and other days I could knock out 20 machines or more. At the Best Buy centralized service center I worked at, I can't remember the daily quota, but I think it was around 10 machines or so per day. I remember doing well more than 100 in one month.
Yeah a lot of what held my repair numbers down was waiting on parts. On good days I did about six or seven as well, but that’s when I had all the parts, which very seldomly was the case.

Sometimes I’d wait 3-4 days on parts so I’d go days where I’d have one or two repairs and a bunch of PC’s examined waiting on repairs.

He was a private owner so he used eBay for most all the parts, and would only order OEM when it was absolutely necessary.

He wasn’t super strict about numbers per day so much as he only cared about averages. As long as your average was four repairs, 4 examinations was met he mostly left me alone. It was a decent job though, sit in the back watching movies or browsing the net while I have four machines all doing Windows installations. Another thing just popped into my memory—he made it a requirement to install Norton 2005 (it was 2007 at the time), illegal copies though using key loggers, without the customers consent.
 
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Yeah a lot of what held my repair numbers down was waiting on parts. On good days I did about six or seven as well, but that’s when I had all the parts, which very seldomly was the case.

Sometimes I’d wait 3-4 days on parts so I’d go days where I’d have one or two repairs and a bunch of PC’s examined waiting on repairs.

He was a private owner so he used eBay for most all the parts, and would only order OEM when it was absolutely necessary.

He wasn’t super strict about numbers per day so much as he only cared about averages. As long as your average was four repairs, 4 examinations was met he mostly left me alone. It was a decent job though, sit in the back watching movies or browsing the net while I have four machines all doing Windows installations. Another thing just popped into my memory—he made it a requirement to install Norton 2005 (it was 2007 at the time), illegal copies though using key loggers, without the customers consent.
That's some pretty shady shit.
 
The irony is, he couldve shut down Artesian West, stopped producing non-core products, and simply not manage Artesian East at all, then he could’ve just sat back and raked in cash.

But he couldn’t do that. He had to be the face and do terrible business practices and try to be internet famous. Really the live stream giveaway was just the final nail in the coffin. It was spiraling for clearly well over a year leading up to that.

I can’t wait to see the part 2 of this prebuilt disaster.
 
So how can they seize customer owned pc's that were sent in for repair, and just keep/liquidate them? Potentially with their data on them? That's hardware they do not even own.

What a clusterfuck.
More than likely, they couldn't afford to repair the broken machines or send them back to the customers.
 
Fortunately for him, mommy and daddy owned the primary interest, so they'll get whatever they can get out of the dead company. They've already reformed under a slightly modified name. Everyone else (that is, the paying customers waiting for their pc's) get nothing. My gut feel is this guy will run for POTUS eventually.
 
Another thing just popped into my memory—he made it a requirement to install Norton 2005 (it was 2007 at the time), illegal copies though using key loggers, without the customers consent.
I got to know why, do you know? He wasn't making money from it, or was he charging for Norton? (Not that it matters but he used a keygen, not a logger, at least I hope not:unsure:).
 
They've already reformed under a slightly modified name.
I got the impression from the GN video that this was a holding company created to shut down the company and sell off assets, which is a common thing to do with a bankrupt company.
 
I got the impression from the GN video that this was a holding company created to shut down the company and sell off assets, which is a common thing to do with a bankrupt company.
Or, reformation. Have a feeling that mommy and daddy want to see their child succeed.

Of course, he is a top influencer and star on social media, so there's that.
 
I got to know why, do you know? He wasn't making money from it, or was he charging for Norton? (Not that it matters but he used a keygen, not a logger, at least I hope not:unsure:).
Yeah, thanks for the correction. I just saw that today and told myself “Make sure to drink coffee before posting on the internet,” lol.

He didn’t do it for profit, he did it as a selling point for customers. Unfortunately Norton back then sucked. It would take a computer that’s performing decently after a Windows install and turn it to garbage.

I also hated that he didn’t ask the customer if they wanted anti-virus software installed or not, or if they had their own, etc. it was blankets installed on every machine we fixed since 95% of the repairs also required a fresh windows install.
 
Steve & Gamers Nexus was a great position to do this story as its Cary, North Carolina location is only about 30 miles away from Artesian Builds' Chapel Hill, North Carolina (East Coast) office. Probably had ready access to interview employees and visit that site.

For your screen saver/dartboard/etc..

Steve of GamersNexus.jpg
 
So how can they seize customer owned pc's that were sent in for repair, and just keep/liquidate them? Potentially with their data on them? That's hardware they do not even own.

What a clusterfuck.
This would make anybody spitting mad to the point of violence.
You buy a pc...it has an issue and so you send it to a company for repair, only to have it sold at auction to cover a repair facility's bankruptcy?
At the very least, the people should be able to submit their repair orders to retrieve their personal property.
 
Every time I see a clip featuring that malformed Artesian Builds douche with his barrel torso and skinny little arms, my blood pressure shoots up and I want to do violence. I've heard of having a punch-me face, but that guy has a punch-me everything. At least his personality matches his looks.
 
What an absolute culusterfuck. Glad to see places like this go under. Now, it’s the little guys that get the shaft. People with rigs being ‘repaired’ and the employees while the CEO is going to be protected.
 
"repair units that existing customers sent in for repair with their files .... they will never be able to get them back because all of it is being sold at auction."

Why wouldn't that be illegal?

In any sane/just world it would be. In our dominated by the golden rule - he who has the gold makes the rules - world; I wouldn't be the least surprised to learn that the rules have been written such that customers whose property was sent in for repair have what was their hardware treated as no longer legally theirs (smokescreened by the ability of the company to send back different working hardware if needed) and are treated as unsecured creditors: A category who typically get nothing in bankruptcy settlements.
 
"repair units that existing customers sent in for repair with their files .... they will never be able to get them back because all of it is being sold at auction."

Why wouldn't that be illegal?

How the hell does a company get the balls to tray to sell things that don't belong to them? Like, if a auto repair shop folds up while my car is there they don't have the legal ability to sell my vehicle to somebody else.
 
How the hell does a company get the balls to tray to sell things that don't belong to them? Like, if a auto repair shop folds up while my car is there they don't have the legal ability to sell my vehicle to somebody else.

The problem here is documentation of assets and inventory of the business, or lack thereof. In the GN video, they made mention that documentation was lacking or non-existent in many cases, so when the company goes into receivership from bankruptcy, all onsite inventory and assets are considered part of said business and sold/disposed of accordingly.

In the quagmire of legal insanity that is bankruptcy liquidation, the bankrupt entity usually doesn't have much pull or desire to sort out matters of property ownership. The creditors of the business usually want to sell everything down to the last bolt and nut to recoup any losses they incurred, and also don't really want to be bothered of who owns what inventory.
 
Hope all those who got chargebacks from him for the GPUs have contacted police to make a complaint. Hopefully some also went through USPS so postal investigators can also look for mail fraud. He clearly deserves some prison time for that. The rest seems like an idiot running a company into the ground. Happens a lot.
 
The problem here is documentation of assets and inventory of the business, or lack thereof. In the GN video, they made mention that documentation was lacking or non-existent in many cases, so when the company goes into receivership from bankruptcy, all onsite inventory and assets are considered part of said business and sold/disposed of accordingly.

In the quagmire of legal insanity that is bankruptcy liquidation, the bankrupt entity usually doesn't have much pull or desire to sort out matters of property ownership. The creditors of the business usually want to sell everything down to the last bolt and nut to recoup any losses they incurred, and also don't really want to be bothered of who owns what inventory.
That's ridiculous on the face of it alone, not saying you are lying, but it is ridiculous. A bit of common sense should prevail here.

If it's a facility that *only* produces new goods or whatnot, then it's likely the contents/products inside the facility are all owned by the business and would be subject to a recouping capital process to he sold and disposed to creditors.

If it's a facility that accepts outside property for repairs then in no way is it remotely reasonable to assume everything there is property or an asset of the business. They repair other parties property, so of course it's almost a certainty other parties property will be on site.

I understand that, as you say, creditors "don't really want to be bothered of who owns what inventory." My response would be: too damn bad. You shouldn't have authority to sell other parties owned property as a "Oops" simply because you don't want to take the time to see who it is owned by, doubly so if the business in question deals in repairing property not owned by them. They should be forced to do determine who owns what property on site, even if they don't want to.
 
If it's a facility that *only* produces new goods or whatnot, then it's likely the contents/products inside the facility are all owned by the business and would be subject to a recouping capital process to he sold and disposed to creditors.

If it's a facility that accepts outside property for repairs then in no way is it remotely reasonable to assume everything there is property or an asset of the business. They repair other parties property, so of course it's almost a certainty other parties property will be on site.

The only thing that matters is what you can prove in court, at the right time. If the property is not properly documented, as is the case with many of these systems and parts, it will be treated as property of the bankrupted entity and sold as such. The only recourse for people that had machines and parts at this business is if they had receipts, invoices, emails, serial numbers and other very specific documentation that proves their ownership beyond a shadow of a doubt. And they'd need to provide this information to the court processing the bankruptcy as soon as possible, because once stuff starts being sold off, there's little recourse that doesn't quickly start exceeding the value of the property they lost. Legal quagmires are expensive.

I've been to many bankruptcy liquidation auctions, there is always very clearly some property that didn't belong to the bankrupted entity. Auction companies and other entities that specialize in bankruptcy proceedings aren't there to be moral, they're there to make money. Nobody is going to hire a forensics team for every last item to figure out if it really belongs to the bankrupted entity or not, because they'd go bankrupt themselves.

I understand that, as you say, creditors "don't really want to be bothered of who owns what inventory." My response would be: too damn bad. You shouldn't have authority to sell other parties owned property as a "Oops" simply because you don't want to take the time to see who it is owned by, doubly so if the business in question deals in repairing property not owned by them. They should be forced to do determine who owns what property on site, even if they don't want to.

You can argue that point until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't change the fact that it happens every day of the week. Yes, it is morally reprehensible, but if you forced asset buyers to vet their purchase down to the last nut and bolt, the whole system would implode on itself.

If you're making a big purchase from anywhere, keep extensive documentation. Likewise, if you send it in for repair. Cases similar to this are not rare, where people lose a ton of money.
 
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