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Hello,
I'm a female gamer (yes there's a few of us
) and I'd like to relate my experience with Maingear.
First of all let me say I'd been saving quite awhile for a new system. My last 2 puters were Alienware, and I've been VERY happy with them, but, after reading this great review, I thought I'd give Maingear a try (and get a little more puter for my buck). I called them Wednesday evening at 8:30 ( their website says that they are open til nine - really they are open until 8, but I happened to catch a fellow named Raphael who was working late). He was very helpful; I told him I was a pretty hardcore gamer, PvPed a lot, and needed a fast system on about a 4000$ (system only no monitor or speakers) budget. He helped me pick the Athlon 64 X2-4600 processor, Zalman cooler, 2 Gbites of RAM, the Western digital250 GB drive with 16MB RAM,an NVIDIA 7800 GTX 512MB PCLe, Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality FPS and DVD dual layer drive as well as a regular dvd drive. I appreciated his help and the fact that he didn't try and steer me to more machine than I needed. He also agreed to include free shipping, and later, after the order was completed, also included free Norton anti virus software. I was in heaven. He explained to me how to process my order and include the order number with the info, as well as the fact that he was throwing in virus protection and free shipping. I mentioned to him that I'd want the machine shipped to my dad's office because I didn't think home delivery would be secure. Since this address differed from my billing address on my credit card, I told him I'd make sure I changed the address with the bank to make the sale smooth. After we hung up - I processed my order exactly as he directed. (my order number was 011806W57)
Well, the next day I rushed through work so that I could get to the bank to make the address change. I even bragged about my new machine to my co-workers! I was so excited! I was expecting their confirmation call but hadn't received it by late afternoon so I called them. Apparently I'd mis-typed my phone number as beginning with 253 and not 255 (my old number was 253), and they reached a wrong number. No problem, my fault not theirs, BUT then I was told they didnt have record of the order I placed just the night before! Luckily Raphael was there and we reconfigured my system - BUT guess what? The video card I'd ordered for 599 dollars was now 699! I of course said that this was NOT the price that I'd initially ordered the system at, and that I felt I should receive the price I was quoted initially. Raphael then went into some explanation that they were hard to get, and I WAS after all getting free shipping AND free Norton antivirus - this of course had NOTHING to do with the fact that I'd ordered it at ONE price (an order that they claimed they didnt have), and now was being asked to PAY another price!! I was persistent (which I should NOT have had to be - I was quoted a price and I should be **given** that price without rationalization on their part). (And, actually I ended up "making a deal" to get the ORIGINAL price I was quoted - I told them I didn't need the mouse and keyboard)
After working through that little faux paux, I then read them my credit card (MasterCard Debit) - strangely, they then asked for the toll free number on the back of my card. Apparently then they called this number (which is NOT a merchant number, but one for the card holder's personal use) and were told that the card wasn't valid (didn't exist or something to that extent). I was mortified, and called the card company myself. I explained to them the situation and asked them to call Maingear and verify that the card was indeed valid and ready to go. The operator left for some time, returned, and told me everything was in order.
I of course assumed that she had called Maingear to verify my card was valid. When I called them back however, they informed me that no one had called. Of course, by this time I was extremely irate that I had a valid card, was trying to spend almost FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS, and Maingear was telling me a card I KNEW was valid - was not! Again we confirmed the card numbers; they called my bank again, and claimed they were told the card didnt exist/couldnt be processed - whatever)
Having been a merchant myself - I STILL didn't understand why they were calling the number listed on my card (which won't share account info to non card holders) - and NOT the merchant phone line - but whatever.
I called my bank AGAIN and spoke to a fellow named Jabson Stanley. (1-800-975-HSBC. )He explained to me that NO ONE had attempted to use my card (meaning Maingear hadnt even tried to CHARGE the card, they hadn't actually RECIEVED a "invalid card error" because they didn't even attempt to USE the card), and that NO ONE would give any person info on my card (except with conference call) using the phone number I gave Maingear (the one they requested, the one the back of my card) - there is specific merchant number used for these issues. I was in shock - playing he said she said, and by this time madder than HELL, but thought I'd try Maingear one more time.
At this point I called Maingear AGAIN, and asked for the owner and was handed to Wallace Santos. I explained to him that the phone number listed on the back of my card wouldn't give any account info to him that we needed a conference call in order to verify my account. I don't HAVE conference call and of course neither did THEY (which is kind of strange to me that THEY need conference call but expect the person wanting to spend a few thousand DOLLARS with them to have it instead of having it themselves) so, the bottom line is I was SOL and unable to SPEND my hard earned nearly FOUR THOUSAND BUCKS on a computer that I wanted very much.
Also, interestingly, by this point (again, Im not going to claim I was all sunshine and puppies I was ripping my hair out with frustration - of course the fact that I'd had some heavy duty dental work that afternoon didn't help either) my wait time for my computer suddenly increased to 30+ days (from about 9 days to 2 weeks the night before)
Needless to say my desire to own one of their computers was mitigated by these ridiculous goings on. . I STILL cannot believe my experience. NEVER have I had such a problem trying to spend four thousand dollars!
It was funny. I'd told Raphael the night before that I was buying the computer based on this review. He told me it had generated quite a bit of business. Seems like it's enough business for them to brush off a potential (good) customer.
So - anyway, I still am in need of of a good rig. Does anyone know of any other dependable companies who won't make me work so hard to buy their product?
Regards,
Michelle Belgard
I'm a female gamer (yes there's a few of us
) and I'd like to relate my experience with Maingear.First of all let me say I'd been saving quite awhile for a new system. My last 2 puters were Alienware, and I've been VERY happy with them, but, after reading this great review, I thought I'd give Maingear a try (and get a little more puter for my buck). I called them Wednesday evening at 8:30 ( their website says that they are open til nine - really they are open until 8, but I happened to catch a fellow named Raphael who was working late). He was very helpful; I told him I was a pretty hardcore gamer, PvPed a lot, and needed a fast system on about a 4000$ (system only no monitor or speakers) budget. He helped me pick the Athlon 64 X2-4600 processor, Zalman cooler, 2 Gbites of RAM, the Western digital250 GB drive with 16MB RAM,an NVIDIA 7800 GTX 512MB PCLe, Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality FPS and DVD dual layer drive as well as a regular dvd drive. I appreciated his help and the fact that he didn't try and steer me to more machine than I needed. He also agreed to include free shipping, and later, after the order was completed, also included free Norton anti virus software. I was in heaven. He explained to me how to process my order and include the order number with the info, as well as the fact that he was throwing in virus protection and free shipping. I mentioned to him that I'd want the machine shipped to my dad's office because I didn't think home delivery would be secure. Since this address differed from my billing address on my credit card, I told him I'd make sure I changed the address with the bank to make the sale smooth. After we hung up - I processed my order exactly as he directed. (my order number was 011806W57)
Well, the next day I rushed through work so that I could get to the bank to make the address change. I even bragged about my new machine to my co-workers! I was so excited! I was expecting their confirmation call but hadn't received it by late afternoon so I called them. Apparently I'd mis-typed my phone number as beginning with 253 and not 255 (my old number was 253), and they reached a wrong number. No problem, my fault not theirs, BUT then I was told they didnt have record of the order I placed just the night before! Luckily Raphael was there and we reconfigured my system - BUT guess what? The video card I'd ordered for 599 dollars was now 699! I of course said that this was NOT the price that I'd initially ordered the system at, and that I felt I should receive the price I was quoted initially. Raphael then went into some explanation that they were hard to get, and I WAS after all getting free shipping AND free Norton antivirus - this of course had NOTHING to do with the fact that I'd ordered it at ONE price (an order that they claimed they didnt have), and now was being asked to PAY another price!! I was persistent (which I should NOT have had to be - I was quoted a price and I should be **given** that price without rationalization on their part). (And, actually I ended up "making a deal" to get the ORIGINAL price I was quoted - I told them I didn't need the mouse and keyboard)
After working through that little faux paux, I then read them my credit card (MasterCard Debit) - strangely, they then asked for the toll free number on the back of my card. Apparently then they called this number (which is NOT a merchant number, but one for the card holder's personal use) and were told that the card wasn't valid (didn't exist or something to that extent). I was mortified, and called the card company myself. I explained to them the situation and asked them to call Maingear and verify that the card was indeed valid and ready to go. The operator left for some time, returned, and told me everything was in order.
I of course assumed that she had called Maingear to verify my card was valid. When I called them back however, they informed me that no one had called. Of course, by this time I was extremely irate that I had a valid card, was trying to spend almost FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS, and Maingear was telling me a card I KNEW was valid - was not! Again we confirmed the card numbers; they called my bank again, and claimed they were told the card didnt exist/couldnt be processed - whatever)
Having been a merchant myself - I STILL didn't understand why they were calling the number listed on my card (which won't share account info to non card holders) - and NOT the merchant phone line - but whatever.
I called my bank AGAIN and spoke to a fellow named Jabson Stanley. (1-800-975-HSBC. )He explained to me that NO ONE had attempted to use my card (meaning Maingear hadnt even tried to CHARGE the card, they hadn't actually RECIEVED a "invalid card error" because they didn't even attempt to USE the card), and that NO ONE would give any person info on my card (except with conference call) using the phone number I gave Maingear (the one they requested, the one the back of my card) - there is specific merchant number used for these issues. I was in shock - playing he said she said, and by this time madder than HELL, but thought I'd try Maingear one more time.
At this point I called Maingear AGAIN, and asked for the owner and was handed to Wallace Santos. I explained to him that the phone number listed on the back of my card wouldn't give any account info to him that we needed a conference call in order to verify my account. I don't HAVE conference call and of course neither did THEY (which is kind of strange to me that THEY need conference call but expect the person wanting to spend a few thousand DOLLARS with them to have it instead of having it themselves) so, the bottom line is I was SOL and unable to SPEND my hard earned nearly FOUR THOUSAND BUCKS on a computer that I wanted very much.
Also, interestingly, by this point (again, Im not going to claim I was all sunshine and puppies I was ripping my hair out with frustration - of course the fact that I'd had some heavy duty dental work that afternoon didn't help either) my wait time for my computer suddenly increased to 30+ days (from about 9 days to 2 weeks the night before)
Needless to say my desire to own one of their computers was mitigated by these ridiculous goings on. . I STILL cannot believe my experience. NEVER have I had such a problem trying to spend four thousand dollars!
It was funny. I'd told Raphael the night before that I was buying the computer based on this review. He told me it had generated quite a bit of business. Seems like it's enough business for them to brush off a potential (good) customer.
So - anyway, I still am in need of of a good rig. Does anyone know of any other dependable companies who won't make me work so hard to buy their product?
Regards,
Michelle Belgard
