My AVADirect Experience

I'm so glad I didn't go with AVA with my recent computer purchase...was seriously thinking about it...but then I got more and more scared as these threads materialized. So I didn't. Ended up going with Max, and couldn't be happier with my new system. He knows what customer service is all about...something I'm positive I wouldn't have had from AVA.
 
Same here. I'm just amazed at the new computer I got from MForce. All's going well so far and I'm still not completely setup. Love that V-8 in there. :)
 
GJSNeptune said:
Seems they do a good job but randomly choose customers to screw over.
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There's been some question lately about the validity of some of their reviews at RR.And if you throw in the ratings for their side companies,they drop even more.Given the cost of a high end system these days,I certainly wouldn't want to gamble my money on random luck.Especially since their warranty is apparently not worth the paper it's written on.
 
Oh yeah. I forgot about that controversy. I figured the reviews would've been deleted or removed temporarily for review or something.

I hate when good companies go bad.
 
Yeah sadly even the one review we all KNOW was fabricated since AVA admitted it HAS NOT BEEN REMOVED OR EVEN MARKED AS FRAUDULENT.......... Not sure whats up but I guess RR cant afford to lose the moeny AVA pays them...
 
Update:
I finally got an e-mail back from Chris Mundy and I will not be getting any additional refund on the $207 shipping charge. They did say they received the computer today and will be dissembling it tomorrow. I'll update again when I hear anything else about my refund.
Dave
 
wow the image is gonna be imprinted on my brain:

"never ever ever.....ever ever ever....buy from AVADirect"
 
MightyDiomed said:
WHAT THE FUCK!
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This :eek:

mekkanic said:
wow the image is gonna be imprinted on my brain:

"never ever ever.....ever ever ever....buy from AVADirect"
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Always felt that way since the stone ages here when Kodan mentioned his stories (think he was first to go through unfortunate events) of woe.

GJSNeptune said:
Burn down their building. WOW.
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That seems a bit of a severity to do. But word of mouth to all applies.

Porsche997RS said:
Update:
I finally got an e-mail back from Chris Mundy and I will not be getting any additional refund on the $207 shipping charge. They did say they received the computer today and will be dissembling it tomorrow. I'll update again when I hear anything else about my refund.
Dave
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Dave,

I'm sorry to say this, but the chances of your refund and receiving any funds looks slim to none. :(
 
If you used a credit card, talk to your issuer about a chargeback. Email them this thread.

I can understand a restocking fee if you returned a working machine. You don't put a defective product back on the shelf.
 
GJSNeptune said:
If you used a credit card, talk to your issuer about a chargeback. Email them this thread.
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Yeah, no kidding.

I would be filling a chargeback first thing.

They sold you a non working machine and then wants to hit you with a re-"we are actually gonna put these parts in another machine"-stocking fee and then won't even help with the shipping?

LOL - charge that shit back. If you paid via credit card, and I hope you did, left them fight this for you. Typically most CCs are good about that kind of stuff.
 
Unfortunately, this is another reason to build your own computer instead of leaving it up to a 3rd party.

Newegg.com ftw
 
Sufu said:
Unfortunately, this is another reason to build your own computer instead of leaving it up to a 3rd party.

Newegg.com ftw
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There are some who either lack the expertise,time,or patience to deal with building their own.One look in the forums shows there's a myriad of problems that can arise,and dealing with manufacturers can be a pain if a part turns out to be defective.Some people find it convenient to let a builder deal with all that.There are good boutiques out there,MForce,Maingear,Puget to name a few.You just have to do some research to find them.It's a shame,though, that companies like AVA,IBuyPower,and Cyberpower give the business a bad reputation.
 
Hello Everyone,

I just want shed some light on this situation.

First off the customer’s computer was shipped on 8/15/2008 and received shortly after. It was not until 12/12 that he contact support about a defective hard drive.

On January 28th of this year he contacted us with blue screen crashes. I asked him to send the dump file and examining it showed that the ATI drivers were what was causing it. It was also determined that the video card was overheating. Rather than send in the system we agreed to just send the video card in.

Once we received the card we confirmed it was defective and sent it to the manufacture for replacement. We sent in the card to VisionTek for replacement.

To explain a little further, we are an OEM system builder. We assemble computers and don’t stock any parts. This means we need to send any defective parts back to the manufacture for them to replace.

Depending upon the situation we do make exceptions. For example if a component is DOA or defective within the first 30 days we will set up an advance replacement. This means we will send a replacement first and the customer must return the defective product within 15 days of receiving the new product.

Why do we only issue advance replacements within the first 30 days of owning a system? The is because within those 30 days we can return the product to our supplier for credit because we don’t stock parts. Sometimes we will again make exceptions and ship an advance replacement or an upgrade.

In this case the supplier was taking too long to replace the card so I sent him an free upgraded video card from a VISIONTEK Radeon 4870 512MB to a EVGA GTX 260 896MB Superclocked for his satisfaction. Unfortunately he started having other issues with freezing and at this point he was done trouble shooting and wanted a refund. I decided that it would be best make another exception and allow him to return it minus a 15% restocking fee and shipping.

The 15% restocking was applied because it is part of our policy that the customer also agreed to when he signed our credit card authorization form. This was also because the system was used without any issues for 5 to 6 months.

We do not resell these computers that are disassembled. In most cases we negotiate with suppliers to return them for credit with a restocking fee applied or we get the manufacture to replace with a new product.

My only goal was to make this customer satisfied with his purchase. If he’d have continued the trouble shooting I would’ve had no problem sending him a UPS label so we can repair the computer for him.

Thank you all for your time,

Chris Mundy
AVADirect
Director of Technical Support
 
Wow...

Just wow...

BTW - they seem to be associated with some kind of a company called "Freedom USA" - perhaps a parent company, or maybe their old name? Someone needs to do some diggin'...!
 
Dear Dave:

Thank you for renting from AVADirect.
Here's your money minus the 15% we (forgot to) told you about.
 
Update:
What Chris Mundy explains in this post is pretty accurate. The first time I contacted them was to try and RMA what I thought was a defective harddrive which I thought was the cause of the problem with my computer that had been occuring since before Thanksgiving break (I'm a college student). When I called I talked to Joe Mundy and briefly explained the problem who told me to just send the harddrive back to the manufacturer which I did. I was not able to try the new harddrive until the middle of Jan. because of semester break and the computer ran okay for a few days before the same problem occurred.
Then part of Chris' post which did not happen is the part where he said "On January 28th of this year he contacted us with blue screen crashes. I asked him to send the dump file and examining it showed that the ATI drivers were what was causing it." I for one never had a blue screen on the machine, just continual slow downs to the point where the computer would freeze and then not boot to windows. This is a response from Chris Mundy acknowledging this fact (This is from Feb 2).


Hello David,

I have responded to you numerous times and like I said before I apologize
but the mornings are very busy and I need to put everyone on a call back
list.

Would you be able to send in your video card for replacement?

If rivatuner did not help by moving up the fans speed it could be a
defective video card since you are not getting any blue screens.

Please let me know what you would like to do.

Thank You

Chris Mundy
AVADirect
Director of Support

Also at no time was I asked anything about sending in a dump file and the computer I had been running on was a clean install with the lastest ATI drivers. The only thing I was told to do was reset the BIOS, install rivatuner (no advice on how to set the fan profiles were given), and test the each stick of RAM in DIMM slot 1. This is my reply to Chris after not receiving a phone call (after leaving a message) or getting an response to the original e-mail I sent. This e-mail is from February 2.

I am unfortunately still having issues with my computer even after I went
into my BIOS and reset it to default. My computer worked Friday and
Saturday fine but today has been showing the same symptoms as before
(constant freezes and hangs in just basic programs such as installation of
microsoft office, firefox, and just opening programs and folders; at this
point the computer is unusable and I am writing this on a laptop). I know
this is now not a software program (or at least don't think so) because I
started to have issues on Friday before defaulting the BIOS and only had
the os and display driver installed. Today I ran memtest86 through 3
passes without any errors. I also ran Prime95 which showed errors on at
least one core with large fft's rounding errors 3 times. The temperature
of the cores never went over 56C during these test using HWMonitor. I am
wondering what I else I can try because this is starting to get very
frustrating to have such an expensive computer that is unusable. The Ati
hd4870 I have runs between 77C and 80C just on idle and wondering if that
could be the problem. I have these problems however even when I haven't
played an games or used any graphic intensive programs though. This is the
second time sending this message because I have called already and have
not heard back by e-mail or phone yet which is dissappointing.
David

I honestly believe the problem with the computer is the motherboard. At no point in the process was I offered to have my computer returned to have work done on it all. Today I contacted my credit card company and looked into a disputed charge back for the full price of the computer. I told AVADirect today that I would continue with this process if I did not receive $2100 in credit (still only abbout 92.5% of paid amount for the amount charged not including the over $300 worth of shipping charges) and would contact the BBB but was told I would not receive any additional funds, just be out $600 on an initial purchase of $2329.69. To be honest I just want my refund back so I can purchase another computer. I am still nervous that this may not come through however. I will keep you informed.
Dave

P.S. 5 weeks to get a replacement card is not acceptable even if AVADirect is just a builder. Other vendors such as Vigor, Digital Storm, and Puget offer cross-shipping on these parts so customers are not left without a non-functioning computer. What good is a warranty from a company if all they are going to do is RMA a part and wait for the manufacturer, I could have easily done that myself and not have had to pay for an expensive build. My 2 cents.
 
This just reaffirms my choice to go with Max. He just had a customer leave a post on his help and troubleshooting forum saying it looked like his video card was going bad. Within a few hours, Max left a post telling him that a new card will be ordered and shipped directly to the customer's house, and he'll send a shipping label to mail the defective card back to Max....AFTER he tried the new card out and made sure it was ok.

That's the kind of customer service that a good business should provide. Wish I could give a link to the thread, but unfortunately a bunch of hearts in the address won't quite get you there.


Oh yeah...forgot to mention...the customer ordered his computer about eight months ago. Around the same time that the OP ordered his from AVA.
 
OP....did you by any chance take a look at the memory voltages before you reset the BIOS after Chris told you to do so? If not then it might be possible that your computer was one of the one's that they raised the memory voltage to max limit to get your computer to be stable during their testing. Apparently it's a quick way to get defective memory to run ok even though it can't pass testing at stock voltages. It's been brought up with a couple of other people's crap systems from AVA in the past...just wondering if your computer might have had the same problem. It would help explain why you couldn't use it at all after doing the things they told you to do in the emails.
 
I unfortunately didn't look at the volts before I defaulted the BIOS. I did try running the memory at the default in the BIOS settings (5-5-5-15 at 1.8v) and the rated maunfacturer settings (4-4-4-12 at 2.1v) and it didn't fix the problem. I did try memtest for 3 passes and did not get any errors and was able to run OCCT mixed test for 8 hours (OCCT and Prime95 both continually failed until I flashed the ASUS PQ5 to the newest one then OCCT passed on stock settings) without failure but my computer continued to exhibit the same symptoms. Did this seem like the motherboard might be defective? Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys and listening to my experience.
Dave
 
They did this exact same thing to my computer.

I was fuckin' smart enough to see it though, after I was unsatisfied with their shitty 3.6ghz OC on my E8400. I could not become Prime 95, Orthos or IBT stable no matter what, with all 4 sticks of RAM.

I called up g.Skill, told them what I saw in the BIOS, and they were shocked at how high the voltage was. They went as far to say that AVADirect may be the reason it died. However, it was also noted that since the RAM was running at it's rated speed of 800MHZ due to a 400x9 FSB and a 1:1 ration. The RAM would be covered under their warranty.

g.Skill promptly RMA'd my ram. I threw it in, booted up to 4.0ghz with some minor voltage adjustments...been stable and great ever since.

Fuck you AVADirect.

Thank you g.Skill!
 
Welcome to the shafted by AVA support banquet.Your choices this evening are overvolted well done RAM or defective used RAM.
 
Mathemabeat said:
And what do you want to bet that at least some of those parts might make their way into someone elses "new" computer.


LOL restocking fee my ass. Yeah, restock right into some other poor, unexpecting bastards machine.
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LOL I could almost guarantee you that these parts will find there way onto someone newly built computer. They do sound like that type of a company and there reasoning is that the parts ARE new.

What a bunch of BS charging the guy a 15% restocking fee for a non-working still under warantee computer that they didnt build right. Im so glad I have never bought from this company and never will.
 
AVAdirect_Joe said:
The 15% restocking was applied because it is part of our policy that the customer also agreed to when he signed our credit card authorization form. This was also because the system was used without any issues for 5 to 6 months./QUOTE]

Gee,I wonder how many other "surprises" they have hidden in the fine print for their so-called three year warranty?What's the difference when the problems developed,as long as it's within
the three year period?This is complete BS.Restocking fees are for items returned in working order,not for a system under warranty that they obviously were unable or unwilling to repair in a reasonable amount of time.We've all seen here how bad their track record is in cases like this,if I were the OP,I would have opted for refund myself,knowing the kind of long nightmare he would be facing if he tried to get them to fix it properly.This is so typical of them,even when they do the right thing by granting a refund,they botch it up by letting their greed turn a refund into a rip-off.
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I am surprised they even offered the refund at all... But all in all sounds JUST like all the AVA support I got too... They lie to you,suggest wrong things or unrelated things, take weeks and weeks to repair your computer and then STILL never get it repaired.... No sympathy anymore for anyone that buys from these CONputer Sellers.....
 
Update:
I just got an e-mail from Alex S at AVADirect. he states:
"Credit in the amount of $1938.35 had been issued today. Thank you, Alex (ext 4567)"
The purchase price of my computer was $2280.42 with a total of $2329.69 purchase price with shipping. It also cost me $207 dollars to ship it back to AVA Direct. ($2329.69+$207)-1938.35= $598.34. I lost $598.34 for returning a non-functioning computer. The refund has not been reflected on my creditcard yet but probably will be by tomorrow.
The only good news I see from this whole experience is that I no longer have to deal with AVADirect. Thank you guys for your support and I hope this thread serves as a warning to others.
Dave
 
On a lighter note, I am now looking at purchasing another computer through another builder. I've considered Dell (not an option after reading the numerous horror stories about their customer service), Velocity Micro (customer service also seems to be somewhat lack and computers are more expensive for what you get), Digital Storm (kinda iffy on them for some reason), Vigor Gaming, Maingear, and Puget. Right now I think I've narrowed down my choices to Maingear and Puget. Anyone have personal experience or insight on either company. Puget seems to really be tops as I have already spoke to someone through there messaging service and they were very helpful. Any other suggestions are very much appreciated.
Dave
 
PM Heather Taylor for some info on puget. She'll get you sorted REALLY quickly :) She also loves name drops here ;) Right heather?
 
I have talked to people who have bought a computer from Puget and they are really good to go with.
 
I've read good things about Puget and Maingear. Then again, I used to read good things about AVA Direct.
 
That's what makes me nervous. I bought from AVADirect because a lot of people had suggested them, then after I had my computer for only a few months they started getting ripped apart on here. Anyone hear much about Maingear, they don't have a lot of recent Resellerating posts good or bad?
 
Another one to consider would be Mforce. I just got mine from there a couple of weeks ago, and it runs great. There's been a couple of others around here to buy from him recently as well. I'll let them tell you what they think of their computers, but I'm quite positive they have the same impressions from theirs as I do mine. Max did a great job, and I'll say I can recommend him with absolutely no problem whatsoever.
 
Porsche997RS said:
That's what makes me nervous. I bought from AVADirect because a lot of people had suggested them, then after I had my computer for only a few months they started getting ripped apart on here. Anyone hear much about Maingear, they don't have a lot of recent Resellerating posts good or bad?
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I just gave a friend advice on who to buy from. She wanted a gaming machine for her kids. She sent me a quote from AVA and I told her.... don't do it.

I sent her to Maigear instead, and she loves her new machine! I like the fact that they don't have a million different configurations and instead, minimal choices with parts that are compatible (what a concept!!). Anyway, find out what you can about them- I wouldn't have suggested them if I thought they didn't make a good machine. A bit pricey, but ya know what they say....

Edit: This was a mid-range gaming rig - cost ~ $1,500.00. It was configured for stability more than speed (no OCing, etc.)

And sorry to hear about your problems - feel for you man....
 
I bought a Laptop from Velocity when Heather Taylor worked with them.

She is the BOMB.:D:eek::D
She helped me out and got it done when I needed a little help.

I'd order from Puget without a second thought.

Maingear also has a great Rep.
Lately there has been a pretty good vibe about ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as well. wtf???mforce is a bad name???? sorry.
 
I RMA'd my graphics card to AVA on March 10th, They received it on 13th. I emailed them the second week and they said they shipped it to BFG. And today the 23rd I got the email saying they have shipped it to me, and it will it be here via UPS on the 26th. Just thought id share about my AVA RMA.
 
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