My AVADirect Experience

I'll second the Mforce recommendation,I don't think you'll find a better combination of low prices,good support,and a wide choice of quality components that Max offers.Maingear has a solid reputation here,their prices are a bit higher though,and their component selection was a little too restricted for what I was looking for.Puget is one of the best out there for quality and support,but they're way out of my price range. I'd also suggest posting a review of your experience with AVA over at ResellersRatings to further warn customers.Who knows,if their ratings drop even more they may actually change their ways when it hurts their business.
 
I have two Maingear Cubes that have been running for about 18 months...no problems.
 
Nah they wont change their ways when it hurts their business JUST their name.... Thats their MO.
 
I chat to Peter and Wallace (CEO) from Maingear on Facebook

I chat to Heather and John (CEO) from Puget on Facebook

Great bunch of people. Both great companies.

One define thing the staff does of both companies is treat the customers properly and right, customer service wise and even just idle general chat. :cool:
 
kodan said:
Nah they wont change their ways when it hurts their business JUST their name.... Thats their MO.
Click to expand...


+1 I wonder what they will change it to next.

LOL I see they STILL have the link to their [H] silver award on their front page. That's just asking for potential customers to come here and see all these threads about them. I wish that the silver award page would have an update to direct people here to this sub forum. I bet AVA would remove it as soon as they realized it was on there.
 
Well sorry you're out of an amazing $600 for returning a computer that wouldn't run right for you....but at least you don't have to deal with them anymore. Resellerratings.com really needs a review by you so hopefully it'll discourage others from making the same mistake you did.
 
I'll hopefully be working on that review soon, I definitely need to share my experience on Resellerratings because AVADirect's current reviews are way to high for their level of customer support.
Dave
 
Anyone by chance seen one of those lian li PC-7F cases Maingear uses on their Prelude models. I got a BS-06 that I had bought for my lian li v1010 AVADirect build and don't really want to see it go to waste?

Thank you guys for your opinions on Puget and Maingear, they both seem like really good companies and I'm thinking I'm going to have a tough decision to make coming up, but that's a good thing. There are things I like better about each company (Puget probably give the nod to them in terms of support which is really important to me, like some components better ie psu, puget hydro) (Maingear: like their cases better, cheaper by a few hundred $$$ if I go with a Prelude, tech support on Sat. and slightly longer standard warranty). Anymore opinions would also be appreciated :)
Dave
 
Porsche997RS said:
Anymore opinions would also be appreciated :)
Dave
Click to expand...

I recently bought an i7 desktop from Puget. I was also looking at Maingear, but I went with Puget mostly because: (a) they're west coast, which was a significant plus for me; (b) I liked their "style," whatever that means (detailed easy configurator, high quality parts carefully selected, with every one clearly identified etc., not a straight "gaming" operation, though Maingear isn't really either).

The only negative to Puget is that they're relatively pretty expensive. They were definitely more expensive than Maingear for a similarly configured system at the time I bought my machine. They updated their prices not so long ago, and I think the difference is less than it was (as always: buy computer, watch price go down...*sigh*) but it would be worth your while configuring some similar systems before you decide.

As far as everything else goes, Puget was terrific. I got good, prompt detailed advice (via e-mail -- basically they replied within 24 hours to each of my e-mails, though you can call them if you prefer) on configuring the system within my budget. The build time was quick (like 5 working days or something). They actually went a couple of days over because the i7 cpu was slow in shipping (one neat thing Puget has is a check off list of the build process showing you in detail exactly where they are with every part of the ordering/building/testing process, which you can access through your order number) and they e-mailed me just after the scheduled completion time to update me and apologize for the delay. The machine arrived in good shape and has been running fine for a couple of months now.

As it happens, although nothing was wrong, I did have some contact with their support people. The diagnostics disc they included turned out to have an older version of memtest86+ which didn't support the i7's, and when I ran it (as I always do on a new computer, and what they supplied it was a more recent version than the one I had) it gave me a lot of errors. So I contacted support, who were also quick to reply, and after a few e-mail exchanges to check the BIOS setting and other stuff, they return RMA'd a new set of RAM to me (at no cost, but with a credit card number to be charged if they didn't get the old RAM back within 30 days). When the new RAM also failed, I went to the memtest86+ website and found out the problem; all of the RAM (old and new) tested completely ok overnight with the most recent version of memtest86+.

Anyway bottom line is that, in my experience, you'll get excellent service and quality if you do decide to buy from Puget.
 
Ava, you guys are absolutely terrible. You would think that on one of the most popular tech forums on the web that you would at least try to 100% satisfy customers but you can't even be wrong or let the customer be 'right' to accomplish that. Think about how much companies like Newegg have to swallow their pride, even though they are right, to satisfy the customer so they continue shopping.

Due to your shotty product and terrible CS, you're losing business of people who have not even bought from you before but your also losing repeat customer business, where most of companies money is made. In a situation like this were for the past year your company has been ripped apart by numerous posters here there is absolutely no reason for anyone to "give you guys a chance" and "form their own opinion" because it's simply not worth the risk. You offer nothing over the competition to deserve a chance where we can simply go to Puget and know we're getting good product and a good price. I've never seen any other company get ripped apart as much as I've seen yours. If it were simply due to a few 'unhappy' customers, why do we not see this level of flaming of other companies here?
 
It is amazing that they seem so cavalier about the reputation they're getting here.Even when they do respond to a negative post,they just seem to dig a deeper hole for themselves.Can you think of any place with more potential customers for their product?God knows how many sales they've lost,not just because of the many complaints,but the poor response by them to those complaints.The only company I've seen raked over the coals more here was Monarch,and we all know what happened to them.
 
Thecla said:
I recently bought an i7 desktop from Puget. I was also looking at Maingear, but I went with Puget mostly because: (a) they're west coast, which was a significant plus for me; (b) I liked their "style," whatever that means (detailed easy configurator, high quality parts carefully selected, with every one clearly identified etc., not a straight "gaming" operation, though Maingear isn't really either).

The only negative to Puget is that they're relatively pretty expensive. They were definitely more expensive than Maingear for a similarly configured system at the time I bought my machine. They updated their prices not so long ago, and I think the difference is less than it was (as always: buy computer, watch price go down...*sigh*) but it would be worth your while configuring some similar systems before you decide.

As far as everything else goes, Puget was terrific. I got good, prompt detailed advice (via e-mail -- basically they replied within 24 hours to each of my e-mails, though you can call them if you prefer) on configuring the system within my budget. The build time was quick (like 5 working days or something). They actually went a couple of days over because the i7 cpu was slow in shipping (one neat thing Puget has is a check off list of the build process showing you in detail exactly where they are with every part of the ordering/building/testing process, which you can access through your order number) and they e-mailed me just after the scheduled completion time to update me and apologize for the delay. The machine arrived in good shape and has been running fine for a couple of months now.

As it happens, although nothing was wrong, I did have some contact with their support people. The diagnostics disc they included turned out to have an older version of memtest86+ which didn't support the i7's, and when I ran it (as I always do on a new computer, and what they supplied it was a more recent version than the one I had) it gave me a lot of errors. So I contacted support, who were also quick to reply, and after a few e-mail exchanges to check the BIOS setting and other stuff, they return RMA'd a new set of RAM to me (at no cost, but with a credit card number to be charged if they didn't get the old RAM back within 30 days). When the new RAM also failed, I went to the memtest86+ website and found out the problem; all of the RAM (old and new) tested completely ok overnight with the most recent version of memtest86+.

Anyway bottom line is that, in my experience, you'll get excellent service and quality if you do decide to buy from Puget.
Click to expand...

Glad everything worked out for you, do you have any pics of said rig??
 
Porsche997RS said:
I'm out the $600 but at least I'm done with this company.
Click to expand...

How sad. :(

At least you are doing good for having to be done with them completely, though.

Thecla said:
Not ones I took myself. But Puget sends you some photos
Thermal image under load
http://www.pugetsystems.com/pic_disp.php?bid=13269
Click to expand...

Like how Puget included a Thermal feature for a customer's build.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/thermal.php - From a customer's standpoint, this would make them pleased of having a more so cooler case within the interior.

Hell, you can probably stick in a tray of water and within five minutes open the case and you get ice cubes. :p
 
I remember bluzilla, that was nuts, mobo died 2 vid cards died ram died (before it had even shipped). Was initially clocked to 3.6 or thereabouts but it had to be clocked down to 3ghz for stability reasons, thats using a qx6700 as well. Considering everything was watercooled (even the ram) that was a pretty poor clock. And it arrived damaged if i remember right, but that was due to the courier.

Thread here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1169021


Not really sure why people even buy these boutique builds, may be nice to have someone doing the work but doing it yourself can avoid headaches like this. And just think of the wear on kodans keyboard, does NOBODY think of his keyboard? :mad:
 
LOL I am wearing the paint off my keyboard. Its been so bad I have carpal tunnel tooo..... Hopefully the word is out now at least here.... LOL I have even went to places online that have done reviews of AVA like G4's Gadget Pron one and directed people to here.....


Have to say I have had a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction seeing their reputation implode around here. Once Misha said to me that his rep and company was too big for me to affect. Wonder if he regrets saying that to me now,most likely not knowing his attitude.
 
Been tempted to start a website called AVAdirectsucks.com and pay google and yahoo etc to put it in the number one search category if you search AVAdirect.

Would be cool IMHO only problem would be keeping up with my site name based on all the damn hidden companies they run under. Anyone know if incorporating a business is treated like public records so that we could get a full list of the names they run under? Might be worth the fees to know for sure how many names they have......
 
This is our second year with this vendor and as usual, the support is suberb. The items ordered come exactly as described on the web-site with burn-in already done. Every machine comes out of the box in perfect working condition. PCProDirect has my highest recommendation across the board. Completely ethical and competent staff that are a pleasure to work with.
Click to expand...

I just came across this resellerratings.com review for PcProDirect.com one of the endless AVA names.......... Ethcial and competent I thought I was going to die laughing I turned blue in the face from lack of oxygen...

OMG its getting better here is a quote from Misha ....

We are not afraid to refuse the sale, it's our right. While providing best sales and customer care possible, some people lack the knowledge and desire to obey the rules, hence we will be honest and terminate the next sales order.

CEO of PcProDirect.com
 
I will add my 2 cents in, also. I ordered a custom computer system from AVA Direct in late January. Sure, some of the negative reviews, here, gave me some worries. Believe me, I searched these, and other, forums for a few months before, finally, ordering from AVA. When it came down to it, the prices are fair (sure, I could have saved some $300 or so bucks building it myself... but its been almost 4 years since I've built a system... I just don't have the time or the patience to do so at this time), their choices of components are second to none!

Joe was helpful when he took my order/reviewed my on-line order, made a suggestion that I'm happy with. Sure, what I ordered was a bit of an overkill in memory and power supply, but what the heck, I'm glad I did it even though more sane individuals would be more conservative. A minor problem occurred with shipping, I used their on-line/site messaging tool at what must have been around 9:00 p.m. their time. Misha e-mailed me back within 20 minutes! WTF?!!!! It worked out well in the end.

The system works beautiflully. A buddy of mine is impressed enough HE is likely to order a higher end system withing the next couple/few months.

My system:

CUSTOM GAMING PC, Core™ i7 SLI / CrossFireX DDR3 Gaming System 1 $3897.04 $3897.04
INTEL, Core™ i7-940 Quad-Core 2.93GHz, LGA1366, 6400 MT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
THERMALRIGHT, Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT CPU Cooler, Socket 1366, Aluminum
ARCTIC COOLING, MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Non-Electrical Conductive
eVGA, EVGA X58 SLI, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-1333MHz 12GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /9, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
CORSAIR, 12GB (6 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 (9-9-9) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
eVGA, GeForce® GTX 285 Superclocked 675MHz, 1GB GDDR3 2538MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV-Out, Retail
HT OMEGA, STRIKER 7.1 Sound Card, 7.1 channels, 24-bit 96KHz, PCI, Retail
WESTERN DIGITAL, 300GB (WD3000HLFS) WD VelociRaptor™, SATA 3 Gb/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache
WESTERN DIGITAL, 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1001FALS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache
RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S223 Black 22x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA, w/ Software, OEM
LIAN LI, Armorsuit PC-P80 Black Tower Case, EATX, No PSU, Aluminum
CUSTOM WIRING, Standard Wiring with Round Cables
THERMALTAKE, Toughpower, 80 PLUS®, 1200W Power Supply w/ Modular Cable Management, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Quad +12V, Quad SLI Ready / CrossFire Certified
MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
SERVICE, OEM System Recovery (bootable CD/DVD only)
SERVICE, System Binder
MICROSOFT, Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, Black, USB, Retail
LOGITECH, MX™518 Gaming-Grade™ Optical Mouse, USB, PS/2, Black
NONE, BFG Black T-Shirt, XL Size, Cotton
CUSTOM GAMING PC, Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)

Would I order from AVA again? In a freakin' heartbeat! To those who claim to have had less than satisfactory dealings with AVA, well, I won't comment on that and I'm sorry for what may have happened, what ever the reason. My dealing with AVA, though was near perfect and I'm glad I went with them! Thanks Joe, Misha and the rest of the AVA crew!
 
I will add my 2 cents in, also. I ordered a custom computer system from AVA Direct in late January. Sure, some of the negative reviews, here, gave me some worries. Believe me, I searched these, and other, forums for a few months before, finally, ordering from AVA. When it came down to it, the prices are fair (sure, I could have saved some $300 or so bucks building it myself... but its been almost 4 years since I've built a system... I just don't have the time or the patience to do so at this time), their choices of components are second to none!

Joe was helpful when he took my order/reviewed my on-line order, made a suggestion that I'm happy with. Sure, what I ordered was a bit of an overkill in memory and power supply, but what the heck, I'm glad I did it even though more sane individuals would be more conservative. A minor problem occurred with shipping, I used their on-line/site messaging tool at what must have been around 9:00 p.m. their time. Misha e-mailed me back within 20 minutes! WTF?!!!! It worked out well in the end.

The system works beautiflully. A buddy of mine is impressed enough HE is likely to order a higher end system withing the next couple/few months.

My system:

CUSTOM GAMING PC, Core™ i7 SLI / CrossFireX DDR3 Gaming System 1 $3897.04 $3897.04
INTEL, Core™ i7-940 Quad-Core 2.93GHz, LGA1366, 6400 MT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm, 130W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
THERMALRIGHT, Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT CPU Cooler, Socket 1366, Aluminum
ARCTIC COOLING, MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Non-Electrical Conductive
eVGA, EVGA X58 SLI, LGA1366, Intel® X58, 6400 MT/s QPI, DDR3-1333MHz 12GB /6, PCIe x16 SLI CF /3, SATA 3 Gb/s RAID 5 /9, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
CORSAIR, 12GB (6 x 2GB) XMS3 PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 (9-9-9) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
eVGA, GeForce® GTX 285 Superclocked 675MHz, 1GB GDDR3 2538MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV-Out, Retail
HT OMEGA, STRIKER 7.1 Sound Card, 7.1 channels, 24-bit 96KHz, PCI, Retail
WESTERN DIGITAL, 300GB (WD3000HLFS) WD VelociRaptor™, SATA 3 Gb/s, 10000 RPM, 16MB cache
WESTERN DIGITAL, 1TB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD1001FALS), SATA 3 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache
RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S223 Black 22x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA, w/ Software, OEM
LIAN LI, Armorsuit PC-P80 Black Tower Case, EATX, No PSU, Aluminum
CUSTOM WIRING, Standard Wiring with Round Cables
THERMALTAKE, Toughpower, 80 PLUS®, 1200W Power Supply w/ Modular Cable Management, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Quad +12V, Quad SLI Ready / CrossFire Certified
MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
SERVICE, OEM System Recovery (bootable CD/DVD only)
SERVICE, System Binder
MICROSOFT, Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, Black, USB, Retail
LOGITECH, MX™518 Gaming-Grade™ Optical Mouse, USB, PS/2, Black
NONE, BFG Black T-Shirt, XL Size, Cotton
CUSTOM GAMING PC, Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)

Would I order from AVA again? In a freakin' heartbeat! To those who claim to have had less than satisfactory dealings with AVA, well, I won't comment on that and I'm sorry for what may have happened, what ever the reason. My dealing with AVA, though was near perfect and I'm glad I went with them! Thanks Joe, Misha and the rest of the AVA crew!
 
I didnt think Misha was interacting with customers anymore since his attitude sucked.....
 
kodan said:
I didnt think Misha was interacting with customers anymore since his attitude sucked.....
Click to expand...

Yup, that's what Joe told me on the phone when I talked to him while trying to make up my mind about who to order from. Although he didn't put the reason he doesn't interact with customers as "because his attitude sucks", but he did say that Misha won't deal directly with customers anymore. And that was back in January when I spoke with him.
 
Well, I like I said, I didn't talk to Misha on the phone, but his e-mail was prompt, polite and professional. Again, an e-mail at 9:00 p.m. his time?!?!!!
 
Brockwurst: I was in your same situation about my system for the first 3 months I owned it. It ran perfectly and I really liked the wiring job they did on the inside. The biggest reason I went with them was their high customization compared to all the other companies. The problem with AVA is that when a problem does go wrong, their technical support is just awful. No way I should have been waiting 5 weeks to get a simple replacement video card and that still wasn't the issue with my computer. Honestly I think I would have waited even longer for my replacement card unless I threatened them with posting on here in an e-mail. This was the message I got from them after waiting 3 weeks without a card

"David, We are not the manufacture of the card we are only the system builder and we do not stock parts unfortunately. We also do not have any control over how long it takes the manufacture to replace a defective item. We are waiting for the replacement item to return. I apologize for the delay and thank you for your cooperation and patience."

I wish you luck with your system and really hope your computer doesn't end up like mine. If it does however, I hope you come and join the AVADirect cluster fuck and share your experiences.
Dave
 
I can understand your frustration. To tell you the truth, if something went wrong with one of the components, I have to say, I can't see myself shipping this freakin' monster back... to AVA or anyone I bought it from.

If I couldn't figure it out myself, I'd take it in to one of the local shops, have it diagnosed and work with it from there. If the builder wouldn't do an exhange (doubt most would, but who knows), I'd likely pony up and replace the component. If it was catastrophic, such as MB, CPU and memory failure, well, then, yeah, I'd ship it back.

Building your own system, having it built, even having a local shop build it is frought with worry and uncertainties.
 
Brockwurst said:
If I couldn't figure it out myself, I'd take it in to one of the local shops, have it diagnosed and work with it from there. If the builder wouldn't do an exhange (doubt most would, but who knows), I'd likely pony up and replace the component. If it was catastrophic, such as MB, CPU and memory failure, well, then, yeah, I'd ship it back.
Click to expand...

Well then, what is the point of the three year warantee? The company should fix your issues and pay for the postage as well.

I hope you don't have any issue so the support thing is a no-issue for you....
 
Brockwurst said:
I can understand your frustration. To tell you the truth, if something went wrong with one of the components, I have to say, I can't see myself shipping this freakin' monster back... to AVA or anyone I bought it from.

Building your own system, having it built, even having a local shop build it is frought with worry and uncertainties.
Click to expand...

I would strongly suggest that you erase this post because if something does go wrong with it, AVA will try and say you tried to troubleshoot on your own therefore making your warranty null and void. In fact I'll go ahead and edit my quote from you so they can't use that against you either. Just trying to look out for you...
 
who buys warranty extensions anyway?

i never buy em at b&m when i buy electronics or home appliances.

i either buy from a brand name machine and upgrade myself... or go to a btq firm and buy it with specs the way i like from the get go.

problem with ava is that it seems they dont know how to overclock the machines... voltage settings wrong seems to be the major cause of problems.

if you want to use ava, i dont think it'll be a problem if you dont overclock. just get it as standard default settings... once you get it in... overclock it yourself.

seems folks have a problem with the return fine print at ava's site. well they are low cost and their prices dont seem to have padding for returns... be careful what you pay for. dont just focus on how much it'll cost to build the machine, look also at how much it'll cost to ship the machine to ya on a pallet. and yeah if your the type who cant even replace a hd or add in a bd/dvd drive... it may be better off to buy from dell or bestbuy.
 
BettiePage said:
who buys warranty extensions anyway?

i never buy em at b&m when i buy electronics or home appliances.

i either buy from a brand name machine and upgrade myself... or go to a btq firm and buy it with specs the way i like from the get go.

problem with ava is that it seems they dont know how to overclock the machines... voltage settings wrong seems to be the major cause of problems.

if you want to use ava, i dont think it'll be a problem if you dont overclock. just get it as standard default settings... once you get it in... overclock it yourself.

seems folks have a problem with the return fine print at ava's site. well they are low cost and their prices dont seem to have padding for returns... be careful what you pay for. dont just focus on how much it'll cost to build the machine, look also at how much it'll cost to ship the machine to ya on a pallet. and yeah if your the type who cant even replace a hd or add in a bd/dvd drive... it may be better off to buy from dell or bestbuy.
Click to expand...

Actually,these points bring up some of the red flags that concerned me with AVA lately.With the warranty,it's supposed to be 3 years without an extension,but in practice it seems it's very limited.More than one of their competitors,including some who offer the same kind of pricing,have chimed in on the return policy,saying they would never make a customer pay shipping for the RMA of a defective system under warranty.
As to overclocking,that's supposed to be the kind of service where boutique builders over an advantage over mass producers like Dell.They're supposed to have the expertise to handle such things.Yet one of their own reps on their own forum made the statement that i7 CPU's are poor overclockers.Check this or any other forum and you'll see people getting great overclocks with them.If AVA's techs are so lacking in knowledge and skill in this,can they really be trusted in other areas?The overall impression I get from the complaints I've seen is that they are unable to diagnose problems,even with non-overclocked systems.
 
LOL yeah overclocking is their problem my butt.... My computer was NOT overclocked at all ... Hell even the video cards were non oc'd since I bought them when Nvidia wasnt allowing partners to overclock the cards.... I might have had some OC'd ones before it was all said and done though since it ate 8 video cards.

AVA just has NO clue how to diagnose and troubleshoot systems.. Their service department might as well be nonexistant and their warranty is pretty damn near worthless....
 
GJSNeptune said:
What do you think about the situation? AVA Direct says the customer waited a long time and then gave up troubleshooting. He's out $600.
Click to expand...

Yikes. The thing is, I don't know the whole story here, so I don't really feel all that qualified to offer an opinion. I can tell you what's standard practice, though....

Standard practice among most system builders is that in cases where there is a refund, you don't get reimbursed for shipping expenses, period. Also, most system builders will waive restocking if the computer is returned within the first 30 days...after that, the restocking usually sticks. There are exceptions, of course...I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I've never waived restocking on an older system, or that I've never reimbursed for shipping on a refunded system. Both of the manufacturers I have worked for have done business this way.

When you buy a boutique computer, there is some expectation on our part that you'll be willing to work with us over the phone to troubleshoot your issue. HOWEVER...you don't have to if you don't want to. I had a professional wrestler as a client that actually really did know a heck of a lot about systems, but he didn't have time to troubleshoot, so he'd just send it back in for service. It's up to the customer how they want their support experience to go.

I have to say, I feel kind of sorry for the guys at AVA. My guess is that a majority of the systems they ship are actually just fine...but these forums prove that no mistake on the part of a company will ever go unnoticed. LOL. It is SO important to treat every single customer you have like they are your only customer. Hopefully AVA will learn from the mistakes they've made and try to keep from repeating them. :eek:
 
Problem is that AVA has brought it all on themselves. They provide piss poor customer support after the sale is done, and even more importantly they avoid accepting any and all blame on themselves, but rather they tend to blame the customer for problems that arise. They claimed it with Kodan, Metallikat, the OP of this thread, and I'm sure there's many others that they try to shift the blame onto. It's what really scared me away from doing business with them, and hopefully these threads will encourage others to avoid them in the future. Like I said in another thread here....they seem to do business like cyberpowerpc and ibuypower....and should certainly be avoided if someone is looking for a boutique to build them a computer.
 
I'm sure Heather has seen enough of both sides of customer relations in the business to feel
empathy for AVA's situation (and I don't think it's in her nature to say a mean word about anyone,which makes her a rarity in this place!:D).But I have to agree,AVA brought this on themselves.Every complaint here seems to follow the same pattern - a customer will post here about a problem,some rep will answer,the customer is put through a gauntlet of testing this and that,basically doing support's job for them.Then they will decide the problem is something relatively quick and easy to RMA,like a video card.This doesn't solve the problem,so finally they tell the customer to send in the whole system.And here is where they really screw up.This whole process is being detailed and watched on this forum.AVA has to know that dozens of potential customers are waiting to see how they handle things.You'd think that knowing that they'd take every precaution that the system was repaired right and ran flawlessly.But repeatedly,the systems come back still defective!
In the end,the customer ends up seeking refund,taking the system elsewhere for repair,or just giving up and taking a loss on an expensive paperweight.And this whole forum has been watching it all happen.
 
Michael, I do believe that you were a customer of mine at VM, and so you know how I roll first hand...lol. I may be wrong, but I don't think so...the PC was hard to forget.

About as close as I will get to having an opinion is to say that it is possible to turn a company's customer service around, if you really want to, so no company is a completely lost cause. Sometimes I wish I could teach a class to small businesses...heh....
 
Wish you would teach a class for your friend Misha .... He could use a good talking to thats for sure. Probably too late for them though... They are too set in their ways. You gotta want to turn things around and change and NOTHING AVA has ever said or done has pointed to ANY kind of change in their business practices.

Dont buy computers from Ohio or cameras outta new york..... Ohio CONputer companies and Brooklyn SCAMera stores FTW.
 
OK, I enter this with trepidation, because as of now I only have good things to say about the quality of their build, the selection of components, and their techncial support. I also have a comment about how I would have nadled the problems I saw in the above posts.

The configuration I ordered was:
COOLER MASTER, Cosmos 1000
INWIN, Commander Modular 750 Watt Power Supply
ASUS, P6T Deluxe V2
INTEL, Core™ i7-920
NOCTUA, NH-U12P Copper CPU Cooler
OCZ, 6GB (3 x 2GB) Platinum XTC PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz
SAPPHIRE, Radeon™ HD 4850 X2 650MHz, 2GB
WESTERN DIGITAL, 150GB (WD1500HLFS) WD VelociRaptor
(2) WESTERN DIGITAL, 250GB WD Caviar® SE16
LG ELECTRONICS, GGW-H20L Black 6x/8x/24x BD/DVD±RW/CD-RW Blu-ray Disc™ Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, Retail
CREATIVE, Sound Blaster® X-Fi Titanium
LOGITECH, Cordless Desktop® MX™ 5500 Revolution Keyboard & Mouse No Operating System
SYMANTEC Norton Internet Security 2009
Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)

Certainly not the highest end system but very suitable for my wife's purposes. It arrived with an absolutely beautiful build. The computer had no OS because I wanted to install Windows 7, Build 7100. We have had computer for a month and things only get better. Joe Mundy and Misha answered a couple of questions for me and had much more accurate answers than I had been able to come up with. I am not inexperienced. I used to build system for a living and did so for about 35 years! Their answers were on the money. I only overclock the computer memory, but that is where she gets the most bang for the buck.

If I had had problems with specific hardware, I would not have contacted AVA, I would have contacted the manufacturer directly. Having been in their business, I know that their profit margins are tight and that they will not be able to afford to pay for extra processing required to get RMA's quickly. They are certainly not going to stock parts given that enthusiasts mostly want the latest and greatest and they are way too expensive for them to stock.

For me, the value in buying from them is that I get something built far better than I have the patience to do, that I can buy everything from one vendor, and that I can get some support prior to going to the manufacturer.

What I saw from those who complained is an expectation of far more support and service and support than I assumed I would get. After all, as one of the bloggers said, they were only making $300 - $400 on the purchase. How much support and service do you expect for that?

Please do not come down on me. Perhaps we all just have different needs and those of us who are happy with what we got, are happy because we needed less. I have had this system for about 1 month and my wife loves me. What else can I hope for? LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top