I do not like to give negative press to people or companies very often, but once in a while there is a scenario that simply makes my blood boil and I have to let others know just in case they find themselves in a similar situation. This is a rant. If you don’t like to read rants on blogs, check out some of my other articles. If you want to save yourself some hassle and you’re looking to shop at iBuyPower.com, read on. Here’s the gist so you don’t have to spend time reading: don’t buy from them.

I recently went to www.ibuypower.com to buy a new gaming rig. It’s been about 6 years since I purchased a computer that was up-to-spec for playing today’s high-power graphics games like Crysis, so I wanted to give myself a little treat. I asked around and someone suggested I check out ibuypower for thier decent prices and configurator available through their website. Admittedly, I did like the ability to change just about every aspect of my future-machine — the major downside of that configurator is that there is no option to save the configuration that you just worked so hard to perfect and you must start again from scratch when you’re ready to buy. But that is not the point of this post…

So I found the box I wanted, specced it to be a little more expensive than a cheap-o gaming rig (just over $1k) and put in my order with standard ground shipping (sloooooow). On Feb 5, 2008 I placed my order and I began the difficult process of waiting. Their progression was not bad and I wanted to give them props where they deserved it (though the story has a bad ending):

• Feb 5, 2008: Order submitted
• Feb 6, 2008: Order received/processing
• Feb 7, 2008: Oops! — I get a notice from iBuyPower that the power supply I ordered is too low-Wattage for the system I specced. I ordered a 400W and they suggested a 620W. For $60, I said go ahead
• Feb 11, 2008: Materials gathered
• Feb 12, 2008: Materials gathered (again?)
• Feb 14, 2008: Burn-in test (making sure the system works)

Man… that was a difficult week and a couple days. Now they ship it off and, because it’s ground, it takes another 7 days to arrive. So 2 weeks after placing my order I got my system. I – was – stoked! I got the box, ran it down to the gaming room (aka basement) and noticed something strange… there was a clunking sound coming from the box as I moved it. I opened it up and pulled off the side of the case to find my Nvidia 8800GTS unscrewed from the PCI-E slot, rolling around the case!!

Oh man I was so pissed. The card is big and heavy so while it was rolling around during shipping it actually snapped the ends off the SATA HDD cables making the system completely useless.

And of course there is going to be some damage to the card that’s been rolling around inside under the light-touch management of our fair FedEx carriers.

After some investigation, I saw that the screws they used to secure the PCI-E card were the size of HDD screws, not the normal hex-topped screws for the expansion slots. They card had fallen out because it was never tight against the chassis! Oh man… so pissed. So got an RMA number, sent it back to iBuyPower (they paid for shipping when it’s for a repair) and had to play the same game of wait & see.

The big day finally came… Mar 4, 2008 I got the machine back from repair and – was – so – stoked! I picked it up … and heard a clank. I couldn’t believe it. What could it possibly be this time? Sorry for the poor shot, but it’s from my iPhone (shitty camera):

See how the HD is just laying on the bottom of the chassis? See how there are screw holes up above where the HD is laying? I wanted to throw the thing out the window … but then I couldn’t get a refund.

I decided I had enough of their shenanigans (that’s right, shenanigans!) and wanted a full refund. I called their customer support number (they have 1 receptionist, completely uninterested in anything you have to say) and waited about 20 minutes, seething, for Brian to pick up. Brian was green, I could tell. I was angry, he could tell. I said something along the lines of, “I want a refund and you guys are going to have to pick up the tab for shipping.” Brian says something like, “That’s not our policy. We only pay shipping on repairs. You pay shipping on refunds.” I tell him to stop talking and find a manager. Richard answers the phone (I assume he’s a manager) and I tell him something like, “<the whole story>. It is only reasonable that you guys pay for me to ship this back.” He says OK, no problem. They pay for shipping, I get a full refund, and I get to wash my hands of the whole ordeal.

The things that make ibuypower hard to deal with are:

1. Poor customer service – if you can actually get through to someone you may get lucky with having your questions answered, but getting through is tough.
2. Incompetent technicians – both of my machines were broken due to carelessness on the technicians’ part. If they had simply used the proper screws, none of this would likely have happened.

The things that make ibuypower interesting:

1. Their configurator and selection
2. Their willingness to listen to reason in special cases and do what is right for their customers (1 case study)