Okay heres the deal. I bought a computer in january of 2006 from AVAdirect. It arrived doa. Bad video card and screws cross threaded into the card so you couldnt remove them... Sent it back at the companies expense. It arrived back to me and worked for 24 hours till mobo failed.. Sent it back again at companies expense. They did give me 200$ of freebies due to frustration factor. Got a working computer in febuary 2006.
Then its starts having more issues. Was a bad SATA port that ended up corrupting both my HD's in finding the problem. Sent it in and they agreed there was a mobo problem and were supposed to order the replacement. Week later I get an email that no it wasnt a mobo they just rewired system and it was now stable. Well before I sent it in I had it up and stable by avoiding that one SATA port. They couldnt tell me if they fully tested all the ports or not but finally agreed to replace the mobo if I wanted them too. I did since a failed sata port might indicate deeper problems.
After complaining to Misha(ceo) about how they were failing to fix the problem with a rewire he agreed to refund me the 145$ I spent on shipping it back and make me a restore disc. Personally I felt like that this point I deserved a refund even if it was past their 30 day refund date. I think for a $4200 computer to have needed repairs 3 times and have 2 motherboard replacements in 6 months totalling 67 days and counting of down time that a refund was warranted. Needless to say I was dreaming thinking it would be that easy.
Before they could even get it put back to gether and back to me two more video cards failed that they told me about and hinted that another failed as well. Then ram failed and failed... Needless to say this one repair stretched to 12 weeks... Finally they got me a working computer back.
To be fair we did work some things out with AVA
1. We agreed that if the motherboard fails again that AVA will replace it with another brand/and/or model at their expense.
2. We agreed on an extension of my warranty period to cover the time I have lost with the computer repairs.
3. We discussed upgrades to memory and/or video cards if they fail again as appropriate.
Well a few months back guess what computer starts going belly up again and I have to send it back. They are going to replace the mobo as agreed prior and we hope this fixes things...
Well a week later I email to ask about status of RMA and I get an email back from them that my computer had been damaged in shipping. I was like UMMM you mean to tell me that you have had my computer for 5 business days and it was damaged in shipping and you are only telling me now when I ask for a status update? According to AVA direct I didnt pack the computer well and I only sent it back to them in the original case box. While I did use the original case box it was surrounded in peanuts inside another shipping box with enough packing tape for an elephant. Even our regualr UPS driver said the package was packed well. Needless to say I was livid about them sitting on damages for a week and the way I saw it I wasnt even sure if they even planned to tell me damages had occured. Who in their right mid running a business lets someones damaged in shipping computer go a week(5 full business days) without telling the customer?!?!
Fastfoward to first of the month... Misha and company had complained about the comp getting dusty when I sent it in so I thoguht I would clean it. Mistake or not I got out ye old trusty can of air and cleaned out the comp. Guess what after that computer wouldnt boot anymore had a C1 error. We determined it was bad memory again. I think now after thinking about things and some symptoms prior to the cleaning the memory was already falling anyway and while my cleaning might have been a foctor wasnt the root the cause.
We get memory replaced from Corsair since AVA doesnt stock replacement parts at all. Corsair dropped ball some but in end stepped up in a big way but thats another story. Computer then starts dtropping to a black screen on friday and I KNEW something was up again... Gee guess what there is another vid card or two dead or dying in the box now.
All AVA wants to do is just throw parts at the machine. To me its become obvious that some part we arent replacing is killing the other parts. They have no idea or clue how to fix it. Their whole attitude this whole time is crap happens its not our fault. People have bad luck and every company has builds that are horror stories... We are fixing it everytime though arent we? You are such a bad customer for wanting things fixed after all this time. OMG you cleaned out the comp or are doing other things that are killing it we wont help you. You arent being nice to us. Misha himself even told me in an email that if I didnt remove the last post I made about this computer ON ANOTHER FORUM he wouldnt fix it. Hows that for yall. I have emails probably 300 of em to back me up if anyone is really interested.
I know ava will come in and try to blow smoke but I dont care anymore. I just wanted to let poeple know how I have been treated.
Well good news... As of today I can happily post that AVA and I have resolved our dispute to my satisfaction. I cant discuss the terms other than to say I cant discuss the terms.