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| The Final Boss United States. August 05 2012 02:14. Posts 1813 | Profile # |
So I got an iBuypower laptop last Christmas and quite frankly the best way to describe it is mediocre. Can I play StarCraft 2, League of Legends, stream videos, and whatever else I want to do at a decent level? Yes, and for that I am content with this computer. However, there are a plethora of small problems that make the experience worse.
+ Show Spoiler [Computer problems I have had] +For example, the microphone built into the computer is terrible. It makes a terrible static scratchy noise if you ever try to talk through it that is incredibly loud and distracting. Sadly, the microphone jack also seems to be dysfunctional in that a microphone plugged into it generates a lot of static in the background as well. Another problem I have is that the touch pad (or whatever that thing is called) occasionally stops working. Again, none of these detract from me playing StarCraft really, but it's obnoxious for my friends, it's obnoxious for me, and quite frankly it just does not feel like a quality product. Maybe I just got the rotten egg of their computers with these minor flaws, but it's really hard to ignore them when there are just so many small little errors and imperfections.
So earlier this summer my family was going to England for a little over a week, so I decided to send in my iBuypower computer to get the little things fixed while I was away. I sent my computer on June 19th. And iBuypower has still yet to ship it back.
+ Show Spoiler [More about Customer Service Problems] +- They refuse to communicate by e-mail. I understand that a lot of companies use telephone to communicate, but when I live on the east coast and there is a three hour difference between me and them plus they are not big enough to have their phone lines more readily available, it makes it incredibly difficult to communicate with them. I don't understand why a computer company refuses to communicate by e-mail when it would make everything so much easier, but perhaps I'm ignorant of some reason why e-mail would not work.
- They asked for my password to my laptop, which I gave them, but somehow when I told them my password, they did not get the case sensitivity correct (another problem that could be avoided by communicating by e-mail). They then decided to leave my computer alone because they could not access it and did not look at my computer again for a week when I called them again. Again, if they used e-mail they could easily contact me and tell me that there was a problem with my password and be a bit proactive instead of just sitting around and not looking at my computer for a week.
- Apparently, after they shipped it back to the manufacturer and got it back, they found that the problems which I had asked them to fix were still unfixed. So once again they have to ship my computer back to the manufacturer to get it fixed.
- Earlier this week when I called I was told that I would receive an e-mail with tracking numbers and shipping information about my computer when they shipped it back to me. They said that they had to run some tests to make sure that it was in working order before they shipped it back to me. That was on Tuesday. I still have not received an e-mail from iBuypower.
So really I'm just curious if anybody else has had as negative an experience as I have with iBuypower. I'm at the point where I just want my computer back, because this is just ridiculous. I have had a terrible experience with iBuypower's customer service and I am curious if this is standard for them or if it just so happens that I have been terribly unlucky with a bad experience. Thanks everybody who bothers to take a look! Last edit: 2012-08-05 02:17:29 |
| | Bogus Bonjwa STX hwaiting |
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| Torte de Lini Canada. August 05 2012 02:47. Posts 27004 | Profile Blog # |
All I hear are negatives about ibuypower and cyberpowerPC I beleive, get a refund and just buy from newegg, tiger direct, etc.
If you really need a laptop, those are safehavens compared to ibuypower.
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| | https://twitter.com/#!/TorteDeLini (@TorteDeLini) | |
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| The Final Boss United States. August 05 2012 02:50. Posts 1813 | Profile # |
On August 05 2012 02:47 Torte de Lini wrote:
All I hear are negatives about ibuypower and cyberpowerPC I beleive, get a refund and just buy from newegg, tiger direct, etc.
If you really need a laptop, those are safehavens compared to ibuypower.
In retrospect I wish I had gotten an ASUS laptop; my brother has one and it's really nice. |
| | Bogus Bonjwa STX hwaiting |
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| Myrmidon United States. August 05 2012 02:52. Posts 8484 | Profile Blog # |
| There are many similar stories, so you're not the only one. Of course, the people that experience better service probably don't bother posting about it, so it's hard to say if this is the norm, a not-uncommon experience, or an outlier. |
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| The Final Boss United States. August 07 2012 08:52. Posts 1813 | Profile # |
| So the latest update is that they sent the computer back to the manufacturer for a third time and that I should call them to figure out when I will be getting my computer back. They said that most likely the computer I get will not be the same one that I had before, which is odd because as I stated the computer I had before was completely functional. This is ridiculous. Anybody who has ever contemplated buying an iBuypower computer, just know that buying one would be a terrible mistake on your part. Save yourself the time and stress. |
| | Bogus Bonjwa STX hwaiting |
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 MVega August 07 2012 09:22. Posts 711 | Profile # |
I'll tell you my IBP story.
A month before SC2 was released I decided to buy a new computer. At the time I was working 60 hours a week and when I got home at night I didn't really feel like doing anything so the thought of putting another PC together on my own wasn't really appealing, especially during a heatwave, despite the fact that putting a PC together is really simple. At the $1100~ price range the difference between buying an IBP PC and buying the parts and doing it myself was less than $50. It's at higher price points that the price difference is substantial. Or so I was told by my other PC gaming buddies.
So I ordered my PC and within a few days it shipped out. I didn't buy an OS with it as I had already purchased Windows 7 previously. When it arrived it didn't turn on at all. Turns out the mobo was defective and I figured I couldn't really fault them because I didn't have an OS installed so testing would have been difficult, plus it could have been damaged during shipping. Who knows?
I had heard horror stories about IBP's support and I braced myself for the worst. I was instantly connected with someone from support who spoke in a very professional manner and was easy to understand. He asked me to check a couple standard things and when the PC still didn't turn on he told me to stick it back in the box and send it back. They paid for return shipping, and when they sent my PC back they sent it back with one of their faster shipping options. It took 4 days for my PC to get back to IBP, and 3 more days after that for it to get back to me. When it arrived the second time it was packed much better and included a note thanking me for my patience and a coupon code for 15% off my next purchase through them with no expiration date. Nifty. Oh and they doubled my RAM for the inconvenience as well, pretty good brand too.
Plugged everything in and it worked great. Performance was and still is great (Which is to be expected because I picked good parts.) and I haven't had any complaints since then. When it comes time to get another PC I may buy from them again. It depends how I feel at the time I guess. From what I understand in the last 2-3 years they've really stepped up their professionalism and improved their support staff, so they're pretty good these days.
The thing to keep in mind about IBP and similar companies and reading reviews for them is that people are much more likely to leave negative feedback than positive. If you get something that doesn't work you're going to want to vent about it. When you get something that works perfectly you're more likely to want to play with it than leave a review.
Edit: That said I didn't buy a laptop from them, so I have NO idea how decent their laptops are. If I were to buy a laptop I'd probably go with one of the more popular laptop brands. Last edit: 2012-08-07 09:22:54 |
| | bumkin: How can you play like 50 games per day... I 4gate 2 times then it's nap time |
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| Medrea August 07 2012 10:19. Posts 9999 | Profile # |
I doubt iBuypower was able to approximate a well picked custom PC by 50 bucks but this was too long ago for me to remember.
If I remember a lot of people were spending like $1000 and getting an ok processor and a 5770 and walking away thinking they made a good investment. And that irritated the hell out of me. Especially when the PSU is more often than not built to kill your system after warranty so you go back to the shop to spend more money.Last edit: 2012-08-07 10:21:19 |
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T.O.P.  Hong Kong. August 07 2012 10:48. Posts 4442 | Profile Blog # |
| Going boutique is a good idea if you want a desktop. Laptops require engineering that these guys can't do. Then again these guys just take Clevo laptops and slap their logo on it. |
| | Oracle comes in, Scvs go down, never a miscommunication. |
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| Freeze967 United States. August 07 2012 11:06. Posts 211 | Profile # |
| That's really weird. I had just gotten a iBuypower computer, and it had broken soon. Something to do with the PSU I believe. I called them, and they paid for shipping, and handled the repair. Everything was fine, I hope your problem get's better. |
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| MVega August 07 2012 11:07. Posts 711 | Profile # |
On August 07 2012 10:19 Medrea wrote:
I doubt iBuypower was able to approximate a well picked custom PC by 50 bucks but this was too long ago for me to remember.
If I remember a lot of people were spending like $1000 and getting an ok processor and a 5770 and walking away thinking they made a good investment. And that irritated the hell out of me. Especially when the PSU is more often than not built to kill your system after warranty so you go back to the shop to spend more money.
I was skeptical as well. I thought for sure I was missing something. So I asked on a PC enthusiast forum, actually I asked on two, and they both told me that at the $1000~ price point it was normal for the price to be that close.
I think the people who get ripped off like that are the people that either buy the IBP/CP prebuilts from Newegg/TigerDirect or the people who don't bother to do research and don't bother to change any of the default options on the IBP website. But that's the risk with buying any prebuilt really, most of them have a good processor and then a horrible GPU. That's why it's important that the buyer picks their parts. I got to pick every single piece inside my PC except I think they didn't leave the brand of GPU up to me. As in they could have sent me an EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, etc GPU. They ended up giving me an EVGA so I'm happy. I guess there was the potential for them to go with something inferior though. Maybe.
Edit: Just went to the IBP PC builder, selected one of their i5 builds, customized it to match all the parts on a recent "Most bang for your buck." list. IBP price is $1,208.00 - Newegg price is $1,141.00. Shipping not included for either. So a $67 difference. Not too shabby. Last edit: 2012-08-07 11:19:38 |
| | bumkin: How can you play like 50 games per day... I 4gate 2 times then it's nap time |
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 Womwomwom August 07 2012 12:00. Posts 5514 | Profile Blog # |
Looking at the Chimera 4-E1 system they have, I did a similar Newegg build for around $125 cheaper so IBP still suffers from relatively static pricing and a limited hardware range. I ditched the closed water cooling loop (Hyper 212+ instead), got a far better PSU (Rosewill Capstone), better HDD (Caviar Black), and 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB. The rest was more or less the same.
I think the price difference depends entirely on whether or not you need to buy Windows 7. Close to 10% of the total cost of the Newegg build was the operating system. Last edit: 2012-08-07 12:06:55 |
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| Medrea August 07 2012 15:42. Posts 9999 | Profile # |
OK yeah if you need an OS then I will admit some boutique computers are ok in pricing.
But the PSU in every single one of them needs to be replaced sooner or later as well. Lots of people forget that. Also Im leary of PC enthusiast forums since they often recommend expensive shit because, ENTHUSIASM. |
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| Womwomwom August 07 2012 16:00. Posts 5514 | Profile Blog # |
| IBP lets you choose from a bunch of brand name PSUs like the Corsair CX500. The funny thing is that to downgrade from their stock 700W PSU to the Corsair CX500, you need to pay $1. |
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| The Final Boss United States. August 12 2012 00:41. Posts 1813 | Profile # |
| So iBuypower has officially sent my computer back as of 10:00 PM last night... we'll see if it works or not. |
| | Bogus Bonjwa STX hwaiting |
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| The Final Boss United States. August 16 2012 07:26. Posts 1813 | Profile # |
| Got my computer back today. Almost 2 months since I sent it in, and not a single one of the problems it had before has been fixed. Don't buy iBuypower! ^^ |
| | Bogus Bonjwa STX hwaiting |
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| jacosajh August 16 2012 08:08. Posts 2522 | Profile Blog # |
Doesn't sound like you were ever happy with it to begin with; so even if they returned it working completely well, would you have been satisfied?
That is why when you buy something, figure out if paying for something good is worth your time, money, and headaches. |
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| The Final Boss United States. August 16 2012 15:32. Posts 1813 | Profile # |
On August 16 2012 08:08 jacosajh wrote:
Doesn't sound like you were ever happy with it to begin with; so even if they returned it working completely well, would you have been satisfied?
That is why when you buy something, figure out if paying for something good is worth your time, money, and headaches.
It should not take two months to fix a computer. I do not understand how they can hold onto my computer for two months and not even fix what I specifically told them was wrong with it. I had to pay to ship it, lost my computer for two months, and they did not even manage to fix it. If that is not unsatisfactory, then I'm not quite sure what is. If I had known how mediocre iBuypower's products were and if I had known that they had the most incompetent customer service then I would not have purchased it. When I bought my computer I did not see any of the terrible stories I have since heard about iBuypower, I just saw fairly good reviews and the fact that they sponsored StarCraft II. I'm putting this out there so that other people don't make the mistake I made.
And to be honest, if I got my computer back a month ago and it was not having the problems it had before I sent it in then I would have been happy. |
| | Bogus Bonjwa STX hwaiting |
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