IBUYPOWER Dismal Customer Service

mikeamiller

Reputable
Mar 9, 2014
1
0
4,510
Service members beware; AA/AE/AP receive inferior service and customer care. In short I will never again purchase a product from IBUYPOWER. See my two month ordeal below.

New Year's Eve 2013 I decided to replace my previous IBUYPOWER PC. This would have been my 4th PC from IBUYPOWER over the course of the last 9 years. You may notice I am just writing this review and it is March now.

To start, as part of the new year's eve sale free shipping was advertised. I put together a really great computer for the price I was willing to pay but the order confirmation page would not allow me to zero out the shipping cost. I am a forward deployed service member and my mailing address is an AP/AE, for those not familiar with this, there are hubs on both the East and West coast that accept the mail for AP/AE and then send it through the Military Postal service to the specific place. For all intensive purpose, it is a continental U.S. mailing address. My first thought was to change the ZIP to see if the shipping cost would zero out if I used a normal state and ZIP, but this did not work and so I figured the page was bugged. Upon placing my order I used the comments box to explain I paid for shipping despite the advertised free shipping. I promptly received order notification and sales rep contact emails. On 1 Jan I emailed my assigned sales rep and asked why I was charged shipping and when I would receive a refund. I'm fairly patient so I waited for a reply. When 7 Jan rolled around I sent another message to my assigned sales rep. Still no reply. On 10 Jan I called the customer support line and was connected to my sales rep. I was instructed free shipping was only for those in the Continental U.S. despite the fact the advertisement for free shipping did not specify or list limitations. The shipping charge for AA/AE/AP is a ridiculous $149. I was kindly offered free shipping to CONUS which in no way eliminates the eventual shipping charge. I was able to use SHIPIT APO and reduce the shipping charge to approximately $100. Not free. IBUYPOWER put an incorrect address on the label and that delayed the forwarding of my PC. Cleared that up and received the PC early February. It arrived while I was out of town so it sat in the box for a couple weeks before I was able to test it.

The PC was well packed and all looked well. I hooked it up and it failed to boot windows. Checked the wiring and reseated all the components and it still failed to boot windows. I emailed tech support and CC's my sales rep. Sales rep told me to call tech support. The tech support I received was prompt but in the end was not helpful. 26 February I replied and asked him what the return policy is. Several days later, 5 March, I again asked in email what the return policy is. I waited for a response until 7 March and then I called and spoke with my sales rep again. On the phone I was told I was already 2 days past the limit for returns. Of course I argued the fact the Sales rep ignored my questions regarding returns. After he spoke with his supervisor I was told they would accept my return. However I am/was on the hook for shipping. My sales rep told me if I was in CONUS IBUYPOWER would cover the shipping for the return but because I am not they are not able to help me. He told me IBUYPOWER does not offer support for those outside of the Country. No chance of a short story at this point, but anyway I shipped the PC today after another phone call to obtain information that I was unable to obtain through email. With $1,200 insurance the shipping cost was $62.95 not the staggering $149 IBUYPOWER charges AA/AE/AP residents.

I'm certain if you read this far you are asking yourself why I insisted on using email despite the fact the sales reps are inattentive to that means of communication. Short answer, I am forward deployed to Japan where we are pretty much opposite on days and nights from those in CONUS. IBUYPOWER does not have a 24 hr hotline and to boot phone calls are at the international rate.

In summary, beware of using this company if you are outside of CONUS. This was my worst consumer experience in my entire life.
 

TheUnknownPC

Reputable
Mar 1, 2014
596
0
5,160
I Wouldnt Touch iBuyPower unless you like to purchase issues,issues and even more issues and problems, building your own is fun,easy and overall a great journey into the world of chips.. :p
 
agreed. i wouldnt touch ibuypower. i also prefer building things from scratch.

sorry to hear about your trouble. unfortunately many companies have rather pathetic excuses when dealing with service members on foreign assignment.

on a side note... how are you enjoying japan? (i'm guessing you are in okinawa).
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
I remember an instance where a member here on Tom's purchased a rig from IBUYPOWER which was advertised as a watercooling rig. The rig owner thought of doing a small part upgrade both on watercooling and the GPU, he was dismally disappointed when he found out that his build was incapable of an upgrade on both fronts. AS it turned out his warranty period was exhausted so they couldn't help in any manner or form and neither could we except for asking OP to pull out his wallet and start build afresh.

Since you're in Japan - Konichiwa :)