Pleasant experience with Apevia

[flasher702]

First a little background:
I like the Apevia (aka Aspire) X-Qpack. It's a good design "cube" case (designed by Chenming as was the Ultra(r) Microfly) that fits full-ATX PSUs and a plethora of drives. I've bought two of them. They come with a front-panel backlit LCD display for two thermal sensors that is kinda spiffy.

On my second X-Qpack I broke one of the thermocouples so now it only displays 1 temperature and I've gotten tired of telling people that I broke it. So I emailed Apevia about fixing it. Not only did they reply promptly, apparently I'm getting a new one. Cost to me: $0.87 for shipping.

Also I was told that the PSUs in newer Apevia cases should be of higher quality then in the past (good news as they were kinda sucky in the past). So if you're considering an Apevia product and wondering about their customer service I'm giving it a definite thumbs up right now. I'll update the thread later.

Emails:

1.
From: Lex [mailto:flasher702@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 7:43 PM
To: sales@apevia.com; sales@apevia.com
Subject: Question from:Lex


I am a happy owner of my second Apevia X-Qpack but I broke one of the
thermalcouples for the front panel temperature display. Could you help me
fix it? A digikey part number would be ideal.

2.
From: "Pete-Apevia" <p*****@apevia.com>
To: <flasher702@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Question from:Lex
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:33:51 -0700

If you are still under warranty you can always send the defective parts in for replacement. Please let me know if you are and i will provide you some instructions on doing so.

Pete

3.
From: "Lex Maxwell" <flasher702@hotmail.com>
To: <p*****@apevia.com>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: Question from:Lex


I broke it myself... it's my fault. I crushed it between the HD and HD bracket (I was trying to mount it there as I had done before but I put it too close to the screw and applied to much force to it and it made a cruching noise and never worked again). So now it only displays "CPU temperature and for HD is says "-- --". Other than that I think it's still under warranty, only had the case for a few months and I still have my newegg.com invoice on file. But if you wanna... can I send in just the thermal sensor and not the whole case? There's a computer living in the case. Or just sell me a replacement front panel thermal sensor for cheap (I could just use the old one somewhere else)? I just get tired of telling people that I broke it when they ask why the second sensor doesn't work.

Impressive response time to my email. I'll definitely mention it to people when they inquire about apevia products. You should choose better PSUs though 😉 First one I got had audible harmonics problems and second one the voltage was high. I replaced both. I love this chenming design though and the updates in the X-Qpack2 look good and apevia is usually the best deal. The only cases I've seen that are definitely better cost ~5x as much.

[note to those seeking outstanding customer service: it never hurts to compliment]

4.
Well we don't expect the customers to send in the entire case. You can just send in the lcd display along with the wiring to have it replaced. Also we have recently changed manufacturers which seem to be better than the current one we were using. So I would expect the quality of our PSUs to be much better than in the past. Please follow these instructions for replacement. As I said you only have to send in the defective LCD display /w wiring.

Hello, here are the instructions for a replacement.

If you live in North America:

Step1: Send us the defective part.

Step2: Include a copy of this email and receipt. Parts within the warranty period are free, while items past warranty will cost $8 for replacement.

Step3: Include a very clear shipping address, we're sorry but we cannot send to any PO Box addresses.

Step4: Include a telephone number so that I may contact you if problems occur.

Once we have received your package we will send you out a new part to you. Any questions please contact me at p*****@apevia.com.

Send To:

Apevia Int'l Corp

xxxx xxxxx xxxxx [just don't want random morons sending stuff to the guy out of the blue after he was so nice to me, email them yourselves and if you have an issue]

City Of Industry, CA 91789

ATTN: PETE

 

[flasher702]

Received the replacement the other day. Installed and it seems to work fine. It has a little glowy blue LED in the power connector too (I guess you could call that an "upgrade").

The new PSU manufacturer for the PSU included in the X-Qpack2 is Wintech btw. Apevia is doing some design work with them to bring out some 1000 and 750 watt PSUs in the future. Until then all other apevia PSUs are the same as they always were. Wintech isn't known for high-quality but with a little prodding from Apevia they should certainly be able to turn out some better PSUs.

In all a very pleasant experience I'd say.

Oh, if you're thinking about getting an X-Qpack1 or any of the X-Qpack2s other than black or silver it might be best to do that soon. They are evaluating whether or not they should discontinue the older model or less popular colors.