Not what I expected from a highly recommended vendor.
Written: Jan 22 '02
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I chose to buy a motherboard-processor bundle from Mwave.com because they had been highly recommended by two different people. I had decided on a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU and an I-Will KA266Plus motherboard with 512MB of DDR SDRAM. I ordered this on Thanksgiving Day, and the package arrived a little more than one week later. The package was packed poorly with the CPU and cooling fan totally exposed to the elements, thanks to the one full corner that was ripped off the outer box during its shipment by FedEx. Of course, the FedEx courier just left it on my doorstep. I realize this is not the fault of Mwave, but it was just a sign of things to come.
I opened the package and immediately discover that the CPU fan had a broken blade. Furious, I called Mwave's Tech Support. Being a technically proficient person, I told the rep that I could probably fix it. He said OK, if it doesn't work, call Customer Service to arrange for a replacement. I was able to repair the fan blade. I hooked the new system up and turned it on. I was greeted by a horrible snapping noise and a putrid smell. I turned it off immediately to see if my fan repair had not been good enough, but that wasn't the case. What had happened was the casing for the small fan on the Chipset North Bridge had been collapsed, and the fan inside was impacting the casing. The smell, I couldn't figure out for the life of me, but man did it stink! After disassembling the board and removing the memory, I smell that awful stink again. Somehow, the memory slots on the board had melted, and the memory chips themselves had burn marks on them. I guess that solves that mystery. That's, its officially dead.
I called Mwave Customer Service and spoke with a woman who was very very rude, it seemed as if she didn't want to talk to anyone. You could hear quite an attitude behind her voice and she put me on hold 3 times before actually talking to me. When she did talk to me, I told her the whole story about the broken motherboard. The only thing she said to me was "You accepted a damaged package, there is nothing I can do for you." Even after repeated attempts of explaining that I was told to assemble it, and I had no choice to accept it because it was left on my doorstep by FedEx. Again "You accepted a damaged package, there is nothing I can do for you."
This is when I put my foot down. "Maam, I'd like to speak with your supervisor, RIGHT NOW." I was eventually connected to this woman's supervisor where things improved dramatically. After telling the whole story one more time, the supervisor said "OK Mr. Andrews, we will be glad to set up an RMA replacement. Ship the broken board back to us in the damaged box and we will match your shipping when we ship it back to you."
Finally, some progress. I shipped it out the next morning by UPS (I've had enough with FedEx) and chose to send it 3rd Day Air, which cost me $30. I wanted it to get there and get back to me fast.
Later that week I call Customer Service to follow up. They received the package from me but apparently nothing had been done on it. Just sitting around. The lady said to call back tomorrow to check. I call back tomorrow, same thing. Three days later, the board was ready to be "tested" and would be sent out to me in a couple of days. To cut this short, the board was sent out from me 6 BUSINESS DAYS LATER! Absolutely unacceptable.
I got the board back and hooked it up, everything seemed to be correct...except, after inspection, I realize they sent me the SAME BURNED RAM THAT I SENT BACK TO THEM! UGH!
I hooked the board up anyway and it seemed to work. I was able to set up Windows ME on it but it didn't run very stable. I was upset that it kept shutting down on me, and I thought that couldn't have been a good sign. I couldn't play any of my games (crash) and I couldn't really do any word processing (with MS Word) or it would crash. Finally, I'd had enough. I called MWave Tech Support and a very nice man named Juan helped me out by having me run some tests on the system. After an entire morning of testing, he concluded that the system was malfunctioning, and even though it might seem to be working, it will die soon. Time for the third replacement. I spoke with my favorite people in Customer Service again, and they informed me that they were out of stock of this particular motherboard. I was disgusted but also curious. I didn't really want this brand of board again. Two out of two had problems, I wasn't about to go three-for-three. After consulting the supervisor, they agreed to refund my money if I send this bad board back to them. Thank God. Ironically the memory works, so I was told to keep that and the processor. I've found a good replacement motherboard that is supposed to be much more stable than this I-Will piece of crap. Unfortunately Epinions.com doesn't have this model of motherboard up for review, otherwise I'd let you all know what I think about that too. If you want to order from Mwave.com, just pray you don't have problems and have to deal with their Customer Service. They need to be taught some manners.
Recommended:
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About the Author
Member: JC Andrews
Location: Chesapeake, VA
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me: Great job-check. House-check. Wife-check. Dog-check. Kids? Uh-oh.
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