MDG sucks!

I purchased a new desktop from MDG in June. Having read this thread from start to finish while researching the brand, I was skeptical.

Living in Atlantic Canada I obviously did not go to a store location, but dealt with MDG Direct. I was a huge pain in the butt, asking them every conceivable technical question, pestering them about what they’d be willing to put into writing and what they’d be putting in my computer. The sales reps aren’t terribly well trained, and I was constantly put on hold while they answered questions about the actual manufacturer of the video card, the brand name of the monitor, the cooling system, the precise model of the mainboard, the number of PCIe x16 slots, exactly what they meant by ‘network card’ etc…

It was a long process, but in the end, I got what I wanted, and exactly what I expected. It’s a fine machine with decent parts and the price is pretty hard to beat. The same machine priced at Dell was more, considerably more in fact – and I needed to ask them just as many questions.

It occurs to me that most people hop on forums like this complain rather than say, “Yeah, it’s pretty good” (not counting the MDG employees who polluted the start of this thread). So for the record, my PC is just fine and I was not misled or sold something other than what I paid for.

Virtually any company that employs a huge sales staff will have the kind of problems that have been described here. When I bought my first Dell, I had to go through the same process of asking questions and getting everything in writing, and the service was pretty awful. My guess is that many of the complainants here were people who did not do the kind of research that they needed to before they went out and bought something. If that’s you, don’t blame MDG – they’re trying to sell computers, not be your friend. I can't say what their service might be like if I have a problem, but if I do, I'll post it here.

I wasn't wowed by what they did - the knowledge level of their phone staff is pretty bad, and I don't recommend calling them if you have no idea what goes into a PC. I also don’t like that they seem reluctant to answer questions about the manufacturers of the video card (Radeon chipset) or the monitor. Having said that, Dell, Best Buy and the other will do the exact same thing.

MDG did all right by me – but like everyplace else, let the buyer beware.

There is one huge difference between dell,best buy, futureshop and MDG.

If something goes wrong, or if I don't get what I pay for I can take it back.

But I can do both of those things with my MDG.

If you have specs in writing, you can always take it back to get what you paid for since its part of your sales agreement. Such a thing is not up to MDG, Dell, Best Buy or anyone else it’s a simple matter of law. So really, that complaint doesn’t fly – you just need to know your rights as a consumer before you make a purchase. If you decide to buy a machine without getting binding confirmation of the content of your PC, then that’s really no one’s fault but your own. If you agree to let the vendor choose your parts, it’s very hard to find grounds for you to return based on the fact that you don’t then like the parts that you never bothered to specify. A good assumption to make is that if you don’t get it in writing, you shouldn’t bet on it being true.

Besides which, I have a standard service contract with my MDG PC at no charge for parts (1 year) and for service (2 years). According to the terms of that, I can take it back if I have a problem and I already ensured that I would like it by shopping very carefully before I made a purchase.

Incidentally, if you do a Google search for complaints for Dell, Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples or parts vendors like TigerDirect, you’ll find threads of complaints very much like this one. When I bought my first Dell, I was given the wrong hard drive and then the one that replaced it had bad sectors. It took them about a month longer to replace it than expected because the unit I’d purchased was very large for the standards at the time. In the interim, they offered me a number of inferior products from local vendors in my area instead of what I’d paid for. I knew enough to be patient and make sure that I got what I wanted, but I also had no computer for a month. That experience, or the hundreds of similar ones among Dell's customers don't make them a bad company.

Like I said in my first post, I was not wowed by MDG but it was no worse than my experiencing buying, or getting service, from Dell. My experiece with them has been good so far, but you need to be careful whenever you buy anything.

Bad customer service happens everywhere. I’m sorry for those people who didn’t do their homework, and doubly sorry for those who had a genuinely bad experience, but it does happen everywhere. People need to take more responsibility for what they agree to.

sinisterdan you cannot return anything at MDG. They don't have the same policy as Futureshop or BestBuy for example, where if you're not happy with the product you have 15 or 30 days to bring it back.

If you make the mistake to buy a MDG computer and you're not happy with it, you're sh*t out of luck.
If you are comparing Dell's service with MDG's you must really be joking.

And one last note: bad service can indeed happen everywhere, but for MDG it's a standard practice. Read all the posts in this topic. Even the odd couple of people who didn't have any problems with their MDG computers so far made comments about bad customer service and generally a bad experience buying from them.

They're scammers and whoever wants to buy from them (not advisable at all!) should be very careful.

Pani, I don't know how you can call them scammers. MDG is hardly fully of the sons of dead Nigerian kings who, by chance, have selected you from a random list of 10 million names to help transfer several million dollars to a random account in exchange for a whopping 10%. As you can tell, I have been extremely lucky over the past several weeks. A grand total of 7 friends of dead kings and bank managers have contacted me personally to transfer $100M Euros. Oh and I have managed to win the UK Yahoo Lottery a grand total of 12 times this week alone. Beat that!

Dude, you seem to be really jaded about MDG. Why can't you just let it go? Even the Federal Government warns that, "Being a wise consumer is your best protection in today's marketplace." What more can I say?

Any sales guy is capable of taking advantage of ignorance. It is hardly an isolated phenomenon. Car salesmen do it ALL OF THE TIME!

In addition, I let me say that if a Dell system sells for an extremely low price, like $499, you will not be given an opportunity to return it. They can't afford to take it back.

dennis, I've seen many people upset with a company (like myself...) who keep going back to a forum to complain and let people know that they've been mistreated.

I've never seen people going back to a forum to defend a company which is proven to be crooked out of the kindness of their heart(like you do...).

Anyweay, so how does it feel to be part of the MDG organization? Do they scam their employees the same way they scam their customers? I would be wary if I was you...

If they treat their customers this way what makes you think that they will treat their employees any better? Be wary my friend...;)

Had similar story, got the run around, promised to call back etc..., but i have found another interesting fact. The MDG in montreal charges extra for systems. Wanted to buy advertised system, salesman tried everything to get me to upgrade. I just wanted the base advertised system for my 6 year old son to play with, at 649 OK price for this. When i went to pay they told me that there was $200 configuration charge, and that this was normal MDG policies. After looking into this and a few phone calls discovered this was only in montreal... all mdg stores in area owned by same owner. I wonder how many people got frauded with this policy, and what this could represent in a class action suit ?????? Could be fun...........

If it should turn out that I’m not “happy” with my computer, what might cause that?

If I do my homework as a consumer, then I should know what I’m getting and have a pretty good idea of how it will perform. Knowing that, the only reason that I might not be happy with it is if I got sold the wrong parts, the parts were faulty or that I did not make sure that I knew what I was buying.

If the first two are the case, I can return it to get a properly working part, or the part that I was supposed to get in the first place. If a part breaks or fails, I have a warranty. That seems to cover all the bases.
If the reason that I’m unhappy with it is that I had unrealistic expectations of how it should work, then no, I probably can’t return it. There are several posts on this thread where people clearly had no idea what they were getting, or bought something that they didn’t want, or didn’t take the time to do the research on.

That may not be the fault of MDG; it might be the fault of the consumer. There are at least three or four posts here where the person admits no knowing what they were buying, or that they went ahead and bought a machine when they didn’t confirm the components. Doing that is going to get you ripped off about 90% of the time.

I won’t condone the tactic of not stocking advertised systems, but that’s pretty common. Most sales are designed to get you into the store so that they can up sell you. I don’t agree with it, and no company should do it, but MDG is hardly alone in this.

The 15-day “happy” guarantee is a pretty rare thing, so I don’t consider it a shortcoming of MDG that they don’t use it (Dell, doesn’t either…). The places that do have it get complaints because they appear to be tricking people into not returning the machines until its too late – essentially they make it as hard as possible to return it within the 15 days. Google ‘Best Buy complaints’ and you’ll find dozens and dozens of consumers who got pushed beyond their 15 days by service people claiming the problem can be fixed, only to be told that it can’t after the two weeks were up. Go ahead and do the same for Future Shop and you’ll get the same kind of results. I did all of this before I bought my PC, and that helped me make my decision to buy MDG – the complaints for them are really no worse.

I’m sorry (truly) that you had such a crappy experience with MDG, but not everyone has - I didn’t, and a few others on this thread didn’t – and no, I don’t work for MDG. Clearly, though, your animosity for this company has become personal so that no MDG customer who says they did fine are correct. I’d suggest that you are not open to the notion that MDG might serve the majority of its customers to their satisfaction, regardless of who claims that they were. I’m no newb, and I know what I bought, I took my time and I got a product that I’ve been happy with since I took it out of the box.

Maybe I just got lucky buying from Direct and not a store – but regardless, my experience was pretty good. As for Dell, I had more problems with them when I bought my first PC from them than I've had with MDG on this purchase – but I did my homework first.

I said in my first post that the buyer must beware, and that MDG didn’t wow me – clearly there are some unscrupulous people working at some MDG stores (Direct worked very well for me, though) but don’t be so naïve as to think it doesn’t happen everywhere. There are hundreds of complaint threads that read just like this one with

How is it common to not stock up on systems you advertise?
More than that, in my case I went personally to the MDG store the minute their ad appeared on their website. The same day!

The salesperson told me that they did not have the system they advertised and they're making a list of names with people who want to buy it.

Have you ever heard something like this before in any industry, because I haven't!

There's more to the story. The system advertised was an Intel Core Duo laptop. Get this now: After I put my name down and waited for a few days they called me back saying that they have a system I can pick up for the advertised price. Surprise suprise it was a Celeron!

Of course I had a copy of the ad and I showed them that it clearly mentioned that the laptop advertised for the price was a Core Duo.

Do you want to know what the owner of the store told me? That what they were giving me was a Celeron Core Duo! I mean, if I had no clue about computers I would have probably bought the story and paid for a "Celeron Core Duo". Isn't this a good reason to call them "scammers"?

If I were a "happy" MDG customer like yourslef I would open my desktop or laptop to make sure that I have the right parts inside. Believe me, there are many reports at consumer affairs of people opening their boxes and finding different parts than what they paid in their machines!

Now you'll think, can this ever happen in Canada? This is something that could happen in Uganda for example (no offense to people from Uganda!).
Well, think again!

I don’t think I ever suggested that your experience was not a bad one.

But sale items are frequently under stocked in the very hope of being able to say, “We’ve run out of X, but Z is a steal for only a few dollars more!”

I know people who’ve worked in retail (one friend sold TVs, DVD players, etc…) and its fairly common. You may have a higher view of commission-based salespeople than you should. The waiting list thing is pretty normal too, they’ll fill the order eventually, but they hope to up sell you in the meantime. You should keep in mind that many sale items are the remainders of stock that a store wants to unload; they don’t particularly care if they have enough of them.

For perspective, I really do suggest that you check out complaint boards for Dell or Best Buy – its really exactly the kind of stuff that you see here. Interesting reading.

I did test my system as soon as the opportunity presented itself and each component was precisely what it was supposed to be – right down to the annoying blue light in the side of the case that I didn’t want.

Are you under the impression that MDG just lies to and cheats all of their customers?

BestBuy is not commision based. On top of that, in Best Buy or Futureshop you get a 15-day or 30-day UNCONDITIONAL guarantee to return any faulty products (or products you're just not happy with). If someone keeps the product after the 30-day period then how is this BestBuy's or Futureshop's fault?

Don't you think that this alone is a HUGE reason to buy from them if you're not experienced with computers?
Try to return your computer at MDG if you're not happy with it! :)

I'm not saying that all MDG sales people are bad and are trying to cheat their customers. To the contrary, I've actually read in other forums comments from ex-MDG sales people who quit their jobs because they couldn't stand MDG's policy of high pressure sales and cheating. Who in their right mind would want to work for a company like this? If they're cheating their prospective customers, I can't image what they do to their employees!

Anyway, people are not stupid. MDG's tactics will backfire sooner or later, that's howe the market works. You can't buuild a succesful company on lies and cheating.

I admit to being a newbie to computers,and do not have enough knowledge to pick out specific components,in order to guarantee a good working computer.Therefore,I ordered a Vision computer (supposedly a good line)from MDG in Kingston.When I arrived to pick it up,everything had changed from what the saleswoman told me.What I ended up with,was a custom (?)Vision-as I found out later,custom meant no Vision components,just cheap components that crapped out immediately. From then on my experience with MDG has gone from bad to worse-no customer service,useless tech help,really bad attitudes,outright lies,false advertising,dead links,no response at all to any e-mails including to Fran McLoughlin(fmcloughlin@mdg.ca),and many others. This computer cost me close to $1600 and is a piece of junk,and as I am on a medical disability,I cannot afford to replace this now,and am therefore SOL.I think that anyone that defends these people and their shoddy practices is either isolated cases where someone actually did get a decent computer,or worse,someone working for MDG with questionable moral ethics,concerning this topic. All in all,this has left me with a bad,bad taste in my mouth from dealing with MDG,and I advise everyone to please stay along way away from MDG.

a friend of mine gave me a computer that he purchased from mdg.the reason he gave it to me was that he had constant problems with it and bought one from a better company.anyway,my son who is a computer tech took the mdg computer apart and i have never seen such a mess as was inside that thing.many parts were improperly installed and a lot of it was glued together.good way to start a fire.also,if you buy from mdg on their monthly payment plan,the shipping charges you have to pay when you receive your computer are totally ridiculus.

I keep seeing advertisements for MDG and was about to go spend 1200$ there...thanks for saving me the trouble guys!

If they are so bad then why has MDG won the Consumer's Choice Award for a number of years in succession?

It seems like every brand name has it haters. This is a fact of life in competitive consumer markets.

I went on complaints.com this morning to see how many complaints were served up for the following companies:

Toshiba - 161
Dell - 850
HP - 423
Apple - 149
Sony - 486
Best Buy - 1030
Future Shop - 155
Radio Shack - 109
Circuit City - 290
MDG - 11
Acer - 22
Lexmark - 77
Tiger Direct - 35

What be concluded from this? I am not sure. Draw your own.

MDG may have some customer service issues, but at least your laptop battery won't catch on fire. : )

"Dell is recalling 4 million laptops because the batteries can short and burst into flames." (PC Stats.com 2006)

I was about to drop by MDG store and check out their products. I will save my time, gas and money by staying home.

I wouldn't put too much faith in the Consumer's Choice Award. I don't think it would be too hard for MDG's employees and their relativetives to write glowing endorsements about MDG and mailed them to Consumer's Choice.

Good for you guys. Just stay away from them until they change their scamming ways (if they ever do...).

We, as consumers, have this power after all.

Now I know why I got a cheaper computer.
I am 31 year old professional banker and have owned computers for over 15 years. I have never felt so disrespected in my life. Location: Brown's Line ETOBICOKE Ontario

I went into the store regarding a broken disk drive for a desktop computer I purchased on Aug 12 2006. The service department refused to look at the drive by saying that it was broken due to a "wrong" type of disk put into the disk drive? It was a CD. I waited for the manager who walked into the store. I asked to speak to him and explained in 1 sentence what was wrong. He said they do not fix this and turned his back to me. I asked him for his name and he refused to provide it. I asked him for the name of the president and CEO - he refused to provide it. I asked for the number to customer service and he refused to provide it. I finally got the tech support phone number. He was so rude and extremely unprofessional. I have NEVER felt so de-valued as a client. He swore at me and told me to go back to my country. He raised his voice at me.
All he had to say was that he would not fix it and provide me with the information to contact who I needed to. Also, contacted "Customer Service" - they are to be open until 7pm but was told after holding for 45 minutes they are only open until 5pm. Asked for Complaints contact and President/CEO - they will not provide it. It's not their job. I have filed with the BBB. Disgusting - I have never felt so disrespected in my life.