Review on IBuyPower and their products

• Systems look great
• Built just for you
• Great Customization options
  

• Terrible customer service
• Systems are a 50/50 chance of having problems
• Pay a lot to ship back for an RMA
• Long RMA process
• Poor system support
• Pricey for what you get
  

OK, so I don't complain to much and I also am happy with most service that I get. I am also patient to a degree. IBuyPower Inc you disappoint me...

As a company, I will have to say that they have let me down multiple times. I have bought a few things from them but to no avail have I been satisfied. I will probably start with my laptop dilemma that started maybe 3 months after I got the thing. Read on!

My first product from IBuyPower was the CLX-Ultra laptop with an AMD Turion X2 cpu and the Nvidia 7600 GO video chipset. I will have to say that the performance of this laptop was on par with my expectations. It was a beast to say the least. However, there were major issues at hand that needed to be addressed.

Mere months after I got my laptop, I started experiencing system freezes and crashes. I will start by saying that my house had central heat and air that never let it get above 80 F and yet my laptop was experiencing severe heat issues. I was even using a fan pad for it. Inevitably, the motherboard on the laptop died because of the heat issue. So I sent it in on an RMA.

About a month later, I got my laptop back with a new motherboard in it. It worked fine for about another 6 months. After that I started getting severe graphics problems. Then out of nowhere, the LCD screen inverter dies. Instead of phoning IBuyPower for a second time because my warranty was expired now, I just hooked it up to a LCD monitor. Well, it wasn't to long after that my video chip died. So now I decide to email IBuyPower. After about a week they email me back stating that my warranty is expired and that I should just buy another one because the repair bill would be almost the cost of a new laptop. I want to state that I only had this laptop for under 2 years and it had more issues than a computer from 1995. I took good care of it too. Cleaned the dust out of it and everything. It just wasn't worth the $1,100 I paid for it. So what do I do, I give them a second try.

After a bit, I decided to see what they could offer me for a water cooled gaming rig. I configured one up and sent in my order with my credit card number. About 3 weeks and quite a bit of money later my large box arrives on my doorstep with a guy wanting my signature. No problem.

Let's go hook this bad boy up and see what it can do.

So I go to hook it up and turn it on. It was a system that was ready to go out of the box supposedly. So I turn it on and before I know it, there is a loud pop and the disappointing smell of burnt electronics. What was going on! I unplug the PSU and everything then move the system to my kitchen table. I then decide to open the side panel and low and behold there is moisture all in the case. The water cooler was leaking when it started to circulate... It dripped the coolant into my PSU which caused it to short circuit and blow.

So once more I called up IBuyPower and spoke to their customer service. In order for me to RMA this to them, I had to pay shipping to them. First of all, it was their error that caused my system to blow like that. Second of all, why should I wait another month for my system and pay over $100 to ship it back to them as I live in Canada.

This will be the last time I will ever buy from them again. Personally, I feel that they should give me a free system of some sort as I have bought 2 from them and both have broke. I have also paid more for shipping to them then I should have. I ended up just fixing the system myself as it cost less for me to fix it myself then to ship it back to them under warranty. Needless to say, I ended up selling it and building a system myself and it works much better than theirs.

IBuyPower, in my opinion, is a hyped up brand. You see their ads in PC Gamer and other PC magazines. Sure, they look good. Sometimes they may even perform good. In my experience, customer service was not very good and both the systems I bought from them completely sucked.

If you are looking to spend your hard earned money on a new gaming rig or performance laptop, I suggest you look elsewhere unless you want to take a gamble on whether or not you will receive a system that will not cause you any problems.

There are many system builders out there that can provide you with much better service. Also, if you are not scared to build your own system, I would suggest checking out Newegg. They can give you some major deals and their customer service is matched by none. They also have Canadian service now.

All in all I have been disappointed with you IBuyPower. You led me to believe that you were giving me greatness but ended up giving me pain with a side order of burnt electronics. I hope you change your business ethics.