"This is the email I sent to the tech support person who stayed with me for over an hour on a computer I purchased 6 years ago!

"Dear Maryanne,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of your invaluable help today! After practically having a nervous breakdown over my computer, my husband rechecked the cable connections and found something not connected. He hadn't known that it was supposed to be connected because my well intentioned father had missed it. Anyway, I'm up and running again. You were the best! Please either pass this email to your boss or let me know what email address I can copy this to. You deserve a big fat raise for your patience, understanding, knowledge and sympathetic ear."

This incident was centered around my father's unauthorized installation of a CD Burner which ultimately had to be removed. The consequences were that neither of my original, reinstalled burners were "seen" by my computer and I was almost faced with reformatting and reinstalling Windows 98!

ABS Computer Technologies and Marianne in particular were incredible, given that my computer is 6 years old."

"********************************************
Update: Thanks for the shipping refund. Unfortunately, it takes a forum such as this to get a response and the response does not address the problem. I don't think it's worth purchasing from this company with this type of customer service.
**********************************************
I've ordered from abs pc in the past without problems. I recently ordered a pc that was dead on arrival. After about 10 minutes of troubleshooting, I found the power supply was set to 240V and non-functional (even when I put it to the 120V setting). I called for a replacement power supply, and was told the power supply would ship out later that day. I paid extra for overnight shipping due to my schedule being inflexible. Unfortunately, the power supply did not ship out that day and was a day late causing me to make an emergency trip to best buy to purchase a power supply. I called abs to see what happened and Rosemary told me that they could not promise same day shipment of any component.

I tried to address this with Jennifer who originally promised the same day shipment and she claimed that it should have shipped out same day. She said something must have gone wrong for it not to ship out same day and she agreed it did not ship out same day like she promised. However she refused to refund the extra shipping charges I requested based on her telling me it would ship same day.

Beyond the extra charge, this problem cost me the expense and time for a best buy trip and several wasted emails and phone calls. Very poor customer service in my opinion after I save them from having to ship the DOA system for them to troubleshoot and return to me - I will not purchase from them again due to their response to their initial dead power supply."

"This has been one of the best customers service experiences that I have had with computer companies. Marco Pena has gone out of his way to make this experience a good one. I would recommend ABS as a supplier; and I would highly recommend Marco as a contact."

"I ordered from ABS because of configuration flexibility, price and their high rankings. Mine 4500 is loaded with the following components: P4 3.2E, Gigabyte Mobo, 1 WD Raptor 74GB, 1 Maxtor 160 GB, NVIDIA 5700LE (I have Asus 9800Xt), 1GB of Geil Ram and Aspire Dreamer II case. It came in 8 days and it was very well packaged and looked great, everything inside was nice and very neat.
When I turned it on this computer showed that it had P4 2.8 GHz – nice surprise. So I dug a bit and sure enough it had the correct CPU it just was not running at the correct speed. Then the audio didn’t work properly. The front plastic panel that covers CD had a mind of its own – it would open sometimes and other times it wouldn’t. After all of that I have noticed that the temperature gage on the front panel showed really weird (LOW!) temps – 26 C. Now a call to tech support is more then warranted. Leo in Tech was outstanding, just getting to him was a bit long. As it turned out no mobo drivers were installed. We installed them and cured audio problem. We flushed bios – got correct CPU speed. I told him about temp readings and the wrong placement of the sensor which was located on the bottom of the case about an inch away from the front plate even though I was told by sales rep that it measures CPU temp and on top of that it was fluctuating (I have another sensor and I checked for the accuracy. It sometimes would differentiate by as much as 11 degrees from the actual temp). Leo said that he can send me a new one but our conversation was cut short as my cell’s battery died. Next day my new computer decided to work only at 20% capacity – it would load up; let me move the mouse and that was it. On to another wait on the line and by the phone for tech support. This time had to wait only slightly more then 30 min during this time I called tech support again to see if anybody was available but they only took my # again. This another tech person was knowledgeable (?) too but was not too patient event though I have an idea of what I am doing. We checked ram, he asked me if I had the drivers for my two hard drives (I’ve never heard of such things) and we ended up using rescue cd to restore windows. He did not wait on the line for the end result – he didn’t need to anyway. By now it was about 7:30 pm my time and I received a call from Merian in tech support. I tell her about the problem with CD cover plate and suggest two solutions: a) for me to get rid of it completely and move CD Rom up front or b) she would sent me a new faceplate. I declined first option. Now I tell her about my problem with a temp sensor. She was very patient and helpful but she could do anything about it and transferred me to customer service where a representative said that I should mail them my computer and they would check it and fix it. I asked her if she was able to send me a new part and I would send her back original. She declined. The only reason I chose this case is because of the temp read out on the front panel (I did not want a 3 musketeers read out). Forget about sales rep assuring me that tem sensor reads CPU temp, when in reality it does not and was not even meant to do so, according to 3 tech support technicians.

An update. As of August 30th. Al gave me a call and sent out a new temp censor along with new faceplates(very nice touch Al). Computer runs great and I dont expect any more surprises. Now I can trully recommend ABS to anybody - they fix what needed to be fixed(temp censor) and have done it quickly and without much pain.




"

"First go around, it was configured wrong; the large hard drive was the system, contrary to my specific instructions. Returned and received back, it didnt work: no beep, hard drives didnt start, altho the case lights lit up. Tech support asked me to remove the cards and the Lithium battery. Still didnt work. When they told me to disassemble all the cards and the RAM, I told them I wouldnt, and they said that they couldnt help me, to return it for a refund.

I dont believe I should have been asked to be a computer tech. I wish I could have used the system; I think it would have suited me well. I couldnt contact Customer Service; they were always busy. So I contacted Tech Support and told them I had to return the computer; I'm waiting now for notification of the refund, after 11 days."

"I bought a awesome 4500 on Aug 2, 2004. It arrived in the mail on aug 10, i used it for 2 hours and it short circuited. On Aug 11 after many attempts and after very long holds and then many transfers I finally got ahold of rosemary I told her the whole story and she authorized me to recieve a 450 watt power supply for replacement, she said I'd have it in 24-48 hours, well 7 days later I still don't have a power supply, so today I called ABS and after almost a hour and 2 phone calls I got someone to talk to and they put me on hold and transfered me a couple times, I got a person that I just can't come close to understanding in parts dept. I asked him when I was going to get my power supply and he told me it had'nt even been shipped yet. He said Rosemary left the company and the paper work had been lost. So they had me waiting for nothing. Now I got another week to wait. I have to have the part in hand before I can make the aappointment with the home onsite warranty service. The warranty service said it would take 7-10 days to get me in. So I'm looking at around the 30 of august before I can get this machine fixed. Tech support said that they have to get the power supply fixed before they could test to see if any of the other parts in the computer were damaged. So I see along time before this problems resolved.
In summary ABS has staggering wait times on telephone calls, and once you get someone they transfer you alot. I haven't figured out how they call it Always Better Service. I'll update this post and let you know the outcome.
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Update I got my computer fixed shortly after my power supply was shipped , then a day later it shut down again and I called tech support and they had me disassemble and reassemble my computer trying to see if something was lose, mysteriously the computer worked after I got it reassembled. Then a week later my computer would restart after I turned it off but after a couple calls to abs they had me change some settings in my cmos power management and that was resolved. My computer is working great now except the temperature gauge died. If you buy a computer from abs your going to need alot of snacks and a book to read while you wait on the phone, and keep notes on every call. if you can get ahold of tony or al you'll have better luck or the guy in parts with the heavy chinese accent will do you right if you just hang in there and listen carefully. I believe my computer will run for a long time now and I'm very happy with it."

"Like the no mail in rebates, (why loan money to a pc company, and take a chance of not getting it back)price was right, no hassle about add on's, warranties, delivery was fast after my check cleared at the bank "

"I ordered the notebook computer and paid extra for faster shipping. Computer got to me in a timely manner. Worked fine at home. The first time I travel and try to use it on battery power, it worked long enough for me to login and bring up available wireless connections then completely died. It just shutoff and would not start back up. I tried changing out the battery and even found and outlet at the airport to try it on AC power, all with no luck. I decide to call one of the two tech supports. The first one is with a different company and they new a little bit. They recommended that I try resetting the bios and reseating the memory and wireless card. Once I got to my destination (overseas) I did what he recommended all with no joy. I decide to give it a couple days and maybe it will start working again. While I waited I shot the company an email and searched and posted on their forums.
I got a reply from their tech support that said they think the problem is the memory and all it needed was to be reseated (which I clearly stated in the email that I tried already) and that I should call them for them to tell me how. So I make an international call to be put on hold for about 30 min and when I go through to someone at tech support which probably couldn’t find a the power switch to a computer let alone fix one. She then transferred me to customer service to negotiate a repair/refund. Which after being transferred from one person to another I got put through to someone’s voice mail! I hang up and call there customer support which took about 20 min to get through after which I end up talking to a supervisor named Al whom was extremely rude and unhelpful. He said that if I wanted to refund my computer I would have to pay to ship then pay for them to ship the cd in the drive back to me (also I found out on the Better Business Bureau I would have to pay a restocking fee, this was in past complaints). But if I wanted it to be repaired they would pay for shipping once I got back to the states and then there would be an 18-week turnaround for them to send it back. I was very angry and decided to give them another call once I returned to the states as I was paying a fortune to make an international call of which they were well aware of while they pawned me off from one person to another. Overall I am appalled at every aspect of ABSpc (the name at which they call themselves is a joke) and a complaint has been filled with the better business bureau.
####------------UPDATE--------------#####

I sent it in for repair and their standard repair turnaround of 2 weeks has now become "About a Month" as per the message left on my machine. Now comes the waiting game.
"

"After reading many reviews about ABS computers and how well people liked them, I decided to purchase my laptop for school. Online, I assembled one through Dell and through ABS, and ABS was about $400-$500 cheaper than Dell... no joke. So far so good...

I purchased my laptop on July 16th, and I was going on vacation in the next couple of days. So, I asked ABS to send the laptop to another address, so my laptop doesn't sit on my front porch for a week. Well sure enough, they shipped it at my house when I was away. Luckily, my neighbor was able to sign for it and take it in.

BUT, when i did get the laptop (zforce f2), i was impressed by the speed. It weighed less than I thought it would... maybe about 6 pounds. There is 1 or maybe 2 dead pixels, but it isn't a problem for me. The keyboard is great, and comes with buttons on the side to easily turn on WI-FI or open other programs.

Other than the shipping ordeal, I would recommend ABS to anyone who is looking for a high quality laptop at an amazing price. "

"I bought a zForce F2 laptop from ABS and have been very satisfied with it. Before making my purchasing decision, I went to their forum and was able to bolster my feelings that ABS was a good company. The price was cheap for what I bought and the service was quick and reliable. I've since stayed at the ABS forums and try to help others who might be wavering between two companies realize that ABS really is out there to please the customers."

"I wanted a laptop for college but also for gaming. My laptop had to be super fast and above all reliable. In my list of choices I had Alienware, Hypersonic, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo and ABS. After a lot of research and price comparisons I ended up having to choose between Hypersonic and ABS. The reason I chose ABS was because it was $600 cheaper than Hypersonic and because I was told by my friend that also bought from ABS before me that ABS is a good company that makes good laptops.
I have had my laptop for about a week and have had no problems and have run every game smoothly. I have even had people complain and tell me to stop launching rockets in a game because the smoke would lag their desktop computers. My laptop never stuttered no matter how many rockets I launched. This computer is amazing and as far as the customer service, it seems that have improved it because unlike what others say here in resellerratings, they do not ask you to leave a message and they do not put you on hold for a long time. The documentation of the laptop is also good. They include a CD with all the drivers and a manual for your laptop. Overall, I am satisfied and would definitely buy from ABS again."

"I have had an M564 for about 4 months now.
This is by far the best computer I have ever owned.I have owned dell,compaq and Toshiba.
It has worked seamlessly,one software problem was easily and efficiently tackled by tech support.
I will probably always only buy Abs from now on."

"I received the computer on time and it was packaged very well. I easily plugged it in and it turned on without a problem. I then checked to see how big my hard drive was and thats when I found the first problem. My computer has dual hard drives at 200gb each for a total of 400gb, but whoever configured the computer configured it so that I would only have access to 50gb out of the 400. Real smart huh? So the only way to fix the problem would be to reformat my hard drive. The second problem would be finding nine dead pixels on my new monitor. It doesn't bother me since I don't even notice them, but nine on a new monitor?"

"Very knowledgeable and helpful ABS sales person which accommodated adjustment for no on site 2Net support in Texas, and offered additional incentive of free shipping. Wow, didn't expect that. Very courteous, order executed right away, and new PC delivered as promised the following week. PC received well packaged and all documentation in organizer (nice touch). Worked perfectly right out of box. Have since utilized Tech (2Net) Support due my own error, very helpful and assisted in remedying the problem right away. I give ABS a 10 out of 10 right now."

"I was considering buying a laptop from hypersonic pc and voodoo pc. After the intel 755 processor came out I found that abs had the best price. I chose the Mayhem G2 since it had everything I wanted (widescreen, intel 755, built in wireless, ati 9700 graphics). I was kind of skeptical with the bad reviews on this site. Everything was lighting fast with abs. I ordered on the 20th and recieved my system on the 25th.

This laptop is supposed to be my desktop replacement for gaming and it works great for all the games I play (ut2k4, cs, aa, and ffxi) Seems like all the games that use direct x have widescreen resolutions. Most importantly the screen doesn't have the lag time (ghosting) of lower quality laptops like hp and compaq.

Only negative thing is that the speakers suck, but I expected that :D

Overall I am very happy with my purchase."