"Just had to get this in here. I've had my system for a little over a year, so feel qualified to offer a useful review. I purchased a customized "Excellant" model with all the bells and whistles (P4, 3.02GHz, 1 Gig RAM, RAID, ATI 9700, etc., etc.) at a little over $2400 and have nothing but good things to say. Shipping and packaging were great, documentation was excellant, system operated flawlessly and response to inquiries was speedy and accurate. Only problem I've had was about 8 months after my purchase, one of my HD's failed. Unlike some large, highly marketed companies that put customers through the 7 levels of hell before resolving reported problems, ABS had me try a couple of short procedures, determined that the problem must be in one of the HD's, and shipped 2 new HD's to me post-haste. Upon receipt, I installed the HD's, returned the old HD's, and have been happily computing ever since. You can be sure that my next desktop purchase will be with ABS! Hopefully, they will not allow the quality of their products and service deteriorate as has happened to some other computer vendors. Keep up the good work - and thanks!"

"Made purchasing decision based on Resellers.com. Prices are quite competitive and overall feedback and ratings are good

Made order by phone (Thank you Casey) and transaction went really well.

Package arrived well within the stated time using Fedex Saver, and the notebook was well packed and intact.

System booted up flawlessly and within minutes, was able to network to other sytems and record cds.

Overall, my experience with this merchant has been very positive...highly recommended.


"

"Do NOT waste your money on these assholes!!!
I odered an $1100 gaming system from ABSpc.com, but they said my credit card had a different address than the one I wanted it shipped to. They were right, and so I fixed it with my bank, called ABS back to make sure everything was legit. They said it was, but I called two more times to make sure because my system status was sitting there for a while. Turns out everything was NOT ok and they voided my order. They didn't have the system I wanted available anymore, and the next best thing was $1400. Pulling cash from my life savings I ordered it. They were two weeks late in shipping it, so they sent me a t-shirt with a big-ass ABSpc logo on there... as if I wanted to advertise for them. I finally got my system, but the keyboard kept freaking out on me, so I had to ship it back and exchange it for a new one. Also, I had to restore the system settings 3 times (resulting in a loss of 20 gigs of data that I already put on it, MULTIPLE times) because it kept locking me out and crashing randomly. Finally I got it stable... until the hard drives suddenly failed. Without warning Windows XP stopped detecting my hard drives, and neither could my motherboard! I tried everything, and got every geek on campus to try and fix it with no luck. We tried everything... it was a mess. Well, I lost all 80 gigabytes of premium data on it and had to send it in to get it fixed. I didn't get it back until a month later.

Two months after I got it back, the same thing happened, but this time I lost 90 gigabytes of extremely valuable data. I shipped it back for a refund. They said they'd give me $1200 back since they had to charge 15% for restocking, but they only gave me back $1070. I called them about it and after about 45 minutes on the phone they gave me the remaining refund.

Do yourself a favor and just go through the hassel of bulding your own computer--it costs less money, time, and most of all, patience.

-Edit- To ABS: One or two days for the bank to update? I waited a week. The sales reps kept telling me they recieved the updated address and that everything was fine, but then my order was voided. And if by "software conflict" you mean Windows fighting with itself, then yeah, I'll buy that. But on the contrary I'm sure it was the Seagate HDDs. I had the same problem with my custom rig at first, then I switched to Samsung, and now it's fine. Software could not have caused the system to crash like that two times, each one 2 months later. Not to mention the fact that I didn't have the same software the second time around. I only reset my system to factory settings when I first got it because it was unstable RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. After I fixed it, it ran smoothly until the first crash two months later."

"ABS Computers has always been 100% professional and accurate. I'll never do business with ANYONE ELSE!!! I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!"

"I chose ABS because I was tired of "cookie cutter" PCs. I had been a Dell customer for years, but was consistently frustrated by their decreasing cost vs.value, their proprietary parts and cases which make upgrading difficult, and their lack of software support, specifically drivers. I wanted a customized computer that used name-brand, quality parts that I could upgrade easily. PC World magazine gave ABS glowing reviews, and after visiting the their website I decided to purchase from ABS.

After ordering my PC, I received an e-mail informing me that my PC would be delivered in 10-15 additional days, over two weeks more than the 7-10 business days they indicate on their website. I contacted customer service and expressed my unhappiness at the unexpected (and unexplained) delay. A rep responded within one day, and promised the system would arrive before Christmas. I was grateful for, and impressed by, the response. I did indeed get my computer within the promised time frame. That, however, is where matters became frustrating.

The computer arrived in an undamaged box, well-packaged with foam. Nevertheless, I found that the CD-RW/DVD Combo drive was not flush against the side of the case, but pushed in, making it tricky to insert CDs (they mounted the drive with drive rails rather than screws).

The CD drive worked, but only sporadically. Also, when I turned on the computer, the boot-up screen indicated that the floppy drive was not operational. I e-mailed customer service, but received no response.

As it turns out, my floppy drive was unplugged from the motherboard. Once I reconnected it, it worked fine. Not so with the CD drive. Its performance degraded to the point where it would not read or recognize any type of disk. I e-mailed customer service and called and left a message; no response. I tried again and spoke with a customer service technician who said that the drive was most likely damaged and he would ship a new one. That was on Friday, December 19. On Tuesday, December 23, my drive had still not shipped. I called customer service and was told that it hadn't shipped (which I already knew, of course) but the young lady didn't know why. She said she'd arrange to have it delivered overnight. However, as of that same evening, the drive had still not been shipped.

Needless to say, I found all this a lot to endure considering I had bought a brand-new computer. I had to troubleshoot and repair my own problems, which, thankfully, I was able to do. But I was still without a CD drive for over a week. Also, my credit card was charged for the drive (and later refunded) because the first person I spoke to didn't explain the return authorization policy.

Ordering a computer is an event for me, since I spend most of my waking day in front of one (I'm an author and web designer, and an avid gamer). I can't help but feel let down by my experience with ABS.

I don't expect any company to be perfect, but when a company makes a mistake, I expect it to be handled quickly and efficiently. That's a standard ABS claims to strive for, but they fell short in my case. I felt that there was a terrible customer service gap. I did not feel, after the first correspondance, that my concerns were being handled in an appropriate and timely fashion. Several of my phone calls went unanswered, and had I not followed up twice, I would still have a defective CD drive today.

Also, their website claims that a customer's order is updated in realtime, but the info was always out of date. As of February, the site showed one of my orders as "being prepared," when it had, in fact, already shipped. Plus, the technical info they provide on their PCs and parts is insufficient; they often link to manufacturer's sites which may or may not provide the detail careful shoppers need to make buying decisions.

ABS has a lot of heart and great aspirations, but seems to suffer from an insufficent number of staff people and inconsistent customer service training.

As a fitting postscript to my review, I forwarded a copy of this message to ABS, but never received so much as an acknowledgement--even though my criticism was constructive and (I hope) delivered in a courteous way.

My computer is working fine now, but the entire experience and the impersonal nature of the way I was treated by ABS has left a bad taste. They have lost my business."

"Although product delivered is OK, customer support response times are poor. Their telephone system is antiquated - all you get is music FOREVER - no estimated hold time! I have better things to do than sit and listen to their phone music! Would NOT consider ABS again until I know this issue was cleared up."

"Just recently ordered a new comp from ABS. It shipped on time and very neatly packed. I booted it up and it ran fine for the first day. I ran a few benchmarks and everything seemed in order. The next day, the computer wouldn't boot. I tried using the recovery CD that came with the PC, but it wouldn't work. The backup HD also wouldn't work. I called tech support and I'm awaiting their call "

"Excellent service. Willing to put in an extra effort to resolve a ceredit card problem."

"i got my computer mid march, within a week.
everything was well until my harddrive was making these loud clicking noises
ok, typical defective harddrive.
So I called abs.
I had two maxtor 160gb hdds, but they wanted me to send them both
so I did
we did a crossship, and once I got my new harddrives (they charged my PARENTS' credit card 258 bux), I sent my defective ones with the RMA number on it.
That's when this problem started...
for some reason, I was given two RMA numbers
i didn't know that one was repair and one was refund. Nobody told me.
without any doubt, I sent my defectives with the first RMA number
(I installed my harddrives and windows with the help of 2net service)
package received, but a few days ago, got a mail informing me of another set of two harddrives coming.. what the...
i call abs and they tell me the RMA number is under Repair. ugh..
she told me that she would cancel the fedex shipment, but it came april fifteenth...
now I sent it back with the second RMA number
this better be right.
my mom's all mad because she wasted 20 bux by shipping twice. I'm gonna see how they work it out if they get the harddrives I sent.
My experience with abs was very satisfactory. they couldn't have done anything about the defective harddrives. but they gave me two RMA numbers for some kind of reason...?
well, I would definately buy from abs again though.
I will update this later."

"Absolutely outstanding service,response,and prompt delivery.
Very courteous follow up to a question that arose."

"My machine arrived today, 03/12/04, Three days ahead of the promised date.
I have not set it up yet but I was impressed with the help with my order given to me by your customer service rep. Michael Karuga .
The machine was well packed and the documentation was a very pleasent surprise.
Haveing purchased a number of computers over the last twenty or so years, starting with a TI994A,I have become, if not a computer expert at least a computer buyer expert and so far you folks are the best.

Thank you,
Al Festag

PS Yourm survey was confusing. You cited field numbers that had to be filled in but I could not find numbers on the fields"

"Bought Awesome 3500 and on first boot everything was fine. I shut down to see how a cold starup would go and I get this error that can't detect harddisk; also the harddrive is making this clicking noise. TOASTED harddrive; that's what that means. I called tech support and explained the problem and he says to make sure everything is seated. Second call I start talking to another support guy and he hangs up on me. Well the third call I got this lady who admitted that the Maxtor hardrive they were having trouble with and she will ship me a new one. Well what am I thinking now; put the same junk harddrive or get a western digital or seagate and take the loss of having to buy a new harddrive. I would stay away from ABS systems with Maxtor harddrives; and as far as tech support goes; needs big improvement. Everthing else went smooth as far as shipping; received in 5 days; packaged excellent and great Aspire case. To really make this right with me they would have to give me a harddrive that I want without extra cost. I will update this after I receive the harddrive or decide to get another one at my cost.Update- After talking to Tony; he assured me a new harddrive would be sent and sure enough a Seagate Baracuda 120 gig to replace an 80 gig Maxtor was received the next day. I installed it and loaded up Xp and everything is fine. ABS went beyond my expectations and I thank them for that. I will purchase from them again and I thank Tony for his concern. I do recommened ABS; I guess I went a little overboard before I contacted ABS."

"This Company has fulfilled all my expectations and then some! The product (After credit approval) was at my clients doorstep in less than one week! THe PC / LCD Monitor being shipped less than 24 hours from approval and shipped free to her door two days after that!!

Customer service and tech support has been very responsive and helpful. If this kind of service continues I will refer other people and clients to ABS, in a Heartbeat!!!

Mike."

"Go ahead and shop around for computers. I spent a year looking and found exactly the right machine with the best components. Add that to the low price, free shipping and Great, life long tech support...ABS is the best.
Honestly,
Duane Fairbanks"

"I looked at a number of companies as I was upgrading my home computer. SInce I only do this every 3 years or so, I want to get the best value. I finally settled on ABS and am perfectly pleased. They were not the absolute cheapest but they appeared to have the best overall value. They delivered it on time, everything was as it shold be, it is screamingly fast for a non hardcore gaimng machine and i am delighted."