"I first saw the ad for this computer at Pricewatch.com the ad is as follows: "Computer Systems - Kits Bare Bones Athlon XP 2000 Asus A7S333 DDR333,XP2000+ w/Heatsink 400w Front USB Case
$222 Shipping $15 48 States fully insured $270 Delivery Time 3-4 days" This ad is currently at www.pricewatch.com, Systems, PC-KIts, Bare Bones Athlon XP 2000, Page #5, the last listing on the page. I called Alvio and spoke with Frank in Sales, EXT 107. I added a 20 Gigabyte Western Digital brand 7200 RPM 100/ATA hard drive, a 15,000 RPM processor cooling fan, 256 Megabytes of 333 Megahertz PC2700 memory and for $15.00 more I received a one year extended warranty. This all totalled to $411.45. Frank told me at this time that I would receive this computer within 5 days of the date they receive the money order. I sent the money order "Next Day Air" on 7/3/02 and it was signed for on 7/5/02 by an Alvio employee. I called Frank on 7/9/02 in hopes that he would have a tracking number for me so that I could have an idea when the PC would be delivered. He told me that it had not been shipped yet and assured me that I would receive it in two days. On 7/12/02 I called their company in hopes that it by then would have a tracking number. Frank was not working and I was referred to Dan in Customer Service. He said that the system had not been shipped and would definitely be shipped no later than 7/15/02. On 7/16/02 (this morning) I called Alvio beginning at 9:06 AM CST. "All" of their voicemail message boxes were full and I could not speak with anyone or leave a message. I continued dialing until Dan in Customer Service answered the telephone at approximately 9:17 AM. He informed me that my order had been misplaced and again was not shipped. I told him that I was not very happy with their service and he assured me that my order would be shipped "within the next few days". Dan also informed me that the order number I received from Frank was not a valid number since it lacked letters prior to the numbers. When Frank issued the number to me I read it back to him for verification and he confirmed it was correct. I do not expect my order to be shipped within the next few days as he claims. It is now 7/19/02 and still no system. I have contacted the Ohio State Attorney General, the Ohio BBB, the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI Division of Internet Fraud to name a few. I recommend that anyone with a legitimate grievance against Alvio do the same. All of these organizations have online complaint forms that can be filled out.

Update: 7/23/02 I spoke with Dan yesterday in customer service. He sincerely sounded frustrated that my PC had not been shipped. He called me back and left a message on my voicemail that my system would be shipped out today and I should receive it no later than this Friday (7/26/02).

I performed a search in Google for their address, 4364 Cranwood Parkway. It is currently being used by four separate computer companies. AvaPC.com, MGEpc.com, AccuBuy Computers, Inc.,and Alvio Corp. Sounds kinda fishy to me! You might want to avoid dealing with any of these, since they are probably all one in the same.

7/29/02 Latest Update: This past Friday the system finally arrived. It was well packaged and UPS missed it's intended date of delivery (7/25/02) not Alvio's fault. The system was not DOA and once I finished setting it up on Saturday, it ran great. I still would not recommend anyone risk dealing with Alvio, unless you like eating broken glass or walking barefoot over a coral reef. Their web site looks nice but it doesn't work. I could never reach anyone there (no e-mail) and their Order Status box is a joke. No customer should have to work so hard to get what they have paid for. "

"One day later: Adding on to my previous post: It turns out their account was frozen (from what Anton told me). I have filed a claim against them with my bank. Hopefully I'll get my money back.
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I bought a case/mobo/fan/fdd--the works excl. video, hdd and peripherals on June 22 from their subsidiary, AntaresNOW.com. Within a week my credit card was charged. I thought, "goody!" and settled down to wait for my system. And wait. And wait. After two weeks my fiance suggested I check the website--and it listed my order as "PENDING". _After_ they had charged my credit card.

I called their 888 number, was told someone would call me back, and he did. What it came down to was, the guy told me that they only took Amex or Discover, wanted to transfer my charge (even though they had already charged my Visa). They wouldn't credit my account--he out and out lied and told me that he couldn't and that it was up to Visa to do it. I called my bank, and they said that I need to get Alvio to reverse the charge.

Calling Alvio again--no luck. No one picked up the phone, even though I called every number I could find for the company--even looking up the company in BBB and calling the numbers there.

At this point, all I want is my money back. I don't care about anything else--I just want my over $500 back. :("

"The Product I ordered (mobo/chip combo) arrived witha DOA chip. The mother board was retail, but the chip was OEM. I tried to contact them several times via E-mail, web site form and calls. Never once getting a responce from a human being. By the time I did get a response, the chip was passed the waranty on the OEM. I talked to customer service (anton) and finaly the owner (leo), and was told very rudely that I was SOL. And that if I'd cared more about it, I would have tried harder to contact them! NO ONE EVER RETURNED ANY OF MY MESSAGES! And the final resolution was that Leo was willing to sell me another chip at his cost. No thank you. Caveat Emptor. Avoid Alvio at all costs. I'll post again once I have finished persueing all other avenues, and mention how it all turns out."

"I bought computer parts from three seperate retailers on may 24, and from alvio I purchased a motherboard/CPU combo. They sent me a confirmation email that said they would ship within 2-3 business days, which I thought was slow, but not entirely unreasonable. After 5 business days with no change in status on their order tracking page, I sent them an email to make sure my order had not been lost. To make a long story short, several emails and 2 phone calls later, I still had not gotten any response from Alvio. When I finally managed to contact a real person on the phone, I was stuck on hold for half the day, while he searched around the database looking for my order. He promised to call me back that same day when my order was found. By that point my intention was to cancel the order and find another retailer. Not surprisingly, I was never called back, and two days later I had to call them again and tell them that I wanted my order cancelled ASAP. I left a message on their voice mail, and sent an email, and Viola! next thing you know they called me to tell me that my order had been shipped on monday. According to their webpage, I ordered on 5/24/2002 and they shipped on 6/12/02. I am supposed to get my order on friday (two days from now) according to airborne express (I asked for UPS ground). I will not be surprised if I am provided with the incorrect parts or if it arrives DOA, and if that happens, I will be back here to rant about it some more."

"Were should I start....hmmmm

I ordered 3 LABTEC, LT-825 Headphones, Wide, Volume, Retail. Thats fine, called the guy to see if they will ship out that day.. he said no it won't cause ups has picked up and will ship tomorrow.
That's fine, I will get them by Friday. Yesterday I got a e-mail right before closing.. It wanted a address before it would ship out. I couldn't reply back because it was closing time, but why would they want my address via e-mail when I filled out the order form on there site???? Whats the purpose of the order form if you are not going to use it?? They said it's to verify the address...DUH now how does that e-mail stop false info? hmmm? I called them about 10 times trying to get to customer service(less) and finally got someone. Talked to him about my order and he said he couln't do anything except charge me an extra 3.00 to ship it red 9next day air) so I could have it by Friday like it was supposed to be, or cancel the order and have a 15.00 cancelation fee??? WTF fee for something that I haven't got or even returned? I told him he should be the one shipping it next day air at no additional charge, sense they were the one who didn't ship it when it was supposed to. The other thing was when I was talking to him he put me on hold 5 times??? What for?.. hmm I guess to talk to his buddy's and give me so called excuses on why not to ship it on there account. Those customer serviceless people need to turn to the next chapter in there idiot guide to being a good business. He also told me that another option was to leave it the way that it was and it will get there by saturday. Boy wasn't that a lie.. UPS and Fedex don't ship on saturday unless you pay for the saturday service. His reply: We ship Airborne Express and they ship on saturday but the other person told me they ship UPS.. What they changed carrier. One lie after another, after another, after another. They are just a buch of incompetent people working just to get money and maybe ship your stuff in two weeks charging my credit card 3 days before they are shipping. A 2nd day shipment is now taking a week to get? I will NEVER buy from these people again.. NEVER... and I hope none of you guys will to. I hope they go out of business like they deserve. People like don't deserve a merchant licence. I should of checked this site before I bought from them but I forgot and thats my mistake. I'll let you people know if I ever get my stuff. Enough Said.... A very bad company.. My own rating -10 ro below.."

"I ordered a complete system from "Misha" at AVAPC.com. He was all nice and helpful at the time, but after you get your computer, you are stuck with "Anton" in customer service. He does not return your calls or give you service at all. My computer broke only after 2 days of working fine. I called and emailed them many times, but no answer. I finally just shipped the thing back without an RMA#. When they got it, they finally called me back. I told him I wanted a complete refund, but Anton kept telling me that they had to charge a 15% fee. I refused to pay it, so they sent the computer back to me. I'm upset because I told them clearly that I did not want the computer at all. They never sent me an RMA nor did they respond to my emails or phone calls. Now I'm just stuck with a broken computer and robbed of $1000. DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE!!! I filed a complaint with the IFCC (go to www.ifccfbi.gov) and call my credit card company to report fraudulent business practices. They are going to help me get my money back and get everything in order again."

"I ordered a computer from Alvio's susidiary AVAPC. Ordered case,mobo,cpu,DDR memory,HD,CDRW, Windows XP. Paid for build & testing. High shipping charges. System arrived DOA. AVAPC tried to say my monitor was not compatible. Actually, the mobo jumpers were wrong. Setting jumpers properly did not fix system. Returned for service. System booted. Tried to register Windows XP. Microsoft reported my copy as previously registered. AVAPC said it was not copied or on any other machine. System would crash, quit programs, disconnect internet and reboot without warning. Windows had many run errors. I decided to return for refund. "Daniel" told me that 15% would be deducted, even though the system was defective. Shipped system back. Nearly one month later, still waiting for refund.VERY Hard to get people on the phone. People I have talked to are little or no help. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AVOIDING AVAPC AND IT'S PARENT COMPANY ALVIO."

"After checking the web site for pricing, etc., I configured and ordered a complete system over the phone with a person. A couple days later, I had a question, and could not get hold of anyone who would help me and calls were not returned by the person I placed the order with. However, the system arrived amazingly fast and everything works great. I got a killer machine at a great price. But, since no one returned my calls, I'll consider myself lucky as long as I don't need service from Alvio."

"I decided to take a chance on this company after reading marginal feedback here at RR. Their website is very polished and easy to use. I ordered a p3-766 cpu and dfi ca-61 mobo combo, two day air. Ordered Thursday night, my card was charged Friday, assuming a next-day order process, it should've been mailed on Saturday and here on Tuesday at the latest. Called Wednesday and the service people said that they were expecting more "any day now" and they'd ship as soon as possible, AFTER they already charged my card. What's the use of two-day air when you have to WAIT for them to get more of the item in-stock?
The next monday (more than a week later) rolled around and the service people gave me the same spiel, "any day now." I cancelled the order, and nearly a month later, they STILL haven't reversed the charges on the card.

Do NOT deal with this company. "

"Questions were not answered through email, I called the 800 number and spoke with someone there. I read the write-ups here on RSR.com and almost did not order from Alvio. However, my merchandise just arrived (3 Logitech Trackman Marble FX trackballs) and all are in working order, no damage anywhere. I'm quite happy with my order, took just under 7 days to arrive. All in all, I've no complaints except for the email deal, but, since the merchandise is here, working and undamaged, my experience has been good here!"

"I purchased a computer from MGEpc, one of Alvio's companys. I had to RMA some defective parts to Alvio ,I ordered a motherboard, and DDR for it. It's been a month, they shipped a cheaper board, cheaper video card, and cheap generic DDR. I sent it back, now they claim they don't sell Micron memory. The price went up and they don't want to honor the price. It's still on their website. Pure con artist stuff. I wish there were other ways to warn online buyers of these ripoffs. To be continued...."