"I have never left a review good or bad but this one made me so angry that I have to post my experience. I ordered on friday morning 7am hoping my order would go out that day and I would get it saturday as I live 80 miles away. Well I never heard a word from them and on tuesday tried calling to get the status but all I got was a machine which I left a message on, but still no reply. So I tried emailing them, another waste of time. Tuesday night I contacted paypal and filed a complaint. At 1:34am paypal refunded my money and at 1:38am best byte cancelled my order since payment was cancelled. Then at 3:54 best byte emails me that one of my items was on backorder for a week. Needless to say I think their service stinks."

"Shipping was ok but a little on the slow side. I have another shipment coming, so I'll make another review to see how fast it is. Very low prices, if you are looking for more products, they have a sister site by almost the same name. Shopping was easy, I do wish there was a place to login though. Will do business with again.

Update, second shipment was much faster. The used Fedex Home Delievery even though I chose USPS Priority. A nice upgrade."

"Excellent shopping experience. Customer service was friendly, helpful, and customer-oriented. Ordering process was easy, shipping was fast, packaging was excellent. Will do business again."

"Bought some small items from bestbyte. Placed an order, got an email with USPS tracking number same day, but tracking number never worked. I waited a week, and was just about to contact customer service when I got the package. I don't know what's the deal with the shipping dept, as I've read many reviews here about tracking numbers not working. I did get the package on time without hassles though. "

"Fast shipping, great prices, safe packaging, and much more. I will definitely buy from this company again. "

"I found BestByte via Pricewatch and ResellerRatings and bought a mouse from them. Ordered on a Wednesday, item shipped via USPS First Class Mail on the Thursday, and I just got it today on a Monday. No nonsense deal, but customer service could be better. I emailed them asking why the USPS tracking number doesn't work, and got a reply to check the online FAQ instead of giving me a direct reply.

Other than that, prompt delivery, prompt email replies, and item came in good condition."

"WARNING: Policies posted to www.bestbyte.net are NOT honored. Instead, Best Byte says:

"Our official company website is: www.bestbyteinc.com The policy you reference is not valid. The website you mention, www.bestbyte.net is due to go offline at the end of this month. We make no claims to the accuracy of information contained on the old website."

Note that my order was placed through www.bestbyte.net, all e-mail correspondence came from @bestbyte.net addresses, the www.bestbyte.net site appears current (e.g., current date, tracking info is updated, no mention of "new" site, etc.), and there is no information stating that posted policies are ignored.


WHAT HAPPENED: I ordered two Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu heatsinks and some other parts from www.bestbyte.com. One of the two heatsinks was missing a mounting clip required to successfully use the heatsink, thereby making the heatsink non-functional and "dead on arrival".

I contacted Best Byte and was referred to the manufacturer to correct the defective product that Best Byte sold me. Upon further inquiry, I was informed that Best Byte would not honor their posted Warranty policy (http://www.bestbyte.net/CompanyInformation.cfm) for the reason stated above. Their posted policy says:

"Every product we sell is covered by a full one year in house instant exchange warranty in addition to the manufacturer warranty. When problems occur we try and make the replacement as painless as possible."


SUMMARY: Low prices and affordable shipping do not make up for deceptive practices and poor customer service.


08/20/2004 UPDATE: Best Byte continues to disclaim any responsibility for correcting the defective product they shipped and for delivering the functional item ordered. To underscore their deceptive practices, Best Byte has gone so far as to update their warranty page and retroactively dated it to two days _prior_ to my contacting them about my issue.

Their new customer-unfriendly warranty policy states in part:

"Keep in mind that we are not to blame and are no happier about any problem than you are. Be nice to us and we will do everything possible to help! No service of any kind will be provided to abusive customers."


I can only imagine the service I would have received had I been "discourteous" in my messages regarding the defective product I received. Caveat Emptor!

"

"So I made an order for arctic silver's ceramique on the 31st of July with urgency listed in the comments page. It's been a week now and I've received no word other than the initial order confirmation and charge to my credit card. I've recently had a very good buying experience from them, with very prompt shipping, which is why I chose them again. However, this time, I haven't received word of my order, let alone receive it. I try and track online from them and all I get is

"Order received at 4:36 PM on Sat 07/31/04 and was scheduled to ship via USPS 1st Class Mail on or before Tue 08/03/04.
Tracking data is not yet available.
If your order has already shipped there may have been a transmission problem from the packing station. Transmission problems are common, so please check your email for a ship confirmation before calling Best Byte."

Well the order never shipped on Tuesday the third, considering this is Kansas, and Texas is only two states away. Even first class mail only takes 2 days at these distances. I've e-mailed BestByte with an inquiry which got no responses for the third day now. I've also called their listed phone number and left a message which has gotten no response whatsoever. Granted I did order on a saturday, so much for their Availability listing of ---"Availability: In Stock for Same Day Shipment"--- How come I got processed and billed on saturday and have not had anything sent toward me a week later? Resellerratings even e-mailed me asking for my rating of BestByte since

"By now you should have received your order from Best Byte Computers."

Well I haven't, and the urgency has only increased. I am going to wait on more postal day and see if it finally arrives. Then I'm going to request expedited shipping or just cancel my order outright and get it somewhere else. And if that doesn't happen, I suppose I can file billing inquiry with my credit card company and have them fight it out.

These guys were so great the first time, it really baffles me how drastically different the service can be within such a short time frame. I would still consider shopping here in the future if they would just resolve this issue somewhat quickly, but I just blew $xxx+ dollars on cooling supplies elsewhere since I need them very soon and my current order(84773), has instilled a sense of doubt in my confidence with BestByte. Hopefully they'll take note of this rating and remedy this issue. I will update accordingly, but as of right now, my evaluation of their customer service stands as "non-existent..."

Please feel free to contact me at Hai_C83 @ yahoo.com since I have tried to contact you guys to no avail.


**UPDATE**
As it would appear, they just send the ceramique out late without tracking or responding to my attempts to contact them. However, it is saturday, and USPS did drop off the package. And so, I recant. I would still shop from here in the future, but only when I'm not in urgent need of something. you can't beat their $5 flat shipping."

"My 1st purchase from Best Byte. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical before placing my order. Their website was not bad, but nothing to write home about either. Hardly any products had multiple views (New Egg can spoil you on this), and some had very short & vague product descriptions / information. So, I had to look to the manufacture’s web site (and the link is not included on their site) or look at another reseller for more complete information. However, they had a secure checkout system and the site was not hard to navigate. Therefore, I cannot really fault them too much on this.

Anyway, I found them from a POST at a forum for a Thermalright ALX-800 HS for $9.99 (which was an outstanding price). I also noticed that they had a lot of other items -- also at very fair to rock bottom prices (when you figure in shipping to your price evaluation).

And speaking of shipping, they had a very reasonable flat rate of $5 total (Fed Ex Ground) for most items (large items like cases or very heavy PS are not covered under the flat rate, which is quite fair. As a case, for example, can be very expensive to ship).

Well, I was taking inventory of what I had and what I needed and during that time, they sold out of the ALX-800's (D'oh!!). However, I wanted to try them out and they did have many items I needed and all were at great prices (and @ $5 total to ship, can't beat that).

I was pleasantly surprised that all went very well. I received my invoice via e-mail shortly after placing my order. Followed by a delivery notification and tracking info. A few days later, my items arrived (on time too and in great shape – thanks in part to Fed Ex too; I’m SO glad they use them over UPS).

As for constructive criticism: I would have preferred a bit more packing protection -- just in case. None of my items were really fragile (mostly fans and some NB HSF's), so it was A-OK. However, if I had ordered more sensitive items - and if they packed it the same way - that would have left the door wide open for a damaged item. However, I am hopping that they would identify sensitive / fragile items and take the necessary precautions.

Otherwise, I must say that I am very pleased with Best Byte and I will use them again in the future. Plus, I would recommend to others as well.

Check them out for yourself. Chances are high that you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks Best Byte!! Please keep up the good work.
"

"Items were purchased 7/16/04 early morning Friday, shipped by the store Monday, and received in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon. Total shipping and handling cost $5. All items were as described, brand new. I would not hesitate to shop from this vendor again."

"Ordered 4 case fans. Received in a timely manner. Would buy again. Had previously purchased ceramique, so had good experience as well then."

"I ordered 50 Intellimouses from this business. I had noticed that there had been some concerns about shipping when others had ordered from bestbyte. My stuff arrived packaged sufficiently. More than that, the order went out immediately upon my ordering. My order was flawless and I would definately buy from bestbyte again. Someone earlier had posted that bestbyte wasn't newegg and should therefore be held to a lower standard on shipping time. They got my stuff to me just as fast as newegg and newegg couldn't even come close on the price. I couldn't be more satisified."

"Great Place for all the little stuff you need to get your rig going. Great prices, nice selection and best of all, not a deadbeat reseller!!!"

"Good transaction! Ordered 7-8 (Late Thursday), shipped 7-12(Early Monday), that's pretty fast shipping for a flat rate ground shipping charge. Received exactly what I ordered, not damaged, great company! "

"I've had great experience with BestByte with my past two orders. Lots of smaller hard to find products for good prices and good shipping."