"The short version: if everything goes to plan, then they're great to shop at. However, if there's a problem, their customer service response is laughable. Imagine a world where Computer Geeks can't/won't answer their email and you'll get where I'm coming from.

We're going to be having a party at the tail end of September for my daughter's first birthday. My wife got the idea that she'd quite like to be able to take photos of everyone as they sign in, print 'em out there and then, and put them in a guest book so that by the time everyone has arrived, we'll have a nice little photo album.

To that end, I went looking for a decent compact photo printer. I found that Computer Geeks had a refurb Epson Picturemate Deluxe going for fairly cheap, whic looked like it fit the bill - small, standalone printing from a memory card or an attached camera and a decent-sized colour screen with which to make simple edits and to check that the correct print was being made.

Despite the high shipping charges to Hawai'i (50% of the price of the printer), the low price of the refurb made the overall deal fairly competitive. Since I have ordered from Computer Geeks a couple of times in the past (when we lived in Illinois) and was happy, I figured I would have no trouble getting one of these printers from them. I guess I was wrong.

On the Saturday before I took off on business for a week to a remote site with next to no phone coverage (albeit with slow internet access), a box arrived from Compgeeks. I opened it up, and found that the wrong model of printer was in the box. I had ordered a Picturemate Deluxe (quite clearly specified as model B351A) and received the basic version (model B271A) instead.

If I were planning to print from a PC, this might not be a problem. However, since no computer will be involved, I can't live without the screen.

Now, to be fair to Compgeeks, this looks like it was Epson's fault. Inside the Compgeeks box was an Epson refurb box containing the printer. On the side of that box was a label for a refurb Deluxe model with the same serial number as the enclosed printer, but the model numbers don't match. It looks like Epson sent the wrong item in their box, and Compgeeks passed it along to me.

That's not what I'm annoyed at. What I am annoyed at is that they have completely ignored the four or so attempts I made in the past week from said remote location to contact them.

Compgeeks has two methods for people to get in touch. You can either call tham (not an option at the weekends, nor from where I was working during normal working hours for me this past week) or "email" them via a fill-in form on their website. You have a choice of places to send inquiries, including Tech Support and Inventory Control:

http://www.geeks.com/geek_tech.asp
http://www.geeks.com/Geek_Inventory.asp

The forms are slightly different, but they seem to behave the same way. I sent four messages via these two forms, and they just disappeared into the ether. Not one of the messages resulted in any sort of confirmation from their system, never mind an actual response from a person that can sort this mess out.

I got back to civilisation today (Friday) slightly too late to catch them by phone, so I now have to wait until the beginning of next week to try to resolve this.

I find it utterly pathetic that a bunch of self-professed "Computer Geeks" can't deal with enquiries via some non-standard "email" that they chose to set up. They couldn't have picked a more ironic name for themselves if they tried.

I don't need this kind of nonsense this close to a big event like this, especially if I'm not in a position to resolve it during the work week.

This may well get resolved on Monday, but this review stands - Compgeeks chose to deal with Customer Service issues in this manner, and their broken system will still be there regardless of what eventually happens with this order.

----
Edit (08/28/07):

Well, it looks like Compgeeks pays more attention to RR than they do their email, because on Monday morning I got one of their staff on the phone to me before I had a chance to call.

Anyway, they overnighted a replacement to me, and guess what? It's the exact same wrong printer. I now have two of these beauties sitting at home. Maybe I should start a collection?

Now they're going to have to dare to go down to their warehouse and actually check whether what they're actually selling is what they claim to be selling. Here's hoping they follow up on their promise to call back once that's done.

I wonder how many other people have gotten burned by this bad batch or whatever and didn't even notice?

"

"I am very please with the pricing and the ease of the website, as well as the ordering procedure."

"Very prompt and helped with questions.
Very easy Website.
Have ordered from competition before, thought I'd try here. Good prices and deals here."

"All problems solved. The Geeks called me and made a genuine resolution to the concerns I had."

"I have been a customer of the Geeks for a few years now. I have never been dissapointed with their service or merchandise. If there was something wrong with the merchandise, they saw to it that it was replaced with no delay.
I plan on shopping here for many years to come.
Becky Lokrantz"

"Ordered an external hard drive enclosure. Received it fast and just as described. Pretty good price too."

"On April 15th I ordered an IntelSocket 478 Motherboard as a combo with chip/cpu for 192.99 (good deal)Too good to be true...yes! There was an integrated sound/video. The motherboard was sent with no info, no driver disk. I searched for 2 months online for the audio driver which I did finally find, however when I installed the driver, the sound still failed. I brought it to a tech to discover the sound card was bad. I spent an extra 70$ on a sound card, everything was up and running for a month...it was smoothe sailing until my power supply on my tower (also purchased from comp. geeks failed. 32$ later and a new power supply i was sailing again until the next day it stopped running altogether, after another visit to a local tech, i learned my motherboard was dead. On Aug 1 i returned my intel motherboard from CT to CA paid for Fed X ground shipping, (how generous) from comp. geeks. It arrived on Aug 8, On the 9th they shipped me a Biostar board, refurbished as a COMPRABLE return. However, when i recieved the board on the 16th with guide and driver disk. it failed to boot into BIOS. Another trip to the tech to check my chip and cpu with an Asus board to make sure there was nothing wrong with these components, and it booted in seconds, we discovered the Biostar was defective. I was able to get intouch with Comp geeks this morning after holding for 15 minutes. (That was 10:45 am, I finished my call at 11:14EST where I was informed a supervisor would be noted to my case and they would toss the idea around of either refunding me my $ eventhough I am past my 30day warranty, or perhaps they would consider bringing me up to the next chip as they have nothing instock with the Xtreme chip I already posess. So after waiting 3 hours I have tried contacting them again to discover this afternoon they have recieved such a "high volume" of calls they would take my # down again and contact me.Will this issue be taken care of.....maybe writing this review with get someone on the phone, as I have discovered computer geeks seem to take no stock or pride in their products or their customers.

Now: September 5th, after spending a week trying to get in contact with comp geeks after my last review, i was able to get an upgrade to a 775 chip, i had them expedite shipping this time so they would recieve it in 2 days as opposed to the 8 days it took the first time, however i mailed my complete combo board along with my RAM on Aug 27....No return by them as of yet, when I should have recieved my board by the 31st, so today after waiting on hold for 40 minutes and being hung up on twice, i was able to discover had they sent my upgrade when they were supposed to I would have my new package however, now that upgrade was no longer IN STOCK....so now, after 5 miserable months I suggested they stop wasting my time and give me a refund....they complied. How kind, now I simply wait 5-7 days and NEVER GO BACK TO COMPUTER GEEKS AGAIN. THANK YOU!!!"

"I ordered the morning of Friday August 10, and by Wednesday morning of the 15th, I have my product. Order fulfillment and delivery are great! I live in Virginia and this came from California. "

"It is hard to create a review when I don't haven't received the order. Reviews should not be requested until sufficient time has elapsed to allow timely delivery."

"First ordered a motherboard, received email later that it was sold out. No big deal so I ordered a different model. This model was defective. Geeks received the board May 30, 2007. I have still not been refunded for this board. I called geeks two weeks ago and they said I would have my money in 3 business days. I was also signed up for "Rewards" which began to charge $10 a month to my checking account without my consent.

edit: Geeks has taken my bad review very seriously. I have been contacted by phone and email. I have been fully refunded by Res. Rewards. I now await my refund which upon receiving I will be much more satisfied with the company. Geeks has really stepped up so far.

edit: they should be called Clowns not Geeks. Received my refund on 8-27. 90 days to refund for a defective motherboard. After I posted here and was contacted by them I had hope, but 2 weeks to receive refund after they called me is ridiculous.

If what you order works then fine but if there are problems good luck with these guys."

"Your customer service on products you sell is fantastic. I had a problem with one of the products and you shipped me a new product right away. You rate up with companies such as Costco for customer service."

"i ordered an external dvd drive on july 28th. as of august 2, order status is still processing. they are pretty slow. "

"I placed an order for a 42" VIZIO LCD TV. Was told that if I paid extra for shipping would receive the television within 2-3 business days. Paid for extra shipping. A week passed, and no television. Shipper calls to schedule delivery for following week?
Called Computer Geeks. Now I'm told delivery time is 5-7 business days? No offer to credit the
difference in the shipping cost to regular shipping cost. So, I cancelled the order. Have been charged with a $97.50 restocking fee on top of $258 shipping for an item that I never received. I'm out $355.50 for nothing. Save your money. Buy elsewhere. This company cannot be trusted."

"I have ordered several items from Geeks.com and have always been happy. The most recent purchase was refurbished. I was a little leery about buying a refurbished item, but my concerns were unfounded because it looks and works like brand new. I'm also amazed at how quickly Computer Geeks got my purchases to my front door. I recommend Geeks.com to everyone I know."

"AWESOME SERVICE, PRICE & QUALITY. I HIGHLY recommend this site to anyone. I have purchased all kinds of equipment from hard drives & cases to cameras and have NEVER had any problems at all."