"Do not even consider ordering from CoolDrives!

I ordered 3, 8 inch "latching" SATA cables but, was shipped 3, standard non latching cables.

I should have heeded the dire warnings about CoolDrives before I ordered but, I couldn't imagine how they could screw up such a simple order. I am now a firm believer that all of the negetive comments about them are absolutely true.

I already told them it wasn't worth my time to return such a small order and would just relate my experence here.

Bottom line, CoolDrives shipped me the wong items and no amout of "spin" from them can justfy that.
The invoice included with the wrongly packed items clearly states "latching" cables with a different part number than the ones shipped.

"

"Gosh - that was a ridiculous experience.

I ordered a Quad SATA Enclosure at a great price. Then the problems started. They emailed me to tell me they would need to build it slightly differently and it would cost an upcharge of $10. I approved. Then they emailed me to tell me they would need to build it slightly differently for an other upcharge of $20. I approved.

But stupidly I asked if I would be able to return the unit if these configuration changes meant that it wouldn't work.

They first responded not to worry it would definitely work but they wouldn't be able to give a refund.

Four minutes later they responded that they had canceled my order.

Horrible experience with horrible people.

Skippee!"

"The Bad: Very poor experience. Received a RAID card in an open whitebox, looks like used merchandise. ESD bag was open (doesn't even fit the card), and shipped with no instruction leaflet, driver disc, or cables.
The Good: Cheap prices if you don't mind receiving stuff in this condition!!"

"First of all, this seller makes it extremely difficult to get any service, customer or technical. Emails sent to cooldrives.com bounce back with a note to visit www.returnsite.com. And when one gets there, one finds the longest and most restrictive T&C ever. It's like they think the world is out to get them. That carried through the whole experience.

Me: I just received the item back with a replaced power supply. There was also a note saying that the new power supply is NOT warranteed. Am I reading that correctly?

TECH:that is correct once a specific customer demages our product by using his own drives that may have made item devective we no longer provide warranty after we repair or replace the item!

Me: And how did you determine that my four brand new Seagate drives damaged the product?

TECH:get a multi meter and test each drive for power consumption (amperage), yes new drives can fail as well

Me: I will do that, but you've already decided that my drives are the problem. Power supplies crap out as well.

TECH:you are correct we have seen drives demage our power adapters

Me: "Have seen drives demage our power adapters" is nowhere near conclusive. So, to decide without any evidence that I caused the problem is very bad service. This was my first purchase from your company and it will be the last. Furthermore, I will visit every review site and online rating site I can find and relate my experience. I should have known it would go like this after reading the most restrictive terms & conditions I have ever seen. Have a nice day.

TECH: thank you so much
CC: ****@****

Me: Nice. My opinion of your company is confirmed."

"WORST experience I've ever had with an online vendor! Stay far far away!

Upon placing an order through their website ( which is full of unprofessional misspellings, grammatical errors and duplicate items with different product codes ) I noticed that the item I purchased is available on their site under a different name for $40 less!

I promptly sought out a way to contact them, and found that their only method of communication is through e-mail. A bit put off by this, I filled out the necessary form and mentioned the duplicate item with a lower price.

After not hearing back from them for nearly 24 hours and after reading their reviews on another site ( which were worse than I had ever seen ), I decided I'd like to cancel my order.

I filled out the e-mail form a second time expressing my wish to cancel and received a response within a few hours:

"We will cancel your order. You should have reviewed our policy before you even placed the order. You will most likely be charged some sort of fee because you have now wasted the time of our technician for your order."

This is by far the least professional e-mail I have EVER received from an online vendor. I recommend you stay far far away from cooldrives.com or any other storefronts for "QCUSA, INC." ( which I've later come to find is listed as being an inactive business in the state of Florida )."

"Seeing that a representative from Cooldrives would have such an amazing lack of maturity and professionalism to actually post a message on this site calling their customer an idiot should be enough to turn any reasonable person away from ever giving them business. Still, I feel compelled to add my own input:

I would recommend that everybody stay away from this company. My credit card company denied a charge from them because they thought it was fraudulent activity. Below is the entire email history between Cooldrives and me showing how they completely mishandled a problem that would have been easily remedied by any capable organization. I allow the reader to be the judge:

(Messages edited to remove personal information.)

9/28/2006 - COOLDRIVES:
-----------------------
(Automated message edited for length)

(Your order) Can Not Be Processed at this time due to:

Credit Information Provided to US is Invalid or Card Expired or Declined!... check your credit card billing statement and use this information on our site as the Bill to:

You may want to use our 128-Bit Safe and Secure Site to Replace your
information:

[link removed]

Action Required by You: PLease Replace the Order on the Site!

Message Sent By: [Cooldrives]

Status: Order is on HOLD Status until requirements are complied with!

If You Have Any Additional Questions:

Please Use Our Secursite to Initiate Help Support/ RMA's @ other Questions [link removed]

THANK YOU!

9/28/2006 - (ACTIONS I TOOK TO RESOLVE:)
----------------------------------------
[Resolved the problem with the credit card's Fraud Department. They did not have this business listed as a web retailer so declined since the charge came from Florida and I live in Illinois. They removed the restriction after they talked to me and I told them it was a legitimate charge. - I then replaced the order on the Cooldrives web site using the link they provided in the automated email shown above. No confirmation email ever came back from Cooldrives after I did this.]

10/2/2006 - ME:
---------------
Can somebody there please give me a status update on this order?

I placed the order on 9/27 and received a message about a problem with my credit card and a link to provide new payment information. I checked with my credit card company; they had denied the original charge fearing fraudulent activity since I live in Illinois and the charge came through Florida (for some reason they did not have it marked as a web-based order.)

The credit card company removed the restriction and I resubmitted the information. It has now been a few days and I haven't heard anything. No email, no charge on the card, etc.

Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do.

Thanks,
[RM]

10/2/2006 - COOLDRIVES:
-----------------------
Above are the details from our system, we emailed you that the credit card was not authorized.

[Cooldrives]

[There were no additional details, above or otherwise.]

10/2/2006 - ME:
---------------
Yes, I know your system sent an email. That email had a link to replace my billing information (see below). I followed that link and provided the billing information again after the credit card company removed the restriction. Did that not go through? What do I need to do to get this order processed?

Thanks.
[RM]

EMAIL I RECEIVED AND FOLLOWED THE LINK TO UPDATE MY BILLING INFORMATION:

[pasted in automated message I received]

10/2/2006 - COOLDRIVES:
-----------------------
It shows that is has not been able to authorize.

10/2/2006 - ME:
---------------
I appreciate the quick responses, but I think there is still a misunderstanding here.

I understand the ORIGINAL charge (9/27) was denied. This was denied by the [bank's] fraud department. They called me about this to verify it was a legitimate charge. I told them it was and they have since removed the block for this charge.

After that, I resubmitted my billing information on your website using the link provided to me in your email.

I called [my bank] again today and they tell me this charge was only ever submitted to them once... it was never resubitted after the block was taken off.

Therefore, I can only conclude the charge was not resubmitted after I provided updated billing information in response to your email. I think this charge simply needs to be submitted to the credit card company again; it should be approved this time since the fraud block has been removed.

Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do.

Thanks,
[RM]

10/2/2006 - COOLDRIVES:
-----------------------
sorry you need to find another supplier

10/3/2006 - ME:
---------------
I will gladly take my business elsewhere. I can honestly say that in all of my years of shopping online, I have never encountered a company with such a lack of customer service.

I will certainly make it a point to post a negative review of your company on whatever ratings services I can find.

[RM]"

"I had to return a device and the RMA instructions were fairly vauge. I tried to get some information from them and they only said read read read. I had to pay to return the item which I have never done before. Then I get a call from the biggest jerk in the world telling me if I didn't like paying to return it or their policy then I should shop at wal-mart. What a joke this place is for customer service. I guess that is why they are inexpensive. I am furious with this place. Stay away. Stay FAR FAR away. "

"Ordered (in wife's name as she had the credit card with room on it) a dual drive firewire enclosure. They never processed order and cancelled it without notice (they claim they emailed us but we never got it) and refused to reinstate it. Trying to deal with their tech support / customer support was a nightmare. -- UPDATE -- their reply is hilarious. As if I am not a real person. I tried to buy something from their site and couldn't [placed the order which they never fulfilled and then several weeks later cancelled without telling us] and they were rude and hard to deal with. Like resellerratings.com is not a real independent review site. Sorry guys..."

"Update.
Read the response from cooldrives below my post.It is Full of lies, but serves as a fine example of the shopping experience at cooldrives.com...aweful and unprofessional.
(this is my original post/review)
"I was cursed by a customer rep for submitting a trouble ticket to find out the status of my order. According to cooldrives.com I am an idiot who does not read the checkout page...they forget my order was 650.00 so I have the right to be a dumb customer. After that whole mess, they requested my item to be shipped back to sender without notifying me or refunding my money...scam artists. they also go by qualitycables.com""

"CoolDrives, a good place to shop for SATA-Products. Overall a good shopping experience

We purchased a SATA RAID-5 Controller and a SATA II Port Multiplier. Shipping was prompt and the items arrived in good condition. I was disappointed in the documentation. It was generic and did not address the specific configuration options of the devices purchased. The driver CD had drivers for at least 20 different devices and no root level document on which drivers to install. If one knew the model of the Silicon Image chip, one could figure out which drivers and RAID manager to install. Unfortuantely the chip is covered with a very generic RAID-5 sticker. Fortunately the web site lists the chip model and the sticker is easily removeable. However this should not be necessary. I did email tech support with a question and they responded promptly and accurately. I greatly appreciate this. I would do business with them again (CoolGear/CoolDrives) but buying/using these products requires a fair level of knowledge, as posted on their site."

"While everything went great for the most part, I was able to order something that was out of stock, which took extra time to resolve. I did finally get my order and I got a free upgrade to a better unit for the same price. I would purchase from the again. I have just placed an order with them yesterday. Customer service is very helpful online."

"Copy of my Yahoo Rating Request Email.

Title:
Body: I LOVE the product!!!!
Excellent quality and excellent packaging.
The website for the drive was a little difficult to navigate as far as dictating which package to pick from, the IDE/SATA or just SATA by itself. I have had to assist three other people in navigating the site as well. "

"I ordered a RAID enclosure and a couple of PCIe RAID controllers. Found out one RAID controller was not in stock so I asked them to remove it from my order and ship the rest of the items ASAP, they replied with a single word "Done". Waited one month still nothing, so I sent another email stating that I had not received my order and they replied with "we will ship what we can asap". Waited an aditional 15 days and still nothing. Sent another email to cancel order to which they replied "Your order will be cancelled". Not very good business ethics if you ask me. "

"I purchased the Coolgear 5 Rack SATA II with port multiplier and a ss-sa2r pci-x sata card.
I was unable to have a raid 5 build complete on 3 new maxtor 250 gig drives.
Also, the disks were not stable under windows 2K running as a Raid 0, or JBOD. One of the drives would go offline after several hours.
The same drives are working fine as a raid 5 array under linux and a Promise SATA card.

I returned the products, but was hit with a 25% restocking fee.
This is isn't fair, as they products are defective.
But customer support doesn't care and offered some theat if I pursured the matter "than we have no choice put to void your rights to privacy"


"

"Tech Support is terrible!!!

I would not recommend to anybody to buy products from this store. Thier web site is as bad as their tech support!!! Non existant.

Just before Christmas I bought a Sata 5 bay enclosure with a Silicon Image 3726 port multiplier made by CoolGear which also runs Cooldrives.com. Didn't have any problems with order or shipping. "Yea"

That was just the begining. I recieved the product hooked up the enclosure installed my Hard Drives, and have had nothing but performance issues, lockups, drives not being seen all the time, hangups on boot, etc.

Emailed tech support got a response a week later. closed for three weeks over the holidays, sucks. Finally had the owner of the company call me and tell me that all the problems I was having with the port multiplier were normal. I should have read the 87 page document on the "Silicon Image Website" and it would have informed me about all the issues I was having. Oh by the way there is no link For End Users to this non-existant document. He was an expert and I was an Idot.

I got mad and told him I didn't appreciate being treated like a "blank" idiot. He proceded to tell me that because I swore, that all my personal information would be disclosed to other vendors and hung up.

Bottom Line do not do business with these guys!!!!

They run multiple web sites also, make sure not to purchase from one of the other sites.

Final Note: They did not want to do anything about the crappy product they sold!!! Its new technology and their design for the port multiplier was released before the standard was finalized.

They are trying to profit off new technology and do not care about issues with their products.

Update 1/11/06
After just a few weeks, one of the fans in the drive bays is going bad already, making all kinds of noise. "Quality Equipment" Wont even try to return it not worth the trouble."