"I had an excellent experience with this vendor. I purchased an IBM laptop. The purchasing process was very clear and full of information. I immediately received email confirmation of my order. Since my shipping address and billing address were different, I received another email reminding me to call my credit car company and list the alternate address. Roughly 36 hours later, I got a shipment notice. I received the laptop the next day (mostly because I live one state away from California where they ship from). I didn't have to deal with customer service so I don't know how that is. Everything went perfectly."

"Bought a Sony LCD on 2-23-2005. I used their free shipping and received the item on 2-24-05. Costcentral had the lowest price out there. I couldn't be happier. "

"Everything went Great - No Touchpad Poker Here Humans answer the phone - I will be Returning!!!"

"I had a great experience. Excellent prices, good customer services. I don't know much about computers and the gentlemen I spoke with was very helpful. I would reccommend this site to anyone."

"I ordered a cannon multi function printer on the 13th. Their web pages showed the item in stock. I kept checking back to get a tracking number as they claim all instock items ship within 24 hours. After waiting 2 days I called. They said the order would be entered that day. 24 hour shipping? It is now the 16th and still no shipping information.

10/18 Update: A tracking number has been assigned but the carrier (FEDEX) does not have possession of the shippment.

Bottom Line, Buy it somewhere else that has a better fullfillment process. Try NewEgg or Zipzoomfly. They won't let you hang . . . ."

"I purchased the student edition of MS Office XP Professional 10 days before Christmas. It arrived 3 days later via Fed Ex. They require students to prove student status by e-mailing a jpg copy of their (dated) student ID; this was very hassle free. I have to admit I was a little concerned due to the recent reviews, but I figured this purchase was pretty straightforward and that I wasn't going to need tech support."

"Good prices, very mediocre service.

I ordered various small items on the 28th of November, and after hearing nothing from the company (apart from an order confirmation) for over a week, I emailed them. It turns out that one of the items had been out of stock, and they never felt the need to let me know. After I told them to remove the out of stock item from my order, they promptly sent me the remaining items."

"I was satisfied with my purchase from cost central. They have the cheapest prices and a seemingly good real-time inventory system. I purchased an HP vp6120 projector from them, as they had the cheapest price. My only complaint is that it was supposed to ship the next day, but didn't for a couple days, delaying arrival by 2 days (which was kind of an inconvenience for me). They could do a little better job updating the tracking info as well. Other than those two things everything was great.

"

"Excellent experience with Cost Central. The price (which included shipping) was about the lowest. I purchased a Xerox 8200B Phaser printer first and received it 2 days later. It was defective when I received it because it had light stripes in the printout. I contacted Xerox about the problem, they had me run the cleaning utility (which uses a lot of ink, especially doing it 3 times). Problem solved, but 2 days later (and only about a total of 100 or so pages) it re-appeared. Cleaning again. Gone, then re-appeared (and I ran out of ink). Contacted Xerox again, they would send a service tech. Decided that I didn't trust the printer to ever work right and certainly not reliably for the long term, so I called Cost Central on Thursday to return the printer. Explained the brief (10 day) history and that I wanted to order a replacement model (8200DP). They said that they would have a UPS call tag issued (it was shipped originally by UPS) and put an order in for the replacement. I received the replacement printer on the following Monday (and it happened to be shipped by FedEx, although I prefer UPS) and UPS picked up the defective printer. And Cost Central paid for the return shipping. No hassle whatsoever, in fact I was not just immensely impressed, I was amazed at the superb level of service.

Not only is their service excellent, they seem to have a large inventory available, so there is not a wait. Their web site even tells you their current stock of each item."

"Excessive restocking fees and incomplete information on the WEB site."

"Summary: Appears to not care about customers. Actions make me feel like their fulfillment department intentionally spit in my face.

I was looking for an Okiadata C5300N color laser printer -- the latest kind with 'bang' color saturation and glossiness; truly an impressive new printer. Page Computer and Cost Central had the best price. Cost Central had better reviews here (although less -- maybe because they fight to have bad ones deleted), so I decided to give it a shot, pending the availability of FedEx ground.

Gave them a call. Indeed, they said they'd provide Fedex ground, "no problem" - just go online, place the order, and put the request for Fedex ground in the order notes. "The order notes you fill out online are the first things that pop up when the order is fulfilled".

So I placed an order for $1337.26 -- for the printer, 2 black toners, and 1 each of the color toners. In the order notes, I put that this must ship via Fedex. That "we cannot and will not accept orders for Fragile items by UPS". Crytal, after all, gets delivered as sand by UPS as they SHAKE & STIR! (and punch, and kick and distort boxes into new shapes!)

Called back to get the tracking #, since they don't send 'em via email. It was by UPS! Ugh!!

And customer service kept saying two contradictory things "that's odd, we normally ship printers via FedEx" and "don't worry, UPS is superior, anyway". UPS is superior for package abuse. The only companies that can destroy packages more than UPS are occasionally Airborne Express and USPS. FedEx isn't perfect, but they're well beyond UPS. Anyone who receives packages on a normal basis knows that. We get shipments every day! UPS prefers to grind things into dust -- they're well known for that. Unless we're getting shipments of bubble wrap and bubble envelopes, UPS is less than ideal -- and reivews at places like epinions.com show that. Again, Fedex isn't perfect, but they're probably the best out there, especially for fragile matter.

Obviously Cost Central gets a killer deal on UPS, and management tells their employees to recite the mantra that UPS is the shipping mecca, even though the employees themselves have probably received more than 1 destroyed package by UPS, and plenty of packages just fine via Fedex.

Meanwhile, while chanting this manta, they must tell fulfilment to ship fragile items via FedEx, not giving them any reasons. But the real reason is FedEx is less likely to destroy the package. Their contract may cost them a few pennies more with FedEx, but at least they're reliable, and despite what they say, they must actually know that since, again, 'That's odd. We normally ship printers via FedEx'. Duh.

For acting the completely opposite of the customers intent, and in fact, trying to spite me by shipping via UPS when they normally ship printers via FedEx, and I specifically told them, in kind words in the order notes that only FedEx was acceptable -- I easily give them 1 star. Now they refuse to fix their error, even claiming that they can't recall a package from UPS -- when I've done so through various carries myself myself for customers of mine.

It's a bunch of nonsense. I HATE being dicked around needlessly. Lying is completely unacceptable, and makes customers feel like sh*t. If I treated my customers like that, I wouldn't have a business! And neither should Cost Central if they're going to act this way, giving me a series of contradictory lies. I'm not saying the people I've talked to haven't been nice acting on the surface. They have, and probably are actually good folks -- not part part of the problem themselves, per se. Their fulfillment center caused a problem, and the phone people relay contradictory info about UPS and FedEx, and the inability to recall packages. I can't be sure, but they're probably not empowered by management to fix problems, or relay accurate information. It could probably be a great company if they fixed problems, and were brutally honest -- but then again, that could make any company great, couldn't it?

I wanted to love this company (their prices are fantastic, their website is good, and presales info is fab), but can't. Fixing problems is the mark of a lovable company."

"Ordered online on June 9 at @9:00 PM. Ordered Sony DR-510A DVD burner and one box of DVD-R discs and one box of DVD+RW discs. They are one of the few *low-cost* sites where you can buy both hardware and blank media. Received confirmation email at 9:02PM same night. Email had link to website where I could view status of my order. Next morning, I noticed I had been invoiced for DVD burner but not the blank discs. I phoned there toll-free number to ask why, and they very clearly and politely told me that they don't invoice anybody until they know that the item has actually shipped. Since the DVD burner shipped from their main facility in Erie, PA, they knew it had shipped. One of the blank disc boxes shipped from Tennessee and one from Harrisburg, PA. They did not immediately know if these had shipped, so they did not immediately invoice me. I thought this was a very good policy. I received the box of discs from Tennessee at my home in Florida on Thursday and the DVD burner and remaining box of discs on Friday, June 13. Shipped UPS ground. The website also had a link from a UPS tracking number to the UPS website, where I could track the progress of my packages. Excellent experience with this company. Would buy from them again."

"I bought a Phaser 6200/DP from them and had no problems whatsoever. Ordered on 3/31/03 and they shipped it the same day (free shipping). I received the printer on 4/3/03. I also ordered the hard drive for the printer and it came right with the printer. Would order from them again."