"Purchased Microsoft Office XP Pro (OEM) from EBC. CD's had obviously been in a stack that was bound with a rubber band and had been subjected to heat enough to warp the discs just enough that once placed in the drive, they rubbed on the drive interior and scratched and would not spin up to the point of being able to be read from. Went to return the CD's and their policy is no refunds period on software, even though they sold defective merchandise in the first place. There was no way to discern the cd's were warped without taking them out of the package and placing them on a falt surface. Who is going to do that in the store? Especially when they practically rush you out the door. I have also purchased from them: 1 defective motherboard, 8 sticks of RAM that went belly up about one month past their warranty date, three sound cards that died shortly after purchase and one video card that was DOA. None of these hardware purchases would they exchange, let alone refund.
I started buying from them for our small business since their prices were cheap and they seemed to carry hard to get new items. Now their prices are barely competitive and after being burned so many times before (yes, can you say idiot for going back so many times?) I have finally decided they are not worth the savings.
The company is very dishonest with the way they say they warrant things for 5 days and then will not do anything to honor that warranty.
These guys should be burnt at the stake. I hope to see this company out of business in under a year. Die!!!"
"I purchased a video card from EBC about 10 months ago [MSI G4 Ti 4400]. It in a new retail box, all parts and extra CDs included.
It worked flawlessly for 10 months, but I started having problems with the card yesterday (screen garbage, system lock ups). Troubleshooting was cake, for another card worked fine in the system, and the MSI would cause the same symptoms in my wife's system.
Fully aware of their 30 day return policy, and not able to find my invoice, I went to their Layton store, and asked them to pull up my invoice. I explained to them that I was more than willing to get an RMA on my own through MSI, but that a copy of the invoice would be helpful.
The latino gentlemen at the counter, who had spent 30 minutes assisting a customer before me, suddenly 'lost the ability' to speak good english, and was very cold and non helpful. All he would do was give me the number for MSI (I allready had that), and say 'no' in a bad mexican accent if I asked for anything else.
I returned this morning (after finding this site) and much to my pleasure I found a young fellow behind the counter who could communicate. I explained my situation to him, told him I wasn't ripping them off, and even suggested that he stamp or note on the invoice that it was only a copy. I won't give his name because he will probably get in trouble for helping me, but thank you, you know who you are.
So Now I am waiting for my RMA number from MSI. I hope I'm not out 300 bucks :)
******UPDATE March 28th *******
I got an RMA on March 7th, sent my bad vcard back to MSI (Microstar) on the 10th along with the copy of my invoice, and today (March 28th) got a new Ti 4800SE in the retail box. Their RMA department was kind and friendly, actually answered their phone quickly (very important to me), and had my information within seconds. No hassel, no problem, no pain.
Thanks MSI for knowing how to take care of customers. I wish EBC would take a hint from you guys. And thank you Kelvin from the RMA department for being so helpful. You all rock and are winners in my book!
******UPDATE January 21, 2004*******
I 'almost' considered walking in their store to buy a power supply today. But lucky me...
It seems EBC has closed their location in Layton, UT. I can't say I'm terribly surprised - if they insist upon their current business practices, I imagine their other stores will soon follow suit. Not to kick a company when they're down.. but c'mon EBC... you had to see this coming.
tsk tsk"
"when i first started to use EBC they were great but now they just suck, i was just in there the other day and after waiting 30mins for some to come out of the back to help me, the guy we got was in such a rush to get off, he messed up and only had taken half the order and then he told some other guy to help us because he was leaving, and many other times when i have bought parts there, the sales person i got didn't speak eglish very well or the person didn't know how to spell very good."
"I made alot of purchases from EBC and never had a problem. So has my brother, but he did have a problem. I went with him to EBC Computers to get exchange a Hard Drive that he bought 2 days before and when he installed it, it did not work. He had his invoice with him, but when he talked to the sales rep he told my bother that they had no record of this invoice and would not exchange it for him. But they gave him a Phone number to Seagate. When my brother called Seagate he was told that the HD he has was only suppose not to be sold in the US. And because of that his warranty is not sold.
I don't think that it is a coincidance that the record of the sale was lost and also the HD was not valid in the US. EBC knew. I will never shop at this place again. Add this to paying extra for the MSI Graphics part. EBC are crooks and should be out of business, I will never shop her again."
"ebccomputers is a piece of shit. I spent about 3 grands in their store alone within the last year but they still screw me over. The sale people are rude. Warranty sucks. They don't have all the products as advertise, waste my time to drive to their store, suck ass return policy that will screw you up if the parts are not working properly."
"EBC totally sucks and they have crappy return policies which end up bending you over if you ever have any problems."
"I'VE HAD NOTHING BUT GREAT RESULTS FROM EBC, NONE OF THE AFORE MENTIONED PROBLEMS HAVE AROSE,I 'VE BEEN DEALING WITH THEM FOR ABOUT A YEAR NOW NEXT MONTH. OVERALL PERFORMANCE WITH CUSTOMER REPS TOTALLY SATIFACTORY!"
"Purchased an AMD Athlon XP 1800 and an eVGA Geforce 4 Ti 4600. As of today, 13 July 2002, both parts are DEAD. The Athlon burned up, and the Geforce freezes any system that I put it in. I have a suspicion that I was sold a REMARKED VIDEO CARD (RETURNED AND SOLD AS NEW)!!. As he was processing my RMA he said that they had only sold 2 of those cards. Things that make you go HMMM. Anywho, I am never going to buy another AMD processor from them or anyone else. I am currently using my 1 GHz P-!!! and have no problems with it at all. Avoid EBC for all major parts purchases, smaller things like cables and such should be all right.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10/11/2002
EBC Computers profiled on local news
From kutv.com
EBC Computers
Bill Gephardt
Oct 3, 2002 12:52 pm US/Mountain
How would you feel if you bought something only to learn you couldn't use it until you bought a plug or a cord that was supposed to be in the same box? When an Orem man didn't get an item he was supposed to get when he bought a computer video card, he decided to Get Gephardt.
It's simple, I think. If the front of a package tells you what's inside, you can expect it to be inside. More than that, it's the law. So, what happened in this case?
Gary Meyer handles his frustrations through computer games.
"Takin' out my aggression on someone else."
Gary's latest frustration is with a computer accessory he bought from EBC Computers in Orem. He paid $275 for his new video card, and then came the surprise...
"When I checked the contents of the box one of the parts was missing."
That missing part is a plug Gary needed to be able to run the device. The plug is pictured right here, as included, on the back of Gary's box. So where's the plug? Gary says when he asked the Orem store manager, he said...
"We are actually instructed to take that part out of the box and sell it for an additional $7 cost."
What? When Gary challenged EBC's policy, he says he was told he was free to do with the product as he wanted to.
Gep: "Oh, really. We contacted MSI, the manufacturer of that video card, and said is that true? That the retailer is allowed to reach into that box and take that plug out? MSI said absolutely not. Anything that is included in that box should stay in the box and be sold that way."
That seems to make sense...
"The contents of the box should be as the contents of the box are listed as being."
So, I contacted EBC to ask about their policy of removing this part from the box.
Gep: "I talked with EBC owner Eduardo Bedea, and he didn't want to talk about any of this on camera, but he said that he didn't know that the practice of taking things out of the box was illegal."
But now, he'll make a deal with Gary, and anyone else to whom this may have happened. Rather than selling the plug separately, he'll give it to them for free.
It's simple, if it's listed on the front of the box, you can expect to get it when you open the box.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
"I live minutes from EBC and I know first hand at how poor this company is. The nick name I hear form countless people for them is "The Computer Nazis" I must say that I completely agree. I went to there website and although the prices werent as low as pricewatch, the fact that they were close and I would have my product the second I purchased it motivated me to go try them out. I was building my sister a computer for her Graduation present and I had made a list based on their website. I then went to the store and to my surprise out of my entire list only 1 thing was actually in stock. Some of the things they even told me were discontinued. The cashier was incredibly rude and had a very bad attitude. I almost want to go picket in front of the store so people know what they are getting into. I rate this company extremely badly. They have bad attitudes and care less about their customers. I have heard many many horror stories from many different people. DO NOT BUY FROM EBC!!"
"Let's flip the coin over.
I, however, do not agree with EBC selling used parts as new. The parts do go through a 36-hour re-testing process, but this doesn't mean they are new or refurbished. This is a very gray area to try and verify the parts are as good as new. Especially, if the problem was intermittant in the first place. EBC should lower the price on these parts, sell them as used, and raise all of their prices on other products slightly to cover the increased cost ( or loss). They should also offer no in-store warranty and state the remaining manufacturers warranty on the used parts. In this manner there are no illusions in the customer's mind as to the customer service on these parts.
I also feel that there are some customers requests that have been mis-handled. Unfortunately, anger often gets in the way. I am not speaking so much of Eddy personally (he's usually as cool as a cucumber), but of some of the staff and some of the customers. The key is to be civil and polite. If you lose your temper as a customer, it can result in the management losing their tempers and then you lose. At that point, you may as well kiss your service goodbye. As my mother used to say, "honey attracts flies better than vinegar".
Additionally, the time that it takes sales associates to enter an order is too long. They need to revamp the invoicing system to a realtime system that makes a sales order and invoice all at once by scanning the serial barcode or an EBC specific SKU barcode into the system. This would solve the long waits for sales orders.
And finally, I suggest that you inspect all parts that you recieve from EBC extremely closely, and be extremely careful with the part when installing it into your computer. Any physical damage caused directly by you or others (besides Tech support) will void any EBC AND Manufacturers warranties expressed or implied.
If you recieve damaged or equipment that you suspect is used, I suggest that you refuse that equipment. (Keep in mind that in order to scan serial number barcodes into their computers the seals on the static bags are often broken on motherboards and modems. This means you should inspect the part closer for possible marks from mounting or inserting motherboards or video/modem/network/sound cards. Also, check the seals on monitor boxes and power supplies {whether inside or outside the case}.)
My final words are this:
Research your products
Know what you want
Call ahead for a will call
Don't accept used equipment
Inspect closely
Wear static wrist strap when installing your equipment
Don't overclock (or admit to overclocking), or play with settings in the BIOS you don't understand
Know the warranty, RMA, and return polices of EBC and expect them to enforce them.
Don't break seals or remove stickers
Keep your original invoice
Be polite and calm when seeking a return/RMA
This is a way to avoid problems and hassle with EBC if you follow it closely. If you choose to ignore me then, "let the buyer beware."
"
"Their pricing policy is weak. I paid cash for a monitor, but they charged me the 2% premium for checks and credit cards. When I brought it to their attention (within hours) they refused to refund the difference. I've found their salespeople rude.
I've also found that if they don't want to honor the price listed on their website, they hide behind the policy that "prices can change without notice."
"
"Just for fun, here's a couple letters from their owner:
I wrote:
I recently had to return a DVD drive that did not work. Although I've bought
quite a bit from you in the past with no problems I've got to say that this
was the most painful retail experience I can remember.
I live in Idaho and had to have my brother return the drive. Despite having
all the info in the computer you required the "original" receipt. This ended
up costing me an additional $10 to get the paperwork to him in enough time
to meet your extremely short deadline. Then once the item is returned you
refuse to give him the money and insist on mailing it instead, leaving me to
find a way to get him money for his time and gas. Then when I receive the
check it is $2 less than the original purchase price. When I called the
store to ask about this they told me that they only refunded the current
selling price, not the purchase price. If this is the case, why did I need
the receipt? You obviously used it for nothing but an excuse to prolong the
transaction. And why would you make your customers pay you $2 for testing
your equipment?
I recently started a small PC repair business in small town Idaho. It was my
intention to visit you monthly to maintain my stock. Your prices were good
enough to justify the travel. But in this case, you saved me $10 over a
retail box that came with software (which I ended up buying for my customer
from another source). But then it cost me $10 in mailing plus travel just to
get the item returned. Not to mention the fact that you charged me an
additional $2 just for the pleasure of testing your faulty equipment.
Needless to say, I'm rethinking my buying strategy. And although I make
frequent trips to Salt Lake, I will put up with the equally bad service at
LS or pay the extra and go to CompUSA from now on. I haven't decided whether
I should do anything more yet or not. But I do want to make it perfectly
clear that you have made one very unhappy customer.
To which he replied:
Dear Chad,
I am very sorry about your comments with our store. Unfortunally what's how
they are. We have the best prices on probably the whole state of Utah and
maybe others, but that comes with a price and it's service or customer
service. It's very hard and you probably will know with your business to
give both.
Have a good weekend....!
Edy A. Bedoya
Purchaser
To which I said:
That still doesn't explain why I should have to pay $2 to test a piece of
equipment that never worked. Can you explain that to me?
Which he so articulately explained like this:
Chad,
You didn't pay $2.00 for test a CDROM. You paid $2.00 because the prices
drop on computers and our policy stated that we will pay you the current
price or what you paid, what ever is lower. Why....? Because, we have
many customers that in the passed they used to return the products, so they
can buy them a cheaper price from us after a few days. Our prices are the
most currents, if a HD drop in price, within no more that 2 to 3 day, we
drop our prices....! and then we are in the same situation which means
that customers trying to return it and then again buy them from us a cheaper
price. So, by this policy, we don't have a this problem any more and at
this same time, we deliver the best prices to our customers.
Thanks,
Edy A. Bedoya
Fun doing business with them.
"
"Despite what others have said, both me and my brother have spent around 3k total and havn't had any problems that we could trace to EBC or bad parts. Good prices, though the salespeople are a bit impersonal. As has been said before, make sure you know what you're getting will work in your machine and you won't have any problems. I had to return one item before and it went farily painlessly."