"Ordered 3 day delivery with a message to cancel the order if they couldn't guarantee that. I live in France and a friend was leaving from the US on Feb. 5th.
The CPU I ordered was delivered on Feb. 6th after my friend already left and 7 days after order not 3!!! It's useless to me now and I asked for a refund. No response from ECONOPC to my emails."

"This place is a joke. When I called to find out where my Bare bones system was they admited on the phone that they could not ship in thier advertised time frame. Then they refused to cancel my order because my card had allready been charged. Suggest you go to http://www.ag.state.il.us/pdf/conscomp.pdf and send in a complaint to the Illinois Attorney General. I have filed a dispute with my credit card company also. Be sure to do that if you are being jacked by this company. It will protect you from any cancelation fees they may decide to impose on you. If they do not ship the item in thier specified time frame any reputable credit card company will insure that you are refunded your money."

"Worst purchasing experience ever. PC arrived dead - I sent back at my own expense. Since then I'd received no answers to emails or phone messages left (FORGET getting through to their RMA line because it's CONSTANTLY busy). Finally, got an email back today only after advising their sales person that I am going to contact the Illinois Attorney General (if I get ambitious I'll contact all the other people who have complained about Econopc on the internet to add more weight to the complaint). If you have any questions about Econopc just do a search for them in Google and read the horror stories."

"I ordered my item on New Year's day, and then I remembered this site so I came to read up on the reviews. I was worried after reading all the negative things that I thought I made a very bad decision. I figured from their information on the product that the orders ship in 7 to 10 business days, then I added the shipping of 5-7 business days for UPS Ground, my choice for shipping. I came up with a delivery date of 12 to 17 business days. On Friday, 1/10/2003, I called them to check on the status of my order. I was told the order will ship early part of the following week. I was skeptical about that response, but on Monday, 1/13/2003, I received the order! That was way less than the minimum 12 business days!!! What can I say, but that they did a very good job for me. I'm not sure what all the situations were with all the other reviewers, but I will buy from them again and recommend them as well. The price was great and the service was good. Maybe the reviews here caused them to improve on their service, but I have nothing bad to say about them as of now! Give them another try!

eO"

"Bought a ak31a. Recieved an ak31. When I finally reached someone who spoke legible english, I was told that I had bought an ak31 not an ak31a, then when i didn't accept that I was told that these two motherboards were in fact the same motherboard. Wow, I really appreciate the respect for my intelligence they demonstrated."

"I ordered a MB/CPU combo from econopc on 12/16 and opted for 3 day delivery so I could have it before christmas. On 12/20 I went to the site to check on the progress of my order and it said "in process". Upon contacting them by phone, they informed me that this supposedly instock item hadn't even been shipped yet. Their excuse:"We've been running behind because of the christmas rush." I downgraded my 3 day shipping to normal ground as there wasn't much sense in paying for a service I obviously wasn't going to get, and called back on 12/23, as they said it would go out on 12/20. No surprise, it was *still* "in process", meaning it was still sitting on a shelf in their store(?). With adament promises that it would be sent out that day, I waited until 12/26 and called again. Can you guess by now? Nosireebob, it was *still* in the blackhole econopc calls their warehouse. Enough was enough, and I cancelled my order then and there. Also told them it would help if they hired extra help for christmas like most other retailers do(more people who could speak understandable english wouldn't hurt either).
******Update******
Econopc reimbursed me my entire amount, and did not charge me the $45.00 cancellation fee. Maybe they're finally starting to get a clue. "

"I bought a bare-bones system from these guys because of the low price. After several months, the system died. I tried to call them to see if they knew what the problem was before I tried anything, but I only got a busy signal. I e-mailed them, marked it high priority, but never received a reply. To this day, I have not received a reply to my e-mail, and the phone is still busy every time I call."

"pushing two weeks with no shipment...6 phone calls and several emails. I did not pay the bribe for fast shipment, and i DID jump through the hoops for uninsured shipping. (copy of driver's licence and credit card with signature) My order is still on hold, and no one there can explain why or do anything about it. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY.

UPDATE

they hang up on you (if they answer), lie about sending emails. deny receiving emails, barely speak english, and if you want unisured shipping, good luck. btw...to email back the unisured shipping form, you have to send it about ten times to ****@****, but the hyperlink on their email says that, but the mailto: link is ****@****, which is a black hole. They finally admitted (again) to receiving my form, and said my order will now ship next tuesday (five more days away) that will be the three week anniversary of my order! we'll see if it actually ships.

(UPDATE)

They lied about sending me another email a week ago to tell me the shipping address and the address on my driver's licence don't match. Then i got the email the next day.

(UPDATE)

FINALLY! I received exactly what i ordered after only about 50 phone calls and 50 emails (seriously). On exactly the one month anniversary of my order! The motherboard cpu combo works fine, but the fan on the heatsink was broken due to poor packing for shipment. They sent it UPS second day air! Which means it was insured for $100 anyways! why the hassle about uninsured shipping? It may have been my call to the illinois better business bureau. If you are getting screwed by these guys, you may want to try it...it worked fast. "

"Really hard to work with. Slow response. "

"EconoPC is by far the worst vendor I have ever dealt with. I am an IT manager in San Diego and I have dealt with hundreds of computer vendors throughout the years – many of them poor, but this one takes the cake. This message is to warn any potential customers of the problems that I’ve run into while dealing with EconoPC.

My latest purchase was a Christmas present for my brother. I placed an order, for a Slot1 1.0 GHz CPU, to be drop shipped to my work, on 11/26/2002 (today is 12/16/2002). I thought that I would start early and leave plenty of time for any problems that may occur. I chose the $.99 shipping method that they advertise through PriceWatch.com, thinking that I would save a little money.

I thought that I would receive the order within the 8 stated days. Instead, I received a phone call on the 8th day, from DJ in the sales department, confirming the order and stating that not only can they not drop ship my package to my office (because the address is not registered with my Visa company), but in order to take advantage of the advertised $.99 shipping, I would have to fill out “release of liability” forms for uninsured shipping. I decided to pay the additional $6 for shipping via UPS and I was forced to change the delivery address to my home, which in itself is inconvenient because I’m never there to receive packages. While I had DJ on the phone, I decided that I would take advantage of his contact to make a small change to my order, since it hadn’t shipped yet. I changed the order from a Slot1 CPU to a Socket 370 RETAIL BOX CPU (I’m using a CPU converter card and want to take advantage of the PC133 bus). He said it was not a problem. I told him that I found the exact item on PriceWatch.com for $128 but would rather order it through him since he already had my credit card information. He said that they normally charge $199 for the item, but would match any PriceWatch.com price, so he sold it to me for $128, plus $7 shipping. Great, I’m all done – right? – Wrong! Remember that I ordered the RETAIL BOX version, not the OEM, and I made sure he was aware of this. Well, another 8 days later (12/12/2002 – getting closer to Christmas) I received an item from EconoPC, that I had to pick up at the UPS office, because I was not there for the delivery, and guess what. It was the wrong item. They decided to send me the OEM version of the CPU with some cheap heat sink and fan. Since the price of the OEM CPU was only $97 dollars, and I agreed to pay $128 for the RETAIL BOX they decided that they would add an additional 1 year warranty to the purchase (the RETAIL BOX version already comes with a 3 year warranty from Intel), for the difference in price - $31. So, not only did I not receive the right item, I paid too much for the wrong one.

The next day, Friday, I called DJ at EconoPC to notify them of the mix up. He verified that the item was incorrect and proceeded to notify me that if I wanted the RETAIL BOX version, it would be an additional $21 – they could not sell me the RETAIL BOX CPU for the price that was originally quoted. At this point I’m extremely frustrated, but composed. I decided that I would go back on-line and find the original $128 CPU that I say a few weeks earlier. No such luck – the price went up. Now I’m stuck with the wrong item and a potential $21 increase if I want the right item delivered. I told DJ that I thought they should send me the item that I originally ordered at no additional cost, since it was their fault that I didn’t get it in the first place. He notified me that he could not do that and told me that he could refund me all of my money. This doesn’t do me any good, since the price went up everywhere else, and I still don’t have the gift. I turned his offer down, at which time he told me that I would have to work the rest out with someone in Customer Service. He couldn’t get anyone in CS on the line, so he told me they would call me back within the hour (this was at 10:00 AM). At 12:00PM I called DJ at EconoPC back, and he told me to give them another half hour. Okay, I gave them another hour and a half and called them back – still no luck. I couldn’t get in contact with anyone in Customer Service. This happened one more time, at which point DJ guaranteed me that I would get a call back before 4:00PM that day. Needless to say, I never received a call.

Well, today is Monday, I had to wait all weekend to take care of this. I placed another call at 10:30AM this morning, and had to re-explain my situation to DJ, who barely remembered the incident, only to find out that Customer Service would contact me within the hour. Well, here I am again. It’s now 12:15PM, and I’m stuck in the same situation I was before. I now have 9 days until Christmas and no gift. I refuse to drop this issue, but I don’t think I’ll win. DJ refuses to ship me the original item that he quoted me at the original price he quoted me. I can pay the additional $21, but whose to say that this delivery would be correct? Besides, it’s the principle. Give me the item I ordered, at the price I was quoted."

"I ordered a MOBO/CPU combo from EconoPC and guess what? They sent me the wrong processor! Did they send me a better one? Of course not, they sent me a cheaper and slower one.
Now, I am trying to get in touch with this company so that they can make good on my order and no one is home at EconoPC!
They had no trouble getting in touch with me so that I could upgrade my shipping, but now, my daily barrage of emails is not enough to stir anyone in their CS department.
I'm not pleased, but I am still hoping that EconoPC will make this right.
Rest assured I will be back to post again when this issue is resolved, or just to tell everyone that I've gone commando and have begun drafting plans to blow up their headquarters.
****
I give up.
You get what you pay for
Unless you order from EconoPC
Then you just get screwed


"

"(An addition to my previous post... it is now December 28 (last post 22 days ago) -- still no working product.)

I wish I would have read this board before ordering...

I ordered a barebones system from EconoPC. Like many of you, I ordered from this company because of the discount price (The discounts that one weighs with only a few dollars difference). I asked for the “$5.95 shipping” offer, which I was “talked out of” because “it may be a damaged shipment.”

When I received the system the motherboard was damaged, it appeared to have been assembled improperly. I emailed several times with no reply and phoned (long distance) their customer service to busy lines.

Following the directions on their RMA/ Return order web page, I returned the PC to them at my expense assuming this would be refunded later.

When I finally did get through on their phone line the fellow I spoke to told me that if I would have called them before shipping (which I did) they would have given me their UPS account number to return ship with… yet, since it was already shipped I would have to pay the shipping cost. It cost $35 to return the PC to them – please consider that I chose this unit because of the slight difference in price ($4) between them and their competitor.

I find it interesting that they would have paid for the shipping in one case… but not the other. Does my action of prepaying the shipping somehow nullify their liability. I guess so.

So much for an “econo” PC.

When I told the customer service person that I would like to write a letter to the general manager to plead my case, he told me he was the “supervisor” assuring me nothing more could be done. When I asked again for the manager’s name, he told me he didn’t know. I guess that makes two of us.

For what it’s worth this is my story. I for one will never do business with this company again. Please consider the implications of a potentially damaged shipment before doing business with any of these discount retailers.


"

"DO NOT BUY FROM ECONOPC!!! They just SUCK big time... I wish I read these reviews before I placed an order with these losers. They did not ship my order; emailed them; they did not answer; called them and I was told they were going to call me back; they did not. Called them again; put me on hold for so long that the line was cut off. Called them again; this time they lied to me that they sent me an email asking for a copy of my drivers licence; a copy of my credit card; a copy of the letter they sent me with my signature on it. Yeah right!! Do not fall for these suckers people. They are just out of this world.."

"Placed an order for a mobo/cpu combo. That SAME afternoon, got a call sying that there was a problem with my order, and that they needed a faxed copy of my drivers license to process it, or I could pay an additional $29.95 and the order would go out immediately. I have bought a LOT of stuff online, and have never heard of this drivers license crap, AND I WILL NOT pay a bribe to have an order processed.
TOTAL losers. I took my business to Newegg and got a better deal anyway. "

"I wish I had gone here first! These people truly are insane. I tried to order a motherboard combo I saw advertised on Pricewatch. They called me the next day and told me they didn't have the model I ordered in stock, but for twenty dollars more they had a similar one they could ship out right away. They also questioned me on my credit card. I told them the shipping address was listed with the cc company. The next day I get an email telling me I had to send photocopies of my drivers license and the credit card. They really didn't want my business. By the way, I found a really good company at computerclubhouse.com. Placed my order and 3 days later had my motherboard, cheaper than econopc!"