"I was expecting benq but got an asus 5224p but is not an asus but a generic crw-5224p. Anyway it was not flashable due to
1. the name of the drive in bios memory has been altered but why they claimed it ASUS when it is rebadged generic?
2. it is of unknown chipset, cannot be flashed by any other mean except the technician who modified it.
due to my frustration with this, I am limited to the old version 1.20 of the drive and I am at a loss at what to do with it except to let all know beware of buying cheap stuff from shady merchant like this...
"

"Ordered DVD drive from this company. The 1st drive they sent did not work & was a different brand name than the one I ordered. I returned this drive via certified mail & initially they indicated that they had not received it despite my having the signed delivery card. After initiating a USPS mail investigation, I eventually received a 2nd drive from them. However, while it was the correct brand I ordered it was obviously a used drive, without any warranty, box or instructional information & simply packed in bubble wrap & mailed. In addition, it did not work either! I returned this drive with a note that I wished a refund & because of the defective nature of both drives I felt I should not incur a restocking charge. They did eventually provide a refund but charged a 22% restocking fee."

"MAIL FRAUD ALERT!!!

I ordered a new DVD Drive. I paid $4.99 extra for a "Retail Version". I received a USED Drive (several scrape marks along the top where it had been previously mounted in drive bays were clearly visible), wrapped in bubble wrap, no box, no owner's manual or warranty card, and a manufactured date stamp of June 2002 (indicative of its age). On top of that, it did not work! I requested and received an RMA. The drive was sent back with "Proof of Delivery" from the US Post Office indicating drive was delivered to US-Depot on Aug 29th. US-Depot says they can't find drive and will not refund my purchase. Several emails only result in them reporting they have not received it yet. Emails sent to their corporate sales office, using address links from their website, bounce - unknown recipient.

***The below added 10/3/03

A former co-worker’s husband just happens to be the Postmaster of my town. Soon I was talking to a Postal Inspector and filling out PS Form 8165, Mail Fraud Report. Note, before I wrote the above portion of this Reseller rating, I shotgunned a final email to every US–Depot email address I could find. I made it clear in that email they had until the following Monday to credit my account as that was when I was to turn in the Fraud Report, including copies to various California and Nevada State and County Attorneys and the BBB. This time, at least one email got through because I got phone call from “Elle” (pronounced “el”) just a few hours later.

They found the drive. Surprise. I should see the refund in my account by Monday (I must add in fairness that Elle was very apologetic and professional).

Monday – no refund
Tuesday – no refund. So, I called customer support. Elle was on another line so I talked to someone else. This person was not outright rude but I was obviously interfering with her life. We figured out that somehow the last digit they had for my credit card number got changed and thereby rejected (note they had the right number to initially charge the account). She said she would give the information to Elle.

Friday – no refund
Monday – no refund – Called and talked to Elle. She was still waiting for me to get back with her because they had the wrong credit card number!!! Seems the previous person never passed the info along. Elle corrected that and said she would re-credit my account right away. Again, Elle was very apologetic and professional.

Sounds good, right?

Seems while the other person was wondering why all those sticky notes for Elle and others were on her monitor, the RMA department shipped a replacement DVD Drive for the one that was sitting around their RMA site for 10+ days and mysteriously just showed up after I threatened legal action. So now they couldn’t refund my account until they got that drive back. I was instructed to “Refuse Delivery” and when they got it back she would refund my account.

So on 9/17/03 I refused delivery.

One week later - no refund.

By 9/29/03 I had not heard anything and my account had not been credited. So I sent another stern email with “Attention: Elle” added in the subject and a terse warning of my next action if nothing positive happened very soon. The very next morning (last Tuesday) Elle sent a short note with apologies saying my credit card has been credited.

Today 10/3/03, I received a full refund.

My advice – don’t do business with US-Depot. If you must, talk to Elle.


AVOID AT ALL COSTS AND SPREAD THE WORD.


5/5/04 Followup - Today I received 2 emails offering free gifts for good reviews here, Resellerratings.com, and PriceGrabber.com - BEWARE!

AVOID THIS MERCHANT!"

"I am very pleased with Us-Depot. I ordered a Cdrw, Dvd, and a hard drive from them and the shipping took a little longer than i expected but in was nicely paacked ina box with the dvd and cdrw drives both wrapped in seperate bubble wrap and the hard drive between the two. I will most likely purchase from them agian."

"Ordered a MS Natural Keyboard. Great price! Received in decent time. Package a little beat up, but nothing inside was damaged."

"Site says that they had AMD XP 2400+ OEM chips for $74 w/free shipping. Place order and never received email about it shipping so after 4 days I sent them an email asking what was up and received the reply that they where sold out. Thanks for keeping an updated site! then was told wouldnt get anymore in for 2 weeks. What really sucks is that they don't let you cancel an order unless you call them and it took repeated calls to get through to customer sevice! I just went ahead and payed 6 bucks more to NEWEGG.COM. I will not be placing another order with this company in the near future."

"Their prices are cheap, and the shipping times average, but one of the items they sent was wrong and the packaging is poor. (Items shipped in white USPS mailer envelope, no padding)

I ordered a modem and a mouse. The mouse was supposed to be silver and black optical mouse, to match the monitor and case on the PC I'm building for my brother. Well, they sent me a generic white mouse. So far I have recieved no replies to email, and for the cost of sending this back, I might as well buy another one somewhere else.

Update 9/6/03: They did respond to my complaint made via pricewatch, and promised to send me the correct item. One month later, I still have not recieved anything from them.

Update 10/03: FINALLY recieved the mouse I ordered. They said the first one they sent was lost in the mail."

"I ordered a dvd burner with operating program,they sent the wrong program.I've tried repeatedly to correct this,they keep sending me emails stating the correct program will be sent.After 2 months no program,lots of emails.Their customer support sucks! I'll never deal with these people again."

"Best price I could find on Logitech PS2 3-button mouse (S35). Product and shipping times as described. Good e-mail followups.

Don't understand how duplicate post happened. Sorry!"

"I ordered a cdrw and a dvd from us depot, both lite on. I paid an extra $10 on each to have them painted silver (so far $20 extra), and an extra $5 a piece to upgrade to retail ($30 extra altogether). Well the cdrw arrived just as it should, painted, in a retail box, with burning software, manual, screws and audio cable. But the dvd arrive in bubble wrap inside the cdrw box, with only a copy of win dvd, no seperate box, no manual, no screws, no audio cable, nothing else except the software. In fact in my device manager the dvd doesnt even show up as a Lite On product, it comes up as "JLMS XJ-HD1665". At least the dvd was painted nicely. But I don't appreciate this dishonesty that they think I won't notice. Theres pretty much nothing I can do about my situation either, which really sucks."

"Ordered case on Thursday the 10th late night and recd. part Friday the 18th. This is much earlier than expected hence very pleasing. Packaged well for shipping in original container. Shipped fed ex for free. I am very satisfied with site and the great deal I got ($38 total for a window case with lighting and handle on top).

Did not get conformation e-mail but the package was at my home by the time the e-mail was supposed to be sent so I am not complaining. I will order again in the future."

"Order was shipped without manual and software. You feel that you bought the product from garage sale instead of some reputed place."

"I ordered from us-depot based on price.
the item I ordered did not suit me needs however, so I called us-depot to obtain an RMA. Us-depot does not answer their phones, nor do they ever return your call when you leave them messages requesting a callback. I will never order from them again."

"US-DEPOT was quick to respond to emails but failed to ship my case on the date they said. They shipped a day late and as a result I have to wait an extra 3 days for the case.

UPDATE: Received my case today and behold, US-DEPOT gave me free front usb/mic and a free 430w psu with the order.

I have my foot in my mouth now for critiscing them before. I will do business with them again for sure."

"I've ordered things from them twice, and have been impressed by the shipping speed and low prices (generally near the bottom at pricewatch.) The quality of the items has been fine (I was ordering on the cheap, but the items seem to work well.)

I do have a couple small complaints: first, packaging was not too well done -- the card was just in a box inside a paper envelope; no padding or anything. For a cheap sound card, I wasn't too worried, but I would at least check and make sure that they appropriately package hard drives or other delicate equipment.

My other complaint is that their return policy is quite restrictive. I didn't have to try to get a refund or anything, but their policy would make me a little leery of buying anything expensive.

Overall, though, when I'm looking for something small and cheap, I think I'll continue to patronize US-Depot. They seem to be one of the few places with really low prices that is actually reliable."