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Merchant Member
2013-03-19
4/5
"I'm not one to typically give out 5 stars, or write reviews for that matter, but this company does deserve some recognition for its efforts. Firstly the cost is low, and I had the screen sent over night for a modest fee. It was an exact replacement down to the brand for my p170EM (Except I ordered Matte to replace my glossy, as I've been working outside a lot recently) I would have immediately given this service 5 stars, but the screen I received does have a few dead pixels, very few. Luckily they are near the very top of the screen and I didn't notice them for some time but they are there. The company appears to follow the "A few ain't to bad" policy that MOST other companies use, but (and I can only speculate because I didn't see the need to return it) they also on there site under their dead pixel policy say that satisfaction policy and I guess you may be able to send it back for an exchange. If there was a no dead pixel guarantee, I would have payed a deal extra for it, I would have given them 5 stars. But don't get me wrong, if you need a new screen for any reason you will very likely have a good experience here."
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Merchant Member
2012-06-29
5/5
"Uneasy, skeptical; just a few words I could use to describe my initial feelings when I pushed the order button for my new gaming laptop from AVA Direct. Being a Dell customer for a long time (Far too long) I was incredibly uneasy going with a small company, wondering if my decision of moving away from the Dell juggernaut was actually a good idea; but I am a week in so far with my new powerhouse and it is a solid, stable build. I purchased a P170EM with a 7970M from AVA Direct and was treated very well by the staff despite a number of issues that were not AVA Directs fault (And I cannot stress that enough)
First issue I had was an issue with my credit card, I made the mistake of buying a slice of pizza with my card while on a business trip and my card was locked because I was several hundred miles from my home state when I bought lunch, needless to say when I tried to put nearly 3 grand on the card visa went on red alert. No more than 12 hours after placing the order I get a message from AVA that my card was denied. After I figured out what was amiss I notified the billing staff, after I hung up the phone and checked to make sure my pool filter was working, 10 minutes later I walked back to check the order status. The order was accepted and a message from the billing staff was also up confirming everything was fine. This situation could have been a nightmare but it was very easy to amend.
The next issue was with the 7970M. Any mobile enthusiasts are probably already laughing because they now what happened, but for the rest of you here's what happened. I ordered on may 11 after the credit card issue I was good to go a few days after that, but here's the kicker; there was an issue with the cards, bad voltage regulators or something like that I can't remember. But the original cards that were meant to be used had a high failure rate and I had to wait for "good" cards to ship after the problem was ironed out. Needless to say I had to wait for my order to ship for a little over a month, not AVA Directs fault, mostly just bad luck. BTW I likely could have switched to an available gpu like the 675m, but this card is about twice as powerful so I really wanted to wait.
My next issue is a rant at AMD. Firstly, the initial drivers for my 7970m were not very good (two BSODs playing Crysis 2). Being that the card is new I'm sure the installed drivers from AVA were the only available. Using the 12.7 beta drivers now and all my issues have been resolved. My next issue is with Enduro, an AMD technology for powersaving that swaps back and forth between my card and the processor's graphics. This was a nightmare to get my head around, but after I figured out he control center I'm fine with it for now.
Unfortunately for the AVA staff Enduro caused the only mistake I was able to come across. AVA does benchmarking; furmark, unigine heaven, etc. and saves the results to the computer. (Which is AWESOME) Unfortunately the darned enduro kicked on they accidently benchmarked (Whoops!) with the integrated graphics and saved it to my computer. The results really had me worried until I figured out the Enduro issue and did my own benchmarks more than doubling my results.
Moving away from the computer itself I'll rate the awesome staff! My experience with their staff was great. They answered all of my questions and will help you IF YOU ASK for it. The worst thing you can do is rate AVA's merit on them calling or sending you messages. They will notify you if something serious arises, but for the most part will not communicate with you unless something is amiss. If you have a problem or are having an issue with the wait; call them, message them for help don't assume they are psychic and know you are looking at the order status every 20 minutes due to massive impatient tendencies. (Ideally you will not wait 3 weeks but it can happen.) They will feel bad that you are waiting forever for your new computer, I promise; but somethings are out of their control. And know I will feel bad too, feel bad that you have nothing better to do with your time but wait.
So concluding my experience with AVA Direct I am very satisfied so far. The computer works great, despite my exposure to newer techs that were initially annoying. The staff was helpful and will help you too so long as you ask for it (It's their job to help you, the fear of starting a dialogue isn't logical). I will update this if something goes wrong and I end up needing to get repairs done. Based of my experience so far I would recommend this company for your next purchase. Give them a try, their customization options for your new rig will be nearly impossible to match!"
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