Recent vendor experiences

[kahuna321]

Since I just placed 13 orders from 8 different online vendors, I thought I would share my experiences throughout the process from ordering to delivery. Hopefully this will be a representative set of experiences and be beneficial to some. Feel free to add your experiences too.

Vendors

Performance PC

Site somewhat difficult to navigate, but huge inventory and they have it in stock when everyone else is out. Gotta re-enter CC info each time. Shipping prices very high, delivery slow- but I am on complete opposite side of US. Some orders go out in less than 24 hours, some don't. An order placed 2 weeks ago still hasnt arrived by ups. Next 2 orders did usps priority, much more expensive but will get here before the ups order.
The go-to guy is James. Goes the extra to please. Called him and got a price match from another vendor without hastle. ( Note: Still waiting for refund of price adjustment). Good communication, even though it seems they're very busy. Overall very pleased. Awaiting delivery of 3 orders atm, will update when they arrive.
*Update: last order placed at 6pm last night shipped first thing this morning. They even threw in a switch I forgot to order the first time in at n/e. Great people. Touch like that- throughing in a $5 switch- goes a long way to take sting out of high shipping and them not always being cheapest on everything. )


Tila Tech

Followed link from another thread and discovered a deal on Res/top. Emailed and got response next morning, then I placed order right afterwards. Day later got confirmation, Had previously discussed picking item up as they are 20.1 miles away. They told me that they would do free shipping if I lived a few miles away, so I ordered. When I didn't get shipping advise I email, was given story about CC address delaying process ( I checked bank and it had already cleared). They also said that the free shipping was if I was 1-5 miles away! However they did agree to price match newegg- in my haste I missed the fact that newegg was $5 cheaper on the CPU block. ( Note: no credit received yet) They stated that I could come pick the items up now. I emailed back asking for hours and address. Three emails and another two days later- no reply. Something if fishy here, methinks. Maybe its just a small part time mail order business- they certainly don't have much for sale. I was hoping to buy something locally for once, but dunno yet...
*Update- got email this moring telling me I can pickup between 11 and 11:30 or 3 and 3:30, but have to call first. Kinda creepy- like a drug deal?
*Update- got email this afternoon telling me order was shipped ups, Sent reply asking which one is correct.
*Update- got email telling again to do the pickup. Will see how it goes tomorrow. Might check out the area first to look for cops. Don't wanna get busted for illegal w/c parts.

Koolance

ordered qdc fittings only, for full retail- but decent shipping rates. Good communication, package arrived 2 days later. Its all good. Did't know they were about 30 miles away.

Sidewinder

Had wanted to order more from them, but many items were out of stock. Who would have thunk it- no w/c parts in the midst of a heat wave? Anyway, good commication, very good prices and shipping rates. Order shipped same day, plus got an email from Gary telling me they were out of an item so he gave me a substitue for free. These guys are looking good. All the good things posted about them must be true.
*Update-Shipment recevied. Discovered bit power 45's with bard dont allow barb to be removed. Emails back and forth, plain 45's ordered. Keeping the ones rec'd.
*Update- ordered more fittings after several emails back and forth. Gary is patient even with small orders, thank goodness. Us noobs have a thousand stupid questions, and we need to get answers somewhere.


Jab-Tech

Small supply of w/c stuff. Placed 3 orders- got them to include one into previous to save shipping. Third order John ( go to guy) worked with me and gave me volume discount- greatly appreciated. Everything went out same day. Cheap shipping. Note: refunds for shipping and volume discount were issued almost immediately- so I don't have to keep track and do the hastle a week later to get the money back. Very very positive experience. Wish these guys had more stuff. First time ordering from them. Based on how things have gone so far, I will try to order as much pc stuff as possible through them. Fan-tas-tic!


Xoxide

Limited stock but some great prices, placed small order today and its already shipped. Only email confirmation so far. First time ordering from them.

Ebay

I know, buyer beware, but all I bought was fan shrouds. Out of hundreds of perchases never been drilled-yet. I havent burned out 8 38mm fans yet, so had to get the housings somewhere. Got email from seller, shipping tomorrow.
*Update: got shipping advise this morning.

Newegg

They are great about taking stuff back, but they dont use usps- and face it, ups sux. Even though they offer 3 day guaranteed shipping, the fastest seen was 4 days after shipped. I could give you dozens of nightmare stories about the brown, but wont bore you. Sometimes the egg has good prices, sometimes not. Have to price shop. Ordered fan controller that was $1.25 over list, but it had that god awful free shipping, and I wont need it for at least a week. Mixed feelings about the egg atm. Overall positive, but feel like I'm just a number sometimes.


So there it is. Take what you need and leave the rest.

[tsukuyomi]

whattttt you didn't try PTS ?

[faster3200]

IDK TilaTech allowed pick up. I have asked them before and they said they didn't.
Also check Coolerguys (http://www.coolerguys.com/). Limited stock, but I love local pick-up.

Based on my experiences I would say PTS and Jab-Tech are the go-to shops.
Jab-Tech has amazing support and they stock a lot of the most popular items. PTS is just a generally good experience and I like knowing Petra is on the forum. Both have fair prices and are very quick on shipping.

[Shaotai]

IDK TilaTech allowed pick up. I have asked them before and they said they didn't.
Also check Coolerguys (http://www.coolerguys.com/). Limited stock, but I love local pick-up.

Yeah, they said in an email to me that they will allow pick ups starting tomorrow. (Thursday)

I ordered that same XSPC pump/res, but they sold out. LOL
They said an order should come in soon, but I may just have it refunded. I'm about 10miles from their office in Bellevue. :)

[DarthBeavis]

Nice review. thanks!

[faster3200]

Yeah, they said in an email to me that they will allow pick ups starting tomorrow. (Thursday)

I ordered that same XSPC pump/res, but they sold out. LOL
They said an order should come in soon, but I may just have it refunded. I'm about 10miles from their office in Bellevue. :)
Good to know. I will start ordering from them if that is the case.

[CedricFP]

I wonder if online vendors would price match and ship international. ATM Sidewinders is my main stop for gear, while PTS I use for their lovely YL's. I'd use PTS more if they had an automated int' checkout.

[Utnorris]

Good info OP. I like Jab-tech the best because I get it the next day and John is a great guy. Gary, Sidewinders, is another one I like doing business with, stand up kinda guy and has some really cool stuff. Never had a bad experience at PPC's and I always use USPS 3 day and get it within two days, best selection except when compared to Frozen PC, but better prices. Petra's is like Jab-tech and Sidewinders, great to deal with, never had an issue with them, but lately they haven't had much available. Locally, I like Microcenter for stuff I have to have right now and their selection has gotten 10 times better than a year ago.

[pika198]

I ordered from TilaTech about 8 times now and I have received all my stuff with no problems. I even got a Nos drink for free, Bawls for free, a sugar free bawls, and a wired :D. Usually get my stuff in 2 days which is nice. Inventory could be bigger though.

PPC site is a pain and search results can be thrown out the window, but they have EVERYTHING so I find my hard to find items there without a hassle

FrozenCPU is hands down the most expensive store I ever dealt with and my order wasn't shipped for a week. No one told me, I asked why do I have a tracking and why is it sitting in New York. They said it was all packaged, but somehow it didn't go on the Fedex truck for a week :(

Sidewinders is neat, but limited selection too. Phone orders are a nice touch though

Petras is like Sidewinders, but always out of stock :D (sorry ;) )

Jab-Tech has provided some hard to find items for me in the past so no worries with them.

[rambler358]

Never had a bad experience at PPC's and I always use USPS 3 day and get it within two days
I concur with this PPC assessment. Though USPS 2-3 day isn't cheap, it's reliable and I've always gotten it on the 3rd day, with PPC being on the opposite side of the country from me.


Locally, I like Microcenter for stuff I have to have right now and their selection has gotten 10 times better than a year ago.
Interesting, I'll have to check them out when I need something right away.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Look guys I am shilling :rofl::rofl::rofl:

seriously though, I was looking at performance-pcs shiping cost estimator the other day and I think it has been revised to be cheaper and more accurate - the package I priced out was 3.5 lbs in the calculator which was correct for the parts I was ordering and the cost of shipping was much lower than I expected.

It's still not as low as some places but its not insane either as it has been in some cases

[Aphellyon]

I recently bought two MCR320s from Jabtech. Prices were competitive and the shipping was only 6 bucks for fedex ground... got my stuff in three days. They also sent order received, order processed and shipping confirmation emails as well as tracking updates via fedex. I will definitely be using these guys again.
:up:

[kahuna321]

The only things Petra had were cheaper elsewhere. Since I had never ordered from them before I didn't feel comfortable asking for a price match. Every dime counts.

$16.70 for PPC to ship a very small handful of fittings IS insane to me- $74 worth of fittings. The actual charge for a small usps priority box is $4.85. $12.95 in handling? Sidewinder and Jabtech charge $8.30 for same size pkg shipped same way, and usps charges are set regardless of destination within US.

[moiraesfate]

Petras is ALWAYS out of stock. Its aggravating. I'm sure they are a fine shop but it would be nice if they would actually carry what they are advertising. Some of the stuff on their site has been out of stock for at least 6 months to a year. What kind of company doesn't restock its inventory for a whole year especially when its catalog has some of the most popular items on the market?

I've had things that I wanted, but could order, because they were out of stock yet again (or still) so had to change my plans or had to go somewhere else.

Newegg has always been fantastic with me. I might have to wait but nothing has been urgent anyway. I do NOT like ups because the idiots leave items out on the doorstep instead of taking it back to their shop for me to pick it up. I live in New Orleans and its currently about 100 degrees or more during the day. If they leave anything with plastic in it, it will probably be goo by the time I get home at night because it melted, and the heat just might fry the metal components. And then there's the intense rain we often see here during the summer (the past week has been raining almost non-stop). If they leave it on the porch, unless its totally wrapped in plastic with no holes, there's the chance it will be destroyed by water. I've had to stop ordering (or pay the much higher rates for fedex) till fall due to this. The ONLY problem I have with newegg is ups. Other than that, they've all been good.

[HoosTrax]

JabTech and Sidewinders are probably the two I order from most.
- If you're ordering large numbers of a particular item (think: fans, fittings), JT often works out to be the cheapest because of the volume discounts on a lot of the items. Great selection of fans, particularly Scythes. Good prices overall.
- Sidewinders often has the best prices on WCing gear, and usually stocks the latest and greatest.
- I occasionally order from PPC for the more esoteric items that aren't available anywhere else other than FrozenCPU.
- NewEgg has surprisingly good prices on some of the Swiftech gear.

Haven't tried TilaTech yet, but some of their prices look decent enough.

[3Z3VH]

If you need Swiftech or Enzotech parts, NewEgg is the place to get them, otherwise I use Sidewinders. The only time I go elsewhere is for more esoteric pieces, or if I needs something right away, and those two don't have it, or are out of stock.

[kahuna321]

I've tried updating this post 4 times today and keep getting database errors when I submit.

So to summarize things to date:

PPC- good but James is great so somewhere in-between. If small item shipping was reasonable I' say great all around.
Tilatech-strange wont do again
Koolance- good
Sidewinder- great, good communication from Gary
Jabtech- great, good communication from John.
Xoxide, Ebay and Newegg orders pending.

[rehpyc]

I think there's simply things on Petra's site that they use to carry and no longer choose to but keep it on their site rather than removing it.. I dunno. There's been items that have been out of stock that I've intended to order, but emails have always been quick to be replied to as to an ETA of when they'll be available again.

One company that you haven't mentioned that I've used prior is ncixus.com - Linus is an exceptionally helpful person to deal with there.

[nyeah]

sidewinder computer and aquatuning for me,
the price are good and nice customer support.

as for PPC, i've emailed them several times but no response, dunno why.

[kahuna321]

Ebay and third PPC orders recevied today via usps. Both satisfactory.

[millertime359]

CrazyPC.com is another great place to check out. They are really great if you live in the Detroit area as they have local pick-up and are pretty good about getting small orders together quick. They are great with returns too. :up:

Gary @ sidewinders is great too. Always willing to help any way he can. He has some great prices too.

I've only made a couple of orders from Petra's as they seem to be really limited on what they have. I was very satisfied though. I really liked the personalized notes too. I only wish they had more stuff and I would order more from them :(

PPC's is always a great fall back. They are a little pricey for some things, but they have almost anything you could ever want, as long as it is in stock ;) The only issue I had was that they sent me unsleeved fans when they were suppose to be sleeved once. I didn't mind as I was planning on resleeving them anyways :yep:

[dengyong]

Petras is ALWAYS out of stock.


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=285&pictureid=695 I think they specialize in that.

[Brodholm]

Have some I have used, Chilled pc, Sidewinders, petras and ppcs

I would have to say that all are really good. If you aren't shopping over at the US then Tom @ chilled is the way to go. He is a real stand-up guy and have a good stock and good prices on both shipping and products.

I have also had experiences with petras and nothing bad so far. Great service and everything. I would say it is as good as sidewinders but they have a little less stock.

But my favourite so far is Gary @ sidewinders. He actually drove down to tygon and picked up some B44-4X tubing at a Friday so my order would be shipped of before 4 so it would get on a plane to Sweden before the weekend. The B44-4X tubing and that was what he needed to ship my order. Thats what I call service.

Performance pcs, what can i say? HUGE stock but high prices compared to others. But thats mainly because of the stock they carry and they almost never have stuff out of stock. BUT they have sick prices on shipping. Especially to others countries. But other than that I have nothing to complain about.

[Petra]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=285&pictureid=695 I think they specialize in that.

Maybe I should just start deleting things from the website so you guys won't complain so much :rolleyes:;)

Things were a lot easier to manage in 2007 and the first half of 2008...

[dengyong]

Maybe I should just start deleting things from the website so you guys won't complain so much :rolleyes:;)

Things were a lot easier to manage in 2007 and the first half of 2008...

I've tried to order from you many times because people here say you're great to deal with.........but then there's that out of stock thing, every time I tried. :shrug: :rolleyes:

[astrodanco]

One company that you haven't mentioned that I've used prior is ncixus.com.I've used them a few times now. They're not too shaby. They have good prices on Scythe Gentle Typhoons too. :clap:

[Metric]

I've used them a few times now. They're not too shaby. They have good prices on Scythe Gentle Typhoons too. :clap:
+1 on NCIXUS.com. Their customer service is top-notch - called CS around +4 times trying to figure out why my bank was canceling my HX1000 order (never did figure out why...), they responded right when their online ticket service said they would (<15 minutes). Talked to the same person, really friendly and funny guy (forgot his name unfortunately). Also they were the ones with the great Thermochill 120.3 sale ($82 USD + shipping) back in January :up:.

[LinusTech]

You probably spoke with Brayden. He's a CS champ.

He sucks at FPS, but I'm sure you knew what I meant by "CS" ;)

[Mekrel]

I recommend guys in the UK do not use http://www.thecoolingshop.co.uk/.

I've used them before, believe I bought some Enzotech sinks from there and had no problem, but they were the only people carrying stock of the UN Z bracket a while back (before the revised ones hit the market I believe).

I really needed one, so ordered - only to receive a Koolance DDC top...

No reply to my emails from either my personal email accounts, or my one at work. There is NO phone number on their website so I found one on the net which was incorrect.

I finally found the correct numbers on Hexus who have a feedback section for e-tailers and people had the same issue as me... zero customer support if something goes wrong.

A guy had the same issue as me, not being able to find their number but had managed to find the correct one and posted it. I got through to some guy, who told me the person I had to deal with was in a meeting, so he took my details to be called back. Only that didn't happen...

Never managed to get it sorted, I just took comfort in receiving a product more expensive than I paid for.

[ascl]

For international orders, I have had great success with PTS. Friendly, fast and good prices. Big thumbs up from here :)