17th Knight
04-16-2010, 12:57 PM
I'd like to preface my review with a bit of sidenote, which is that my comments on all Maingear competitors are solely my personal experience over the past 2 months and are only used to reflect why I'm so pleased with Maingear's customer service.
2 months ago I had finally saved up $6,000 and now that I am settled back home I was ready to purchase a new computer. I had, since I joined the Navy in 2000, been a customer of Alienware, though I hadn't purchased from them since Dell bought them out. Still, Dell only controlled their customer service, I didn't imagine really needing to interact with them, and I purchased a computer online. Every day I would check the status online, waiting and waiting, but 2 days before it was to ship the order suddenly says "canceled". I was a bit shocked, called Dell and asked why this had happened. I was more than a little annoyed to discover that all their customer service has been outsourced to India, but oh well, hopefully I could just get this one question answered. The woman was very polite, and apparently there had been a problem with the payment going through that day. So, no big deal, I say that I'll just call my bank, reauthorize the payment, and then they can ship the computer. She then informed me that, apparently, that's not possible. The moment they canceled my order I needed to start all over again. I was stunned. I had been waiting 3 weeks for the computer and now I would have to begin the process all over again, hoping that there wouldn't be another problem. The worst part was that I was never contacted, by phone, email, nothing. No one told me there had been a problem, I wouldn't even have known my order was canceled if I hadn't constantly checked.
So, because of that experience, I just don't feel comfortable with them anymore. Now I found myself in limbo, unsure of who to go to for my needs. After reading an extensive number of reviews (both customers and editors), including everything on this forum site, I decided to purchase a Maingear. The main selling point, to me, was the way people had discussed the customer service that Maingear gave. I had had friends purchase with Falcon Northwest, before, and they praised their customer service, but all the reviews of Maingear read of a very personal touch, which is what I was hoping for at this point, and that was what ultimately sold me.
I put in my order online and then I wrote a little note which asked that if there was any payment problem, if someone could just please contact me and I could fix it within seconds (as I live 1 block from my bank). I was pleasantly surprised that Chris sent me an email that very night promising to personally put the order through and contact me if there were any issues. I cannot tell you how happy this simple e-mail made me. Even if Chris didn't actually put the order through himself, the contact he made with me meant a lot. It showed that he actually cared about me as a customer. I was even further surprised when he then called me a couple days later to tell me that the parts had been ordered, and gave me his phone number to call if there were any questions I had. I was more than a little stunned, but extremely impressed, already, with how they treated customers. I was immediately telling friends and family (who knew what had happened to me with Dell) of the personal contact I had had with Chris and, needless to say, they were all very impressed. I was still a bit apprehensive about the payment going through properly (after my previous experience), but it all went through without a hitch.
On Wednesday of this week, I was happy when I received a call from Kevin at Maingear. He was informing me that he was just about to ship my computer, as well as getting my size for the shirt. The next day (yesterday) my Maingear Shift finally arrived. I was ecstatic, quickly unboxing it, looking inside the tower, and setting it up. As excited as I was, I took my time looking through every included part and was happy to see extra power cables for future upgrades as well as the cross-fire connection bar (very technical term). I do plan on upgrading to cross-fire in the future, so having all these parts was great. It felt like another small touch that added to my conviction that I had made a good purchase.
Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, I was still a bit nervous about starting up my computer. When I did, and Windows had loaded, something was obviously not-quite-right. It looked like Windows had loaded properly, and I was able to see the wallpaper on the desktop, but nothing else. No task bar, no icons. I waited a few minutes to make sure this wasn't part of a normal boot process, and then called up customer support. I was more than a little shocked when, within 30 seconds of calling, I was talking to Kevin, whose name I recognized from inside the included folder as the tech who had built the computer. He gave me a few suggestions, to test the mouse and keyboard. Nothing fixed it, but then I just tried different monitor cables and it was fine. 100% my fault
However, Kevin was extremely professional, and courteous (even though I basically wasted 5 minutes of his time with that call) and that further cemented my conviction that I had made a good purchase. The customer service I have experienced with Maingear is, literally, like nothing I've ever had before. Everyone has been courteous, professional, and just generally nice. They really seem to care about me as a customer, and that makes me loyal to them as a company.
Once I had my Shift completely set up, I began downloading games and playing with Windows 7. I was very happy to see the computer is completely free of frivolous junk programs. (There were two icons other than the recycle bin when I turned the computer on and they were simply for Microsoft's security center and office.) So I spent some time downloading games.
I decided to test out the Shift on a few games. The power this machine brings has impressed me to no end. Games that my previous PC was chugging along at 20FPS I was getting 75-145 FPS on with the Shift. Even while downloading Aliens Vs. Predator I was playing Modern Warfare 2, online, with no lag and at max settings with well over 60fps. All of this while being whisper quiet. Extremely impressive performance. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, due to still installing a few games, but what I have experienced has exceeded all my hopes and expectations.
The only negative I have found for the whole setup was that the metal grill you place on top of the top of the Shift essentially cuts off any connection my wireless card has. Oh well, that's really not a big deal, just a minor thing.
Chris, Kevin, EVERYONE at Maingear, thank you all for this fantastic experience. You were all the height of professionalism and courtesy. You all went well above and beyond what a normal company would do for its customers. Every aspect of the way you run your company is perfect. Don't ever change. I have already been singing your praises to all my family and friends, and I will continue to do so for years to come. I wish you all the best of success in the future and I will certainly be turning to you for any future computer or home entertainment needs I have. Thank you all very much.
- Matt S.
2 months ago I had finally saved up $6,000 and now that I am settled back home I was ready to purchase a new computer. I had, since I joined the Navy in 2000, been a customer of Alienware, though I hadn't purchased from them since Dell bought them out. Still, Dell only controlled their customer service, I didn't imagine really needing to interact with them, and I purchased a computer online. Every day I would check the status online, waiting and waiting, but 2 days before it was to ship the order suddenly says "canceled". I was a bit shocked, called Dell and asked why this had happened. I was more than a little annoyed to discover that all their customer service has been outsourced to India, but oh well, hopefully I could just get this one question answered. The woman was very polite, and apparently there had been a problem with the payment going through that day. So, no big deal, I say that I'll just call my bank, reauthorize the payment, and then they can ship the computer. She then informed me that, apparently, that's not possible. The moment they canceled my order I needed to start all over again. I was stunned. I had been waiting 3 weeks for the computer and now I would have to begin the process all over again, hoping that there wouldn't be another problem. The worst part was that I was never contacted, by phone, email, nothing. No one told me there had been a problem, I wouldn't even have known my order was canceled if I hadn't constantly checked.
So, because of that experience, I just don't feel comfortable with them anymore. Now I found myself in limbo, unsure of who to go to for my needs. After reading an extensive number of reviews (both customers and editors), including everything on this forum site, I decided to purchase a Maingear. The main selling point, to me, was the way people had discussed the customer service that Maingear gave. I had had friends purchase with Falcon Northwest, before, and they praised their customer service, but all the reviews of Maingear read of a very personal touch, which is what I was hoping for at this point, and that was what ultimately sold me.
I put in my order online and then I wrote a little note which asked that if there was any payment problem, if someone could just please contact me and I could fix it within seconds (as I live 1 block from my bank). I was pleasantly surprised that Chris sent me an email that very night promising to personally put the order through and contact me if there were any issues. I cannot tell you how happy this simple e-mail made me. Even if Chris didn't actually put the order through himself, the contact he made with me meant a lot. It showed that he actually cared about me as a customer. I was even further surprised when he then called me a couple days later to tell me that the parts had been ordered, and gave me his phone number to call if there were any questions I had. I was more than a little stunned, but extremely impressed, already, with how they treated customers. I was immediately telling friends and family (who knew what had happened to me with Dell) of the personal contact I had had with Chris and, needless to say, they were all very impressed. I was still a bit apprehensive about the payment going through properly (after my previous experience), but it all went through without a hitch.
On Wednesday of this week, I was happy when I received a call from Kevin at Maingear. He was informing me that he was just about to ship my computer, as well as getting my size for the shirt. The next day (yesterday) my Maingear Shift finally arrived. I was ecstatic, quickly unboxing it, looking inside the tower, and setting it up. As excited as I was, I took my time looking through every included part and was happy to see extra power cables for future upgrades as well as the cross-fire connection bar (very technical term). I do plan on upgrading to cross-fire in the future, so having all these parts was great. It felt like another small touch that added to my conviction that I had made a good purchase.
Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, I was still a bit nervous about starting up my computer. When I did, and Windows had loaded, something was obviously not-quite-right. It looked like Windows had loaded properly, and I was able to see the wallpaper on the desktop, but nothing else. No task bar, no icons. I waited a few minutes to make sure this wasn't part of a normal boot process, and then called up customer support. I was more than a little shocked when, within 30 seconds of calling, I was talking to Kevin, whose name I recognized from inside the included folder as the tech who had built the computer. He gave me a few suggestions, to test the mouse and keyboard. Nothing fixed it, but then I just tried different monitor cables and it was fine. 100% my fault
However, Kevin was extremely professional, and courteous (even though I basically wasted 5 minutes of his time with that call) and that further cemented my conviction that I had made a good purchase. The customer service I have experienced with Maingear is, literally, like nothing I've ever had before. Everyone has been courteous, professional, and just generally nice. They really seem to care about me as a customer, and that makes me loyal to them as a company.
Once I had my Shift completely set up, I began downloading games and playing with Windows 7. I was very happy to see the computer is completely free of frivolous junk programs. (There were two icons other than the recycle bin when I turned the computer on and they were simply for Microsoft's security center and office.) So I spent some time downloading games.
I decided to test out the Shift on a few games. The power this machine brings has impressed me to no end. Games that my previous PC was chugging along at 20FPS I was getting 75-145 FPS on with the Shift. Even while downloading Aliens Vs. Predator I was playing Modern Warfare 2, online, with no lag and at max settings with well over 60fps. All of this while being whisper quiet. Extremely impressive performance. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, due to still installing a few games, but what I have experienced has exceeded all my hopes and expectations.
The only negative I have found for the whole setup was that the metal grill you place on top of the top of the Shift essentially cuts off any connection my wireless card has. Oh well, that's really not a big deal, just a minor thing.
Chris, Kevin, EVERYONE at Maingear, thank you all for this fantastic experience. You were all the height of professionalism and courtesy. You all went well above and beyond what a normal company would do for its customers. Every aspect of the way you run your company is perfect. Don't ever change. I have already been singing your praises to all my family and friends, and I will continue to do so for years to come. I wish you all the best of success in the future and I will certainly be turning to you for any future computer or home entertainment needs I have. Thank you all very much.
- Matt S.