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1998 ARCHIVE

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General info about Comtrade

This file is filled with individuals' opinions and experiences with the Comtrade computer mail-order company, which sells a wide line of computers and products. The most recent experiences are at the beginning of this file.

If you have bought from them and have not yet made your contribution to this list, simply fill out this form about your experiences with Comtrade and they will be added to the beginning of this file. Thank you and Good luck!

B Barr from Corpus Christi, TX USA
Date - Thursday, December 31, 1998 at 12:31:55 (EST)

Hello,
I recently bought a new computer to replace my aging P166 computer from Comtrade. Figuring I didn't have to worry about warranties anymore on my Comtrade computer I took it apart to use some of the cards in it for my new computer. When I did this I noticed the heat sink was GLUED on and a bar-code sticker was attached to the bottome. I found this very strange so I looked on the web and discovered Comtrade had been involved in CPU fraud.
It took me an hour to remove the bar-code sticker on the bottom of the CPU and low and behold I had an overclocked P100 the whole time. I have already verified this with Intel techs and their CPUID program.
I can deal with unknowledgable tech service and horrible customer service, both of which Comtrade has, when it comes to a cheap computer, but crimanal activity is too much.
For everyone who likes Comtrade I would suggest checking your CPU or anything else in the computer. It wouldn't be unlikely for them to have ripped you off in some way. Just remeber that once you do check you will most likely void your warranty in the process. Catch 22.
I am just one of many who have been cheated by Comtrade. There are many (too many) reports out there of CPU fraud by Comtrade. If people wish to ignore the obvious and support a crimanal that is their choice. It just makes me wonder about the people who support Comtrade once they know all the facts. If you know all the facts and choose to ignore them you are blind and deserved to be ripped off, or you are just as bad as Comtrade.

If you didn't know all the facts and got a legit computer from Comtrade then I am happy for you. I just wouldn't suggest supporting them or rolling the dice a second time. (If you really stick by your principles then send the computer back and by from a legitimate company)

Sincerely,
B Barr

Read the Facts! from Minneapolis, MN USA
Date - Wednesday, December 30, 1998 at 02:23:31 (EST)

I am in the market to purchase a computer and I have researched Comtrade, Dell, and Gateway. I have read through the below emails and I have read horrible horrible stories about Comtrade, then I read great stories about Comtrade, I also read from the few people who actually took the time to degrade all of the people who were so kind to list their problems to warn anyone else, those people really need to relax just a bit.. Lets talk about the facts on the company, I have paid to pull a BBB(Better Business Bureau) report for Comtrade and the facts show from the BBB that they HIGHLY discourage consumers to purchase from this company, read the facts people! sure there are a few lucky ones from what I have read, but let the facts show that this company was given the WORST possible ratings from the BBB available. Talking about the worst possible customer service, Sales Reps promising then denying all, horrible tech support. Let me also touch that Dell, Gateway also has had some complaints according to the website, but according to the BBB. They still give THOSE companies great marks. For all of you people who just love your Comtrade machines because of no problems, well savor the flavor because it appears you are few.. Read the BBB report which again gave the lowest possible marks for Comtrade. IF you want to buy a machine, dont just listen to the consumers, get the actual facts from the right people, they arent lying. They have no reason to do so.. I hope you have read this and got the true facts. And for all of those people that just want to degrade the ones who are just trying to help? maybe its you who should consider getting a life, dont you think?
With the information that I have received from the BBB, I highly discourage any computer purchase from this company. I will definately not take my chances with a company who does not value the consumer.

Happy Holidays and happy shopping

Leo Eckl from Red Oak, TX USA
Date - Thursday, December 24, 1998 at 12:38:28 (EST)

Approximately 6 months, I purchased a computer; it was about two weeks before Windows98 was relased. Marci promised to send me a certiicate for upgrade of Windows98 for an additional $39.00. When I received my computer I let them know I did not receive the upgrade. A couple weeks past, then I experienced problems w/ my flash bias, it was corrupt. The compant sent the wrong video drivers & then told me my warranty was null & void because of it. Finally I found help from Eontronics on the Internet, they were able to assist w/ the correct flash bias. I don't understand why such a simple problem couldn't be solved by the tech support of Comtrade. I, also, reminded them that I still had not received my upgrade cetificate. It has been six months & still no certificate. When I call I get the run around, I reqiest to speak to a supervisor,& I am informed they don't have one. They say I must speak to my sales rep. However, she is never in & won't return my calls. Comtrade, also tried to tell me that they don't offer an upgrade. I have asked the operator to speak to anyone who can help me with this problem, & again I'm told there is not anyone who can help me. Their customer service & tech support are extremely rude, I truly wonder how they stay in business.

Cindy Belk from Wilmington, DE USA
Date - Saturday, December 19, 1998 at 18:23:22 (EST)

After reading all of the complaints, whinings, and moanings from folks in this page, you'd think these big players like Comtrade, Micron, Dell & Gateway would be out of business by now. The fact of the matter is....... every single PC maker/seller is not going to ship systems in working order 100% of the time.

I challenge any individual who purchase PC's by the dozens to make a claim that they have never had to return 1 or 2.

There is a massive complaint log for every Company mentioned as a radio button. What are you going to do? Not buy a PC at all? Maybe that should be the case. Cause judging from the whining in these pages you are better off not owning one! That is better for you and everyone else. YOu don't have to clog the bandwidth bitching about your PC!

Remember this:

No matter how good the software programmers are, they'll NEVER be able to write software that can read your mind or think for you.

For those of you complaining about putting Windows 95 on older machines and then having the system break or GPF more, did you think to upgrade the RAM, HD, or CPU? Did you happen to think about maybe this PC you have wasn't designed to run under Windows 95 in its current state?

As far as I'm concerned, I'll continue to buy Comtrade, and I'll continue to get the 3 year warranty (I don't like having parts die in an unreplaceable period). Comtrade computers are great, they aren't perfect, but they are damn good.

Comtrade's sales people and support people could stand a bit more training and "empowerment" to do their jobs, BUT, considering the fact that they have had to put up with the abuse and stupidity I've seen on this page, it's no wonder that turn over in the computer support industry is so high.

Consider yourselves lucky you're not required to get a "computer license" to own and operate a computer. You probably use your computers like you drive your cars:

Brains turned off, tunnel vision, and pissed that everyone else on YOUR road drives so badly

Grow up folks. Don't buy a computer if you can't take the heat.

William Antonious from Albany, GA USA
Date - Saturday, December 19, 1998 at 18:06:14 (EST)

I purchased a PII-266 from COMTRADE during the "Christmas Rush" of 1997. This machine was first my Comtrade and my first PC. (I had been a loyal Mac User for about ten years.) I decided to go with Comtrade because my school had a few hundred on campus. I figured that if they could handle the pounding of students, they could handle the home environment.

Contrary to what some have said, my computer arrived just as I had ordered it. The set-up was painless given the color-coded wires and many diagrams. The machine worked perfectly for a week-and-a-half. The first thing I installed on the machine was a new game I had received for Christmas. Unbeknownst to me, this game installed DirectX 5.0 on my computer. (I didn't even know what DirectX was.) After running the game for a few days, my system started to slowly degrade until it stopped working (I couldn't get into Windows95 anymore.) I immediately called Comtrade, and despite the Christmas Rush, I got a hold of a wonderful tech-rep. He "held my hand" for about 45 minutes on the phone until the problem was resolved. I unfortunately had to re-format my hard drive and re-install Windows95, but since it was a new computer, nothing had to be backed-up. The tech-rep also informed me that he had helped several other customers with the exact same problem. Who do I blame for all this? I'd probably blame Comtrade for not including the most up-to-date drivers for the system. After it all was said and done, however, I have nothing but cudos for Comtrade's tech-reps. They were extremely kind, patient, and helpful. (I have even sent them Christma's card.)

I have owned my Comtrade system for about a year. I have had no other problems with the system. The SubWoofer speakers are great! The Viewtronic monitor has got one of the best screens I've ever seen. I have only had a few minor glitches with my 24x Cyber CD-ROM and Windows95.

I consistently recommend Comtrade to friends, and several neighbors have purchased systems from Comtrade. None of them have reported having problems. I have been so impressed with Comtrade, that I am about to purchase my second system in a few weeks. I can only hope that it will "behave" as well as my current machine

Gary Gardner from Columbia, TN USA
Date - Saturday, December 19, 1998 at 17:33:50 (EST)

Purchased Lightning PC desktop unit on 7/98,. The system is working and have ZERO problems. It has taken me through web design classes, C, C++, and currently Java without a hitch. I have installed & uninstalled dozens and dozens of 16 & 32 bit software without a hitch!

I installed NT 4.0 Server with no problem (Dual boot). Even loaded Netscape 4.05 as well as 3.0x all in the same hard drive with no conflicts. I have put this damn machine through the ringer and it has come out fine. I credit this machine with contributing to my straight A's as well as success on my professional career.

Oh BTW, the LT 56k modem card performance has been flawless!

Having said all this, I wish Windows 98 would have the same track record. But that is a different story altogether.

For those folks here who complained about their Comtrade and their personal problems, all I can say is too BAD.

My school also purchases COMTRADE and their reliability has been excellent. They have proven themselves to be reliable machines.

Dan Russell from USA
Date - Saturday, December 19, 1998 at 03:38:50 (EST)

PEOPLE BEWARE:
If you plan to buy a computer and want one that is reliable then stay away from Comtrade Electronics. I recieved my 333mhz system the first of August 1998 and had to have the video card replaced before I could use it the first time. I was told to seat the card better. Finally they told me the card was bad and sent me another one. There was a difference in the chips on the card so I investigated and found they had given me a downgraded video card. I inquires and was told the only difference was the drivers.
This card goes out and another on is sent which is the right card based on the bar code. The system would stop running programs and lock up. I would get error messages and lose the files I was working on. This was addressed to Comtrade as well. I was tolsd this was a software problem. The system would not come up and I was told the hard drive was gone. They sent a hard drive of a different manufacture. I continued to get the error messages and was advised the CPU or PII processor was bad. I sent the computer back at my own expense and was advised by the customer service manager there would be a three day turn around time and he would have the agreed to parts. Three weeks later I got the unit back. It had black glue all over it as well as dents. Comtrade advised this did not hurt the components inside. We know better. I was still plagued by problems and was told it was software related.
I was told today that the hard drive had went out again and a replacement would be sent. I also found ot that Comtrades replacement parts are remanfactured instead of new origional parts. they told me there was nothing wrong with my computer when I sent it to them but they replaced the hard drive. one last note. The customer service is lousy. They are very impolite and inconsiderate. They make it appear the problems are your fault.
From a former Police Chief you be the judge. If you have had a problem PLEASE call the Federal Trade Commission, the better business buerau in your state and the Consumer Protection agency in City of Industry Ca. as well as your local F.B.I. office. Together we can make Comtrade put quality into their products or get out of the business of selling junk.

Kerry from ewa beach, HI USA
Date - Tuesday, December 15, 1998 at 22:54:55 (EST)

I bought a 300Mhz computer from Comtrade and it was delivered exactly when they said it would be and I found nothing wrong with my order or computer. I really like the computer. On the other hand, my boyfreind ordered the same exact computer and received his on the same day and his did have problems. He had no video display. We reseated the cards and memory, found a bad memory board. While we were troubleshooting, Comtrade sent us a new video card and motherboard next day mail. We called and told them it was memory and they sent us a memory bank next day mail. This fixed the problem. I have no complaints about the company at all. I even told some people at work about the company and they ordered too...they are very happy with their systems.

J. Bainter from Bloomington, IN USA
Date - Monday, December 14, 1998 at 19:23:50 (EST)

The computer system I bought from them was fair at best. I had to replace the CPU fan unit multiple times because it kept burning out. The original fan was for a 486 chip (I had a 120Mhz Pentium) they repeatedly sent me more 486 fan units. I ended up having to go buy a new pentium fan. The floppy drive that came with the computer also failed within the first year. They send out another one that hasn't failed yet. The system is over 3 years old now. Not to many problems to speak of. The hard drive seems to overwork itself (awful noisy) but seems to be operating OK. Overall I give them a 6 on a scale of 10. I'm sure there are a lot worse companies out there.

Jason Harms from Rota, Spain
Date - Saturday, December 12, 1998 at 23:40:44 (EST)

I, like many others, was thoroughly impressed with what Comtrade had to offer on their website and in their ads in "Computer Shopper". I felt fairly confident in buying from them. I searched and researched for weeks for the perfect computer, or what I felt was perfect for my needs. I can say, with confidence, that I've found the right one. I ordered a Pentium II 450 Mhz, 128 Meg RAM, 10.1 Gig HD, Diamond Monster II 3D, 56k modem, etc, etc. I pretty much got the top of the line. Anyway, after ordering it, I finally got a little curious to see how the company I bought from actually rated with consumers. I was shocked to see all the negative comments. So anyway, I waited for about a week and a half for my computer to be sent to me here in Spain (pretty fast delivery actually). When I got it, I must admit it didn't work the way I wanted it to immediately after hooking it up. So I tweaked it a little. But I had a few failures. So I decided on my own to low-level format the drive and start all over with my own settings. After about 4 hours of intensive labor of switching my cards around a little to the correct ISO ports I finally got the computer to work in my favor. I also added an older HD that was in one of my other computers. Finally, I got it to work and run everything I threw at it. I got an outstanding Benchmark and Winmark reading from it and tested the frame rates in a few high-end simulator games. Everything worked great and I must say it's still running outstandingly. In conclusion, I must say this; Comtrade computers probably aren't for your first-time owners, for those I would probably suggest Compaq or Dell or some other assembly line machine. I could see how an unexperienced computer owner would have frustrations and a lack of patience with this computer. But, if you are experienced and want to save a few bucks and want the top of the line hardware, I'd definitely go with Comtrade again and again. My experience is only in the home and somewhat at work, but with UNIX machines. I had two assembly line machines (a COMMODORE and an AST) but then I had one built for me at a local computer store in the States. That one was my best and now this one is my best. So good luck to you all if you buy from Comtrade and heed some of my advice. As for me, I'm sticking with Comtrade.

Sarah Bertelsen from Saint Louis, MO USA
Date - Wednesday, December 09, 1998 at 16:45:14 (EST)

I was impressed enough with my experience buying a 386/33 system from Comtrade that I bought a 200 meg Pentium Pro system two years ago. Happily this sysetem is keeping up with the times, but inevitibly I will have to upgrade. When I do so, to Comtrade I will go.

Bruce from Dover, NH USA
Date - Wednesday, December 02, 1998 at 01:25:41 (EST)

GOOD GOD! Believe me, I know, the horror stories you are reading are not fabrications!!!!!! Is there anyone out there that can give a non-tech person an idea of how to tell if there cpu clock is wrong? My laptop will only boot occassionally. Usually and I am sure soon, it will not boot at all. It just gets power to the LCD and goes into some sort of sleep mode. The worst part is that I just got the damn thing back from a very long month and a half at Comtrade and the manufacturer to fix the very same problem!!!!!!!!! I am simply baffled by the customer service. No person ever answers the 800 technical support line. No one ever returns calls. No one knows anyone elses name and they are hesitant to give their own. I've waited on hold for over an hour when I have demanded to talk to someone. I have been hung up on. I have had tech support people be rude to me. I contact the salewoman, Sue, now when I want to get through, but my messages never get returned. Is their anything I (we) can do. I'd love my money back, but am sure that is near impossible. I would love for my computer to turn on every time, but I have a feeling that may also be impossible. The thing is a piece of junk! I knew it when I first pulled it out of the box and saw the LCD "Indicater"! AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Please contact me with any advice! And my advice to any future Comtrade customers is STAY FAR FAR AWAY! DONT TOUCH IT - ITS EVIL! Love, Powerless in NH!

Suhail Sheriff from Ithaca, NY USA
Date - Monday, November 30, 1998 at 02:15:14 (EST)

I bought acomplete system with a PII300. Their sales line is quite efficient. A got it and it had some minor problems. Had a bad time getting through because of waiting and being cut-off, but after I had spent a but-load (and this is from a students budget) I persevered. I got one great technical person. The others were either rude or basically had a communication or attitude problem. So I insisted on this one guy. We sent back and forth SIX boxes, and TWO site visits by a technition. After a month and a half - I am a satisfied customer. I have had no problems since and am actually enjoying my computer.

I am actually considering buying from Comtrade 15 computers for a CyberCafe project in East Africa! The one thing that I will make sure is that they are all connected and tested inthe US before they leave!

Otherwise I'm relatively happy with it.

Ian Jones from Seattle, WA USA
Date - Thursday, November 26, 1998 at 13:39:23 (EST)

I have been dissatisfied with the company from the start.
They sold me an upgrade for my videocard they didn't have in stock. I've waited four months for it. The internal ZIP drive has problems ejecting the disks. I have to use needle nose pliers to get them out. I have an average of five fatal exceptions every week, not from anything I do.
Any experience I've had with the employees have been rude. Along with endless phone tag games and pass the customer around. I was not pleased. I am angry enough to send a letter to the Better Business Bureau, if not at least the computer magazines.

Kristi Vanhoy from Mooresville, PA USA
Date - Monday, November 23, 1998 at 19:17:49 (EST)

Oh -Where does one begin...I purchased a Comtrade System because of a recommendation from a trusted (techno-savvy) friend. He had purchased 3 Comtrades without one problem. Like others I see, my system arrived and from the minute it started we had problems. The monitor was not responding. After 10 hours on the phone with Tech support, the problem remained. Like Birmingham, we had to completely delete the hard drive ( at the direction of tech support) and reload software. This however, was unsuccessful as the thing would not stay running long enough to accomplish anything. Finally, we spoke to the head of customer service ( not without being placed on hold indefinitley and being hung up on countless times), asking him if we could simply package the whole thing up, send it back and have it replaced. This was not something he was willing to do. He either wanted the hard-drive or the monitor but not both. Luckily, we found this site (on someone else's computer because ours wasn't working), and read about 86 pages of testimony. After reading, we packaged the whole thing up... got a refund for everything but the shipping (hopefully).... and bought a Gateway. The easy part was buying the Gateway. I promised Comtrade in a letter that I will shout from the rooftops "Comtrade is Crap"..

Kerry Heaton from Birmingham, AL USA
Date - Monday, November 23, 1998 at 14:37:38 (EST)

I bought a 350 PII in Oct. 98. It locked-up the first time I used it. I called teck. support and was told to reload all software to solve the problem. The computer still locks-up everytime I use it. But, I can turn off and back on and keep going. It has given me on 2 different times a error message that it cannot detect a hard drive, but when I turn off and on, (so far) it clears-up. I called Comtrade to get my money back and got a RMA number and was promply told that Comtrade will not pay for opened software. How was I to reload software when the computer locked-up (via direction of tech. support) without opening the software? I was hung-up on when asking to be refunded for the cost of the software package. I called back and all people refused to give their name or give me the name or number for the Pres, VP, or Manager. So far it has not been plesant. I will never buy from Comtrade again.

Jeff K from Milwaukee, WI USA
Date - Tuesday, October 20, 1998 at 12:32:39 (EDT)

After reading all the negative comments, I can only add 2 MINOR negatives of my own. 1, I had to replace two items: the Cyberdrive 24X CD ROM, and the Eastern Acoustics Subwoofer. The CDROM was loud and slow, and the the Subwoofer would emit a low bass sound after maybe overheating.. Both times they shipped a new product within 3 days. The first return, it was a royal pain to get ahold of somebody. Sure, they're not English majors over there and some of the companies they buy their parts from aren't household names, but I rarely have a crash that is not related to this friggin' Microsoft IE 4.01.. After all the talk of overclocked CPU's, I checked my P233MMX and that's exactly what I have- no overclocked 200. A program on my computer crashes maybe once every 5 hours of operation, and based on my experience with Canon PC's, HP's, and Toshiba's, that's about average. Only thing is, my Comtrade P233 with 17" monitor cost $1900 at the time, and a, HP or Compaq was going for ohhh, $2300. I'd buy Comtrade again.

Robert Aviles from Bayside, NY USA
Date - Monday, October 19, 1998 at 17:03:07 (EDT)

I bought a computer system barely a month ago from Comtrade in hopes that I would get a good deal with the list price on the PII350 MHZ that i wanted. They were really good when they were taking our order and charging our credit card but the moment it was shipped, my wife knew that we get what we pay for. First, we did not have the power plug for the CPu so we had to call them back to send it to us. In the meantime, we had to purchase another one so we can use the machine right away. They sent it to us 2 days later so I let that one slip. After two weeks of testing its limits, I found out that the performance was so dismal and it seems like it was so slow considering that it is a 350. It also crashes 10-15 times each time I use it in a 2 hour period. I decided to call them up so they can they send me a new one and after talking to their customer rep, it was arranged that i send it back and they will send me a new one. I waited for almost a week and then it came a day after i sent the other CPU back. After receiving the new CPU the same day, I installed al the softwares that I had, picked up my wife 2 hours later , came home, turned on the computer and found out the CPU is not working. It just went dead and I was so upset. I called tech support and the guy said that he would be sending a power supply at which point I said why should I get a new power supply for a brnad new machine. After being nasty and patronizing on the phone, I decided that I wanted a refund and return the whole system back. They told me that we should ship it and we would be reimbursed for the money we will spend on shipping. We shipped it the next day--spent $198.00 and then called Comtrade to let them know that it was shipped back and to verify if it will be credited back to our credit card and they told me, they never said that. They insisted that we are responsible for shipping it back and they also have to deduct $80.00 from the original amount of $1760.00 because the software was already opened. COMTRADE IS THE BIGGEST NIGHTMARE ANYONE CAN HAVE. They are the nastiest and the most unscrupulous people I have ever dealt with. I think they sell refurbished machines and call them brand new and they lie just to get your business. I am filing a formal complaint against this company and I advise anyone reading this not to even consider this company if they need a computer system.
Meanwhile, I have ordered a Pentium II 400 MHZ from Dell and I am so excited about it. I find their staff very professional and pleasant. It is true what they say, it is not worth it to pay a few hundred dollars less than the established top-of-the-line companies. I LEARNED MY LESSON WELL--from now on, I will follow my wife's advice, to buy the best only from the best.

jim britnell from USA
Date - Sunday, October 04, 1998 at 17:23:57 (EDT)

I have bought 2 200mmx, one 300pII and just recently purchased a PII400 from Comtrade. I have not had one problem related to the hardware since I first contacted Comtrade.

James Keith from Naranja, FL USA
Date - Sunday, October 04, 1998 at 13:32:55 (EDT)

Since I am considering upgrading my system to the newer 400 PII, I have been reading up on mail order companies. I must admit it is with some surprise that I see all these negative comments about Comtrade. I have purchased two systems from them. A 386 in 1990? which is still running with all original components. Never a problem. Also a 486/66 in 1993 which also ran perfectly until it was fried by a lightning strike in 1996. Can't comment on tech support as I have never had a need to call them.
I would probably not buy from them again, not because of the complaints I see here, but because the local BBB has rated them unsatisfactory.

David Rhodes from Storrs, CT USA
Date - Tuesday, September 29, 1998 at 14:18:36 (EDT)

I'm about to buy my second Comtrade PC. The first was purchased in 1993 (!) and was a 486-66. OK - to be completely honest, I specified a 50 MHz but there were problems with peripherals in those days being spec-ed for 33 MHz backplanes only. When I discovered that there was a problem, a single phone call brought an in-house upgrade to a 66 MHz DX2 system. I have used this system since then, and it has (knock wood) been very reliable. I had a question this summer regarding a possible upgrade path, and placed a call with tech support - giving them my 1993 invoice number. Within 48 hours, I got a call back from a very helpful individual who spend about 10 minutes with me on the phone. I don't know many companies that will answer questions after 5 years - most (especially the bigger ones) will ask you for a credit card number first. I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) at all the negatives here, but I guess that such a list tends to be self-slecting... (i.e. if you don't have a gripe, why comment). I'll simply let my new order speak for me...

char claxton from NY USA
Date - Thursday, September 24, 1998 at 19:49:09 (EDT)

I bought my computer less than 6mo ago from the first day i ran it nothing but trouble .I am a single mother and my son wanted a computer so I took a loan and very!!! sorry that I chosse comtrade I had a corrupte hard drive that the less than English speaking tech accused me of bumping in to and corrupting it. After so much trouble and extra money. to replace a video card,my a drive and finally replacing my hard drive, plus dealing with nonexisting tech people, that you could not understand ,being hung up on and treated very rudly. i know computers have problems but this was ridiculous. Never deal with or buy from Comtrade. the low prices are nice but remember .YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!

ann from arcadia, CA USA
Date - Tuesday, September 22, 1998 at 21:02:21 (EDT)

I purchase the whole set of computer system from Comtrade couple of months ago and it was working fine for the first week but thereafter I encounter many many unsolvable problems. I tried calling the sales representative who sold me the computer, whom I believed is a guy named something like Justin, and he was not helpful at all. His attitude is totally unacceptable and when I tried to explain my problems to him, he would put me on hold forever and then hung up on me. This is no way to treat a customer especially we are the reason you are getting paid and have a job. There are so many other computer companies out there which will gladly help me with my problems and have my business. I understand that computer industry is very competitive. The only reason I chose to purchase computer from Comtrade is simply because it's a pretty good size company and has been operating for a while. Selling computer is also included in the service industry and since my computer is still under warranty at that time, this kind of service will soon flush your business down the drain. His service is just totally rude and terrible. I tried calling him few other times after that incident and he will put me on hold forever like usual. However, I want to fix my computers so the only choice I had is to be patient and hold. And I know I better fix it since I still have the warranty, if the warranty expired I'll surely encountered more trouble and God knows how much I'll be charged for the fixing. I would have gone down there myself but due to my very busy schedule I was unable to do so. The only choice I was left with is continue to contact that owful, rude, terrible salesperson. Finally after several tries and right when I was running out of patience, he rudely told me the technical support's phone number and hung up on me again. He was just too TERRIBLE!! I didn't see anyone so rude in my whole life!!! I tried calling several times and didn't get through to the technical support. There I am.. stuck with a new BROKEN computer. Like I was saying, it was working fine when I just got it then after approximately one week the sound card didn't work, and there's a constant problem with the mouse, and then the computer would froze for no reason. Sometimes I will lose everything I was working on just because it froze. Then I had to start all over from scratch and it was just a terrible experience, not to mention the presssure I was in when I was rushing for the due date. It was a waste of time and money. I used to comfort myself that money is just a small matter since I can earn it back but time.. once it's gone, it's gone for ever. The time I spent calling and tried to explain to the salesperson is a total waste of my precious time!! I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it if the sales representative showed me some courtesy and treated me like a "customer". I was furious with his service and the more I think about the bad attitude, the angrier I got. The anger I was experiencing at that time can't be described by words. I felt that I had to file a complaint. I called and the operator transferred me to the sales manager. I told him the story and the experience I had with the sales representative, he immediately apologized and promised to help me to get the computer fixed. He also ensured me that the technical support people would call me and help me with all my problem and if it's something that can't be fixed then they would be glad to replace the parts that were broken. And I received the call from technical support the very same day and got most my problems solved. I was grateful to the manager, if it's not for him, I wonder how long it will take for me to have a "working" computer. I surely hope that owful sales reprentative would get what he deserved. I also want to warn all Comtrade's potential customers ... please, please be cautious when choosing the sales reprentative!! Especially be aware dealing with someone called something like Justin or sound similar to that. Please do not take this warning lightly... Once bad experience will bring you lots and lots of nightmares and troubles!!!

dan colombini from katonah, NY USA
Date - Tuesday, September 15, 1998 at 18:24:19 (EDT)

uncountable problems with virtually every program ever run

tech support is nearly impossible to reach

Darryl Baxter from USA
Date - Sunday, September 13, 1998 at 13:37:31 (EDT)

I purchased a computer from Comtrade in February 1998.
First problem, it had a noisey CPU fan. I faxed a request to tech support and they contacted me by the end ot the day. They sent me out a new fan for the Intel 333 and arranged for the service tech to call me and setup a time to install. Mission accomplished in about 10 days. My son has purchased two units from Comtrade and he is the one that recommended them to me. He also has had problem with his mouse going south. He also contacted the tech service via e-mail and they contacted him almost immediately by telephone and not only did they send him a new mouse, but they upgraded it to the without charge. My sister also purchsed a Comtrade unit after I recommended them to her. When it arrived and we finally got it setup, it would not come on. We contacted tech support via fax and told them the problem. They called us back a short time later via telephone and walked us through replugging one of the cables inside the unit. Worked fine after that. Yes we did have a problem getting through on the 800# but who does'nt. The sure fire method these days are to communicate via fax or e-mail and that is what worked almost immediately in our case. I like Comtrade. My unit works great. I got a good deal at time of purchase and would certainly buy from them again. Look at the postings for other manufacturers. All of them have problems. I expect that most people that are not having problems do not write letters. I just happened to stumble upon this site while researching the purchase of a laptop computer. I am sure the reason most of the letters here are unfavorable are due to the fact that unhappy customers are more likely to post something here. I just wanted to counterpoint that opinion.
Thanks.

Jason Bourriague from Phoenix, AZ USA
Date - Tuesday, September 01, 1998 at 15:31:03 (EDT)

I personally feel that Comtrade is a Joke!!

Below is an ongoing issue with them that I finally figured out myself. This is a copy of a letter that I wrote to the CEO, Customer Service Manager and Technical Support Manager. I will NEVER buy a computer from Comtrade again... I never heard word back on this.

To Whom they may Concern:

The below message was both emailed and faxed to your company on the 9th of February. It has now been 48 hours and (like every time) I have yet to hear anything from your company. I am sorry to say but of all of the companies I have ever delt with, your company definately has the worst response time (if responding at all) for customer service and Technical support. When I purchased my machines from you, I was originally told by your Sales Representative, Miki Yong, that if I ever have any problem to go ahead and just call the Toll free 800-899-4508 and ask for tech support and they can help, I do remember telling her that technical support and customer service is very important to myself and the people I deal with. She told me that it was not going to be a problem so I went ahead with it. Sure that is a great sales pitch, but In the real world lets talk about what really happens every time (myself) and every person I have ever talked to that had the opportunity of buying a computer from you has to go through.
First of all, 98% of the time the phone is busy, then when the phone does ring, it will ring 10-15 times then goes to a recording saying "how important your call is and to call back later, fax or email your request for 24 hour response". This is very consistant all day long. When and if you do get through you leave a message with an operator with your invoice number and days can go by before hearing anything at all from anybody. I have actually had to call back days later and go through it all again just to hear the operator say, "They should have called me back" then I get to start over. As you could imagine this is extremely frustrating for any business person trying to get work done. Is that standard service of Comtrade? If so I think it would be a good idea to warn your customers that tech support and customer service is close to impossible to get ahold of when you need them most. But then again, who sells a car and tells the customer before hand that their service department wont do anything for them in a timely fashion if they have any complications or defects. I personally know people who have purchased computers from you and experienced the same issues I have that say the next time they get a computer they are definately not doing to buy from Comtrade, and not because you do not have a good product but because the service level is far below standard for any company. They would rather pay the higher price and have the confidence that they will be taken care of if they have any problems, then to sit on a defective drive for a week because nobody will return their calls or emails. I myself am in the market to purchase 2 more computers and I also have direct colleages and family who are currently looking to purchase Home computers. With all of the problems I have had with your company as of now, I seriously cannot see myself buying or recommending a purchase from your company to anybody I will come across looking for one. I must say that I had extremely high hopes in dealing with your company when I first started doing business with you which have been shattered by unanswered promises and poor service. I know for a fact that I am not the only one who has voiced such a negative opinion on this issue, I have actually visited websites where somebody has taken to time to post their feelings about their poor experiences with Comtrade. Please if you do not believe me in anyway, I would incourage you to call your own 800-899-4508 number and see how far you get. I think you would be rather surprised. If you value your customers and/or and potential customers in any way, I would think that something would be changed in your service department, but then again, you may not even care about your customers issues. If you have any questions or would care to try and mend my relationship with Comtrade I would love a return call from a manager or a superior who could help me.
I am faxing a copy and sending a hard copy to the CEO.

Sincerely,

Jason Bourriague

(Please see original email below which was faxed also)


I am having a challenge with your system.

Your techs recently had me reinstall Win95 on my system because it became corrupt. I reinstalled everything including the Fax capabilities from the Win95 CD. Everything seemed to work fine. However, When I try to fax something and load up the faxing capabilities on your system. I get an error stating : Missing .dll file (MAPI32.dll). I uninstalled the fax capabilities from the Win95 CD and then reinstalled it again just to make sure and the error still persists.

Please help me fix this being that I cannot fax from my home office.
My invoice number is: 97*93*7

I work from 8:30 - 5:00pm Mountain standard time.
Phone from 8:30 - 5pm is: 602-3*-5**7 (Office)
Phone from 5:30pm - evenings is: 6*2-5*7-7*27 (Home Office)

Please do not try calling me at the 5*7-7*2* before 5 for I quarantee you I will not be there.

kumaran from canton, MI USA
Date - Friday, August 14, 1998 at 09:18:53 (EDT)

I bought P-90 Dream Machine in 95.

Support : I dont attempt to call by phone for support. I have faxed to contact support twice and got replies
faxed back next day. I have used email 5 times and got back
replies email in approx 1.5 days. 100 % response and satisfactory.

Product quality : CDROM (goldstar) didnt work in 3 months and
goldstar replaced it. PA-2000 mothernoard needed BIOS upgrade for
windows 95 and comtrade support and BB told me how to do it.
Samsung 1.2 G hard drive failed after 1.5 years with 'cannot read
drive C:' error. I feel samsung is a decent brand, so I will assume I was just unlucky. Keyboard (matsumi), monitor KFC, mini
tower are all OK.

Overall; their prices are low. However newbies are better off spending the extra $ at gateway/dell/etc to get better support and better quality parts.

Kevin Potts from Moundsville, WV USA
Date - Tuesday, August 11, 1998 at 10:25:45 (EDT)

I purchased a P133 from Comtrade around Nov. of 95. At that time it was the fastest chip out there. I can't remember the exact name of the model I purchased, it was 3d something, but it came with a 3d card from Diamond. This wasn't my first computer, but I still thought that the documentation that came with it was good. I've only had to call tech support twice. Once for the cdrom, which they got working for me again, and just latley about getting a bios upgrade for the mb. I don't recall having a real hard time getting through to them but I'm sure those who say they have arent lying. I recently bought a new system, from another company, but only because I didn't want to buy a "complete" system. I'm still using the 17" monitor that came with my Comtrade system, its a KFC(not sure if its related to the chicken outfit or not :) ) but besides that the rest of the hardware from my Comtrade system has been laid to rest. I used that system for about 2 1/2 years with no real problems and would recommend them to anyone, except for all these posts I'm seeing.

Glen from Houma, LA USA
Date - Wednesday, August 05, 1998 at 22:34:14 (EDT)

Many consumers have written about their experiences, both good and bad, with this company. But, they all have made one common error. It is not Comtrade they are complaining about. It is CONTRADE!!!! And we all got Conned when we bought from them.

Michael O. Docharty from Livermore, CA USA
Date - Thursday, July 30, 1998 at 19:48:18 (EDT)

I purchased a Pentium 100MHZ machine (don't recall the model name) from Comtrade in the summer of 1995. Although I had been a professional software engineer for 15 years, this was the first computer that I had purchased. After receiving the system and setting it up, I noticed it would run fine for about 15 minutes and then hang. It would then need time to cool down, and would then repeat the same process.

I then attempted to contact technical support on the 1-800 number without success. The only person I was able to reach was in sales who instructed me that a tech support person would call me back. After several days of waiting for someone to return my call, I boxed up the machine and returned it to Comtrade without an RMA number at my expense.

After a month or so I received a replacement machine; a Pentium 90MHZ. Note that I had purchased a 100MHZ box. Again I went through the customer support gauntlet, and after a great deal of effort reached a tech who instructed me to change a jumper setting on the motherboard and the machine would be a 100MHZ. He was actually instructing me to overclock the CPU myself!

At this point I gave up on any further contact with Comtrade and decided to live with a very substandard computer. The individual parts in this computer began to fail in rapid succession over the next 18 months. To give you a list would be lengthy, and therefore I will tell you what is left of the Comtrade machine:

1) Case
2) Intel Pentium Chip (CPU only, not motherboard)
3) An off-brand 4X CD-Rom drive.

Note that this was a fully loaded machine when purchased. As original parts failed, I replaced replaced them with quality hardware. Had I not been a professional engineer myself, it is unlikely that I would have been able to fix this many problems, and would have just given up on the thing much sooner. This box is now my wife's machine and is Comtrade in name on the case only.

Bottom line is, unless you consider yourself to be an extremely lucky person, as a few success stories sprinkled in among the many disasters here might indicate, avoid buying from Comtrade at all costs.

Bruce Cohen from NYC, NY USA
Date - Thursday, July 30, 1998 at 15:13:46 (EDT)

I'm on my fifth comtrade here in the office. Yes, their phone servicre is terrible and you can re-dial that 800 number for days before you speak with a person.

However, I have always found the machines to be all they promised. They're fast, and since some of them have been on for three years without being turned office, I find them reliable.

That is not to say that I have not had my problems. They've replace two motherboards, and one or two other parts within the warranty period.

Bought two 300 Pentium II with 64 meg and had problems with them crashing. Added more memory, and they're running quite smoothly, which leads me to believe it's Windows 95 and software conflicts.

Comtrade is not for users who can't reconfigure a bios, partition a harddrive, or change a video card. But, since the units are 300 to 500 dollars less than Dell, you get far, far, less phone service.

By the way, my e-mail questions and needs have been met by them promptly.

Nestor R. Sala II from Stuart, FL USA
Date - Sunday, July 19, 1998 at 13:32:14 (EDT)

I purchased a comtrade computer in 96, the notebook, "winnote". Yes, their customer service after you have purchased one is of the lowest species on earth. After 2 years, they don't carry parts.

But the point: If any of you have a notebook that doesn't work but have the power pack and cord, I would love to buy it from you!! 19 volts 1.8 amps.

Please let me know...ness@ecqual.net 561 286 1483
Nestor R. Sala II

Jay Angsuco from Los Angeles, CA USA
Date - Saturday, July 11, 1998 at 05:36:02 (EDT)

I have had my Comtrade 300 screamer for several months now, I bought it around the time when they released it. I would just like to say that I have had a very good experience with it, and its services. I received it, including all necessary, albeit generic, documentation, hardware(including a real 300 mhz pII chip, I even checked the serial number on the pII chip itself, and all software intact-except for a once need MS Plus CD. The only thing wrong with it were the constant crashes I had, which I overcame when I upgraded some of hardware drivers. Warranty service, to my experience was extrodinary. I was upgrading the bios, via a bios "flash" utility, and some malfunction occurred. My computer was, after that, rendered unusable. I e-mailed Comtrade that night and the next day, I received a call from them. They told me to do some things with the computer and told me that they would send a technician. I decided to bring the computer to one of their head-quarters in the City of Industry. It was serviced right away and I was out in an hour with a new motherboard and even a new pII processor and an MS Plus CD.

David Driver from Pittsburgh, PA USA
Date - Friday, July 03, 1998 at 16:35:05 (EDT)

I purchased a Pentium 90 system, oh, now just over three years
ago. I should have been more wary about the system after talking
to the sales-person, but at the time I was not such a suspicious
person, and so I didn't double-check what he said.
I had specified various video options, specifically asking if the
video card shipped did MPEG decompression in hardware.

After receiving the machine, and looking at information about the
specific video card, I found out that what I had gotten did not
in fact have hardware decompression. I then called and spoke
with a technician (the first and only time I was able to get ahold
of tech support), and finally decided not to pursue the matter.
The option wasn't particularly important to me, and I had not
been charged an exorbitant amount, and so I decided to let it
go.

I had also asked for Win95 with the machine. Since it was not
available when the machine shipped, I received the CD around
a month and a half later. Install worked fine, but I found that
the machine would not boot on a cold boot. I had to start the
machine, wait for it to hang, and then reboot with
Alt-Ctrl-Delete, after which it worked fine. I had a busy schedule, and was never able to get a support person to call
me back when I was available. So the problem was never fixed.
(To this day it still exists).

But later during the month I switched to Linux, which seemed to
be quite stable. I have had very few problems in the past
two 1/2 years. Recently the CPU fan has been acting up, which
sounds like a common problem from the complaints on this board,
and the monitor is starting to fade in and out. Since I have
treated the system rather harshly (through 5 or six very bumpy
housing changes) this is probably to be expected.

Once I got used to the "quirks" of the system, I have been very
satisfied. But I was lucky, I knew enough to make the system
usable despite problems, and was able to fix most of them.
If you know what you're doing, and you are very careful about
telling them EXACTLY what you want, you can get some nice
hardware for cheap. But if you are expecting to use Tech
support, or aren't very experienced with computers, DON'T BUY
FROM COMTRADE.

Lisa Tomlinson from Boston, MA USA
Date - Thursday, July 02, 1998 at 14:39:55 (EDT)

Here's an email I sent Comtrade and several trade magazines and other PC vendors:

To: reseller@comtrade.com, tech@comtrade.com
cc: fg@computerworld.com, sslogan@merisel.com, plang@dell.com
Subject: Why Comtrade is no longer my recommended supplier for home and business


---------------------- Forwarded by Lisa Tomlinson/the Yankee Group on 07/02/98 02:27 PM ---------------------------
To: sales@comtrade.com
cc:
Subject: Why Comtrade is no longer my recommended supplier for home and business

Dear Comtrade,

I have recommended your company to countless friends and small businesspeople; I have personally dialed your 800 number for over ten people for them to buy PCs from you.

Here's why I stopped.

When Joe Tomlinson recieved his PC, it worked great. But then it started not to work so great. The hard disk started to degrade.

Well, a certain number of hard disks have quality problems, and they are the type that are hard to detect at the factory or at the assembler. So we called Comtrade. We liked Comtrade. We felt confident that they would help us, and we had no doubt that they would treat us fairly.

We waited on hold.

That's not so bad. Lots of PC manufacturers have longer hold times.

We were told to go through several diagnostic procedures. We did. Still had problems.

We were told to go through the diagnostic procedures again. We did. Still had problems

After a few rounds of that, we got an RMA number.

And you sent us a hard disk.

Or, to be more specific, you sent a 56 year old first time pc user a hard disk to install himself. Which he couldn't.

We bought a computer, not parts. We bought a computer, fully assembled, and we had faith and trust that Comtrade would give us a fully assembled working computer for our money.

We shouldn't have, and now we don't.

Lisa Tomlinson
Industry Analyst, Enterprise Applications and Technologies (yes, Wall Street and Computerworld call us frequently)
The Yankee Group

Dana from Manvel, TX USA
Date - Wednesday, July 01, 1998 at 23:33:09 (EDT)

I have posted some of my problems with Comtrade in the past, and you know, if all of us who have had problems with Comtrade would dispute the charges with our credit card companies and complain about false advertisement, maybe the credit card companies would take them off their merchant accounts permanently and therefore would suck the lifeblood out of that sorry company since they rely on our credit cards for payment. Lets face it....where would they then?

Shane Hartman from Fairview, TX USA
Date - Wednesday, July 01, 1998 at 00:06:29 (EDT)

It has been a few years since I bought a Comtrade, back in 486 days. I purchased a 486/66 (and my sister bought one on my recommendation). The key to buying from COMTRADE is to specify specific brands of peripeherals (e.g. Adaptec, Creative Labs, Diamond Labs, Quantum) which I did. The machine arrived but it failed to boot. I popped the case and noticed drive cables were not hooked up. Fixed that. The operating system (windows 3.1) was incompently installed. Formatted drive, reinstalled with latest manufacturer drives. Worked like a dream after that. Used it for 3 years. The CPU fan finally died (the do use crappy fans). So I retired it. I am still using it for parts (for example, the powersupply died in my no-name pentium 166 so I reused the supply from the COMTRADE). The tower case is still good, so I am thinking of putting a new mainboard in it.

My sister's machine is still running today. Her CPU fan also died which I replaced. The hard drive eventually croaked after 4 years. Replaced with new cheap IDE board and IDE drive. Still going today.

I called technical support once. I figured since they could not speak english, I was better off doing things myself.

I would recommend COMTRADE, IF YOU KNOW COMPUTERS. Otherwise, go get a DELL.

Dan from Spokane, WA USA
Date - Tuesday, June 30, 1998 at 14:48:35 (EDT)

I purchased a Comtrade 3D Screamer (200MMX) in April of 1997. Since that time, this system has functioned wholly and properly approximately three months. These are NOT Win95 crashes -- these are NOT problems with other companies such as USR/3Com, Quantum, STB, etc. These problems are with Comtrade and the claims they made at the time of sales that have fallen through in the interrim.

When I purchased the PC I was told that there was a lifetime tol-free tech assistance line, I was told that any part faliures would be dealt with on a two-day express shipping of replacements, I was told that I would recieve the machine that I requested and paid extra for, and most of all, I expect any company that has such significant contacts throughoput the United States to enter into contracts with consumers with the good faith that is implied in ALL contracts. I was personally misled on all counts. I consider such statements as promised performances to go beyond the bounds of mere sales puffery (like 'our computer's is the fastest thing going' or 'our cars seldom if ever have trouble with the air conditioners'); such claims go to the heart of the bargain in my book.

I could go through an epistle of the tribulations I have experienced with Comtrade, these problems are still going at the time of this writing. If anyone wants a complete run-down, contact me and I'll fill you in. There are enough horror stories on this site (and MANY others like it) to go around. The story is clear to those who read the posts and can do so with an open, un-biased mind. Are all these people makng this up?

Personally, I have other things to do than to write negative things about someone or some business. I'd rather be fishing or reading the paper. My time is valuable to me, and this is precisely why I am writing. I have wasted too much time dealing with Comtrade to let it go now. I can't understand, from a legal perspective, why California doesn't shut them down from a public policy perspective. One problem I suspect is that peopel don't know where the proper sounding boards for such complaints are.

When I had problems with Comtrade, to get a response from them I had to contact the California Attorney general and the Better Business Bureau. I am not saying this is for everyone and their own personal experiences. Nor is this statement to be taken, in any way, as legal advice. I am not an attorney. The point of this statement is that if there is a problem continuing in the consumer goods industry, we all should take the proper steps to inform ELECTED OFFICIALS who are paid to protect us from practices that place consumers at a disadvantage. Let the Attorney General get all these letters and that office will assuredly get the attention of Comtrade and see if these claims are fabricated.

Marcus R. Bush from Dallas, TX USA
Date - Friday, June 26, 1998 at 20:47:37 (EDT)

I bought a Comtrade 200mmx Screamer in April 1997. I have been realitively pleased with the system so far. The computer performs well except for an occasional crash which I would say is most likely due to Windows 95. The one problem I have had with my system was when I first purchased the system. The hard drive would fail about 3-4 times before successfully booting up. I called tech support and can report the same crappy service everyone else here speaks of. I was on hold FOREVER!!! When I finally spoke with a technical support specialist he told me that I would have to re-partition my hard drive and anything I had not backed up would be lost. Luckily I said I would not do that and hung up. I finally got my computer to boot correctly after 3-4 attempts and ran defrag and diskscan. Since then my computer has not had any problems booting at all and crashes are very rare (much less than I have experienced with Compaq's, IBM's, and Pacard Bell's)

The system is very fast and because of this I would rate my experience with Comtrade an 7.5-8 on a scale of 1-10. If you are cosidering purchasing a Comtrade I reluctantly reccomend them. I also have several other friends with Comtrades who have not had any problems. Just be prepared to fix on your own any problems you encounter. I do not recommend Comtrade at all for a novice user.

J E Quist from New York, NY USA
Date - Sunday, June 21, 1998 at 00:56:05 (EDT)

I bought my Comtrade a couple of years back so some things may have changed, but after reading some recent reviews here, apparently they haven't.

Problems: Win 95 wouldn't boot after first assembly, some bundled software was written for Win 3.1, pipeline cache died early on, modem disconnected after 5 minutes online.

Resolutions: Tech support was a nightmare. Busy signals, holds, cut offs, and when I got through, they acted as if they knew there were problems since within a few minutes, they were giving me a RMA number and asking for my credit card # again for "security"

Opinion: If you know yer stuff about computers, Comtrade is a very cheap place to get a bare bones machine, even if you end up having a few problems. You should know that if their advertisements do not mention specific brand names that they are rest assured cutting corners with less than reputable products (They are selling specs, not quality.) Lots of things in my PC (Motherboard, memory, monitor, modem, case, mouse, keyboard) were made in Taiwan - probably helping keep prices down. The bad side of this is that unless you speak Chinese, searching for help directly from the manufacturer is EXTREMELY difficult.

Summary: If you are a novice, don't buy from them. If you have a fair amount of experience and are willing to work on your own to resolving problems or replacing a few crap components, then your money spent might be worth it.

Dave Burnett from USA
Date - Friday, June 19, 1998 at 19:15:54 (EDT)

I purchased a Comtrade Pentium 90 Dream Machine in summer '95 after looking at the color ads in a magazine. The unit arrived 3 weeks later with absolutely no documentation whatsoever. Everything worked until the display driver crapped out the next month. I spent hours on hold, faxed repeatedly, for the better part of 2 weeks, all to no avail. Their tech support even today is (IMHO) but a pipe dream, so potential purchasers should plan on getting to know the neighborhood techies and the local computer repair businesses before-hand, because this computer company will take your money and leave you stranded (my experience only, your mileage may vary).

joe freeman from USA
Date - Thursday, June 18, 1998 at 13:01:48 (EDT)

I purchased a P120 system from them in Dec of 1997 ($3800). The unit was always a little flakey butusually ran ok. Finally, in the middle of last it became more of a problem. I replaced the motherboard and CPU. It turns out that the P120 was really a P75 that they had overclocked. I couldn't tell sooner because they had glued the heat sink to the CPU.

Bob Fastner from Maplewood, NH USA
Date - Thursday, June 18, 1998 at 04:06:03 (EDT)

I bought a Screamer Pro Pentium II 266Mhz system in September of '97. The only problem I have had with the hardware is the CPU fan died. I was in a hurry and had it fixed locally for $40. The Comptons Encyclopedia CD they sent wouldn't load. After several e-mails about it to their "support" crew who don't seem to enderstand English very well, they sent me Webster's (which sucks!). I purchased Compton's on my own and it barely loaded, so I don't blame Comtrade. I have had to replace Windows 95, but I believe it was a combination of IE4.0, DoomII, and Delorme Street Atlas 4.0 which made it run flakey. This is my first PC, although I have been a Computer repair technician for 18 years. I find and fix all software problems myself without calling support. If you want quality support, you have to pay the piper with the expensive big-time companies. The one real problem I have is they seem unable to provide me with the model number of my USR Sportster 56000 Internal w/voice x2 modem. However, I think I've figured out which update to download from 3COM for V.90. By the way, I am a supervisor for a contract electronics manufacturing company that employs Asians, Africans, and South Americans. Give the support crew as much respect as you expect in return. Caucasians will hang up on you in the same cases as I've read here. Also, after the upgrades I asked for, my system ended up costing $3050. It was a good deal at the time.

Bryan Lee from Altus, OK USA
Date - Saturday, June 13, 1998 at 04:06:30 (EDT)

AHH THIS IS SO CONFUSING!!!

Ok here is my situation:

My aunt(who konws nothing about computers) asking me to help her pick a good computer. So I have been searching thru the ol' Computer Shopper and was about to suggest her to buy a Comtrade computer because the sales dept. operator gave me a cheaper "quoted" price then the one listed....but after reading what everyone he has said about the company I feel hesitant.
I have narrowed my search down to a few choice computers that always seem to get good reviews. They are:

ABS computers, Zenon computers, Royal, Quantex, Midwest Micro, Cybermax, and a couple of others.

If anyone could give me some advice of these and maybe suggest other companies then please send an e-mail my way I'm in desperate need of help.

Bryan Lee

A. Keeler from NY USA
Date - Friday, June 12, 1998 at 00:14:03 (EDT)

3 years ago I went looking for the very best "bang for the buck" computer I could buy, read all the reviews, one name kept coming up as the top performer..."COMTRADE". At this time Pentium 60-75 was super, Pentium 90 was ultimate and Pentium 100-120 was just around the bend. COMTRADE had these killer ads, great reviews (in the supposed "quality" mags, ie: PC World, etc... and the prices were excellent...I had "found" my computer and promptly ordered what was then "state of the art", full tilt, I was proud of my achievement. That night I went home, and as luck would have it, I had just procured the most recent PC WORLD mag (I think). Expecting to find the "COMPTRADE" computer I had just ordered in the very top 5 or so of "BEST BUYS" (as I had seen many times before in that mag) I was shocked to find it no where in the listings of top rated PC's. Hmmm..... Somewhere, located in a rather obscure section of that mag I discovered a section called "Special considerations". It went something like this, I still remember it well, etched in my mind as if in stone. "THIS SECTION IS DEVOTED TO PRODUCTS/COMPUTERS THAT DID NOT MAKE OUR BEST BUYS LISTING FOR VARIOUS REASONS".....Hmmm......Right there in special considerations was the very computer I had just ordered from COMTRADE and its illustrious SPECIAL CONSIDERATION WENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS>>>>>>> "The COMTRADE unit we tested rated at the very highest performance on our charts, achieving first places in almost all of our bench tests, a true performer of the highest caliber.....BUT ( yes but)..."DUE TO THE CONSISTENT RELIABILITY AND SERVICE PROBLEMS REPORTED OF COMTRADE WE CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPUTER".....Hmmmmmm........I lost alot of sleep that night.
Next morning I realized a few things about my experience with COMTRADE up to that point: 1)I knew NOTHING about computers at that time and the salesperson who spoke with me had suspiciously said yes to almost everything I said. 2) EVERY person I had talked to at COMTRADE spoke extremely bad English( VERY difficult to understand Asian accent, please dont accuse me of bigotry, I am a 20 year Veteran Martial Artist and about as international as you can get)..so I got this sinking feeling that they didnt LISTEN to a thing I said. 3)I had a very difficult time getting through to anyone AFTER I placed my order. NEXT DAY: I "attempted" to cancel my order and I mean "ATTEMPTED". MANY

Chris Greene from Jax., FL USA
Date - Monday, June 08, 1998 at 03:53:27 (EDT)

Wow!

I'm sure glad I had no of the problems you guys had with your machines. I got my 166w/mmx about a year ago. It was my first computer. When I got it I had no idea how to set it up, but I simply followed the instructions and everything worked fine. I have had not one problem at all with the machine. My friend did some test with a few games and found out that my 166mmx outperformed his 200mmx(beside the cpu, most all of our other equipment is the same: same HD, videocard, memory, etc.) Guess thats why they call it the "Lighting PC" . Every time I went to upgrade, I found the system ready to handle it. As I learned more and more about computers, I realized what a good system it is. I learned to overclock the cpu, so I jacked my 166 up to a 233.
I leave the computer on all the time, and it has never messed up at all since the overclocking. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a time when it did mess up. As for support, thats been perfect too. I bought a Space Orb 360(piece of trash), this thing did not work at all with anything. The magazines said so, but I didn't listen. On 3 seperate occaisions I called the support line. The first 2 times they called back within 15 minutes. The 3rd time, I waited for 10 then had to leave. I came back around 7:30 and saw that Comttrade had been trying to call while I was gone. About 5 minutes later they called again and helped me out. This machine has been perfect. As a matter of fact, the reason I found this page is because I did a search for comtrade to find their page so that I could check on buying a new machine. As for you people that are mad at Comtrade because it came with some cards out of place due to shipping, well..thats not really Comtrade's fault. I've worked at UPS, RPS, and the USPS, and they all handle packages the same. We grab them, and toss them..hard. I don't know about Fed-Ex.

Also, the price was the best that I could find.

Patrick from Washington, CA USA
Date - Sunday, May 31, 1998 at 23:33:18 (EDT)

I bought a 300MHZ Open Gl from comtrade in Feb. 1998 The only problem I had was the sales department. I did not receive my computer when promised, but it did arrive (due to UPS tardyness). After receiving and setting up the computer, the video card was not working, so I took the cover of and wiggeled it back into place. I guess it had come loose due to UPS shipping... Then 1 week to the day later, the hard drive fried (infant mortality) After an exhausting quest to get the tech suppore, I has the new hard drive the next day and all is well since!!!! I NEVER turn off the computer, it runs non-stop, I run LARGE 3D modeling and CAD programs all day long and Desktop Publishing at night... All Intensive and Large programs, the computer handels them flawlessly!!!! I couldnt be happier!!!

Oh yea, The price $ was great too!!!

If you get one, ship it FED EX, NOT UPS!!!!!!!

Rick S. from USA
Date - Tuesday, May 26, 1998 at 00:21:13 (EDT)

DON'T BUY A COMTRADE!!! YOU'LL BE SORRY!!

I bought a 90MHZ laptop in early 1995. Nothing but problems. I could not get tech support to call back. I complained to my sales rep & he replaced the entire laptop twice. They were still bad. When I drove to Comtrade several times, tech support had one goal - to send me away as fast as possible without fixing my computer. They told me that there was nothing wrong with my computer even after I showed them that it was shutting down on its own (from overheating). When my one year was approaching, I purchased the GE extended warranty. I sent it in right away, and after having it five and a half months, I found out that I bought an overclocked 75MHZ. The second time that I sent it in for repair, they had it two months, and I started complaining to everyone at GE, as high as I could go. I was ready to file a lawsuit, and they said that they could not fix the Comtrade and were sending me a replacement computer. I received a CTX computer the next week, and I have not had any problems with it. DON'T BUY A COMTRADE!!!!

Phil Gattis from TN USA
Date - Sunday, May 17, 1998 at 16:44:16 (EDT)

I purchased a 200 MMX system from Comtrade in July of 1997. My problems started within a couple of weeks. It started with the motherboard & hard drive being replaced( after three members of the family working in shifts calling the tech service number, approx. 35 hours of our time).That didnot solve the problem so I had to send the computer back to them for repair(it was gone for over 30 days). They replaced the CD-rom,hard drive ,mother board,cooling fan & i,m not sure what else. We received it back and the problems just continue.It locks up when you try to shut the computer down, the screens freeze,the mouse has gone bad ,and we suspect the modem of causing problems staying on the internet. We would like to discuss this with a tech. rep. but you can'treach them by phone, they won't respond to e-mail and I get tired of the recorded message telling me how important my business is to them as I sit for hours trying to get thru to a service tech. I wrote a letter to them when I sent my computer to them and I have never heard a word from them.
After all the problems I have encountered I wonder if units arn't built of all the junk components that are returned just to hook someone else.
Here is how I rate Comtrade on a scale of 1-10
product-2
service-1
tech service-1
truth in advertising-0
ability to take advantage of consumers-10
DO NOT BUY FROM COMTRADE !! YOU WILL BE SORRY
BUY LOCAL SO YOU CAN GRAB THE PERSON CHEATING YOU.

David Martin from USA
Date - Saturday, May 16, 1998 at 16:59:39 (EDT)

I purchased one of their mid-priced computers in September of
1997. And right from the start had nothing but difficulties with
the unit. I don't have a great deal of computer savvy, however,
I do know that my much older 100MB hard drive with 2MB of
RAM from Leading Technologies operated flawlessly for
years and gave me no grief. This new "Lightening PC" was
always having one problem or another.
If fairness, however, some of the fault was mine, as I am
quite unfamiliar with all of their quirks, I did bring on some of
the problems myself.
But, when I called in for support and explained the mistakes
I made, instead of being given a supportive technician to
assist me, the person assigned (I assume the support techs
are assigned by invoice number groupings as I was continually
assigned the same representative) promptly proceeded to
rudely chew me out for the erroneous data entries I made.
When I encounter rudeness I unfortunately descend to that
indivuals level and thereafter it became an exercise rude
comments to one another and no assitance from either the
person taking the call or the technical assistant assigned to
talk me through the problems. Finally, I demanded a totally
different tech support individual. The person was not only
pleasant, but also became aware that I was actually dealing
with a corrupted hard-drive and advised that it be shipped
back to the company.
Upon the units' return, it has been operating quite well, and
is on par with most units I work with, with one flaw. For some
reason the .DLL file, VB40032.DLL is gone and I cannot
utilize their Super CD Package that came with the computer.
It's been that way since it's return.
I would have to rate their product overall as average for the
novice user and their technical support division mediocre
due to the poor conduct of some of their staff. To me,
$1600.00+ is a huge chunk of change and thus I expect
a lot of "friendly" support, not confrontation.

Joseph A. Viz from USA
Date - Monday, May 04, 1998 at 16:38:47 (EDT)

Purchased on 14 Nov 97. Arrived TWO weeks later. Asembeled it all, and found mouse defective.

About 28 Nov 97, video problems started intermittantly, which became permanent. Took three days of phoning to get through. The attitude was so bad that I had to respond in kind, so the "Technician" hung up on me. Following day I did get a civil tech that could be understood. Told him about the mouse, said they will replace. Told him about the video, had me go through the open up the case and reseat everything routine, with no results. They sent another video board (3D with 8Mb vram). It had large heat sinks on the output stage that original equipment did not have.

Mid December 97, the computer booted and stopped with "BIOS failure". Rebooted and found the only way I could operate was in the protected mode. After TWO WEEKS of continuous phoning on 800 and regular phone lines, I was able to get a tech who talked me through the proper settings for the BIOS as it reverted to default settings upon failure, causing the driver to the CD-ROM to be inaccessble. Wrote down all the settings, which proved to be a lifesaver as there were eight more occasions of failure which I tried to phone in but couldn't get connected. Tried to get e-mail to a tech, but was only successful after writing to the SALES department who forwarded to tech who phoned during work hours to my home!!! Took two days to get him back even when I knew his extension. He said he would ship me a new battery for the BIOS.

Battery was replaced but this time, the boot sequence hung up on notice that BIOS failed. Rebooted but nothing happened. Blank monitor, no display. Took my 15" monitor from my old 486 and it reacted insimilar manner. Put the new 17" monitor on the 486 and it worked fine. (a non-comtrade product).

Took another two weeks of frustration to get a tech on the line. However, he informed me that if I didn't charge the new motherboard to my credit card, he would have to wait till he received the defective board before shipping a new unit. Told hime it was close to being blackmail as my tax info was on the hard-drive and it was now mid-March. He shipped and charged me, I phoned for local warantee tech to put in the board. Unfortunately, it was the wrong board. The warantee company was able to get a tech to phone me within TWO more Days!! He said the tech believed the video card and motherboard had to be replaced. Again, I had to submit to paying for them in advance and hope I'ld get my credit on my return of defective parts. Received the replacements in TWO weeks. Took another couple of days to get the tech out to make the change. New parts were installed, system checked out OK and I was fnally able to get to my tax data, on the 17th of April!!

I will never deal with comtrade again. Have exactly the same experience with them as other have had, i.e., very poor service on line, non-existant access on the 800 line, three day turn arround to call you WHEN THEY HAVE THE TIME, NOT WHEN YOUR ARE HOME, in response to FAXes.

I will leave my 300Mhz screamer (now I know why Computer Shopper called it a screamer, that's what you do when you need service) turned on constantly to make sure I can get the one year warrantee for replacement. I am also in the process of downloading and backing up the entire operating system, applications and files to a backup parallel port hard drive. I found this to be very successful with a normal IDE 3.5" drive and the "QuickDrive" conversion box. It even works with my computer at work and on the 486.

Abbreviated comment of all the above "DO NOT BUY A COMTRADE COMPUTER.

JOSEPH A. VIZ
1024 SYCAMORE AVE
TINTON FALLS, NJ 07724
jviz@monmouth.com

Jeff R. Wilson from Huntington Sta, NY USA
Date - Friday, May 01, 1998 at 22:41:57 (EDT)

Mr. Nicola

I Understand how you feel, 17 years is quite a lot to know, but you never learn everything, But obviously there is a big difference not knowing something so basic to something complicated, you case is probably not acceptable, your knowledge about the memory is very poor, something like a driver not knowing to park correctly in New York City.

I suggest you to update your knowledge about computers, here in Huntington Sta, we've some very good Computer Schools at a affordable price.

Don't feel alone for being stupid, just read this whole page and tell me about it. Almost all, 50%, 25% ...?

I got my computer about 1 year ego from this company, I have not called their tech support, I though it didn't exist, maybe I was able to deal with the problems and with only 2 years using my computer, not into Pc Technology, but I feel I can take care of the problems.

Last recomendation;
write to Mr. Nicola, tell him something supportive, I just emailed him some phone numbers for computer schools at Huntinnton Sta, I hope he doesn't give me a FFFF email back.

Omar Di nicola from New York, NY USA
Date - Friday, May 01, 1998 at 00:59:38 (EDT)

I'm the same guy that poste about my pentium 75 3 or 4 days ago, I just learned something new, as a said before, my work field is PC Technoloy, and I'm proud of it.

After several years having my nose stock into computers and I'm almost an engineer on computers. (working for almost 17 years on computers, don't ya think so?)

Going back into my previous posted message and to be more clear in the point number 3 and will retype it again.

3- Those idiots gave me 4,4,8=16 megs of ram when I had requested 1 (16 simm).

I just learned that pentium 75 m/b on that time 1995 using 72 simms will not take ONE SINGLE SIMM they need to be installed by pair, what a stupid ass I was when thinking on that, I apologize for that stupid assumption, but I WAS WRONG, I was actually the IDIOT, I don't know what to think about my 17 years working in computers. What do you think? If you have any comments about what I should be with my career, please drop me an email at onicola@sprynet.com

I will appreciate your comments.

Tom M. from Germantown, MD USA
Date - Thursday, April 30, 1998 at 09:05:47 (EDT)

This goes out to Kerry Walker (walkerk@sginet.com)

You are pathetic. You got screwed by a major company and you're bragging about how you're going to shaft some poor schmuck who with something you know doesn't work.

I'd say that puts you about 5 notches below Comtrade on the evolutionary ladder. I guess all those things the Mormons are supposed to stand for don't apply to you (poor parenting?)

If you can't take losing like an adult, then fight them and complain to Consumer fraud. Try to get your money back. If yo do shaft someone, I hope they sue the hell out of you.

Tom.

P.S. Have a nice day

Jackie B. Pratt from lndtwn, MD USA
Date - Wednesday, April 29, 1998 at 12:25:19 (EDT)

Nothing horrible, just a problem with the P166 Laptop bought less than a yaer ago, which Comtrade will now not sell me a memory upgrade for, and will not give me the name of a company that will sell the upgrade, either. Laptop works fine otherwise.

Omar Di nicola from NY, NY USA
Date - Sunday, April 26, 1998 at 00:03:16 (EDT)

In 1995, I had bought a pentium 75 and only now I have finally found the perfect site to tell all about it.

(My work field is PC Technology, lucky for me, if not, I would of not known what to do besides calling them back).

What happened when I received my PC.

Straight to the point.

1) The floppy drive, Hard Drive and serial port cables were not connected. Took me an hour to figure that out. You would think a new PC would not have such problems.

2) 2 weeks after I received my PC, half of my hard drive had bad clusters.

3) Those idiots gave me 4,4,8 = 16 megs of ram when I had requested 1(16 simm).

Once again, Comtrade, you suck. The government shouldn't go after the Tabacco industry, they should go after companies such as Comtrade.

Mike Cordero from Monroe, NY USA
Date - Thursday, April 16, 1998 at 11:37:29 (EDT)

Attached is a copy of the letter I sent to the owner of Comtrade Computers, Christopher Luke. I haven't yet received a response from him.

I did go to my local consumer fraud department and they resolved the issue and got my full refund for me. I suggest you do the same if you want to return your Comtrade Computer!


Michael Cordero
Invoice# 9802593E

April 4, 1998

Comtrade
1215 Bixby Dr
City of Industry, CA 91745

Mr. Christopher Luke:

I purchased a Comtrade Dream Machine on February 12, 1998. I ran into many problems from the very start with this machine. I decide that I wanted to return my purchase within the 30 day period of the original purchase date. A copy of the invoice is enclosed. Please note the machine was ordered through Comtrade Representative David.

Reasons for my dissatisfaction include:
1. Unhappy with overall performance
2. Floppy drive does not work
3. Driver problems creating error messages within Windows 95
4. Display driver problems -- appearance upon startup not consistent (both color and font)
5. IE 4.0 supplied but not installed -- setup error. Solution was to obtain another CD with IE 4.0 and install was fine.
6. Help Desk / Customer Service unsatisfactory:
- Took 2 or 3 days to call back upon initial request
- Package including CD for the Sound Card that was not included with computer was stated to have been shipped 2nd day but arrived 4 or 5 days later via postal.
- Asked for Supervisor or Manager, never received call back. On Friday, 3/6/98, called again for anyone in upper management - was told all went home and weren’t available. When questioning why staff would not be supervised I was hung up on. (UNCALLED FOR!!!)

Item #1, under Refunds states, “The Customer must obtain an RMA number from Customer Service with the invoice number available.” It has been attempted well over 10 times since 3/6/98. David, on two separate occasions, promised a call back by the end of the day with the RMA number... I never received the RMA number or any call backs. I have left about 3 contact numbers where they could reach somebody to give the RMA number. No phone calls have ever been received.

I would like to send this computer back for a FULL refund. I do not want to pay for ANY restocking fees or open package fees. Your company has not treated me with any respect as a customer to your product. I have tried to work with your company, but it seems that your company has refused to work with me.

I am sending a copy of this letter along with a complaint form to the local Consumer Fraud Department. I purchased this computer with a Discover card and they have also been informed of my problems with your company. They are currently investigating this problem since we are in dispute with your company.

Sincerely,

Michael Cordero

cc: Department of Consumer Affairs
askasa@nbc.com

Brek Brixius from Alliance, NE USA
Date - Sunday, April 12, 1998 at 02:06:26 (EDT)

DON'T BUY A COMTRADE COMPUTER - READ THIS IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT IT.

I am Jon Shwaderer's friend - the one who bought his Comtrade.
(Read the rest of this message board as Jon posted his message before me).

Comtrade originally sold the machine to Jon as a Pentium 166mhz. What Comtrade delivered was a Pentium 120mhz CPU that was "overclocked" to run at 166mhz. I know this because I had pulled the fan to replace it and checked the part number of the CPU with the Intel Web site. Obviously, not many users do this and that must be why Comtrade thought they could get away with cheating people like this.

Now you may say, "So what? If it was running at 166mhz, what is the big deal?" Well there are several problems with this:

First, Jon paid for a 166mhz CPU not the cheaper 120mhz CPU.

Second, While the system may report that the CPU is running at the higher speed, the performance may not equal that of a CPU rated at the set speed. In this case, I ran some diagnostics software and the results showed the CPU failed Whetstone module 7 as well as a lower MFLOPS (Million Floating Point Operations Per Second) than would be expected of a Pentium 166mhz or even lower class Pentiums. MFLOPS is a measure of the speed of the math package on the CPU. Low MFLOPS can have a substantial negative impact on video game performance and Comtrade told Jon this was a "166mhz game machine".

Third, an overclocked CPU runs much hotter than a CPU at the correct speed. In this case, Comtrade had not only overclocked the CPU 40% over it's rated capacity but, had used a substandard cooling fan. The fan I found on the CPU was about the size of a 486 DX fan, it was 5 blades rather than 7 and not one of the high speed ball bearing fans generally used on Pentium class CPUs.

Fourth, overclocked CPU's often become unstable and may start to crash or fail to run certain software. In this case, the system did act very unstable and unreliable.

Jon and I both contacted Comtrade and they have stopped corresponding with us. They also have not made any attempt to set the situation right.

So, DON'T BUY A COMTRADE!

DON'T BUY COMTRADE, DON'T BUY COMTRADE, DON'T BUY COMTRADE.

Jon Schwaderer from Alliance, NE USA
Date - Saturday, April 11, 1998 at 22:27:32 (EDT)

I bought a 166mhz 3D game system in 1996.
I recently upgraded my system and bought a new mother board.
I had a friend who is a tech-guy and sold him the mother board haveing faith in comtrade that they sold me a 166mhz chip.
He poped the cooling fan on the chip off and found the processor was a overclocked 120mhz pentium and burnt to boot.

We have both written comtrade several times and haven't recieved any responce from them. I'm very upset at this matter as I was told I had bought a 166 pentium. I hope no one else had had this problem. To me this is as close to false advertisement as it gets.

I will NEVER buy another comtrade computer again!!!


thank you for this forum to vent the frustration,

jon

Kerry Walker from Ivins, UT USA
Date - Saturday, April 11, 1998 at 03:25:41 (EDT)

I decided to post another little message here. I did not ever get a hold of a comtrade technician and I just gave up. Luckily, I solved the problem myself. I have decided to sell the computer I purchased from them as soon as possible. I do not want to run the risk of my whole system crashing and not being able to get a hold of anyone to do anything about it. If they cannot find the time to answer a simple two minute question, then they sure as hell won't have time to help with a major problem. I'm going to sell this computer to some unsuspecting fool that can bite the bullet when something really goes wrong. I think that anyone reading this should do the same. I am thinking that it will save me a lot of time and money in the long run.

Brian Gilner from Atlanta, GA USA
Date - Wednesday, April 01, 1998 at 15:23:24 (EST)

A saleswoman who could barely speak English assured me that the laptop had 800x600 resolution and was OS/2 compatible. She sounded clueless so I asked her to ask someone else to confirm it. Of course, the laptop they shipped had 640x480 and wasn't OS/2 compatible. I canceled payment and returned the laptop. They still charged me $100 for windows. After working things out with AMEX, I decided that this company was substandard and would never earn my business again.

Sharyn E. Cerniglia from Wayne, PA USA
Date - Monday, March 30, 1998 at 13:53:43 (EST)

Here is a copy of a letter I sent to Comtrade....and received no response....

Subject:
Invoice #9509442
Date:
Thu, 17 Apr 1997 14:50:04 -0700
From:
"Sharyn E. Cerniglia"
To:
tech@comtrade-pc.com
CC:
sales@comtrade-pc.com, sharyn@dynanet.com




Dear Comtrade,

Reference the above invoice number. I purchased this machine from you in June of 1995, not yet two years ago. I have been very happy with the machine since.

I spent quite a bit of time gathering information about what system I wanted to purchase, dog-earing copies of "Computer Shopper" and talking with many computer companies. I had several long talks with my Comtrade salesman (Tim). I told him (several times) that this would be the last computer I would buy for many years (at least five) and wanted it to be able keep up with the market. I didn't want to buy a "dead-end" machine.

At that time Win95 was soon-to-be-released and had been in beta for at least a year or so. It was well known in the industry that it was just a matter of a short period of time before Win95 would be out.

Last Monday I attempted to install Win95 on this machine from the Win95 CD-ROM upgrade. I got all the way to the end of the install and encountered a hardware problem, something to do with my "Via Tech dual PCI IDE controller." Knowing that Win95 was supposed to be able to figure out what hardware was on the system and configure it properly, I told it to keep going. The system crashed big time....

After a day of pulling my hair out, I called Comtrade technical support (something which I have done only once or twice before in almost two years -- so I am *not* a pain-in-the-ass customer). When I explained my problem, a very abrupt man said to me, "We don't support Win95 on systems shipped with 3.1." Obviously, I could understand that if the system was a 386 or even a 486 shipped four or five years ago, but this is a Pentium shipped not even two years ago! He further said, again very curtly, that the BIOS on my PA-2000 main board would not accept Win95 and I would have to download the BIOS update from either your BBS or your web site. I dutifully went to the web site, found the BIOS update, and read the warning message. BTW, my BIOS date is April 1995,
only four months before Win95 was released.

Basically, I am very annoyed. I paid a lot of money for this machine, and I planned on it lasting me for at least five years total (that's a little over three more years). I did my best to buy the most up-to-date system at the time. I now find that this 2-year-old system is, in effect, already obsolete. If it cannot run Win95, it will be only a very short time before the only software that will run on it will be hopelessly outdated. Even now, I have been waiting almost a year to buy Win95 and the upgraded software to go with it, only to discover that I will not be able to take advantage of Office97 or Sidekick95 (97 soon?)
or any other program updates, without buying a whole new system.

Well, you can rest assured that I will NOT be buying that whole new system from Comtrade. And I will not be recommending Comtrade to any of my friends, either....To think that Comtrade would sell me a "planned obsolescence" machine at top dollar is unacceptable and heartbreaking. Above and beyond that, I spent many hours of frustration trying to figure out why such an easy and automatic installation as Win95 would be so difficult, if not impossible.

A VERY unhappy former customer,

Sharyn Cerniglia
sharyn@dynanet.com

Rachel Deren from USA
Date - Thursday, March 26, 1998 at 22:16:23 (EST)

If only I had read this web site prior to buying from Comtrade.

I am not a technician, and therefore need tech support from time to time. IMPOSSIBLE. The most recent and by far the worst experience was 3 weeks ago. My modem broke down...Every spare hour I had was spent trying to call tech support. I never got through. I spent a minimum of 10 hours non-stop trying to call with no success. My faxes never got through, and e-mails were ignored. I wasted my time. An operator hung up on me 4 times in one night. Like other postings, I could speak to a salesman no problem. I was told a customer service rep would return my call, but of course two weeks later I am still waiting.

I would NEVER recommend Comtrade to anyone, (other than enemies) and would certainly never buy from them again...
If you were thinking about buying from Comtrade...THINK AGAIN. Learn from others mistakes.

Kerry Walker from Ivins, UT USA
Date - Thursday, March 26, 1998 at 05:11:32 (EST)

My computer has been great. I have not really had any problems with it except that it came with a bad modem. I called the 1-800 number and actually got someone (a coincidence probably) who told me a technician would call. About 20 minutes later, the technician called and was very helpful, altough not very friendly, that had a new modem shiped to me. Recently, I have been tring to get a tecnician on the phone to answer a simple question. I bought a digital camera and I have to unplug the mouse and use that port to make it work. It is then impossible to navigate the software. I just want to know if there is a way to make my mouse and the camera work at the same time. I have called the 1-800 number around 20 times in the last nine days with no success. I have also e-mailed and faxed them and I have given them certain times that am at home so they can call me. I have gotten two calls from them on my answering machine outside of the time frames that I have given them. They did this so they can say they called. The only humans I have been able to reach is the sales operator and the guy that sold us our computer. The salesman gave me a number to call. After I hung up, I realized that it was the same 1-800 number that I had been tring to call. I immediately called him back and the secretary that answered said that he was not there. This made me very mad and I called her a lier because I had just talked to him. She then transfered me to him. He gave me the number for the general office. A human always answers at this number but they try to have somebody call back. When I said that I wanted to talk to a technician NOW! she somehow transferd me to the sales man that sold us the computer. I asked him to see what he could do to get someone to call. Just yesterday I called the general office (at my expense), and was put on hold for about 20 minutes. Someone kept comming on and saying "who are you holding for." Finally, after 20 minutes of holding, I got disconnected. I HATE THESE PEOPLE! I spend $2000 on a computer and they cannot give me 5 minutes of their time. I am sick of waiting at home for them to call. I have e-mailed once, faxed three times, and called a countless number of times. I don't know what else I can do. Does anyone have any suggestions? I hope that my whole system never crashes or I would be without a computer for weeks or even months. Is there a owner of the company I could call or write to? If you are a computer technician yourself, then yes I strongly recommend comtrade. UNLESS YOU ARE A COMPUTER TECHNICIAN YOURSELF, DO NOT BUY FROM COMTRADE BECAUSE HELP IS NON-EXISTANT AFTER THE 30 DAY TRIAL PERIOD. It is scary that so many other people have had similar experiences. COMTRADE TREATS THEIR CUSTOMERS LIKE DIRT (except of course when you are buying one) I AM SUPRISED THAT THIS COMPANY IS STILL IN BUSSINESS.

Glenn McCuen from Houma, AL USA
Date - Wednesday, March 25, 1998 at 23:24:48 (EST)

Well I am not going to rewrite my experiences with Comtrade because my tesimony is long. I encourage everyone to read my complaint at www.buyerpower.com. You will find other complaints at this site that may prove useful to you in the future. With all the lawyers out there one would think Comtrade would have a class action suit pending by now. If you are a lawyer, count me in.

Sincerely,

Glenn McCuen

Tony Lastowka from Blue Bell, PA USA
Date - Wednesday, March 25, 1998 at 00:57:53 (EST)

Around January 15th, 1998, my father purchased what Comtrade
called the "OpenGL Powerstation 300" It's a PII 300, 128 megs ram,
8 meg Diamond FireGL 1000 pro accelerator, etc.
Put lightly, this system has been a nightmare. The graphics
accelerator has never worked since the day I received it(I've been
using a 1 meg card I borrowed from a friend). Additionally, they
cut little corners that most people wouldn't notice/care about, but
I do. Examples: My dad paid to upgrade to a Soundblaster 64.
They senta Soundblaster 64 value. I paid for Corel WordPerfect
Suite 8, they send the Academic Edition(I'm pretty sure that was
illegal, anyone know someone at Corel?).
Also, recently the monitor has been acting funny. About every
20-30 minutes, the picture squeezes into the center of the screen
for about half a second, then goes back.
Tech Support has been a joke. I have never actually talked to
them because it is impossible to get through. Sales tells me to
go away. E-mail has been ignored. After we stopped credit card
payment, they called my dad, after the 30 day period of course,
and they said they never recieved the e-mail, it was our fault and
that we couldn't return the system.
Currently, we have the Bureau of Consumer Protection working on
it, in the meantime, I heartily encourage you to not buy from
COMTRADE, no matter what they advertise.

Keith Fisher from Tucson, AZ USA
Date - Tuesday, March 24, 1998 at 13:35:59 (EST)

I bought a P166 about a year ago. You prob will not belive this
but I havent had a single thing go wrong with it! I leave it
on about 90 percent of the time and I have not had any probs.
I am in the process of buying a new system from them now. I will
first finish reading the rest of the posts here. I hope that I
wasnt just lucky with my first Comtrade!
\Keith

Dana Hundley from Manvel, TX USA
Date - Sunday, March 22, 1998 at 09:12:28 (EST)

I ordered the Screamer 200 back in August and had problems with it right away! After having two new cd roms installed, one modem, a new spring for the power button, they finally decided to send me a newer faster unit to replace the piece of junk, only to have it arrive DOA!! I sent the new piece of junk back in hopes we could work out the bugs in the older one. Not!!! After all that, they would not return my calls or e-mails and faxes until I called my credit card company and asked for a charge back. When they did call, I could not even understand the technician, and told him that I could not understand him. He then told me that someone would call me back later, at which point I begged him not to hang up as it took me 3 weeks to reach them and I wanted to resolve this problem. He insisted again that someone would call back. So I got sarcastic and asked if it would be another four days before someone would call again, at which he replied "maybe five" as he hung up on me!!!!! It has now been over one week, guess what? No call!

I would also like to point out to those of you who read further down this page, that the people who are "satisfied" with their computers, have also admitted that they also experienced problems with their computers, but got them resolved right away. That is because when you call in and leave a message, you have to leave your invoice number so they can look it up and see if you are still under the 30 day return policy, and that is why they got taken care of so fast. That is what happened to me!! After my 30 days were up, the calls back to me stopped. As to the person who got more computer for less money.....obviously you got someone elses computer order, and they got yours!!! That is what I think anyway!

Do yourself a favor, if you are thinking of buying a Comtrade.........DON'T.f

Mike Saunders from Boulder, CO USA
Davis Saunders Associates
Date - Saturday, March 21, 1998 at 15:04:41 (EST)

I am another Comtrade customer who wishes he had found out about this board prior to ordering. I bought a "Screamer 266" last November. I did notice immediately that the sticker on the case was "Pentium Pro" rather than "Pentium II". I called the sales rep (the ONLY people you can talk to at Comtrade) and was assured that the case was incorrectly stickered. I think I do have a Pentium II because it detects as such during boot.
I immediately noticed that things were not working correctly, particularly with video. I found that the correct ".inf" file for my monitor was not in the system, and the driver for the video card was way out of date. After correcting these, the video worked OK, but then the mouse stopped working. A new mouse was shipped, which worked OK. Then I started having intermittent problems with crashes when the modem was hanging up. After HOURS trying to contact technical support, I finally got a new modem.
Installation of the modem (which should be simple) turned into a nightmare, leading to the conclusion that my system was completely hosed. I have just finished the terrible process of a complete re-install (without Comtrade's help) and, for now, my system is working.
I'm not sure that the problems I experienced with the machine are neccessarily unique to Comtrade, but what makes them an unacceptable company to do business with is the unavailability of technical support. I fully agree with all previous posts on this subject. The 800 number does not get you to technical support. Nobody ever returns a call. Faxes and emails are ignored. The only way I have got to anyone is to call the sales rep (using the sales 800 number) and not agreeing to be called back, just being persistent and ornery. I am a self-employed consultant and I estimate that at my standard billing rate I have spent around $3000 tring to communicate with Comtrade "technical support".
Luckily I had just enough knowledge to deal with most of the problems to date on my own. Anyone who is not computer literate would be dead in the water trying to get help.
DONT BUY FROM THEM!

Mike LaFramboise from USA
Date - Saturday, March 21, 1998 at 09:39:57 (EST)

Service:
When you want technical support and your system is
less than 1 year old, the return call they say they will make
usually takes 1 - 2 hours to happen.
If your system is greater than 1 year old, the return
call will probably not happen unless you persist in making a
nusance of yourself. Making a nusance of yourself is oftentimes
difficult because you cannot get past the voicemail message that
tells you to call back later. If you never need technical
assistance, the computer works pretty well.

Peripherals:
Comtrade tends to NOT use "top of the line" peripherals
such as "Sound Blaster" sound cards unless you specifically
request them at additional cost. Some games do not recognize
the non-Sound Blaster sound card default settings that come in
the computer. You have to call Technical Support to resolve.

Michael from USA
Date - Tuesday, March 17, 1998 at 23:43:14 (EST)

I ordered a P166 class system from Comtrade in mid-January as a system for my kids. I didn't want anything super fancy, just a nice, cheap multi-media capable system that I could use to run some CD-ROM games, etc. Their prices looked real good and it looked like a lot of machine for the money.

I won't bore you with the details, but let us say that after 3 solid days of working on the system after I received it, I called up Comtrade, got an RMA, and exercised my right to the 30 day money back guarantee. Yes, I am out almost $150 on shipping (they don't refund shipping charges, and returns are at your expense), but considering the potential for future problems I avoided, I consider that $150 a good investment and a lesson learned.

The system was so screwed up (peripherals wouldn't work, system would hang when trying to shut-down, etc.) that I reformatted the hard drive and reloaded Windows '95 from scratch. I spent an evening downloading all the latest and greatest drivers from Web sites all over the place (many of the drivers they had given me were wrong), and after all that, the system was still buggy as hell. Intermittent freezes, vanishing peripherals, etc. Their technical support was terrible. Actually, more like non-existant. You could never get through to them (busy signals, disconnects, etc.) If you got the voicemail, you never got a return call. Only with the help of my "salesperson" (under a threat that I would return the system!) did I speak to a tech-support rep. that was nice but totally useless. He actually had me check that the fan on the CPU was spinning "regularly". People's bowels are regular, not CPU fans! They did offer to send me a new system board, but by that point I knew in my gut that the system (and the company) was a "turd" (nice word for a piece of crap!). If it looks like a turd, and smells like a turd, it's a turd!

Now, I am in the computer field profesionally and consider myself a pretty good technician, but this system was pure crap. Don't waste your money or your time.

I went down to Comp-USA, pulled the sales manager into his office and worked a nice, tight bargain on a Compaq Presario system with a Epson Color printer and some assorted peripherals. I walked out of the building with everything I needed in my car. The Compaq was set-up in notime and worked perfectly out of the box. My kids have been playing games on it non-stop for several months. I couldn't be happier.

Don't by Comtrade. Really.

Samuel Gassner from KS USA
Date - Tuesday, March 10, 1998 at 19:42:24 (EST)

I wish I'd seen this site earlier. I recently purchased
a desktop system from Comtrade and ever since I have a
piece of junk on my desk! The technical details of my
computer's problems are lengthly and I've decided to
spare readers of reading them. To be brief, the system
crashes on almost any programs that come with the
system.

I called Comtrade but the only people I could ever
speak with was those in the sale dept. No one returned
my calls regardless of how many messages I left with
Comtrade.

Comtrade is simply a BAD CHOICE! If anyone tell you
otherwise, they either are under Comtrade's payroll
or just plain lying. I notice a few lies float around
in this page. Just do yourself a great favor: Don't
even be tempted with Comtrade's sleazy advertisements
- no matter how attractive the prices look.

I was a sucker to the 'cheap price' and you could
avoid the headaches I am experiencing by

JUST SIMPLY AVOID COMTRADE AND TELL EVERYONE
YOU KNOW AS WELL.

Melanie from WI USA
Date - Monday, March 09, 1998 at 13:35:34 (EST)

I would never buy from this company again....which is exactly what I told a friend as she prepared to place an order through Comtrade. She went somewhere else, her system works great, mine still doesn't work.

The price is great but the frustration is unbelievable! I purchased the Best Buy BC5/233 10/29/97. The system wouldn't recognize any printer or the CD-ROM, there was also a problem getting the mouse to work. After calling for days with no answer, I finally had an opportunity to speak to someone (who by the way was very nice and tried to help as much as possible). In the end, they decided to replace it. I received my replacement system 11/6/97 - it was getting better, only the CD-ROM didn't work on this one (it hung). I called for ten days before finally getting through on 11/22. I also sent an email which no one responded to. Again the customer support person was very nice but could not fix the problem. They sent another CD-ROM which I received just before Thanksgiving. A technician installed it the first week in December...and it worked, until the end of December. Now I get a message "F:\is not accessible, the device is not ready". I have tried to get through to customer support - no answer - but it sure is comforting to know that "my call is important to them"!

mark gilchrease from USA
Date - Sunday, March 08, 1998 at 14:31:17 (EST)

I did quite a lot of researching last january 1997, before selecting the comtrade, 200mmx, screamer. It has been a wonderful
piece of computing!!!!,

I have had 2 problems ( LIsten GUYS!!, its normal to have a bug or too!), and contrade took care of both rapidly, and promptly!

first problem, was the spreakers that came with it didnt work properly, I called they rushed overnight a new set!, and yes they
billed me for them until i was going to send them back, but when i called about that, they told me the shipping cost was to high,
and told me to throw the bad ones out, and they even refunded my
money!!, second time i had to refortmat my hd, ( MY FAULT!)
had a problem restalling the cd-rom from thier boot disk, I called
yes it took a while, not only did they tell me how to download a driver from someone elses website!, but within 3 days I got a new boot disk from them!!

YES I WILL ALWAYS RECOMMEND A COMTRADE COMPUTER TO ANYONE THAT ASKS!!!!!

Justin Snyder from Decatur, AL USA
Date - Friday, March 06, 1998 at 12:30:11 (EST)

Man I am glad that I am not one of the raving lunatics on this board! You sound like the kind of people that shoot up a McDonalds or something. One guy cusses like a sailor and then expects Comtrade to be professional with him!

I have posted previously on this board and hesitated to do it again after the repurcussions of the last time. I actually recieved NUMEROUS emails from people accusing me of being an undercover PR man for Comtrade. Talk about conspiracy theorists! What a bunch of wackos!

I symapthize whole-heartedly with those who have gotten a raw deal. I was fortunate enough to get a system from Comtrade that has performed beautifully, to say the least. But, I can assure you that I would never do it again. (I guess that proves I'm not a PR man for Comtrade, eh?)

The reason I would not buy from them again is the NON-EXISTANT "customer service" and "technical support", and I do use those terms loosely. A tip to all who are naive enough to expect a human being to answer the phone when you call - FAX THEM!!! I faxed them twice with ultimatums that if they didn't reply by the end of the business day they would receive the system back in 3 business days. Both times I got phone calls within MINUTES!

As for the "attorneys" that post on here. What a bunch of ambulence chasers. As though you are really concerned about the consumer. You post on complaint boards hoping to get the disgruntled customer on your litigious bandwagon, you sorry bunch of bastards!

I just want everyone to realize that a corporation such as Comtrade does NOT get to where they are by ripping people off every sale. You have to know that this board is only sought out by the angry and dissatified that have gotten the bad deal. Isn't that obvious??? I am the almost non-existant minority here that got a good deal. All the others like me ( and I can assure you there are TONS of them) don't need to seek out a place to rant, rave and bitch!

For crying out loud, GROW UP!

Justin Snyder from Decatur, AL USA
Date - Thursday, March 05, 1998 at 23:22:20 (EST)

Man I am glad that I am not one of the raving lunatics on this board! You sound like the kind of people that shoot up a McDonalds or something. One guy cusses like a sailor and then expects Comtrade to be professional with him!

I have posted previously on this board and hesitated to do it again after the repurcussions of the last time. I actually recieved NUMEROUS emails from people accusing me of being an undercover PR man for Comtrade. Talk about conspiracy theorists! What a bunch of wackos!

I symapthize whole-heartedly with those who have gotten a raw deal. I was fortunate enough to get a system from Comtrade that has performed beautifully, to say the least. But, I can assure you that I would never do it again. (I guess that proves I'm not a PR man for Comtrade, eh?)

The reason I would not buy from them again is the NON-EXISTANT

Matt from Boston, MA USA
Date - Monday, March 02, 1998 at 23:13:08 (EST)

It would be too exhausting for me to catalogue all the horrendous
problems I have had dealing with Comtrade. I couldn't care less
about anyone else on this page who claims Comtrade has dealt with
them in a fair manner; they've screwed me six ways from Sunday.
Sometimes it's incompetence, sometimes just plain nastiness on the part of customer service or tech support. That's when you can
get through at all; I called the toll free line OVER THIRTY TIMES
without once getting through. My PC has actually been pretty
reliable, but the few problems I've had have cost me so much
time and frustration that I can hardly bear to recount it. Stay
away from Comtrade. You'd have to have a hole in your head to
knowingly deal with these bastards. I won't be satisfied until
this horrible company is either dead broke or criminally punished
for their misdeeds.

Fred Ball from CA USA
Date - Sunday, March 01, 1998 at 18:40:35 (EST)

This is an update : We gave up on the piece of shit and bought a new motherboard, we also replaced the power supply, the hard drive controller and the memory chips. The only original components are the sound card, drives, and video card. WE plan to get a new video card soon, since the old one is no longer (probably never did) works correctly. With these changes, our system (no longer a comtrade) works just fine.

I think PC magazine should pay the cost of replacement parts for Comtrade Computers: they ran aglowing article about how great Comtrade Express computers were, thats how we heard about Comtrade! I wonder how much Kick-back the asshole how wrote that article got? How about a law suit against PC magazine? I will never take anything any Computer magazine says again seriously.

Janet McKinsey from Chicago, IL USA
Date - Tuesday, February 24, 1998 at 13:40:28 (EST)

Comtrade truly is a BAD CHOICE!
In summary my experiences with Comtrade have left me
with bad taste of mail-order business and lots of
headaches!

False adverstisement is only a small aspect of Comtrade's
trademark. Comtrade customer service is the worst of
any mail-order business I've ever dealt with. From the
lying salepersons to t