WARNING ABOUT ORDERING FROM EMS Computing!

[StealthX32]

Recently, EMS Computing had their free shipping deal, where they supposedly pulled in a whole bunch of orders. Mine was one of them, and after a week of NO communication from them, I'm starting to get worried. They have left no way to get in contact with them: phones are answered with an automated response about their "restructuring", and e-mails are autoreplied with a "we are trying to ship as quickly as possible" message. When I ordered, my credit card was charged IMMEDIATELY without any notification of shipping, etc, even though it states in their policy that they will not charge before shipping. Is this a ploy to rake in as much cash before filing for bankruptcy? Why hold a promotion where you expect a TON of orders right before you plan to restructure/move your company? There is NO excuse for charging before shipping, especially if it's stated in their OWN policy.

EMS Computing @ Bizrate
EMS Computing @ Reseller Ratings

If anyone else has a similar experience, please post here!

 

[Jnox1]

You might be right!

Jnox

 

[AmishPcFreak]

I ordered a Antec 1080B case from EMS for a great price with free shipping on Friday 7/26.

Here is my tracking information from this morning-- I live in Columbia Missouri.

As you can see, even though I used a credit card the billing information wasn't received until Tuesday 7/30. If I get the case today it will have been one week delivery. That said, for the price ($115) with no tax and no shipping, it is still a real good deal.


Package Progress
Date Time Location Activity

Aug 2, 2002 8:46 A.M. COLUMBIA, MO US LOCATION SCAN
12:45 A.M. COLUMBIA, MO US ARRIVAL
Aug 1, 2002 11:00 P.M. EARTH CITY, MO US DEPARTURE SCAN
1:26 P.M. EARTH CITY, MO US LOCATION SCAN
10:40 A.M. EARTH CITY, MO US ARRIVAL
2:09 A.M. WHITES CREEK HUB, TN US DEPARTURE SCAN
Jul 31, 2002 10:25 P.M. WHITES CREEK HUB, TN US ARRIVAL
7:59 P.M. CHATTANOOGA, TN US DEPARTURE SCAN
7:03 P.M. CHATTANOOGA, TN US ARRIVAL
9:37 A.M. JACKSONVILLE, FL US DEPARTURE SCAN
7:34 A.M. JACKSONVILLE, FL US LOCATION SCAN
12:21 A.M. HIALEAH, FL US LOCATION SCAN
Jul 30, 2002 3:07 A.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

 

[TEEZLE]

The funny thing is everyone is saying it's a hot deals but no one even received their case yet!! LMAO

 

[ThaPerculator]

I ordered a monitor and am worried as well. Worst comes to worst, I'll dispute the charges. Hopefully, it won't come to that though, because I just want my monitor, for that price, shipped free to me with no hassles. Any money says that the Anandtech Effect hit them real hard, and they didn't have the stock to prepare for it, since they are more than likely a small company. I just hope it's not a scam.

 

[StealthX32]

Yeah, price maybe good, but without the merchandise, I'm losing $90. I placed my order 7/27 with no notifications of anything. The website says I have no tracking numbers available, and the order still stands as it did after they took all my money.

 

[acejj26]

i hope i don't get raped on this, since i used my debit card to pay. one good thing i've seen is that i ordered 2 monitors on 7/29 (separate orders) and i got debited on 7/30 and on 7/31.

i'm hoping that the reason i haven't gotten a response is that they are so backlogged with orders that they don't have time to do anything but ship the orders out. i'm hoping...

anyone else notice they really jacked up their prices lately? i ordered a black Samsung 955DF for $202 with free shipping. today, that same monitor is $302 with $41 shipping. i also ordered a black Viewsonic E90FB for $200 with free shipping. today, that monitor is $276 with $41 shipping. i'm not sure they would update their prices if they were about to go out of business.

i really hope they can get their orders out in a timely fashion. i just built a computer for my buddy, and it's almost ready to go. just waiting on the monitor.

 

[shurato]

I ordered a 1030b case from them a while back...terrible experience. Their inventory system is not accurate and they ended up charging my card and then shipping it 2 weeks after the order was placed stating it was out of stock when their online inventory clearly stated there was plenty...and on top of that it took forever to recieve after they shipped it. I threatened to tell the forum boards to them about this horrible experience and they told me to please not do so...apparently they know about anandtech forums and the likes.

 

[xenolith]

Originally posted by: acejj26
i hope i don't get raped on this, since i used my debit card to pay.

I think you can dispute charges on your account. I read somewhere on VISA's website that you get this same protection whether it's a debit or credit card account.

i'm hoping that the reason i haven't gotten a response is that they are so backlogged with orders that they don't have time to do anything but ship the orders out.

If that were true, won't a lot of people be in receipt of their orders by now? Many people ordered 6 days ago and have got nothing.

i'm not sure they would update their prices if they were about to go out of business.

I don't know if it's true, but I read in another post that they stopped accepting orders! That's not good news at all!

 

[sniperruff]

hope not...
i paid by check...
and i just received an e-mail from them says they received the payment...
i need that case soon! :frown:

 

[SP33Demon]

All of you guys are suckers, no offense. I said when that once they still had shipping on the SECOND day when it was only supposed to be ONE day that something's up. That combined with their resellerratings, I said no way. Use your common sense peoples, sure you may pay a few dollars more from newegg, but at least newegg's reliable and legit!!

I liken it to Lemmings, all blinded by such great prices! lol

 

[Toetagger]

Just for your info:

Staples now carries Antec cases. They are all 3 to 5 days shipping, so they honor the free shipping. Then you can still use the $20 off 100 coupon, and get the case for around $90 (Antec1080B). You will get it in like 2 to 3 days (depending on where you live), and you saved an extra $20.

 

[jlee]

If anybody has any problems with EMS Computing and would like someone to talk to them personally, let me know. According to Altavista's map system (and the address listed on their site), I go by them on my way to work..they're only a mile or 2 from my house.

 

[AU Tiger]

One reason that you may have gotten billed before shipping is if they drop shipped the item. I have had cases where a company billed my credit card after they sent the order to the shipper and did not wait until the item actually shipped.

 

[sniperruff]

it's just thay now i look at resellerratings.com all these complaints popped up
i knew i would receive the case kinda late but now i wonder if i will ever receive it at all
hope everything will turn out ok
and SP33Demon many of us are poor college students who want to pay for their own computers and saving tax and shipping means $30 off a $60 case
hell if i got more $$$ i'd just get a dell

 

[Greg03]

>>Worst comes to worst, I'll dispute the charges.

Good luck with that - bankruptcies are usually NOT covered by VISA/MC. Once they file for protection, there is no one to get the $ from...

 

[SP33Demon]

Sniperruff,

I know what you mean about the whole being poor in college thing I had to eat P&J sandwiches for like 2 weeks straight once... In any case, as a general rule of thumb, I just don't mess with the people who have less than 5 or 6 rating on resellerratings... There are tons of great deals in the FS forum, and other deals for cases will surface if you are patient...

 

[WiseOne]

crappp! i ordered z-560s two days ago and they've already charged my CC.

 

[xenolith]

The thing is though, they had a rating of around 5.7. As recently as a month ago, they were a pretty decent company. As someone said at resellerratings.com, it's as though they have been taken over by "pod people". LMAO.

 

[im2smrt4u]

I ordered my Radeon AIW back when it was released and they were great! Dunno what could have happened...

 

[Aharami]

I got my Antec 840SX (i think) case from there like last Nov. Had the same problems as u guys are having now...and back then EMS didnt even have any special offers or anything. Called them a week after ordering because i hadnt received any email verifications or anything. After about 45 minutes on the phone, I found out that they didnt have the case in stock. They told me to call back in a week. I did and they said they'd already shipped it (yeah right!). Then after not receiving any tracking info for 2 days, i called them up again and once again they said that they just shipped it. By this point I'd given up and was about o dispute the charges if the case didnt arrive within a month. Case arrive a day before my deadline. Took a month to ship a case!!!
Vowed never to purchase anything from them again

 

[sniperruff]

browsing through resellerratings.com got me this:
staples' rating
rating of 6.37

and this:
ems computing rating
rating of 5.56

doesn't seem like EMS is only a tad less reliable than staples...
i would give staples at least a 9 overall

 

[Aharami]

oh man...sorry for the repost

 

[AWebDesign]

CadetLee, I would very much appreciate it if you would stop by their "office" and see what the heck is wrong with them. I too ordered a case on 7/29/02, and they charged my CC, but I am yet to hear a word from them.

Aaron

 

[WiseOne]

I just called up my CC company (mbna mastercard) and specifically asked if I could dispute my charges if the company goes bankrupt. I was told i had 100% gurantee, I can dispute any charges even if the company goes bankrupt. so that's a relief atleast.