This is so strange. I managed a local computer shop, and while we use the same parts as Dell for example Quad Core Intel CPU's, every once in awhile, we may get a bad motherboard. We offered a year warranty on our parts. So let's assume a motherboard is defective which happened to us once. We built this computer for lab which needed special configuration including box size and color to fit in their location. So I called the part supply which is able to get us a replacement part within one day, and I drove to lab, picked up the defective computer, I changed out the motherboard, and brought it back and set it up, total downtime just 1 day. Same specs since while computers do change, for example, get better, they don't change within a few days. This is why the lab uses us rather than say HP or Dell since we can provide 24 hour 7 day a week service. Also, our pricing was similar for desktop computers but with better service. All of the local business like the dentist office and the gym used our computers since if they called us, we would drive right out there that day and solve their problems including network problems and setting up new networks which Dell and HP don't do. We did not build laptops so sold the Dell business class laptops instead and of course serviced them. I even when I was working in this state, was sub-contracted by larger companies like Staples to service their clients. We got paid for both warranty and non warranty work. However, non warranty work was billed out at usually a 45% higher rate than if they called us directly which was funny since once I showed up at a house on a Sat, and they recognized me from our store even though I was performing work for the larger chain outlet. Staying in business is all about customer service and creating a great name for your company, if you don't do that, you are not going to stay in business and the company I was with had been in business over 7 years.
Please let us know what happens... I think TC.com is a bit scam-my after talking to them a couple of years ago... they were very defensive and quite aggressive on the phone with me... I think they are selling lemonade as lemonade with an extra twist but for much higher cost... anyway... post back what happens... thanks...
i5 here, 4 gig ram, Windows score of 5.9 Very happy with it, run 254 programs simult, with room to spare for 117 more.
You are being ripped off big time. If they stuck me with lame hardware, I'd be crazy enough to go there in person and bust some heads. I had great, great luck with velocitymicro.com. Never had a better computer in my life, including my dells. The Dell guys use weird hardware cases and some proprietary parts I don't like and my systems tend to have a fan or power-related piece die on me, but these guys at velocity micro really delivered a solid machine to me. i7 > i5, you don't give a shi7 about speed step or power consumption, you're a trader not a little girl.
FWIW I've had great luck with econo boxes. Have a 2002 Vaio XP desktop from Best Buy. Used it every single day for 8 years. Never turn it off. No problems. Wanted a backup so I got a cheapo HP Vista from Staples a couple years ago. Cost about $600, with a free printer. Never a minute of trouble and plenty fast enough for trading I do. Wife got an expensive custom screamer job last year. Already had problems. I'll stick with the cheap stuff.
I'm really glad to hear this but, like I said, I've now gone with the small-fry computer builders twice -- and gotten burned both times. Compare this to the eight or ten boxes I've bought from Best Buy and the like ... Dell, Compaq, HP, Sony, IBM -- never a complaint. So, from now on, it's big and impersonal for me.
They offered a "free upgrade" to their F-25 model. Coincidentally (or not), its specifications are essentially identical to the computer I ordered (and paid for) so I wasn't clear on how this represented an upgrade. In any event, I said, "no thanks just refund to my cc" and went to a retail store to buy another bland box, the kind that has served me so well for so long... I do think this was, probably, an "honest mistake" -- a function of disorganization rather than dishonesty -- for the simple reason that it was so egregious I can't imagine they'd try it as a matter of policy. But, like I've said, I've done my time with "mom & pop" computer builders. From now on, it's big & impersonal for me.
are you being screwed over? yes. you paid for an i7 and they gave you an i5. what about all the other components? if the i7 was a 1366 and your new i5 is an 1156, that means a different mobo, which also means different memory which basically means a whole different (cheaper) machine all together.
I bought a kick-ass computer from a custom shop, got a lot of power for a great price. BUT, their online ordering system let me buy too small of a power supply and I forgot to have Windows installed. The power supply blew up after the fourth time I booted it up, and I never figured out how to get Windows to install on my RAID HD's. Yes, I accept these were both my mistakes / ignorance. My employer paid for the computer, but I paid to fix my mistakes out of pocket so my employer wouldn't know I made these mistakes. I am a professional software engineer. It is a $2500 computer, I paid $200 of my own money to fix it and it set me back a month. Next time I am ordering an off-the-shelf from Dell.