TD Computer System Review

[ACE]

Seems like a good guy to me!  Talked to him on the phone once or twice about buying a new computer.

[SilverZ06]

He also built one for me.  Rick went the extra mile.  I'm thrilled with all aspects of our interactions.

Who's Rick?  

I've never purchased anything from TD but on all my threads where I ask questions in here he is always PMing me answers. If I didn't love building machines myself I would no doubt use his services.

Edit: deleted assumptions as they were wrong.

[Bodhi]

Look, I am glad that most have had good experiences.  It is much preferable to what I have gone through.  Sadly, I did not want to bring this here, but circumstances forced the issue.  Further, as a business owner, I am well versed in taking care of the customer and dealing with those that are difficult.  This is not a case of me being difficult, rather, a case of me being too lenient.  As I am tired of seeing all the guessing and wrongful assumptions, this is the issue for me:

Rich did not put the cards I ordered into the machine to start with, this was in late February.  He failed there by not putting what I ordered into the machine and he failed further by not notifying me until after I had the computer.  I did not receive the machine until mid March because Rich sent it to the wrong address via FedEx and FedEx compounded it by losing it.

The next failure came when we tried to get the right cards into the machine after heating issues, this was in May.  He said he could not afford to buy two new XFX cards (even though they were the same price as the cards he quoted me).  I tried to be nice and help the situation and offered to buy the new cards and allow him to RMA the other cards and then sell them in other builds.  He could then reimburse me once the cards were sold and he agreed to eat any loss on RMA cards.  He sold one to a person I know, who paid him and I have a copy of that paid invoice.  Rich never sent me that money even after repeated requests.  He sat on the other card until mid September when he finally just sent it to me and told me to "deal with it".  The card's value now is substantially less than what I paid for a new one.

The final straw for me came when I talked with him Wednesday.  That conversation will come into play later.

Rich could resolve this simply by signing a prommissary note that acknowledges the debt and start sending some cash each month until it is paid off.  As I said all along, I was willing to wait as long as I was kept up too date, and an acknowledgement was made so I was protected.  That is being nice and what I have wanted all along. 

There, I have said my bit and I am done in here.  I truly am glad most have good experiences, but from the number of PM's and calls I have received, I know I am far from being alone in my experience.  Hopefully it will be resolved amicably. 

[SilverZ06]

I hope TD responds with his side of the story. That seems like bad business to me.  Why didn't he put the original cards in to begin with?

[TequilaChaser]

I hope TD responds with his side of the story. That seems like bad business to me.  Why didn't he put the original cards in to begin with?

I hope Skuzzy locks and/or removes this thread........... mainly because of people wanting to know what happen or assuming what happened , etc.....

TilDeath has a computer building business - some have had great service and some may have had less than desirable service

Bodhi is an AH Community Member - one who shares his knowledge with the community and felt it was a proper thing to do to share what happened with his PC ordering/buying experience with a company, which is most times posted for others to seek out.....

now what happened between the 2 of them is "Between" the 2 of them, let them work it out......

I consider both AH friends, comrades, etc.... so for me I feel it is better to step back and walk away ......... and not place judgement on either person, for it has nothing to do with the rest of us, outside of TilDeath offering his services as he has always done.... and Bodhi being a fellow community member and trying to look out for his fellow community members of Aces High!

this is their situation, it should not make any of us "have to pick sides or a side, or pick one over the other!" as one of the replys may have suggested........

I too hope both of you get it worked out amicably


TC ( Johnny )

[SilverZ06]

I'm not trying to pick sides, it sounds like a bad deal to me but there are 3 sides to every story. TD should have the opportunity to defend himself instead of Skuzzy locking it down with only 1 side of the story told. It is only fair for both to have equal time.

[Gman]

Thanks for that extra information Bodhi, I was going to say your initial "review" was more of a "statement", and didn't really say much other than you felt you received bad service.

I guess I'm taking the opposite position to TC in the previous post.  All the points he makes are good, it is hard to argue with any of them really, and yes, I do agree that it might have been better for all served that this was handled by PM.  However, Bodhi says that he has his reasons for bringing this here, and now that it IS here, we may as well here the entire story out.  Like it or not, TillDeath does do business with players here, although after the RevoDrive/SSD thread debacle, TD washed his hands of all "official" dealings with HTC and the forums.  Even so, due to the good service he has provided many players, he STILL has business ties to this community, and continues to provide systems, advice, and parts to the players here.  For that reason, I think that this "review" should be allowed to stand here, and not be deleted.  I would really like to here TD's side of this before it goes away, that's for certain.

I nearly purchased my latest system from TD.  I came |   |  that close.  I still couldn't wash the bad taste out of my mouth from the last time I tried to do business with him.  I had PM'd him looking for info on what was best for AH in terms of hardware.  I made no comments with regards to price, discounts he had provided others, nothing like that at all.  I did mention I was in Canada and asked if he had shipped over the border here before though.  His first response, verbatim from the PM I got back -  "I am not building for AH players anymore.  No more discounts, its not worth it to me.  If they want a system they can order from my site and the prices there".  Well, thank you very much, I never asked about any discount, and never expected any.  So I followed his advice - After visiting his disaster of a website that had prices for a few outdated systems on it, and virtually ZERO information,  I voted with my wallet.  3500$ spent on a system elsewhere.  I also just upgraded to a 3960 system with a 690 vid card initially, and now a 680 4gb SLI and triple monitor setup.  Another 3700$ that easily should have been in TD's pocket if he had ANY customer service skills whatsoever when it came to my initial contact with him.  That's over seven thousand in about 18 months or so, probably a thousand profit he just threw out the window.  Now, despite all of this, I still nearly supported him as I've read SO many good things about what he has done with players here, despite having a bad taste in his mouth regarding forum policy after the previously mentioned SSD thread, so credit must be given him where it is due.  I think I likely caught him and the worst time with regards to my first inquiry, and he took out some of his frustration on me.  I've made many mistakes with people as well, certainly nobody is perfect, and I feel everyone should get another chance or two, and that is why I'd like to see his response to this thread, as the information in such a post would likely be the deciding factor regarding a future purchase from his business.

edit- To be fair to TD, I'd like so see a bit more info regarding the vid card incident in the OP.  Did TD just install 2 vid cards other than those ordered without telling the OP?  What were the cards in question, both ordered and actually installed.  Also, the word "heat" combined with "RMA" sets my alarm bells off - did the OP overclock the initially installed cards, even though they weren't what was ordered?  What was the initial conversation/decision with TD regarding the incorrect cards being installed - did he give a reason for this, an explanation, anything...did he offer to immediately fix this?  It sounds REALLY odd for a builder to just up and stick in something that wasn't ordered - was there any discussion previous to receiving the system about alternate cards if certain ones weren't available?  Here is what I'm getting at - if my builder put in 680 ftw evga's when I had ordered 680 ftw signature evga's, without telling me, I wouldn't be happy either, even though the cards perform virtually the same and are only 3% differing in price.  However, if I kept the original cards and blew them up o/c'ing them, then that is on ME, not the builder, even though he initially screwed me over a little bit.  I'm not going to assume that is what happened here, although the evidence fits this theory - not one, but TWO dead cards that need to be RMA'd, with the mention of "heat issues".  If two video cards went down over a heat issue not related to overclocking them, I would wager that ANY other two replacement cards would suffer the same fate, as it would be a heat in the case issue more than likely.  Again, some further clarification on precisely what went on would only be fair to both parties and interested observers like me.

If none of this happened, what was TD's reason for doing this?  The money thing is what REALLY interests me.  It seems some sort of deal was worked out, and the OP never got his end of it if I read this correctly.

I agree with TC - I hope this gets worked out as well.  Bodhi seems pretty receptive to working it out and being VERY flexible from his posts here, but it takes two to tango as they say. 

[Skuzzy]

This has gone beyond opinions and has no place here.