[smithyt]

These SOB's from avadirect.com are vicious ! If you question Misha Troshin he will destroy you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I payed $4200.00(more than my last 3 cars cost!) for a buggy, malfunctioning, slow piece of garbage, and was talked into settling for choices I did not want by high level employees that are nothing more than fast talking con men. When you're buying your big bucks notebook, everything's peaches and cream and anything's possible. Once they have your money however, 'this' isn't possible and 'that' isn't compatible and they never implied that, etc, etc.
I actually pulled over $4000.00 back from AlienWare because the company seemed so shady and had terrible reviews and sent it to AVA' instead based on their too good to be true reputation.
I had been calling the company to ask questions and figure out the best system I could afford and was having terrible luck getting through to there tech rep 'Chris'. He never answers the phone no matter what time you call and always calls you back at the worst times when your in the middle of work, obviously at HIS convenience. Yet the sales peaple always say he's the one to answer your questions.
So finally after several weeks of this I asked if there was anyone else I could speak to and was transferred to 'Misha', the head sales rep. In what was problably an omen I now see, upon telling Misha that at this time I did not want to give personal information about myself over the phone as I did with Alienware and repeat a mistake that resulted in harassing high pressure sales tactics phone calls, he immediately got snotty and said,' well, your the one who had to speak with someone right now !'.
So, in a twist of fate, Misha ends up taking my order personally and proceeds to advise me on the best choices for what I'm hoping is a screaming state of the art notebook.
I have to fight with him the whole time to get the latest components that Alienware, Sager and ExtremeNotebooks all include in the same model Clevo notebook because AVA is so far behind the curve.
That was a 'joy' in itself and a source of constant aggravation and endless phone calls. I actually had to inform HIM of the latest wireless, graphics and WiFi cards on the market and listen to him tell me they aren't for this notebook or aren't yet on the open market when the other notebook manufacturers all had them. He would get smart or snotty with me and then eventually admitted that AVA purchases all their components on Ebay or similar places in bulk and can 'only get what they can get'... He finally agreed to check on the current availability of some of the components I wanted. Then 1 or 2 weeks later I would see them offered as choices on the AVA site. Funny...
So finally after all this nonsense the big day comes and I call to finalize my order. Misha advises me on no uncertain terms that the purchase of a faster 2.8mhz or so processor is a waste of money for too little of a speed increase and that the 2.4 'stepping' processor is the way to go, because they can just overclock it and it will be faster than the more expensive one. I ask if he's positive it can be done- he says sure, they do this all the time. I ask will it void the warranty- he says no, they have professionals who do this, there's nothing to worry about. So I think wow, what a great guy, this is gona be a scream'n notebook, and I saved a couple bucks.
When it came to the operating system I repeatedly told him I didn't want Vista, but he AND tech rep Chris assured me I had no choice, the notebook I picked wouldn't work with XP or anything else, even though many other OS's were offered as choices. So against my wishes Vista it was.
I also pick a 7in1 Iomega card reader because this 'state of the art' notebook only has a 4in1 reader.
I also am told by Misha this 'top of the line notebook' has an EXTERNAL volume control...
I also pick the super expensive dual SLI graphics cards...
I print out my order, put a personal hand written note with it detailing Misha's promises of overclocked processors and say if my notebook can't be overclocked for any reason to call me immediatley, in plain English.
I also waited over 2 months to recieve my purchase.
Every once in awhile I'd get nervous about Misha's shakey promises on my notebook choices and call to check up on things and he'd immedietly poo-poo my concerns and assure me they were doing everything they could to expidite my order, and I'd say no, that's not why I'm calling. I don't care how long it takes, just as long as I get what I paid for and it's done right.
I mean we're talking over 4 thousand dollars for God's sake. He'd assure me everything was just peachy every time.
He also assured me, at zero hour, that my system wouldn't be overclocked, he never said it could, I picked the processor I did based on cost, not overclocking, and overclocking usually costs a $100.00's extra anyway.
Ain't that something.
So, what'd I get for $4200.00 friggin dollars, my life savings.
A malfunctioning, buggy, slow piece of *#^&@% that didn't even have the latest drivers, sure as hell ain't overclocked, is as slow as a Pentium III, glitches and stalls on 7 year old video games, crashes in the first 24 hours, doesn't have an external volume button, has pop-up boxes that refuse to go away, won't let me install or run anything because I'm not 'Administrator' and has the WORST OPERATING SYSTEM ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, Vista.
And get this, the Iomega 7in1 card reader, isn't even compatible !
Which it says on the Iomega website. NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED TO CHECK !
It's useless !
Where in God's name did they get all these wonderfully happy customers !?!?
I'm ready to frigg'in snap.
Smithyt
Erie, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.

IF anyone can help me, PLEASE DO !

[SpiritWind]

Hi :



I see you posted something similar at

www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/ava-direct-c66942.html

which is a little over a month ago . One should be very careful when it comes "Reviews"

at various websites because of the "incestuous relationship" that sometimes exists .

Since you are in Pa & the company appears to be based in Ohio, perhaps there is

some Federal Agency, like the Federal Trade Commission, that you could file a "Complaint" !?

[AVADirect1]

AVADirect responds to SmityT's allegations.


SmithyT purchased a Clevo 901C notebook in Feb 2008. Due to later release of SLI graphics technology for this notebook we asked if the customer wanted to wait for several weeks which he agreed on and processed this order, finally shipping it out in early April.



First we heard from this customer is in about a month regarding random crashes and slow Vista related performance so we issued an RMA# instructing to ship it back to us for service. Once in service the notebook was inspected, it turned out that one the hard drives went bad and because this customer expressed a great deal of disappointment with his purchase we gave him several free upgrades all by our own initiative:




# Two hard drive upgrades from 160Gb 7200RPM to 200Gb 7200RPM
# CPU upgrade from Q6600 to Q6700
# Free games
# Covered $53 in original shipping charges


Of course all backed by our outstanding support with related and unrelated questions.



We have done all this out of the desire to help and satisfy this customer expecting a great feedback after all of these upgrades only to find out that this customer keeps bashing us even more, leaving vulgar voicemails, sending email threats and ignoring our requests to call us to discuss this situation simply to find out why this customer is so mislead or perhaps confused.



At this point we were forced to alert local authorities regarding email threats and 4am profane voicemails and we are still waiting for a "normal" callback to discuss this customer's situation but instead we only see this "campaign" to make us look bad when in fact we are an excellent company with countless great reviews from both customers and industry.



Dear Anthony, for 3^rd^ time, if you read this, please call me ASAP!



Regards,
Misha Troshin
Sales Manager, CEO

888.363.1051 direct

[smithyt]

SmithyT purchased a Clevo 901C notebook in Feb 2008. Due to later release of SLI graphics technology for this notebook we asked if the customer wanted to wait for several weeks which he agreed on and processed this order, finally shipping it out in early April.

Actually true.

we gave him several free upgrades all by our own initiative:

Not even close.

After submitting my review of AVA Direct and the crappy way I was treated on (Resellerratings.com) website I was immediately besieged by emails to
contact head sales CEO Misha of AVA Direct.
Upon calling him he proceeded to inform me of how upset and concerned he was over my experience in ordering from AVA Direct and how I had ruined they're
near perfect "score" on Resellerratings.
He kept repeating how this was just "business" and how he/they were prepared to
do anything to make things right.
He said they were already getting calls asking questions about my review and
it was upsetting business.
I was told he had decided to upgrade my 2 hard drives from 160MB to 200MB
and that anything else I wanted just to let him know. Anything at all.
At first Misha kept beating around the bush saying things like my review only told one side of the story (who else's it was supposed to tell I'm not sure) and that it was hard to show their customers "love" if we didn't "cooperate"....
Then he offered 2 "computer games" to sweet'n the pot.
It became very clear that not only did Misha want the review changed but he wanted it to "go away", and go away NOW, which he made clear as the conversation
degenerated from him promising me "anything" to threatening to "make things difficult" for me, as in they could put the screws to me and only give me a
certain percentage of my money back, ie. steal any chance of me getting a full refund, or just do the bare minimum necessary to correct the problems
with the overpriced broken notebook, ie. leave it screwed up, and on and on the threats went.

Of course all backed by our outstanding support with related and unrelated questions.

Make that worthless support consisting of making excuses on why nothing works or why you didn't get what you paid for.

We have done all this out of the desire to help and satisfy this customer expecting a great feedback after all of these upgrades only to find out that this customer keeps bashing us even more, leaving vulgar voicemails, sending email threats and ignoring our requests to call us to discuss -

They have done this all as part of Misha's blackmailing of me, to force me to remove my poor review of AVA Direct on resellerratings.com.

Later after I caved in and boxed it up and shipped it back he threatened me again, telling me that because I ordered with Postal Money Orders, he could just
make my money "disappear" and now that they had the computer back there wouldn't be much I could do about it...
After a certain point the threats never ended as Misha grew bolder and bolder. I finally emailed him and said if he didn't quit threatening me I was gona take a ride to AVA and we were gona have a "talk". THERE"S MY THREAT ............... in black and white.
And get this, thier tech rep Chris makes me email my Window's Vista security code to him while they had the notebook. It's problably on every hacker warez site on the net by now....
I ended up asking Lara from Resellerratings if they were connected to AVA Direct because of the suspiciously perfect ratings they have, but was never sure if she was fed up with me changing my review every 5 minutes depending on Misha's threats or mabey they were in cohoots.
I put the poor woman through it.
Well, I did what he wanted, took down my review and told Misha I wanted the upgraded hard drives, the next fastest processor and the RIGHT WiFI card,
since they didn't get that right the first time and I didn't catch it till later.(he refused to extend my warrenty.)

Guess what, after all that living hell Misha put me through, the threats, the 2 months of lost productivity, NOW 3, sacrificing my ethics, lost money, lost time,

I DO WHAT HE WANTS, then I get my computer back and it has THE SAME HARD DRIVES IN IT, THE EXACT SAME ONES, and they say Seagate REPAIRED on them, there not even new, there USED !!! THE WIFI CARD SAYS IT'S STILL THE SAME...........and the Acronis recovery sofware is gone.
And who knows if they're even both working since he said 1 of the last ones were broke. I certainly can't trust them.
And I'm not sure how the hell to check on the processor cause the computer won't cough up any info on it but I bet that's the same damn one too.
ALL THEY APPEAR TO HAVE DONE IS TO PUT A BUNCH OF NEW STICKERS ON THE STUPID THING !!!!!!!!!!
Oh yea, and no games either or updated driver CD to go with the same $4200.00 paperweight...........

At this point we were forced to alert local authorities regarding email threats and 4am profane voicemails

Misha certainly is an expert on threats. My threat is plainly above ^ , and they certainly did alert local authorities, right after I recieved the laptop back and figured out they left the same broken/used/160MB hard drives in it. The cops went to my mothers house and told her I threatened an employee at AVA Direct. I guess Misha showed me who was boss. Discredited me AND scared my mother. Nice job Misha, you gotta be proud.

and we are still waiting for a "normal" callback to discuss this customer's situation

EVERYTIME I spoke to Misha Troshin he threatened me, he knows I didn't record the calls. He obviously feels he's untouchable.

but instead we only see this "campaign" to make us look bad when in fact we are an excellent company with countless great reviews from both customers and industry.

God forbid I tell the truth about what Misha and this company of Russian Criminals has done to me. And I'm pretty sure the "countless great reviews" he speaks of are self-generated since they suspisiously only seem to appear on resellerratings.com.

simply to find out why this customer is so mislead or perhaps confused.

The only time I was "mislead" was by Misha Troshin. And now I am confused. Confused on how a criminal sosciopath and compollsive liar can get away with ripping off an American citizen and abusing the justice system that allowed him and his freinds to start a business in the first place.

How in God's name do you sleep at night Misha.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Smithyt. I can definitely understand your frustration about this situation but I do not believe this is the place to hash out this issue. You both seem to have very sturdy stances and it may not do any good for either you or he to battle back and forth about this issue. If you feel this strongly about this situation, I would advise you to contact your local Attorney General or some other agency such as the Better Business Bureau....if you have not already.

[coastie65]

Hey Smithyt, I went over and checked that place out. I know that you weren't the only dissatisfied customer. What really stoodout to me, was how over priced they were. There are other places to get the same stuff at a much lower price to be sure. At the shear number of reviews, it appears they do a pretty good business, as I said, at their prices I am surprised. Price doesn't always equate to quality, although they were selling at high end prices, the stuff wasn't necessarily high end. Thanks to your post, rant and all :D , I was able to check that out for myself. One thing that stands out was a $4000 plus lap top, I could go over to Dell and and get a very nice XPS M1730 Lap Top for less, and that thing is a power house when it comes to Lap Tops. coastie65

[mcbarker]

I know you are angry at this company, and please don't think I'm scolding you, but when dealing with such businesses, you absolutely have to behave in a professional manner in order to be taken seriously. I get the feeling that Misha knew that he could push your buttons, and possibly did so to deliberately push you into saying something that he could use against you... which, essentially, he did.
I did some searching, and you're not the only one apparently who has had problems with AVA Direct. The other complaints were similar to yours. Also, two Better Business Bureau complaints have been listed against them in the past 12 months. One was resolved, and AVA Direct chose not to respond to the other one (possibly yours?). If you decide to communicate with them in the future, I strongly suggest you reign in your emotions, act professionally, think before speaking, and speak calmly. You may also want to think about recording the conversation, and if you do, inform the person on the other end, up front, that the conversation is being recorded.
As you found out the hard way, losing your temper, whether warranted, or not, can be used against you, making you look like the villain. No matter how hard they try, don't let them get to you. Stay calm, and do NOT say anything that could be construed as a threat. The same advice applies when writing a review. No name calling... Keep it professional, factual, and specific, and they won't have any excuse to be dismissive of you. If you do otherwise, they win.
I wish you the best of luck.

[rtfire1]

I have been there with companies you must not lose your cool start recording calls. did your laptop get sent through the postal service at all if so with the info you have you can do a frud claim.

[rgreen4]

Smithyt - rtfire1 has a good point. If you feel that you have been wronged, and apparently do, step back. Take a breath to dampen your anger and document as best you can the contacts and agreements. Did you keep a copy of the orginal order that you sent in? If so, make another copy. You used Postal Money Orders. You used the US Mail to send the money orders and the order form I'm sure. Contact the Postal Inspectors and see what they have to say.

Do no name calling, simply state the facts and see what they have to say. If they look into it, there may be a chance, as one of the penalties for mail fraud is losing the privilege of getting mail service - it is a privilege not a right.

In any future dealings, postings, comments remember to always stick to the facts. Do not question ancestry, do not use foul words or even *&% substitutes as that just detracts from the details and puts you in a bad light and makes them seem to be in the right. Remember as Jack Webb used to say on Dragnet - "The facts, just the facts, sir"

Also remember on other thing when ordering in a situation like this when dealing with someone that does not have the sales proceedure that the big ones (Dell, HP, etc) do, get them to send you a quote. That quote should have all the details of the order along with all supplied upgrades and services. I know from experience when dealing with HP, I spec out the item on the internet, then I make a physical call with the order. Shortly after that I get an e-mail from HP detailing out the exact order. This is as much for their protection as mine, but many small companies do not bother, both to their detriment and yours.

Keep receipts, keep e-mails until you have received what you ordered and are satisfied.

It is best not to use Money Orders, Postal or not, but if you do, make photo copies if possible. If you or a friend have an AIO printer, a scan is good enough. A credit card is better because the transaction now includes a third party and you can protest the charges if you did not receive what was promised. If they decline to accept a credit card - go somewhere else.

Good luck.

[rtfire1]

I my self am not a big fan of e-bay I have a love hate thing going on but... I love paypal they work to make sure everything works out.

[wilburt]

The experience described in this post is almost identical to my experience with
AVA Direct. I also had an almost identical experience with this guy
"Misha" who took my order.
[~157846] describes the computer he purchased from AVA as a buggy, malfunctioning,
slow piece of garbage. After having nothing but problems for a year with the
computer I purchased, Misha had the nerve to say I was being vulger when I said
the computer he sold me was a piece of sh_t.
I have been very disappointed with the computer that I purchased from this
company for $5493 last year. I have been using computers since the early 1980s
and the computer I purchased from AVA is one of the most annoying, buggy,
difficult computers I have ever had the displeasure of using. Now, on top of
other problems I have had with this machine, there appears to be a significant
hardware issue with the machine that is affecting it's ability to start. Since
this company is located several thousand miles from where I live, it is necessary
for me to go through the big hassle of shipping the machine back to them for
repair because they refuse to pay for or send a technician to me even though
the computer is under a 3 year warranty. Based upon my experience with this
company, this is not a real fun company to deal with. I had to pay to have my
computer fixed somewhere else after receiving support advice that made the
problems I was having worse. In addition, when I started asking specific
questions about what I could expect from the warranty service, how much things
would cost, and how long it would take, I wasn't satisfied with the responses I
received. I was not going to take the chance that my computer would be damaged
in transit and I was not satisfied that the many problems would or could be
fixed by AVA. This guy Misha, who says he is the co-owner of AVA, is not the
type of person that I ever want to do business with again. I will be sending
him a bill for the repairs I had to get done on the machine I purchased from
AVA and will be asking for a refund on the money I paid for this warranty.
{size:12pt} {size}

[wilburt]

{size:12pt}Ask yourself this, no matter what else may be good about AVA, would you really want{size}{size:12pt} to buy a computer from a company that makes its customers so angry that, in{size}{size:12pt} this case, they (AVA) have to call the cops on them? I think that this poor customer'{size}{size:12pt} sad, cautionary tale just about sums up what it is like to deal with this guy{size}{size:12pt} Misha Troshin and Ava Direct.{size}
{size:12pt}Based upon my experience as an AVA customer, Mr. Troshin will be nice as apple pie to you when he is selling you a computer. However, once you are on the hook, and buy a computer, get ready for a lot of aggravation, arguing, and general unhappiness. {size}
{size:12pt}I noticed in Misha's Troshin's reply to this upset customer he denied and counter alleged. This seems to be this guy's standard MO. I have never had any success getting a problem fix when I have tried to use AVA's customer service. It is a nightmare going round and round with these guys who never have a solution to fix the problem that actually works. As a matter of fact, they have usually made the problem worse.{size}
{size:12pt}Seems that Mr. Troshin thinks he can get rid of the customer problems he creates for himself by getting customers angry at him so they don't ever want to talk to him or do business with him again. He says he wants to fix the problem but when you contact him he gives you grief, argues with you, and makes your life miserable. {size}{size:12pt}In my opinion, whatever may be good about this company is more than offset by the grief and aggravation you have to suffer through when dealing with them after you purchase a product from them.{size}








{size:12pt} {size}