Build me a computer he said. (long)

[gremcint]

Short version of the conversation: I'll give you $500 to build me a computer with a budget of almost $3000.
My answer: OK
now I'm wondering if I should have charged more. Before we dive in, the person paying me has paid 3000 out of 3100 he owed for this. I will most likely be getting the rest at easter, he has done nothing wrong.

So I spec out the machine and double check stuff with people I know and stuff and go to place the order. Using my credit card because he doesn't have one.

So I go to newegg.ca to order the necessary parts. it splits the order in half because it'll ship from 2 locations. This is fine except it charges me two separate transactions for some reason. so my credit card randomly sees on christmas eve 2 transactions from a site I haven't used in a couple years right after each other for around the same amount. So my card rightfully so triggers my fraud alert and locks the card. Now the first order went through and the second one flagged. not knowing why it did that because the site doesn't tell you shit I use my other card. This is my amazon visa which is run by a company called chase. Apparently chase doesn't like newegg for some reason and will immediately treat any transaction as possible fraud so guess what, it locked down to. so after calling BOTH credit card companies a couple days later (this was christmas eve) I get them unlocked and make the second order. All is well. nah just kidding, we;re just getting started kiddies. buckle up.

so later I go to use my amazon visa again and it's locked again. after another call (3rd one now) I find out that they put a temporary thing to let me use newegg for a day and then my card went back to its previous status before that which means it was locked again instead of being unlocked. So that's sorted finally.

Now I must say Newegg shipped damn fast. I received everything including the gigantic computer case. Now he won't be picking up the computer for at least a month anyways (this guy was patient and my sister's bf) so I don't get to the computer right away. So I get around to it somewhere in the teens in january. I open the box for the case and discover: It's fucking broken, and not just a tiny scratch or something, somebody smashed this thing. weirdly the box it came in looked fine.

http://i.imgur.com/tqvjX59.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0pxgeOT.jpg

those are the cracks that were on the front of the case, the top panel also didn't want to stay in place and I couldn't even get the sides off. At one point one of the screws fell off inside of the case and I was like, well I guess you just live there now.

So I call customer service at newegg (4th call) and I filled them in on what happened and she checks with a manager because I'm past the 15 days but I get to return it and they pay shipping. So I lug the giant thing to the local UPS and send it off. Now I find out later that the return policy is in fact 30 days so I don't know what they were talking about there.

So new case arrives and it's condition is fine. So I take a day and build the computer. I take my time and I do it right and look up how all the different parts go and everything because hey I'm being paid well for this. Well the computer is great, running faster than nascar and is awesome for about 20 hours. it shuts off and will not turn back on at all. Troubleshooting puts the blame squarely on the power supply after me tearing it apart and testing everything.

So I call newegg customer service (5th call) and tell them what's happening and explain that since I had to send their broken ass case back and forth I wasn't able to build this within the 30 days. so I get to return that but I get a lecture about doing stuff within the 30 days in the future, look lady if you had sent me a case someone had used to test their sledgehammer we'd be within the 30 days so just shut up ok? I didn't say that I just took it because I know she's gotta say it probably and why make her more miserable than she is for working in a call center.

So I go through the stuff and figure out which screws and cables go back with it and ship it back and get the replacement. I install it and it turns on, yay, rejoice. I borrow a copy of diagnostic software from work and make sure that fucker works. So it's built, it's updated, antivirus, malwarebytes and other shit installed.

My sister comes down for a weekend and takes that fucking thing out of my house and away from me and as far as I know everybody is happy with it.

For the record both the case and power supply were rosewill brand, my first and last experience with that brand.

One final story, the box for this case was sitting in our spare room, one night I hear noises coming from it. now I know exactly whats about to happen and I didn't go get my camera for some stupid reason. I go over to the box and open it and move the styrofoam inside to the other side and I see a cat face that suddenly BOLTS out of the box it had been trapped in and runs out of the room basically giving me a real life heart attack jump scare.

I hate dealing with customer service even when everyone is polite I hate doing it and can't explain why. So sick of dealing with customer service I didn't call paizo when two of my new deck boxes came with a corner crushed each because I just didn't have the energy for that. However when I got the complete wrong order from cards against humanity I did contact them through email, they sent me my proper order and told me to keep the other one at no charge so now I have a giant CAH set.

[protege]

Ugh. Been there, done that. When I built my last computer, I had some issues.

First one, was that the CPU got damaged when I tried to put it into its socket. This one was designed to sit in a plastic tray. Said tray is then carefully flipped over, and then locked down. The center snaps out of the tray, the outer "ring" is what holds the chip in place. Problem was, that the tray wasn't mounted right--When I flipped it over and tried to lock it, several of the CPU's pins got bent

Even though it wasn't my fault, the vendor wouldn't take it (or the board) back. Both items were damaged, and I wasn't about to replace each one. No, I had to fork over the cash for replacements. Luckily, the new bits worked fine.

After those arrived, I finished assembly, fired the computer up...and saw what appeared to be a cloud of dust. Then I saw the flames coming out of the power supply Turns out the power supply had shorted out...damaging both it, and my new hard drive. At least Rosewill (I think that's the name), did the honorable thing, and replaced it. Seagate sent over a new drive. Both bits arrived a few days later.

Before firing it up this time, I must have checked those connections about a dozen times before flipping the power switch.

Oh, and I should mention that the case is a Rosewill item. No problems with mine--maybe yours got thrown in the box at 4:59 on a Friday afternoon?

[EricKei]

I have been burned on the occasional Rosewill item before, but nothing as crucial as a PSU -- I'll buy little things like card readers, extra cooling fans, and random cables from them, but not anything like a PSU anymore. Even worse, that nigh generic brand that dollar stores sell with the green logo (Gear something or something gear) -- I once got a card reader from them, and a microSD card (empty) fell INTO the unit. I sent it back for a replacement, with instructions to dig the card out and send that back to me (they wouldn't take the return if I smashed the reader open or took it apart), or give me a ne card, to which they agreed...When the return finally arrived, there was no SD. Got them back on email (could never each them by phone successfully), they claimed to have no idea what I was talking about. So, I sent them the email exchange with tech support where they promised this -- they never replied to that, nor any other email I sent them after that. Fuckers.

[Ophbalance]

Way back in the days of the Celeron 300A (of which I and my bro-in-law had), a couple that I was attending college with asked me to help put together a machine for them as well. They knew I was overclocking my rig with with a Peltier, but wanted theirs overclocked on just air. Not an issue normally, however, it appears this install was going to be anything but normal. They failed to mention that their computer room and home had NO air conditioning. And it wasn't until the machine I put together started to go into constant thermal shutdown that it even got brought up. I eventually got them running at a much lower clock speed, but that was the very last time I built a machine for anyone but myself.