About Visiontech - my experience

Lcezasu on 30/11/2012 - 18:32

This is just a compilation on my experience with Visiontech http://www.ozbargain.com.au/user/76988

who post bargains or deals here often.

This post is just a compilation of the communications between me and them and serves as a record in future if anyone wants to do their research about them.

Recently, I bought a brand new PC from Visiontech which is a deal in my opinion, after doing my own research on pricing on other computer and parts.

After using my brand new PC for about 1 month. I discovered that the HDD in my brand new desktop is not new. It's old and used. Picture below:
http://s13.postimage.org/xjzcuqtzb/IMGP0001.jpg

When I ask Visiontech about this issue in this thread: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/85279 about the possibility of an old part used in their brand new pc, they spin a story about using brand new , but old stock which could be stored in warehouse for years.

When I post a picture of the HDD in question to them, I did not get any reply from them.

The next time they post a deal in ozbargain, I asked them again:
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/86219

This time, they spin more story trying to explain how the sticky tape got there.(which obviously is not the case) They also offered to exchange the HDD in question to a new one in a very sarcastic way which make me feel ridiculed.
This is no way to treat a genuine customer!

Visiontech handled this issue poorly because they were not forthcoming in their replies.

I feel that Visiontech still think that it's nothing wrong to pass off used or old parts as brand new. Reason is because they will provide the 1 year warranty, but the price they advertise for brand new desktop determine whether it's a bargain or not.

With a pc fitted with old/used part,the price is no longer a bargain. In fact, it is a misrepresentation of the product are selling.

Another user Anonymous19 confirm that he is also getting old part in his new brand new desktop PC.

So this confirmed that I am not alone. Anonymous19 even upped the ante saying
"So I will be in store soon and want a full refund of my desktop because i don't know what other components are used or refurbished ." which I think is very true.

While I agree that Visiontech do have good "pre-sales" customer service, I can't say that they have good "after sales" customer service.

I certainly will not deal with them again.

Please post your experience with them if you have dealt with them before, time will tell whether they are good or not good.

Thanks.

Computing

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Comments

  • tonyjzx on 30/11/2012 - 18:46
    +6

    err this is very very easy to sort out

    use a smart program to read the hours off the drive

    if you've had the unit for 4 weeks (for example) the most the drive could have on it is 168hrs x 4.3 if the unit has been on constantly

    it will also show the number of power cycles

    eg. 500 cold starts

    if the numbers are completely nonsensical… ie. 5,000hrs… then its a 2nd hand drive

    done and dusted

    as it is a 2009 drive will most likely be out of manufacturers warranty… you can look it up on their site

    my feeling is this is $200 pc and they are dodgy so you have to expect such nonsense… but this sort of thing is EASY to prove

  • _Bruce_ on 30/11/2012 - 18:48
    +3

    Just FYI, you can use the SMART data on the drive to tell how many times it has been turned on and how long it has run for. Depending on your OS there are a number of tools to do this.

    Here is one such tool:
    http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki

    Edit: Ninja'd!

    • cezasu on 30/11/2012 - 19:43

      Thanks .. which values to read? Raw value?

      • scrimshaw on 30/11/2012 - 20:12
        +2

        Give us a screenshot and we'll tell you.

        • cezasu on 30/11/2012 - 20:23

          ok here it is. what does all these numbers mean?

          http://s7.postimage.org/56b0ivhtn/DSCF4860.jpg

        • retiredfeline on 30/11/2012 - 21:09
          +2

          Power on hours is 157 which means it hasn't been used much so you are probably the first owner, but the date of manufacture is in 2009 so it's old stock. It could also have been taken out of equipment that wasn't ever used. They probably got it very cheap because it's an old model and they figure some people will never need that much space.

          So it depends on what you want by brand new. No 500GB drive can be brand new, they don't make that size anymore. Therefore any ad that says a new 500GB drive is slightly misleading. It could however be an unused 500GB drive when they put your PC together.

        • cezasu on 30/11/2012 - 21:31

          Thanks.. I guess I should have seen it coming before committing to buy one.

          What you pay is what you get.

          on the other hand, I bought one of the N40L deals here that comes with a new 250GB HDD.

          I can confirm that this brand new 250GB HDD has a build date of 06/2012.

        • retiredfeline on 30/11/2012 - 21:35

          Was that a SSD though? SSD capacities lag HD capacities.

          I don't think you fared badly with the 500GB disk. HDs don't decay in storage. However there may be issues with warranties. And of course it's not the latest technology.

        • cezasu on 30/11/2012 - 21:46

          nope.. it's the default SATA drive that comes with the N40L.

          I happened to have a old version of this same 250GB drive.

          My old version is Barracuda 7200.10, this new one is 7200.12 :)

        • StewBalls on 01/12/2012 - 11:45
          +1

          It's worth bearing in mind that your statutory warranty commenced at the time of delivery, not the date of manufacture of the drive…Visiontech have a legal obligation to honour that! You won't get left out in the cold here IMHO! ;)

        • cezasu on 01/12/2012 - 12:17

          Yes, I think you are right, I have no doubt that they will honour the 1 year warranty they are providing.

          On the other hand, WD independently offers 3 year limited warranty on their drives. This drive is out of the WD warranty period.(If anonymous19 reads this mayb he can explain more as he as spoken to a WD rep)

          If a new drive (built date of 2012) is provided, technically, warranty is for 3 years. 1 year by visiontech or back to wd direct and additional 2 years by WD - correct me if i am wrong.

        • retiredfeline on 01/12/2012 - 12:26

          I think you will do fine with the Visiontech warranty. For such a low cost component you would probably get a bigger replacement drive from them. I wouldn't really care about the additional 2 years from WD, as the drive is already out of date and even more out of date in a year's time. Now all you have to do is do regular backups.

        • cezasu on 01/12/2012 - 12:36

          Yes, I wont be putting any critical files into there now. I am giving it to my grand mother for her use as a web browser.

        • retiredfeline on 01/12/2012 - 12:51

          I consider all my files on my working computer as critical, no matter what the age of the drive. Basically if the pain of losing the files is greater than the small amount of time spent on backup, then it's no contest. There is a lot of important stuff on the machine, things like receipts, statements, etc. now that so much is paperless.

        • StewBalls on 01/12/2012 - 15:35

          If a new drive (built date of 2012) is provided, technically, warranty is for 3 years. 1 year by visiontech or back to wd direct and additional 2 years by WD - correct me if i am wrong.

          Speaking for myself, I usually go straight to the manufacturer for warranty on Seagate because I can cut out the middle-man & speed up the RMA process, & because there's a local return address so there's no additional cost. For WD though, I'd be chasing the retailer for the entire warranty period. WD has no local RMA address & expects you to ship to Malaysia or Singapore (can't remember which offhand) at your own expense!

          My understanding is that Visiontech is legally required to provide the warranty for the entire 3 years if they've sold it to you as a 'new' product, because that's what a reasonable person would expect. The fact that they have warehoused or sourced new superseded drives is irrelevant when it comes to consumer protection legislation because there is an expectation of 3 years warranty for this type of product. As greenpossum said, these things last for donkey's ages in storage, so I wouldn't be particularly worried because you do have statutory warranty as a backstop.

          This of course relies heavily on Visiontech actually remaining in business for more than 3 years! ;)

  • tonyjzx on 30/11/2012 - 18:54
    -1

    i've had good luck GENERALLY dealing with pc and laptop stores as they really dont know their ass from their elbow and the evidence is really easy to dig up

    how can you honestly state that a PC sold in 2012 has a 2009 drive? its not possible

    who's actually wasting warehouse space storing drives for 3yrs?

    companies start and go bust in less time

    basically these guys sell $200 pcs and they're shifting their own old parts into customers machines because they think customers are dumb

    end of story

    • plmko on 30/11/2012 - 20:56

      "how can you honestly state that a PC sold in 2012 has a 2009 drive? its not possible"

      By selling a HDD model that's been around for yonks?

      • tonyjzx on 30/11/2012 - 20:58
        +3

        the date of manufacture is printed on the drive

        it left the factory in 2009

        its not an old model drive that is still being built today (2012 build date)

  • AndroidStuff on 01/12/2012 - 07:59
    +4

    Its pretty obvious that you are wrong and they are right. The drive is as described and as they pointed out warranty starts at the time of retail sale in by law. They did nothing wrong, you on the other hand acted like an over-entitled crybaby, throwing inaccurate and unfounded accusations, in fact I think you owe them an apology, and any decent person would say sorry for accusing you of using second- hand parts when you didn't.

    And before anyone asks, I have nothing to do with these guys, never heard of them before.

    No doubt this comment will get down voted into oblivion in no time.

    • cezasu on 01/12/2012 - 08:27
      +3

      I don't think any one is right or wrong here.

      We see things differently. We make our own judgement

      If we check the WD warranty website like what Anonymous19 said in the other thread this drive is out of warranty (I do not want to dig further into this point)

      I am not here to accuse anyone, I am here to post the facts. I post everything here for everyone to judge. You make your own call.

      For the record (if any one is interested) this question hdd has 150 hrs power on time but it's been sitting there unused most of the time.

      I also bought a HP N40L that comes with a 250GB HDD with 06/2012 built date and I use it more and it only have 35 power on hours.

      New or not. You make the judgement. I make my own judgement.

      Fact is they have advertised a brand new PC, and I expect the PC to be brand new. I will have never bought from them if i know it contained old parts.

    • sm007h on 24/01/2013 - 22:32

      Seriously, I replied to cezasu in the other thread about legal rights and I agree with AndroidStuff. Just because I don't comment on other threads does not mean I am biased. I will state it here again just for your edification.

      Brand new does not mean it has to be the latest model, it does not even mean it has to be the current model. What do you think catchoftheday sells when they offer great deals on laptops etc? Most of these great deals are discontinued models that have not been in production for a while.

      What they have sold you is a brand new product, and your running of the diagnostic tool has proven it has not been used before. Your continued posting claiming they are selling used product re-marketed as new could be considered as libel and can have serious consequences, as retailers face hefty fines for rebadging old products as new.

      As to warranty, it does NOT matter whether a retailer sells an old model product or not, if it is sold as a new product, you will get full warranty support, first and foremost, from the retailer, and secondly, from the manufacturer. Regardless of the manufacturing date, if you have a valid invoice from a retailer, the manufacturer will honour that invoice.

      And guess what? I am quite sure the manufacturer already knows they offloaded some old stock. If they were not going to provide warranty for it, they would have removed the serial numbers.

      PS: I supply laptops to a lot of the deals sites, and no, I don't deal in PCs.

    • cezasu on 01/12/2012 - 17:33

      thanks..

      Have you taken your pc back yet? do let us know your experience if you did.

      also i might try to take a picture of the ddr3 ram (not sure brand new or not but looks new) and post here for the record as well.

  • IamEzza on 02/12/2012 - 02:18
    +2

    It does seem kind of dodgy to me - but not actually surprising given the super low price of the PC.

    It's either New Old Stock (NOS) or a refurbished or re-purposed drive. It's definitely not a normal NEW drive - it's way too old for that.
    Considering that there has been a major shortage of HDDs over the past couple of years due to the flooding in Thailand it would be very strange if any suppliers anywhere had HDDs that old that they hadn't cleared out already.
    I have been buying drives from computer stores for 12+ years and the date is nearly always between 1-3 months from the current date.
    I find it extremely unlikely that the drive was provided by a regular supplier as NEW. The fact that they claim this in the other thread seems very dodgy.

    The fact that there was sticky tape that just happened to cover the date was dodgy. Manufacturers NEVER put tape covering their OWN manufactures labels.

    The drive model number is WD5000AVVS. This model drive is specifically made to go into DVRs and surveillance equipment. To find this model drive in a new computer in itself is quite strange.

    This could be a refurbished drive that came out of a DVR and possibly had parts on it replaced (like the PCB) which could end up resetting the SMART power on hours count back to 0.

    • cezasu on 02/12/2012 - 12:19
      +1

      Thanks IamEzza for pointing this out.

      When I first have a good look on this HDD, I know it's made for "AV" equipment because of the AV branding.

      WD Link:
      http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150

      I do not want to further complicate things by posting this in the first place because my main issue with them is about peddling a low priced "brand new" pc as a bargain which turned out not to be too good a bargain because it is fitted with old parts.

      (Now with this thread, we all know the reason why their brand new pc's are so low priced)

      Now, the AV branding of the HDD is not too bad because they are designed for AV equipment which demands long power on time, constant recording and erasing of data, etc etc. So this is totally another issue which could also be viewed as a good thing because the drive could be designed to a better or higher standard.

      As for how the sticky tape got there, I would say that because it's a double sided tape and it's being put there in it's former life to secure the HDD in it's former PVR or DVR case, many of them are just small cases with tight space which make securing with screws difficult.

      but what we are saying here is just guessing and speculation and unless someone who really know what's going here can confirm it's history.

  • dreamerman on 25/01/2013 - 07:50

    I bought a $199 Xmas special from VisionTech and had issue installing Win7. I suspect something is wrong (reboots/BSODs/minidumps) but individual components seems fine. Ran memtest for half a day and hdd diagnostic tool extended test overnight, both passes. So, I had no choice but to send it back. They tested it and replaced faulty memory plus installed Win7 for me at no charge. I am happy with their customer service and will certainly recommend and buy from them again.

    • cezasu on 17/06/2013 - 22:14

      Hi dreamerman, if you are happy buying from them then that's good. After all, we are just looking for a few good bargain here.. i have picked up a few bargains here (from other vendors) which I am very happy with too..

      Here's some update about (visiontech)

      1. When asked about using old parts on the brand new pc's that they sell ->(no reply)
      2. When pressed about using old parts again ->(They replied "that user has been linked to a competitor where the competitor has now been band from Ozbargain Permanently for Socketpuppeting" -> "that user" = me is not banned at all and I am not their competitor, which means that they are not truthful in what they are saying )

      Link to my reply when I found out about this thread:
      http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/102515#comment-1452931

      Link to another fellow ozbargainer who encountered a problem with them (visiontech)
      http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/102515#comment-1411654

  • elliot81 on 17/06/2013 - 23:48

    Wow this is fascinating to read. Exact same thing happened to me, bought a cheap system for my brother. Installed a clean copy of windows 7 that would blue screen, restart, etc. So I tried several other copies with similar experiences. They are supposed to be picking it up tomorrow, I really hope they replace whatever is faulty.
    Pretty poor that so much went wrong for so many people

    • cezasu on 18/06/2013 - 17:02

      Hi elliot81, I hope everything goes well for you.. good luck!

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