Checking up on MDG.ca

[daisyville]

I did a search in this forum and saw a thread about this retailer about 14 months ago. I hope I didn't miss one more recent.

The old thread had little good to say about MDG as a retailer.

They are having some killer sales right now.
http://www.mdg.ca/default_main.asp?c...&lang=en&bus=0

Can you update me on any experiences or consumer feedback you may have heard about them? Keep in mind I'm a techno-nerd and if you use real fancy words about motherboards, specific chips and such things, they may be lost on me (I have other skills!).

I'll look forward to your feedback.
Tracy

[Gold Monkey]

I sure hope you found my thread about MDG...don't buy from that *****hole. Spend a little more money if you have to and get it at a good place, I don't know of anyone that has been happy with their computer that they bought there.

[Chrispy]

MDG Does not have killer sales. They are apalling as a business and it's embarassing in most ways.

First...they use old and refurbished parts ALL THE TIME. Their "cheap" systems will have something ridiculous like a new cpu on an old board, or something along those lines...it just doesn't make sense.

Second...they have in way too many occasions been caught using parts that weren't advertised to the system to begin with....false advertising. not good.

Third....they lie. They lie through their teeth. I wouldn't trust them with anything....

BUYER BEWARE.....do your research before making any purchase.....

[skuntbehavior]

no fancy words for you, but stay the hell away from them. i knew a guy once that had his computer built by them. he took the machine back 10 times in a month's span.

[chatbox]

Tracy,

Honestly, stay away from MDG. Those prices are fairly standard. Why did you even check their website in the first place? If you must get a pre-built system, check out over at Dell.ca (when they have free upgrades or free shipping).

[Prof]

Tracy,

Honestly, stay away from MDG. Those prices are fairly standard. Why did you even check their website in the first place? If you must get a pre-built system, check out over at Dell.ca (when they have free upgrades or free shipping).

I agree completely with Chatbox. If you are going prebuilt, look closely at Dell. I frequently provide purchase recommendations for professionals with few computer skills. Dell always is on the shortlist. I'm not certain you will save any money with MDG but you will save on Aspirin by going with Dell instead. Tech support is also much superior (and toll free). Deals change weekly with Dell but you can often have shipping reduced in cost or for free if you phone in. It's almost always free to US consumers. Mention that when you call.

[daisyville]

Tracy,

Honestly, stay away from MDG. Those prices are fairly standard. Why did you even check their website in the first place? If you must get a pre-built system, check out over at Dell.ca (when they have free upgrades or free shipping).

I knew I could count on you guys to give me the straight goods - thank you. And yes Gold Monkey, I believe that was your thread from April 03 I looked through.

The only reason I went to check them out is this: My Mother, after years of trying to convince her, is likely going to purchase a laptop. They go down south for the winter and it'd be nice for us (and her friends) to be able to e-mail her. And I'd like to stop mailing her e-mails other people send me on her behalf

Anyway, I shopped around with her a bit on the weekend and started to salivate a little at some of the specs out there now, and the remarkably low prices.

My system (you'll likely laugh) is a PentiumIII, 501 MHz, 256 RAM with 48XCDburner, Windows XP Home and a 17 inch (not flat) Viewsonic Monitor. I bought the machine about 5.5 years ago and at the time, it was the biggest machine I could afford. It was a PentiumII when I purchased it (I think) and I've upgraded bits of it since. Frankly it serves me reasonably well.

But truthfully, I salivate over these flat screens, now there are Pentium IIIIs and all far less than I paid for this baby. So knowing I was salivating a little, my husband told me he'd seen an ad for MDG on the back of a newspaper at work and noted they were "giving them away". So I thought I'd check up on you guys for the real goods. (He knows nothing about computers, including how to turn it on).

I'm not surprised about your poor reviews of the organization. I do believe that in some cases you get what you pay for. Since I'm a tecnho-nerd, I'm an easy victim for places like this I suspect. I'm not the demographic that MDG targets their marketing at either, and as a professional I can no doubt make the play for a more reputable machine for a few more bucks. Lord knows I can't tolerate techno-frustration - so I'd pay in the end anyway.

So - if I continue to salivate - I'll go elsewhere. Maybe I'll sell this system to my Dad who could upgrade his 12 year old machine Although he should just buy a new one too - for all the money they are anymore.

Many thanks - Tracy

[Carpe Diem]

Third....they lie. They lie through their teeth. I wouldn't trust them with anything....

This is true!
A family member bought a 1.7mhz system, I checked it in the system properties and it was only 1.3mhz chip.

Check your processor chip speeds if you have a MDG.
I wonder how many other people they ripped off.

[sleepyguy]

MDG is pretty terrible though... I have co-workers who have taken their machines back like 5-6 times only to get nothing done.

Nothing wrong with your PC. People tend to forget... it is the business/personal requirement, not SPECS on paper! My current 'work' PC is just a P3 500 w/384MB RAM as well. MS Office and Project, Email and Web is all I use it for. Gaming and multimedia is a different story of course.

Well... after all said and done... go to Dell.ca and configure the system you want.

I knew I could count on you guys to give me the straight goods - thank you. And yes Gold Monkey, I believe that was your thread from April 03 I looked through.

The only reason I went to check them out is this: My Mother, after years of trying to convince her, is likely going to purchase a laptop. They go down south for the winter and it'd be nice for us (and her friends) to be able to e-mail her. And I'd like to stop mailing her e-mails other people send me on her behalf

Anyway, I shopped around with her a bit on the weekend and started to salivate a little at some of the specs out there now, and the remarkably low prices.

My system (you'll likely laugh) is a PentiumIII, 501 MHz, 256 RAM with 48XCDburner, Windows XP Home and a 17 inch (not flat) Viewsonic Monitor. I bought the machine about 5.5 years ago and at the time, it was the biggest machine I could afford. It was a PentiumII when I purchased it (I think) and I've upgraded bits of it since. Frankly it serves me reasonably well.

But truthfully, I salivate over these flat screens, now there are Pentium IIIIs and all far less than I paid for this baby. So knowing I was salivating a little, my husband told me he'd seen an ad for MDG on the back of a newspaper at work and noted they were "giving them away". So I thought I'd check up on you guys for the real goods. (He knows nothing about computers, including how to turn it on).

I'm not surprised about your poor reviews of the organization. I do believe that in some cases you get what you pay for. Since I'm a tecnho-nerd, I'm an easy victim for places like this I suspect. I'm not the demographic that MDG targets their marketing at either, and as a professional I can no doubt make the play for a more reputable machine for a few more bucks. Lord knows I can't tolerate techno-frustration - so I'd pay in the end anyway.

So - if I continue to salivate - I'll go elsewhere. Maybe I'll sell this system to my Dad who could upgrade his 12 year old machine Although he should just buy a new one too - for all the money they are anymore.

Many thanks - Tracy

[enforcerviper]

Here's another vote for MDG == Mostly Damaged Goods.

Horrid store, horrid service.. it's like buying an emachine clone!

[Cough]

My system (you'll likely laugh) is a PentiumIII, 501 MHz,

You are obviously quite technical if you have been able to overclock to 501

Seriously, technical or not, why not build one? Everyone here will help and it really is a matter of just plugging the bits together.

[daisyville]

You are obviously quite technical if you have been able to overclock to 501

Seriously, technical or not, why not build one? Everyone here will help and it really is a matter of just plugging the bits together.

Cough, that's a great idea and perhaps I'll take you up on that one day.

The thing about overclocking - I have NO idea what that means. The only reason I know any of that is by opening up my little system window. It's all Greek to me

Now if I'm on the 400 and I hear sirens and somebody in a uniform uses the term overclocking....or excessive speed - I know what that means

[konfusion666]

Back in the day, the guy who sold me my Pentium Pro system (as an aside, the system still works fine) now sells MDG systems on TV on the Shopping Channel. Talk about moving up in the world! Or *down*, perhaps...

Generally speaking, MDG sucks. I remember when I was choosing components for the PPro, they were trying to get me to buy some "Made in India" JTS drives. Notice how JTS is a virtually non-existent company now...

[w33ds]

I've got an MDG rip story.

My Dad has a computer he bought from MDG 3 years ago. 2.4 Ghz 512mb ram. Decent system. The computer wouldn't start up. It was beeping and nothing would show on the monitor.
So he takes it to MDG. They tell him that the Video Card and the Memory are shot. They also told him that the Vid Card and Memory were obsolete and that it needs a new motherboard to install new cards. The also told him that the Burner wouldn't work either after the new motherboard was installed.
So they sell him on a new tower. 2.8 Ghz, 256 ddr ram, 80 gig hd, burner with nice speed, etc. for $799.
I called him on the phone while he was doing this and tried to stop him but he's stubborn.
So he brings the receipt home and I have a look at it. I pull up their website and check for the current flyer and something really pisses me off.
For less than $100 more, he could have received one of their advertised systems. This system had double the memory, a 17 inch flat screen, microsoft keyboard, optical mouse, 3 n 1 digital camera, dvd burner upgrade, free printer/scanner aft. mir., etc.
Can you believe that they wouldn't tell him that he could have this system for $100 cheaper than the tower they were selling him.
The extra memory alone was worth the $100!

[w33ds]

Oh yeah, so after I saw this, I went in and made the upgrade to the complete system, sans dvd burner upgrade.

There's more. The were supposed to have done a transfer of the old hard drive onto the new system. I get the new one home and I am missing some important Quickbooks files that I have in a shared folder. They didn't get transerred at all.
So I take it back to MDG and ask the service guy to try and find the files for me. He gives it a go, comes back out and says he searched the whole hard drive from top to bottom and couldn't find any quickbooks files and couldn't find much of anything in the shared folder dir. I say OK and took the computer down the road to a place called "Those Friggin Computers..." in London.
I tell him my situation and asked if he could take a look at the old system and see if he could find the quickbooks files.
He plugged it in and it wouldn't start up, as was the computer's original problem. He threw in a video card just sitting on the table and everything came up and booted fine.
He found the Quickbooks files with ease and burnt them for me to work on. I left the old computer with him to do a diagnostics and see if anything more could be done to better it's performance.
He said everything seemed fine after putting the video card in.

So long story short.

MDG lied about what was wrong with the computer, Sold my dad a new tower that was not needed, Didn't tell him about a complete better system for a few dollars more, Didn't transfer important files from the old to the new system, and then said those files were not even on the hard drive when clearly they were.

I HATE MDG!!!