PLEASE NOTE: AVADirect had this review deleted from Resellerratings. On there, they have <1% negative reviews, but on here they have 50%+ negative reviews. Resellerratings cannot be trusted.

An employee of AVADirect created a sock account known as John-e-Diamonds on Reddit in order to defame our company. We contacted AVADirect in June in regards to a distribution deal where they would build some of our laptops and sell them on their website. We actually worked out a deal, and they did offer our laptops on their site for a brief period of time. You can find mentions of it on their social media.

Well, after only a couple of months, we decided to end the deal and asked AVADirect to remove our laptops and all mention of our company from their site, and we told this employee that he was the reason why we were ending the deal. So if you're wondering what his motive is to create a sock account and defame our company, that's probably it. He really seemed to take offense to us saying he cost his business one of the best opportunities they will ever have.

This AVADirect employee is one of the worst kinds of people to deal with. He will say anything, flip-flopping back and forth from one day to the next, as if he has no memory or conscience. For instance, he'll give you a price on day 1 and then, on day 2, increase it by 50% without even telling you he's doing it or justifying why he did it.

When you correspond with him through email, he honestly comes across as a goon. One of his favorite expressions is, "It is what it is." This is what he says when you call him out on his nonsense. "It is what it is." His creating a sock account in order to defame our company is honestly proof of how little character he has.

When we were working out a deal, this employee said AVADirect makes 5% on the sale of laptops. Then, right after this, he asked us for a 20% cut on the sale of our laptops and even tried to get 30%. After some back and forth on why he was asking for so much, he said AVADirect makes 20% on their MSI laptops. So what happened to the 5% he said AVADirect makes on laptops?

In his Reddit post, he said that AVADirect refused to do business with us. This is a direct quote: "In the 15+ years I've been in the industry, this was the first time I refused ongoing business from a client. Take what you want from that statement." In actuality, we are the ones who ended the deal between our companies, and it was because we were tired of dealing with this employee. AVADirect never refused to do business with us.

The fact that AVADirect doesn't fire this employee means they allow their employees to engage in this sort of duplicitous behavior, so if they reply to this review, you cannot trust a word they say. Of course, they will probably try to make up more lies about us in order to defend themselves. The facts speak for themselves. We terminated the deal between our company and AVADirect and one of their employees subsequently created a sock account on Reddit in an attempt to defame us by saying we are so bad they refused to do business with us.

I've purchased three PCs from AVA-Direct over the years but haven't come around to writing a review until this latest one. I hope this review detailing my experiences will help anyone reading in their decision to purchase a PC from this company, as the custom PC market is very large, and it can be difficult to find a trustworthy and reliable company to invest the substantial money needed for a high-end gaming PC. I've done my best to keep this review unbiased as a result, so that readers can have a fair and detailed impression of AVA-Direct before making their purchase.

1. The Website: AVA-Direct's website is decent, leaning towards variety rather than streamlining PC purchases (Though they've recently added an Insta-builder option for quick configurations). Pre-builds are featured front and center; they can be customized once selected, or simply purchased outright. However, the pre-builds are categorized around the motherboard/CPU chipset, which subsequently can limit the configuration options (IE: If you choose an Intel pre-built, you'll only be able to view Intel-compatible components. Choosing a motherboard model will lock your motherboard options to that model (Z690, B550, etc.) as well), so be sure of your motherboard/CPU selection before choosing a pre-built for customization. They also sell gaming laptops and even servers, but my experience revolves entirely around their desktop PCs.

2. Customization: AVA-Direct offers an extremely wide range of options for every relevant PC component (Everything from the case and graphics cards to fans and cooling configurations), which comes with both advantages and disadvantages. If there is a PC part available on the market AVA-Direct will have it. The obvious advantage is the extreme customization possible with your order, akin to selecting and buying the parts yourself. This is rarely seen among most of AVA-Direct's competitors, who often limit their parts selection ostensibly for 'consumer convenience' but in reality to cut costs by reducing component logistics. On the other hand, this places the burden of parts selection on the customer…meaning you are responsible for your PC specs as well ensuring your selected components are compatible. Also, not all parts are readily available and so using more obscure/less in stock options can add a week or more to the processing time as AVA-Direct has to order them first. Obviously this can be avoided by sticking to AVA's prebuilt configurations, but otherwise I advise you to do extensive research on PC building and part compatibility/availability prior to making an order. AVA-Direct will actually let you know if there are incompatibilities in your order, along with alternate recommendations, but this process consumes time and is best avoided.

3. Price: Unfortunately, this variety comes at a cost. While AVA-Direct's pre-builds are more or less in line with their competitors in terms of price, making a custom PC order will see you paying around 100-200$ more than if you purchased the parts yourself. While this is somewhat made up for by their multi-year warranty, excellent quality assurance/customer service, and overall convenience, you may want to stick to their pre-builds or look elsewhere if you are on a budget.

4. Processing: If you're not ordering a pre-built, AVA-Direct's order processing can take an extensive amount of time. It took me a month to receive my PC after I ordered it, though I would say the average is about 2-3 weeks depending on how your PC is customized as well as your location (AVA-Direct is based in Ohio). In exchange, however, you receive a quality product, with no shortcuts that other PC-builders might take such as sloppy cable management or untested components.

5. Customer Service: I found AVA-Direct's customer service to be excellent. I communicated with them mainly through their website messaging system, but they would almost always reply back to me within a day of each message (Can vary depending on your time zone). In my case I made several mistakes in my build configuration, but AVA-Direct's customer representatives, namely Aspram and Craig, were extremely helpful with their advice and quick to make any changes I asked for (Some of which were quite extensive), often at no additional cost. As I mentioned previously, they will also contact you directly if there is an issue in your order you aren't aware of.

6. Quality Assurance: I've never had any issues with the custom PC's I've ordered from AVA Direct. Their multi-layered packaging is very secure, able to weather careless freight handling from FedEx with no damage whatsoever. It is also clear that unlike many other PC-builders, they take the time to extensively test each build they make to ensure there are no issues prior to shipping. This includes stress-testing for the CPU and graphics card – the logs for which they include in the PC files, which I replicated using my own tests. As a result I have little experience with their return/RMA process, as I've never had any reason to use it.

Overall I can say I've been very happy with AVA-Direct. Provided you have some PC knowledge, the customization and order experience are very smooth, and they are quick to address any issues that do happen. While they aren't the cheapest builder around, they more than make up for it with their excellent customer service and quality assurance. I've been a loyal customer for many years now and I intend to remain so in the years to come.

Of course avadirect isn't going to publish bad reviews on their own site (that should be red flag 1). Over 2 years ago I ordered a system. I still have no factual proof of delivery so I'm out of over $2700. Not only that but I was also informed I couldn't get the "free" digital download games without receiving the hardware. Here are the facts gathered from my order:
FedEx was unable to determine where they were on my property via their own GPS tracking during time of delivery.
FedEx's "signature" was not that of mine but one that matched exactly a cursive font from Microsoft word.
FedEx's driver gave a very generic description of the person that supposedly signed for the package which at the time only possibly matched one of my neighbors who did not have the computer.
My neighbor noted he saw a FedEx truck but did not see them unload a package.
After a supposed investigation somehow this conjecture was proof of delivery and I was denied any compensation.
Not only this but the hours of frustration spent all for nothing was unbelievable because Ava would not stand behind their own customer. I had to contact FedEx and go through a bunch of hoops. Perhaps that specific problem was internal to FedEx. I don't know, but what I do know is that I had no choice in who the carrier was and that Avadirects website blatantly claims a signature is required for delivery. Clearly no real signature was given nor identification checked to see IF there really was a person on my property whether or not they should be eligible to sign for the product.
Not only this, but I was also able to purchase parts with better warranty and get them all much sooner than the weeks of parts allocated took for their process and at a better price. Buyer beware, avadirect does not stand behind their customers. What's really sad is the much greater amount of money they would have made by just making this right and having a loyal customer for years to come. Guess management doesn't see that or really thing about long term profit, just how many quick onetime instances they can rip someone off. I also requested to speak with someone further up the chain in management and was denied to be able to do so as the rep stated there wasn't a point and it wouldn't do me any good.