This little company had what seemed like a good idea -- an Internet computer for under $500. Only problem was they had a bad habit of taking consumers' money and never delivering the computer. The company is now out of business and consumers seeking refunds may be out of luck. Story

The Washington Attorney General has sued Microworkz.com for violating state consumer protection laws including failing to deliver computer equipment as ordered. More ...

Darryl of Sacramento, CA, writes:

After lengthy research, I placed an order for a Mircroworkz computer system.  The order process was very easy, the sales rep very helpful and I was certain I had made the right decision.  When the system did not arrive when I expected, I made a call to the sales representative.

Imagine my surprise when the number was no longer a working number . . . just three weeks later.  I called the main number listed on the Microworkz web page and after selecting the customer service prompt, I was advised to call back during normal business hours of 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. PST.  It was 9:00 a.m. PST!  

I called again, this time asking for sales.  I got the same recording.  

Now I was starting to feel uneasy.  I sent emails to both sales and customer service. . .which went unanswered.  I finally, and in frustration, called back and selected the tech support prompt.  FINALLY. . .a live body, named Danny.  Danny, however, was less than helpful.  He explained that the sales department was "in and out" and that with regard to customer service, they "don't need them anymore".  

Hmmmmm.  Danny was vague about when I would receive my system and did not seem to be able to answer my questions regarding why the sales department could not be reached and why they no longer needed customer service.  And why did I hear little children running around in the background?  

Danny advised that he would call me back with the information about when the computer would be sent ... probably not for a couple of months because they are "really swamped".  Danny never did call back ... but I made some calls.  To the Attorney General's office in Washington, the Federal Trade Commission and my credit card company.  I learned that the AG's office has a growing file on these people, as so the FTC.  

I have sent Microworkz a certified letter, return receipt requested, and if I do not have my system in another few weeks, my credit card company will be refunding all but $50. of the purchase price of over $1700.  This is certainly not what my research lead me to believe about the company. It is certainly not what the company touts about themselves.   In any case, this is not the kind of company I want to have to rely on for service, even if they do ship the darned computer.  

Gee, next time you're doing research, maybe you should check us out too.  

David of Higginsville, MO, writes:

I placed an online order for a zPC from Microworkz on August 2, 1999.   They debited my credit card for  $604.90.  Beginning about 3 weeks later, when I had not received the merchandise, I began to write and call.  I e mailed the address on my invoice and got no  response at all.  I called the 888 number, got put on hold for a long time, but finally got through to an employee named Annette, who told me she could tell me nothing about my order because their computers were down.  She e-mailed me once to say that the computers were still. down, but failed to answer any  more e-mails from me.    

On September 8, concluding that I could not do business with Microworkz and that communicating with them electronically was not working, I sent them a letter through the post office cancelling my order and requesting a refund.  When a week passed and my account had not been credited, I called the 888 number again.  I finally got through to someone whose name I couldn't understand over the phone.  This person said that there was no record of my cancellation.  I said that I had e-mailed Annette of my intention to cancel.  She said that Annette no longer worked there.

She said she would pass my request for a refund to accounting. Another week passed and my account had still not been credited.  I called again, and was told (by the same person, I think, although I still couldn't understand the name) that they were putting in a new system and refunds would take at least 30 days.  I said that this was unacceptable and asked to talk to accounting.  Accounting, she said, did not take phone calls.  She finally put me through to a supervisor, who said the same thing, and encouraged me to write to my credit card company and dispute the charge.

I guess I can dispute the charge.  However, the refund is really microworkz's responsibility.  They have my money and are surely collecting interest on it.  I am going to be deprived of my money for months.  

They are not going to pay me interest.  I am worried that microworkz may be covering current expenses with the money of consumers they have not served or or delivered merchandise to.  They had no trouble debiting my card.  Why is it so much to ask that they credit it now?    

David needs to immediately send a certified, return-receipt-requested letter to his credit card company disputing the charge.. 

A church in Susanville, CA, writes:

On 4/29/99 we purchased a computer (Micro Webzter Jr. Base). We received it approximately 4 weeks later, without the monitor. We received the monitor approximately 2 weeks later.

Once the computer was hooked up and the software loaded, the computer would not always power up. The monitor would not open, or the keyboard would be dead. It took up to 3 hours, resetting or turning it off and back on before we could use the computer.

On June 7, 1999 we called Microworkz. When we finally got through we were put on hold with a long waiting time. The line went dead and we could not get through. On June 17 we sent a fax explaining the problem.

On June 18th Dean from Microworkz returned our call and left a message. We returned his call and was put on hold until our line went dead again. During this time frame we spent time on the phone with Byron, who walked us through several approaches to powering up the computer. He informed us that he had seen this scenario before and concluded that the power supply to the Mother Board was defective. We were told to contact On Site Warranties for repair.

We soon discovered that On Site had no record of our purchase. On June 21st, after numerous promises of a return call, we finally got to speak to Ray, the floor manager at Microworkz Technical Support. Ray promised that we would be registered with On Site by June 22nd so that we could obtain repairs.

This had still not occurred by June 24th. I contacted Ray again and was promised registration in 48 hrs. We checked AM and PM on June 30th, sent a fax to Ray, checked again on July 1, registration has not occured. On June 30, Alice at On Site offered to do a research inquiry. I spoke to Ray on July 1 after sitting on hold for approximately 35 minutes. He again asked for 48 hours.

We have no confidence at this point of any successful action. This computer in the only source to produce our payroll and billing. It is crucial to our daily operation. These ongoing problems are costing us many hours of downtime per day, many hours on the phone, as well as mental frustration for our bookkepper.

Microworkz sold us a product that should have been registered with On Site Warranty on the date of purchase. Two months later it is still not registered.

Microworkz sold us an on-site warranty that cannot be honored. They refuse to authorize service. Returning the computer for repair does not qualify as on-site service.

For a while, this computer functioned intermittently, now it locks up continually. We cannot afford any more downtime. We are bringing in a technician and fully intend for Microworkz to take responsibility for the repairs.

Demetrius of Hyattsville, MD, writes:

On March 11 after several dismal attempts to get my old 486 online, I decided to buy a new computer, so I went to Microworkz.com and placed an order. The only reason I had ordered from them is I read a very good review in PC Computing magazine.

The ordering of the computer was fairly easy, I made some customizations and the total when all was said and done,including the 3-day shipping and 3 year extended onsite-warranty, ended up being $729.95.

Three days went by (excluding the weekend) and lo and behold, no computer... I decided to wait till the end of the week because I think of myself as fairly patient person. One week later, I call and receive an individual who transfers me to customer service. Customer service assures me that the computer is on it's way, I say ok and wait patiently another week.

March 26, no computer, by now I'm a bit frustrated. I call the company and am told due to them moving to a new location they are back-ordered on all orders from the past 2 months, my computer should be out in 2-3 weeks. Disappointed, I try to be understanding (or extremely gullible, take your pick) and so, I wait patiently for my computer.

May 20th, 10 weeks after I've ordered my computer it arrives. Ecstatic, I open it, read the instructions, hook it up, disconnect my old 486, cut the power on annnnd... nothing. I switch it off, then back on, the screen boots up, the harddrive whirs and.. error. The Windows98 that was preloaded wouldn't finish loading.   Frustrated, I call tech support.

One hour later I'm talking to tech support; the guy on the phone is asking me really simplistic questions and I give him the rundown on what happened.  He says it needs to come back to the shop.  Hesitant, I remind him that I have an onsite warranty, he tells me I have something like a 30-60 day warranty that kicks in first, then after that they'd send a technician, but not before that.

Dejected, I say fine and they issue me some UPS return stickers for the computer. May 31st, the stickers arrive, I slap them on the box and ship it off on June 2nd. Through UPS tracking, I monitor the computer and it arrives 5 days on scedule,June 9th.

June 10th I call to verify that the computer got there. The guy (who mumbled his name) says, yeah it arrived, but is probably on a workbench so he can't find it. I ask him to give me a rough estimate on when I can expect it back.   He says examination, replacement, and burn-in time together would take about 4 days, then they'd ship it back to me.

I say ok, and one week later (June 16), call to check back on the progress.  No one knows what computer I'm talking about.  Irate, I tell them I want to speak to a supervisor. After 30 minutes on hold, I am disconnected.

I call back and Mike in customer service assures me he'll look into it, but I don't want that, I want to speak to a supervisor. I speak to Byron (supervisor of tech support, or so i'm told) and he says that my computer came in when they were changing the cataloging system so apparently my system was 'recycled', in other words they took it and reconditioned it to be resold or something or other.

He apologized and told me to call customer service and relay my dilemma.  I talked to Dean, he put the order in and I was assured they'd ship out the computer within the week.  Another weekend passes, no computer.

June 25th, I talked to Dean again, he tells me the order's in and it should be shipped out, let him check on it, and he'd call me back.  

July 2nd, no computer and I'm so ticked I can barely stay calm.  I talk to a young lady named Monique, she says she'll pull up my order and let me know whats happening.  I say ok.  2 hours later I get no call back, so I call (you'd think a computer company'd have my order on a database, apparently not though), I get Dean, so I ask whats going on and for the customer service supervisors name, Josh.  Dean says the girl is still looking it up and will call me back, that they're busy and he promptly excuses himself and hangs up.

July 7th, I call and ask for Josh, the guy who answers says he's out, can he take a message, I say yes, that I'm thinking of suing because of the shoddy treatment I'm receiving and the fact that I don't have a computer from them, broken or otherwise.

Suddenly it's hold on a minute, so I do and magically I get the supervisor, (not Josh though).  So anyway I explain what's going on, he sounds very concerned, gives me his extension, and says give him a day and call back.   So I ... cause I'm too nice or just stupid.

July 8th, I call back, no response, so I leave a message.

July 9th, the same thing, and now I'm mad as hell.

July 14th, I call customer service tired of the blow-offs, I inform whoever answered the phone (by now I didn't care who it was) that I was tired of waiting, the lies, and  all i wanted was my money back. He said ok and he'd refund my money, then he said for me to dispute the charges with Visa, that it would be less work for them and apologized, before hanging up.

Today's July 30th. To date I have neither my computer or my money. This has been the worst experience of my life. It seems the only way to get anything done now is through the court system.

Economically, i'm out $730, physically, I'm irritable and cranky because I really needed that computer, my blood pressure's gone up, and I get headaches whenever i talk to those people at Microworkz.

I've lost a lot of faith in online ordering, it's sad and disturbing to think that a company can so openly rip you off and then not have any fear of repercussion.

There shouldn't be a penalty for being a nice, patient fellow -- but unfortunately there is.  Demetrius should write a certified letter (very important) to his credit card company, enclosing a copy of this complaint and a brief letter requesting that the charges be permanently removed. 

If that doesn't work, he should head for the county courthouse and file a Small Claims action against Microworkz. 

Candace of San Bruno, CA, writes:

I ordered a computer (WEBzterJr) on line on March 22, 1999. I knew that they would not be sending it until April 19,1999. That was okay at the time, it was a good price.

Then I did not receive any information at that time and started calling them and I got excuse after excuse. Finally I believe it was mid June I called and canceled my order with them and asked them to credit my credit card back. They said no problem.

For the next three days following I received calls that they were ready to send my computer and I had to call them back and let them know that it had been canceled and to please make sure they gave me a credit to my card and they looked at my account and said it is here but I will put it in again.

I recieved my last statement and it had still not been deducted. I called 8/2/99 and spoke with Angel and she said her supervisor would have to call me back and that would be in a couple of hours. Have not heard back from them yet. I called my credit card company and they say I have to write a letter to them with the complaint before they can get started on the claim.

In the meantime I am being charged interest on this amount and I have already purchased a computer that I am happy with. I just want this resolved.

Still no resolution at this time. I now have to write a letter to my credit card company to have the charges reversed and I am very busy and have to take time out to take of this when this should have been resolved a long time ago. I would imagine that I am not the first complaint that you have had with these people.

You're right about that.  This little company is piling up complaints a lot more efficiently than it's filling orders. 

As for the charges, you must write a certified, return receipt requested letter to the credit card company.  It is the only way to get this straightened out.

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