Cheap PCs Come Under Fire

Virginia's Marc LeBeau thought a low-priced PC from eMachines would be the perfect Mother's Day gift. What better way to stay in touch with Mom in Missouri than with e-mail?

But he quickly found that the road to computer hell is paved with good intentions. After four months and one 700-mile trek to his parents' house later, LeBeau swears cheap PCs aren't worth the price.

LeBeau is one of millions tempted by free or nearly free PCs, some with seductive rebates courtesy of Internet service providers. But he's also one of those who have seen their meager investments grow into huge headaches when things start to go wrong and the company leaves them on hold.

A bad modem in his mother's new $499 eMachine became an ordeal. Over a four-month period, the California computer maker promised on three occasions that a replacement was on its way. LeBeau is still waiting.

Sick of running up huge phone bills with the company, and tired of hearing his mother's complaints, LeBeau flew to his parents' house, bought a new modem, and fixed the PC himself.

"I guess my mom was right, you get what you pay for. It's true, it's really true," LeBeau says. He is demanding compensation for a modem and his phone bill, and his promised rebate. Last Monday, like many before him, he filed a complaint against eMachines with the Better Business Bureau.

In response to complaints like LeBeau's, on Monday the BBB of Colton, Calif. rated eMachines as having an "unsatisfactory business performance record." In its report, the BBB stated eMachines' complaint history showed a pattern of customer gripes over both products and services.

Bargain PC Bummers

The year-old PC maker is not alone. As reports begin to stack up at Better Business Bureaus scattered around the country, the summer of the free PC is turning out to be the winter of discontent.

Shoddy customer service, PC no-shows, bungled billing, ambiguous contracts --even a report of an exploding modem -- are causing angry consumers to feel burned by the bevy of start-ups who have been pushing low-cost and "free" PCs.

"We warn people to do their homework before doing business with anyone," says Jennifer Dikes, of the New York Better Business Bureau. However, many of the startups selling "free" and low-cost PCs have no established track records, making it difficult to gauge their reliability.

Dikes says she has collected complaints against Gobi and Enchilada, both upstarts that bundle Net access with PCs, regarding late or non-delivery of PCs despite credit card debits.

In July Enchilada, which gave away computers with paid Internet service, stopped taking orders. Currently the Enchilada Web site is closed. And the problems with Gobi and Enchilada are far from isolated.

Complaints have been filed with the Washington state Attorney General's Office and the local BBB over Microworkz, whose founder and president Rick Latman is stepping down to make room for more seasoned management. Microworkz problems range from PCs that were ordered but never shipped to defective components and failure to send promised refunds.

"Customers can slip through the cracks even in the best-run businesses," says Mark Palmer, vice president of Microworkz. "It's no secret we've been having problems," he says. But Microworkz is aggressively building its infrastructure to handle large consumer demand for its popular computers, he says.