Mr. Beagle and everyone else,
Let me begin by warning everyone, this is a somewhat long post, and please read it fully, or not at all before you take any information I post and form any opinion of NXIC or myself.
You (Beagle) must've been sniffing some ports for updates to ClubIt's stock of the GA-X38-DQ6 to catch one, and was lucky apparently no-one else was racking up back-orders. I have been checking stock of all listed retailers I can find since my order placement at NCIXUS.com and haven't seen a single "In Stock" board in the U.S.A. at all. I submitted the board to Newegg as a "You should REALLY be carrying this product" and they still do not even have the part number listed.
As per my previous post, I have ordered this board from NCIX and will share the updates I have to this moment, as follows:
Update to info:NCIX ships ALL orders from B.C. Canada, NONE from the U.S. NCIX has ONE warehouse in B.C., that's it (not 2). The address in Washington state for NXICUS is quote:"Only a mailing address" [from NXIC Canada rep as of 7:00 P.M. EST tonight being Oct 1st]. The point of the Washington address is to "expedite any RMA requests so the customer does NOT have to deal with customs in any fashion". So anyone saying they've had to fax anything to customs, or even contact customs is either lying, or has old/incorrect information. That being said, here is an update to NCIX's business practices, and my own/first order from them, based SOLEY ON MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE/S TO DATE. IN NO WAY AM I REPRESENTING NCIX OR ANY EMPLOYEE OF NCIX.
I placed my order on Sept. 25th about 2 hours before close of business day. NCIX dated my order Sept. 26th even though my order was received, price verified, product availability verified, shipping info verified, and finally, my credit card verified within 2 hours of placing my order on the 25th. My payment processing was finished later in the day of the 26th, and my order processing finalized early the day of the 27th. According to NCIX complete order processing takes 2-3 business days for orders places from the United States. OK, so, close enough. I would then expect my order to immediately ship, and that's where things get strange (at least strange to me, but I'm not an international commerce expert either).
Being the all-patient person I am when it comes to getting bleeding edge components as fast as I can get them (insert self-sarcasm here), I started calling NCIX once a day, first call on the 26th (Wednesday, day after I ordered). I was told my order MIGHT ship that evening (and for some reason, all NCIX shipments go out in the "evening"), or the following day. Didn't ship the 26th. I call the 27th, they tell me it SHOULD ship that evening, or the following day. OK, fine. One more day. I call the 28th (Friday), they tell me it SHOULD ship out that evening, or Monday(the 1st) for sure. So I wait until end of business day, Friday the 28th. No e-mail. No tracking info. About 10P.M. Friday, I start getting pissed, so I send a nasty-gram via e-mail to customer support which reads as follows:
"I have called every day for the last 3 days and each time I've been told my order will ship that day, or at least by that evening, and it hasn't even shipped as of tonight.
I have also been warned (on Anandtech forums) of delays through customs due to insufficient paperwork on the part of NCIX shipping from Canada to the U.S.A. So far, I am not pleased with the service nor the expedience of NCIX, and if my SINGLE MOTHERBOARD can't even be SHIPPED in a timely fashion, and I have to wait longer to receive my motherboard (which is needed for a build-out on Tuesday, thanks guys...) because of a delay at customs, frankly, I'll be REALLY pissed off.
So far, your company has been good about processing my card, doing strange things to verify my order, and taking my money. What your company so far has FAILED to do is SHIP MY ORDER I ALREADY PAID FOR, and apparently phone etiquette is something that Canadian phone reps aren't taught.
I am not a happy customer so far, and I stuck my neck out on the chopping block, risking business with a company that is new to me, only to be given the run-around, talked to rudely on the phone, and my single item order hasn't even SHIPPED yet.
Not happy. Not content. And I'm not feeling a return visit nor return business. NCIX still has an opportunity to try to make me a satisfied customer, but that's up to your company. But keep in mind, aggrivating customers who are used to ordering from Newegg (I've spent over (edit)*** thousand with them this fiscal year) and with ZipZoomFly (I've spent just under (edit)$****.00 with them this fiscal year) and who are connected on many levels of forums, newsgroups and blogs really isn't a good way to gain customers in the U.S.
Bottom line, I paid for my order, ship the damn thing out, and get it to me in working order. I don't think I'm asking too much.
Sincerely,
edited=*me*
Owner: edited=*my own business*"
Yeah, I know, pretty rude, but I was pissed. I've been building PC's for 12 years and have sent plenty of these out in the past and there are some companies I wont do business with any more, and certain products I won't buy any more (spelled FIC mobos).
SO, today (Oct. 1), I get a response as follows:
" Dated Oct 01, 2007 at 10:04 AM reply from Ncix Support
Hi *****,
We appologize for the delay. Your order shipped out on the 28th, Here is the tracking info.
Fedex Express Saver USAr 9***********
Regards,
R***"
I immediately check the tracking number on Fed-Ex, and see that it's a generated number for pick-up with no physical scan. Knowing this means that Fed-Ex doesn't have their hands on it yet, I call Fed-Ex (1-800-Go-Fed-Ex) and verify that they do NOT have the package. Now I'm really annoyed to the point of supreme aggravation. So, I send a 2nd nasty-gram:
" Dated Oct 01, 2007 at 11:14 AM reply from you
No, my package has NOT shipped. The only thing that has been done is a tracking number was assigned by NCIX internally, FED-EX does NOT have physical possession of the package yet. Why do I keep getting the run-around? The reply to me was basically dishonest. Now I am calling NCIX, again."
Again, not happy, so I call NCIX, yet again. I am polite to the guy, because actually this time I got a person who was listening and didn't seem in a hurry so much as all the other times, and explain to him what has transpired up to this point. We are both talking and updating info on our PC's and LO AND BEHOLD, Fed-Ex updated the info and there it was, picked up in Bellingham, WA @ 3:44P.M. Oct. 1st!! So I start grilling this guy on business practices, shipping practices and usual order fulfillment lead-out times. I covered most of it further up, but most of the rest of the story is summed up with the most recent reply to my most recent nasty-gram:
" Dated Oct 01, 2007 at 02:46 PM reply from Ncix Support
Hi *****,
Actually, what happens is FedEx contacts out to a seperate courier which picks up the packages and then delivers them to customs. Once the packages have cleared customs. FedEx takes over and delivers the packages to their customer. Unfortunately we have no control over how quickly the packages will clear customs, although it's usually only a couple business days. The tracking information on the FedEx website will updated after the package has been cleared.
Regards,
R***"
And it turns out, Mr. R is absolutely correct. An "un-named carrier" comes in the evening, picks up the packages from NCIX warehouse in B.C. Canada, whisks them away and across the border into Washington State (Bellingham), THEN Fed-Ex grabs 'em up, and proceeds to move them toward their destination in a timely fashion. And the fact that NCIXUS.com is located in Washington State (specifically:NCIXUS.com / Netlink Computer Inc. 1927 Boblett Street, Blaine, WA 98230, USA) IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL to the city that Fed-Ex picks up the packages. NCIXUS has NO WAREHOUSES in the U.S. at all.
So who moves this stuff into the U.S.? I have no idea, and neither does NCIX. Fed-Ex pays the unknown parcel people and it is strictly up to Fed-Ex. But whoever these guys are, they seem to be doing a decent job. And who-ever that other person was (Mr. lagavulin16) who claimed having packages held-up in customs was either lying, mis-informed, or has old/outdated info. Fed-Ex/unknowns moved my mobo into the U.S. sometime between Saturday and early this morning, and taking into account the week-end, I would say that customs isn't any sort of a problem when it comes to NCIX orders, as long as you choose Fed-Ex as the shipping method.
Overall, at this point in time I ask myself, "Am I happy with NCIX?" Mostly, but not totally. I'll break it down into a few categories:
Customer service - Talk to the right person (in Canada), it's good, one of the high stress people, not so much. Talk to a U.S. rep, better. There are 2 phone numbers listed for NCIX, one is a U.S. number (1-800-502-9777), the other is a Canadian number (1-888-725-8880). I would recommend calling the U.S. number first as they are less busy and more polite.
Availability of new products - Excellent! Hardly anyone else in the U.S. has this board in stock and NCIX has sufficient stock on hand.
Ease of ordering - Not as easy as the popular sites, but the first time is always more typing (I.E.-starting a new account, even Newegg is guilty of this) Easy enough for most people.
Expediting orders - This (in my opinion) is where NCIX could really use some improvement. I've become accustomed to shipment within 24hrs of an order placement (thanks for spoiling me, Neweg, Zipzoom and FrozenCPU!) Is 3 days too long to fullfill and ship an order? I guess it depends on your expectations.
Overall shopping experience - Their (NCIX) website is accurate, up to date, and the prices are competitive. Just have all your ordering, billing and phone information in order before hand. This may mean jumping through one extra hoop (phone verification of your order), but I'm OK with that if it means one less fraudulent person can't order under my credit card. They have (as Mr. R. put it) "an aggressive sales and marketing team who strives for new products and new clients". I have to agree.
Would I order from them again? Yes, IF it was a high demand, low stock order. If it was something I could get faster, cheaper, and from a trusted source, I would probably shop this side of the border instead.
I still have yet to receive my Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 from NCIX.com, and I have been assured that it was packed properly, IS the correct product, and will work as expected. I will post a brief summary on Wednesday or Thursday when it arrives and confirm or deny the product and condition. Don't expect a full hardware review, there are enough of those out there already, and I've read most of them (or I wouldn't have ordered the motherboard in the first place But I'll tell you if it worked with my fresh 1333fsb Intel E6850, 4gigs of Patriot PDC24G6400ELK memory and the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler that Newegg dropped off to me today.
Bottom line, If you want the Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 motherboard within a week, order it from NCIX. If you want to wait for stock on the other sites, go ahead and wait, but I'll tell you right now, the price is going up on this mobo, not down. I paid $314 shipped with added insurance Fed-Ex saver from NCIX, and I still feel it was a good deal, and I'm really looking forward to a system that will finally put my Sapphire HD2900XT 1gb DDR4 video card to work!
Good luck all!
Al Capone[CC]