Deals & Shopping

Gainsaver seems to have very good deals on used Mac products, but I can't find any information on them.
Has anyone ever used them?

mtb604

Yeah, I tried to order something from them about 2 weeks ago. They screwed me over and, for all I know, stole my credit card info. Don't do it.

They say "same day shipping." I email (cause there is no number to call and actually talk to anyone) and they say... oh we have to test it before we ship. So a week and a half later they are still "testing" it. The I get an email that says it failed the test and they cannot fulfill my order.

I contacted the FBI's online fraud division about them already. Hope that helps. There are warning flags all over that site, I just ordered anyway cause the price seemed too good to be true. And it was.

I've got 2 stories in this case...

The first order I placed, I had a similar experience to Heb1228 - ordered a G4 iBook for a great price, a few days later, checked the order and see it still hadn't shipped. I didn't read the part about them testing the equipment for 48 hours before it shipped either. The next day, I get an e-mail from them that my order has been cancelled because the equipment failed the 48 test and they couldn't sell it to me. I was PO'd because I also missed another deal on another similar iBook. And I told them as much.

I actually got a couple e-mails and a call from them apologizing for it and offering free shipping if I were to order again.

I then proceeded to look for another Apple laptop for the next couple of weeks - and ended up ordering a used PowerBook Titanium 15" from TechRestore. However, when I got it, it was a little more physically abused than I would have liked. I went online to tell them about it, and arrange for a return, and at the same time, noticed Gainsaver had a PowerBook Aluminum 15" for the same price as what I just had paid for the one from TechRestore - so I called and talked with them about it first, and they had told me it had already been tested and was ready to ship. So I ordered it.

I'm writing this e-mail on it, have had it for over 2 weeks now. Nice machine for a used Powerbook!

In addition, after about a week, I noticed the battery life was decreasing rapidly. I ran all the Apple battery updates, reset the PMU and such to no avail. I let them know about it on Thursday to see if I could exchange the battery, expecting it would cost me something. To my surprise, they e-mailed me back within an hour and said they would be shipping out a new battery to me, no charge. And I got the shipping notice by the end of the same day!

So, this came out to a happy ending for me anyway. So much so, I recommended them to my brother, who is looking to by an iBook himself.

If anyone is looking for their contact info:

Direct: 562-216-7180
Toll Free: 800-844-4051
Fax: 702-925-2942
Hours: 7AM PST - 6PM PST

That information is on their site here:

[www.gainsaver.com]

Ok, here's my shopping experience with these guys. Over three weeks ago we ordered a used ibook online from them, it was advertised as "available". Soon after we got emails stating that our order had been received and that our ibook would be shipped in 2-3 day. A week later we called to check on our order and were told that our computer was being checked by technicians and would be shipped out in five days to a week (you know, the one that was going to be shipped out in 2-3 days). After another week we call to check on the status of our order and are told that the computer has been "backordered" (the one originally advertised as "available"). More than a week after that while I'm away on business my wife gets an email stating that there is a "problem with our order" and to contact gainsaver right away. She calls them and is told that the computer we want is no longer "available" and would we like to change the order and get another computer instead (wow, the nerve of these guys). She tells them no, we wanted the "available" computer we ordered over 3 weeks ago and to cancell the order. The representative seems perplexed at this and ask "why not just get a different one instead?". She replies that she doesn't trust them after all this hassle. The next day she gets a phone call from gainsaver again saying there is a "problem with your order", that your computer is no longer available and would we want to blah blah blah blah (wow, deja vu!). She replies no and that we will be taking our business elsewhere thank you very much.
I will never do business (or try to do business I should say) with these guys again. It seems from reading other peoples reviews that I'm not the only one with this kind of experience.

I wish I had looked them up more before I bought an iBook G3 from them back in March for my wife. I worked great for three months, and than the AirPort stopped working. I returned it for repair (we paid for the extended warranty) and then they gave us a store credit. OK, I thouht maybe they couldn't fix it. So we bought a slightly more expensive iBook G4. They try to pressure you into paying for them to do a hardware check for you.. which you have to pay for. I declined (as with the last machine... why wouldn't they check stuff before putting online for sale? The answer is they don't!)

A few days went by as they said they were getting it ready to ship, and we got an email from them saying there was a problem and we got a store credit.

So we spent a little more and got a 14" 1Ghz iBook G4. They had it listed as "Certified Pre-owned". It came quickly. It looked very nice and seemed to work well.. then I noticed iPhoto was not installed. (It had Tiger on it). So I got my Tiger disks out and wiped the drive and did a clean install... Then I connected it via Firewire to get my wife's accound from our G4 tower. That locked up three minutes to finish, and the harddrive started clicking.

That was it.. the drive was bad. Nothing would fix it. I contemplated repairing it myself, given their already poor track record at repairs. But we sent it back. I told them I wanted it repaired. A week later we got a store credit for 618.00.

We decided not to buy another machine from them.

I asked for a refund. We ended up getting a refund for 366.40! I called and spoke to Leann. She said it was minus a 20% restocking fee! I told her that's not 20% of $618, and she got VERY rude and said it was also minus shipping ($24) and insurance, which I didn't take out. That's still too much. ($123.60 + $24 = $147).

I explained that I didn't return the iBook for refund, I returned it for repair. They decided to not send it back to me. She said if called back again she would cancle my refund! Then she put me on hold and came back 5 minutes later and said as nice as can be "what else can we get for you?"

These people are crooks. After this I Googled them and found many similar stories and all from Mac users! Seems the PC buyers love them!

Gainsaver is a scam company. Do not buy anything from Gainsaver. I bought a G5 computer from them and it did not work right out of the box.

Cost me $60.00 to ship it back and they will only issue a store credit. This company is running a scam.

It is hard to dispute the charge with the Credit card company because Gainsaver will issue a store credit.

We will fight this charge and post everywhere to alert others about this fraudulent company Gainsaver.

Do some research online and you will see that Gainsaver has scammed lots of people. You will find a lot of complaints about Gainsaver.

I bought a used G5 tower they were advertising on ebay under another company name. I ordered it on Friday, Fedex delivered it on Monday. The machine looked good but was missing a 500GB hard drive! One call, and the hard drive was shipped out in about 3 days via Fedex. I loaded it up with 8GB of memory and it worked for about 3 days and it crashed horribly. Through trial and error, I discovered the machine would only accept 6GB. It's worked fine for over a year now and it now has 1.5TB of Storage.
It gurgles but I'm not seeing any leaks from the water cooled units.
I do find their website a little misleading. For example, I was looking at the Black Macbook for $629.00. I know for a fact Apple shipped the original unit with an 80GB hard drive and a Super drive and @ least 1GB of memory but they are offering a CD-ROM drive(?) and a 20GB hard drive? The thing won't even boot up in that configuration! I'm assuming it's a typo or a way to get money for stuff you already paid for.
In the meantime, I think I'll take my chances on ebay. :)

I have recently bought a Macbook Pro 15.4" on 8/31/09 through Gainsaver. I'm a full-time college student and my computer is my life. I received my Mac on Monday and by Wednesday my computer was acting weird... I received the blank screen with the flashing folder with a question mark on it. I immediately set up an appointment with Apple. When I went to Apple they told me I was receiving I/O errors which is indicative of a failing hard drive!!! Now I have to contact the crappy Gainsaver support and explain that they sent me a computer with a hard drive that was bad!!! Not to mention I ordered the computer and they told it would be at my house on that Friday(I talked to a representative). When it was not at my house on Friday I called Gainsaver and asked why(I paid $70 dollars for 2day shipping)...they told me that it was not delivered because it was not in stock. I asked them why they didn't tell me that when I ordered and paid hella money for shipping!!!!!!!! I have had the worst time in the world with Gainsaver...they @#$%& suck!!!! Customer severice sucks balls and they sent me a computer with a failing hard drive...who does that??? Don't buy from Gainsaver!!! Please, I'm trying to save other people from buying from this shity company!!! I did my research but I couldn't resist...please do!!!!!!! They suck bad!!!!!!

I am disappointed and very very frustrated. I bought a laptop from Gainsaver last year and I guess I lucked out. Though it took longer to come in tham promised it is actually a pretty decent little machine. My daughter still uses it today and we've never had any problems with it. So when I decided to get another desktop for my business I went back to Gainsaver. It's been nothing but headaches ever since. Right out of the box the unit itself was extremely "beat up", the keyboard was actually missing several major keys ( both enter keys, the + sign on the numerical pad, and a shift key). After setting it up it never "booted" just froze halfway through. After several attempts, I received a Alert Message to call the Apple Tech line. I was never able to get past that message again. What??? I immediatly called the customer support line and was told to file a Service Request. I did. Anyway, not to be redundant with my story. I've encountered the same runaround as everyone else here. Previously I was actually recommending this site to family and friends. Thank Goodness no one had a need during that time period. I can be a shrew when need be and I'm not giving up with getting my money back yet. I found a really good link where the person seemed pretty well equiped with information. I plan to try her suggestions. I wanted to share this link in as many places as possible. Go to the following post

#89
PaulaDonnelly
macrumors newbie

HOW TO FIGHT GAINSAVER BACK! An experiance and some answers.

[forums.macrumors.com]

Usually I am soo careful and research companies before parting with my hard earned cash. I guess I became lax but my lesson has been learned. I only hope mine and others posts will help others in the future. I plan on remembering that old age adage as well..."If it seems to good to be true: it probably is" .

Take Care and Be Safe,
LeAnne