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  • Report:  #90565

Complaint Review: AvTech Direct - Unknown Nationwide

Reported By:
- westminster, Massachusetts,
Submitted:
Updated:

AvTech Direct
Unknown Unknown, Nationwide, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-884-9510
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
Please note the below email as some of the faculty and staff have received it this morning. Avtech Direct is a a scam designed to sucker people into sending them money. If Avtech actually sends you a computer, it is always a defective unit which they then claim needs to be sent back to be fixed. After that you will not hear from them again, which means they have both your money and the original computer back.

I've seen at least a dozen emails from victims around the country and the date always changes so that it sounds like this is an urgent, one-time offer. The truth is that this scam has been going on since the beginning of January and noone has been able to catch them yet because noone has figured out how to track them down. There is no website, no contact info other than the email and they have no physical address to alert authorities.

I would suggest you let as many people as possible know that this is a scam. Anyone on this mailing list could be draw in pretty easily. You can find dozens of instances of people being scammed simply by doing an online search of "Avtech Direct".

Attention All School Staff: Teachers, Students and Faculty Members:

You Must Respond By 5 P.M. Thursday, May 6, 2004.

Through a special arrangement, Avtech Direct is offering a limited allotment of BRAND NEW, top of-the-line, name-brand desktop computers at more than 50% off MSRP to all Teachers, Students,Faculty and Staff, who respond to this message before 5 P.M., Thursday, May 6, 2004.

All desktop are brand-new, packed in their original boxes, and come with a full manufacturer's warranty plus a 100% satisfaction guarantee. These professional grade Desktops are fully equipped with 2004 next generation technology, making these the best performing computers money can buy. Avtech Direct is offering these feature rich, top performing Desktop Computers with the latest Intel technology at an amazing price to all who call:

1-800-884-9510 by 5 P.M. Thursday, May 6, 2004

The fast and powerful AT-2400 series Desktop features:

* Intel 2.0Ghz Processor for amazing speed and performance

* 128MB DDR RAM, --- Upgradeable to 1024

* 20 GB UDMA Hard Drive, --- Upgradeable to 80 GB

* 52X CD-Rom Drive, --- Upgradeable to DVD/CDRW

* 1.44 Floppy disk drive

* Next Generation Technology

* ATI Premium video and sound

* Full Connectivity with Fax modem/Lan/IEE 1394/USB 2.0

* Soft Touch Keyboard and scroll mouse

* Internet Ready

* Network Ready

* 1 Year parts and labor warranty

* Priority customer service and tech support

MSRP $699 ........................................ Your Cost $297

How to qualify:

1. You must be a Teacher, Student, Faculty or Staff Member:

2. All desktop computers will be available on a first come first serve basis.

3. You must call 1-800-884-9510 by 5 P.M. Thursday, May 6, 2004 and we will hold the desktops you request on will call.

4. You are not obligated in any way.

5. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Call Avtech Direct

1-800-884-9510 before 5 P.M. Thursday, May 6, 2004

Rebecca

westminster, Massachusetts
U.S.A.


29 Updates & Rebuttals

Jason

Spokane,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Report them

#2Consumer Suggestion

Fri, December 10, 2004

If you read my other post, Attorney General of Washington State is sueing this company. The owner of the company is Gary Hunziker, who used to operate DEC Performance and Amerafund. You can email A.G. of Washington as they will need more evidence for the lawsuit. You can contact Microsoft's Anti Piracy Hotline and report them. If they did buy "blanket license", they should be able to provide you the distributor's name and address. Microsoft will have all their information. Ask for a refund including shipping charge. If they do agree to refund you the money (I doubt it), make copies of all documents and take pictures before sending it out. There is a good chance that we keep the computers, resale them to someone else and keep your money though. I am sorry to say you got ripped off. Even though you are one of the lucky ones that actually receive the computers. They are lying about the "blanket license". They are cloning the hard drives just like they did at DEC Performance and Amerafund. It seems like these guys dont give a d**n about the law and sure enough dont have a problem ripping people's hard earn money. I suggest you contact Attorney General of Washington. Maybe they are able to help you. Good Luck!


John

Erie,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
AvTech Sells Illegal Software

#3Consumer Comment

Thu, December 09, 2004

A non-profit I am associated with purchased two new PC's from Avtech Direct. When the PC's arrived and we began to set them up, I noticed that there was no COA sticker on the machine, there wasn't a restore or Windows CD that came with the machine, and there was no paperwork, book, paper COA, or license key that came with the machine for the copies of Windows 98 installed on them. We called the company and they acted as if they didn't know what a COA or license key was. They finally sent out a burnt CD, which they called a recovery CD, with a ghost image of the software installed on the machine. They still did not send anything to prove that we owned a license to Windows 98. I called the MS anti-piracy line. They weren't sure if there was a program for libraries and Windows 98 regarding licensing and told me to call sales. I spoke with someone in sales they said there wasn't a special program for libraries and the copies of Windows 98 we received were illegal. The salesperson said we should have received some sort of COA I called the company again to complain. They said they had a "blanket license" to install Windows 98. They said that we would not get a COA or proof of license, but that the copy of Windows 98 we had was legitimate because they had paid for this "blanket license Unsatisfied, I called MS sales again. I told them Avtech said they had a "blanket license" and didn't need to provide us with proof of ownership. The salesperson told me that we should have received a COA, the license agreement, etc. if the copy was legitimate


Steve

Seattle,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Proof of CAN-SPAM violations

#4Consumer Comment

Wed, December 01, 2004

Here's a header from an Avtech spam from today, parsed by me: > Return-Path: Registered to the same Gary Hunziger slimeball who owns Avtech. Not proof of fraud; I'm not going to email it to find out if it's real or not. There's nothing at www.staffadministrator.com though. > Received: from ASHTAR (Judy35@[64.217.230.155]) > by [munged] (8.10.0/8.10.0) with SMTP id > iB13cjg05017 for The IP address is real, but the rDNS is not configured, which is a violation of CAN-SPAM, and the HELO "ASHTAR" is also not compliant. Needless to say, the recipient did not ask for this email, nor could she have; the address is a spamtrap. > Received: from kque.4l6a2.com [19.151.218.12] > by ASHTAR id O9T7jN2teLi9; Wed, 01 Dec 2004 > 04:38:30 +0100 Right. This header line is completely forged, and a major CAN-SPAM violation. 19.151.218.12 is registered to the Ford Motor Company, and there's no such domain as 416a2.com. > Message-ID: > This is a forged or malformed Message-ID. Avtech Direct is spamming filth. I don't care if they ship the goods or not; they're illegal spammers and they belong in prison.


Steve

Seattle,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Proof of CAN-SPAM violations

#5Consumer Comment

Wed, December 01, 2004

Here's a header from an Avtech spam from today, parsed by me: > Return-Path: Registered to the same Gary Hunziger slimeball who owns Avtech. Not proof of fraud; I'm not going to email it to find out if it's real or not. There's nothing at www.staffadministrator.com though. > Received: from ASHTAR (Judy35@[64.217.230.155]) > by [munged] (8.10.0/8.10.0) with SMTP id > iB13cjg05017 for The IP address is real, but the rDNS is not configured, which is a violation of CAN-SPAM, and the HELO "ASHTAR" is also not compliant. Needless to say, the recipient did not ask for this email, nor could she have; the address is a spamtrap. > Received: from kque.4l6a2.com [19.151.218.12] > by ASHTAR id O9T7jN2teLi9; Wed, 01 Dec 2004 > 04:38:30 +0100 Right. This header line is completely forged, and a major CAN-SPAM violation. 19.151.218.12 is registered to the Ford Motor Company, and there's no such domain as 416a2.com. > Message-ID: > This is a forged or malformed Message-ID. Avtech Direct is spamming filth. I don't care if they ship the goods or not; they're illegal spammers and they belong in prison.


Steve

Seattle,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Proof of CAN-SPAM violations

#6Consumer Comment

Wed, December 01, 2004

Here's a header from an Avtech spam from today, parsed by me: > Return-Path: Registered to the same Gary Hunziger slimeball who owns Avtech. Not proof of fraud; I'm not going to email it to find out if it's real or not. There's nothing at www.staffadministrator.com though. > Received: from ASHTAR (Judy35@[64.217.230.155]) > by [munged] (8.10.0/8.10.0) with SMTP id > iB13cjg05017 for The IP address is real, but the rDNS is not configured, which is a violation of CAN-SPAM, and the HELO "ASHTAR" is also not compliant. Needless to say, the recipient did not ask for this email, nor could she have; the address is a spamtrap. > Received: from kque.4l6a2.com [19.151.218.12] > by ASHTAR id O9T7jN2teLi9; Wed, 01 Dec 2004 > 04:38:30 +0100 Right. This header line is completely forged, and a major CAN-SPAM violation. 19.151.218.12 is registered to the Ford Motor Company, and there's no such domain as 416a2.com. > Message-ID: > This is a forged or malformed Message-ID. Avtech Direct is spamming filth. I don't care if they ship the goods or not; they're illegal spammers and they belong in prison.


Jason

Spokane,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Thank you!!!!

#7Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Finally, someone steps up to bring these scums down!! Thank you!! I have some information on this company I like to give you. Perhaps you can contact Washington's Attorny General because they are suing AVtech Direct for Spamming as well.


Jason

Spokane,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Thank you!!!!

#8Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Finally, someone steps up to bring these scums down!! Thank you!! I have some information on this company I like to give you. Perhaps you can contact Washington's Attorny General because they are suing AVtech Direct for Spamming as well.


Jason

Spokane,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Thank you!!!!

#9Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Finally, someone steps up to bring these scums down!! Thank you!! I have some information on this company I like to give you. Perhaps you can contact Washington's Attorny General because they are suing AVtech Direct for Spamming as well.


Jason

Spokane,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Thank you!!!!

#10Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Finally, someone steps up to bring these scums down!! Thank you!! I have some information on this company I like to give you. Perhaps you can contact Washington's Attorny General because they are suing AVtech Direct for Spamming as well.


Rob

West Plains,
Missouri,
U.S.A.
You get what you pay for. Part 2

#11Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Hello, For Robert from CA. I am a spell-check person, I've almost lost all ability to catch spelling mistakes due to computers. As for AvTech, I had a couple of bad keyboards that came with their systems, so I figured I would call them to get them replaced. They told me to mail the keyboards to them and they would mail back replacement ones. I figure it will cost more mailing 2 keyboards then if I just ordered 2 new ones from somewhere else.


Tom

Louisville,
Kentucky,
U.S.A.
Class Action Spam

#12Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Yadda, yadda, yadda. So now we have a self-styled "Lawyer" telling us his firm is going to handle a class action lawsuit against the owners of AVTech Direct. But this California Lawyer doesn't know that the You Can Spam Act: 1) Specifically preempted all state laws on spamming; 2) Does not allow for private lawsuits against spammers for violating the act; and 3) Is administered and enforced (Ha!) by the FTC, not the FCC I see nothing in that post except an attempt to send traffic to the class action website (which does not appear to know anything about this highly speculative lawsuit). Oddly enough, whoever runs this classaction.com website has not provided any contact information on the website (despite having a "Contact" page). I had to go to a whois service to find who owns the domain name (another Robert, but this one if from Minneapolis MN, not Irvine CA). Robert, also thanks Network Solutions for providing standard whois data which is available on line from every honest registrar that follows ICANN regulations. Network Solutions is just one of dozens of domain name registrar companies whose website will pull up data from other registrars. The data on AVTech Direct actually comes from INNERWISE which is the actual registrar handling their domain names. Yawn, he might as well be thanking ARIN for providing the same information about their IP addresses. The AVTech spammer slime may be annoying, but there is no indication that they do anything but sell really cheap computers at cheap prices to people silly enough to respond to spam and who buy really cheap computers. The fraud charges are a real stretch unless Robert's firm has found legitimate customers who can demonstrate that AVTech did not sell them the cheap junk they ordered.


Glenn

Concord Twp,
Ohio,
U.S.A.
Direct Contact

#13Consumer Comment

Tue, November 30, 2004

Robert (from Irvine).... Was any of the research that I provided in this forum useful in helping you make your decision to go after these crooks? I do keep a lot of records and email history, and I am fairly well connected to the IT group at a relatively large university in my neck of the woods. Perhaps you would like to make contact with me directly? If so, send a note to [email protected] with your contact information, and I will get in touch with you! I hope to hear from you soon. Glenn


Robert

Irvine,
California,
U.S.A.
I have been receiving these SPAM e-mails from Avtech Computers for a solid 2 years.

#14Consumer Suggestion

Tue, November 30, 2004

We have saved each e-mail and have presented our case to the FCC. Avtech is clearly sending out illegal SPAM and are breaking Federal and State laws. Reference CAN-SPAM Act: http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm The good news is that I am a highly successful business attorney that lives in California, our state laws on SPAM are strictly enforced. We are looking to start a class action suit against Avtech, to sign up please go to www.classaction.com, we are going after the company, each owner, any name and corporate officers that have been listed with the Avtech company in the past 5 years. My firm is researching this case as pro-bono. Please save your e-mails as evidence and read the following California statute: The CAN-SPAM Act, California enacted an "opt-in" statute. As such, California's statute prohibits sending e-mails to recipients who have not given their express consent, or who do not have a preexisting or current business relationship with the advertiser. The California law also prohibits advertising in unsolicited commercial e-mail and applies to both the sender of the e-mail as well as the businesses whose products are the subject of the e-mail. Another significant provision of the California statute permits the recipient of spam, as well as the California Attorney General and e-mail service providers, to bring suit for actual and liquidated damages in the amount of $1,000 for each spam e-mail, up to $1,000,000 per "incident," along with attorney's fees and costs. Over the months we have placed several orders with the company to see what transpires, and so far most of you are correct. We are suing them for: 5. Illegal SPAMMING 4. Mail Fraud 3. Internet Fraud 2. Theft 1. **And the number 1 Federal charge which is punishable by a large fine or imprisonment, for every officer of the company: Defrauding a Nationwide Charity on multiple counts. The game is over, we are launching our own investigation, they have been running around with their ISPs, IP addresses and PO Boxes but the owners have physical residences which we have traced. We will be applying for a warrant to trace all bank and accounting records in the past 5 years, from the company, each owner and their spouses. We will be doing our own audit and if we see anything that looks suspicious, we will call the IRS to do a formal audit. Plus we will be checking with Immigration INS to see if every owner and employee are legal working US Citizens. There is no way to squirm out of this investigation, we also will be presenting our case to the district attorney which happens to be a friend of mine. Regardless of where the Avtech website is hosted in this world, the company started doing business in the state of California and therefore this is the jurisdiction. So far we can not find a filing for corporation, if it does not exist, this makes it even easier to hold the owners accountable, because they will be classified as doing business as a sole proprietorship, which opens them up to full litigation. Boy I hope they have their taxes in order??? I would like to pay a special thank you to Network Solutions for providing us with details of origin on their domain names. BTW I have a comment on the last rebuttal submitted by Rob on 11/1/2004. If you claim to be an Informations Systems Manager, which most likely requires a lot of training, education and certification, why do you spell website as websight?


Rob

West Plains,
Missouri,
U.S.A.
You get what you paid for.

#15Consumer Comment

Mon, November 01, 2004

I work for a Non-Profit agency where recently my director purchased 18 AvTech computers. I was very sceptical with the purchase. I am the Informations Systems Manager for our agency, I didn't get enough time to really research the company before my director ordered the computers. The computers came in on time and I in general have had few problems with them, however, These are NOT top of the line computers by any stretch of the imagination. They do the job, and I know when they go out I will have to purchase parts to fix them. AvTech didn't take our money and run, they just emptied a warehouse of cheap computers and ran. We got what we paid for. Their websight is no longer working either. So what issues I do have I cannot resolve with them.


Diana

Huntington BEACH,
California,
U.S.A.
HOW TO GET THEM FOR FRAUD

#16Consumer Suggestion

Fri, October 22, 2004

IF ANYONE HAS SENT(MAILED) MONEY FOR A COMPUTER AND HAS NOT RECEIVED THE PRODUCT AS ADVERTISED, THE COMPANY IS GUILTY OF MAIL FRAUD AND CAN BE REPORTED TO THE US POSTAL INSPECTOR. THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO GO, PARTICULARLY IF THERE ARE MULTIPLE COMPLAINTS. THE FBI WILL BE INTERESTED ALSO IF YOU CAN DEMONSTRATED THAT LARGE SUMS OF MONEY ARE INVOLVED--THIS REQUIRES LOTS OF PEOPLE COMPLAINING TOGETHER. O WAS SCAMMED ON EBAY AND GOT MY MONEY BACK THROUGH A MAIL FRAUD INVESTIGATION.


Brian

Cambridge,
Ontario,
Canada
Shady Business at Best

#17Consumer Comment

Thu, October 07, 2004

I'll tell you right now that these people continue to send spam messages. They can't have purchased a list of legitimate contacts or any other such nonsense, becuase they sent a message to one of our spamtraps. That is an address deliberatly set to do nothing except get spam. This address was never given out to anyone. In addition they also sent one of their notices to me. Being as I am not even in the same country, I don't see how I could be a legitimate contact for them. In addition, I checked their web site and their prices are much higher than the same system as you can get it from any other legitimate dealer such as Dell.


Jennifer

St. Louis,
Missouri,
U.S.A.
Consumer Report

#18Consumer Comment

Tue, August 31, 2004

I'm actually someone who received the Spam mail and responded to it. My husband and I are educators and received the message in his school E-mail box. Both he and my father (a principal) went ahead and ordered computers from Avtech Direct. I wanted to point out that the comment above that implies that the "Avtech Direct" company sending out the spam mails is taking unfair advantage of a legitimate company named "Avtech Computers" is false. We responded to the spam advertisement and received our computer from Avtech Computers. The two are one and the same. While I cannot comment about the legitimacy of the company's advertising practices, I will point out that the mail is not a scam. We received what was advertised. Both my father and I received CPU towers, keyboards, mice, and software from the company, and it appears to be in good working order for the most part. The price quoted was what we were charged, and delivery was timely and without incident. It bears noting that we have had issues with the Ethernet setup on the computer we received from Avtech Direct. The rest of the computer has appeared to work fine, but our DSL connection dies every 19 seconds with no explanation. Avtech's technical support team worked with us for six hours on the problem before paying for us to send the tower back to California for them to examine. They returned the tower to us within two weeks, but the problem was not resolved. They are now paying a courier service to come pick the tower up from our house and will be sending a brand new tower to us once this tower arrives. If THAT tower has problems, they have assured us they will refund our money. The situation has been aggravating, but I have to say that we have been treated respectfully and the conduct of everyone at Avtech to which we've come into contact has been professional and eager to help. The tech support team did devote most of an evening to our problem. At this point we still feel we are reasonable to expect a satisfactory resolution to our situation, either in the form of a CPU with a working Ethernet port, or a refund of our money. I just wanted to chime in as an Avtech Direct customer and share my experience.


Tom

Louisville,
Kentucky,
U.S.A.
Avtech Has Found New Spamhaus and New Web Host

#19Consumer Comment

Tue, August 31, 2004

The so-called Avtech Direct has found a new commercial spamhaus to send out their illegal spam. This one comes from IP 195.184.171.15 operated by UPC Magyarorszag Kft. in Hungary. Of course Avtech Direct is still legally responsible for the continuing violations of US law even though they have the spam sent into the US from overseas. Surprisingly, their website advertised in the spam has also moved and is now hosted at IP 24.14.76.235 which belongs to Comcast Cable who are usually pretty good about shutting down websites involved in deliberate network abuse. ----- Original Message ----- Return-Path: Received: from smtp.mailsift.com (smtp.mailsift.com [66.254.95.201]) by sifter.mailsift.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C665121DD for ; Tue, 31 Aug 2004 01:22:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from xlate2.mailsvcs.arrl.net (GlobalMobile-72-159-34.onecall.net [64.72.159.34]) by smtp.mailsift.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A24F31037FC1 for ; Tue, 31 Aug 2004 01:22:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: from arthur.e-commercial.com (ns2.e-commercial.com [204.57.74.117]) by xlate2.mailsvcs.arrl.net (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id i7V8MQhM002961 for ; Tue, 31 Aug 2004 03:22:27 -0500 Received: from SMTP32-FWD by reactintl.org (SMTP32) id A00000980; Tue, 31 Aug 2004 03:24:24 -0500 Received: from catv-c3b8ab0f.catv.broadband.hu [195.184.171.15] by arthur.e-commercial.com (SMTPD32-7.07) id A5AB5C0588; Tue, 31 Aug 2004 03:24:11 -0500 Received: from n4p.7pjjv1m.org [51.213.170.21] by catv-c3b8ab0f.catv.broadband.hu id jREsb752Nd73 for ; Tue, 31 Aug 2004 15:24:39 +0600 Message-ID: From: "Administrator" To: [email protected] Subject: Staff Bulletin Date: Tue, 31 Aug 04 15:24:39 GMT X-Priority: 1 X-MSMail-Priority: High X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="AB2AD94A._6_1CEE7E5__" X-MailSift-Delivered-To: [email protected] X-MailSift-Extra: DNSBL3 This is a multi-part message in MIME format.


John

Denver,
Colorado,
Albania
AVTECH has Unsatisfactory BBB rating!!!!!

#20Consumer Suggestion

Fri, August 20, 2004

Check out the following I found from the Spokane Better Business Bureau!! (http://www.spokane.bbb.org/alerts/alerts.html?newsid=399&newstype=1) SPAM BEING SENT BY ADTECH DIRECT: COMPANY HAS UNSAT BBB RECORD Date: June 3, 2004 HAVE YOU RECEIVED THIS SPAM TODAY? Attention All Healthcare Workers: Doctors, Nurses and Staff: You Must Respond By 5 P.M. Friday, June 4, 2004. Through a special arrangement, Avtech Direct is offering a limited allotment of BRAND NEW, top of-the-line, name-brand desktop computers at more than 50% off MSRP to all Doctors, Nurses, Staff and Associates who respond to this message before 5 P.M., Friday, June 4, 2004. Avtech Direct is offering these feature rich, top performing Desktop Computers with the latest Intel technology at an amazing price to all who call: 1-800-884-9510 by 5 P.M. Friday, June 4, 2004 The name of the company is clearly stated in its SPAM: Avtech Direct located at 22647 Ventura Blvd., Suite 374, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. Their SPAM goes on to state a variety of details about the type of laptop computer you will receive for as low as $299. Our concern and subsequent warning to you is that this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB of the Southland, CA. (Full report at: www.labbb.org) This company's business is selling computers via mail (flyers to schools). But, as you can see by their recent SPAM, they are currently targeting medical healthcare professionals. The BBB of the Southland rates this company as having an unsatisfactory business performance record based on concerns regarding the pattern of complaints and the failure to comply with Spam Laws. Most complainants allege the company sends an unsolicited e-mail selling computers at more than 50% off MSRP through a special arrangement with a limited time offer to teachers, students and faculty members. Some customers complain that the company is a spam operation. One customer tried to find out how the company received the email address, but no one answered the call. In another case, the customer claims they never gave permission to email them. Other complaints concern problems with canceling. In one case, the customer cancelled, but was double billed. In another case, the customer could not email the company to send a request to cancel because their inbox was full. One customer claims non-delivery of the computer. The company responds to the unsolicited e-mail complaints by removing e-mail addresses from their system and explained that they obtain email addresses through a batching source from hospitals, schools, and government agencies. To the complaint regarding the delivery, the computer was sent and the double billing issue was responded to with an explanation that the order was shipped prior to receiving the cancellation and a refund was provided. The CAN-SPAM Act requires all commercial e-mail messages to include the sender's physical street address, an opt-out mechanism, and prohibits messages with misleading subject lines or message headers. Upon reviewing this company's e-mail solicitations, we verified this company is not in compliance. The Federal Trade Commission's Mail Order Rule allows the seller 30 days to ship ordered products to the buyers unless otherwise specified at the time of purchase. If the seller cannot ship within the 30 day period, they are required to notify the buyer in writing of the delay, and give the option of waiting or having their money returned within seven days. Credit card payments must be credited within one billing cycle. Be aware of this company's offers PRIOR to purchase or transaction. And don't forget, CHECK a Business OUT with the BBB before agreeing to anything! ------------------------------------------------ Shame on you AVTECH!!


Francois

Innisfil,
Ontario,
Canada
Check the web site carefully..... it takes you to a customer account page with NO opportunity to register online

#21Consumer Comment

Wed, August 18, 2004

According to the response from the "customer service representative" providing a rebuttal and a supposed web site to visit, it takes you to a customer account page with NO opportunity to register online, no additional web pages, no photographs of their stock, etc. Any reputable company will provide far greater detail than can be ascertained about this organization from their web presence. I was given information regarding the company by a colleague and immediately became suspicious when only a single page was accessible (www.epsnotebooks.com). That URL bounces you to this one immediately - http://www.avtechcomputers.net/asp/customer_account.asp - which doesn't allow any further browsing, etc. All I can say is: caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).


James

Columbia,
Maryland,
U.S.A.
Name Scam

#22Consumer Comment

Mon, August 16, 2004

avtechcomputers.net - This is the legitimate company whom they are taking name advantage of. Notice the lack of 'direct' in the domain name.


Trevor

Seattle,
Washington,
U.S.A.
Received without an opt-in. This is such a fradulent company. Don't trust someone that sends you SPAM and for goodness sake

#23Consumer Comment

Fri, July 30, 2004

The email address that I received this SPAM is our generic email address that is only listed on our website... never used anywhere else. It's obvious that they buy these addresses or have so type of spider crawl for these addresses on the web. I have also received this in my person email account, which is found only by using the Directory at the University of Washington -- which clearly states federal law prohibits emailing any of those addresses for commercial purposes. This is such a fradulent company. Don't trust someone that sends you SPAM and for goodness sake -- don't support SPAM by ever buying something advertised in that format!


Greg

Madison,
Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
company's messages definitely non-compliant with law

#24Consumer Comment

Fri, July 23, 2004

I would like to confirm that while the spam messages from this company have the superficial appearance of compliance with the law, it is obviously a contrived appearance. Message headers are forged. The so-called "opt out" link is garbage and does not even bring up a web page, much less let you opt out. The sender's address cannot be replied to and is totally unreachable. The required postal mail address is simply not present at all. If, in the face of public complaints, they had owned up to these violations and corrected them, that would be one thing. Instead, they have issued a blanket denial of wrongdoing when there is simply mountains of evidence that they are willfully ignoring the law. Schools and libraries (their primary target victims) deserve better.


Tom

Louisville,
Kentucky,
U.S.A.
Deliberate Violation of US Federal Law

#25Consumer Comment

Mon, July 19, 2004

While this so-called "Shane" claims that the so-called Avtech Direct "most certainly does comply with the Federal SPAM-ACT laws!" Apparently he has never talked with his commercial Chinese spamhaus about it and doesn't expect anyone to look closely. As people have previously identified their constant spam still uses forged headers. Last night's spam originated from a Chinese spamhaus at IP 211.161.90.250 operated by Greatwall Broadband Network Co.Ltd. but the header is poorly forged to attempt to show the originating IP address as "204.57.74.117" While the spam shows what appears to be a business address, also as others have previously identified it is actually a PO Box with the address presented in a way that is a violation of US Postal Regulations (which require PO Box addresses to be identified as such, specifically prohibiting the use of Suite or Apt or even # to pretend these are real physical addresses). The spam says it provides an unsubscribe link (despite the fact that no one has ever subscribed to their spamming) but the URL for the removal is a fake that has no DNS entry (the domain name is theirs, but the URL leads nowhere without any DNS entry).


Shane

Woodland Hills,
California,
U.S.A.
Customer Service Rep

#26UPDATE Employee

Wed, July 14, 2004

To the educated consumer: Avtech Direct most certainly does comply with the Federal SPAM-ACT laws! Also An opt out mechanism is provided. Our address is listed. The claims made here at this site about our company continue to be false! We provide a quality product for low prices. We encourage you to check out what is being said here at this website about name brands that are more recognized than our own. We are just a little guy trying to make it here in the Good Old US of A! We do manufacture our product right here in the US! We appreciate all of the support from the non-profits and schools that have done business with us for the past twelve years. [delete]


Glenn

Concord Twp.,
Ohio,
U.S.A.
Details on AVTECH, comment, and suggestion

#27Consumer Comment

Fri, June 11, 2004

1. I am UNABLE to locate this companies charter after an exhaustive search at http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html - AVTECH: What is your corporation number???? 2. ALL of the mailing addresses for AVTECH are P.O. Boxes. 3. Here are the best contact details I've been able to find: Hellen Vo (Z9CKP) [email protected] 6805 Louise Ave #510 (PO BOX) Van Nuys, CA 91406 Phone: 818-883-6735 Phone: 818-571-8328 Avtech Direct 22647 Ventura Blvd Suite #374 (PO BOX) Woodland Hills CA 91364 Business Started: 01/01/99 Principal Contact: Matt Martini Phone: 818-227-6700 Fax: 818-227-6712 Web Address: http://www.avtechcomputers.net This is an interesting link: Education Purchasing Services 22647 Ventura Blvd. Unit 374 (SAME PO BOX!!) Woodland Hills, CA 91364 http://www.educationpurchasingservices.com/contactus.htm Phone: 800-318-1388 Fax: 818-227-6712 (HEY, that's Matt Martini's number!!) Registrant: Michael O'Reilly ([email protected]) Social Networking Software (WPTEPTJWWD) 1223 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 944 (YET ANOTHER PO BOX) Santa Monica CA 90403-5400 Domain Name: EDUCATIONPURCHASINGSERVICES.COM ....which cross references to.... Vixen Net 1223 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 944 (Woohoo!) Santa Monica, CA 90405 http://www.vixen.net/ Registrant: Ainsworth Cook Group LLC Ian Cook 1015 Gayley Ave #1061 (STILL MORE PO BOXES) Los Angeles, CA 90024-3424 Phone: 310-203-1545 Email: [email protected] ...Heh heh heh... California business search returns: AINSWORTH COOK GROUP, LLC Number: 200005610077 Date Filed: 2/18/2000 Status: active Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA Principal Address 1015 GAYLEY AVENUE #1061 LOS ANGELES, CA 90024 Agent for Service of Process IAN A COOK 1015 GAYLEY AVENUE #1061 LOS ANGELES, CA 90024 Well... here's what he looks like, anyhow http://www.iancookmd.com/privatesector.html Ainsworth Cook Group LLC Ian Cook 11041 Santa Monica Blvd #503 (Wow, this guy loves PO Boxes) Los Angeles, CA 90025-3523 Phone: 310-203-1545 Email: [email protected] But WAIT!!!! Here's something direct from Ian's "gyrus.net" site: http://www.gyrus.net/email_scam.html Plausible denyability, I suspect..... Can anyone contribute some more details on these interesting links????? I suggest that AVTECH demystify this a bit by providing their california business registration name.... or maybe that we all contact the Attorney General for CA and have them look into this company which is potentially hmmm maybe evading taxes? Have you had a look at their shipping charges with and without tax??? Here: http://www.avtechcomputers.net/asp/shipping.asp Wow, tax must be 0% in their jurisdiction!!! LOL


Jerry

Wilmington,
Delaware,
U.S.A.
SPAMMED!

#28Consumer Comment

Wed, May 26, 2004

I manage a few websites, one of which has a number of email lists for a Search and Rescue organization. The email addresses for the email lists are hard to find, and must be manually entered into spam email databases. Because of this, I don't have to block much spam. However, this past week, I've gotten over 20 seperate emails from this SPAMMING company, at each email list the website hosts. One list even got hit twice in the same day. Because they bought an email list, even if the company was even close to being legit, it gives their credibility a serious hit, as no credible company resorts to this. Nobody wants junk mail, and for sure, nobody wants junk email.


Greg

Madison,
Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
the Avtech email program is itself illegal

#29Consumer Comment

Mon, May 24, 2004

Regardless of whether or not customers ordering computers from this company are being satisfied, the email campaign being used appears to engage in multiple violations of federal law (the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003), including: 1) forgery of the source address 2) failure to list the company's physical address 3) failure to include an opt-out mechanism Consumers would do well to ignore any email advertisement that is in such clear violation of the law. They would do even better to forward such messages (including all message headers) to [email protected].


Shane

Woodland Hills,
California,
U.S.A.
From the Customer Service Department

#30UPDATE Employee

Fri, May 14, 2004

Greetings Folks! I personally handle customer issues with AvTech Direct. I know that the claims made here are untrue. We most certainly do have a web-site, www.avtechcomputers.net. Avtech Direct stands by its product and the majority of our customers are quite happy. In fact the owners are quite generous and fair. I can persoanlly guarentee that anyone ordering an Avtech computer will be satisfied. Customer satisfaction is my job. They most certianly DO NOT "take the money and run." Quite the opposite. Avtech issues a full refund if not completely satisfied. Furthermore, AvTech and it's affiliates support a number of charitable causes. If you have any questions regarding the actual facts of AvTech Direct, please call Shane @ 1-800-884-9510. Thank you.

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