Digital Storm
Reviews and Complaints

So I bought a nearly $4000 digital storm computer, it was taking nearly 4 months and nothing had really progressed. There is a chip shortage so I figured it may be that. I sent them an email saying "I'm not upset, I'm just curious what's going on" as they had originally quoted builds within about 21-35 business days if I recall correctly. All of a sudden my build was completed in like 3 days. The squeaky wheel gets the grease I guess; but what if I hadn't emailed? How much longer would it have taken? That's not all though. For a company that praises itself on building the most stable overclocked gaming rigs available, I got a PC that randomly shuts down when gaming. I spent a couple of days on their forums going through troubleshooting steps, but finally decided to contact tech support. It took them 5 days to get back to me, all while I had been scouring the internet and doing some troubleshooting myself. The initial response to the tech support was actually pretty good, they used Microsoft quick assist to do things like upgrade drivers, do clean up protocols in the CMD prompt and check for corruption in the drive. We had finished for the day and it was still shutting down randomly. Everything was fine when stress tested on OCCT. But still random gaming shutdowns. I have been beginning to suspect the PSU wasn't playing well with the 3080's load demand spikes, this is a COMMON problem with certain PSUs working with the 3080/3090 which the tech support person who I won't name mentioned. Well instead of doing a swap on the PSU, which seemed like the most likely culprit, the management came down on the tech support person and said they wouldn't send out hardware (mind you this wasn't free hardware, it was going to be a swap) unless I had reinstalled my OS. By now, my PC had been with me just over two weeks, full of hard work on Skyrim and fallout modding, because that's what you do with a brand new gaming PC, and school work, I could back it up to my external hard drive, but you never really get all the modding process to transfer over. It's as if they just wanted to save a buck and cause the customer huge inconvenience. I ended up asking if I could buy my own PSU and if it was the problem, would they comp me the price of the old one. They said if they "tested" it and it was fine, they wouldn't comp me the price. Will they run the same tests to determine it's fine that they used to determine my PC was fine and wouldn't be shutting down before they "rigorously" tested it before sending it to me? I won't be shopping at digital storm ever again. I paid a huge premium for "experts" to build and overclock my PC, only for me to remove their overclocks for troubleshooting, the PC to randomly shut down all the time unless I undervolt the graphics card (it still shuts down, just less often). I could've had a better system from Corsair for $800 LESS, and they also would've gotten it to me about 3 months earlier…. Anyways, I'm not a happy digital storm customer, I'm on the verge of asking for my money back but their return policy is not great either, as they tack on a 5% if I recall correctly ($200) return fee. I've already purchased my own extra PSU to do the swap myself and see if that resolves it, I'll probably just keep their PSU and put it my girlfriends new hand me down rig from me with a 1080ti in it, might work fine there. I don't trust this company to actually comp me the price of the power supply if I send it back. The tech support person I dealt with was great, it was their management's policies that have upset me. I've dealt with much better practices in the computer industry, to include companies sending me parts in advance without forcing me to throw every bottom of the barrel inconvenient solution to a problem before they own up to it.

I ordered my PC late December and they said it will come in at mid march. After not arriving mid march they said my PC will be shipped out in 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I call them to See if my PC was shipped turns out its going to be 3 more weeks. Every time I call them they just say its in stage 3. this has been going on for about a month now. This is ridiculous.

My pc bluescreens multiple times a month. I haven't owned it for more than 6 months... Enough said. Regardless I was in contact with support for a while and they couldn't figure out what was causing it. They even sent me a new power supply and it still blue screens multiple times a month. When I ordered I got a monitor with it. It never came in the mail. I called support and found that they apparently removed it from my order without communicating through email or phone call. Did I really get the money back? I don't know. For real. Just stay away from digital storm. One of the worst companies you could ever go through. Their support doesn't understand company, they actually called me after having me sign a digital document to inform me that they misunderstood company policy and I would actually have to pay for the replacement part despite my lifetime warranty. Seriously stay away. I want to freak out after my experience with them i'm really hopeful that they might give me a refund but I doubt it at this point. Stay away. Nzxt is probably better. Hell cyberpower is probably more reliable! Lol. Take my word for it, the worst experience I could ever imagine.

Dear Digital Storm,

Whenever I get my computer back and it is working properly, I will redact this complaint. Until then, I am frustrated with the policy and testing practices you stated you take when delivering a product.

I ordered a Vanquish computer ($$$$$) and it took a long time to be delivered (basically going through all of your "rigorous" testing stages). When it finally arrived in January, we took it out of the box and it worked for a couple of days and then shut down! Would not reboot, USB key did not work. Nothing, So I am sitting on an expensive paperweight.

Spoke to a Tech support person and now I have to ship it back and wait another 4-5 weeks for someone to fix what was considered a bad motherboard, a bad RAM chip and something else. I understand motherboards go out from time to time, but I've had this computer shorter than it took you all to test it. Shouldn't you have found this error then? Also, how do you install bad RAM in a new computer? Again, you may be a great company, but I think your testing practices are poor.

So, now I am waiting to get my shipping label, so I can wait another week for it be delivered, then another 5 weeks and hope that it is fully functional when it returns.

My next question, if it is returned and still does not work, how long will it take me to get my refund?

Once I am satisfied with your product, I will resend another letter to redact all of this, but until then, I am a very unsatisfied customer.

I have ordered a pricey keyboard and tower from DigitalStorm.com. Everything for the first few weeks seemed to be going just fine. I received semi regular updates about my PC order's progress, including information on a delay or two. Even received one or two non automated emails it seemed. However the last time I heard from them was on Decemeber 11th, 2018. They stated the next estimated shipping date was 7-12 business days from December 11th, 2018. The problem is today is January 1st, 2019. I understand that they have holiday orders, but they should have at least given me some notifications. I have read other complaints mentioning ridiculous wait times and/or getting lost in the shuffle type stuff, which were supposedly not resolved until they voiced a lot of complaints aimed at DigitalStorm.com.

I have also made my first payment to them via Bread, their financing partners. I would be happy to pay them more if they would just send me my PC order in good shape. They are noted for taking extra time to put everything together and test it. But that should have either ended by now or I should have received an email as to why it has not finished.

For further clarification, I am supposedly at Stage 4 of their process, with Stage 6 being the last.

i contacted digital storm to purchase acomputer for microsoft flight simulator x or prepared flight simulator in august 2015. i specificaly told the sales rep what i wanted the computer for and was assured that they the vanquish 3 would run the simulator program. i was concerned that flight simulator is a very complex ands demanding program which uses many add on sceneries and display panels, radios, switch, multi-display, flight instrument, fmc, etc. this requires a powerful computer which in many cases requiers overclocking and special configuring in order for the flight sim to operate corrrectly. it also requires the usb socket and drivers to be able to recognize and power the various add on devices. i was using microsoft flight simulator 2004 on an old HP pavillion which ran everthing fine including 15 usb devices using a usb 3.0 powered hub. in july 2017 i decided to go to flight sim x steam edition on the new digital storm computer. remember, this computer had been sitting idle since august of 2015, so by all account it was still a brand new computer with less than 200 hours on it. the reason being windows 10 will not run flight sim 2004 and l liked the features of flight sim 2004...anyway, in july of 2017 i made at least 10 calls to digital storm tech support because of the followig problems: usb ports will not run add on devices witout unplugging and repluging them in, even with a powered usb hub, solid state 1 tb hard drive not initialized at time of manufacture, add on scenery unable to find fsx steam on D:drive even thought it is present. the computer arrived with the fan for the ssd rattling around in the case, i contacted digital storm and a technician walked me thru installing it. i cant take it anymore, i refuse to keep calling tech support for assistance everytime i have problems with this computer. unfortunately i did not know of this website before i bought this computer for $1300 or i woul have spent a littlte more to buy an actual flight simulator form Jetline flight sim computer company, who make computers specificaly for flight simulation...i am of the opinion that this computer may not be able to handle the many demands riquired by flight simulation programs... I do want to thank Kyle and Keven at digital storm tech for the many hours and patience given trying to resolve the ongoing problems with this computer...P.S. i have 13 years experience with Microsoft flight simulator..Al Williams

Go to Better Business Bureau website to view 37 Digital Storm complaints in the past 3 years. Anyway, In August 2015 I ordered a $5000 custom-built computer online from digitalstorm.com. They hit me with a $400 shipping charge for 200 lbs. When the computer arrived, it only weighed 70 lbs. They grossly padded the shipping charge. The system finally arrived 5 weeks after ordering. It was missing a rubber pad on one of the legs, making it tipsy. I had to remove the other 3 to level it. It was also missing the dust covers on the DVI ports. Overall, a shoddy build quality. It worked for about 20 minutes before the screen went black. I noticed liquid coolant leaking inside onto the mainboard and graphics card. Before they let me talk to tech support, they insisted I text a photo of the leak. When I finally got tech support on the phone, they actually said leaks happen all the time and for me to just tighten the fittings and mop up the liquid. Not very detailed in their assistance. I felt rushed off the phone. I found which fitting was leaking myself and luckily I had the right big-sized open-end wrenches to tighten. The computer continually locked up, displayed multiple error messages, and was completely unusable right from the start. I called to request RMA return for full refund and was told I would have to pay return shipping and 15% ($400) restocking fee! I told them that's unacceptable, as their product never worked. They agreed to waive restocking fee, and they did send me a return shipping label (based on 70 lbs, not 200) but continually gave me the run-around about the refund. I had to file a chargeback dispute with my credit card. Digital Storm finally granted the refund, but THEY KEPT 15% EVEN AFTER AGREEING TO WAIVE RESTOCKING FEE. I'm still fighting for my hard-earned money back! Beware!

Check the better business bureau website and see digital storm has had 37 complaints filed in the past 3 years! In august 2015, i ordered a custom - built computer online from digitalstorm.com. They charged me $400 for shipping based on 200 lbs. The computer only weighed 70 lbs when it arrived. They grossly padded the shipping charge. The system finally arrived 5 weeks after ordering. It was missing a rubber pad on one of the legs, making it tipsy. I had to remove the other 3 to level it. Shoddy build quality. It only worked for about 20 minutes before the screen went black. I noticed liquid coolant leaking inside onto the graphics card! Before they let me talk to tech support, they insisted i text a photo of the leak. When i finally got tech support on the phone, they said leaks happen all the time and for me to just tighten the fittings and mop up the liquid. Not helpful or detailed in their assistance. I found the leaking fitting (Luckily i had the right big - sized open - end wrenches) and tightened it myself. The computer continually displayed multiple error messages. At times would only boot into the bios saying "overclocking failed". Computer continually locked up. Error messages saying gpu fan not running. Completely unusable right from the day i received it! I called to request rma return for full refund and was told i had to pay shipping and a 15% ($400) restocking fee! I told them that was unacceptable, the product never worked from the start. They agreed to waive restocking fee, and did send a shipping label (Based on the 70 lbs!) , but continually gave me the run - around about the refund. I had to file a chargeback dispute with my credit card. Digital storm finally granted the refund, but kept 15% even after agreeing to waive the restocking fee. This is a very unethical and downright scammy company. I'm still fighting for my hard - earned money back! Beware!

I have read a few complaints regarding Digital Storm. I have 2 of their PCs and have had only an issue of one that was caused by a defective graphics card. All in all Digital Storm has replaced Dell and the other large manufacturers role in serious work stations. We use them for CAD and games. Digital Storm is not perfect but they do their best and will work with you. Many issues I have heard of or see written are related to the consumer not fully understanding the issues or how to properly order their work station. I had satisfaction by contacting them via e-mail and getting customer relations manager to help me. Compared to Dell and HP these people are a breath of fresh air.

STAY AWAY FROM DIGITAL STORM!

Our company purchased a Digital Storm Computer for one of our customers last year. Spent over $4, 000 for it. We are a computer service company located on the East Coast, and our customer was obsessed with having "the ultimate" computer to run his business.

In short, we called DS for help with their rig late November of 2009. They shipped me a new fan to replace one on the water-cooling unit. Took me an hour to replace the darned thing... but that didn't fix the problem...

Shortly thereafter, we got the BSOD - seems that the O/S was corrupted and the RAID Array was broken, and their system would not read a Windows Repair DVD they had supplied.

They could not (would not) help us over the phone, so we asked to ship the computer back to DS for repair. Since my customer didn't keep the original box, DS would not allow us to ship the computer back -- so they shipped me a box from CA via Fedex Ground. It took a week for the box to show up. Then they "forgot" to send along the return Fedex Label, so it took another 3 days before Fedex showed up to pick the box up. It returned to CA via Fedex Ground (another week). All together, I've paid over $200 for "shipping", including the cost of a new "box"

Now it's been sitting in their shop for over a week, and we got an email today asking us to fill out an RMA form. That immediately told me that they haven't even tried to work on the computer yet.

I have a very irate customer that has been without his computer for over 6 weeks now...

Please - heed my advice and STAY AWAY FROM DIGITAL STORM!

I called Digital Storm (www.digitalstormonline.com) asking for computer recommendations, since I thought it would be easier asking an expert than spending hours shopping around. While on the phone the sales person convinced me to buy a new computer. He said he preferred that I place the order with him instead of on the Web site so he could get the commission, so I placed the order over the phone. Later that day I did more research on blogs and review sites and though I was misled about what he recommended to me, so I called to cancel the order to give me more time to research what to buy. This was less than one day after placing the order and long before the computer was scheduled to be built and shipped.

When I called to cancel, they said they had already billed my credit card and they were going to charge 4.9% to reverse the charge. At no point on the phone did I agree to these terms and conditions and I was not warned about them either. When I ordered the computer I specifically asked about their return policy and was only told about their restocking fee for returns. I have never heard of a computer store charging 4.9% to change an order. When I canceled the order I specifically said that I did not agree to pay that 4.9% fee, but they charged it anyway.

It is a shady practice to charge a card many days before a product will ship, since it is completely unnecessary. They could have easily preauthorized an amount on the card without actually billing the card. I don't think it is reasonable to charge hidden fees that no other store charges without making those fees known. I would not have placed the order if I had known about these hidden terms and conditions.

In my attempt to cancel and resolve the issue I called their customer service line over 10 times trying to reach a human, but nobody ever answers. I finally left a message and got a call back four days later. The customer service rep was unwilling to help out, so they get a bad review.

Outstanding company! I was looking to replace my original Dell XPS to be able to run the new games at max FPS. I primarily run flight simulators that are challenging for most computers "out of the box, " so I decided to look into building my own, or having one built by one of the many companies that provide this service.

I researched the specs I wanted/needed first, then went online to places like Newegg to find out what I was looking at WRT price. This gave me a ballpark figure that I could use for comparison between companies, considering only cost of parts so that I was comparing apples to apples, so-to-speak.

After about a month, I began researching companies to build my new machine. I was surprised at how many there were, but after eliminating the standard "resellers, " I narrowed it down to 6 companies that were primarily PC builders for the gaming community.

Out of the six companies I looked hard at, Digital Storm was in the middle of the pack when I only considered price. When I factored in reliability, and customer satisfaction/ratings, however, DS was the superior by a wide margin. I found two other companies that had cheaper prices and almost made the mistake of ordering from the cheapest. This company (unnamed here) was the most advertised in the PC and Gamer magazines and had a very good website. However, when I looked at the customer reviews (easy Google search), I was not impressed. In fact, it seemed I would get my machine cheaper, but run the risk of a 50% chance that it would be delivered with uninstalled, or loose parts hanging out, and be faced with an unresponsive service department. I dodged a bullet here.

The other company seemed OK in the customer reviews, and was a slight bit cheaper than DS, but when I called and talked to the rep there about the specs I wanted, I was not impressed with his knowledge base. I seemed to know more about building computers than he did, and I have never built one! Not a reassuring experience.

Finally I decided on Digital Storm, primarily due to the customer service and great ratings from satisfied customers.

My experience so far has been nothing but outstanding. From the moment I contacted DS with my initial inquiry to present, communications with sales and support has been constant and positive.

They promptly answer all emails, return all phonecalls, and even do fallow-up calls to ensure service was satisfactory.

i cannot say enough about the machine. It is awsome! Not only was it done on time and built rock-solid (very neat and clean with no missing or loose screws), the professional packaging material they used ensured that it arrived w/o a scratch!

The service reps I have talked to could not be friendlier or more down-to-earth. They gave me their best advise on important decisions like which graphics card (ATI or Nvidia), water cooling vs air cooling and HD configurations (RAID or no RAID), often recommending the less expensive solution to get the most bang for the buck. I never had the sense that I was talking to a company more concerned with profit that the customer satisfaction.

If DS continues to place emphasis on quality products and customer service, they will continue to get my business as well as many other satisfied customers. I enthusiasically endorse Digital Storm to my friends looking for a new computer. These guys are the real deal.