Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

How satisfied are you with this retailer?

  • Extremely Satisfied

    Votes: 4 4.3%
  • Somewhat Satisfied

    Votes: 4 4.3%
  • Somewhat Dissatisfied

    Votes: 18 19.1%
  • Extremely Dissatisfied

    Votes: 68 72.3%

Review: MDG Computer

63K views 34 replies 33 participants last post by  richimahan 
#1 ·
The purpose of this thread is for Digital Home members to review and relay their experience with MDG Computers

This is NOT a discussion thread so please limit yourself to one post which includes your review.

We welcome the input and opinions of all members whether they are good or bad, however, please note that this thread is NOT for rants. Whether you had a good or bad experience with this vendor we want to hear about it but in an OBJECTIVE manner.

If you post a rant or childish comments like, these guys "suck" or they're all a "bunch of idiots", then your comments will be considered trolling and your post will be deleted.

When you post, please try to include the following information:

  • What product or service you purchased.
  • Approximate timeframe you ordered the product
  • What location you dealt with if it’s a company with many stores or service locations
  • Your overall level of satisfaction
  • If you had a positive experience, please explain what made it such a positive experience.
  • If you had a negative experience, please read our guidelines below.

Guidelines for Posting Negative Reviews

The truth is no retailer or service provider is perfect and occasionally even the best companies can disappoint. Our experience is that good companies have problems but they typically make every reasonable effort to resolve problems.

If you had a problem and are posting a negative review, then please note what efforts you made to resolve the problem and the feedback you received. If you think the efforts to resolve the problem were NOT reasonable then please explain why. Saying you phoned up and talked to some idiot, suggests the problem may lie with the consumer and NOT the company!

No posting URLS or Directs to Competitors will be deleted

Posts containing URL's to competitors or posts saying gee you should have shopped at this retailer will be considered spam and deleted.

We want opinions, NOT sales pitches or spam!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
would never go there again...

I purchased a Pentium III in 2000 from MDG in Mississauga (McAdam Rd). They were recommended to me solely based on price, which was very competitive. However the computer had to be returned twice within a month for faulty parts (faulty RAM and video card). I had no problems getting the warranty work done, however wasn't pleased with the initial sales experience when I first picked up the computer. The staff really didn't seem pleased to be receiving my business. In fact I felt like an annoyance to them.

Plus they charge extra when you pay by credit card to recoup their fees, which I'm not sure they're allowed to do. The cashier forgot to charge me the extra amount, and made that very clear to me, I guess expecting me to be grateful.

I had my computer less than two years before I had had enough of it and gave it away for a much better one from a competitor.
 
#3 ·
MDG

similar experience to stv23658...shopped them for myself and on a separate occasion for a friend on both occasions in Montreal...poor customer experience...staff acted as if we were bothering...anyways walked out both times ... had that oh oh...looks like like PC clone quality...anyways....bought from Dell and have not regretted not buying from MDG....got the feeling this supplier was trouble
 
#4 ·
Horrible!

I sent my girlfriend there years ago to buy her new computer. What a mistake!

They used hardware that wasn't common. I remember searching for modem drivers and network drivers; they were so difficult to find. Reformating her computer was a pain in the bum.

I even went there to get an upgrade several years ago as well. They advertised "PIII" and my understanding was Pentium III, but in reality, they installed some PIII LIKE cpu.

I hate them. Their location was Keele and Hwy #7 I believe.

After a while, I got a better understanding of computers and now I can build my own system.

MDG is useless, and their commercials make me sick!
 
#5 ·
I bought a computer years ago from MDG when they only had one or two locations. It was shortly after they paid fines for installing pirated copies of Windows on machines so I'm not sure when that was.

The service was pretty good and the machine was a very good deal. I had no problems with the computer and it was ready on time.

A couple of years later, after they became bigger, I tried them again. The shop was a pigsty, the service was terrible and it was clear they were simply trying to sell whatever was on sale that week.

I've never walked back into an MDG store again.
 
#6 ·
stay away from this company! I went through hell trying to fix my old roommates MDG piece of junk. His power source went, then the dollar store quality speakers quit working, the he wanted a video card to try and speed it up... no AGP or PCI-e slot! The cheap motherboard they put in there must have cost about $10. uggh
 
#8 ·
So they overcharge for the computer by using absolute garbage components, so much that they can give you a 360 and still make money... and this is a good thing?
 
#9 ·
MDG is good fo me

Hi,

I really surprise why some people complain about MDG. I bought a nice PC from MDG and its working great. I have also purchased their warranty plan which is also working fine. If I get any problem I just call them or take my PC to them and they fixed it gladly. I have never had any problem with them. I know all sales people from MDG’s are not good. See it’s happen for other store too; you won’t find everybody nice.
 
#10 ·
I didnt check to see if this thread was dead, but I need somewhere to vent my anger:

I went to MDG in Newmarket (Leslie and Stellar) on Saturday to find a laptop at a reasonable price. I saw an ad they had on a `2007 model` HorizonBook L. It had a 120GB hard drive, Core2Duo processor, and DVD burner for $599, and I thought it would be a good deal. WRONG!!! One thing I need is wireless, be it from built in, USB, or PCMCIA. I went in, told the salesman, Jeff I believe his name was, what machine I was interested in, and I asked him if it had wireless. No. If it had PCMCIA slots. No. And this was the dealbreaker. I asked him if it had USB at least. He told me it had ONE port.......and it would be taken up by some kind of mouse. `Mouse?`I asked. The useless machine DIDNT EVEN HAVE A TRACKPOINT OR TOUCHPAD!!!! I would have had to go up to either a 2008 model at $999.99, out of my budget, or a VisionBook at $1249.99. I mean, what laptop, even 15 years ago, didnt come with a Trackpoint or Touchpad. I went to The Source and got an Acer on sale for $449.99, and it does have a Touchpad. I will never set foot into an MDG store again.

Thank you for your time (Slowly getting used to the multilingual keyboard layout on this site, good that the Acer has a multilingual keyboard, unlike that piece of crap folding desktop from MDG)
 
#11 ·
These stores are franchises. I bought a computer there years ago and I found out 2 years later when I took it to business depot for service that the mother board had been broken and glued back togeather somehow by MDG.

I do not understand how they servive with players like FF, Staples and BB selling a wide range of products and different price points.

It must be where they are located. Run down or out of the way industrial parks with dim lit offices and probably the lowest rate of pay possible with commission on everything.
 
#12 ·
Worst Company

I think I had one of the worst experiences with this company.
I while back we were shopping for a desktop, the Media centre thing from Windows came out and it was all the rage amongst me and my friends, we went to the MDG store next to the Serbian restaurant McAdams and we talked to the guy that owns the company, or had a big role in it from the beginning.
We were talking for a while in Serbian and he gave us some $200 in store credit we got some desktop that still haunts me to this day.

It wasn't even Media center it was a Media centre upgrade from XP Home. And it didn't have any S-video ports or any other ports that I could connect to the TV, not only that but he promised us Pentium 4 with a certain amount of memory we got home and checked and it was Celeron, and the memory was only half of what we asked for.
After a while the computer crashed and we went to get it fixed since we had a warenty when we came to pick it up a bill was waiting for us. My father got extremely mad at the nice guy that helped us out at the beginning, who turned out to be not so nice in the end. We took it home, without paying the bill and a while after the mother board went out. We went back to the store and they fixed it letting the last time slip. They fixed it and ever since then we have not mentioned the word MDG in our house ever again.
I would not recommend this company to anyone. It caused us too much stress and headaches.
PS they have the worst customer support in the world. I don't even think it exists???
 
#13 ·
MDG Toronto Computers NOT RELIABLE

Please be advised that I purchased an MDG Horizon Computer from Toronto, The service is very poor, They don't honor their warranty and the workmanship is not good at all. I am stuck with a broken computer and no one there will give a straight answer. I have posted this to inform consumers that you should be wary of these people. Phillip White, Raymond,Alberta, Canada.
 
#14 · (Edited)
MDG not what it use to be

My history with MDG is a complex one.
It all began in November 2002. We decied to replace our computer from 1997, which had 200mhz pentium processor, 32mB of ram, (yuk). I saw an MDG ad in the local paper (never heard of the company before then) for a Pentium 4, 1.7Ghz, 80Gb hard drive, 512 MB SDRAM, cd burner, 17" Monitor, free all-in-one printer, keyboard/mouse, sub-woofer speakers, and a free webcam... all for a price of $999 (i think). And in those days, that was a great deal - although we had to wait 6 weeks to pick it up, even though we paid for it up-front ...dad wasnt to happy about that. I still have that computer in the basement, it has never had any serious problems, but a few minor ones. The floppy drive and the modem wires were a bit loose after a few years and didnt work so i had to get them looked at by the local computer store. The Cd drive stopped working so I had to buy a new one, and I added 256MB more ram about 4 yrs after the purchase because I received a low memory warning from windows. But again, no major problems - it's an OK machine (although the monitor squeals sometimes, and they *forgot* to give us the free webcam when we picked the system up so i had to go back there and get it, but they were very nice about it, didnt even want to see a reciept or anything... then again, it turned out to be a piece of junk camera, instructions were poorly written, etc).

So in 2005, 3 yrs after purchase, I was still a big MDG supporter. My brother was going away for school so I told him to get a laptop from MDG. He paid $1200 for laptop with 1.4Ghz, 30 Gb hard drive. Today, 3 yrs later, that notebook is a piece of junk. The hard drive burnt out in 1 year, and the Wireless no longer works...had to buy him a usb wireless adaptor. The keyboard buttons get stuck. And I cant remember what the ram was when we bought it, but right now windows says it has 194 MB of ram, which makes the comp VERY slow. I installed puppy linux on it and now at least it runs fast (windows of course is still slow). So after that experience i became more hesitant of MDG. (plus when we bought the laptop we got a carrying case to, but after we paid for it they said they were out of stock so we had to wait a week to pick it up). This was an Acer Travelmate laptop to be fair, but MDG was the company that sold it to us.

In 2006, I decided to give MDG one last chance. My sister was now going away to school. I went to MDG's website and was interested in there horizon book for $599. I printed off the ad and went to a new MDG that had opened up closer to home. The salesman took one look at the paper and then started telling me why this computer wasnt good. He wanted me to buy the more expensive one. When it became clear to me that this guy was worse than a used car salesman, I said I'd think about it and left - you cant con me! I went back home, looked at computers on futureshop and bestbuy's websites and the next day I bought my sister a Toshiba Satellite 1.84Ghz, 1GB Ram, from Best Buy. That computer works great today, 2.5 yrs after purchase. That was it for me and MDG. The Computer they sold my brother is a piece of junk with hardly any ram, and they tried to con me when i went in there the last time.

MDG was once an OK company, offering cheap prices with lots of extras. But today they make substandard machines, have poor customer service, and are no longer competitive in the computer market, as I have seen many better deals at places like The Source and Futureshop compared to the stuff MDG has on there website today.

Bottom line, I'd avoid MDG today, and if you do go, be cautious and do your research, you may find better deals elsewhere. Look at the RAM, the type of processor, the L2 Cahce, the Bus speed, and so on. Or better yet, buy a MAC, if you can afford it :)

As for me, I bought a Sony VAIO laptop this summer, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB ram, 225GB hardrive, lcd sceen, etc. from Best Buy ($799) and I love it... even Vista too lol - never even considered going to MDG.
 
#15 ·
La pire compagnie d'ordi MDG

J'ai acheté un Aptonbook 15.4" Barebone avec Intel Core Duo T5250 2MO Processor et 2GB DDR2 667 Mhz Sodimm, 250GB Notebook HDD Sata, etc. chez MDG St-Leonard, 5990 Metropolitain Est, St-Leonard, Qc 514-255-6171
le tout pour $ 1,199.00 + tax = totla $ 1,353.37
Suite a une annonce paru dans le Journal de Montréal, je me suis presenté à ce magazin MDG et j'ai été reçu par Luigi de façon cordial et amical. Tout était beau. Après un délai de livraison du à un employé absent..je prend livraison de mon ordi le 28 juillet 2008. A la maison j'ouvre l'ordi et voila que je reçoit un message d'erreur. Je retourne au magazin, Luigi me dit alors (la gentillesse est disparu) que je suis responsable de ce problême (j'ai 62 ans) et je dois payer $107.23 pour la réparation. Je reprends l'ordi le 29 juillet 2008. Et les problêmes ne faisaient que commencer. Sans aucune raison, l'ordi "crach" tout s'éteint et cela de façon alléatoire. Je retourne au magazin (Luigi n'est pas content et me dit que je suis responsable de cette situation). J'ai eu un VAIO pendant 5 ans SANS AUCUN PROBLEME. Luigi en furie lève te ton et me fait un discourt que le produit est fiable etc. etc. Je demande un remboursement - car lorsque l'odi MDG à craché, j'ai perdu une foule de donné qui se trouvait sur un disque dur externe (Maxtor) qui se trouvait branché à l'ordi. Discussion enlevé pour finalement me voir offir de me contruire un nouvel ordi et de tenter de récupérer mes donnés perdus. Une autre attente de plus d'une semaine. Finalement je retouirne chercher le nouvel ordi (sans logo sur le couvert) et on me remet mon disque dur externe avec un backup des donnés récupérer. Depuis ce jour, l'ordi n'est pas fiable et continu de planter de façon alléatoire tout les jours. Je dois faire des "save" a toute les minutes et oublier les transaction enligne...il plante constamment. Je n'utilise plus cet ordi et je suis revenu à mon VIAO beaucoup plus fiable. Je compte prendre des mesure légales afin de récupérer mon argent. JAMAIS je ne recommanderai MDG, un véritable cauchemar
 
#16 · (Edited)
Alright here we go. I've been looking around for a while to publicly display my absolute distaste for MDG and their computers. They're a complete sham! I bought the complete computer package about 2 years ago, 2007ish where it was an intel core 2 duo with 1.6ghz (3.2 total), 2gb ram, and a 1tb HDD. It came with keyboard, mouse, and 22" acer monitor. Now, as I was talking to the salesperson, named Stephano, he in general seemed like a complete... <Insert a word that begins with p and ends with rick> to us and treated us like we knew nothing. Now, as he was going he told us that our warranty is void if we open the computer. Keep that in mind. When I got the computer home, I checked the specs. It only came with one GB ram stick and the rest of the memory was configured as an HDD L2 Cache. So he scammed me out of a gig of ram at first, and when I confronted him about it he would route me to customer service, and then proceed to not answer my calls. This continued for about a week, and I didn't have any means to actually going down there as I was working full time and without a vehicle of my own. Now, on top of that, I opted to downgrade my 1tb HDD into a 500gb HDD in exchange for a 512mb graphics card. Guess what he gave me? 256mb. I'm currently searching for my contract and I AM going to be bringing it to their store, even if I'm out of warranty, and demanding compensation or else I'll bring this case to the media and legal system. They also didn't include a windows vista CD with my system, when they should. Ugh. I am so mad right now, I can't WAIT to see Stephano again! Arrg!

Oh, and also, when I confronted him the first time about DDR2 ram, he said it was "Dual channeled" and that it's "Meant to function like that." I told him straight out that "No, DDR2 is ram designed to function on more advanced motherboards for compatibility sake, and to process faster to keep up with the motherboard's load and performance." After that he put me to customer service and never answered my calls.
 
#17 ·
I went to the Vancouver store (now defunct) about 3 years ago to look at an advertised system. The sales staff (eastern European, maybe Russian) definitely employed high-pressure tactics to steer you towards higher-priced systems. They wouldn't (rather than couldn't as in big box stores) answer any technical questions about the systems. Eventually I ended up buying a HP from one of the big box stores. At least I knew what I was getting.
 
#18 ·
What is MDG?

What is MDG?

MDG is a big scam!!!

One of the sale guy at my work brought an "MDG Laptop" a year or so ago. Yesterday, he had a virus and the laptop needs to format and re-install.

After I installed Windows, I went to MDG's website to look for the drivers and found NOTHING!!!. The owner doesn't know where the original CDs are. So call MDG tech guy and ask him to show me where I can download the drivers. His reply was "You have to buy the drivers, sir." That right, you have to buy it. So I told him that I will not pay for it and I will only download it. I also ask why the website doesn't have any drivers and his reply was that the laptop it's not MDG's laptop and it is a China made with an MDG sticker on it.

After I let out few angry words, he ask for my number so he can go look for the driver then call me back.

I suspect that he will tell me to go to some other site to get the drivers and sure enough he called and directed me to some Chinese site. He asked me if the pic on the site look like the laptop. He even told me to bookmark the site. The drivers are location in the archive sections of the site cause it is obsoleted already. I started to download the drivers and left work cause it's going to take 3 hours to finish. I will try to install tomorrow and put up another post.

So, what you get when you buy an MDG? you'll get a product that is clearly not theirs. Just a cheap or no brand name from China that is almost obsolete. And you have to pay high price for it. If you done believe me, just ask them where to download the drivers.

For those who are thinking about buying an MDG, please reconsider. MDG will only take advantage you.
 
#19 ·
I am by no means an expert but I try to keep up on what is going on with technology. I often get the call from my tech challenged friends who buy new computers and don't know how to tweak them so it works the way they want to. I know at least 3 of them have bought from MDG and I was appalled at the junk they sell to unsuspecting people. Many older Canadians seem to have trusting natures (a very general statement but that's my experience with my acquaintances) and I HATE to see them spend good money on junk that will not meeet their needs. MDG seems to specialize in this area..take the suckers for a ride.

I took, with my friends permissioin, one of these newly bought MDG machines to my favourite, small and privately owned comp shop. They were able to put a machine together for her that was light years beyond what MDG sold her..for less money!

IMO< MDG sells the computer equivalent of the old Russian Lada automobile...lol..Give the business to that little shop with a good reputation. You will never regret it and all it takes is a little research.
 
#20 ·
Horrible experience with MDG

I was tempted by their ad. If you look closer though they are very vague about what parts are going into your machine. You assume that with a high-end computer you will get a good power supply. Wrong, you will get a 250W and if you add a hard drive it will burn. You will get the worst OEM parts you can get. Beware that they have a no-return policy, so once you sign the invoice you're stuck with that damn computer.

But my story is worse than that. The picture in the ad was featuring a aluminum case. I told the seller that I want that system with that casing. He said OK. Everything went smooth, we reviewed the system on his monitor (this is hard to prove, but I think he changed those parts before printing, with very close named parts: instead of x1300 for videocard with x300). Obviously when I signed the printed version I was confident, and didn't re-checked. Needless to say, all parts were changed, except for the casing :) (funny, right?).

I discovered at home and it took me 5 more visits, long waits, negotiations to finally bring the computer close to what it was supposed to be. I never received the software from the ad, the mp3 player came with some Madonna hits (it was pre-tested by someone else!!!).

I tried to complain to the store supervisor, he said the aluminum case is very expensive that's why I received a customized configuration to match the price, (stupid me - he is the head of the operation). I called the customer service which is also a joke. The guy was trying to convince me that the processor is the right one and it's me who doesn't understand what's a virtual core.

I filled a survey that came from their headquarters expressing my frustration. A lady called me to say that she regrets, will look into it, send me my missing software, blah, blah. Nothing happened.

That's my story. If I would have gone to any other store I could have return it, but I didn't expected such thing to happen in Canada. This kind of tricks are happening in third-world countries. and it strikes me that their ads appear in some respected newspapers and websites.
 
#21 ·
Horrible Experience

When I ordered my computer for school 5 years ago (P4 512RAM) I went into the store (South London Location) to get exactly what I wanted and watched the guy fill out the form. I get a phone call 3 or 4 days later saying that my computer was ready and I could come in and pick it up. So I take the 30min trek into the city to go pick it up and when I get there they tell me that they don't have a monitor for me. They told me I could take the CPU if I wanted but it would be another day or 2 before they got another shipment of monitors.

I get a call a couple days later saying that a monitor is in, so I do another trek into the city to pick up my Monitor. Hoping all my headaches are over with them I picked up a wireless card and opened up the CPU to install it to find out that they Shafted me on RAM!! I upgraded from 256 to 512 and when I called to inform them about this the guy on the phone told me that the computer sometimes doesn't recognize there is 512 and will only say 256 if you are looking at what is installed when you are on the screen, I then explain to him that I am looking at the stick of RAM that has been installed. He seemed to want to come up with any excuse to why there was not 512 rather than just admitting they made a mistake.

I finally found the time to take my computer in and as the guy has my computer in the back he comes out and asks me if my computer worked before I brought it in because it wasn't working after he installed the second stick, so he goes into the back and comes out a few minutes later to find out that HE had unplugged something on the motherboard.

So 4 hrs of driving and a cumulation of about 2hrs over the phone and in the store I was finally able to use the computer that I had paid for.

Although they did fix the problems that arose they offered me a free trial of a no name anti-virus program for my troubles. I kindly accepted it and never looked back once I walked out the door for the final time as well as never suggested to MDG to anyone that has been in need of a computer since
 
#22 ·
never ever

We are always buying the HP brand and I still don't understand why I bought my MDG computer in 2005 There was a sign of warning that I knew and ignored. What we've got was a poor quality, boosted price, always some reason to go back to the store for repairs, bad service, and some problems that couldn't ever be fixed as: the speakers playing even with the head set plugged, the USB port upside down. The time you wait in the store you hear nothing but complaining customers. Never again I buy anything from this company. The sign that should turn me off at the very beginning was the flag waving, the "only Canadian build computer" this strategy is used usually to sell low quality product.
 
#23 ·
Ripped off, Horrible Customer service.

Financed a Vision XXLF series from MDG, got my system on Tuesday (7th), The computer did NOT have the graphics card installed and when I called customer service to tell them my card is missing, I instantly was given attitude and spoken to quite rudely by the agent.

Had to mail the system back (Thursday 9th) already to have them install the graphics card - as They wont ship you just a card - even though it's all you need.

Customer service agents are unprofessional, they never called me back at the times/days they said they would. I had to continuously call to finally get a hold of someone.

They overcharge extremely for their products.

Save yourself the trouble, Do NOT finance from MDG as they try to rip you off as much as they can, take up as much of your time as possible, then blame you when they mess up.

I'll be filing complaints with the BetterBuisnessBureau and also taking them to small claims court if need be.

Be wary, STAY AWAY from MDG.
 
#24 ·
number 3

I have had a desktop and just ordered my second laptop. The first laptop was running VISTA and did have a bios issue, they had it repaired and back to me within a week and that was about 6 years ago. The desktop was on its 7th year before we held its funeral earlier this year. Sorry but I have nothing negative to say about the service or the quality of these products.
my Dell lasted a year before having issues that they refused to cover, In the 90s I had an HP that was having issues right out of the box...they refused to cover based on my geographic location.
Once again, MDG has my vote for quality and service.
 
#25 ·
MDG is probably one of the worst company's that call them selves Canadian

G-A-R-B-A-G-E

Grey market, offbrand parts, poor service, retarded sales people.
they are the lowest of the low. they trick ya into buyin' with their "low" prices then sell you stuff that's less than advertised.
you might as well flush your money down the toilet.

MDG = Cheaper Parts / Lower Quality
 
#26 ·
The funny thing about MDG is they have been around for a very long time. I remember way back in about 1998 a friend of mine was looking to get his first PC so he could get on the net.

He saw this ad in the Star TV guide and was interested in their 'Diamond' system. We went to their store and this cute Asian girl starts telling us about the computer... with what she was saying I could quickly tell she had no clue what she was talking about! She was really pushy trying to get us to buy the PC... we then told her we'd have to think about it... come back later.

She then said the strangest thing to me... she told me she also worked at a massage parlor at night and maybe we'd like to see her there tonight?
We ran out the door... got it the car and drove off laughing so hard... I think she was just working there to get guys to the rub & tug. That tells you alot about this place.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top