11.07.2006
Going For Gold
Posted by Chris Morley

Yesterday Velocity Micro earned a Gold Editor’s Choice award and “Highly Recommended” rating from
[H]ard|OCP’s [H] Consumer division.

Getting a “Highly Recommended” award from [H] Consumer is a feat most companies cannot accomplish. I know, because I quite literally wrote the [H] Consumer manual. I was their Managing Editor before taking my post at Velocity Micro.

[H] Consumer evaluates every aspect of the ownership experience, from purchasing a system to its packaging and build quality, real world performance, and most importantly, support and stability. In our last round with [H]ard|OCP, not only did we pass with flying colors, we provided them with one of the “better support experiences [they] ever had.”

[H] Consumer evaluations are unique in the industry: they order their “review” systems anonymously in order to get a more realistic customer experience and they are the only publication to refuse review systems that have been given “extra attention” from vendors who know they are being put in the spot light. This is definitely good for companies like Velocity Micro where each one of our systems are “review-quality” – everyone gets special treatment. They clearly and thoroughly discuss every aspect of a system and the company that produces it . We also like the fact that they are so attentive to detail – they notice the extra tweaks and little things that our enthusiast customer base live for – for instance we incorporate a front audio harness with Creative sound cards. This is important because without this harness, the front audio ports on the computer would be useless – and nobody wants that. The evaluators also take a look at the restore process, noise signature, thermals, and rigorously test every system for any hardware weakness. Combined with their thorough evaluation of a company’s tech support, [H] Consumer has the potential to really make a company shine, and conversely, they point out issues that no other publication looks for.

In this evaluation of the Velocity Micro Gamers’ Edge PCX, they awarded us incredibly high scores for our sales and ordering process, packaging, build quality, gaming and general usage performance, stability, and most importantly, support. And because this is an anonymous review, customers can be assured that the system they receive will be as high flying as what was featured in this evaluation.

In fact, they were at a loss to find anything much to detract from their evaluation. We really appreciated the suggestions they made about our product descriptions and our on hold messaging. We’re looking at how to incorporate these ideas to improve our customer experience.

We have a long history with [H] Consumer - Velocity Micro was the first company to support [H]ard|OCP when they first began evaluating systems. We were also the first to urge [H]ard|OCP to purchase a system anonymously from us to experience what a real customer would experience. Since the relationship began, we’ve had five systems evaluated in this process and have been praised for our 24/7, US-based, in house support. We have a strong presence on their forums, and have shown to be a “fan favorite,” with our customers posting about their purchasing experience with us all the time. We really appreciate the opportunity to have our products evaluated by [H] Consumer and join in their forums to help the community.

[11.07.2006 @ 12:23 PM]  [Digg it]