Category : Interviews
Manufacturer :

Posted by: Major on 2001-04-25 00:00:00

Motive: In an effort to give you a better idea who the individual retailers/vendors in our Overclocking Equipment Pricelist are, we've decided to do interviews with all of them. There will be about one interview a week, so it'll take a little time to get through all of the (currently) 68 retailers. But we'll be sure to include both the well known and the not so well known in our coming interviews. Most of the questions will be the same in all the interviews, but if the retailers have anything specific, we will ask about that as well. This week the interview is with Bart A. Lane who runs 3DfxCOOL.com. Here's the interview: How did you get into the overclocking/case modding market ? And when ?

In 1996 I made a cooler for the original 3Dfx 4 meg card and posted my design on Usenet. Some people asked if I would make them for a price so I did. Eventually I put up a web site and sold them using the profits to increase our line of products. Good customer service and word of mouth has resulted in tremendous growth in the cooling market. We were one of the first.

We provide extreme cooling at good prices but many sites do this. What sets us apart is our customer service. We offer lifetime warranties, we pay return shipping for any problem with our coolers, ever. You can return an item in the first 30 days and get a full refund including any shipping cost both ways, so if you don't like it or can't use it you won't be out a penny. Nobody can say that. Also our e-mail response time is incredible. We are always here to help.

We are located in Edmonds WA [Ed. in the US!] but due to zoning regulations for our business (We run the business from our home but keep a warehouse somewhere else.) we are 100% mail order only. We get customers from all over the world.

My idea is that I treat all customers the way I would like to be treated. I 'm a consumer too and I've been treated horribly in the past and I could never do that to somebody else. I work hard to take care of any problems quickly and all our customers are treated beyond fairly and in a super fast manner.

We try to carry the best cooling items for the money. Not necessarily the most expensive but the best for the money. If you buy a product from us you can be sure it has been tested, compared and comes out on top. We buy from many different manufacturers around the world.

Unfortunately due to our high levels of warranty, return shipping paid, speedy service, etc. we do not price match because there are aspects of a purchase with us that other companies do not offer. We are not a discount fan outlet, we are a high quality business that works very hard for our customers and they are always happy. The lowest price tag is not always the best price tag. Plus our shipping is very cheap.

We keep enough people on hand to handle demand. It fluctuates often because a lot of family and friends help out when needed.

Yes, once we get a customer they our typically ours forever once they realize what tremendous service we offer. Especially if a product fails or they order something they either don't like or can't use. We don't have a single unhappy customer out there that I'm aware of.

Word of mouth is number one by far. Reseller Ratings is a good source because we are ranked very highly. Search engines work and so do hardware reviews on web site. They come from all over.

I work on the business about 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week. It seems to be all I do. Which is odd because I wanted my own company so I could have freedom but it ended up being more work than I ever imagined. But I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world.

All support is either via e-mail or our discussion forum. Either is answered very quickly, e-mail is typically the fastest. We don't use the phone because honestly it just takes up too much time. When we did have a phone up all I did was talk on the phone all day and nothing got done. We got behind, service slipped, so I dropped it. E-mail is fast, easy and free. Plus I can read my response and the customers to be sure accurate information is given.

They seem to pop up all the time. Competition is good for everybody. It must be tough to get into at this point. Fortunately we have a very solid customer base that grows every day.

I'm happy the way things are. We will always be only cooling. The way things are is the way I like it. We are lucrative and the level of customer service is very high. It eats me up when we get a customer who didn't have things go right and too much business increases this possibility. Things are good now.

I run a 1.2MHz T-Bird, 3 sticks of PC133, Asus A7V board, Asus Geforce2 card with TV tuner. (Gotta watch my Mariners while I work.) plus a Quantum Atlas 10K 10,000 RPM UWSCSI2 HDD. It's not the fastest machine on the block ut it does everything well. I'm good at tuning in speed via software so I do have it optimized. Oh, I have a sweet 21" NEC LCD monitor. The thing is huge and flat. I spoiled myself here because I stare at the screen so much every day. Actually I end up spending most of my day doing e-mail on a Dell Inspiron notebook so that is really my number one machine but it's all about business on that one. Favorite game right now is Nobody Lives Forever.

Stay tuned. We have a few things in store. I like our name though, it is ecognized as a brand in itself I believe. We get lots of traffic and 3Dfx s still a good word for search engines. They may be gone but they're not dead yet. It was a sad day for me when I heard the word.. I really loved that company and their products. (Plus I had a bunch of their stock.)

Just thanks for all your support over the years. It's been great. I hope we have many more and I personally give you my word we will always try our hardest for you.