Apex Gaming PCs Responds to JustinTechTips

Note: The image shown below is of an email sent by the BBB to Apex Gaming PCs on 10/04/2025. Apex Gaming PCs does not currently retain BBB accreditation or an A+ rating.

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Dear Apex Community,

Our mission has always been transparency and continuous improvement. Recently, a video was published by JustinTechTips that raised several concerns regarding our business practices, shipping timelines, and BBB accreditation.

We value the role of tech reviewers in holding the industry to a high standard. It’s a good thing. However, several key points in the video lack necessary context or contain factual inaccuracies that we believe our community deserves to see.

1. Shipping Timelines & Customer Reviews

The video opens with a montage of negative reviews claiming months-long delays. Upon investigation, we found that many of these reviews were for "Apex Armor Solutions," an entirely unrelated company selling tactical gear (specifically Aglite and Highcom plate carriers). In the tactical industry, 'PC' stands for Plate Carrier, not Personal Computer. The 'months-long' shipping delays Justin highlighted in his intro were largely attributed to these body armor reviews, not our gaming systems.

While Justin did blur some of these after our initial outreach, several unblurred reviews remain in the video that still refer to body armor, not gaming PCs. We have undergone significant restructuring over the last two years to ensure our actual PC shipping times remain industry-competitive, and Justin experienced that firsthand. 

 

Our shipping data for the order in question shows:

• Order Date: February 9th

• Ship Date: February 14th

• Total Internal Processing: 5 Business Days

While we exceeded our 2–4 business day lead time by 24 hours, the system was shipped within a week. We have spent the last two years restructuring our assembly and logistics to ensure the "months-long waits" mentioned in 3-year-old Reddit threads are a thing of the past.

While we regret exceeding our lead time by 24 hours, the total wait time was nearly half as long as the video implies when you distinguish assembly time from carrier transit. We do not—and have never—claimed that PCs deliver within 4 days of an order being placed. 

2. BBB Accreditation & The "A+" Rating

There has been confusion regarding our Better Business Bureau status.

• Apex Gaming PCs was officially granted A+ accreditation on 10/05/2025. We have shared the original certificate and correspondence from the BBB of Greater Houston with Justin. Documentation of this can be found below. 

• Due to an error with duplicate profiles (PA vs. TX), we withdrew the TX profile to allow the BBB to merge our data, as the BBB system could not merge the data while both the legacy PA and new TX pages were active. During this transition, an old blog post claiming accreditation remained live, and a customer service agent provided outdated information.

• We take full responsibility for this internal lag. However, it is important to note that the blog post was removed and staff were retrained prior to the video’s release. This was done in response to the very first inquiry we received regarding our BBB status—a ticket created in late April by an alias used by JustinTechTips. Prior to this date, no customers had asked about BBB status, and no customers were specifically told by any customer service staff that Apex Gaming PCs had a specific BBB status. 

• To put the "intentionality" of this error into perspective, Apex has had ~1.8 million unique visitors since October 2025. That specific blog post received only 28 total visits in its lifetime.

• Any claim that our accreditation was "fabricated", "false," or "faked" is demonstrably inaccurate. 

3. Refunds and Sales Tax

The video suggests that Apex Gaming PCs withholds sales tax on refunds. This is a misunderstanding of our flexibility and state tax laws.

The Policy vs. The Practice:

• Apex always refunds 100% of sales tax on returns made within the state-allowable window.

• We pride ourselves on agent flexibility. While our official policy is shorter, we often accommodate returns as far as 180 days from the time of purchase, depending on the circumstances. 

• In these "out-of-policy" instances, some states do not allow for the recovery of remitted sales tax. Our policy included "non-refundable" language to account for these specific, late-term exceptions. We recognize that our website did not make this distinction clear, and we removed that language within 30 minutes of receiving the feedback from Justin's alias, again, before this video was posted. 

In this specific instance, an agent initially provided incorrect information regarding the tax recovery. However:

1. Our management audit system caught the error within two minutes of the email being sent.

2. Management manually overrode the agent, ensuring the reviewer was informed that their sales tax would be 100% refunded.

3. In addition to the full tax refund, we exercised our flexibility by reducing the standard restocking fee by 50% to ensure the customer was taken care of.

4. To be clear, this fee was only charged because the PC was being returned because "I just need the money more than I need this PC... it's been unboxed and tried out". In the event a system arrives DoA, damaged, or incorrect, a full refund is possible even if the system is unboxed and used. 

Our oversight worked exactly as intended: the error was identified, and the record was corrected. The final restocking fee charged was 12.5%, and all sales taxes were returned. 

4. Component Availability & Renders

We want to address the "RTX 5090" system mentioned in the video. Every component in that build is available for purchase on our website today, and was back in 2025 when we partnered with Justin Tech Tips. You can find all of the parts in that system on our Apex Xtreme or Apex Custom Builder. 

Additionally, we use standardized renders to represent hardware classes (due to fluctuating model availability), and we agree that the scale of these renders should be more precise.

We do want to clarify that while the GPU shroud might look different than the render, the GPU itself (RTX 5060) was, and is always, exactly what was ordered.

Updates to our website imagery will be live within the next two weeks, and the Apex RTS 5060, the model purchased by Justin Tech Tips, has already had its image updated within 24 hours of the video release (05/02/2026).

5. Component Choice: RAM & Cooling

The video questioned our choice of internal components. We select parts based on a balance of performance, long-term reliability, and shipping safety.

• While our RAM features custom-branded heatsinks, the internal modules are Hynix 16GB DDR4-3000 sticks. Hynix is one of the top three semiconductor manufacturers in the world; we select these specifically for their industry-leading reliability and low failure rates. This is not an attempt to hide the manufacturer from customers, who can simply remove the heatsinks to determine the OEM, but rather our attempt to make the PCs aesthetically tie together nicely. To verify the OEM without removing hardware, users can also use software tools like CPU-Z or Thaiphoon Burner, which read the SPD (Serial Presence Detect) data directly from the module's controller.

• The video critiqued the use of an All-In-One (AIO) liquid cooler on our RTS 5060 model. We historically prefer shipping with AIOs because they place significantly less physical weight on the CPU socket. This makes the system far more resilient during the rigors of transit and less likely to sustain shipping damage.

• We do listen to market feedback. Even before this video was posted (04/08/2026), we had already transitioned the "RTS 5060" model to a tower cooler to better align with customer price-to-performance expectations.

6. GPU Performance and Thermal Claims

While the video utilized dramatized animations to illustrate heat concerns, the reviewer’s own recorded data showed a thermal delta of only 1.5°C. We want to reassure our community that this variance is well within safe operating margins.

In the reviewer's own testing, our RTX 5060 showed a maximum thermal delta of only 1.5°C compared to other models. To put this in perspective:

• A 1.5°C difference can be caused by something as simple as the ambient temperature of the room or the specific game being played.

• This variance is well within the manufacturer’s expected operating range.

This variance is within the standard margin of error for hardware testing and has no impact on the longevity or performance of the silicon. The data proves the system is performing exactly as intended.

7. The CPSC Recall

The video referenced a CPSC recall as a point of criticism. It is vital to clarify the nature of this event: This was a voluntary recall initiated by Apex Gaming PCs.

This was not a government-mandated action resulting from an investigation. Instead, after an internal audit, we identified a potential issue and contacted the CPSC on our own accord.

We chose to go through the formal recall process because customer safety is—and always will be—our highest priority, regardless of the potential for negative PR.

We believe that taking proactive responsibility is the hallmark of a legitimate company, not a "scam."

Our Commitment to You

We aren’t a perfect company, but when we make a mistake—whether it’s a poorly written policy or a slow-moving blog update—we own it and fix it. We did so in every instance brought forward in this video, acting on feedback provided by the reviewer's alias well before the video was ever published. Our oversight systems don't wait for a video to go live to do the right thing. 

However, we still walk away with lessons learned. Based on this feedback, we have already:

• Updated our Return Policy: Customers now have 30 days to return a PC for any reason, and our restocking fees clearly state that sales taxes are fully refundable.

• Refined Support Training: On 05/02/26, we again ensured all agents are properly aligned on tax, return, and BBB accreditation status. Agents were already trained regarding the BBB status and sales tax prior to the video's release, as mentioned above. 

• Audited Content: We are working on implementing a stricter cadence for reviewing old blog content. 

We thank Justin for his feedback, as it helps us grow. We hope this provides the clarity our customers deserve.

Update #1 — 05/04/2026

In addition to the immediate policy changes mentioned above, we are implementing the following long-term standards to ensure total clarity and fairness for our customers:

Refined Return & Restocking Standards

We have formalized our restocking fee to be up to 15%. This is not a flat penalty; it is a variable scale based on the condition of the system upon return and the duration of its use. This ensures we are as fair as possible to the customer while accounting for component depreciation and labor.

100% Sales Tax Refund Guarantee

We have heard the concerns regarding how sales tax is handled during returns. To be clear: Apex Gaming PCs does not, has not, and will not profit from your sales tax. While many states have rigid remittance laws that prevent retailers from recovering tax on returns made after 90 days, we believe the customer should not be penalized for these bureaucratic hurdles.

• The Guarantee: Regardless of whether the return is within our standard 30-day window or an "out-of-policy" exception we have granted at 180 days, Apex will refund 100% of the sales tax paid.

• Our Commitment: In cases where Apex cannot recover those funds from the state, we will cover that cost ourselves to ensure you receive your full refund.

A Commitment to Policy Stability

We recognize that as Apex has grown, our internal "flexibility" has created external and even internal confusion. While our previous written policies were more restrictive, we have several documented occurrences where we were happy to cancel and refund orders outside of those terms because it was the right thing to do. Doing what is right for the customer is, and always has been, what we seek to do.

We have spent the last few days auditing our entire post-purchase experience to move away from "agent discretion" and toward firm, transparent standards. The policies we have implemented now, including the 30-day return window and the 15% variable restocking fee cap, represent our permanent commitment to a stable and predictable customer experience. We are solidifying these terms so that every customer, agent, and reviewer knows exactly what to expect from Apex moving forward.

To wrap up the update, this section emphasizes that you are backing up these new policies with actual human training. It ensures the community knows that the "old ways" of handling tickets are being actively corrected through a structural program.

Ongoing Education & Agent Retraining

To ensure these standards are met across every interaction, we have implemented mandatory monthly training for our entire Customer Service team. These sessions are designed to eliminate misinformation and ensure that every agent is an expert on our current standards, specifically covering:

• RMA & Logistics: Streamlining the repair and replacement process for faster resolution.

• Policy Alignment: Ensuring total accuracy regarding our new Cancellation, Return, and 100% Sales Tax Refund guarantees.

• Operational Accuracy: Updating all team members on our current accreditation status across review platforms, professional organizations, and company ratings to ensure transparent communication.

By institutionalizing this training, we are ensuring that the growth of our team does not affect our customers. We are committed to being a company that doesn't just have the right policies on paper, but has a team that lives by them every day, and is constantly up to date on all of our policies. 

Apex Armor Reviews

BBB Accreditation and A+ Rating