kevinb2001

I purchased a supposedly new in box motherboard from the NCIX ebay outlet store. My experience was so unbelievably terrible, that I will never buy from NCIX again nor will I recommend to anyone who comes to me for buying advice to buy from here again.
I'm getting a refund but the fact that they continue to insist that it was me who damaged the board and there's no way it could have been damaged by them is disgraceful. I DIDN'T DAMAGE THE BOARD. I sent the first message within 30 minutes of Canada Post delivering it. If I damaged it I would have eaten the cost and moved on. The employee who deals with their ebay store admits that he didn't check the board before sending it. In fact his response seems to indicate that they don't check any of their outlet store sales before sending them out. He seems to think no one buys Xeon boards but as someone who buys more than one actual brand new server board most years and enough entry level enterprise drives like re4's to sink a ship I think that statement is laughable. Maybe no one buys them from NCIX and now I see why.
 
For reference here was my exchange with their staff that has lost my business for good:
 
Message from me to NCIX ebay outlet:
Hello,
I just received my order but I'm very unhappy. Your listing said this was new in box and undamaged but someone has clearly broken the bottom right corner of the motherboard. This was not a result of shipping because the anti-static bag has a rip in it at the same spot and it was clearly mishandled or dropped at some point. All I want is a working undamaged motherboard as advertised. Let me know what you want to do. (picture attached)

Response from NCIX:
New message from: outlet_ncix Top Rated Seller
That kind of damage would only have occurred after the motherboard was removed from the packaging unless the box itself was damaged and there would no reason for us to remove a unopened motherboard or handle just the motherboard in that way. So even though we can't prove that do you want to return it at our cost for a full refund?
 
My response to NCIX ebay outlet:
Yes I would like to return it for a full refund. Also I don't appreciate the insinuation that I damaged the board. The box was NOT sealed and the bag has no sticker to show that it hadn't been opened by anyone. Having spent a great deal of my past working in retail, I can guarantee you this happened from one of two things:
1. the board was sold and NCIX returned it without adequately looking over the board. (not trying to tell you how to do your job, but it's concerning that you don't inspect boards for damage to socket pins or anything else, especially when selling them through your outlet store, where everything's either been returned or has been sitting around so long you just want to get rid of it. Heck if I buy a motherboard from any local store they open the box in store and ask me to verify at the very least that there are no bent socket pins because so many people are stupid and damage them after they leave the store).
2. YOUR STAFF (not me) opened it and damaged it and decided rather than get in trouble, would just put it back and not say anything.
The idea that no one who works at NCIX has ever opened a motherboard box to handle it or look at it before, show to a customer, whatever, is completely absurd. This would make you the only electronics chain selling computer parts that has never opened a motherboard box and handled a motherboard. Not to mention I guarantee I can go on your youtube channel and find videos of your staff opening brand new products to make videos. You're telling me not a single one of those ever got sold as being still new?
Now obviously I can't tell you which of those two scenarios resulted in a damaged motherboard being sent to me but your accusation that I damaged it is insulting enough to guarantee that not only do I not ever buy anything from NCIX again, but neither will the company I work for, or the many other personal contacts who come to me for purchasing advice, ever be recommended to you, and actually dissuaded instead.
 
Response from NCIX:
NIB products are not inspected or even opened for customers prior to purchase, our company has policy against that. They can be opened after the customer purchases them and if they change their mind then it returned as an opened product. If they discover the product is damaged or defective it is returned to the supplier for credit/replacment. The product is not returned to our inventory. Since this obviously not a manufacturer defect or shipped to us in such a condition. The damage either occurred at some point well it was sitting in the warehouse, during shipping or when in your possession. The only time this motherboard would ever be at a retail store is if there was already a pending order for one. People do not purchase ZEON Motherboards on a whim so we don't stock them at our stores. The only people at our warehouse who would even handle a product outside of the retail packaging is our assembly team, and the only person who would handle this kind of motherboard is our assembly manager and he wouldn't need to cover up damaging a motherboard. 
Regardless of how or when the damage occurred we are required by eBay to allow you to return the motherboard for a full refund. 
If this wasn't purchased through eBay we would refuse the request to return the product as this would be considered customer damage by Supermicro and they would refuse our credit request.

So moral of the story, 9/10 a customer might lie in order to make someone else pay for their mistake, but in this case that's not what happened. I respect the employee for coming back with an apology and maybe he just had a bad day and had dealt with too many customers who were actually guilty. The part that puts me off from buying from NCIX again is the fact that I sent a complaint from my regular ncix account on their website to their customer service and NEVER received a response. Their policy of not checking motherboards before sending terrifies me as a customer if you're then going to assume in all cases the customer is at fault. That might be true most of the time but I've seen a store receive 3 in a row Asus Sabertooth motherboards new in box from a shipment from their supplier with bent pins, which is why they now go to the expense of at least visually inspecting boards when they're sold. I don't expect NCIX to do that with all boards they sell as I'm sure they move a lot of inventory, but on $1000 boards and especially when selling inventory you've had sitting around for years and put up for sale in an outlet store they should really open the box and at least take a photo of the overall physical condition of the board and the socket pins. Also 100% this was the real NCIX because my RMA went on their purolator account to their warehouse address.
 
 
 
This was my response back to NCIX after the original post:
 
Wow, so for some reason you feel the need to reinforce your suggestion that I broke this. What a joke, you admit that you don't bother to even visually check things before sending them out and yet you think it's more likely that I damaged this in the first 5 minutes of receiving it than it is that you sent it to me already in this condition. If your inventory tracking is so good on XEON (note: there's no z) motherboards did you even bother to go check with this one person who may have handled it if maybe they remember one getting damaged and forgetting to write it off or put a note on the box? Any investigation into the actual history of this board? I doubt it. My guess would be your inventory system said it had never been sold so you assumed it was actually still new in the box, meanwhile it had been taken out and damaged and that's probably why you still had it in stock. Thank you for confirming that I should never buy from your company again.
 
The response a week later once my RMA got back to them:
 
We received the return and processed your RMA. Your refund will be issued within 24 hours back to your PayPal account.

I also owe you an apology. Our returns team figured out how the motherboard was damaged. This motherboard had been sold at some point and then returned. The original RMA specifically notes it was damaged and because the motherboard was considered out of warranty at the time it should have been sent to be recycled, but somehow it got returned to the shelf as a new motherboard instead. I was wrong and I should have taken more time to investigate then just jump to what I thought was the obvious case of customer caused damaged. For that I am very sorry.

I understand my apology isn't going to change how you were treated or your opinion, but I still feel it was important that you were made aware that you were unfairly treated in this case and I was the one who was in the wrong.

I purchased a supposedly new in box motherboard from the NCIX ebay outlet store. My experience was so unbelievably terrible, that I will never buy from NCIX again nor will I recommend to anyone who comes to me for buying advice to buy from here again.
I'm getting a refund but the fact that they continue to insist that it was me who damaged the board and there's no way it could have been damaged by them is disgraceful. I DIDN'T DAMAGE THE BOARD. I sent the first message within 30 minutes of Canada Post delivering it. If I damaged it I would have eaten the cost and moved on. The employee who deals with their ebay store admits that he didn't check the board before sending it. In fact his response seems to indicate that they don't check any of their outlet store sales before sending them out. He seems to think no one buys Xeon boards but as someone who buys more than one actual brand new server board most years and enough entry level enterprise drives like re4's to sink a ship I think that statement is laughable. Maybe no one buys them from NCIX and now I see why.
 
For reference here was my exchange with their staff that has lost my business for good:
 
Message from me to NCIX ebay outlet:
Hello,
I just received my order but I'm very unhappy. Your listing said this was new in box and undamaged but someone has clearly broken the bottom right corner of the motherboard. This was not a result of shipping because the anti-static bag has a rip in it at the same spot and it was clearly mishandled or dropped at some point. All I want is a working undamaged motherboard as advertised. Let me know what you want to do. (picture attached)

Response from NCIX:
New message from: outlet_ncix Top Rated Seller
That kind of damage would only have occurred after the motherboard was removed from the packaging unless the box itself was damaged and there would no reason for us to remove a unopened motherboard or handle just the motherboard in that way. So even though we can't prove that do you want to return it at our cost for a full refund?
 
My response to NCIX ebay outlet:
Yes I would like to return it for a full refund. Also I don't appreciate the insinuation that I damaged the board. The box was NOT sealed and the bag has no sticker to show that it hadn't been opened by anyone. Having spent a great deal of my past working in retail, I can guarantee you this happened from one of two things:
1. the board was sold and NCIX returned it without adequately looking over the board. (not trying to tell you how to do your job, but it's concerning that you don't inspect boards for damage to socket pins or anything else, especially when selling them through your outlet store, where everything's either been returned or has been sitting around so long you just want to get rid of it. Heck if I buy a motherboard from any local store they open the box in store and ask me to verify at the very least that there are no bent socket pins because so many people are stupid and damage them after they leave the store).
2. YOUR STAFF (not me) opened it and damaged it and decided rather than get in trouble, would just put it back and not say anything.
The idea that no one who works at NCIX has ever opened a motherboard box to handle it or look at it before, show to a customer, whatever, is completely absurd. This would make you the only electronics chain selling computer parts that has never opened a motherboard box and handled a motherboard. Not to mention I guarantee I can go on your youtube channel and find videos of your staff opening brand new products to make videos. You're telling me not a single one of those ever got sold as being still new?
Now obviously I can't tell you which of those two scenarios resulted in a damaged motherboard being sent to me but your accusation that I damaged it is insulting enough to guarantee that not only do I not ever buy anything from NCIX again, but neither will the company I work for, or the many other personal contacts who come to me for purchasing advice, ever be recommended to you, and actually dissuaded instead.
 
Response from NCIX:
NIB products are not inspected or even opened for customers prior to purchase, our company has policy against that. They can be opened after the customer purchases them and if they change their mind then it returned as an opened product. If they discover the product is damaged or defective it is returned to the supplier for credit/replacment. The product is not returned to our inventory. Since this obviously not a manufacturer defect or shipped to us in such a condition. The damage either occurred at some point well it was sitting in the warehouse, during shipping or when in your possession. The only time this motherboard would ever be at a retail store is if there was already a pending order for one. People do not purchase ZEON Motherboards on a whim so we don't stock them at our stores. The only people at our warehouse who would even handle a product outside of the retail packaging is our assembly team, and the only person who would handle this kind of motherboard is our assembly manager and he wouldn't need to cover up damaging a motherboard. 
Regardless of how or when the damage occurred we are required by eBay to allow you to return the motherboard for a full refund. 
If this wasn't purchased through eBay we would refuse the request to return the product as this would be considered customer damage by Supermicro and they would refuse our credit request.

Customer service passed away quietly last night. It succumbed to a long illness. The wake is at the next quarterly meeting, and the funeral will follow shortly. Each year companies worldwide struggle for sales growth and profit, yet a conservative estimate of their loss from poor customer service comes in at a staggering $338.5 B a year.
While customers vote with their pocket books, customers have become accustomed to poor service. Few companies stand out. Mediocre service is rampant. Customers don't necessarily demand more.
 
^^^ exerts from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140513214859-64275548-the-death-of-customer-service
 
It's a sad day when the majority of people simply accept poor customer service as common place because "everyone else is doing it".

In my experience as long as you have an email address from almost any university/college in north america, you can get windows server through imagine. Microsoft verifies you're a student by the fact you're using a student email address from that school. The school doesn't have to do anything on a per user basis as far as my experience goes. I think it's more just that microsoft has to recognize your school as a verified college/uni, which unless it's a new school it usually is. I've seen people use university email addresses that they still have despite the fact they graduated 5 years ago and didn't take anything to do with IT, and colleges offering night classes that give students a school email address also usually work.

you'd be better off running freenas in a vm off of esxi, using pcie passthrough of an hba, than you would be to try and run virtualbox in freenas 9.x as a vm host.
 
Not sure if the one you're looking at comes with all 4gb dimms but usually the ones with e5507's do. Maybe look for an R710 that doesn't come with cpu or ram, and then buy 8gb 10600r dimms seperately and upgrade to x5670's.
 
Also maybe post the description or link to whatever you're looking at buying.

I purchased a supposedly new in box motherboard from the NCIX ebay outlet store. My experience was so unbelievably terrible, that I will never buy from NCIX again nor will I recommend to anyone who comes to me for buying advice to buy from here again.
I'm getting a refund but the fact that they continue to insist that it was me who damaged the board and there's no way it could have been damaged by them is disgraceful. I DIDN'T DAMAGE THE BOARD. I sent the first message within 30 minutes of Canada Post delivering it. If I damaged it I would have eaten the cost and moved on. The employee who deals with their ebay store admits that he didn't check the board before sending it. In fact his response seems to indicate that they don't check any of their outlet store sales before sending them out. He seems to think no one buys Xeon boards but as someone who buys more than one actual brand new server board most years and enough entry level enterprise drives like re4's to sink a ship I think that statement is laughable. Maybe no one buys them from NCIX and now I see why.
 
For reference here was my exchange with their staff that has lost my business for good:
 
Message from me to NCIX ebay outlet:
Hello,
I just received my order but I'm very unhappy. Your listing said this was new in box and undamaged but someone has clearly broken the bottom right corner of the motherboard. This was not a result of shipping because the anti-static bag has a rip in it at the same spot and it was clearly mishandled or dropped at some point. All I want is a working undamaged motherboard as advertised. Let me know what you want to do. (picture attached)

Response from NCIX:
New message from: outlet_ncix Top Rated Seller
That kind of damage would only have occurred after the motherboard was removed from the packaging unless the box itself was damaged and there would no reason for us to remove a unopened motherboard or handle just the motherboard in that way. So even though we can't prove that do you want to return it at our cost for a full refund?
 
My response to NCIX ebay outlet:
Yes I would like to return it for a full refund. Also I don't appreciate the insinuation that I damaged the board. The box was NOT sealed and the bag has no sticker to show that it hadn't been opened by anyone. Having spent a great deal of my past working in retail, I can guarantee you this happened from one of two things:
1. the board was sold and NCIX returned it without adequately looking over the board. (not trying to tell you how to do your job, but it's concerning that you don't inspect boards for damage to socket pins or anything else, especially when selling them through your outlet store, where everything's either been returned or has been sitting around so long you just want to get rid of it. Heck if I buy a motherboard from any local store they open the box in store and ask me to verify at the very least that there are no bent socket pins because so many people are stupid and damage them after they leave the store).
2. YOUR STAFF (not me) opened it and damaged it and decided rather than get in trouble, would just put it back and not say anything.
The idea that no one who works at NCIX has ever opened a motherboard box to handle it or look at it before, show to a customer, whatever, is completely absurd. This would make you the only electronics chain selling computer parts that has never opened a motherboard box and handled a motherboard. Not to mention I guarantee I can go on your youtube channel and find videos of your staff opening brand new products to make videos. You're telling me not a single one of those ever got sold as being still new?
Now obviously I can't tell you which of those two scenarios resulted in a damaged motherboard being sent to me but your accusation that I damaged it is insulting enough to guarantee that not only do I not ever buy anything from NCIX again, but neither will the company I work for, or the many other personal contacts who come to me for purchasing advice, ever be recommended to you, and actually dissuaded instead.
 
Response from NCIX:
NIB products are not inspected or even opened for customers prior to purchase, our company has policy against that. They can be opened after the customer purchases them and if they change their mind then it returned as an opened product. If they discover the product is damaged or defective it is returned to the supplier for credit/replacment. The product is not returned to our inventory. Since this obviously not a manufacturer defect or shipped to us in such a condition. The damage either occurred at some point well it was sitting in the warehouse, during shipping or when in your possession. The only time this motherboard would ever be at a retail store is if there was already a pending order for one. People do not purchase ZEON Motherboards on a whim so we don't stock them at our stores. The only people at our warehouse who would even handle a product outside of the retail packaging is our assembly team, and the only person who would handle this kind of motherboard is our assembly manager and he wouldn't need to cover up damaging a motherboard. 
Regardless of how or when the damage occurred we are required by eBay to allow you to return the motherboard for a full refund. 
If this wasn't purchased through eBay we would refuse the request to return the product as this would be considered customer damage by Supermicro and they would refuse our credit request.