Does this warrant negative feedback?

[Sat1600]

I purchased a RX 470 from ebay recently. It was with a 15% off site wide promo code. It sold for $91.50. I paid $77.76.

 

I understand that most 470s and 480s on ebay are mining cars. Most sellers advertise as such. The description on this card said "pulled from a working computer.  Tested"

 

I got the card and installed it. Problems started when I installed the AMD software. I spent hours troubleshooting. Turns out it had a modded bios.

 

I emailed the seller and asked if the bios was modded and I got no response.

 

When I finally did figure out the problem I emailed him that It in fact had a modded bios and I was very upset and I needed the original bios. He emailed me back that they buy and sell parts and he doesn't have the original bios

 

Luckily I got the bios from sapphire. I emailed the seller to say that i got everything working but i was upset that i had to spend hours troubleshooting a card that was supposedly tested. I said I wanted a refund of $10 for my. No response.

 

I left negative feedback. I feel a little guilty though. First time I left a negative in 15 years and hundreds of transactions on ebay. Thoughts?

[nick name]

2 minutes ago, Sat1600 said:

I purchased a RX 470 from ebay recently. It was with a 15% off site wide promo code. It sold for $91.50. I paid $77.76.

 

I understand that most 470s and 480s on ebay are mining cars. Most sellers advertise as such. The description on this card said "pulled from a working computer.  Tested"

 

I got the card and installed it. Problems started when I installed the AMD software. I spent hours troubleshooting. Turns out it had a modded bios.

 

I emailed the seller and asked if the bios was modded and I got no response.

 

When I finally did figure out the problem I emailed him that It in fact had a modded bios and I was very upset and I needed the original bios. He emailed me back that they buy and sell parts and he doesn't have the original bios

 

Luckily I got the bios from sapphire. I emailed the seller to say that i got everything working but i was upset that i had to spend hours troubleshooting a card that was supposedly tested. I said I wanted a refund of $10 for my. No response.

 

I left negative feedback. I feel a little guilty though. First time I left a negative in 15 years and hundreds of transactions on ebay. Thoughts?

They may not have known it had a modded BIOS and probably did simply test that it was functional.  However, if they sold a card that couldn't function as inteded (ie couldn't accept driver updates) they should address your grievance accordingly.  So definitely worth the negative feedback.  

[bellabichon]

I'm sorry, but asking for a refund online, even though the seller is at fault, is simply not viable. You should feel free to leave a bad review about the modded BIOS, but complaining that they didn't give you the $10 back isn't justified, in my opinion.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

I would say worthy of negative feedback and maybe report the seller to ebay.

[WoodenMarker]

You don't necessarily deserve a refund but you can definitely leave feedback for lack of info or communication. If you wanted to know more, you should've asked for more info to confirm the condition before buying. It would've been better for more info to be listed in the first place but the seller isn't at fault as long as the listing is consistent and what you get matches the listing. 

[Sat1600]

2 minutes ago, bellabichon said:

I'm sorry, but asking for a refund online, even though the seller is at fault, is simply not viable. You should feel free to leave a bad review about the modded BIOS, but complaining that they didn't give you the $10 back isn't justified, in my opinion.

I only mentioned the modded bios in the feedback. I was just giving them an opportunity to rectify the situation with the $10. Honestly if they responded at all by saying "sorry we can't offer a refund but we are sorry" I would not have left a negative

[nick name]

3 minutes ago, bellabichon said:

I'm sorry, but asking for a refund online, even though the seller is at fault, is simply not viable. You should feel free to leave a bad review about the modded BIOS, but complaining that they didn't give you the $10 back isn't justified, in my opinion.

I disagree.  It has been a tool sellers have used when dealing with my grievances in the past.  It's a quick and effective way to make the buyer feel whole.  

[bellabichon]

Just now, Sat1600 said:

I only mentioned the modded bios in the feedback. I was just giving them an opportunity to rectify the situation with the $10. Honestly if they responded at all by saying "sorry we can't offer a refund but we are sorry" I would not have left a negative

Still, I don't think it's justified to put the refund into the equation. 

[Razor Blade]

15 minutes ago, Sat1600 said:

Spoiler

 

I purchased a RX 470 from ebay recently. It was with a 15% off site wide promo code. It sold for $91.50. I paid $77.76.

 

I understand that most 470s and 480s on ebay are mining cars. Most sellers advertise as such. The description on this card said "pulled from a working computer.  Tested"

 

I got the card and installed it. Problems started when I installed the AMD software. I spent hours troubleshooting. Turns out it had a modded bios.

 

I emailed the seller and asked if the bios was modded and I got no response.

 

When I finally did figure out the problem I emailed him that It in fact had a modded bios and I was very upset and I needed the original bios. He emailed me back that they buy and sell parts and he doesn't have the original bios

 

Luckily I got the bios from sapphire. I emailed the seller to say that i got everything working but i was upset that i had to spend hours troubleshooting a card that was supposedly tested. I said I wanted a refund of $10 for my. No response.

 

I left negative feedback. I feel a little guilty though. First time I left a negative in 15 years and hundreds of transactions on ebay. Thoughts?

 

 

If you want my opinion...By taking on the item repair yourself, you volunteered your time. If you didn't want to take the time, you should have asked to return the item. Did it say anywhere in the listing about being tested? If not then there isn't really any recourse. If it was tested and there is some sort of guarantee of it working, again you could have asked to return it with a reason of "not as described". Partial refunds should only be offered by the seller. Feedback is about how the transaction went. Was it as described? Did it arrive to you in the condition promised and on time? That sort of thing. I feel like a buyer requesting partial refunds and hold feedback hostage are the reason so many sellers hold off giving feedback to buyers after purchase and prompt payment.

[Dedayog]

6 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

If you want my opinion...By taking on the item repair yourself, you volunteered your time. If you didn't want to take the time, you should have asked to return the item. Did it say anywhere in the listing about being tested? If not then there isn't really any recourse. If it was tested and there is some sort of guarantee of it working, again you could have asked to return it with a reason of "not as described". Partial refunds should only be offered by the seller. Feedback is about how the transaction went. Was it as described? Did it arrive to you in the condition promised and on time? That sort of thing. I feel like a buyer requesting partial refunds and hold feedback hostage are the reason so many sellers hold off giving feedback to buyers after purchase and prompt payment.

No. 

This is a too strong of a line in the sand.  Seller wanted the item, got the item with a little elbow grease needed and made it happen.  Asking for a little reimbursement for his time is how the world actually works.  Our time, and people pay us for it.  

 

Returning the item could potentially be a result that the OP doesn't want, he could have lost the sale due to them not having another card to send him, and if they didn't fix the bios, they would have returned the money.  So where does he get a card the same price?  Win another auction?  Spend more time looking?  

 

At some point the do it myself vs go thru the trouble of returning it sets in.  But yes, if a customer has to fix something on their end when a product is received in a condition other than specified... monetary reimbursement in some fashion is totally viable.  Cash, instore credits, free merch, unicorn stickers, dates with sisters, etc.  It all works.

[xg32]

28 minutes ago, Sat1600 said:

.

it's pretty much a given that mining cards will have modded bios for efficiency, and the card is functional.

 

So no, the seller did not deserve a negative feedback, it's hard enough to sell stuff on ebay and amazon and make a profit as is, he sold a legit card and got a negative feedback.

 

[Razor Blade]

11 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

No. 

This is a too strong of a line in the sand.  Seller wanted the item, got the item with a little elbow grease needed and made it happen.  Asking for a little reimbursement for his time is how the world actually works.  Our time, and people pay us for it.  

 

Returning the item could potentially be a result that the OP doesn't want, he could have lost the sale due to them not having another card to send him, and if they didn't fix the bios, they would have returned the money.  So where does he get a card the same price?  Win another auction?  Spend more time looking?  

 

At some point the do it myself vs go thru the trouble of returning it sets in.  But yes, if a customer has to fix something on their end when a product is received in a condition other than specified... monetary reimbursement in some fashion is totally viable.  Cash, instore credits, free merch, unicorn stickers, dates with sisters, etc.  It all works.

The buyer is not employed by the seller. Why should someone demand payment for their time on a repair they volunteered to do? If you obtain a damaged item from anywhere else do you demand to be compensated for your time to retail? No you return or exchange the item. Sometimes the store will compensate for your inconvenience, sometimes not.

 

When the seller did not reply when asked about the modded BIOS, there should have been a red flag right there. The ebay system is overwhelmingly biased to the buyer. You can open a case for pretty much any reason. It is up to the seller to make it right. When I bought some memory on ebay recently there was one bad stick in the listing. The seller apologized and I was compensated for the defective stick. I didn't demand compensation for having to look for another stick of memory elsewhere on ebay for any sort of reasonable price.

[Sat1600]

10 minutes ago, xg32 said:

it's pretty much a given that mining cards will have modded bios for efficiency, and the card is functional.

 

So no, the seller did not deserve a negative feedback, it's hard enough to sell stuff on ebay and amazon and make a profit as is, he sold a legit card and got a negative feedback.

 

It was not listed as a mining card. Pulled from a working pc makes it sound like it was not pulled from a mining rig

[xg32]

1 minute ago, Sat1600 said:

It was not listed as a mining card. Pulled from a working pc makes it sound like it was not pulled from a mining rig

oh then ya, it was warranted, there's a layer of deception there.

[Sat1600]

29 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

If you want my opinion...By taking on the item repair yourself, you volunteered your time. If you didn't want to take the time, you should have asked to return the item. Did it say anywhere in the listing about being tested? If not then there isn't really any recourse. If it was tested and there is some sort of guarantee of it working, again you could have asked to return it with a reason of "not as described". Partial refunds should only be offered by the seller. Feedback is about how the transaction went. Was it as described? Did it arrive to you in the condition promised and on time? That sort of thing. I feel like a buyer requesting partial refunds and hold feedback hostage are the reason so many sellers hold off giving feedback to buyers after purchase and prompt payment.

The hours I spent were before I realized that there was something wrong with the bios. I thought that the was a conflict with the windows drivers. I kept installing and uninstalling drivers. Booting into safe mode and using ddu. Trying to install with the pc disconnected from the internet. Once I finally realized the problem it was easy to fix

[Tristerin]

Tell PayPal the card wasn't as received - get your 12 a year refunds, Paypal will go after seller and it will teach them a lesson.

 

They deceived you 100% - which is why I don't use EBAY for anything.  Since you were deceived I wouldn't take the risk on a Mining GPU.  Since you can keep it after Paypal does its thing...well that's not your fault you fixed it after the fact.

[Razor Blade]

17 minutes ago, Sat1600 said:

It was not listed as a mining card. Pulled from a working pc makes it sound like it was not pulled from a mining rig

 

13 minutes ago, Sat1600 said:

The hours I spent were before I realized that there was something wrong with the bios. I thought that the was a conflict with the windows drivers. I kept installing and uninstalling drivers. Booting into safe mode and using ddu. Trying to install with the pc disconnected from the internet. Once I finally realized the problem it was easy to fix

If you wanted to keep the card, that's totally fine. I was just expressing my opinion on the matter. If it were me, I would have returned the card and left a neutral feedback with something like "Was not as described. GPU had modded bios for mining" if the return was accepted. If not I would have opened a case and left a negative feedback after ebay shoved the return down their throat. Like I said... ebay is usually pretty biased to the buyer...you could have gotten your money back one way or the other.

 

Either way, you have a working card and the seller got the negative feedback they deserved by deceiving you. Maybe it will help prevent someone from buying another X mining card from them believing it is a working gaming GPU. Don't feel guilty.

[GamerDude]

I'm lucky in that in my neck of the woods, I usually meet up with the seller or buyer, have a face-to-face exchange with him/her. Like the GTX 1080 that I'd gotten, it was an former mining card, used for about 6 months. The seller plugged the card into a spare system and got to POST, that was all I need to assure myself that the card was working. It's now in my HTPC and doing a damn nice job so I ain't got anything to complain about. Buying from eBay is indeed a more daunting task as there are some who are plain out to cheat you. I've read of some horror stories, heard some from others I'd had dealings with, hence their (and my) preference to have direct deals locally.

[pstarlord]

This is a very interesting topic to me, since I do work in the world of online sales.  (I managed the online side of a guitar store)  

 

On one hand, it sounds like it could be an honest mistake.  If it's a company that buys and sells quite a few computer components, they  may not have the time or the resources to properly test everything beyond making sure it fires up. 

 

On the other hand, they may have made the business decision to save that money at the risk of selling a customer an item that isn't as easy a plug and play.  

 

I'd look at other reviews and ratings of the seller and see if this looks like a one time thing, or something that happens on a more consistent basis.  If the seller usually gets great ratings and glowing reviews, then I'd judge them much less harshly than if they had a number of poor ratings and reviews. 

[xg32]

19 minutes ago, pstarlord said:

.

knowing how mining cards are perceived, if it wasn't mentioned then it's definitely not an honestly mistake, ebay sellers do get away with alot of "not-as-advertised" stuff, less so in recent years but the concept is still the same.

[pstarlord]

2 minutes ago, xg32 said:

knowing how mining cards are perceived, if it wasn't mentioned then it's definitely not an honestly mistake, ebay sellers do get away with alot of "not-as-advertised" stuff, less so in recent years but the concept is still the same.

In broad strokes I agree with you, but once you get down to an individual level you have to be more investigative than that.  This seller may be a legit person just trying to make their way, came into some cards to sell and made a mistake.  Or, the seller could be a scum bag, who knows.

 

Also, ebay doesn't let stuff like this slide, they almost always side with the buyer, and ebay will knock a sellers overall "seller rating" down for any amount of gray area involved with a sale.  It serves no use to be dishonest on ebay as a seller, because your items will simply not get viewed as much if you are straight up dishonest in your practices as a seller.  That's why I'd look at that seller's history, and ratings.  Could be a learning experience for the seller, or it could be a trend.  If it's a trend, then for sure, give the seller a bad review.  If not, then you give them a not as bad review with a good account of what happened and why the seller didn't deserve a 5 star rating. 

 

Take myself for example, I buy and sell used instruments for a living.  There are a ton of people who do what I do and are shady as hell, just turning products to make a quick buck.  I, on the other hand, am meticulous about details and conditions of the items I sell, not because I want to, but because I've learned what is important to my clientele to know.  I'm a very experienced musician, there are certain things that to me just don't matter, and early on in my selling I'd skip over those things that don't matter in the overall performance of the instrument.  Then it happened when skipping a detail like that ended up with me selling a customer something and he wasn't excited to see that detail and returned the item.  Its the only time I've ever had an item returned, and it was the learning experience I needed, and I'm very grateful that customer was kind enough to not make a huge deal about it and ruin my reputation as an online retailer.  He is the only 4 star review I've ever gotten and it deserved it.  My point is, these online retailers are people, trying to do a job and earn a living.  Reviews can greatly impact a person's ability to sell, so I always suggest doing the proper due diligence to find out if the seller is just an ass, or if it was an honest mistake.   

[Sat1600]

59 minutes ago, pstarlord said:

This is a very interesting topic to me, since I do work in the world of online sales.  (I managed the online side of a guitar store)  

 

On one hand, it sounds like it could be an honest mistake.  If it's a company that buys and sells quite a few computer components, they  may not have the time or the resources to properly test everything beyond making sure it fires up. 

 

On the other hand, they may have made the business decision to save that money at the risk of selling a customer an item that isn't as easy a plug and play.  

 

I'd look at other reviews and ratings of the seller and see if this looks like a one time thing, or something that happens on a more consistent basis.  If the seller usually gets great ratings and glowing reviews, then I'd judge them much less harshly than if they had a number of poor ratings and reviews. 

He only had 11 reviews some from the same buyer. I think the lack of communication and acknowledgement bothered me more than anything else. It seemed like the attitude was "too bad not our problem"

[pstarlord]

24 minutes ago, Sat1600 said:

He only had 11 reviews some from the same buyer. I think the lack of communication and acknowledgement bothered me more than anything else. It seemed like the attitude was "too bad not our problem"

Yeah, that's no good.  Multiple reviews from the same buyer is a red flag for me.  Could mean he's trying to up his own seller rating.

[asand1]

Assuming the guy merely resold a Craigslist card and had no idee the BIOS had been modded, and you apparently fixed it then no, he should not be given negative feedback. how much do you get paid at work, and how much time did you have take off work to make the fix. Your home time is worth $0.

[Sat1600]

23 minutes ago, asand1 said:

Assuming the guy merely resold a Craigslist card and had no idee the BIOS had been modded, and you apparently fixed it then no, he should not be given negative feedback. how much do you get paid at work, and how much time did you have take off work to make the fix. Your home time is worth $0.

You don't think the guy should even be apologetic?

 

Just because I'm not at work does not mean my time has no value. That's silly. People pay less for an item when there is a hassle to it. The value drops the more effort you have to put into something.