Gigabyte Z390 arrived not "factory" sealed? On a scale of 1 to 10, how worried should I be?

[HoneyBadger84]

So I've done a Google search already and it seems this is a common occurrence, but I wanted to check with members of the forums here & see what you guys have experienced.

 

I recently ordered a 9900K & Gigabyte Aorus Master Z390 motherboard.  It arrived today, and to my amazement, the box the actual motherboard came in A: was not sealed, and B: was actually semi-open upon arrival.  The bag the motherboard is in also isn't sealed by the usual yellow stickers everyone else seems to use that say "static discharge warning" or whatnot on them, just a simple piece of tape.  I do have to say it is fairly obvious the board itself has not been used, the bag has zero indication of the board being moved in or out (you know how the pin-ends on the back tend to leave marks etc), all the "peel before operation" stickers are still present (I haven't taken it out of the bag yet but I can tell they're there), and the tape the bag is closed with has no marks under or around it to indicate it isn't the first application of said adhesive.

 

Anyone else ordered this series of boards & have it arrive in similar "unsealed" condition?  My case gets here tomorrow so I'll begin the build then.  Ordered the board from Amazon for reference.

[wojtepanik]

in my country there is big seller like newegg that is known for reselling returns ( and probably refurbished) stuff as brand new, I recently bought qnap nas that came with screw bag opened and remote with scratches, I contacted them and they offered me 10 bucks off... That might be a practice around the world, probably if you complain, they will swap the board for brand new one and sell this opened board to another client. If there are no damages to the board, then you might stick to it, if you don't feel confident then report it and get it returned.

[Livin]

5 minutes ago, HoneyBadger84 said:

So I've done a Google search already and it seems this is a common occurrence, but I wanted to check with members of the forums here & see what you guys have experienced.

 

I recently ordered a 9900K & Gigabyte Aorus Master Z390 motherboard.  It arrived today, and to my amazement, the box the actual motherboard came in A: was not sealed, and B: was actually semi-open upon arrival.  The bag the motherboard is in also isn't sealed by the usual yellow stickers everyone else seems to use that say "static discharge warning" or whatnot on them, just a simple piece of tape.  I do have to say it is fairly obvious the board itself has not been used, the bag has zero indication of the board being moved in or out (you know how the pin-ends on the back tend to leave marks etc), all the "peel before operation" stickers are still present (I haven't taken it out of the bag yet but I can tell they're there), and the tape the bag is closed with has no marks under or around it to indicate it isn't the first application of said adhesive.

 

Anyone else ordered this series of boards & have it arrive in similar "unsealed" condition?  My case gets here tomorrow so I'll begin the build then.  Ordered the board from Amazon for reference.

Personally as long as the hardware looks fine and everything worked fine, I wouldn't worry. Definitely check things over for damage and functionality sooner than later though.

 

Amazon is really good about returns on products they sell, so I wouldn't anticipate any problems if you did want to send it back. They replaced a video card that I ordered due to a tear in the outer box (this was for a gift so I wanted better condition packaging). 

 

Keep in mind that this can change if you're dealing with an Amazon Marketplace seller though. Might have to fight more for that depending on the seller. 

[ch3w2oy]

I've went through like 5 motherboards on my current build and all the static bags they were in were only closed/sealed with a piece of tape, no yellow warning stickers..

[Constantin]

As long as everything is working fine, you shouldn't be worry.

[HoneyBadger84]

35 minutes ago, ChewToy! said:

I've went through like 5 motherboards on my current build and all the static bags they were in were only closed/sealed with a piece of tape, no yellow warning stickers..

I assume none of the boxes were "factory sealed" either eh?

 

42 minutes ago, Livin said:

Personally as long as the hardware looks fine and everything worked fine, I wouldn't worry. Definitely check things over for damage and functionality sooner than later though.

 

Amazon is really good about returns on products they sell, so I wouldn't anticipate any problems if you did want to send it back. They replaced a video card that I ordered due to a tear in the outer box (this was for a gift so I wanted better condition packaging). 

 

Keep in mind that this can change if you're dealing with an Amazon Marketplace seller though. Might have to fight more for that depending on the seller. 

I'm going to test it out tonight (friday night) when the case gets here, assemble everything & see if it works fine.  I'll definitely do a thorough inspection of the board to ensure it's not "used".  It was direct shipped from & sold by Amazon, so it's not a marketplace deal.  As far as I can tell, it's definitely brand new, just... the box was un-flapped so to speak.

 

It arrived like this (Sorry for the big resolution, it's direct from my phone):

 

[ch3w2oy]

Just now, HoneyBadger84 said:

I assume none of the boxes were "factory sealed" either eh?

 

I honestly don't know..Can you show me what factory sealed looks like? This is my first PC build and I really thought a few of them may have been opened too, but since they were all similarly packaged, I didn't think anything of it.. Ordered from Amazon and Newegg.

[Rune]

Gigabyte doesn't seal their retail motherboard boxes and hasn't for a while. The inside bag should have had the generic black/transparent tape to seal it though.

[HoneyBadger84]

14 minutes ago, ChewToy! said:

I honestly don't know..Can you show me what factory sealed looks like? This is my first PC build and I really thought a few of them may have been opened too, but since they were all similarly packaged, I didn't think anything of it.. Ordered from Amazon and Newegg.

Did you verify everything was there in the box that was listed in the manual?  I just checked mine, the only thing I'm missing is 2 of the 4 SATA cables... Which means some weirdo at Amazon opened a darn box just to gank 2 SATA cables... like, really bro? LOL

 

I checked my old Asus Rampage IV Extreme box and it wasn't factory sealed either.

 

Everything else is there and none of the bags have been opened, nor the stickers messed with.

10 minutes ago, Rune said:

Gigabyte doesn't seal their retail motherboard boxes and hasn't for a while. The inside bag should have had the generic black/transparent tape to seal it though.

That makes me feel quite a bit better about it not being sealed at least.  

 

I'm definitely not keen on returning it for exchange as long as it works properly, even though missing 2 cables is a serious B because I needed 3 & I don't have a bunch of SATA 3 cables laying around, but I shall figure something out, gonna contact Amazon to see what they think, maaaaaybe if they'll advanced-exchange me one aka send me a new one before I send this one back, I'll do it.  

[RAM555789]

My motherboard boxes have never come "sealed" only a price of roun tape of the box to keep it from popping open during shipping. I've always also gotten my board with fairly normal looking tape keep the static bag close. 

[Livin]

6 hours ago, HoneyBadger84 said:

I'm definitely not keen on returning it for exchange as long as it works properly, even though missing 2 cables is a serious B because I needed 3 & I don't have a bunch of SATA 3 cables laying around, but I shall figure something out, gonna contact Amazon to see what they think, maaaaaybe if they'll advanced-exchange me one aka send me a new one before I send this one back, I'll do it.  

If you can find a spot on the product page or in the manual that says it should come with more SATA cables than what it did, open a ticket and mention it. They'll likely give a discount refund on the purchase or a gift card code towards your next purchase. 

 

If you are worried enough that is going to bother you, getting a replacement sent from Amazon is usually very quick and smooth. In my experience the way their exchange process has worked is you open a ticket for the exchange and they will send a new one right away. It's up to you to return the old one within a certain time window (something like 14 or 30 days) otherwise you get charged for the replacement.  Typically on Amazon sold products they will cover all the shipping for the process. If for some reason it's not, it will be quite clear during the ticket process before you confirm the return. 

[HoneyBadger84]

Little update: everything works perfectly so far, took me a few hours as I'm very meticulous about assembly, but she booted up first time like a Champ & CPU Temps are low a-f. Lots more cable management to do, especially in the back. 

 

It's rainbowy as heck in here. Lol

 

[Wormhole]

When i got my 2070 new the box wasn't sealed.