Buyer is claiming my GPU arrived unusable/dead, what should I do?

[Laytony]

I got really lucky and scored a 3070 so I decided to sell a Gigabyte Eagle 3060ti that I had planned to use initially through r/hardwareswap. I had very briefly tested the 3060ti before using Time Spy and it worked without any issues. Come today, my buyer PMs me saying the GPU went from getting BSODs to being fully dead. He says he wants to attempt an RMA with Gigabyte and that should it get rejected, he will return it back to me for a refund. That means I'll eat up 3% Paypal fees and two shipping costs totaling $70+.

 

My worst nightmare came true and I'm no longer gonna sell any more hardware online, but what on earth should I do in this situation? I've already contacted the mods and the discord, but the mods from my experience don't really answer my PMs and the discord is kinda dead. I got one opinion but I would like some more.

[IkeaGnome]

Have you tried explaining that it worked just fine when you sent it out. Try to walk him through DDU and other simple steps to make sure he's not missing something simple.

[Laytony]

1 minute ago, IkeaGnome said:

Have you tried explaining that it worked just fine when you sent it out. Try to walk him through DDU and other simple steps to make sure he's not missing something simple.

Yes, my listing itself has a picture of a timespy benchmark with a gpu-z window in the background showing my exact card. I told him to do DDU first thing but he went from saying it was facing BSODs immediately upon launch to "it no longer boots".

[Electronics Wizardy]

Where did you sell is? What is the policy where you sold it? Did you sell it as is?

 

Unless you have an agreement/contract to allow returns, Id say you bought it as is and don't respond any more.

[Laytony]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Where did you sell is? What is the policy where you sold it? Did you sell it as is?

 

Unless you have an agreement/contract to allow returns, Id say you bought it as is and don't respond any more.

HardwareSwap (reddit.com)

 

He paid via paypal invoice. No mentions of returns anywhere.

[TetraSky]

You don't have to pay for return shipping. That's on them if they want to send it back, even more so if you didn't specify anything about return on your post. That said, chances are, if they dispute the charge, Paypal will side with them. In which case you lose everything. That's why you accept returns, but don't pay return shipping. Makes them less likely to ship it back and then you can argue with Paypal that you did accept return, but THEY refused to return it.

If it really "died", it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to overclock it and pushed it too much. That or they played that New World game and it killed the GPU.
 

I would say, let them try the Gigabyte RMA. They could try to argue they don't have an invoice because they threw it away (or you can modify your original invoice with their address if bought online). The card would still be in warranty regardless of whether or not they have an invoice, since it's not that old yet.

[Laytony]

8 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

You don't have to pay for return shipping. That's on them if they want to send it back. It wouldn't surprise me if they tried to overclock it and pushed it too much.

That or they played that New World game and it killed the GPU.
 

I would say, let them try the Gigabyte RMA. They could try to argue they don't have an invoice because they threw it away. The game would still be in warranty regardless of whether or not they have an invoice, since it's not that old yet.

Dude... he did mention he plays New World but I thought that only affects 3090s? I don't think he's a scammer, because I had sold him another GPU before but that was a GPU I had been using for 2+ years so it definitely worked. Also he already has the invoice for my 3060ti... really not sure if that was the right move but I thought it was common practice to give them to buyers should they request for it.

[Laytony]

Got a response from r/hardwareswap mods. They said that buyers are entitled for a refund if the product doesn't work and that technically the seller should be dealing with the RMA.

 

This is incredibly annoying.... the buyer has 100% protection and 0 risks while the seller has absolutely fuck-all... Never selling shit online anymore and thankfully the lesson was just $70.

[trag1c]

6 minutes ago, Laytony said:

Got a response from r/hardwareswap mods. They said that buyers are entitled for a refund if the product doesn't work and that technically the seller should be dealing with the RMA.

 

This is incredibly annoying.... the buyer has 100% protection and 0 risks while the seller has absolutely fuck-all... Never selling shit online anymore and thankfully the lesson was just $70.

This is why I only ever sell local or at least close enough geographically to meet in person. It makes it a lot easier when you draft up a bill of sale that explicitly states what the item is, the serial number, price and that it is being sold as is without warranty. You sign it and they sign it and then its over with. 

[CommanderAlex]

16 minutes ago, Laytony said:

This is incredibly annoying.... the buyer has 100% protection and 0 risks while the seller has absolutely fuck-all... Never selling shit online anymore and thankfully the lesson was just $70.

 

6 minutes ago, trag1c said:

This is why I only ever sell local or at least close enough geographically to meet in person. 

That's why I always list my electronics as sold AS IS no refunds. Buyer knows what they are getting into and I cannot guarantee anything happens to a graphics card once it leaves my hands. Plus, it's cash only and not Venmo/Paypal. 

[Laytony]

1 minute ago, Caroline said:

Yup, definitely a scam attempt.

 

By any chance you've taken pics and/or know the serial # of your card? If you get the card back make sure it's the same one and not the dead card. If you do get a dead card... not sure, I'd just beat him up if he was nearby.

 

Welcome to e-commerce. I've never used it to acept payments because of shit like that, anyone can con you with purchases and you can't do shit about it. I'd rather physically swap the item and cash to make sure everything's fine. 

Yup, took pics of the SN on the box and the card, kept the original uneditted pics for myself and blurred out all the numbers except the first 4 in the listing itself.

[NumLock21]

it's odd somehow the hardware always just magically stops working when it gets to someone else's hands.

[freeagent]

That sucks.. I bet he tried to flash the bios and fucked it up. Hopefully its an easy fix.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Laytony said:

 my buyer PMs me saying the GPU went from getting BSODs to being fully dead.

I've killed a few things in my time. GPUs don't typically die after blue screens. 

 

First artifacts, then dead or DOA. That's the 2 ways I've seen cards die. But none do I recall a blue screen accompanying a card death. 

 

CPU, yes. Card no.

[Laytony]

3 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

I've killed a few things in my time. GPUs don't typically die after blue screens. 

 

First artifacts, then dead or DOA. That's the 2 ways I've seen cards die. But none do I recall a blue screen accompanying a card death. 

 

CPU, yes. Card no.

He said it was acting "funky" before getting BSOD'd each time. When I told him to do a fresh reinstall with DDU he claimed it no longer was able to boot 

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Laytony said:

He said it was acting "funky" before getting BSOD'd each time. When I told him to do a fresh reinstall with DDU he claimed it no longer was able to boot 

 

Sold as is? 

It worked, he used it, then he broke it. 

Acting funny is not a description of a gpu issue either.

Drivers BSOD, not GPUs. 

 

What sucks is you're F'ed either way. Cause he's gonna send you a broken card. Or send you a card that isn't yours thats broken. Then WTF are you supposed to do??

 

So if this where me, I'd want logical responses and screen shots + pictures of actual attempts to resolve the issue. 

Not "the card was Acting Funny". That is not a description of a failing gpu. 

I've given you the description of a dying GPU. It will definitely artifact without dropping the driver. 

I have a very bad GTX 580. I can post and operate within windows. The entire screen is Fubar big time. super artifacts. Will not display 3D. Drivers do install. It's a Gygabyte card in fact.

[Guest]

Tell you what. 

Get his system specs.

Be sure he is specific to the PSU make and model.

Ask him to try the card in another system. (remember pics and screen shots.

 

Most modern boards have an LED that lights up on the board when the GPU has a fault. Same goes for CPU RAM and BOOT device. You want a picture of this specifically. (EDIT) Or error beeps from the diag speaker indicating GPU failure. You can find the beep codes in my signature below to confirm. 

 

Then maybe after some of that, honor the return.

 

IMO.

 

Another idea, send him over to LTT forums and maybe he can get some diagnostic leads from folks around here. 

Edited September 30, 2021 by ShrimpBrime
Additional Comment:

[Laytony]

5 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Tell you what. 

Get his system specs.

Be sure he is specific to the PSU make and model.

Ask him to try the card in another system. (remember pics and screen shots.

 

Most modern boards have an LED that lights up on the board when the GPU has a fault. Same goes for CPU RAM and BOOT device. You want a picture of this specifically. (EDIT) Or error beeps from the diag speaker indicating GPU failure. You can find the beep codes in my signature below to confirm. 

 

Then maybe after some of that, honor the return.

 

IMO.

He has an RM850x and I sold him a 2080 prior to this. I'll ask him to test it on another system, but honestly I bet I'm gonna just eat that $70 in the end. Hopefully this is a case of "I changed my mind and I'm lying about the GPU being broken" instead of "I accidentally fucked up the GPU" so I could still flip the card locally without messing with RMAing...

[IkeaGnome]

2 minutes ago, Laytony said:

He has an RM850x and I sold him a 2080 prior to this. I'll ask him to test it on another system, but honestly I bet I'm gonna just eat that $70 in the end. Hopefully this is a case of "I changed my mind and I'm lying about the GPU being broken" instead of "I accidentally fucked up the GPU" so I could still flip the card locally.

You also could see if you could get him to send you a picture where you can see the PCIE connectors in the GPU. If you can get him to take it "top down" you should be able to see the S/N. Make sure he's using the same GPU before you get it sent back. If it's different, just take that to Paypal.

 

Edit: Just tell him you'd like to see it from top down that way you can see that they are the correct 6+2 power connectors and not something that accidentally got plugged in.

[Guest]

Just now, Laytony said:

He has an RM850x and I sold him a 2080 prior to this. I'll ask him to test it on another system, but honestly I bet I'm gonna just eat that $70 in the end, but hopefully this is a case of "I changed my mind and I'm lying about the GPU" instead of "I accidentally fucked up the GPU" so I could still flip the card locally.

Well, honestly, it sounds fishy. I've shipped and received many hardwares. Very seldom does it get damaged during shipping. 

 

If you get a broken card returned, try to make a claim on the insurance that you purchased when you shipped the card. This will be the only way to put the coin back into your pocket and the most likely cause of the cards death from what I can gather from all this. 

 

Good luck!

[OhioYJ]

The buyer can just file a PayPal dispute, or a credit card  dispute either one and get their money back. As much as it sucks the seller should probably just work on getting the card and such back intact. It's quite possible there is nothing wrong with the card. Maybe it's software, maybe it's something in the buyers hardware. I just know at this point I wouldn't want this buyer trying to send the card off to the manufacturer and risk it getting lost in the mail. Then having the buyer still file a dispute. 

 

As this seller learned, sellers really aren't protected at all online. It's the buyers that get the protections normally. Sorry but I think you're fighting a losing battle on this one. 

[Parabellum117]

2 hours ago, Laytony said:

I got really lucky and scored a 3070 so I decided to sell a Gigabyte Eagle 3060ti that I had planned to use initially through r/hardwareswap. I had very briefly tested the 3060ti before using Time Spy and it worked without any issues. Come today, my buyer PMs me saying the GPU went from getting BSODs to being fully dead. He says he wants to attempt an RMA with Gigabyte and that should it get rejected, he will return it back to me for a refund. That means I'll eat up 3% Paypal fees and two shipping costs totaling $70+.

 

My worst nightmare came true and I'm no longer gonna sell any more hardware online, but what on earth should I do in this situation? I've already contacted the mods and the discord, but the mods from my experience don't really answer my PMs and the discord is kinda dead. I got one opinion but I would like some more.

Sell through eBay! I've bought a GPU through eBay and it was surprisingly simple. Also, eBay's moneyback guaruntee allows you to get money back from eBay if the item doesn't work as intended

[TetraSky]

1 hour ago, Laytony said:

Dude... he did mention he plays New World but I thought that only affects 3090s?

It affects multiple cards, not just 3090s. Even AMD cards are not spare.

The fact he plays that game and suddenly the card is broken, makes me think the card is yet another victim of that game. You are not at fault for this. If he's not willing to RMA it, make sure you make HIM pay for shipping it back to you and don't refund the shipping fee, only the card's value.

[OhioYJ]

12 minutes ago, Parabellum117 said:

Sell through eBay! I've bought a GPU through eBay and it was surprisingly simple. Also, eBay's moneyback guaruntee allows you to get money back from eBay if the item doesn't work as intended

 

The only helps the buyer. It's not eBay giving the money back to the buyer, it's the seller, eating it. Again, same problem, buyers get all the protections, sellers get basically none. I'm not saying it's right, its just how it is. Don't get me wrong, I use eBay, a lot.

[Parabellum117]

25 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

 

The only helps the buyer. It's not eBay giving the money back to the buyer, it's the seller, eating it. Again, same problem, buyers get all the protections, sellers get basically none. I'm not saying it's right, its just how it is. Don't get me wrong, I use eBay, a lot.

I know It isn't an end-all be-all, but it really helps to have that mediator, and is also a bit cheaper. Regardless, I hope you get all this figured out... doesn't sound fun.