Newegg "Roll[s] a Critical Failure" - Tech Jesus Rants about "Scam"

[Sarra]

21 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Customer protection laws in the U.S. are the underlying issue here.

What Customer Protection Laws? You mean, the ones that just limit massive companies to only scamming most of their customers for a bit of money, instead of all of their money?

[Senzelian]

4 hours ago, Sarra said:

What Customer Protection Laws? You mean, the ones that just limit massive companies to only scamming most of their customers for a bit of money, instead of all of their money?

Exactly.

[NumLock21]

Both seller and customer can easily deny any wrong doing, and it's extremely difficult to prove the other party is at fault. Newegg got caught with their scam, but I doubt they're the only ones out there that's doing this. As long as there are pins on the socket of a motherboard, this type of problem will continue to exist. Here are some proposal that may eliminate or reduce the chance of this happening.

 

• Motherboard manufactures strictly checks all pins on socket are not bent or broken, before it's packed up. The box will have a seal, much like how Intel and AMD seals their retail CPUs. To open, customer will have to cut through the seal or if they try to peel it off, it will leave a word "OPENED" much like how warranty void stickers work. This will tell customer, this motherboard was opened before and to check for any broken pins on socket before accepting.
• Going back to ZIF socket, that's currently used for AMD Ryzen. CPU manufactures seems to have higher standard when making their CPUs, where the chance of having a bent pin from the factory are almost none. But going back to ZIF socket isn't going to happen, when they don't have to deal with RMA of bent pins anymore.
• Going back to slot CPUs, like Slot 1 for Intel and Slot A for AMD. This goes back to the Intel Pentium II AMD Athlon K7 days, but for the modern platform, maybe something similar to PCIe. If this happens, then installing a CPU is like installing a GPU, no more bent or broken pins. What about cooling? For this, it's AIO only, where CPU cold plate can be mounted to the CPU itself, or the engineers out there can come up with a way better idea.

 

As for shipping, most delivery are left at the door, with tracking saying package delivered. When newegg or any seller sees this, they would think you have accepting the package and any damage that occured is done by the customer, even when they have never opened up the box. Some delivery are physically handed to the over, When this happens, you can denied delivery and tracking may say, customer refused package or something along those line, but most of the time it's the former, so when you really don't want the package, try to return or cancel while it's still en route, so that it never reaches your destination. How can I break the pins on the motherboard, when I refused delivery and the thing never arrived at my location.

[wanderingfool2]

1 hour ago, NumLock21 said:

-snip-

Well this was a refurbished one...so the manufacture may not necessarily have done the refurbishment themselves.

 

Honestly with anything with value or anything that might be a bit sketchy with items it seems like doing an initial video unboxing might be the best approach for people.  I know I'd be likely to document anything of value that I need to purchase from NewEgg from now on.  Gives you ammunition when things like this happen.  I suspect what happened in this case, it was sent to GN in working condition, NewEgg employee while inspecting the item for any damage accidentally damaged it and instead of fessing up to it blamed it on the "customer". 

[Thaldor]

2 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

As for shipping, most delivery are left at the door, with tracking saying package delivered.

This is something I am probably too European or even too Finn to understand. Who the hell thought it is a good thing to leave packets on the door when no one is home?

 

For comparison here "normal" is that the package is delivered to the closest pickup point and you go there show your ID and get your package (or your friend/family goes with a written mandate from you and gets the package). To home delivery is extra feature and most of the couriers have automated systems to ask you whether you want the packet delivered to certain pickup point or to your home and are you home at a certain day from time X to time Y and often the driver will call you before the delivery to check are you home or do you have some special requests. Leaving packets to our door as "normal" sounds like asking for a trouble and maybe in some rural area where you don't even see your neighbor every week and it takes more than 30 minutes to even get to the closest store you could ask the delivery guy to leave the packet to the woodshed or some covered place if you weren't home. But in city? Just NO.

Also for few years we have had these package automats to which packages are left and you get a code for the locker where you package is by email and/or SMS. And by now they are surprisingly common with almost every bigger store having one or even multiple for different couriers. Super fancy compared to leaving stuff at your door to be destroyed by weather or stolen.

[-rascal-]

On 2/1/2022 at 5:17 PM, FakeKGB said:

This is a random question, how did GN Steve get the name "Tech Jesus"?

 

 

 

[darknessblade]

9 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

This is something I am probably too European or even too Finn to understand. Who the hell thought it is a good thing to leave packets on the door when no one is home?

 

For comparison here "normal" is that the package is delivered to the closest pickup point and you go there show your ID and get your package (or your friend/family goes with a written mandate from you and gets the package). To home delivery is extra feature and most of the couriers have automated systems to ask you whether you want the packet delivered to certain pickup point or to your home and are you home at a certain day from time X to time Y and often the driver will call you before the delivery to check are you home or do you have some special requests. Leaving packets to our door as "normal" sounds like asking for a trouble and maybe in some rural area where you don't even see your neighbor every week and it takes more than 30 minutes to even get to the closest store you could ask the delivery guy to leave the packet to the woodshed or some covered place if you weren't home. But in city? Just NO.

Also for few years we have had these package automats to which packages are left and you get a code for the locker where you package is by email and/or SMS. And by now they are surprisingly common with almost every bigger store having one or even multiple for different couriers. Super fancy compared to leaving stuff at your door to be destroyed by weather or stolen.

The problem also lies with zoning laws.

 

as here in the EU even in a small town, a store is at most a 10 minute WALK. meaning you do your daily shopping with ease, on a daily basis. stores are also build within cities/towns.

 

While in the USA, due zoning laws, there cannot be a store within a residential area. not even at the edge of said area, as they keep XXXX zones free for expansion.

 

in the USA its also normal to drive to stores and shop for a week

 

this video gives a good explanation how it works "in Amsterdam/The Netherlands"

 

----------

I also never understood Porch delivery. like why would you leave a expensive item alone on your porch.

 

Mark Rober does have a "borderline "illegal" " solution for this:

 

 

[-rascal-]

14 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

This is something I am probably too European or even too Finn to understand. Who the hell thought it is a good thing to leave packets on the door when no one is home?

 

For comparison here "normal" is that the package is delivered to the closest pickup point and you go there show your ID and get your package (or your friend/family goes with a written mandate from you and gets the package). To home delivery is extra feature and most of the couriers have automated systems to ask you whether you want the packet delivered to certain pickup point or to your home and are you home at a certain day from time X to time Y and often the driver will call you before the delivery to check are you home or do you have some special requests. Leaving packets to our door as "normal" sounds like asking for a trouble and maybe in some rural area where you don't even see your neighbor every week and it takes more than 30 minutes to even get to the closest store you could ask the delivery guy to leave the packet to the woodshed or some covered place if you weren't home. But in city? Just NO.

Also for few years we have had these package automats to which packages are left and you get a code for the locker where you package is by email and/or SMS. And by now they are surprisingly common with almost every bigger store having one or even multiple for different couriers. Super fancy compared to leaving stuff at your door to be destroyed by weather or stolen.

 

At least for me here in Canada, that started to change a few years back.

They just leave it at the front door without a signature, etc.

 

I remember ordering parts and such online, and you would have a choice.

Either, like you said, pick it up from the pick-up location, or they will do 1 ~ 3 attempted deliveries.

The delivery attempts, you (or someone from the household) would need to sign for it on the spot.

After those 1 ~ 3 unsuccessful delivery attempts, you will then need to go and pick it up in person.

You will have 7 (or 14) business days to claim it, otherwise, it will get sent back to the seller.

[cloneman]

Newegg refused to RMA my monitor with 3 dead pixels in the same quadrant. The reason? I was over 30 days from purchase date. The kicker? It took them 22 days to ship my monitor.

[Nimoy007]

On 2/3/2022 at 9:01 AM, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Fuck newegg, that company can die in a fire.

I feel bad for laughing at that, but I feel like you may be better off since leaving them. You never got the chance to get a cheap Gigabyte explosion bundled with your graphics card! I mean, based on that particular fiasco, they might literally die in a fire ("they" the company, not laughing at singed flesh).

[Zodiark1593]

I never bought anything from Newegg in my life. Am I doing it right?

[Kisai]

On 2/2/2022 at 11:10 PM, Nimoy007 said:

You suggest shipping to your business, then admit that it will cause issues? Also, where does Newegg "post" these photos? Internally? Because, as indicated in Steve's video, they sure as hell aren't posting used product photos on the sale page (which makes sense since no retailer does) and they definitely aren't showing to customers or support staff--they just make notes on customer work order forms--like basically every retail system I've heard of.

Also, you are suggesting that all of these things are solveable through proper channels when it sounds like the community has a rather large amount of anecdotal evidence that Newegg is not following SOP...or at least what should be SOP.

I'm not saying you're wrong for holding consumers and business to a certain standard of behavior, but that assumes that either, as you said, "cares." When you have to fight with support staff and get nowhere, issuing a chargeback is a perfectly reasonable step. You did the work, and now you have to take the last resort option. I mean, I've only had to do it once when I was getting charged for Adobe CC under a defunct university student account (I had transferred) and under my current university. Chargebacks 100% fixed the problem, and I'm happily paying Adobe ~$20/month instead of $40.

Don't get me wrong, the systems are supposed to work as you described, but this is certainly an example of a seriously broken system, and it wouldn't be the first in retail by a long shot.

Look, don't shoot the messenger.

 

We have the technology, and the means to ensure that nobody commits fraud, and it's routinely ignored in the name of productivity. Here let me share a story about FutureShop (which was subsequently bought by BestBuy)

 

Do you know what Futureshop did to openbox stuff? They literately just reinstalled the OS and then put it out on a table on the openbox display. That's all. There was no physical hardware testing of anything. All futureshop openbox stuff was customer returns, or display units. Never buy a display unit unless it's marked down by 50%. because I assure you the life left on that thing is far less than the life left on an open-box unit. Most open box stuff was simply missing the original box and accessories.

 

That said, Futureshop was notorious for it's PSP's (Product Service Plan) scam. Many companies copied Futureshop PSP's. So what is a PSP you might ask? It's a form of "extended warranty" that the sales person will try to sell you on so they get a commission, and then hope you never use it. Because guess why PSP's are worthless, and why you should never buy extended warranties? Because they are only required to try and fix the device twice, and then replace it with a refurbished model. The same thing that happens under a normal warranty exchange. You're literately paying an additional 10-25% markup on a device that they hope you never cash in.

 

People don't read or understand that. You do not get a "new" item, you get whatever the store has that is the same price tag, if they opt to replace with with a different model. You get no say in it.

 

Yet, this seems all fine and dandy, and everyone has copied the PSP model. This is why you always refuse these things unless it's written in in blood that you can replace it, no-questions-asked. But that's seldom the case except for Costco.

 

But what I'm getting at here, is that you should not chargeback your card for any reason other than the merchant refusing to honor their side of the deal. People do frequently chargeback for absolutely stupid and petty things, (eg patreon, adult sites) and the card companies are not stupid. They know that all digital sales are final and no refunds exist. But physical products? They can absolutely demand to see the receipts and photos. So if Newegg isn't keeping those, they are going to lose to a chargeback, and likewise, you the customer, need to keep receipts as well, in case the merchant in fact DOES. This is where certain cards have different rules. AMEX will almost always side with the card holder (that's a red flag if a company doesn't accept AMEX, because it means they've been burned by chargebacks, or had their rate jacked up for it.) Mastercard and VISA will usually side with the merchant, and initiating the chargeback will usually result in the merchant trying to contact YOU to try and investigate what happened after being called by MC/VISA. Mistakes do happen, but you're better off dealing with the merchant than the card company.  The card company will make you fill out paper work that basically says they can hold you liable for fraud if any information is incorrect.

 

What happened in the newegg/gamers nexus, situation is absolutely a situation borne out of incompetence at newegg, and we will never know what exactly happened unless someone actually files a lawsuit the next time it happens.

[NumLock21]

On 2/4/2022 at 4:10 PM, wanderingfool2 said:

Well this was a refurbished one...so the manufacture may not necessarily have done the refurbishment themselves.

 

Honestly with anything with value or anything that might be a bit sketchy with items it seems like doing an initial video unboxing might be the best approach for people.  I know I'd be likely to document anything of value that I need to purchase from NewEgg from now on.  Gives you ammunition when things like this happen.  I suspect what happened in this case, it was sent to GN in working condition, NewEgg employee while inspecting the item for any damage accidentally damaged it and instead of fessing up to it blamed it on the "customer". 

Yeah, the one GN got was open box so, can't blame the factory for that. I always make sure to check New in the filter section, before browsing on what I want, since they like to mix everything together.

[NumLock21]

On 2/5/2022 at 1:13 PM, Zodiark1593 said:

I never bought anything from Newegg in my life. Am I doing it right?

Back then it was either Newegg, Tiger Direct, or ZipZoomFly. Amazon was crap back then.

Newegg was excellent back then about 10+ years ago, it's got one of the best product filtering out there. Let's says you want a AMD Ryzen, but don't know what they have. Can just filter by CPU Brand, model, and then sort by price and you'll all of the Ryzen AMD has to offer, with none of the BS. It was way better than Amazon and Tiger Direct. ZipZoomFly never bought from them so I don't know how good their product filtering is.

[-rascal-]

On 2/5/2022 at 10:21 AM, Kisai said:

Look, don't shoot the messenger.

 

We have the technology, and the means to ensure that nobody commits fraud, and it's routinely ignored in the name of productivity. Here let me share a story about FutureShop (which was subsequently bought by BestBuy)

 

Do you know what Futureshop did to openbox stuff? They literately just reinstalled the OS and then put it out on a table on the openbox display. That's all. There was no physical hardware testing of anything. All futureshop openbox stuff was customer returns, or display units. Never buy a display unit unless it's marked down by 50%. because I assure you the life left on that thing is far less than the life left on an open-box unit. Most open box stuff was simply missing the original box and accessories.

 

That said, Futureshop was notorious for it's PSP's (Product Service Plan) scam. Many companies copied Futureshop PSP's. So what is a PSP you might ask? It's a form of "extended warranty" that the sales person will try to sell you on so they get a commission, and then hope you never use it. Because guess why PSP's are worthless, and why you should never buy extended warranties? Because they are only required to try and fix the device twice, and then replace it with a refurbished model. The same thing that happens under a normal warranty exchange. You're literately paying an additional 10-25% markup on a device that they hope you never cash in.

 

People don't read or understand that. You do not get a "new" item, you get whatever the store has that is the same price tag, if they opt to replace with with a different model. You get no say in it.

 

Yet, this seems all fine and dandy, and everyone has copied the PSP model. This is why you always refuse these things unless it's written in in blood that you can replace it, no-questions-asked. But that's seldom the case except for Costco.

 

Futureshop and Best Buy with their Product Service Plan...completely stupid.

 

That said, up here in Canada, Memory Express actually DOES have a decent Product Replacement plan. Basically, replace with the same item, new. If that is not available, either an equivalent price item, or credit. My girlfriend bought the 3-year plan for her Corsair M65 mouse, and the scroll wheel started to act up ~2 years in. We brought the mouse in, and they honored it. She already bought a new mouse, so she doesn't need another M65. They gave her store credit, purchase price of the Corsair mouse, excluding the cost to buy the 3-year plan of course.

[wanderingfool2]

Oh, there was an update to the situation.

 

In summary, NewEgg sent it to be refurbished for the bent pins (prior to selling), NewEgg declined to repair the broken pings, NewEgg sold it to GamersNexus, GN returned it and got blamed for the bent pins.  Despite there being a label on the thing stating the prior damage (from Gigabyte).  At this point I have no sympathy for NewEgg, prior to this I understood and thought what @LinusTech said in the WAN show could very well be a case and agreed with him...but wow this just turned really bad for NewEgg.

 

[Bitter]

21 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Oh, there was an update to the situation.

 

In summary, NewEgg sent it to be refurbished for the bent pins (prior to selling), NewEgg declined to repair the broken pings, NewEgg sold it to GamersNexus, GN returned it and got blamed for the bent pins.  Despite there being a label on the thing stating the prior damage (from Gigabyte).  At this point I have no sympathy for NewEgg, prior to this I understood and thought what @LinusTech said in the WAN show could very well be a case and agreed with him...but wow this just turned really bad for NewEgg.

 

[coasterghost]

2 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Despite there being a label on the thing stating the prior damage (from Gigabyte). 

I think its worth nothing the RMA Label from Gigabyte had the customer as Magnell Associate, Inc, which is even more damning. This could be a one off, but holy hell it doesn't look good.

[lowstrife]

5 minutes ago, coasterghost said:

I think its worth nothing the RMA Label from Gigabyte had the customer as Magnell Associate, Inc, which is even for damning. This could be a one off, but holy hell it doesn't look good.

It's got to be a widespread systemic issue for this to happen to a tech journalist like this. The probabilities otherwise are just too remote. 

[Blademaster91]

37 minutes ago, lowstrife said:

It's got to be a widespread systemic issue for this to happen to a tech journalist like this. The probabilities otherwise are just too remote. 

And the fact Newegg switched from having open box in the item name to putting open box in smaller print, to get people buying open box things while newegg makes a profit from broken parts, its likely a widespread issue from reading bad experiences with newegg.

I almost didn't get a refund from newegg on a motherboard that arrived damaged, I had to call newegg on the phone and they wanted me to deal with the shipping carrier, I had to fight with newegg customer support to send in pictures of proof, I guess I got lucky that I got an RMA and a new motherboard sent out after newegg received the motherboard i sent back.

[coasterghost]

44 minutes ago, lowstrife said:

It's got to be a widespread systemic issue for this to happen to a tech journalist like this. The probabilities otherwise are just too remote. 

It’s going to be interesting. Steve’s case alone is enough to warrant an investigation as Newegg met the criteria for fraud legally. 

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, coasterghost said:

It’s going to be interesting. Steve’s case alone is enough to warrant an investigation as Newegg met the criteria for fraud legally. 

Yep. At this point I wouldn't even be surprised if a law firm seeks to open a class action suit and uses Steve's videos as evidence.

 

[Cavalry Canuck]

Don’t think it warrants a new thread, but…

 

Newegg customer service will offer their $25 in-store credits if you bring up the Gamers Nexus controversy during any support ticket issues. I’m not inclined to go for it because I can easily commit to a year-long boycott. However, it might be another avenue for the tech community to collectively impose some negative financial consequences upon them over this?

 

 

 

 

[Bitter]

Oh lord, please please do not harass the customer service staff about this. They did nothing wrong and you're just going to slow down CS for every other person with a real problem because you'll be clogging up the internet pipes and wasting their time when they're supposed to be trying to resolve real customer issues.

[joaopt]

You guys in America live in a special kind of hell, if i told some of the things my friends got away with "the customer is always right", it would blow your mind. Unless you're just too obvious in most places service is excelent.

Talking just about local stores with big online presence in the store or the net. And if you purchase things before with them.

 

Myself, i bought a new monitor, carelessly let the stand hit the panel, broke it, got back to the store, said it already came broken, and imediately got a new one.