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

[coasterghost]

UFD Tech posted a video about working with NewEgg. Not only are they just getting paid now 3 time the amount for for 2 2020 promotion videos, Newegg took 5 months to remedy an issue for a charity stream including the winner not getting the prize initially with it being returned to sender. UFD-Tech sent out his personal 9900K to the winner after it was 3 months where NewEgg failed to deliver.
 

 

 

[atxcyclist]

1 hour ago, coasterghost said:

UFD Tech posted a video about working with NewEgg. Not only are they just getting paid now 3 time the amount for for 2 2020 promotion videos, Newegg took 5 months to remedy an issue for a charity stream including the winner not getting the prize initially with it being returned to sender. UFD-Tech sent out his personal 9900K to the winner after it was 3 months where NewEgg failed to deliver.
 

 

I just finished this video, what a horrible way to treat people. Especially when considering they stiffed someone in a charity they were supposed to sponsor. And yeah, paying triple looks like hush money, something there is messed up and it seems to have seeped into many divisions of their company.

 

I’ve been doing business with Newegg since 2007 if not earlier, but I think the order I just placed a few days ago will be my last. 

[Jaxseven]

Summary

Gamers Nexus recently announced on their Tweeter they will be flying out to Newegg’s headquarters to confront them about the recent RMA scandal amongst others. GN’s decision to do this was based on various stories from users about similar situations and includes alluding to an whistleblower emails. The full Twitter statement is as follows:   

 

Quote

 We decided to book a flight to California to visit Newegg this week. We have informed @Newegg that we will be arriving at their doorstep with cameras and that this is the company's opportunity to have a discussion. We're just letting you all know in case they put PR spin out. Newegg was not a part of this decision. We will be there whether or not they show up to the meeting -- but we're flying across the country and will make it on time, so we hope they come out of their front doors. We will afford Newegg the opportunity to explain itself, but after seeing customer complaints and receiving insider emails this past week, we have decided it is best to take our questions to their doorstep. Thank you to our Patreon and GN Store supporters for making this type of journalism possible.

 

My thoughts

Newegg has been trying to contact Steve throughout this mess and I think Newegg is very well aware how far these tech channels can reach so there’s clearly some fires at Newegg right now. It’s all damage control from here so I expect there will be PR spin along with only the PR department greeting Steve out front if they meet him out front. Just because Steve shows up at their door, there’s a chance Newegg never comes out of the building.

 

A while back there was a big trans rights protest out front of the BBC HQ over BBC’s coverage of trans rights issues. There was a very large turnout and well documented on Twitter, however despite how newsworthy the protest was the BBC never reported it and never came out of the building. Instead they later on said they had a duty to report news all over the world and just couldn’t spare any manpower to cover the trans rights BBC protests as there was more newsworthy things to report.

 

Reason I bring this up is we know Steve doesn’t take BS and I’m sure Newegg knows this. If the company sees at as a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” moment then they may not come out to face the music. Instead they may spin it as, “Well we’re just so busy with the insane amount of orders and interest in our products to take time out of our day to answer questions from someone looking to make a hit piece about us.” Unless Newegg has some big scapegoat I don’t see any argument they could make that will look good for them or Steve will accept.

 

Sources

 Gamers Nexus Twitter thread announcement

Gamers Nexus latest Newegg Video (at time of writing)

[OhioYJ]

I've slowly been phasing out NewEgg for quite some time. They have been on a downward trend anyways. 

 

However,  I think their (NewEggs's) best strategy here is be open and honest. Give Steve a tour, show him the process. Where the break down occurred. What they are doing to prevent it in the future. It would lead to some uncomfortable questions, but that's going to be the only way they can show they want to improve / change.  

 

Hiding just confirms it's business as usual I think. 

[Stahlmann]

Man Steve is really persistent about this. Good. Since he got so many comments about other Newegg customers having the same experience i think it's great he throws himself right at their door and tries to get to the bottom of this, rather than letting the internet just do it's thing, which would be easy from this point on. This shows again that Steve is not one to take the easy, but the right road.

[thehardwarehacker]

i imagine things have escalated quickly is such a horrible way that no one, be it us or GN, expected that steve felt the need to fly the heck out their to confront them about it. 

[RejZoR]

I've had many RMA situations to solve where neither side can prove the wrong doing. Not the seller and not the buyer. Usually it's on store to go with good business practices and solve the issue on its own expense. If they have the insight on customer's spending, if they spent a lot and returns weren't a regular thing they did, it makes sense to eat the loss and solve the RMA for customer and ensure they'll return.

[Hybris5112]

When I saw Steve's announcement it feels really out of character for him and the professionalism that he has been really pushing hard to build for all of these years. I think this might actually somehow blow up in his face if he really is going to their doorstep.

[Mark Kaine]

Lol, he seems really mad about this whole thing, good on him…

 

One of the very few youtubers that does some sort of "investigative journalism" at times.

 

What weirds me out however is how long newegg got away with their "tactics" apparently, in a time where its really easy to get that information, people, including GN, still gave them their money… i get it, there will be reasons for that, still weirds me out lol. 

 

 

3 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

When I saw Steve's announcement it feels really out of character for him and the professionalism that he has been really pushing hard to build for all of these years. I think this might actually somehow blow up in his face if he really is going to their doorstep.

yeah, i think the total opposite, this is totally "in character" for him and he seems genuinly mad lol, this is going  to be great either way. : p 

[dizmo]

Where's my popcorn. This is gonna be good. 

 

10 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

When I saw Steve's announcement it feels really out of character for him and the professionalism that he has been really pushing hard to build for all of these years. I think this might actually somehow blow up in his face if he really is going to their doorstep.

Not sure how. This is exactly what he's been about; calling people out on their BS. He did the same thing with MSI. NewEgg would be fools to not meet with him. 

[Hybris5112]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Where's my popcorn. This is gonna be good. 

 

Not sure how. This is exactly what he's been about; calling people out on their BS. He did the same thing with MSI. NewEgg would be fools to not meet with him. 

Calling out and reaching out to companies is one thing but camping outside their doors demanding answers is another. It will be interesting regardless to see how this plays out though.

[dizmo]

Just now, Hybris5112 said:

Calling out and reaching out to companies is one thing but camping outside their doors demanding answers is another. It will be interesting regardless to see how this plays out though.

He never said he was camping out. 

[Chris Pratt]

43 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

I've slowly been phasing out NewEgg for quite some time. They have been on a downward trend anyways. 

 

However,  I think their (NewEggs's) best strategy here is be open and honest. Give Steve a tour, show him the process. Where the break down occurred. What they are doing to prevent it in the future. It would lead to some uncomfortable questions, but that's going to be the only way they can show they want to improve / change.  

 

Hiding just confirms it's business as usual I think. 

I tend to agree with you. I don't think this is Steve just doing a hit job. It's actually an olive branch. If Newegg isn't sketch, this is their best opportunity to prove it by being open, showing the process, and explaining how mistakes can happen, even if they haven't discovered the exact cause of this one, yet. There's actually no other form of remediation really possible at this point. People aren't just going to accept from press release with lip service to customers. They need Steve, that is of course, if it was some horrible mistake. If not, then Steve coming down is a death knell.

[Hybris5112]

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

He never said he was camping out. 

Well if Newegg decides not to answer the door then that is what he is going to wind up doing or just walking away with an expensive wasted airfare.

[Fasterthannothing]

He will just be met at the door with lawyers telling him to get lost. Look Newegg has a monopoly on the computer market plain and simple. The computer parts industry is riddled with the graves of old companies trying to make it work but margins are so tight you have to be extremely cutthroat to make it. I'm not defending them I just don't see how it's going to change anything when ultimately the rage will be very short lived when Newegg will be the only place still selling you computer parts unless of course you would rather pay Bestbuy $200 a year for the privilege of buying a part or buy from Amazon who has their own issues (they will just terminate your account if they don't like how many returns you have done). 

[dizmo]

5 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

Well if Newegg decides not to answer the door then that is what he is going to wind up doing or just walking away with an expensive wasted airfare.

The content piece will pay for the airfares, and if they don't answer the door that's a ton of bad PR for NewEgg. 

[Lightwreather]

58 minutes ago, Jaxseven said:

 Just because Steve shows up at their door, there’s a chance Newegg never comes out of the building.

Anyone want to make Steve siege Newegg HQ?

Anyone?

/s

[IPD]

There's 2 ways to deal with any company scandal.  Get out in front of it, or try to obfuscate and hope it blows over.  Newegg clearly tried the latter, and keeping going on that path will only dig them in deeper.  Several companies have tried and failed when it comes to sweeping things under the rug.  It almost never ends well.  Remington R51.  Enron.  Etc.

 

On the other hand, you have cases like the Citigroup Center building and the Desert Tech MDR.  Flaws to the design were met with full-on inquiry and intent to resolve the issue with a viable fix.  These are shining success stories about what can happen when you are willing to put aside pride, and make sure what you have is safe, effective, working, etc.

[Stahlmann]

15 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

Well if Newegg decides not to answer the door then that is what he is going to wind up doing or just walking away with an expensive wasted airfare.

At this point Newegg cannot afford any more bad press. Not opening up the doors for Steve is basically admitting there is something worth hiding.

[AlTech]

Good for Steve from GN. I don't watch him too often anymore but he has the integrity to stand up to companies doing bad things, which is more than I can say for other big youtubers.

 

Newegg have proven time and again that they are anti-consumer and this is just the latest example. I have the sneaking suspicion that Newegg won't come out to address Steve's questions or issues.

[Jaxseven]

Latest GN tweet from the thread:

Quote

Additionally, if you bought an open box or refurbished item and they refused to take it back for damage caused before you received it, that would be helpful as well. egg@gamersnexus.net

Thank you!

 

[Stahlmann]

This behavior is exactly why i want GN getting into monitor reviews lol. I bet if he'd actually realize how much monitor marketing is complete BS he'd personally fly to Taiwan/Korea to pay a visit to every one of the Major brands and tell then to stop this BS.

 

The best thing about Steve (and GN in general) is that he manages to stay completely objective. Any and all arguments they make are backed up by hard data. Or mail correspondence in this matter. This way no one can just say "you're wrong" and leave it at that.

 

The Gigabyte PSU disaster was another great example of GN not taking BS.

[IPD]

The fact that he's pre-gaming this by announcing his intent and what he's doing, when he'll arrive, etc--says a lot.  This isn't some fly-by-night, shock-value YT or tik-toker who is trying to create drama.  Newegg has time to prepare.  Rejecting a blindsided visit is one thing.  Rejecting an advanced announced, public media visit--is not going to work at all.

[Bad5ector]

1 hour ago, Hybris5112 said:

Calling out and reaching out to companies is one thing but camping outside their doors demanding answers is another. It will be interesting regardless to see how this plays out though.

Didn't he do that already with that company he charged with improperly benchmarking Intel CPUs?

[Moonzy]

57 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Not opening up the doors for Steve is basically admitting there is something worth hiding.

I don't know, mate

If someone asked to come into my house with a camera crew, I'd refuse even if there's nothing to hide

 

I doubt you can just waltz into any company with a camera crew, even if you announced it on social media, and yes, refusing would make you sus especially after you committed something as stupid as Newegg did

Imo, this is pretty unprofessional for GN to do, but I guess it gets him drama and views, so it makes sense as an entertainer

 

Newegg have no excuse for what they did with the motherboard that GN received, saying they know the CPU pin is damaged means they saw the sticker and know it's their problem, but refuse to own it and push it back to GN, with the evidence and all, pretty stupid

 

1 hour ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Anyone want to make Steve siege Newegg HQ?

Anyone?

/s

Let's all storm Newegg, they can't stop all of us