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

[GoodBytes]

I don't get why Steve is going to NewEgg... it will accomplish nothing.

They won't open the door, or ask to leave the premise. 

 

OR

 

A PR/spokesperson will come out, and say how they are "investigating the issue" and "already consulting with experts", so "this issue doesn't happen again".

"k thanks bye!" Steve leaves, and nothing is done. 

 

It's just a waste of time and money this trip.

 

[Quackers101]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I don't get why Steve is going to NewEgg... it will accomplish nothing.

yeah, why they did state so? if not it wasn't serious?

Also a bit out of the blue, unless they did talk something with newegg or something behind the scenes.

[dilpickle]

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I don't get why Steve is going to NewEgg...

 

I think that should be obvious. No matter his reputation at the end of the day he is just like any other Youtuber fishing for views.

 

[GoodBytes]

19 hours ago, dilpickle said:

I think that should be obvious. No matter his reputation at the end of the day he is just like any other Youtuber fishing for views.

 

Well, this is nothing new. Journalists/Reporters do this all the time. They confront someone and the person just ignores them, go to their car and drives off... end of story. As if they'll ever say something useful. But it makes news. Take advantage of having the spotlight, that is all. All I am saying, is that it goes beyond YouTube.

 

Now, if Newegg invited Steve for a tour of their RMA process, and show that his accident is not normal situation, where human error has occurred (maybe it was at a time where they were over loaded with work, and things slip up and affected him and others... that is all possible, and can say how they are rectifying this), then yea, that is more interesting. But I doubt it, due to the short period of time since the incident. 

 

Anyways, Steve's and his team doing amazing work over the years, I think he deserve the attention, I hope this help get his channel better known. 

 

But with the limited information at the moment of writing, I don't have more to say at the moment.

[wanderingfool2]

9 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

It's unprofessional to try and force an answer by announcing on social media that they will be coming to your front door complete with camera crew. That's not how professionals get business done, its a type of gonzo journalism that I would expect out of Buzzfeed or perhaps The Verge instead of the email and phone call trails that Steve has used in the past to hunt down answers with other companies.

 

I had come to expect higher standards out of the GN team I will say again this feels extremely out of character for Steve but because its drama everyone is quick to blindly jump to his defense instead of asking "Why this way?".

I had a post that got eaten when the topics got merged, but I don't think it is unprofessional.

 

Announcing it publicly means that NewEgg can't try getting ahead of it (i.e. announcing changes, like they just did and can't claim they weren't aware of the visit).

Actually, a lot of journalism (before the days of social media) was about showing up companies doorsteps to surprise them and trying to get answers (hoping they mess up what they say and leak information).  It also means that they can't get prepared answers given to them (someone reading off a script and such).  It also gives them the ability to ask to be shown a few details on the spot.  e.g. when they claimed they take photos before and after during it, they could specifically ask them to show the photos on the spot there (instead of waiting for them to craft a response to justify why those photos don't exist)

 

If it was just a simple issue or things that could be the result of justifiable mistakes, then yea it would be unprofessional...but the fact is this whole thing smalls rotten.

 

As for asking "why this way?"...I think it's quite obvious why

Let's go over the bits where it starts being justifiable to why it's escalating to the point where an onsite visit is almost necessary

- Damaged item goes to manufacturer, repairs declined, and yet makes it to open box status (incompetence can explain this, mixing up an item/thinking it was repaired - an issue in controls that needs to be fixed but still justifiable)

- Not inspecting the open box before it leaves (only way I can justify this is that they didn't inspect it...but open box items should be at least visually inspected before shipping...and if it had they would have easily seen the gigabyte label on there)

- Receiving back the items, noticing the bent pins (underneath the CPU shroud) and yet not noticing the giant sticker that effectively stated the board had bent pins from gigabyte?  (This is a major level of incompetence, as even an employee who is overworked and doesn't care about their job should be able to detect that something seriously wrong is going on here, and that maybe the customer didn't do the damage)

- Claiming they had before/after pictures (which according to Paul's channel back 10+ years ago it seems like that was actually a thing that was done on open box).  Either they do or they don't take pictures still, either way someone was lying.  The customer support lying about having pictures, or the department that claims the pictures showed no damage prior to it.  This is where depending which side it is, I'd actually say it begins going from incompetence to almost malice

 

The fact is, at any point during the return process, had they even decided to investigate it much further they would have easily figured out GN didn't do the damage.  The fact that it took a public figure to tweet out publicly before they did anything just says a lot about the company.  They only are "changing" because they got caught with their absurd internal policies.  If GN didn't do the follow up video, if they hadn't announced they were going to NewEgg for an interview do you really think that they would have changed?

 

They literally were stonewalling him until he tweeted out Jan 4th.  They had virtually 40 days to announce changes.  Instead they waited until GN announces they are going to NewEgg?  A bit too convenient...they were essentially unwilling to change their policies until it got to a level of attention that they knew wouldn't just go away.

[Jaesop]

38 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

It's unprofessional to try and force an answer by announcing on social media that they will be coming to your front door complete with camera crew. That's not how professionals get business done, its a type of gonzo journalism that I would expect out of Buzzfeed or perhaps The Verge instead of the email and phone call trails that Steve has used in the past to hunt down answers with other companies.

It's also just what normal journalists do all the time.

 

38 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

I had come to expect higher standards out of the GN team I will say again this feels extremely out of character for Steve but because its drama everyone is quick to blindly jump to his defense instead of asking "Why this way?".

Let's not do this "everyone is blindly defending but me" silliness. It's not a productive way of looking at things; people are very capable of having different opinions without it being because they're "blindly defending" anything or anyone.

[coasterghost]

47 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

A PR/spokesperson will come out, and say how they are "investigating the issue" and "already consulting with experts", so "this issue doesn't happen again".

"k thanks bye!" Steve leaves, and nothing is done. 

From what I’ve seen from the GN Brand,  they don’t seem to be the ones to just run and gun for one thing. Nothing would shock me if they have other plans while they are out there. 

[coasterghost]

23 minutes ago, Jaesop said:

It's also just what normal journalists do all the time.

It’s a tantamount staple of news investigative reporting.

 

To also add and I would trust Steve over this, if it was a nothing burger he wouldn’t fly out there. Additionally they seem to want get the Information in person where Newegg won’t have the benefit of the PR department drafting multiple versions to choose the best wording. It’s to limit the way that Newegg can try and spin from this. 

[Lightwreather]

Just had to throw this in here:

[GoodBytes]

Ok clarifications by Steve:

So, in a way, they offered to invite him.  And Steve directly communicated with Newegg for an interview.

It's not the typical "just show up at the door".

Also, it was somewhat on his way for a training of test equipment he went to. He didn't just do a trip specifically for newegg.

[darknessblade]

Summary

More information is coming to light about Newegg's shady practices, trough reveals from other youtubers, insiders, "potentially former employees".

 

Quotes

Quote

Gamersnexus twitter

.@Newegg responded -- sort of. Newegg confirmed our meeting and also posted a public statement about a policy change. Now, all Newegg has to do is transparently talk to the public via our interview. Do you think they'll repair this or fumble it?

 

My thoughts

This is what you get when there is almost NO consumer protection, companies can screw you over without any care, and you as the consumer cannot do anything against it.

At least all this stuff is being made public, and i hope Newegg does some good spring cleaning, of their BOD/the people who caused this to begin with.

 

Sources

Gamersnexus related sources:

https://pisev.com/pc-parts-vendor-newegg-rma-scandal-explained-all-about-newegg-rma-scandal-details/

https://cmatrends.com/blog/all-about-newegg-rma-scandal-details/

https://getindianews.com/pc-parts-vendor-newegg-rma-scandal-explained/

https://www.windowscentral.com/pc-parts-vendor-newegg-has-bit-scandal-its-hands

 

 

Newegg press release

 

 

Original Topic

 Other info that came to light about more shady practices from a different youtuber.

 

[CTR640]

Lol, NewEgg = RottenEgg

 

Such companies can simply fuck off and rot in..uh, eggs?

[Pickles von Brine]

They use to be so good. I stopped buying from the a long time ago when i saw them going down hill... 

[Skiiwee29]

@darknessblade I have merged your post into the original on-going since its just a continuation/follow up of said story. 

[dimforest]

Sorry if this isn't an appropriate place to post this or if it's been posted already. If either is the case, feel free to do whatever you need, Mods.

 

Anyways, for those who haven't seen it yet, the entire hour+ uncut interview is here. If you're like me and work in the corporate world.... fair warning: it's a legit meeting lmao.... 

 

[starsmine]

43 minutes ago, dimforest said:

Sorry if this isn't an appropriate place to post this or if it's been posted already. If either is the case, feel free to do whatever you need, Mods.

 

Anyways, for those who haven't seen it yet, the entire hour+ uncut interview is here. If you're like me and work in the corporate world.... fair warning: it's a legit meeting lmao.... 

It really comes across as hand not knowing what foot is doing. The very common cooperate issue where someone on top makes a "perfect" policy, and everyone under it goes, this policy is shit, and runs off to do something else. Where they also have to conflicting instructions (do x this way and do it y fast with z accuracy(and for 99% of employees something has to give)) so a person higher up can also fall back and say, see they didnt follow these instructions. ("this was an execution issue")
Its also an issue not even out of malice, but information is just never getting passed UP to a person who can do anything about it. 

I remember a thread here complaining about devs having to eat their own dog food (was in response to door dash or some similar company). This is EXACTLY why such policies are necessary imo. None of these managers or VPs actually were participating with the work to learn about the systemic issues until it was to late. 

I appreciate that he also brings up KPI often, like that is also another trap. like KPI should not be based off top 5% (or whatever arbitrary) of employees, because corners get cut, but those top 5%, they know what ones they can cut, and be correct, and been there years or are wise or know how to work smart, etc. so anyone you ask to meet those numbers are going to cut the wrong corners. 

Also how corporate the guy on the right (light blue shirt, black mask) really agitated me. I understand why, buy uhg man. He seems friendly enough. 
I do agree with the closing statements. It feels like trying to not get into more trouble, it feels like some fear of share holders. I dont have experence with having to deal with share holders at all to know how that works or how that pressure would make me react. 
 

[coasterghost]

2 hours ago, dimforest said:

Sorry if this isn't an appropriate place to post this or if it's been posted already. If either is the case, feel free to do whatever you need, Mods.

 

Anyways, for those who haven't seen it yet, the entire hour+ uncut interview is here. If you're like me and work in the corporate world.... fair warning: it's a legit meeting lmao.... 

 

Even though it would be over an hour long or so. It would be interesting to see @LinusTechdo a reaction video of this meeting considering his time on both sides of the coin. 

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, James Evens said:

Is there a TL;DR version/cut?

Stopped watching after 15 minutes.

I think near the end of the video, not gotten that far myself either though but I'm pretty sure Steve said there is somewhere in the intro.

[AnonymousGuy]

Christ can we get to another news cycle?  GN seems to find a nut and then milk the shit out of it until it's beyond dead.  Same with the one PSU that fried itself.

[starsmine]

2 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Christ can we get to another news cycle?  GN seems to find a nut and then milk the shit out of it until it's beyond dead.  Same with the one PSU that fried itself.

No.

And that is the weirdest take. It is not milking it when you are being transparent, thorough and ethical about your reporting. It has nothing to do with beating a dead horse.

[Kisai]

On 2/22/2022 at 1:01 AM, James Evens said:

Is there a TL;DR version/cut?

Stopped watching after 15 minutes.

 

Overall very disappointing. They had time to prepare and questions where predictable and this what they have come up with?

Also why not jump on the opportunity to show how RMA are put back into stock (what initially caused the issue) and returns are handled? Showing a sophisticated process would have done more then a 1 hour PR talk.

I stopped at the 12 minute mark. I might pick it up again later, but the problem with doing "uncut" stuff is that it leave a lot of luls in the conversation and sometimes the way someone speaks when put on the spot is just kind of cringe-embarrassing. Talking heads is never interesting, especially when it's PR.

 

Anyway, what I would have liked to see:

- Newegg walk us through the warehouse to show exactly how this happened. Be like "aircraft investigation" drama's and give us an illustration at least. 

- Newegg showing us how they've changed this

- Newegg agreeing that the elephant in the room is that they dropped the ball, and their policy assuming malicious intent from the user was the wrong angle.

 

And while I do agree with Steve that "most customers are not trying to defraud you", there is something to be said about the volume a retail chain has versus "one guy", there are people who are trying to defraud you, all the time, be it intentionally or because of a mistaken belief in how warranty/returns work. To take the Walmart/Costco examples. Both of those stores do "no hassle returns", and a small amount of people will take advantage of that, and that's what causes these "the customer is always wrong" policies to infect otherwise good return policies.

 

You always want to meet in the middle and determine who is at fault.

- Did the customer pay, use the product, left it in an unsaleable condition?

- Did the customer pay, never open it, and returned it unopened?

 

It's the "I bought a hamburger, and demanded a refund after I ate the entire thing" type of problem. If you only complain about the problem after you've consumed the product, then the problem isn't the product, it's you. You are free to not buy it again. But don't ask for a refund. I can't experience what you experienced.

 

Overall, while the term "The customer is always right" still gets thrown around, what that entails is "the customer is entitled to a positive experience" not "the customer is entitled to any unreasonable demand."

 

And the most unreasonable demand of them all is "I want a refund on a product I used, and is now in a unsaleable condition."

 

So again, Newegg, clearly dropped the ball somewhere long before Steve purchased the product. They should have either paid to fix the hardware, or sent it off to be recycled, never entering the sales chain at all.

[Bitter]

The phrase is

The customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE.