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Ordering Computer Parts from Amazon: Beware

LapsedMemory

Don't know where else to post this, but figured I should warn you about an apparent change to some Amazon policies that you may want to be aware of:

 

I ordered the Ryzen 5600X Black Friday deal on Amazon.  Waited a week and half for it to arrive.  When it did, the factory seal had been broken, the CPU had been removed from the box, and the only thing in it was the included fan. 

image.jpeg.1a9b50118059edb557c4e7f91ddfb941.jpegimage.jpeg.84c4fa536d185de9fce7059219de81d6.jpeg

 

I went to get a replacement sent, and Amazon would only return/refund my Black Friday deal price, there was no option to replace it with a valid product, so I had to give up the Black Friday Pricing.  

 

Wondering if this was a *thing*, I went to the negative reviews section of the listing.  Only about ~1% of the reviews were negative, but reading thru them, a good portion of them were "CPU was not the one ordered", "CPU was previously used with thermal paste on the pins", or "CPU wasn't in the box".  Apparently, I am not the only one this is happening to.  

 

So now I go to leave my own review.  Submit my review, detailing the above issue, but the review never gets posted.  Today I get an email from Amazon telling me I can't post this information in a review, since it is about a seller, not the product itself (which I never received), and I must submit a seller complaint to another place on Amazon.  The problem is that I never mentioned the seller once, I only said I received an empty box and had to refund, not replace. 

 

Helpfully, they provided a link to the appropriate feedback location.  Only, when I click on that link, the only seller that is not listed in the people I can leave feedback about is the seller who sold me an empty CPU box.  So I can't leave a review on the product page complaining they sold me an empty box, and they won't let me post a seller complaint to the seller directly.  

 

Who was the seller for this item, you ask?  Why, Amazon Services, LLC. of course!

 

So long story short: Amazon is covering up negative feedback about shady 3rd party sellers who are scamming people buying computer parts.  

 

The only plus side to this whole story is that Newegg is offering the same price as Amazon's black friday deal and their still throwing in Uncharted for free, so I am returning the Amazon order and have an order in to Newegg already (though that's backordered for another 2 weeks.....argh)

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X  | Motherboard: ASROCK B450 pro4 | RAM: 2x16GB  | GPU: MSI NVIDIA RTX 2060 | Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S | SSD: Samsung 980 Evo 1T 

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55 minutes ago, LapsedMemory said:

Don't know where else to post this, but figured I should warn you about an apparent change to some Amazon policies that you may want to be aware of:

 

I ordered the Ryzen 5600X Black Friday deal on Amazon.  Waited a week and half for it to arrive.  When it did, the factory seal had been broken, the CPU had been removed from the box, and the only thing in it was the included fan. 

image.jpeg.1a9b50118059edb557c4e7f91ddfb941.jpegimage.jpeg.84c4fa536d185de9fce7059219de81d6.jpeg

 

I went to get a replacement sent, and Amazon would only return/refund my Black Friday deal price, there was no option to replace it with a valid product, so I had to give up the Black Friday Pricing.  

 

Wondering if this was a *thing*, I went to the negative reviews section of the listing.  Only about ~1% of the reviews were negative, but reading thru them, a good portion of them were "CPU was not the one ordered", "CPU was previously used with thermal paste on the pins", or "CPU wasn't in the box".  Apparently, I am not the only one this is happening to.  

 

So now I go to leave my own review.  Submit my review, detailing the above issue, but the review never gets posted.  Today I get an email from Amazon telling me I can't post this information in a review, since it is about a seller, not the product itself (which I never received), and I must submit a seller complaint to another place on Amazon.  The problem is that I never mentioned the seller once, I only said I received an empty box and had to refund, not replace. 

 

Helpfully, they provided a link to the appropriate feedback location.  Only, when I click on that link, the only seller that is not listed in the people I can leave feedback about is the seller who sold me an empty CPU box.  So I can't leave a review on the product page complaining they sold me an empty box, and they won't let me post a seller complaint to the seller directly.  

 

Who was the seller for this item, you ask?  Why, Amazon Services, LLC. of course!

 

So long story short: Amazon is covering up negative feedback about shady 3rd party sellers who are scamming people buying computer parts.  

 

The only plus side to this whole story is that Newegg is offering the same price as Amazon's black friday deal and their still throwing in Uncharted for free, so I am returning the Amazon order and have an order in to Newegg already (though that's backordered for another 2 weeks.....argh)

 

That's annoying. I'd be so terrified waiting for the refund response. At least they didn't push back on that at all. Although I happen to agree that the reviews should be about the product itself, it's BS that

 

1: There seemed to be no good way to leave feedback about Amazon

2: Others seemed to leave so called 'invalid' reviews without issue.

 

The review system is a bit whack to begin with though. My greatest pet peeve is when there's 5000 reviews, average 4.5 stars. Great! But then as you try and read reviews, it covers about half a dozen other variants of the product. (edit: I don't mean just color variants... I mean different versions of hardware. Wired, wireless, more memory, less memory) How is that helpful?

 

But yes, and although this doesn't help the "shipped and sold by amazon" issue for you, I wish the seller feedback was more up front, and obvious.

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22 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

5000 reviews, average 4.5 stars.

Here's a fun exercise...find a product on Amazon with better than 1000 reviews..where the average rating is LESS than 4 stars.

Amazon ratings are nigh upon useless. And that's probably intentional 

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Heard this countless times before, pretty sure the first time I heard about item issues was around 2015~ where people would receive item, swap it out with a stone of exact same weight, return it, get their money back and still have the same product.

Then there was a case where someone I know worked in a warehouse (not amazon) who would put rare packages in dark places around the warehouse, declare them lost and after a few weeks of item missing, he'd open it and swap whatever he wanted himself for something he didn't, then "find" the box and send it to the customer who then would have to explain why he complaining of receiving a different product than he was actually meant to receive.

Even last week I heard from a guy who had his 5+ year old Astro's break, so he ordered exact same new model on Amazon, took the new one, put the old one back in and returned under used item received or something.

 

I'd say people are just scum sometimes rather than Amazon themselves trying to scam you.

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21 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Here's a fun exercise...find a product on Amazon with better than 1000 reviews..where the average rating is LESS than 4 stars.

Amazon ratings are nigh upon useless. And that's probably intentional 

 

I mean I suppose you could argue that anything that gets to that level of sales is because it's a decent product? But yeah, that's certainly not always the case, and we know of some confirmed cases of review shenanigans (damn you Aukey, I liked your products). It's tricky to be sure.

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This is an ongoing issue with Amazon, there's a YTber that got rocks instead of a $5k SLR camera ... twice.

 

I still buy from Amazon, but I try to avoid big ticket items, and HDD ; there's a scam where people get a large HDD (8TB +) and send back a 500GB-1TB drive back for refund. People have gotten those returns from brand new and open box items.

 

Returns SHOULD be verified, all the time, every time, but we all know Amazon wants every little bit of time from their employees and so they squeeze them dry, and that's the result (I had something similar happen with a purchase, got the wrong item, same company, 2 different but similar products, one is more expensive ... bought the expensive one, but got the cheaper model and it was obviously a return scam (the box had return stickers on it identifying it a the more expensive model)).

 

Sadly, we can't all buy local for various reasons (lack of choices, or because of prices), but unless Amazon makes changes, this is going to be a recurring problem.

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Now you guys have me worried about the Ryzen 5 5600 I ordered. It showed up seemingly intact, but I haven't put it in the PC yet.

  

15 hours ago, WkdPaul said:

I still buy from Amazon, but I try to avoid big ticket items, and HDD ; there's a scam where people get a large HDD (8TB +) and send back a 500GB-1TB drive back for refund. People have gotten those returns from brand new and open box items.

That's why I've bought all my drives from brick-and-mortar stores. There are ways to get into the boxes without breaking the seals, but you can tell if you inspect the boxes very carefully.

 

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15 hours ago, WkdPaul said:

This is an ongoing issue with Amazon, there's a YTber that got rocks instead of a $5k SLR camera ... twice.

 

I still buy from Amazon, but I try to avoid big ticket items, and HDD ; there's a scam where people get a large HDD (8TB +) and send back a 500GB-1TB drive back for refund. People have gotten those returns from brand new and open box items.

 

Returns SHOULD be verified, all the time, every time, but we all know Amazon wants every little bit of time from their employees and so they squeeze them dry, and that's the result (I had something similar happen with a purchase, got the wrong item, same company, 2 different but similar products, one is more expensive ... bought the expensive one, but got the cheaper model and it was obviously a return scam (the box had return stickers on it identifying it a the more expensive model)).

 

Sadly, we can't all buy local for various reasons (lack of choices, or because of prices), but unless Amazon makes changes, this is going to be a recurring problem.

I've noticed alot of the items on Amazon amounts to the same as you'd see on Newegg - Third party sellers that use Amazon as a "Listing" site.
While I'll admit personally I haven't bought alot from Amazon, the wife has and I've been right with her as she browsed - That's where I got the hint about these sellers during her browsing.
What I noticed was how many items were indicated as not being directly from Amazon in the same way it's done over at the egg.

The only thing I can suggest is to look at the listing for an item closely and know not only who's selling it but if possible, where it's coming from too.
Do that and you'll know which listings to buy from and which ones to ignore.
 

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23 hours ago, WkdPaul said:

Returns SHOULD be verified, all the time, every time, but we all know Amazon wants every little bit of time from their employees and so they squeeze them dry, and that's the result (I had something similar happen with a purchase, got the wrong item, same company, 2 different but similar products, one is more expensive ... bought the expensive one, but got the cheaper model and it was obviously a return scam (the box had return stickers on it identifying it a the more expensive model)).

Reminds me of another popular retailer for computer parts... *cough* New *cough* Egg *cough*

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i had no issues with amazon in general, sure this sucks, but its not the norm here, and also generally amazon has good refund policies,  but on the other hand i often buy *not* on amazon because its rather overpriced with poor selection and there are better shops for tech stuff* . ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

 

 

*in fact only thing amazon is superior to other stores (beyond refund policies) is cheap chinese noname stuff, which sometimes is surprisingly good, but usually not worth buying,  but hell if amazon doesn't have an abundance of those 

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this has been known to happen because amazon doesn't always check returns as thoroughly as they should, so people order a cpu, take it out of the box, return the empty box for a refund and you get the empty box in the mail.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

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On 12/10/2022 at 4:01 PM, Sauron said:

this has been known to happen because amazon doesn't always check returns as thoroughly as they should, so people order a cpu, take it out of the box, return the empty box for a refund and you get the empty box in the mail.

 

Yeah. GN even covered where some people got NVidia 4000 series cards with weights/bricks instead of the card. But that was on supposedly brand new items. These companies need to completely redo their returned product check if they send it out as new again when it was obviously opened. I think it might be wise to also stop making the boxes so obvious for hot (easy to resell for money) tech items. That might help protect the products in warehouse/shipping.

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Makes me quite anxious about the 5600x I ordered which also has a super slow shipping time (Ordered 7th, meant to arrive 16th).

And when I go to orders it says AMD Ryzen 5 5600x box (5000 Series Processor) but when I click on the listing it just sayd amd ryzen bla bla bla..

The price was also lower but slightly (around 20$ compared to other sites)

So now I am not even sure if I should cancel the order or not.
 

The seller is Amazon EU and I ordered it from amazon Sweden so idk if that makes much of a difference but nonetheless...

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I just ordered a Ryzen 7 5800X3D and got it recently and this thread made me think I better open it and make sure. The AMD seal was still intact so opened and pulled out the plastic and almost had a heart attack because it was empty. Then I realized for whatever reason AMD now packages the CPU on the side in a little plastic sliver while 90% of the inside of the box is just a plastic filler.

 

For Amazon for more expensive stuff I tend to stick to shipped by and sold by Amazon and avoid 3rd party sellers for those kind of items. I find 3rd party hit or miss.

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An update to the saga:  

 

Thankfully, Amazon honored the return of the box and fan for a full refund.  I used that refund to buy the same processor from Newegg at the same price, with the included Uncharted deal.  

 

The return went seamless, and Newegg delivered the CPU today, 7 days earlier than they had anticipated with the backorder.  It arrived brand new, sealed in the box, and the correct model.  The upgrade went absolutely seamlessly and I'm now on a 5600X.  

 

I don't know if it's the CPU or the required BIOS update I had to do to my mobo, but the upgrade process also seems to have fixed a problem I was having with my RAM not being able to use the XMP settings without crashing.  It's now happily plugging away at the higher clock and voltage settings.  I am amazed by how much snappier even basic Windows 11 feels with the 5600X and faster ram clock.  I didn't think I'd notice the difference except in gaming, but I was sorely mistaken.  Absolutely worth the $170 upgrade.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I bought a Ryzen 7700x this black Friday and 2 days ago I received an empty box sealed with amazon sticker. No sign of any tempering yet amazon is refusing to refund me. I posted photos of the box and what it contained. I live in a 3rd world country and that cost a full month of salary for that processor. The worse is I ordered other parts to build a full system and I'm sacred to death this happens again. I need help I never used amazon before.20221220_232954.thumb.jpg.d0aae7d7a7bd9b1edf4f652b18fafc59.jpg20221220_232943.thumb.jpg.839b709febf1473378e5bf69619191b1.jpg20221220_232913.thumb.jpg.19b86e035aeca6cc7bc38671475a9934.jpg20221220_095301.thumb.jpg.0cf4ae84bd3f2514f2c755035de88462.jpg20221220_233002.thumb.jpg.0f8a52a7e3becc4b97d2be0709d18ab7.jpg

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On 12/9/2022 at 3:06 PM, WkdPaul said:

This is an ongoing issue with Amazon, there's a YTber that got rocks instead of a $5k SLR camera ... twice.

That why I like dedicated online camera stores you never have this problem

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Protip: try to order PC components from online camera stories i.e adorama, BH photo. 

(I going to talk mostly about BH photo)

Yes, they sell computer components.

(Also alot of other random stuff)

 

There CS is very good, you legit can call them to sort things out and it works.

 

There is no third party sellers on the site (besides used but thats different)

 

Remember when amazon had two day shipping? Well I know adorama and BH photo if you order thing/s more than 49USD you get free expedited shipping that is 1-3 business days.

I live one state from BH and adorama and get like 1-2 day.

 

Also they ship things very well from my experience.

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Spoiler

Dell optiplex 5050 (main) - i5-6500- 20GB ram -500gb samsung 970 evo  500gb WD blue HDD - dvd r/w

 

HP compaq 8300 prebuilt - Intel i5-3470 - 8GB ram - 500GB HDD - bluray drive

 

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school laptop lenovo 300e chromebook 2nd gen - Intel celeron - 4GB ram - 32GB SSD 

 

audio mac- 2017 apple macbook air A1466 EMC 3178

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My friend used to work in Amazon refunds and all he had to do was make sure something was in the box basically. 

 

He I think had a quota and just checked the box had something and moved on. 

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On 12/9/2022 at 9:31 AM, Radium_Angel said:

Here's a fun exercise...find a product on Amazon with better than 1000 reviews..where the average rating is LESS than 4 stars.

Amazon ratings are nigh upon useless. And that's probably intentional 

Find me a product with over 1,000 reviews where 75% of the reviews don't say something like, "Just arrived but the box looks great 5 stars kthxbai!!!!!"

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22 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Find me a product with over 1,000 reviews where 75% of the reviews don't say something like, "Just arrived but the box looks great 5 stars kthxbai!!!!!"

OR where the reviews are for a different product entirely because the vendor recycled their listing page but kept the reviews of the old product. As useless as Google reviews can be these days, there's a garage door company in town about 1/4 mile from me with a few thousand 5 star reviews but dig into it a little and they're from people dropping reviews literally all over the country, continent, and world within days of each other. Drive past the claimed physical location....nothing there at all except a brick wall on the side of a building with a wine bar inside. Absolute bonkers. I see ads in trade magazines to literally buy Google reviews by the hundreds and thousands.

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I ordered a B550 mobo on amazon and canceled the order the next morning prior to shipping because i had overspent and it was an impulse buy. It arrived anyway at  no charge and I kept it for this reason. I have been burned enough buying online that I believe getting a free mobo was karma or something. That said, I mainly buy from ebay for the better buyer protection.

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I wonder if this is more an issue in the mid-range product stack? I got a 5950X a while back, and didn't have an issue. Only problems I had were $10 cables being incorrect. Ordered an 18 ft CAT6 cable and got a power cord extension instead. Same order, I ordered a Display Port cable and got a HDMI cable instead.

 

Though, Amazon is worse than Newegg, I think. At least you even have an option for a refund. Newegg would just say 'lol enjoy your empty box scrub'.

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