4090 from B&H - Advice?

[Scarous]

In October, my goal was to build a new computer with all current gen parts. I was able to get in an order for an ASUS 4090 at B&H Photo for MSRP. However, for months it has sat as "backordered" and customer service keeps telling me yes it will ship on XYZ date, but the date keeps getting pushed further and further into the future (now mid JAN 2023). They charged my PayPal account... I am worried about hitting some kind of limit where I wont be able to get a refund due to the length of time. Not really sure if that's a thing, though. What should I do here? How are others getting 4090s? I haven't had any luck since those initial orders went live...

[vertigo220]

I like B&H but that's not really appropriate behavior on their part IMO. Sounds like they really have no idea when they'll have availability and are just stringing you along. As for how long you can wait, best bet is to ask PayPal, via chat or email so you have a written record of their answer. If you used your credit card through PayPal, check with them, too. Usually you only have a certain amount of time to do a chargeback, not sure if it's different if the product was never delivered. Meanwhile, though, B&H is holding on to your, and who knows how many others', money and collecting interest on it. Nice little scheme. As for how others are getting them, mostly scalpers buy them immediately with bots, then everyone else gets them buy overpaying to the scalpers, which of course rewards them and causes them to continue their behavior. Because some people have to have the latest and greatest no matter the cost. If it were me, I'd just ask for a refund and go with a 3000-series (or, really if it were me, I'd go AMD since Nvidia's gouging is beyond ridiculous, and other reasons) and have a working computer rather than wait potentially weeks and deal with all the stress and wasted time.

[IkeaGnome]

This sounds almost exactly like what B&H did with Ampere. 

10 minutes ago, vertigo220 said:

As for how others are getting them, mostly scalpers buy them immediately with bots, then everyone else gets them buy overpaying to the scalpers, which of course rewards them and causes them to continue their behavior.

Not everyone. I got mine at MSRP by watching stock drops and being quick. It's possible to do. Was possible to do during 2020-2021 as well. Just takes patience.

[JimmyJJones]

4 hours ago, IkeaGnome said:

This sounds almost exactly like what B&H did with Ampere. 

Not everyone. I got mine at MSRP by watching stock drops and being quick. It's possible to do. Was possible to do during 2020-2021 as well. Just takes patience.

And the ability to waste time at work waiting for a drop.  Or maybe work from home or not have a job at all.

 

Some cards were more difficult to get than others.

 

Of course, everyone knows it was possible to do.  After all, scalpers were able to do it.  However, not everyone wants to spend their money competing with scalpers.

[JimmyJJones]

5 hours ago, Scarous said:

In October, my goal was to build a new computer with all current gen parts. I was able to get in an order for an ASUS 4090 at B&H Photo for MSRP. However, for months it has sat as "backordered" and customer service keeps telling me yes it will ship on XYZ date, but the date keeps getting pushed further and further into the future (now mid JAN 2023). They charged my PayPal account... I am worried about hitting some kind of limit where I wont be able to get a refund due to the length of time. Not really sure if that's a thing, though. What should I do here? How are others getting 4090s? I haven't had any luck since those initial orders went live...

I think the 4090 will eventually come out once the scalpers have run out of rubes.  A lot of people want the cards and every reviewer online is steering people to this specific card.  The problems with the 7900xtx isn’t helping matters.

 

I don’t think B&H is going to screw you. However, they might decide that the order is unfulfillable in February or March and refund your money by May.

 

Credit cards offer greater protection under the law than PayPal does IMO.  So, I usually avoid PayPal unless the merchant demands I use it like E-bay merchants.

[IkeaGnome]

7 hours ago, JimmyJJones said:

And the ability to waste time at work waiting for a drop.  Or maybe work from home or not have a job at all.

While I do waste a ton of time at work on these forums(like right now) that hardly took any time at all. 
It doesn’t take but 30 seconds. Set up notifications, let them run in the background and when your speakers chime jump over to that window. I did miss a couple drops because I was actually working. 

[Scarous]

Good to know about PayPal vs credit cards. I was thinking the opposite and tend to use PayPal for most things online. 

 

I've had good luck with B&H in the past and they have a good reputation, its just a lame situation all around. I don't want to pay scalper prices, but also havent seen anything else come up for stock essentially since launch.

 

Was tempted to just get a 4080, but the whole point was to build a stupid computer with no regard to cost. 

 

How are people managing to get them now? Or has it really not come in stock since October?

 

Edit: Just saw your post IkeaGnome. What do you run for that? I follow some on Twitter and use those alerts to get hard to find items. That typically works for everything else and was how I got the initial 4090 order at B&H. Are there other Twitter accounts that I should be using, or other alerts all together?

[vertigo220]

10 hours ago, JimmyJJones said:

I think the 4090 will eventually come out once the scalpers have run out of rubes.  A lot of people want the cards and every reviewer online is steering people to this specific card.  The problems with the 7900xtx isn’t helping matters.

 

I don’t think B&H is going to screw you. However, they might decide that the order is unfulfillable in February or March and refund your money by May.

 

Credit cards offer greater protection under the law than PayPal does IMO.  So, I usually avoid PayPal unless the merchant demands I use it like E-bay merchants.

I'd be very, very surprised if B&H screwed them in that sense. My concern is more that they might end up actually fulfilling it, but not until say Feb, and if OP decides he's had enough waiting a few weeks from now, they might say it's too late to cancel, and by then he might not have purchase protection anymore, and so B&H might hold the money and fulfill it, only still another few weeks out. Unlikely, but you never know.

 

I always assumed that if you use CC with PayPal, you get protection from both. Not sure if it works that way or not, and I hate PayPal anyway and so try not to use it unless I have to, but it would make sense.