Amazon RTX 3080 Scam Experience (Sumbuy)

[TacoSenpai]

I wanted to post my experience for awareness out there since I know many users may be impacted by this and hopefully my experience can help others avoid this from happening to them.  In the end things got resolved for the better and worked out and I did get refunded eventually.

 

I have just finished hard work on a IT and CS masters degree and celebrate at home with my favorite bourbon of choice  buffalo trace (rare commodity here mind you).  I casually start thinking about upgrading my then GTX 1080 card and I see what looked like an amazing deal on Amazon Prime (a fulfilled by amazon seller this will be important later on).  There is a RTX 3080 being sold at 650 USD and its available.  Now I had been putting off for a long while being more than satisfied for my uses with my 1080 and wanting to save money but I figured if I didn't jump on this they would be gone so I ordered it excited that in two days I'd get a massive upgrade.  I track the shipment meticulously and the day comes around and the amazon driver rings my doorbell...odd usually they just leave the package.  I answer the door excited and the driver gives me a tablet to sign which I happily do and get a very small package...odd...I open it and to my confusion get a giftcard box to some obscure Chinese e-commerce site called Sumbuy (i'm not going to link it because its obviously a scam site used to get people's personal information) with a congratulatory note saying I had just been awarded a gift card for their site where I could buy anything of my choosing.  I'm noticeably perplexed and already fearing the worst so I frantically run to my apartment's package locker to verify something else hadn't been delivered also.  I then get a notification from Amazon that my GPU had been delivered.  Anger, disappointment, and sheer emptiness.  No worry the order is fulfilled by amazon right?  I call instantly and get a hold of customer service where they thank me for being a Prime member.  I explain the situation and they told me they could refund me but I would have to wait to submit the request the next day and send the item back.  Now problem here is that I obviously did not get a GPU but a scam gift card box.  They assure me it doesn't matter and that I would just need to request a refund and send it back.  No problem I do exactly that and print out the shipping label and take it to UPS the next day and send it out.  Fast forward about 7 days and UPS tracking said it arrived at the Amazon returns location.  Now up to this point I was told I would get my refund processed once they received the refund which I now have tracking confirmation of.  I call amazon to see the status and they claim they hadn't received it yet.  Which I then argue with and give the tracking info to them and they said they received it but then would need a week to process the refund.  Again reassuring me I would get my refund even though the seller sold something not advertised.

 

I should add in hindsight it worked out because in between all of this due to the unforeseen events my motherboard failed and the BIOS was corrupt and despite my efforts to reimage, revert to the backup bios, change power settings it was FUBAR.  So I decided at this point I was just going to rebuild a new rig since I fortunately had a RAID configuration set up and a offline external with my files backed up.  The only question was whether to wait for my refund to show up or go ahead and start purchasing components.  I decided to wait.  So 1 week in I call amazon asking about where my refund was.  They then tell me they had just received the item a whole week after which the UPS tracking clearly showed it was signed for and received.  Whatever, at this point I just want to know I can be refunded.  They tell me it will take 4-5 business days for it to show up.  I continue to wait and no surprise nothing in my bank account yet so I call a 3rd time.  I explain calmly how I had been told conflicting information and even sight the sellers page how people had been reporting this same scam in the q and reviews.  They concur and apologize and tell me the larger purchases require more time to process refunds and verify.  So understandably I question if I'm going to get my refund at all at this point and request that they send me in writing I would due to it being a scam and the order was a fulfilled by amazon order.  They do just that and tell me to wait 2 more weeks again assuring me I would get refunded.  At this point I figured one of two things I was out about $700 or that my refund was going to get back to me by the time I could build a new rig so I decided to bite the bullet and build a new rig since I was already out of my old dead one and just figured I would get refunded eventually.  Good news is I build the new rig and it runs wonderfully and I get my data transferred within the additional 2 week waiting period.  Bad news my refund still hadn't showed up.  So this is the 4th time I call Amazon.  I explain things very clearly to the tech on the line.  They seem to understand fully as I sight the UPS Tracking, the order number, and the written correspondence from Amazon.  The tech then comes back to me saying I didn't even need to send anything back and that they requested the refund and I saw the transaction posted to my account. 

 

So at this point I'm just thankful I was able to get refunded and it did work out in that my old rig died anyway so a new GPU wouldn't have done any good anyhow and I do believe the individual techs were doing what they could with what they knew.  However, what I'm put off by from Amazon is how I seemed to get conflicting information based on whoever I happened to have on the line at the time and it seemed to be a matter of  getting the right person who just gave you your refund.  I mean the first time I called I properly reported it as a scam along with many other users yet they demanded I return the item and wait for the refund process.  Which I had no issue with and seemed reasonable as I was told once they received it they would process it in 4-5 days which obviously was not the case here and I had to call after 2 weeks of additional time at which point I was told by a different tech that it wasn't event required to send the item back in the first place that they would just refund me.  I mean I don't mean to be a belligerent Kevin because I too have worked helpdesk and service jobs but WTF?    

 

But I do not want to get too distracted here as I too had some things I could have done better.  For one, the deal did seem too good to be true at that price point, second going back I did realize on the images of the GPU they blurred out the ZOTAC logo on the box don't really know why but I'm guessing it had to do with some copyright or potential legalities, third I probably should have checked the seller history.  They didn't have much at all but shortly after this listing they couldn't even be found as even the amazon techs noticed the seller was no longer with them.  EC-MRAD was the name they went by just to keep a look out.  That seller and Sumbuy are the real ones here to blame and steer clear of in the first place.

 

I'm just thankful in the end I did get refunded by Amazon after many calls, didn't provide any information to Sumbuy, and I needed to build a new rig anyway.  Just wanted to post for awareness and to be on the lookout.  Don't be an idiot like me all the best.

[NobleGamer]

Sorry you went through that but glad it all worked out in the end.

 

Stories like this are why I think I may stick to a brick & mortar store like Microcenter for my GPU purchases. In 2020, I spent less time waiting outside before the store opened to get a RTX 3080 than the amount of time I wasted chasing one online: Checking Discord, configuring store site auto monitoring, trying & failing to purchase restocks, etc.

[TacoSenpai]

45 minutes ago, NobleGamer said:

Sorry you went through that but glad it all worked out in the end.

 

Stories like this are why I think I may stick to a brick & mortar store like Microcenter for my GPU purchases. In 2020, I spent less time waiting outside before the store opened to get a RTX 3080 than the amount of time I wasted chasing one online: Checking Discord, configuring store site auto monitoring, trying & failing to purchase restocks, etc.

Thanks.  The only part that really sucked was holding off on building the new rig while waiting for the refund which I had to call a 4th time and got it done right there and then.  I'm just glad I could bring some awareness to this going on with even the "Fulfilled" Amazon Prime sellers and bring attention to the scam e-commerce site name (Sumbuy).  

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 hour ago, NobleGamer said:

Stories like this are why I think I may stick to a brick & mortar store like Microcenter for my GPU purchases.

If I'm buying a new GPU, that's usually how I do it too. I've not had any issues so far buying used GPUs from Ebay and Craigslist, though.

[TacoSenpai]

35 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

If I'm buying a new GPU, that's usually how I do it too. I've not had any issues so far buying used GPUs from Ebay and Craigslist, though.

Interesting.  It is kinda a shame though because when I got my GTX 1080 through Amazon that went beautifully.

[Crunchy Dragon]

2 minutes ago, TacoSenpai said:

Interesting.  It is kinda a shame though because when I got my GTX 1080 through Amazon that went beautifully.

I buy a lot of my hardware used, typically the only things I only buy new are cases, power supplies, and storage devices. I haven't ran "modern" hardware in years just because it's cheaper to buy perfectly good old stuff on the used market than perfectly good expensive stuff new.

 

You just have to know what to look for to avoid scams, bad products, etc.

[TacoSenpai]

4 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I buy a lot of my hardware used, typically the only things I only buy new are cases, power supplies, and storage devices. I haven't ran "modern" hardware in years just because it's cheaper to buy perfectly good old stuff on the used market than perfectly good expensive stuff new.

 

You just have to know what to look for to avoid scams, bad products, etc.

Yeah I hear what you are saying I actually didn't go bleeding edge this time around simply because I've realized thats not what I need and i'm perfectly happy getting what I got which was still a kick ass upgrade from 1st Gen Ryzen and GTX era hardware.  

 

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, TacoSenpai said:

Yeah I hear what you are saying I actually didn't go bleeding edge this time around simply because I've realized thats not what I need and i'm perfectly happy getting what I got which was still a kick ass upgrade from 1st Gen Ryzen and GTX era hardware. 

Oh for sure. I just recently upgraded to Intel X299 a few months ago, and it's perfect for what I need out of a desktop system right now.

[dogwitch]

5 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Oh for sure. I just recently upgraded to Intel X299 a few months ago, and it's perfect for what I need out of a desktop system right now.

my flair build. mostly used parts.

i kind of play  a lot of older stuff. that need lots of cores. i.e rts sim etc games.

i finale have  enough core to play on.

i got tired chasing the bleed edge gaming pc.

when you find out server in 1 1u chassis can vm multiply clients of same spec pc...

[TacoSenpai]

10 hours ago, dogwitch said:

my flair build. mostly used parts.

i kind of play  a lot of older stuff. that need lots of cores. i.e rts sim etc games.

i finale have  enough core to play on.

i got tired chasing the bleed edge gaming pc.

when you find out server in 1 1u chassis can vm multiply clients of same spec pc...

I typically keep my old componets like gpus, ram, cpus, coolers, ssds.  Probably will sell my gtx1080 and 1800x since i did a refresh.  

 

To me its even easier to play older complete titles now in days given the unfortunate state of the AAA games industry

 

[NobleGamer]

18 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

If I'm buying a new GPU, that's usually how I do it too. I've not had any issues so far buying used GPUs from Ebay and Craigslist, though.

Buying a used GPU was a lot easier for me to consider with transferable warranties like EVGA has (RIP their GPU biz).

 

Absent that, for me with $500+ GPUs there's often too many variables with GPU conditions compared to less variables with CPUs, RAM, and some other hardware where the question of "does it work well" is more obvious with a simple yes/no. Sure sites like ebay have some basic 30 day type protections, but that only goes so far when the issue is in shades of grey or personally I dont want the hassle of dispute/return becomes not worth it - We all have our risk tolerances.

 

But that's easy for me to say when I go at least 4 years between GPU upgrades, and when I want to buy I'm usually not strapped for cash.

 

I'm more lenient on cheaper <$150 GPUs or thrift store finds like the GTX 680 that I once bought as a backup since I have no iGPU.