Newegg Premier? *Shrug*

Ordered a crap ton of different stuff from NE last week to test out the new "Premier" membership they've brought out. It's supposed to be 3 (business) day free shipping automatically rush processed on eligible items with free shipping on returns/exchanges & no restock fees.

I was pretty skeptical at first because I signed up right away for the free month trial they are offering and there were very few items coming up as "premier" eligible--but within a few days almost everything had been added to the program (look for this to change, I guess).

So my first Premier order:
1 x Metropolitan ED500 DataVac 120 Volt Electric Duster, White
2 x Dremel EZ456 5 Count 1-1/2" EZ Lock Cutoff Wheels (for metal)
1 x Dremel EZ476 5 Count 1-1/2" EZ Lock™ Reinforced Cut Off Wheel (for plastics)
*had to be careful ordering the dremel blades because they default to the lowest price... which isn't newegg on these but a marketplace seller (do not want)... weird*
1 x CORSAIR Voyager Slider 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model CMFSL3B-128GB
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54670K
1 x Kensington Black Power and Sync Cable (K39252US) (for iPhones)
1 x Coboc Model SC-SATA3-6-LL-GR 6" SATA III 6Gb/s Data Cable w/Latch,UV Green
1 x Coboc Model SC-SATA3-6-LL-GR-90 6" 90 Degree to 180 Degree SATA III 6Gb/s Data Cable w/Latch,UV Green
1 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Case Fan
1 x NZXT M59 - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x Rosewill R4i 3 ft Charge/Sync USB to 30-Pin Connector Cable w/ LED Indicator for Apple Devices
1 x Arctic Silver Arcticlean Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) - OEM
2 x Silverstone LS01V Flexible LED Light Strip 12" (30cm / 300mm) - Green
1 x Silverstone LS01W Flexible LED Light Strip 12" (30cm / 300mm) - White

I thought about listing the prices but the point isn't really about saving money here. All the same, a couple items on this list are hard to find, a couple were priced very competitively (this 128gb usb3 flash drive in particular, which comes out to $45 through tomorrow night after promo code and rebate, if you get it) and a couple were overpriced, like the Noctua fan.

Anyway, this was to test out shipping and possible RMA service following the delivery mostly. That and I was itching to buy a buncha random stuff.

OK! So the results are in and I'm pleasantly surprised:
Sent in order on Wednesday evening. I don't usually wait too long for Newegg to ship, but the few times I've bothered to order with rush processing, it was clearly rushed in a good way.
Every single item shipped out by the end of the following day, Thursday. They split the order up into like 6 different shipments and invoices. I was shocked when UPS My Choice (I despise my regular UPS guy and I usually have stuff held at will call) sent me an alert on Sunday that some of the boxes were already going to arrive on Monday. That's Prime 2-business day shipping territory they accidentally stumbled on, From CA to TX and TN to TX. I let the dude drop everything off at the door to "torture test" the order, if you will.
The NZXT case and one other package arrived today, I picked them up at will call this morning, and finished up testing everything that came in the order. Everything was packaged like you'd expect, not too much not too little material. Everything works OK, but HAHA there was ONE issue with an item. Take a look through the list and tell me which item you think might have been defective?

If you guessed the Rosewill LED cable then dingdingding you win an egg salad. It works fine as a sync/charge cable, but the LED freaks out and has a twitchy intermittent red/blue indicator while charging. This made me smile and just about an hour ago I had the fortune of webchatting briefly with a Newegg Rep named LuLu about the defective cable (which was $7). I'm an old hand at Newegg chat sessions so this took me 5 minutes from start to finish, but it ended with a twist! I simply let Lulu read my description of the problem and said hello, asked for return shipping label for a replacement cable. What? I like the design >.>

As usual the rep you request an RMA from will ask if the item is damaged and if you have the packaging/accessories/UPC. I said no damage and that I had everything ready to go. Then, the kicker--Lulu didn't hesitate or ask to put me on hold to discuss this with her manager or research the issue. She immediately offered a $7 gift card and suggested I could keep the malfunctioning cable to use.

Huh? Cool! I mean, this is no free 4k monitor--I'm not delusional--but it's better than having to walk backwards through the snow while begging them to take back a defective item.

Is this the Newegg I ordered my first all-new system-in-parts from in like 2003 resurrected perhaps? The Newegg that gave stuff away for no reason sometimes? They put an insert in one of my packages that had that kind of appeal. So for the moment, all I have to do is pay $50 a year and I get something more like that old Newegg back? Heck, I'm in! I'll buy 5 monitors and pick the best one... send the rest back without a care in the world.

What do you guys think? I'm not expecting those of you Newegg has wronged in the past to come running, but for those of us that already deal with them a lot or like the idea of returning perfectly good shit to them with no strings attached, it kinda sounds like a better way to shop for electronics and such no?

Ive see alot of people not happy with NewEgg but all the times ive delt with them, theyve shipped fast and if I had an issue it was handled fast and taken care of. Even when ive gone thru ebay to buy stuff off the Egg.
The last thing i had to exchange with them was the AC IV collectors edition, it arrived damaged, the shipping box was fine but the item itself wasnt. Had it cleared up shipped back (they paid shipping) and had my new one within a week if i remember right. No hassle other then time in transit

There price tho havent been as competitive as they used to be oooo so long ago lol

Cold Dark Shadow said:

Ive see alot of people not happy with NewEgg but all the times ive delt with them, theyve shipped fast and if I had an issue it was handled fast and taken care of. Even when ive gone thru ebay to buy stuff off the Egg.
The last thing i had to exchange with them was the AC IV collectors edition, it arrived damaged, the shipping box was fine but the item itself wasnt. Had it cleared up shipped back (they paid shipping) and had my new one within a week if i remember right. No hassle other then time in transit

There price tho havent been as competitive as they used to be oooo so long ago lol

Click to expand...

same here, only a few damaged items in my 15 years of buying from them and they always handled it without any more hassle than having to deal with shipping. you can do better on the price most of the time but not generally by a huge margin in my experience.

Bluesun311 said:

Ordered a crap ton of different stuff from NE last week to test out the new "Premier" membership they've brought out. It's supposed to be 3 (business) day free shipping automatically rush processed on eligible items with free shipping on returns/exchanges & no restock fees.

I was pretty skeptical at first because I signed up right away for the free month trial they are offering and there were very few items coming up as "premier" eligible--but within a few days almost everything had been added to the program (look for this to change, I guess).

So my first Premier order:
1 x Metropolitan ED500 DataVac 120 Volt Electric Duster, White
2 x Dremel EZ456 5 Count 1-1/2" EZ Lock Cutoff Wheels (for metal)
1 x Dremel EZ476 5 Count 1-1/2" EZ Lock™ Reinforced Cut Off Wheel (for plastics)
*had to be careful ordering the dremel blades because they default to the lowest price... which isn't newegg on these but a marketplace seller (do not want)... weird*
1 x CORSAIR Voyager Slider 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model CMFSL3B-128GB
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54670K
1 x Kensington Black Power and Sync Cable (K39252US) (for iPhones)
1 x Coboc Model SC-SATA3-6-LL-GR 6" SATA III 6Gb/s Data Cable w/Latch,UV Green
1 x Coboc Model SC-SATA3-6-LL-GR-90 6" 90 Degree to 180 Degree SATA III 6Gb/s Data Cable w/Latch,UV Green
1 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Case Fan
1 x NZXT M59 - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x Rosewill R4i 3 ft Charge/Sync USB to 30-Pin Connector Cable w/ LED Indicator for Apple Devices
1 x Arctic Silver Arcticlean Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) - OEM
2 x Silverstone LS01V Flexible LED Light Strip 12" (30cm / 300mm) - Green
1 x Silverstone LS01W Flexible LED Light Strip 12" (30cm / 300mm) - White

I thought about listing the prices but the point isn't really about saving money here. All the same, a couple items on this list are hard to find, a couple were priced very competitively (this 128gb usb3 flash drive in particular, which comes out to $45 through tomorrow night after promo code and rebate, if you get it) and a couple were overpriced, like the Noctua fan.

Anyway, this was to test out shipping and possible RMA service following the delivery mostly. That and I was itching to buy a buncha random stuff.

OK! So the results are in and I'm pleasantly surprised:
Sent in order on Wednesday evening. I don't usually wait too long for Newegg to ship, but the few times I've bothered to order with rush processing, it was clearly rushed in a good way.
Every single item shipped out by the end of the following day, Thursday. They split the order up into like 6 different shipments and invoices. I was shocked when UPS My Choice (I despise my regular UPS guy and I usually have stuff held at will call) sent me an alert on Sunday that some of the boxes were already going to arrive on Monday. That's Prime 2-business day shipping territory they accidentally stumbled on, From CA to TX and TN to TX. I let the dude drop everything off at the door to "torture test" the order, if you will.
The NZXT case and one other package arrived today, I picked them up at will call this morning, and finished up testing everything that came in the order. Everything was packaged like you'd expect, not too much not too little material. Everything works OK, but HAHA there was ONE issue with an item. Take a look through the list and tell me which item you think might have been defective?

If you guessed the Rosewill LED cable then dingdingding you win an egg salad. It works fine as a sync/charge cable, but the LED freaks out and has a twitchy intermittent red/blue indicator while charging. This made me smile and just about an hour ago I had the fortune of webchatting briefly with a Newegg Rep named LuLu about the defective cable (which was $7). I'm an old hand at Newegg chat sessions so this took me 5 minutes from start to finish, but it ended with a twist! I simply let Lulu read my description of the problem and said hello, asked for return shipping label for a replacement cable. What? I like the design >.>

As usual the rep you request an RMA from will ask if the item is damaged and if you have the packaging/accessories/UPC. I said no damage and that I had everything ready to go. Then, the kicker--Lulu didn't hesitate or ask to put me on hold to discuss this with her manager or research the issue. She immediately offered a $7 gift card and suggested I could keep the malfunctioning cable to use.

Huh? Cool! I mean, this is no free 4k monitor--I'm not delusional--but it's better than having to walk backwards through the snow while begging them to take back a defective item.

Is this the Newegg I ordered my first all-new system-in-parts from in like 2003 resurrected perhaps? The Newegg that gave stuff away for no reason sometimes? They put an insert in one of my packages that had that kind of appeal. So for the moment, all I have to do is pay $50 a year and I get something more like that old Newegg back? Heck, I'm in! I'll buy 5 monitors and pick the best one... send the rest back without a care in the world.

What do you guys think? I'm not expecting those of you Newegg has wronged in the past to come running, but for those of us that already deal with them a lot or like the idea of returning perfectly good shit to them with no strings attached, it kinda sounds like a better way to shop for electronics and such no?

Click to expand...

They are trying to take advantage of possible defections from Amazon Prime due to upcoming increases there - which is a sensible thing to do.

There IS a large amount of crossover between Newegg and Amazon, and especially in terms of electronics in general, not to mention computer parts in particular. Prime doubtless won a lot of customers from Newegg - the upcoming price increase for Prime gives Newegg an opportunity.

They better not discontinue shoprunner...

PGHammer said:

They are trying to take advantage of possible defections from Amazon Prime due to upcoming increases there - which is a sensible thing to do.

There IS a large amount of crossover between Newegg and Amazon, and especially in terms of electronics in general, not to mention computer parts in particular. Prime doubtless won a lot of customers from Newegg - the upcoming price increase for Prime gives Newegg an opportunity.

Click to expand...

They will get a bigger cut of the money if they do their own service instead of relying on Shoprunner. This isn't something they are doing just in case Amazon raises rates, stuff like this needs to be planned for a while.

Bluesun311 said:

So for the moment, all I have to do is pay $50 a year and I get something more like that old Newegg back? Heck, I'm in! I'll buy 5 monitors and pick the best one... send the rest back without a care in the world.

What do you guys think? I'm not expecting those of you Newegg has wronged in the past to come running, but for those of us that already deal with them a lot or like the idea of returning perfectly good shit to them with no strings attached, it kinda sounds like a better way to shop for electronics and such no?

Click to expand...

I really hope you are kidding. It is not a nice thing to return perfectly good items which have been opened and cannot be sold as new anymore. You have caused Newegg to incur unnecessary losses. When people abuse the system, it ruins it for the rest of us.

Nvidia_ATI said:

I really hope you are kidding. It is not a nice thing to return perfectly good items which have been opened and cannot be sold as new anymore. You have caused Newegg to incur unnecessary losses. When people abuse the system, it ruins it for the rest of us.

Click to expand...

Well, I was definitely exaggerating. As far as Newegg's losses: zero cares given. It's an amoeba-eat-amoeba world out there. These return policies are good for everyone equally, it is the consumer's burden to make use of them or not. I don't make a habit of returning perfectly good open items because I'm too busy using them.

Anyway returning things to Newegg as a "premier" member is 100% restock fee free HOWEVER if you want to return something for personal reasons you have to pay for the shipping. So my Buy 5 monitors pick the best one and send the rest back plan probably wouldn't go over so well.

I found this out after Newegg agreed to accept an unopened CPU for a return, but wouldn't pay the return shipping lol. Can't blame them. Was a backup chip in case I had a mishap while delidding. Was planning to sell it on the F/S/T forum because I did not know they would even let me return it unopened. CPU-replacement only policy is forgiving if the item is unopened.

You used the Newegg Premier support right? And not the standard customer support.
Just checking.

TaintedSquirrel said:

You used the Newegg Premier support right? And not the standard customer support.
Just checking.

Click to expand...

Nah, I didn't actually. I almost always do RMA/return stuff through the webchat support because it's just really effortless. The Premier telephone support seems top-notch but in this particular case I felt paying return shipping on a CPU I ordered and didn't end up opening was fair. I haven't actually paid the 50 dollars for the membership yet and it's still a free trial so I'll cut them a break from being that really tough customer on this one.

It seems clear to me that the webchat support people can tell if you are a Newegg Premier member or at least if you have a Newegg Preferred account (I have pretty bad credit but they still gave me a shot). This last thing is major leverage to keep you happy, I suspect. The more money you owe them--the less likely they are to give you a hard time, maybe.

FWIW: the Rosewill cable I complained about turns out the issue was with the phone's charging port. The port is functional but has water damage and the cable doesn't like it (still charges the phone but the LED freaks out). I tried a different phone and it works fine. w2g Rosewill! I bet a significant number of retail electronics returns are customer error like that.

Well, since I'm a full-fledged member of Newegg Premier now ($50 for... executive etailer service? Ouch >< what was I thinking?) I thought I'd take it for a spin and see what she can do.

Here's my dilemma: I bought a Cyberpower 1350 VA 810 Watts UPS with AVR on 1/28 (I was already a Premier member on the free 1 month trial). Yesterday I made up my mind that I actually wanted a different unit made by APC that is similar ($50 more) but has the ability to control slave outlets from a master, so that when my computer goes to sleep my monitor will completely power down automatically.

So my plan to test how far Premier membership goes is to see if they will break their own return policy and allow me to send the Cyberpower unit back for in-store credit even though it's been 54 days since I bought it. That way I can buy the other battery backup with the master control from them. Maybe I'll offer to buy it first when they get back to me.

This is a long shot and I don't expect them to go for it. Part of the experiment is to see what it's like just trying to get it done. I'm not prepared to get fussy about it because... well, I've had the thing for 54 days, it's technically mine in every way shape and form. I will, however, allow them to compensate me in some other fashion if they turn me down and they want to throw a little money at me instead, that's probably what they will do, which is fine because 50 dollars for the years' membership has given me slight buyers' remorse as I realize I'm running out of computer stuff to buy as of late. Newegg doesn't carry much in the way of hq watercooling products, and that's the direction I'm headed, if anywhere.

Anyway, they don't have telephone support on weekends so I tried the webchat. They said they were unable to locate the original order in their system--I figured they were passing the buck. I tried back 10 hours later, same story, different agent. So this morning I called the Newegg Premier phone line--they have it set up now to where they answer the call thanking you for being a premier member. I can't remember if Prime was like that, but you can tell they are a different tier of telephone support because they don't just leave you on hold for 10 minutes if something is taking a long time, they check back at regular intervals--almost robotic--unless you tell them to take their time and you aren't in a hurry.

The CSR on the phone confirms they are actually having some sort of internal problem and the system is seriously not pulling up my original order for the battery backup. I'll not speculate too much on why this might be but the order was literally right after they rolled out the service. I was jazzed to try it because I had basically been asking for this kind of thing in the I hate you, Newegg thread. Prime sucked for me--the customer service was fantastic, but they seemed completely incompetent on the shipping side. It's apparently very difficult for UPS to conform to 2 business-day shipping in my specific case, which is in TX, where Amazon should be covered no problem.

I'm waiting to see if the CSR calls me back, which she said would happen later in the day (confirmed my cell number) once she'd had a chance to resolve the issue with the proper department. If she calls back, I'll be impressed, but I'd expect an Amazon CSR to do the same.

I'd do a poll, but it's stupid, and who cares if they let me return it, it's kind of on the edge of consumer graft. I'm going to switch the UPS units, either way, but I'll have to figure out who to dump this perfectly good Cyberpower unit on. I hate the idea of paying to ship it to some deal-hunter on [H] and losing half the value of the thing. I'd rather Newegg take care of me on this so I feel like it was worth it to buy the membership. Unless I get some people who want me to do builds this year I probably won't be ordering much. Definitely a monitor or two though.

Bluesun311 said:

So my plan to test how far Premier membership goes is to see if they will break their own return policy and allow me to send the Cyberpower unit back for in-store credit even though it's been 54 days since I bought it.

Click to expand...

It's great when they make an exception and really go that extra mile, but buyer's remorse is not a legitimate reason to return an item. At least you identify your request is outside their policy.

I can't count the number of posts on this forum where someone asks for something way outside the realm of logic and then rants about how "Newegg has wronged me!", as if the company came to their house to run over their cat. I have no doubt some folk have legitimate complaints, but I think the Newegg hate is being amplified by fools, beyond it's true measure.

Draxanoth said:

buyer's remorse is not a legitimate reason to return an item

Click to expand...

Well whatever you call it when you buy something and realize you should have bought something else, so you return it to the B&M where you bought it, like Walmart or Best Buy and then go off and buy whatever it was you should have got instead--they consider that legitimate as long as the item isn't damaged and you bring it back within the period of their return policy. So I guess buyer's remorse is legitimate at brick and mortars but not at online etailers? Why? I offered to pay to ship the thing back to Newegg and they offered me a full refund no restocking fee even though I've had it for 2 months almost. That pretty much made my day.

The buyer's remorse comment was about paying 50 dollars for the premier membership to begin with. At any rate, it appears to be serving me well, so far. Cost me 30 dollars to send the unit back to Newegg and I'm happy to say it's boxed up and been dropped off at UPS already. Would Best Buy have made that kind of exception for me? I'd be real surprised. Heck, I'd be surprised if any other online retailer would have. Maybe Amazon, because I owe them money, too.

maademperor said:

same here, only a few damaged items in my 15 years of buying from them and they always handled it without any more hassle than having to deal with shipping. you can do better on the price most of the time but not generally by a huge margin in my experience.

Click to expand...

They have only been around since 2001 [13 years]

That said I have been a member since 2002 and have only had to return two items and they handled both without any drama.

I signed up for the premier trial because I just bought some new drives and a 750ti both of which can have high failure rates.

So far after a few weeks no issues so I am debating if I should cancel or for the $50 annually just keep it. I have a week to decide.

I don't buy that much stuff from NE like I once did [thanks to AZ] and I am only two states away from CA when they do send from there otherwise when they ship from TN stuff takes longer to arrive naturally.

Waiting an extra day is not a big deal, if it's mission critical then most people pay extra to overnight.

ep0x73 said:

They have only been around since 2001 [13 years]
That said I have been a member since 2002 and have only had to return two items and they handled both without any drama.

Click to expand...

Newegg should come make a thread on [H] titled "I hate you, Bluesun."
I've done 15 RMAs in the past 12 months without a single issue, no restock fees and I paid return shipping on a CPU I didn't want (even though they make you sign a no returns policy acknowledgement whenever you order a cpu) and now a UPS I've used for 2 months and want to exchange. They haven't banned me yet but I figured if I didn't give them the 50 dollars for the membership they might start being mean.

Wanted to put a cap on the experiment to test if Newegg would accept a return for store credit on a 2-month old UPS(battery backup) so I could get a different one.

They approved the RMA request without any hesitation. I paid return shipping at their request because I felt it was only fair, it stung a little because the damn package weighed 29 pounds, but that's what I get for changing my mind and making them take it back so long after I received it.

One problem I realized--I had thrown the manual and warranty cards away but I had all the original packaging and the DVD with the software on it and I packed the UPS manufacturer box itself inside a midtower shipping carton I had lying around, so I wasn't too worried they'd send it back to me at my expense over the missing manual. Amazon has done the same for me before about a manual. And one time I even forgot to send Newegg a cable tote-bag that came with a Tachyon power supply I returned. They didn't care.

Anyway, Somehow UPS managed to get the UPS (ha ha) to Newegg in less than 3 days so it got there this morning. The RMA posted about an hour after they sent me the email they'd received it. Seriously, they must process so many RMAs that they are like super efficient at it usually because this IS the normal behavior. They get the item in the morning, they tell you pretty quick, then if you packed it right and put the RMA slip in the box you'll have the RMA approved almost immediately. They sent me a gift card in the amount of the original value already, as well. As for the replacement, I ordered it on Tuesday and it will be here tomorrow.

I'm very pleased with this arrangement and although I wish I were being paid for all this praise NE is getting in this thread, I'm not... I really honestly just wanted a place to shop online that was as convenient about returning shit as a B&M like Walmart while avoiding taxes. I was even willing to pay for the upgraded service. I realize some of this may seem suspect to some of you who have a sharper moral compass than me. Some of you may hate Newegg so much that even mentioning the fact that I shop there basically makes me look like a troll. So anytime anyone starts looking at this thread, or my posts concerning Newegg with any skepticism, I just want to be clear that when I joined this site it was at the end of a long period of random NE RMA fraud going on. There is no doubt that some of the claims were legitimate and Newegg employees were breaking the law and really ruining peoples' days over broken motherboards being sold as new and RMAs being denied for "customer induced damage". It does appear those days have come to an end (not that there wont be isolated incidents of shenanigans here and there at any giant conglomerate etailer). My ambition when I found the "Newegg is breaking my returns" thread 7 months ago was to test it and bust them on it because I have a close contact in the mainstream reporting world. Unfortunately, it was outside of my personal interest or means to test the motherboard side very closely, instead I've mainly focused on returning monitors. But I have also purchased 2 motherboards from them in this time, and they both arrived in perfect condition but poorly packaged. Now they seem to be improving the packaging over the past 2 months.

So I've been dreading updating this... mostly because I wanted my old Newegg back. But there's a problem.

I received the APC BR1500g Back-UPS PRO unit that I ordered from Newegg as scheduled on the 28th, and I've been using it and it seems in excellent working order, HOWEVER;;;;

The packaging was not damaged, but the unit itself has 3 super obvious and very long sort of curved scratches on one side. That's pretty open and shut, to me. This is a refurbished/returned or used item that has been repackaged and resold as new.

No, I'm not surprised at all. In the last 7 months since I began this "investigation"/shopping spree that wasn't exactly confined to Newegg (I've also ordered from Amazon, Amazon marketplace sellers, Provantage, NCIX, FrozenCPU, mWave, B&H photo, eBay, [H] F/S/T) I've had the distinct feeling on several occasions that I was receiving items that were perfectly fine but not new. They were ALL with Newegg and I can't rightly count how many times I got that slightly eerie feeling. You'll never really know... until you get a "new" UPS that looks like it's been clawed by a character from X-Men. One other time I felt was obvious was an Asus monitor that had something strangely preinstalled that should not have been, was suspicious because I had identical monitor right next to it, with factory tape the open box one did not.

Other than the scratches on this Backup Battery here, I thought it was maybe slightly less odd to find a long QC check paper that had been taped at both ends to the same side of the unit that was scratched. It was hand signed and in immaculate condition. I've left it exactly as it was and begun the process of getting NE to deal with this. Considering they allowed me to return the CyberPower unit past the return policy, and made no mention of all the paperwork that was missing from the package, I'm guessing this is just really really common at NE. The number of open box items available seems to have grown, particularly motherboards, and they are all covered by Premier service. I've considering buying one but I didn't really sign up for premier so I could buy used stuff with the option of sending it back free if it's defective, I wanted to use it to buy big ticket items and be covered on return shipping with no restocking fee if I find a reason not to be satisfied with the item, like at Walmart. Problem is... this system is going to end up with way more open box crap than before, and sure enough--I seem to be getting some of that perfectly good but open box crap that just makes you wonder... Do I really care about the scratches themselves? Nope. But I didn't pay for a refurbished or open box item, so I feel misled.

Now. The unit itself is superb. It works beautifully with my Seasonic PSU and the PowerChute software controls the slave outlets using a delay timer... which is really nice when double cold booting a z87 board that needs to train its voltages, or for turning on audio units without that good old amplifier POP when you hit windows load. It's a lot more sophisticated and useful than the other unit I had (CyberPower 810W). So I don't really feel like swapping the unit out. Especially since the side that is scratched is completely hidden. But I'm prepared to do it on principle and buy the unit from somewhere more trustworthy.

After contacting customer service about this issue, and having them verify that my account is still messed up in their system, and that they still can't access my orders at all (accept for the one phone chat CSR agent who hooked me up with the RMA on the previous UPS... who took about 15 minutes to finally explain that she had located my order by "going the long way around") I'm starting to get more than a little buyer's remorse at having paid 50 dollars for the Premier membership. They will get it figured out, but I'm not sure I'd recommend this service at all in my present state of mind, much less right now.

Well, my wife says I should just keep the UPS even though the QC check paper on it is covering a big scratch... clearly indicating the unit was used before that qc check was done. That just irritates me. Newegg couldn't even find the order and tells me I haven't actually ordered the unit (of course I paid for it). Eventually they are able to find it by "going the long way" around again, whatever that means and they create the RMA and label. I was hoping they'd just throw some money at me, but no dice. The bottom line is, Premier service is still no guarantee that you wont get a used item from Newegg at new price, and I should have known better than to expect that issue has been taken care of there. It goes on at any retailer, when you return shirts and pants to Target they put them back on the rack.

Edit: Guess I'll keep the UPS. Don't really feel like undoing everything just to make a point that Newegg won't care about anyway. They are perfectly willing to exchange the unit free of charge and to pay for return shipping, so it's not like they aren't handling it properly. I'm annoyed they continue to have issues finding my orders and such but it's not worth being huffy over.

Edit2: They still can't find my orders normally, but they've now squared it and given me the year membership free for the inconvenience (and it's a wash really since I pretty much saved them that much by keeping the scratched UPS--it's HEAVY and they were going to overnight me the replacement), which I can only imagine is exactly what Amazon would do. I wonder what happened, though? Something about signing up for the Premier program too quick when they opened it up on the website or changing my email address that I log in with right around the same time seems to have caused a bug. The website still works fine for me, I can do anything I try on it and my orders are charged correctly and arrive on time. The Customer Service is really excellent, too: my story has got around the watercooler and the Premier rep I last spoke with knew about me already and how to get to my order though I had not spoken with her before That may sound ridiculous but the Premier phoneline service department is really small. They have told me this, and I can tell because I got the same rep on 2 calls on 2 different days. I've only called like 5 times total. So that's pretty clear. Maybe I'm the only member? It's probably perfectly safe to sign up at this point; I'm a special case (a dark rain cloud follows me around when I leave the house). Also, I have received a 10% off up to $200 coupon that was exclusive to Premier members, so yeah for me, since I do shop there, it makes sense to sign up. I think they are working out the kinks at Newegg, but I'm going to continue to test the limits of their system and service. My next experiment will be with open-box motherboards.

So I thought I'd add a short installment to the Premier worklog.

This is about rebates. You hear a lot of bitching about them and how companies are super shady and flat out lie when they deny you. Well that was me tonight. I got around to looking up the status of a 10 dollar Corsair rebate I should have got a while ago. They had never notified me I'd been denied because they said the form I sent in was for the wrong time period. I didn't believe it. I've never been denied before on a rebate and I've done bunches of em. So I hit up Newegg webchat. The lady asked me for my paperwork, she wanted a copy of the rebate form+UPC code, and the original invoice I sent in. After I got that all together she managed to somehow politely inform me through text that yep, I did it wrong.

Here's the trick... I printed out the rebate form from Neweggs website from my Order History. But I was at the end of a revolving promotion that has a new rebate code every month. So, I ordered on the 29th, but the link I printed the form from some 2 weeks later was for a new promo since I was careless. They gave me a 10 dollar in store credit, which is fine. I was embarrassed so it helped smooth things over.

I'm sure a lot of times companies do flat out lie about rebates, we've caught some of them red handed in the past, and I thought that was what I had here. But Corsair is just doing what they do. The rebate is a clever and annoying obstacle to a discount.

Man... you really gotta be careful with these fuckers lol.

I finally slipped up really bad with Newegg. Bought a 290x... liked it a lot, wanted another, got the bright idea to get a 295x2 and see if I liked it and sell the 290x off later or go tri-fire. So I called them to make sure the games could be returned if the video card didn't work out and they said it was a free gift and I wouldn't be charged if the item needed to be returned... but they didn't mention the video card wasn't returnable, VGA exchange only policy. I just assumed it could be returned because it was on Premier... "ass" u me? I knew better anyway, I've bought CPUs and seen the warning page they pop up. Intel makes them do that or they wouldn't bother, maybe. But on a 1500 dollar video card you better well make sure what the return policy is.

Here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with the card as far as I can tell, but the game I wanted to use it for, FFXIV doesn't work properly with it. Square Enix told me to downgrade to Windows 7 (if that would even help...) or send the card back as if it was a known issue. I even got the stupid game as a free gift for buying a 4770k from Newegg

I tried to see if they would let me return the 295x2 for in store credit. They wanted a 25% restocking fee... I'm like, but I'm Premier! lol. No dice. Restocking fee exclusions for premier members only include items which can be returned. What a red tape nightmare. Oh well. They offered to lower the restocking fee to 15% when I expressed utter horror at the $350 they wanted me to toss down the toilet. 15% is still too much, though. This isn't even my making--I'll just go back to windows 7 and see if that even works. I don't even want to play the game really... so I'm definitely not sending a perfectly good 295x2 back to newegg to resell as an open box with no warranty for a hundred off or whatever and letting them keep my $225.

Vallery! (The manager I was trying to muscle into taking it back by threatening not to pay my preferred account bill--doesn't work--anyway I was bluffing). Sorry for giving you a hard time, Val. but it's a decent sum of money and I had to give it a shot.

I didn't cuss at her or anything like that, it's pointless to lose it... the worst I said was that they were making a stupid mistake. But the stupid mistake was bothering to try to get them to take it back for credit. I was pretty sure it would be a waste of time. Just a warning--don't call them to ask about return policies with free gifts and stuff. Look them up yourself.

Delete...

Bluesun311 said:

...get a 295x2 and see if I liked it

Click to expand...

This is exactly why they have policies in place to discourage returns

ocellaris said:

This is exactly why they have policies in place to discourage returns

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Yeah, returns aren't meant as a rental program. I think considering the discount they'd be giving reselling it open box labor to test, and then liability for another 30 day return period, a restock fee clearly stated is hardly unreasonable.

Sounds from this thread that the op is a return abuser habitually, the policies are meant to protect people who have legitimate reasons for wanting to return something in good faith. Doesn't surprise me they broke the free ride... Threatening not to pay your bill over it is hilarious and saying they're "making a stupid mistake" is just silly.

GoldenTiger said:

Yeah, returns aren't meant as a rental program. I think considering the discount they'd be giving reselling it open box labor to test, and then liability for another 30 day return period, a restock fee clearly stated is hardly unreasonable.

Sounds from this thread that the op is a return abuser habitually, the policies are meant to protect people who have legitimate reasons for wanting to return something in good faith. Doesn't surprise me they broke the free ride... Threatening not to pay your bill over it is hilarious and saying they're "making a stupid mistake" is just silly.

Click to expand...

I don't find this harsh summing up of my reporting on "trials with Newegg Premier" as terribly off the mark at least as far as lolz are concerned but I will counter with some points anyway:

Who said returns are meant as a rental program? It's a program where you get to try it before you buy it permanently, particularly when you look at it with credit in mind, and since Newegg does its own credit card it becomes pretty fuzzy. Have you looked into the Premier program that this thread is about? Newegg has returns in place for certain items so that you can try them and if you don't like them, they have such cheap shipping with UPS that on Premier you can send them back. They sell tons of open box items and the mfg love that because they don't have to warranty them.

I buy a TON of shit at Newegg and a small fraction I return.


That's 200 items in the last year, including 3 EVGA GTX 780s which have all been resold on this forum, as well as 3 4770K's, one of which is in my rig and the other 2 are in other [H] members' rigs for super cheap. I'm that guy you want to buy shit from because it's still practically brand new and I provide receipts and help with warranty support.

Here's what I returned from those 200 items:

• 2 sets of RAM, 1 was slower at 2800 than my 2400Mhz, and the other wouldn't operate properly at advertized speed at all, had to be downclocked.
• 2 x Antec Two Cool 140 140mm Case Fan--unopened
• 1 x CORSAIR Voyager Slider 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model CMFSL3B-128GB - unopened - i got a different one instead
• 1 x Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell Quad-Core 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics - unopened, i paid for return shipping since they usually have a no return policy on cpus. It was unopened so they allowed me to return it for store credit.
• 1 x AOC Q2770PQU Black 27" 5ms WQHD HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS Panel - I felt bad about this one. Nice monitor, had a bit of brown glow on one corner but I liked it and returned it because it wasn't a proper gaming monitor.
• 1 x CTL MTDD27010 27" LCD Monitor - this Danger Den monitor was advertized as 120Hz and wasn't. It also had the worst yellow IPS glow in all 4 corners I've ever seen.
• 1 x Acer K272HULbmiidp Black 27" WQHD 6ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor AHVA - whole right side of the monitor had ripped white bleed in a line up the bezel edge. It also had 2 dead pixels in the center of the screen.
• 1 x CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD 1350 VA 810 Watts UPS - returned out of return period. Newegg was being super nice because I wanted to buy a more expensive one. They accepted the return for store credit. They then sent me a refurbished APC unit instead of new, which I paid for. So they got me back.
• 1 x BenQ XL2420Z Black / Red 24" 1 (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight 3D Gaming LCD Monitor - was testing if this was old firmware with a bug in it. I let newegg know about it after I confirmed it was, but I was kind of being a dick.
• 2 x Open Box: EIZO FG2421-BK Black 23.5" Less than 1 ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Gaming Monitor - bezel was smashed and it restarted itself randomly. The other also randomly restarted itself and looked like it had a skid mark/smudge in the center of the screen. They quit selling these open box after that.
• 1 x ASUS VG278HE Black 27" 2ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor - had a frame of backlight bleed around the entire monitor. Was horrible.

I returned 14 items, 7 were defective, 4 were unopened, 2 came down to "product disatisfaction" as in, I changed ma miiind, sorries. And 1 was taken for store credit completely out of return period to switch it out for another, more expensive unit. Go pound sand if you think I'm being totally unscrupulous about this. Newegg loves me and managers like Vallery are there to deal with customers that are frustrated about purchases that aren't working. I had no intention of sending the 295x2 back unless it didn't work. When it didn't work with FFXIV and I had to downgrade to windows 7 I was not happy, but I wouldn't have sent it back for that scenario. When I thought I couldn't play the game with the card at all, I was pissed and wanted a refund. Putting it out there on the record that I was being stupid on the phone about it isn't purely for your entertainment, though. It's partly for the folks that think all they have to do is get their mom on the phone to take care of stuff like this for them (my folks are gone so, not an option) as was suggested in another thread, and partly for the folks that think if they just squeal at a manager for a while it will eventually go their way. The truth is the manager is annoyed to even have to deal with you and if you've gotten to that point you're probably at an impasse. I'll admit to being a douche on the phone to Vallery. But I literally did not realize I couldn't return the card for a refund because I'd specifically called to ask about it before purchasing. Video cards are pretty much *always* non-refundable at NE, I just forgot, it's been a while but the last time I even considered returning one to NE was just when the R9 series came out. They were letting you get refunds on those video cards for Iron Egg around christmas I had a 280x that wasn't gelling in crossfire with the 7950 I had already. So, I just pure and simple messed up on the 295x2 policy. I called about the free games, I was asking if the games would be charged for if the card needed to be returned... so they just conveniently didn't mention that the card was non refundable, but said the games were a free gift even if the card didn't work out. Heh. Yes, I'm dumb in a very particular way. Some of the worlds greatest mathematicians couldn't figure out how to dress themselves.

I have been a habitual returner partly because of the volume of items I've bought from this etailer since I joined [H] and the number of items they have delivered that were unsatisfactory. But certainly not a habitual abuser--in fact, they sent me a refurbished APC battery backup I paid for NEW that I opted to keep even though they offered to take it back. Partly it was because I was too lazy to undo everything but whatever. Most of the things I buy from Newegg I keep. Most of the items I've sent back this year were monitors that had dead pixels or cracked housings. That APC battery backup failed pretty quickly, too. It took about 15 power events without drama before it failed a scheduled self test and APC had to take care of the RMA. That replacement battery it turns out was refurbished as well, and several days ago recently failed completely. My system crashed (I was watching as this happened) and my data was lost.

The whole point of the thread was to test the limits of the program, which was supposed to be the equivalent of shopping at a B&M with a good return policy when you couldn't get to one. The Premier program is exactly what it says it is. No restocking fees on returns within the standard return program. I've operated wholly and completely within the bounds of that program and when I got whiny and bitchy because the 1500 dollar video card I bought didn't actually work in the game I bought to play it with, I got shot down and posted about it honestly. The point of my posting about that particular experience with the 295x2 was that just because you're Premier doesn't mean you can still return everything and anything. Also, it was partly because someone told me I should try. The truth is I like the card and the day after I bluffed about not paying my cc bill I ended up deciding I'm happy with it and I wouldn't have sent it back anyway even if they'd approved the return.

Newegg often approves returns that I do not even go through with. I am testing the system as if I were a journalist, for fun. And I do report about the crap on here, even if it's annoying or silly to some people. I thought someone else might like the info or just the entertainment of seeing someone with a shopping problem try out Newegg's version of Amazon Prime.

I don't get any free perks like streaming shows/movies/music. I don't get 2 day shipping. What are all the differences?

I'm surprised it's taken people this long to come in here and pick on me and stick up for Newegg, but perhaps it shows their efforts at improving customer service and return policies have improved their public image? Probably not, probably just people that are sick of my point of view or the way I write.

Partly I took aim at Newegg with the intent to return perfectly good shit to them since that was their policy because they have been super shady with other people. With me, they haven't been shady at all. So I've backed off some--like I said, partly trying to get a refund for the 295x2 was experimental... as much of this thread is--and as I pointed out, I wouldn't have returned it anyway. I'm not hurting for cash, I just wanted it to work properly. You can follow my upcoming thread where I try to learn how to build a watercooling loop with the 295x2 and the 290x I got "stuck" with, both of which I love. I'm sure there will be plenty more lolz to be had as I order the wrong shit repeatedly and can't return it even though it's unopened.

Kyle or one of the other mods here, really need to slap a custom title beside your name. I will not even go into details, but you are well deserved of one.

ttt

removed for now

double post

Good news and bad news:

The good news first--this is going to be my final installment of this thread no matter the outcome. I can't close it or I would but I'm not going to spend any more time on this "project". I've allowed myself a little time to put my thoughts in order about Newegg Premier and NE in general.

The bad news: Newegg is highly likely to send you something that has been returned if you order enough stuff from them and that's partly what's good about Premier for people that shop there. They are hassle free about returning bogus items they send you. I will continue to buy certain things at NE for certain reasons but I want to make it totally clear that when I joined H I was pretty much a total newegg fanboy. Since then I stumbled on the broken returns thread and even though that scam seems pretty rare these days I would not be the least bit surprised to see it happen and I'm betting it still does on occasion.

There are some things I will not buy from newegg. To me, the newest video card deals are good. They move them so fast you don't get much chance of receiving returns but it definitely goes on. Don't buy things that are really hard to return. Like motherboards. A complete tear down because someone sent back a board that is functional with a bad accessory like a wifi module that's been obviously previously opened is not fun. Obviously receiving the opened module don't install the board but as a pseudo-journalist I felt obligated.

I made the analogy of returning a shirt to Target on the phone with a newegg rep today--that a motherboard is not a shirt and she, in my opinion, tacitly agreed that that's how NE management treats returns of items that show basic functionality--they put them back on the rack sometimes.

I've had newegg send me far too many obviously previously opened items and I'm now a proud Prime member as of a couple weeks ago. You can get almost anything on Amazon I was spending that money on google play already for music so this is a much better deal. I'm not advertising for amazon but if I'm shopping at amazon I'd much rather have prime. Even non prime items seem to ship faster when you are a member.

Newegg is really just trying to funnel people towards long term relationships w customers using premier and establishing lines of credit with them through newegg preferred. Their credit scoring is very lax and you may be surprised how much they offer you and how the no interest financing periods are awfully tempting. They come with a little requirement that you spend a certain amount. This drives overpriced accessory sales. They are selling 35 dollar fans that they pay 13 dollars for. And people add them on to get over the required order amount so they will receive the financing offer. Assuming you can take care of your bills this is a nice way to finance a new build but just remember which parts you might want to not get from NE no matter how good the deals are.

Decide to look at there inventory again to see if Christmas sales are good and customers reviews. Well for us regular customers, we are not important enough to give good customer service, is a major point for me. Bought high end motherboard and it was broke, they didn't take the motherboard back, and said I broke it. I could tell that they gave me return motherboard, not new but used. Called it new but really used refurbished.

I stopped buying from them back in 2009. Beware and careful with Newegg.