A friendly warning to ALL!

J

JCNiest5

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 25, 2005
Messages
4,093
Okay, for anyone that wants to buy a reviewed board from any hardware reviewing websites, especially if it's a pre-production board, please listen very carefully. I had to learn it the hard way and my bank account just lowered by several hundred dollars.

Please consider it very carefully before you flush that hard-earned money of yours down the drain. I had bought a reviewed board, an MSI Eclipse Plus from a member here (review posted at a different site) and the board went bad. I submitted an RMA and sent it in but the company sent it back unrepaired because it's a pre-production board and they would have nothing to do with it. Now I have to swallow the whole thing and it gives me a very taste in my mouth. I swear to myself to never ever buy that kind boards or merchandises again.

A big lesson learned that I wish I didn't have to go through. I will keep that board as a souvenir to remind me of how stupid and foolish I was. Every time I see that board, I will punch myself in my head and curse at myself for such person at one time.

Thanks for hearing my ranting...
 
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Well [H] buys all their stuff retail, excluding CPU's maybe... but video-cards and motherboards I know they buy retail for the most part. Which means they should be good for RMA's ;)
 
Ehren8879 said:
Did you know you were buying a preproduction review sample?
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No, the seller only said it was an early release version. Not sure if that is the same as "Pre-production" or not, but there is nothing I can do now. The seller already indicated there is nothing he can do. So, I'm dead in the water.
 
um...thanks for the warning...but I thought it was common knowledge that non-retail boards qualified for warranty? Same goes for prizes won at lan parties.
 
Did the seller pay for the review sample in the first place, or was it given to him? If it was given to him, I would demand my money back if I were you.
 
Whomever sold the board to you probably shouldn't have sold it at all. Any pre-production, or engineering samples are technically the property of the manufacturer if I am not mistaken. Engineering samples or preproduction hardware is NOT the same as retail hardware. It may be vary close and for all intents and purposes work the same. However it carries no warranties of any kind. The manufacturer can tell by serial number if your hardware is retail or not. So buyer beware.
 
Dan_D said:
Any pre-production, or engineering samples are technically the property of the manufacturer if I am not mistaken.
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That would depend on the specific agreement entered between the manufacturer and the person they provided the sample to. I'd imagine that most of those agreements are similar to the way that Intel loans out their ES chips though.
 
Zero82z said:
Did the seller pay for the review sample in the first place, or was it given to him? If it was given to him, I would demand my money back if I were you.
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I have no idea on that part. Too deep into the issue to do anything now. It has been a few months already.

The tag they attached to the board sent back says: Sample Board.
 
hmmm I thought samples and engineees werent allowed on trades anymore.
 
Intel goes after people that sell engineering samples, at least in areas local to their facilities as they may not have been legitimately distributed. Might be worth a try. If the seller truly misrepresented himself in a dishonest way (shouldn't be selling that stuff), dispute the charges if you used credit/debit or a pay service like PayPal.

If not, that's a raw deal. A life lesson, shall we say?
 
iroc409 said:
Intel goes after people that sell engineering samples, at least in areas local to their facilities as they may not have been legitimately distributed. Might be worth a try.
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Intel has nothing to do with this. The item in question is a pre-production MSI motherboard.
 
"Several hundred dollars"

How much did you pay for this board?!??!?!
 
What they mean by pre-production board? If the board was sold from manufacturer or it's retailed sellers as new product with RMA documents, it's not a breaking law or something? You really don't need to care about revision of hardware, even if the board was, or not a prototype model, RMA is supposed to be same for every hardware that is sold to costumers.
 
Acer_Sheep said:
What they mean by pre-production board? If the board was sold from manufacturer or it's retailed sellers as new product with RMA documents, it's not a breaking law or something? You really don't need to care about revision of hardware, even if the board was, or not a prototype model, RMA is supposed to be same for every hardware that is sold to costumers.
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From the sounds of it, it was a sample sent to the seller to review it, who then sold it to the OP. There was no retailer in volved, so no laws were broken.

AppaYipYip said:
"Several hundred dollars"

How much did you pay for this board?!??!?!
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Well, if he paid a good $150 for this board, he now has to go buy a retail board for about as much or more. So he's down a minimum of $300 for a motherboard and a wall decoration.
 
JCNiest5 said:
No, the seller only said it was an early release version. Not sure if that is the same as "Pre-production" or not, but there is nothing I can do now. The seller already indicated there is nothing he can do. So, I'm dead in the water.
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The seller should be giving you your money back, as they shouldn't be selling a review board they were sent. If they truely paid for the board, then you should be able to RMA it. But, they most likely didn't pay for the board and are telling you that your SOL when the problem is theirs, they shouldn't have sold the board in the first place.
 
dccmadams said:
Buy the same model from newegg, and send the bad one back as faulty. BINGO.
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And when newegg opens the box and inspects it they'll see the numbers don't match up with what their suppsoed to be getting and he gets nailed for it.
 
ryan_975 said:
And when newegg opens the box and inspects it they'll see the numbers don't match up with what their suppsoed to be getting and he gets nailed for it.
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Agreed. Would be stupid to pull the switch on Newegg, especially since they visit this site.

The OP learned a valuable lesson, and he passes it onto us all. I hope what happened here makes everyone cautious of the terminology that goes into a product description, and make fully sure that you are buying something that you absolutely want, and are ready to deal with the consequences should things turn sour.
 
If this is an ES and the seller didn't disclose that fact to you, I think you should give us a heads-up on his name.

It sounds like fraud to me and I, for one, would like to know if I'm about to deal with someone less than forthcoming.

There was an Ebay situation brought to light here where the buyer unknowingly bought an ES RAID card but it was not discovered until after the sale when he killed the board with a BIOS update. The ES sample couldn't be updated and the buyer got his money back.

To me, it's fraud...plain and simple.
 
dccmadams said:
Buy the same model from newegg, and send the bad one back as faulty. BINGO.
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There's SN# associated with every board. It also has inprinted label taped to board saying, "VOID IF REMOVED". And no, I don't have the fund to fool around. Like I said, I will keep the board as a souvenir of my stupidity and foolishness.
 
JCNiest5 said:
There's SN# associated with every board. It also has inprinted label taped to board saying, "VOID IF REMOVED". And no, I don't have the fund to fool around. Like I said, I will keep the board as a souvenir of my stupidity and foolishness.
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It's okay, a lot of us have souvenirs from stupidity :D
 
JCNiest5 said:
There's SN# associated with every board. It also has inprinted label taped to board saying, "VOID IF REMOVED". And no, I don't have the fund to fool around. Like I said, I will keep the board as a souvenir of my stupidity and foolishness.
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Please post the name of the person who sold you this board so we all know never to deal with him.
 
JCNiest5 said:
For some reason, I don't feel the need to go that far.
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This is very easy.

Did he tell you this board was an ES?

That's the whole thing in a nutshell.

If he did, it's your problem.

If he didn't, you need to post his name.

Edit.....
No, the seller only said it was an early release version. Not sure if that is the same as "Pre-production" or not, but there is nothing I can do now.
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Looks like you may have had your head in the sand. I didn't know about ES units 'till @ 6 months ago when the Ebay case was disclosed. If you were aware of ES before you purchased this, a red flag should have caused you to be a smart consumer and ask if it was a sample. Since the seller is in the business and considered an expert, I would expect him to know and disclose if it was an ES unit.

If he wasn't clear about the RMA status, I would consider him shady and I think you owe the trading community a head's-up on someone who is skirting the bounds of ethical sales.

There's two sides to every story and I'm always interested in hearing both.

I'm sure if he's connected enough to review computer MBs, he's aware of this forum and I would like to hear his side of this story.
 
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Old Hippie said:
This is very easy.

Did he tell you this board was an ES?

That's the whole thing in a nutshell.

If he did, it's your problem.

If he didn't, you need to post his name.
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He sold is as "Early release board." Is that the same thing as ES?
 
JCNiest5 said:
He sold is as "Early release board." Is that the same thing as ES?
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No. An ES board is a pre-release board. Early release means early in the release cycle. If he said it was an early release board and didn't specify that it was not a production model and did not come with an active warranty, then he misrepresented the item.
 
Zero82z said:
No. An ES board is a pre-release board. Early release means early in the release cycle. If he said it was an early release board and didn't specify that it was not a production model and did not come with an active warranty, then he misrepresented the item.
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Sample Board, that was the board I bought as indicated by MSI.
 
Zero82z said:
No. An ES board is a pre-release board. Early release means early in the release cycle. If he said it was an early release board and didn't specify that it was not a production model and did not come with an active warranty, then he misrepresented the item.
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I edited my post above before a few responses were made but it looks like you got screwed.

If the mystery board seller is out there and reading this, I'm thinking you may want to explain the situation. Silence, in this case, is not golden and will only deepen the suspicion that this MB was misrepresented.

It may come down to a "He said-She said" deal but the unanswered questions are so much worse.
 
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