Beware when buying expensive open box video cards from newegg. Shady dealings!

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Dajinn

Weaksauce
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Aug 18, 2010
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Preface: you should always take past ownership into consideration when buying anything open box, e.g. potential abuse, overclocking, physical altercations, etc. This is a given. What I am going to advise against is a totally different situation.

I recently bought an ASUS R9 290X DirectCU II OC from newegg, advertised as open box. I said okay, I'm willing to accept all of the aforementioned risks as above, don't need the box or accessories, serial is warranty based, and even if it was mined with I doubt it would've had much of a dent if any in its lifespan. The price was $504.

What does newegg ship me? A manufacturer reconditioned part. No where in the description did it state that it was a refurb. It has all of the usual open box disclaimers e.g. may/may not contain accessories, customer return, tested for functionality(I lol at this because the GPU box was sealed so really, how could they have tested it, and also the static bag that the GPU was in was machine sealed. I actually didn't even notice this until I went to repackage the GPU for RMA.

Why is this significant? I returned the card because I actually found a better deal on a Twin Frozr 290X secondhand, but, if I had not known that the card was a refurb by checking the box that the card came in, I could've had the card for 1.5 years, experienced an issue, and then denied warranty. Most people who are familiar with the slick deals you can find on ASUS Refurbs(routers, laptops, components)know that the warranty is only 90 days. Hell, if you go onto Amazon you can find an MSI R9 290X listed as a refurb with only a 90 day warranty.

I just think it's annoying that newegg pulls this crap and expects people not to notice. Just wanted to inform you guys to always double check part numbers and labels when you receive your expensive components.
 
yeah it's a double whammy also cuz its asus and they deny you for anything cuz they are the scum of the earth
 
Hence why I'll never buy an open box from Newegg, price be damned. They're about as bad as Gamestop when it comes to shadiness
 
Yeah, I have had some really shady dealings with newegg lately as well. They sent me opened/used R9 290X cards instead of new. Asus cards as well.

I had to threaten to charge them back through American Express before they were willing to accept a return, and then when they processed the return they did it as store credit while claiming I had agreed to store credit. Another few days of wrangling with them and they finally gave me a refund, but I'll never buy anything from them again.
 
It's been known for a while they sell refurbs, they buy them directly from the manufacturers and sell them Open Box knowingly screwing people over.

Maybe talk to them and complain and they'll hook you up with a gift card along with the refund.
 
Bought an open box GTX 780 from newegg a few weeks ago. Thanks to this thread I bothered to check the box label and sure enough it said Manufacturer Refurbished.

Called newegg to complain about this and asking for a return. Since newegg "accidentally" forgot to mention that open box items could include manufacturer refurbed cards I got a return and paid shipping label.

Funny, the customer rep I spoke to mentioned that in their internal emails, refurbs can be sold as open boxes. Yet I never saw that on the product page or the check out.
 
I figured this out when I started poking around about why they had so many "open box" video cards and motherboards that have 5 per person buying limits.

From the newegg product FAQ:
What is an Open Box Item?

Open Box items have been opened and touched and/or returned. Because they originate from different situations, they may or may not include accessories, documentation or retail packaging. Refurbishment is done by the manufacturer. Open Box products are warranted for only 30 days. We recommend that you try out your Open Box product immediately after receiving it.
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I do understand these problems all to well, as I too have gotten used items before, but if
they work, then I don't really care too much unless the item is just totally beat up, scratched
to hell and back or just does not work properly. But, you also have to look at the buyers of these
products. People need to stop with all the shady crap they try to pull over on these companies like
newegg, and it is just not them. It's from amazon to asus, to any card manufacture they can get over
on. Think about this! What if you sold a video card to someone then in return, they abuse it or oc
the hell out of it then they turn around and tell you that they want their money back for it just
because you sold them a shitty item? No, the first thing you say in your mind is. HELL FING NO.
They oc that card and burned it up. I know exactly what they did. And now, they want their money back.
Well, F them. Yeah, that is your first thought, but people think this is okay to do when they own
the item. So, you see how it works, and why BFG went out of business? People like this.They buy a card
then tear it up on purpose just to get a newer one. And hell, they think they have the right to do it any
way. They think it's not hurting the company, hell, they have plenty of money. This is the exact reason why
companies go under. Just because you think they owe you a new card for free every time one comes out. You buy
one lifetime card and think you should get a new updated card every year just because you bought one.The problem
is, you think that you are the only one doing it, hell. Thousands of people are doing it every day.Tearing their
crap up, catching a better deal or just oc one to death until it does tear up, to only get a new one just to see
if it will oc any better.
 
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Auburn_Tigers said:
I do understand these problems all to well, as I too have gotten used items before, but if
they work, then I don't really care too much unless the item is just totally beat up, scratched
to hell and back or just does not work properly. But, you also have to look at the buyers of these
products. People need to stop with all the shady crap they try to pull over on these companies like
newegg, and it is just not them. It's from amazon to asus, to any card manufacture they can get over
on. Think about this! What if you sold a video card to someone then in return, they abuse it or oc
the hell out of it then they turn around and tell you that they want their money back for it just
because you sold them a shitty item? No, the first thing you say in your mind is. HELL FING NO.
They oc that card and burned it up. I know exactly what they did. And now, they want their money back.
Well, F them. Yeah, that is your first thought, but people think this is okay to do when they own
the item. So, you see how it works, and why BFG went out of business? People like this.They buy a card
then tear it up on purpose just to get a newer one. And hell, they think they have the right to do it any
way. They think it's not hurting the company, hell, they have plenty of money. This is the exact reason why
companies go under. Just because you think they owe you a new card for free every time one comes out. You buy
one lifetime card and think you should get a new updated card every year just because you bought one.The problem
is, you think that you are the only one doing it, hell. Thousands of people are doing it every day.Tearing their
crap up, catching a better deal or just oc one to death until it does tear up, to only get a new one just to see
if it will oc and better.
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I've seen dozens of threads here and on other forums, where the OP complained about the "lack" of overclock on this or that, or the gpu didn't run cool enough and returned it. Hell... when the gtx 760 first came out, my first card was perfect and unopened. When I decided to sli a short time later, Amazon sent me 4 opened/used cards before I finally got an unopened box. I tested every card that came and they all worked, but god knows what some jack ass did the each of them. They were looking for that golden chip. It wasn't a risk I wanted to take. People suck and ruin it for everyone
 
I think some people do very much take advantage of the systems espcially with computer products wanting to get the perfect one for what they need it for. Usually when it comes to open box, I go amazon as the ones I have purchased in the box and been like new and usually get the serial warranty based ones like EVGA.
 
I would not buy *any* used 290/290x right now unless I knew the owner personally and trusted them.

And, not to defend the Egg, but I see very little difference in "open box" vs. "refurb." Both mean "used" to me! All the video cards I've ever bought from them (many!) were new and sealed. I would be p!ssed if it was supposed to be new and it had been previously-opened!
 
Co-worker bought a Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD from Amazon a couple months ago (new - sold/shipped from Amazon). Inside the sealed box was a 2.5 inch 40 GB IDE hard drive, with the "SSD Inside" sticker on it.
 
Starrbuck said:
I would not buy *any* used 290/290x right now unless I knew the owner personally and trusted them.

And, not to defend the Egg, but I see very little difference in "open box" vs. "refurb." Both mean "used" to me! All the video cards I've ever bought from them (many!) were new and sealed. I would be p!ssed if it was supposed to be new and it had been previously-opened!
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The big difference between Open Box and Refurbished items is typically the warranty. Open Box and Refurbished items still usually have the same 30-day return policy through the e-tailer, but for serial number based warranty cards, the owner of an Open Box item will still get the bulk of the warranty, typically. Refurbished items rarely have longer than a 90-day warranty, though there are exceptions.

I think if you are going to go through the hassle of buying Open Box or Refurbished at all, you may as well go directly to the manufacturer's outlet. EVGA offers a 1-Year warranty on a lot of their B-Stock items (Refurbs, returns, etc.) and Lenovo does the same for a lot of their computers, if you purchase the items through their outlets.

Personally, I have had great luck with Open Box items at MicroCenter. I've lucked out on more than one occasion and received the combo discount in addition to the reduced price for the item having been previously opened. In those cases I'm willing to take the risks, especially for serial number based warranty items.

Is it possible that this is hurting the company's bottom line? I would imagine so, but I would not necessarily consider it defrauding them if they willingly allow it. When I worked in retail we destroyed all of our returns and ate the cost as shrinkage. We would keep a total of what was returned to report to the manufacturer, who would in turn provide a credit on a future order, but never for the full cost of the item(s) destroyed. My guess would be that any money that MC makes from the transaction is more than they would have gotten by just discarding the item(s). Of course this only applies when you work for a place with significant enough volume and/or direct distribution - Amazon and Newegg certainly would qualify in my book.
 
When it comes to returns, Amazon is the best. They never even ask questions on anything I have ever had to return. Top that off with my prime membership and NewEgg has a tough time earning my business these days. The only time I typically go with them is if they have a really good sale that drops them significantly below the Amazon price.
 
Newegg is going to crumble... They have become the new Fry's... It's amazing what 14 yrs can do when the last 8 have been spent being greedy and screwing customers.
 
Incoming wall of text:

Considering what a nightmare RMA processes can be, it's almost a plus not to have the warranty sometimes. I'm only kidding, really... but Newegg has buried this policy in their on-site info, imo. It should be more out in the open. They are very careful to let you know when ordering a CPU that they will not take it back under any circumstances (unless it's unopened, which they don't mention). The Open Box definition should be more out in the open or a clear separation of refurbished and open box items should be in place because they advertise and sell both.

Look, I send a lot of crap back to Newegg, and not necessarily because it's obviously not brand new unopened, either. Recently I was irritated to find that my NIB APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500G was clearly a manufacturer's refurbished unit--except that when I checked with APC its serial number had a full warranty on it. The packaging was completely undamaged and clearly unopened out of the factory. Those boxes are heavy cardboard and they are stapled shut. The thing weighs about 30 pounds. There were some scratches on the unit, and a QC pass printout that had been handsigned was taped over a big long scratch. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this wasn't Newegg's fuckup. Not that Newegg doesn't fuckup, but APC had done a QC check on the unit I received and what do I care if it has a couple scratches, it's out of sight. So yeah, didn't make Newegg take that one back, though they offered to overnight me a replacement.

The company can be shady sometimes, and it sucks, but I try to treat the CSRs with total respect and they always come my way. If I keep pushing it, maybe I'll have an RMA denial to report at some point, but so far they just aren't trying it on me. At this point I'm very very careful to send things back to Newegg before 30 days are up if there is a problem with the item, because I have a feeling RMA through Asus or EVGA might be much much less pleasant.

As far as buying open box products, I'd do it, but I'm much more comfortable knowing what the score is... so I think I'll mention it to them the next time we have a "chat". They need to put that open box warranty thing in bold print. This is not like buying a motherboard from your friend, this is a motherboard that has been serialized through Asus or MSI's system as NO WARRANTY, and that's part of why you are getting a cheaper deal. Some of the open box prices are atrocious, too, but sometimes they are good. I very very rarely ever USE a warranty, so I don't mind selling mine if it's a good bet the product will last.

TL;DR Put on your lawyer hat when ordering shit online.
 
Bluesun311 said:
Look, I send a lot of crap back to Newegg, and not necessarily because it's obviously not brand new unopened, either. Recently I was irritated to find that my NIB APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500G was clearly a manufacturer's refurbished unit--except that when I checked with APC its serial number had a full warranty on it. The packaging was completely undamaged and clearly unopened out of the factory. Those boxes are heavy cardboard and they are stapled shut. The thing weighs about 30 pounds. There were some scratches on the unit, and a QC pass printout that had been handsigned was taped over a big long scratch. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this wasn't Newegg's fuckup. Not that Newegg doesn't fuckup, but APC had done a QC check on the unit I received and what do I care if it has a couple scratches, it's out of sight. So yeah, didn't make Newegg take that one back, though they offered to overnight me a replacement.
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First off, with an APC especially it seems pretty sketchy to sell a refurb unit as new considering you have NO idea how much wear there is on the battery. Second, you weren't upset that you paid new prices for a refurb unit? The only reason to buy refurb/open box is the lower price. I likely wouldn't have cared about scratches, either, but I would expect a partial refund or gift card or something to make up for the fact that I paid for a new unit and did not receive that.
 
MavericK96 said:
First off, with an APC especially it seems pretty sketchy to sell a refurb unit as new considering you have NO idea how much wear there is on the battery. Second, you weren't upset that you paid new prices for a refurb unit? The only reason to buy refurb/open box is the lower price. I likely wouldn't have cared about scratches, either, but I would expect a partial refund or gift card or something to make up for the fact that I paid for a new unit and did not receive that.
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I don't think it was refurbed but it had been scratched before it left the factory somehow. When i check the serial number with APC it has full coverage of new unit, so it is technically new. It runs a self test all the time and it's a badass unit as far as I can tell. Had 4 brownouts yesterday (no lie). I had my modem/router on the UPS and my wife was on her laptop at the time, it has a battery so she was good, everything else in the house reset. The UPS beeped and not a hiccup. They ended up giving me a 50 dollar gift card, too (to make my Premier membership free-ish) :/ But I don't like advertising how much free crap they throw at me. I feel kinda guilty because so many people get the shaft from Newegg.
 
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I would be cautious about buying used MSI TwinFrozr cards, specially if they were mined on, those fans die very quickly. Out of the 4 people I know that had 280x Gaming cards (TwinFrozr), 3 had a fan die.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
I would be cautious about buying used MSI TwinFrozr cards, specially if they were mined on, those fans die very quickly. Out of the 4 people I know that had 280x Gaming cards (TwinFrozr), 3 had a fan die.
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The fans will leak some kind of fluid. And then they die. POS? I think so.
 
I'm trying to figure out why New Egg has such bad reviews for some stuff and Amazon has good reviews this could be the problem reboxing stuff up and shipping it X10 times unitll they get rid of it.
 
Venomous said:
Newegg is going to crumble... They have become the new Fry's... It's amazing what 14 yrs can do when the last 8 have been spent being greedy and screwing customers.
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They stop honoring my Shoprunner option. They keep sending everything UPS Surepost (Goes from UPS to USPS) which takes about 4 days to arrive, and don't let a weekend fall inbetween.

I'm not a fan of Newegg like I once was.
 
I've had something similar happen.

Bought an EVGA 780 Classified HC from newegg. Received a card in a box that was not shrink wrapped. Temperatures were crazy high. The card had been taken apart and not had TIM properly reapplied.

They'd sold me a returned card as brand new. :mad:
 
WorldExclusive said:
They stop honoring my Shoprunner option. They keep sending everything UPS Surepost (Goes from UPS to USPS) which takes about 4 days to arrive, and don't let a weekend fall inbetween.

I'm not a fan of Newegg like I once was.
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Thats not Newegg's fault, that is UPS new way of doing business. IF they can offload the package to USPS to get it out of there system they will. It is also a deal they cut to lower cost and USPS took it as it helps them as well. Basically if UPS doesn't think they can get it to you in a timely fashion or they are overburdened they will offload it to USPS for them to take it the rest of the way.

IF it takes USPS 4 days after they get it then you just have a shitty USPS. That is done to me some and most times I get the package the same day they offload to USPS since they dump it off when USPS is doing it's sorting for that days mail anyway.
 
Zakarro said:
Best Buy is worst they sell open boxes as brand new.....
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open box is brand new...you can still return it...and its got the same warranty...now if they sold you something damaged that be different...and i guess thats when the problems starts is douche bags returning stuff thats been damaged and they don't catch it
 
primetime said:
open box is brand new...you can still return it...and its got the same warranty...now if they sold you something damaged that be different...and i guess thats when the problems starts is douche bags returning stuff thats been damaged and they don't catch it
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Yeah but when I buy brand new I don't expect the seals to be cut already
 
I just bought two asus gtx 780ti's off amazon open box. One of the cards is totally fine(missing the little power adapter), but works fine. The other card looks identical to the first card except instead of two 8 pin power slots, it has one six pin and one eight pin. Odd. Get my new build all set up only to discover that the second card is not a 780ti at all, but a 780. In fact, if you look at the two serial number stickers they both say "780."

While I doubt Amazon was complicit in any wrong doing, I have a strong suspicion that someone bought the 780ti from amazon and then returned their "almost identical" looking 780 in the ti box. Surprise.

To their credit, Amazon sent a prepaid shipping label to return it. But, now I'm wondering if I shouldn't just bite the bullet and pay full price for new-in-box.
 
marcusj3000 said:
Thats not Newegg's fault, that is UPS new way of doing business. IF they can offload the package to USPS to get it out of there system they will. It is also a deal they cut to lower cost and USPS took it as it helps them as well. Basically if UPS doesn't think they can get it to you in a timely fashion or they are overburdened they will offload it to USPS for them to take it the rest of the way.

IF it takes USPS 4 days after they get it then you just have a shitty USPS. That is done to me some and most times I get the package the same day they offload to USPS since they dump it off when USPS is doing it's sorting for that days mail anyway.
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Surepost is chosen by the shipper.
 
wow didn't know newegg does something like this. I've scored a few good deals on newegg open box, and luckily I haven't dealt with refurbished. Most of my items are monitors and video cards. So far everything I bought have the same warranty as the original.
 
primetime said:
open box is brand new...you can still return it...and its got the same warranty...now if they sold you something damaged that be different...and i guess thats when the problems starts is douche bags returning stuff thats been damaged and they don't catch it
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Nope; it's illegal. It happens sometimes and can sometimes be a pain to deal with, but they are not legally allowed to do this. Personally (knowing how Newegg operates these days), I'd jump to immediately theatening to talk to my lawyer if they pulled that crap on me. Why? Because it almost always works. I find that almost every company has terrible customer service until you threaten them.

I've mentioned in other threads before, but I also have received poor support from Newegg. I don't order that much from them these days.
 
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KENNYB said:
The fans will leak some kind of fluid. And then they die. POS? I think so.
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I would also stay away from the Asus 280x cards as well.

All of of my miners had the fans fail, and its those badass fans HArdocp and Asus have been promoting.

No overclocking or nothing, they just suck as fans.

I also bought an open box Asus 280x 3 months ago for mining. When I got the card, that front fan on it was stuck and didn't even move. Now I am not sure how Newegg would allow a card with the fan that DIDN'T even move go out for open box sales.

Anyway yea stay away from Open Box video cards.

Now I have had nothing but good experiences with Refurb Laptops from Newegg!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by primetime View Post
open box is brand new...you can still return it...and its got the same warranty...now if they sold you something damaged that be different...and i guess thats when the problems starts is douche bags returning stuff thats been damaged and they don't catch it
Nope; it's illegal. It happens sometimes and can sometimes be a pain to deal with, but they are not legally allowed to do this. Personally (knowing how Newegg operates these days), I'd jump to immediately theatening to talk to my lawyer if they pulled that crap on me. Why? Because it almost always works. I find that almost every company has terrible customer service until you threaten them.
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I don't know what makes you think its illegal...you don't really think everything on the shelf in brick and mortar stores has never been bought and returned? you think they automatically label and discount every item thats been returned? They don't..and if it was my store i wouldn't either tbh ...I'm not saying there aren't any company's that might do this.....now it is my understanding certain items returned at best buy are supposed to be returned to vendor before being resold (as company policy) but i don't think its the law or anything
 
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I had a horrible experience with an open box video card from Newegg years ago. Never again.

I have bought 3 open box GPUs from Amazon and have not had any issues.
 
primetime said:
I don't know what makes you think its illegal..
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because something that has been used, even if just for one nanosecond, is still used. Advertising it as new is indeed illegal.

In cases where a product was opened and not used, it gets trickier. It's sometimes illegal and sometimes not, depending on the item.
 
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