Newegg RMA Technicians Are Breaking My Returns

I'll just throw out there for future reference that you can do chargebacks if you used a credit card via PayPal, only that it's not a good idea until you've gone through PayPal's formal dispute process (after-all, it's not PayPal's fault). It actually works quite well if your credit card company approves it, since it completely bypasses the merchant. When PayPal gets hit with a chargeback, they'll just automatically withdraw the charge from the merchant's PayPal account so they don't take a loss. I had to do this once years ago, since I had a PayPal dispute which ruled in my favor, but PayPal's payment protection policy was idiotic back and they were only giving me a partial refund. Soon after I filed the chargeback, PayPal bypassed their policy, gave me a full refund, and then reversed the chargeback to stay in good standing with my credit card company. The irony was a few months after that, was back when PayPal completely revamped their payment protection policy to be more consumer friendly as far as refunds are concerned, and designed in such a way to avoid PayPal getting hit with chargebacks because of their own idiotic policys. Overall, PayPal is now quite good at issuing refunds and resolving disputes in favor of the consumer.

Keep in mind that chargebacks are horrible for merchant's relationship with the likes of Visa and Mastercard which don't take kindly to fraud (assuming you have a legit claim). If a merchant gets too many chargebacks in a short period of time, they get blacklisted from processing credit card payments altogether. This is why you'll either hear about black/white situations of companies getting extremely nasty (chargeback -> merchant refund refused ->chargeback remains), or extremely accommodating (chargeback -> merchant refund issued -> chargeback reversed). Be smart, and only use chargebacks as a last resort on legitimate claims, and you should never have an issue. Though obviously it helps to protect yourself, and for things like RMAs, you should always take picture evidence of anything you ever return so you never get screwed over.

As per my discussion with NewEgg CS (with regards to that Facebook ban) they mentioned that if a customer initiates a chargeback they may find themselves unable to order from NewEgg in the future. Probably not really an issue if you're exploring the option as a last resort. :D

But yeah, during my conversation they seemed REALLY adamant that they like to avoid chargebacks when they can. It's almost like they are already on thin ice with the processors and want to avoid trouble. Pure speculation but I wouldn't be surprised given how they've acted.
 
Directron.com / mwave.com return policy is shit, unfortunately. Guess I'm sticking to using Newegg as a search engine and Amazon / Superbiiz to actually buy stuff now.

You should look at the reseller ratings for people that had to return something at superbiz. They are great unless you have a problem. Take a look at the return policy as well.
In short like many places with cs issues they are great until you need support.

http://www.superbiiz.com/rma.php

RMA form - All Product returns require an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number. Please fill out and submit an RMA form. You will receive a response after we review your request, usually within the next business day.
Products returned must be received by SuperBiiz within 30 days from your invoice date.

All returns for refund are subject to a 15% restocking fee. We will waive the RMA restocking fee on items that we are able to verify as defective during our testing process.
Shipping fees are not refundable.

The customer is solely responsible for sending returned products to SuperBiiz.com. We strongly suggest using a reputable shipping company capable of providing proof of delivery and insurance for the entire shipment value.
SuperBiiz.com provides a 30-day refund or replacement warranty for all products with the following exceptions listed below:
Any product not purchased from SuperBiiz.com.
Any product that is no longer in brand new, unopened condition.
Any product that has been installed or has attempted to be installed.

Any product that is returned to us without its original packaging, accessories, manuals, warranty cards, and all other items enclosed in the exact condition in which it was received.
Any product that exhibits physical damage either to the product itself or to the original packing materials and accessories.
Any product with a missing or altered serial number.
Any product that has been submitted for a promotional rebate.
Any product described as "not refundable" on the product details page.
Any custom-built systems manufactured by SuperBiiz.
Any special-order items.
Open-box and refurbished products are final-sale only and are not eligible for refund.
 
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I like how people are jumping to conclusions about this being a Newegg conspiracy. What does Newegg have to gain from this practice? They don't pay for the RMAs, the manufacturer do. It would cost them the same to send it back to the customer as it would to send it to the manufacturer.

It is possible they do some cursory testing and their technician is just that incompetent and is trying to cover his own ass.
 
I like how people are jumping to conclusions about this being a Newegg conspiracy. What does Newegg have to gain from this practice? They don't pay for the RMAs, the manufacturer do. It would cost them the same to send it back to the customer as it would to send it to the manufacturer.

It is possible they do some cursory testing and their technician is just that incompetent and is trying to cover his own ass.

Maybe it's not a conspiracy, but it is a pattern of behavior that I'm not going to pay a single dollar of my hard-earned money to support. Whether they are evil or simply incompetent, the end result is the same.
 
Maybe it's not a conspiracy, but it is a pattern of behavior that I'm not going to pay a single dollar of my hard-earned money to support.
I have a feeling that none of the companies care.

Newegg has always done me well and it would take more than one bad experience from any company to dissuade me from a purchase.

If you didn't purchase from a company that's had a bitch thread posted in this forum you'd have nowhere & nothing to purchase! LOL!

I'll bet that MANY that said they would never purchase from "XYZ, ZLF, or WGAF" have reconsidered and purchased again.

I've seen many here act all tough & righteous but change their tunes when faced with reality. :)

Good Luck and remember a wise man wouldn't burn his bridges behind him. ;)
 
Even if I wanted to purchase from Newegg again, I can't--they suspended my account today without giving a reason. If I had to guess, it would be because I made "too much noise" about the hell they've put me through with these returns.
 
What do you mean? Suspended? As in an order was voided (for which that seems to be some sort of server problem)? Or something else?

Considering I contributed to the "noise" by posting some of those similar complaints in this thread they might as well ban my account too.
 
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Considering I contributed to the "noise" by posting some of those similar complaints in this thread they might as well ban my account too.
There's a line between complaining as a class-act and an all-out a$$-hat assault.

There seems to be a problem somewhere but being a big bad-mouth, threating charge backs against everybody and their brother isn't the way to get things resolved without burning your bridges.

If I were the owner of some of those companies I'd also refuse your business.
 
Well 'xcuse me for believing that the OP was wronged. Anyway, it just seems vindictive at this point for NewEgg to ban an account over this. Why bother approving RMAs as an exception when they're going to ban you later? It doesn't make sense.

Chargebacks are always the last option, and not one to take lightly. You said it best...you're probably going to burn a bridge while doing it.

Random thought: I wonder if the block was because of the PayPal dispute? Didn't the OP initiate one before the first post was even made? I'll have to look through the thread again.
 
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Well 'xcuse me for believing that the OP was wronged.
I'm not saying he was or wasn't but there's a right way and wrong way to handle a situation.

it just seems vindictive at this point for NewEgg to ban an account over this.
Maybe yes and maybe no. There's ALWAYS two sides to every story and we're only getting one side.
 
Over the years I have purchased from just about everybody out there. I still purchase a lot from newegg, probably 50+k a year between home and work. I have had occasion to return a number of items to newegg, both DOA out of the box and extras we ended up not needing. This includes 2 DOA asus motherboards in the past month. We have never had problem 1 with their returns process. They even stood up and next-day'd about a grand worth of equipment in a box that was delivered via UPS and left at my front door. Someone stole the box before I got home, and newegg made it right with a no-charge overnight duplicate shipment. They could have blamed UPS and did the monthlong wait-till-UPS-investigates thing before they credit/replace the package but they didn't. That speaks to me that they value their customers, regardless of what problems popped up. Newegg probably gets thousands of RMA requiests daily, if it were something wide ranging I quite honestly would expect to hear more than a dozen or so people complaining.
 
Random thought: I wonder if the block was because of the PayPal dispute? Didn't the OP initiate one before the first post was even made? I'll have to look through the thread again.

A few pages back the OP mentioned winning his PayPal dispute, and since that equates to forcing NewEgg to issue a refund against their will, I have no doubt that's why NewEgg suspended his account. As you said earlier, the NewEgg CS rep told you their policy is to suspend accounts when a chargeback is issued. Chances are they treat PayPal dispute refunds under the same policy (or their billing system can't tell the difference). I very much doubt that NewEgg employee who suspended his account was even aware of this thread, it could have even been some automated action which was triggered.

Assuming the OP still does want to do business with NewEgg, the next step would be to open back up communication with NewEgg (if he didn't do the following already, before he opened his PayPal dispute). Tell them about your PayPal dispute and suspended account, and request to talk to a supervisor/manager who'd be able to resolve this issue. As always when dealing with managers, remain civil and polite but firm when walking them through how events unfolded. If there really is a problem with how one of their employees is handling motherboard RMA, the manager in charge of the RMA department should be interested in resolving it. If they stonewall you at that point, you could try escalating it a couple more times, but if they still refuse to offer a resolution, you likely shouldn't care that they suspended your account.

There's ALWAYS two sides to every story and we're only getting one side.

NewEgg's side is that they likely have a problem with financial loss because of dishonest customers, and have strict policies in place to prevent fraudulent RMAs/Returns, under the assumption that all their employees are honest and skilled enough not to damage products when they inspect them. Overall, the former is more common than the later, but in this case I'd suspect they have a single bad employee out of hundreds or thousands who process NewEgg RMAs, who is trying to cover his ass. The larger the company, the more likely that things such as this go unnoticed. It's also unfortunately the case, that the stricter a companies policies are to prevent fraud by customers, the more unlikely they are to give the customer the benefit of the doubt on legitimate borderline claims. Hearing both sides of the story in cases such as this are pointless, since it will almost always turn into the Company's word against the Customer's word, with nobody admitting to wrongdoing or being able to prove anything in one way or another. Nobody is ever truly neutral, with personal experience always swaying judgement one way or another.
 
Hearing both sides of the story in cases such as this are pointless,
WoW!

I'm sorry but our whole judicial system is based on hearing both sides of the story and while you can call it pointless I disagree.

Nobody is ever truly neutral, with personal experience always swaying judgement one way or another.
But of course but that's no reason to NOT hear both sides.

I really don't care one way or another but just wanted to point out that bad-mouthing everyone and their brother may backfire on ya. :)

Good Luck and I'm done with this thread. :)
 
I'm sorry but our whole judicial system is based on hearing both sides of the story and while you can call it pointless I disagree.

But of course but that's no reason to NOT hear both sides.

Since when does a forum discussion equate to a court of law? There is no reason NOT to hear both side, but this really isn't the venue to hear both sides either. You are free to invite NewEgg to tell their side, but I really doubt they would be willing to share anything involving an unresolved dispute between themselves and a customer. That's why I say it's pointless to bring it up, as nice as it would be to hear NewEgg's side. Unless NewEgg has a change of heart and publicly admits their mistake, it's in their best interest to stay silent, and only discuses details relating to this case in private. Doing anything else without hard evidence to back it up, is just adding fuel to the flames caused by an obviously upset customer.

I really don't care one way or another but just wanted to point out that bad-mouthing everyone and their brother may backfire on ya. :)

Assuming you are referring to the general nature of the posts in this thread, then that's correct. Though by the sounds of it, everything had already backfired on the OP before he even created this thread.

I just hope that wasn't directed at myself, because I'm not bad-mouthing NewEgg at all (for the record I've always had a positive experience with NewEgg and I suspect I will continue to do so). I'm an honest person, but I've been unfortunate enough to have been screwed over by large companies many times in the past because of peon employees which didn't know what the hell they were doing. I know the proper way to deal with such issues, and have had good success getting managers to resolve issues and even go so far as to retrain employees and change policies to prevent future problems. Though occasionally you'll run into the unfortunate situation where in so many words a big boss manager claims you are lying, preventing any peaceful resolution, yet you know you are telling the truth. At that point a customer is left with no other option other than more hostile means like chargebacks or being familiar with consumer protection laws, so they can recover their loss. You are beyond the point of no return at that point, as both consumer and company are usually extremely pissed off at each other, neither of which ever desiring to do business with the other ever again.
 
I like how people are jumping to conclusions about this being a Newegg conspiracy. What does Newegg have to gain from this practice? They don't pay for the RMAs, the manufacturer do. It would cost them the same to send it back to the customer as it would to send it to the manufacturer.

RMAs certainly DO cost newegg something. A large number of RMA'd boards hurts supplier relations, and vendors often have THEIR RVM's (vendor RMA's) denied by the manufacturer. This is how it works for my large-chain tech store in Canada. And we're having a very similar issue. Boards coming back from, say, ASUS, with smashed pins... Wrong boards in boxes (such as non-gen 3 boards in Gen-3 boxes) and denied RMA's for legitimate issues, all because our RMA #'s are high.
 
It probably was because of the PayPal dispute, but that was closed when I received my refund directly from Newegg.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm the one being referred to as a loudmouth--I feel like I've been pretty damn civil in this thread and in my communications with Newegg, especially considering the circumstances.

Either way, not being able to shop at Newegg doesn't really bother me--I tend to get most of my items from Amazon, especially since this issue popped up. I just mentioned that it happened in order to follow up on the events I've documented in this thread. Take from it what you will.
 
Well it is what it is, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Personally I'd see about getting the account unlocked just in case you need a copy of an invoice in the future or something, but yeah it seems like you and NewEgg are no longer going to be spending much time together.

Nothing you did I would consider "loudmouthish" You had an experience which pointed to NewEgg as being the source of the problem and documented your steps and kept us updated. Posting on Facebook DEFINITELY got some attention but, again, where else could you have gone given what you had already tried?
 
I had a similar problem with Dell. I bought a high-end laptop from them, and the MB went out (or so they said; It worked, but wouldn't charge). They replaced it. When it went bad again a few weeks later, I sent it in again. This time, they said that it wasn't replaceable (unless I paid them $400) because I had poured soda on it, and I don't even drink soda. It had the exact same (defective by design) issue as the previous time, and that time, they tried to get out of it.

After much hassle trying to explain to them that that was impossible, I finally got them to replace it a second time. When it went bad yet again a few months later (by then, having passed Dell's one year warranty), I went to a third party repair shop.

When it went bad a fourth time, still under warranty by the repair shop, I sent it in, got it replaced, said **** Dell, and got rid of the vile thing.
 
i went threw this with a seller on ebay once. long story short ebay refunded my money his account was closed and i kept the board after he resent it back to me saying i jammed a screw driver int he first pci socket. witch i clearly did not.
 
It probably was because of the PayPal dispute, but that was closed when I received my refund directly from Newegg.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm the one being referred to as a loudmouth--I feel like I've been pretty damn civil in this thread and in my communications with Newegg, especially considering the circumstances.

Either way, not being able to shop at Newegg doesn't really bother me--I tend to get most of my items from Amazon, especially since this issue popped up. I just mentioned that it happened in order to follow up on the events I've documented in this thread. Take from it what you will.

I RMA'd a board to Asus years ago carefully packaged. For me to damage the pins I would have had to stomp on the box. This would have caused obvious damage and UPS would have been faulted.

You're not be a loudmouth at all and I'm glad you received a refund. You're doing us a favor by bringing this issue up.
 
Over the years I have purchased from just about everybody out there. I still purchase a lot from newegg, probably 50+k a year between home and work. I have had occasion to return a number of items to newegg, both DOA out of the box and extras we ended up not needing. This includes 2 DOA asus motherboards in the past month. We have never had problem 1 with their returns process. They even stood up and next-day'd about a grand worth of equipment in a box that was delivered via UPS and left at my front door. Someone stole the box before I got home, and newegg made it right with a no-charge overnight duplicate shipment. They could have blamed UPS and did the monthlong wait-till-UPS-investigates thing before they credit/replace the package but they didn't. That speaks to me that they value their customers, regardless of what problems popped up. Newegg probably gets thousands of RMA requiests daily, if it were something wide ranging I quite honestly would expect to hear more than a dozen or so people complaining.

And in contrast to your story, I've had Newegg wait for a UPS investigation into a damaged $5 PCI bracket adapter they sent me. It was basically put directly in a bubble mailer and the bracket was bent badly along the way. They wouldn't send a $5 replacement immediately even though it was clearly because of inadequate packaging.
 
I would wager that in mwroobel's case NewEgg is keeping a big customer happy. It's a good business strategy. Starting a UPS investigation over a $5 bracket though is not.
 
The only problem with that thread? The pictures don't prove that NewEgg took a screwdriver to the socket. Not to mention as this gets bigger and bigger as more people post about their own issues, more people are going to try and take advantage of this "easy out" for their own mistakes. I would think it likely the OP is right based on what I've seen so far but you never know.

What we need is good, solid, indisputable proof in a few cases that NewEgg did indeed screw up a socket (accidentally or intentionally). Because that is the only thing that is going to get NewEgg's attention in such a way that they'll fix the problem (if it is a widespread problem).
 
I received same exact response. Below is the response, anyone try to do chargeback?

----
Thank you for requesting a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) at Newegg.com.

Your RMA return was received and sent to our Inspections Department for closer examination.

Unfortunately, the below item# 13-131-790R MB ASUS P8Z68 V PRO/GEN3 LGA1155 was physically damaged and beyond the applicable Newegg.com warranty coverage as indicated in our Standard Warranty Policy. We received the motherboard with several severely bent pins in the cpu socket which were beyond repair. The damage possibly occurred from improper installation.

For further assistance, we recommend contacting the manufacturer directly to see if they can offer repair or replacement of the item(s) under manufacturer warranty. Please use the following link to find the contact info for any manufacturer whose items we carry: Contact Manufacturer.

We greatly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and thank you for your patience and understanding. The item(s) are currently being shipped back to you and should arrive in approximately 5 - 10 business days.

If you have any questions, please visit our Contact Us Page.

Sincerely,

Your Newegg.com Customer Service Team
 
Seems like the thing to do is video record yourself placing the motherboard into a shipping box (suitably wrapped), place the NewEgg address label on it and record yourself dropping it off at the local shipping agency. Naturally, do not break the video chain at all and don't edit it...
 
Those pins are actually pretty sturdy. How the hell do you bend them that bad as installation is pretty much idiot proof? You would almost have to ram a screwdriver into the socket to bend them.

PS: Not accusing anybody but I know I would be pissed as hell if I got an rma denial like that knowing how careful I am...
 
I had a similar issue with HP. See my below story from another forum:

voyagerfan99 said:
I've never cared for HP. Their machines are just total junk, and so is their warranty service and customer support. I now have a story to prove it.

So as many of you know, I work for a small computer shop in my town. We sell both new and refurbished laptops and desktops. We sold a customer a new HP 630 laptop, but the customer experienced issues within a few days. Bringing it back to us, we determined it was a motherboard problem and contacted HP Support to have it repaired under warranty. Originally HP refused to replace the motherboard and did everything they could not to (BIOS update, hard drive wipe and Windows install, etc.). Finally they agreed to replace the motherboard.

We have been purchasing off-lease Dell laptops from Dell Financial that come packaged in cardboard and stretched plastic to keep them from jostling during shipping. They are very high quality boxes and we use them on a regular basis.

The packaging used:
imag0167k.jpg


Well, we received a call from HP saying the machine had been damaged. They would replace the motherboard but not fix the other physical damage. Upon asking if the packaging was damaged they said no. My boss escalated the problem as high as he could, getting more and more flustered and frustrated each time, mainly because HP Support was accusing him of lying, sending them a destroyed machine to get a free replacement.

The biggest issue my boss had with that was that it did not make any sense. It would be a waste of our time, money, and our customers time to try and make a false repair claim like that. Because HP was no help and our customer was getting aggravated as well, my boss GAVE THEM a replacement computer (brand new Lenovo paid for out of my bosses pocket).

The fact that HP can allow one of their employees to destroy the machine and then blame us is ridiculous. I will never recommend an HP product ever again, and my boss has decided never to sell HP's.

We got the destroyed machine back. Here's the damage: (Sorry for some poor pics)

imag0168s.jpg


imag0169m.jpg


imag0174jd.jpg


imag0173h.jpg


imag0171ly.jpg
 
Clearly dropped on a corner. Lucky for me HP consumer and HP business machines and support are like night and day...
 
LOL...it looks like the rma tech pulled it out, dropped it, picked it up then said uh-oh, rma denied.

How do you get that much damage without crushing the box...wow!
 
A picture BEFORE it goes in the box is probably the best guarantee...
 
Same thing happens to my gigabyte board that I RMA, they pull the same exact reason on me...

Newegg is getting worse and worse in my book....
 
I mean, maybe this kind of stuff has been happening for years...I just don't remember it being like this back in the early days of online computer component sales. I remember when I could call up MWave and get a real person on the second ring.
 
A quick update---I've been notified that Newegg has received the Asus motherboard and they have approved the RMA for a refund. Looks like this incredibly long and frustrating process is almost complete.
 
It might almost be over for you, but it looks like it might be the beginning for NewEgg. Definitely thank you for bringing this up on the forums.

Looks like they pissed off a big customer with this tactic as well. Copy and paste from NewEgg's FB feed. I wouldn't be surprised if our friend Chris read your thread. Chris is an engineer at the company, and David is the CEO.

Chris Upchurch said:
Our company has spent 15k with Newegg in the last 6 months. And for the 3rd time in our purchase history, we received an RMA for a motherboard which we sent back but returned to us with a BROKEN socket that it never left with. Later we received an email claiming the socket was broken and the RMA was rejected. We took pictures of the board prior to leaving, which was in perfectly good working order and the conditioned it returned in... BROKEN. The whole purchase of the RMA was because the board wouldn't boot in SLI configuration, not because it didn't work.

I will be filling a claim with the BBB and after searching google, this seems to be a very, VERY common complaint.

Conducting business in this manner is completely unprofessional and illegal.

Chris Upchurch - Universal Robotics

NewEgg said:
Hello Chris and Melissa,

We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused. Please feel free to send us an email to [email protected] with any pictures and details regarding your RMA. We will be more than glad to look into this further. Have a great day.

David Peters said:
We submitted photos of the perfectly fine board and yet the company line is even though it left our hands in working order, they are claiming the socket cover wasn't on. It was. More lies. This dispute is going to escalate.

Chris Upchurch said:
Claiming the plastic socket wasn't on during shipping and that's how the socket was damaged is yet another attempt of ripping off your once faithful customers. That would mean the shipping box it was packaged in would be damaged as well as the original motherboard board box and the wrapping it was covered in would be damaged. So, somehow during shipping, just the socket was magically destroyed without ever putting a single mark on the shipping box, motherboard box and wrapping. Interesting.
 
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