Newegg RMA Technicians Are Breaking My Returns

UPDATE: The second card started presenting issues crashing, so I gave up trying to email after their third stonewall response, and ended up calling in to their customer service phone number. I had the complete OPPOSITE experience of what I was getting through email, reaching a polite rep who set up an RMA with no restock fee for refund just asking the reason(s) for the return. He's even having a UPS label pre-paid for me. I'll update once they've received my return to let you all know whether they follow through or not.
 
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newegg sucks now that they use ontrac for shipping in the northwest.

ontrac = puke

Bad experiences at work with ontrac and RMA's. A majority of the time the item takes longer than advertised to deliver or package is returned to sender undeliverable.
 
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I will say that I ordered exclusively from Newegg until this past year. Not from horrible customer experience - quite the contrary I had an excellent experience with Newegg the few times I called them in November. One of the SSD's in my Serverglitch build (see signature) was DoA and preventing me from creating my 4-drive OS RAID0 array... I did my RMA through email and called customer support and reached a very knowledgable gal that verified it and I had my drive fast and it's been working fine with no issues ever since.

The only reason I don't use them exclusively anymore is because I discovered Amazon Prime and enjoy the super fast local shipping here in Phoenix.

I feel really bad for all of you that had bad experiences with Newegg but I'm also not defending them. just stating my own personal experience (~$30K of business with them over the past 12 years)
 
I haven't bought a MB or any other big ticket item at newegg in a long time. I buy almost exclusively from Amazon because of their amazing customer service, even if they are priced a little higher than other retailers.
 
Just to update on my story again, they received my RMA on Tuesday and have now processed a full refund to me (Friday evening). So, while I'm still aggravated with the treatment I got via email, the phone rep was good and they did process the return in the end in a reasonable timeframe. I'm still going to be a warier than I was, but I won't boycott them completely just yet.
 
Hey guys.. I just read 21 pages of this stuff.. It's very informative I have purchased a few K worth of stuff from newegg. To my surprise I have not received any defected parts so I never had to deal with their Customer Support or RMA dept.
My take on all this is.. If you request an exchange, there's more chance of them honoring that than a Full Refund.. From reading this I noticed quite a few of you guys were trying to get refunds instead of exchanges so why you are acting surprised when they deny your claims kinda confuses me.. Most of your concerns are legit though and I feel for you.

Neweggs reputation is certainly not as it was around 2000+. Btw for parts you guys should use http://pcpartpicker.com Best Site to spec your PC! It pulls all the components from all the well known retailers/wholesalers..

As for newegg.. I too am taking 90% of my business elsewhere.... Long Island Microcenter 4tw :0 Also Bestbuy price matches any internet prices, including Neweggs, although sometime it might require a manager's approval, depending on the comparable discount they try to price match. Only downside to that is you will need to pay sales tax, but I think that's is worth in the end.

Anyway.. newegg has ALOT of competition and although it might still be the preferred store to get components from, it is not leading the pack by a large margin as it did years ago.
 
While I've never received defective materials from NewEgg, I did order a 7970 and receive a 7950 graphics card by mistake. It came with a mess of 'free' games, in which they charge for the games, but discount the cost off the card.

So I return the card, and they see I only paid {air quotes} $65 {air quotes} for the card, and only refund the $60. I sent the games back with it, and since the games were {air quotes} free {air quotes}, they didn't refund anything on them.

It took over 2 months to get them to properly refund the actual costs.. but they DID finally get it right, even though at the time of the RMA setup I described exactly what was going to go wrong, and they swore up & down it wouldn't happen like that..... and then it did anyways :(
 
:mad::mad::mad:

Well, that is the last time I order from Newegg I guess. I purchased two Seagate 3TB drives and one came DOA. Requested an RMA for replacment (not refund), sent via FedEx (with $100 insurance). Newegg recieved it, says there was no damage to the box so I can't claim it with FedEx, but yet the drive is apparently damaged (dent in hard drive). :mad:

So now they are sending it back and claiming I can go through the manufacturer, but if there is a dent the manufacturer won't cover it, FedEx won't cover it via insurance, and Newegg is washing their hands of it!!!!
 
If I were you I'd send NewEgg and email giving them 48 hours to make it right before you file a complaint with the BBB and send them a credit card charge back. If these were well and truly incidental mistakes on NewEgg's part, problems like yours would have stopped more than a year ago. I've made up my mind ... I believe NewEgg is doing this intentionally to improve short term revenue at the cost of long term customers.
 
I just had an incident like dolorousdave's original post so Newegg is still damaging sockets to avoid refunds/exchanges.

My board worked initially but stopped after I replaced the stock Intel CPU cooler so the socket was fine. A connector must have cracked when the new cooler's support was tightened down.

The pictures Newegg sent me of the socket were comical. The only way to damage pins that bad would be to twist them with tweezers.

My complaints to the highest manager I could find were shot down and they said I must have done it.

After I posted the incident on Reseller Ratings, they refunded my money.

If I ever buy anything from Newegg again, it certainly won't be a motherboard.
 
I agree that ontrac shipping doesn't seem as good as FedEx or UPS (I'm also in the NW). However, I processed an RMA recently for a video card that I bought via New Egg, and didn't have any issues. The initial card I received just seemed too loud. So I did a replacement RMA, and received the replacement in about a week or so. I did pay for the return shipping myself (about $10). I didn't try to get them to pay for that.
 
Long time reader here...

Since 2004 I've purchased over $25,000 USD from Newegg primarily for business purposes. Now those of you who have small IT businesses know that timing is key when you are serving customers...

I have to reiterate that up until this experience I've always had great service from Newegg. I rarely make any returns/refunds, and in the past they have accommodated customers like me by allowing things such as:

1) "Advanced RMA" - purchasing the same item in a new order, then RMA Refunding the defective item
2) Offer replacements/refunds for items months later. Once I had an ATI Radeon 9800 go kaput 9+ months after purchase and they refunded it

I don't expect them to hold such policies forever, but a policy that's easy to understand + reasonable works. I mean it's just good business and a focus on customer retention right?

So... 2 months ago I purchased about $1,800 in parts, including an i5-3550P and Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H. The parts were going into different systems. Both ended up defective, so I RMA'd them. Not only was Newegg combative and didn't really seem like they wanted to take back my RMA items... but we ended up dragging the process for over a month over phone calls and emails.

FINALLY, they accepted an RMA Refund to Gift Card code, which I was OK with... so I sent the items in and .... a week later, Newegg says BOTH the CPU and MoBo were physically damaged beyond repair. WHAT?!

Honestly, I have had good luck handling computer components... the last component I honestly remember "breaking" was an Intel 386SX that had its HSF mounted incorrectly (POP!) way back in 1988.

Newegg claims the following damage:
1) CPU IHS has physical "gouges" and is inoperable
2) MoBo has bent pins

I won't even get into how outlandish their claim to this type of damage is... literally you have to be wanting to hurt the component to get that type of damage. I requested pictures from the RMA department, and to date they have refused to send me any pictures/verification of damage, or send the products back (which by the way is a bit useless as I've bought the replacements at the Microcenter B&M to service the clients due to the delay from Newegg). After a lengthy talk with one of their CS supervisors, he promised to send the pictures over next week so we'll see.

Ah... as others have mentioned, the process has been quite demoralizing not to mention stressful.

After everything gets done I will be taking my business elsewhere... what's everyone's experience with other retailers? Where do HardForum people buy their stuff nowadays? I noticed that there is a popup from HardOCP requesting people to consider buying from Amazon instead...
 
Hoankiem,

Have you tried posting your said problem in newegg's reseller ratings page? Its helped many (including me) in the past.

I buy locally from microcenter and directron, but amazon could be a great option for you in the future. They never hassle me on anything or make me jump through hoops.
 
Yeah Amazon seems to be the place to go for online retailers, otherwise it's microcenter if you have one near you?
 
Hoankiem,

Have you tried posting your said problem in newegg's reseller ratings page? Its helped many (including me) in the past.

While I've seen this work, it is a pain in the ass to have to do stuff like this just to get Newegg to be reasonable :(
 
Hoankiem,

Have you tried posting your said problem in newegg's reseller ratings page? Its helped many (including me) in the past.

I buy locally from microcenter and directron, but amazon could be a great option for you in the future. They never hassle me on anything or make me jump through hoops.

While I've seen this work, it is a pain in the ass to have to do stuff like this just to get Newegg to be reasonable :(

tonyftw, ocellaris, I haven't tried posting on their reseller ratings page yet. I may try if Newegg doesn't give a favorable reply next week when supposedly they'll send me the pictures of the "damage."

Indeed I do have a MicroCenter nearby - in Tustin, CA. It's a 30 minute drive from my home though (I live in the Beach Cities which in retrospect was a bad idea considering most of my corporate clients are in Los Angeles, the freeways are so far away!). The other B&M choices are either Best Buy or Fry's Electronics. Buying from the B&M kind of defeats the supposed convenience of buying online though and removes a lot of selection. The interesting tidbit is I found out that nowadays most B&M's (yes, even Fry's Electronics which is laughable) have a much better return policy than Newegg. Add to that the fact that most B&M's will honor online price matches... Then you have the issue of: Has anyone else noticed that over the years basically every major component is now marked as "non-refundable/non-returnable" under Newegg's policy? The first and second round of Newegg CS reps I talked with also made it seem like I was a complainer/demon customer until I pulled all my old invoices and showed them in a spreadsheet how much I've purchased vs returned over the years. That made them change their tone a little bit.

Another nice thing about buying from one source is it makes taxes much easier to calculate at the end of the year rather than keeping track of invoices/receipts from multiple places.

But I guess it can't be helped... regardless of the outcome of my Newegg ordeal, I won't be purchasing from them as my primary supplier anymore in the future. Amazon and B&M here I come...?
 
I have bought many parts through newegg since about 2001. Most of the parts were ok but RAM was defective all the time. Dealing with them for exchanges wasn't bad at all. Giving about a week to send them the defective ones and send me new ones. In 2008 I wanted to build a PC from scratch (like my 10th) and decided to go on the Newegg Preffered account. They cleared me for $2,400 and I was happy. I've purchased Thousands since then and never got a bad part (ie the people above who mentioned CC disputes and BBB notifications) Seems like they send out some questionable items and they only help when you go through outside dispute systems. Luckily, I don't think they want a dispute with their own Credit Card business

Ninja Edit: BTW I bought A Maximus Hero VI and Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB 2400 that are still on the way, but I bought the proc at microcenter due to outstanding deal, yet they didn't have the mobo i wanted
 
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I've noticed that most of the people complaining about newegg breaking their boards seemed to have boards that already had problems. I'm betting these boards already came with bent pins and that was causing their issues or they inadvertently bent them and didn't know it and didn't look for it when they sent the board back.

I've rma'ed a few things with newegg and never a problem, I just rma'ed a bluetooth adapter a few days ago and it was painless and smooth.
 
I've noticed that most of the people complaining about newegg breaking their boards seemed to have boards that already had problems. I'm betting these boards already came with bent pins and that was causing their issues or they inadvertently bent them and didn't know it and didn't look for it when they sent the board back.

I've rma'ed a few things with newegg and never a problem, I just rma'ed a bluetooth adapter a few days ago and it was painless and smooth.

If you read the OP, and the posts between then and now...most people did inspect their LGA sockets before RMA as part fo the troubleshooting process. Once NewEgg's desire to never RMA LGA boards came out, folks started taking high res photos as proof.

If you've never had issues with NewEgg in recent times, you're one of the only people on [H].
 
I've noticed that most of the people complaining about newegg breaking their boards seemed to have boards that already had problems. I'm betting these boards already came with bent pins and that was causing their issues or they inadvertently bent them and didn't know it and didn't look for it when they sent the board back.

I've rma'ed a few things with newegg and never a problem, I just rma'ed a bluetooth adapter a few days ago and it was painless and smooth.

Fucking genius deduction... Most people RMA motherboards because they have problems. Unfortunately you missed the part where people are inspecting the pins prior to sending them out.
 
Here's an update to my particular situation.

After weeks of wrangling with Newegg they magically decided that now I get a gift certificate, which was one of the options I had asked from them originally (that or a refund to card).

Recap of this week:
1) Newegg promised a call back/email back with evidence/pictures that I was in fault for damaging the items (Never got this)
2) RMA Inspections Department decided that the "physically damaged beyond repair" items were now, in fact, fully working and the RMA was valid
3) Received an automated email from Newegg with the gift certificate number, with no further communication/explanation

I guess getting some form of credit back was better than nothing. I'm not a pushy customer by far, but an apology or explanation for holding up the RMA, then playing hijinks with the RMA process would've been nice... especially when I made it very clear that I had to spend additional money out of my own pocket to buy the items at the B&M to satisfy my SLA's with my own customers.

We've covered Amazon and Microcenter before. A long time ago (nearly a decade) I also had purchased from Directron with good results, and people commented that they are good too. What about the following e-tailers, what are your thoughts?:

1) MWave
2) TigerDirect
 
1) MWave
2) TigerDirect

No clue on Mwave but both of my big purchases over the last year tigerdirect was cheaper than the egg and amazon by a significant amount. Their shipping prices are also dirt cheap compared to those 2 without having to pay for fancy memberships for better shipping.
 
Surprised MWave is even still going. I bought a hard drive from them a few years back that I was dissatisfied with and they not only did a replacement for me at no cost, they also exchanged the item for a completely different one that cost $10 more (standard Seagate -> WD Black, better performance), again at no cost. Prices don't seem to be good from them; so I've really seen no reason to use them again.

Tiger Direct was great in the past; but I stopped using them in favor of Newegg many years ago. Can't speak for their customer service, I have no memory of ever sending a support request.
 
Superbiiz has treated me well in the past as well. They often have $10-15 dollar off coupons running.
 
I've noticed that most of the people complaining about newegg breaking their boards seemed to have boards that already had problems. I'm betting these boards already came with bent pins and that was causing their issues or they inadvertently bent them and didn't know it and didn't look for it when they sent the board back.

I've rma'ed a few things with newegg and never a problem, I just rma'ed a bluetooth adapter a few days ago and it was painless and smooth.
You're a senior member of [H] and after reading this, I'm speechless. You're either retarded/trolling or illiterate :confused::rolleyes:. Guys that have had problems with newegg RMA clearly said that they had their parts inspected prior to RMA shipping.
 
Yeah... with LGA MoBos, IMHO the propensity for the LGA pins to be damaged is vastly overstated. During normal usage, of my personal systems at least, I've never had a bent pin as long as proper basic care is used when changing CPUs or repackaging the MoBo for RMA. I'm sure there are those who try to game the RMA system by purposefully damaging the LGA socket or are careless, but most people are honest and don't expected to be treated by the retailer the way that Newegg treated me (and others).

The main point of my original post though, was to warn people that Newegg apparently is now claiming that CPUs are damaged as well. What next, them rejecting CPU RMAs due to the HSF making an imprint at the point of contact on the CPU's IHS? Totally normal, and does not damage the CPU in any way.

If an enthusiast-oriented retailer does not respect their return buyers who enthusiastically recommend them to others, then I'm speechless and without words. Not only did they put myself and others through unnecessary ordeals, but IMHO wasted our time and diminished not only their customers but themselves. It is totally within reason for them to explain their policies and provide evidence, and as to yet though they have given me a gift certificate they have not bothered providing any of the above.
 
Interesting, I RMA'd a board to Newegg about 2 weeks ago. Got an email saying it had bent pins, but they were going to RMA it anyway. I honestly doubt I bent the pins in the 3 days I had the board.
 
Superbiiz has treated me well in the past as well. They often have $10-15 dollar off coupons running.

I scored some really good deals on hard drives from Superbiiz on several occasions -- no problems in my limited experience. I like that they often have site-wide coupons as opposed to hundreds of individual deals on the crap nobody wants.

Another e-tailer I didn't seen mentioned that's worth a look is NCIX. They have by far the best packaging I've encountered for computer components.
 
Just wanted to add to this thread. I've had a bad motherboard RMA experience as well with Newegg. I returned a motherboard because the mSATA slot wasn't working. Inspected it and took pictures of the perfect CPU socket before packing it and returning it. When Newegg received it, I got a message saying that they were returning the board because their RMA inspection had found bent pins.

I told them I had pictures of the socket and there were no bent bins, but they wouldn't accept that.

I ended up having to ship the motherboard to the manufacturer and paying to have the CPU socket and mSATA slot repaired.

I now buy motherboards only from Amazon who takes motherboards back even if you receive one with bent pins in the CPU socket.
 
Interesting thread. I usually buy from NewEgg because I don't pay sale tax (live in TX). For Amazon and Tiger Direct both have sales tax - so they are 8.25% more right off the bat for me.

I have had good luck with NewEgg. My recent RMAs have been with manufacturers, but never had to RMA a MB.
 
I just wanted to post my story after finding this thread. I too had the same thing happen. Ordered an ASRock Extreme 4 motherboard for my new build. Got everything hooked up and the computer would not post. After much troubleshooting, and a call to ASRock, they told me to RMA the board and send it back to Newegg. Bad idea.

I just wanted an exchange for a working board, not a refund. I sent the board in, and Newegg rejected the RMA because of bent CPU pins. I never damaged anything. I got it back two weeks after I originally sent it in and it looks like someone took a screwdriver to the CPU pins. The whole lower right part of the socket is completely destroyed, as well as random pins elsewhere all messed up. It was not like this when I sent it in.

Seems rather shady to me to have so many people have the same issue I did. There was NOT any physical damage to the board in any way before I sent it to them period.

After doing as others here have, I posted a review on resellerratings.com and Newegg called within an hour and reversed their position on the RMA. WTF? Anyway, I am still in the process of getting it completed and have not yet received any word on my "store credit." Guess we will see, but I will be glad to have this over with. Never buying anything from them again.
 
I'm sure part of the problem is that Newegg has a RMA quota. They may say you can only have 75% of items qualify for RMA. This keeps techs honest and forces them to check boards. If they hit the quota, they damage your board and say you did it, so that they can send it back.

I'm sure part of the problem is also users breaking stuff, then expecting Newegg to foot the bill, claiming it was already dead. In any case, this leads to a high number of RMA's on products with a very small profit margin.

I just wanted to post my story after finding this thread. I too had the same thing happen.
What address did you use to send in your RMA?
 
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I also had an RMA shipment that Newegg "Lost"
It was a $100 motherboard, too.

They're on my "Never again" list.
 
Come to think off it, I just remembered in early 2012 they denied me an RMA for a video card, saying the bracket was bent.

They sent the card back to me. I straightened the bracket back up with my fingers ( without much trouble and was only slightly bent to begin with ). Problem was the card was defective to begin with it.

I'm 99% certain the card came "bent" like that ( bought it used )

Had to RMA with the manufacturer (DIAMOND). Mother Satan of all AIBs. May they drown in bankruptcy for all eternity.
 
All I can say is if they keep bending this pins this way and NewEgg doesn't even bother to investigate the obvious criminal activity going on in their RMA department, it might be time for a class action lawsuit. I mean, seriously, bending those pins aren't easy without intentionally jamming something down in there and scraping. For them to all of the sudden getting tons of RMAs disallowed due to horribly bent pins has to scream fraud!

Might be time to at least start filing complaints with Attorneys General in your respective states, just to have a chance of having it investigated, if NewEgg refuses to investigate it themselves. It would behoove them to root out the person in the RMA department doing this, or to find out if somebody that's a supervisor there is directing employees to intentionally damage sockets.

This doesn't seem like an everyday ordinary beef with a company, it's something that can seriously damage NewEgg if they don't do something about it, and rightfully so, if they just bury their heads in the sand about it.
 
When someone I know personally has to deal with NewEgg ... I show them this thread and recommend they consider legal action. NewEgg isn't interested in fixing this.
 
When someone I know personally has to deal with NewEgg ... I show them this thread and recommend they consider legal action. NewEgg isn't interested in fixing this.

You recommend to your friends that they sue over computer hardware? The most expensive motherboard on the market wont even get you 30 minutes with an attorney.
 
Thanks to this thread, I will not be RMAing my Asus mobo that I just bought. There is nothing wrong with it, but I cannot get the onboard video drivers not to crash in Windows. Of course, I found a solution, get a cheap AMD card whose drivers don't cause the dreaded "Display driver stopped...recovered". I certainly don't need more aggravation by some dumbass purposely breaking the mobo just because they reached their quota.
 
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