Bought a new AMD64 4000+, opened box...

[booyaah]

And there's like a total of 8 pins bent on outer 2 rows on one side. I just got the thing a couple of hours ago from UPS. Two of them were bent at a 45 degree angle right into the next pin beside it. I bought it OEM from newegg. I originally remembered reading their return policy for CPUs as something like, "you only get a few days to return for a refund, and a month to get it replaced unless you obviously toast the processor by being wreckless".

So I am thinking if I can't get the pins bent back straight I will just RMA it. I manage to get 6 of the 8 pins unbent fine. It's the 2 that are bent inward so much I can't even get barely touch without messing up other pins, having to come into from the side which is 5 pins deep itself. The second I finally manage to slightly move the pin it snaps (I was using a toothpick at this point).

I would also like to note that when I opened the box that had all 3 packages in it (gfx card, mobo, and the processor), that nearly a third of the styrofoam eggs were shredded into small pieces. The processor was ironicly placed on top in a thin layer of bubble wrap and I had a gut feeling a heavy box had been thrown on top of my box. I actually did hear the UPS guy knock on my door when he came to my house. It took me about 20-30 seconds to throw on a shirt and come to the door. By that time, the guy was already getting back onto the truck to drive off, and I figured oh well I've never had anything damaged before.

At this point I stopped knowing there was point in even messing with it anymore as I should probably just RMA it. I guess I didn't read the fine print good enough, as it says "bent/chipped CPU pins makes the processor considered physically damaged and newegg.com does not allow refunds OR returns for physically damaged processors". I will obviously call them tommorrow and ask them what my options are, but I kind of get the feeling I am going to get a "better luck next time" response. I realize it is stated at the bottom of their return policy that AMD and Intel do not take back physically damaged CPUs. Obviously they would be taking a big hit in general if they let everyone get a processor replaced, especially the ones buying top of the line $800-1,000 processors. They note that the reason they do not replace processors with broke pins is primarily due to idiots who try to force the processor into the socket when it is not properly aligned, or turned at the wrong angle to the cut side. Obviously, I agree with them on this that people whose negligence causes them to damage it should be their fault, but I didn't even get once chance to drop the thing in my mobo. It just seems like crap that you can legitimitely get a damaged processor and no one will claim responsibility.

I personally have used newegg for 5 years, they have always given great service, and will probably just end up buying another as I have a grand worth of hardware for this system just sitting in the boxes still. It just sucks to get shafted like this. I was wondering if anyone has had this experience. Did newegg help at all or did you manage to get some kind of reimbursement from the shipping company? I'm figuring UPS will say it's my fault for not checking the delivery.

Sorry about the long post, but you can take it as you want. I guess I'll have to call and pick up the next processor from the shipping facility and check it there on the spot to be 100% safe.

/rant

 

[dasickninja]

Short answer to a long thread.... RMA it. Its Newegg. They'll understand.

 

[booyaah]

Would you happen to have any names of their reps I should immediately hang up on to better my chances?

Should I mention the broke pin straight up you think?

 

[Stevemeister]

If you were the one who physically damaged it then they might have a case but it arrived physically damaged and that is a different matter. You purchased a processor that was supposed to be in new and useable condition and if it arrived damaged and in unuseable condition it is NewEgg/UPS's problem and if the item gets damaged in transit then NE will claim against the carriers insurance. As it is you tried to "fix" it so you would not ahve to RMA it - you did as much as you could have done

 

[booyaah]

if it arrived damaged and in unuseable condition it is NewEgg/UPS's problem and if the item gets damaged in transit then NE will claim against the carriers insurance.

I hope you are right. I am kind of pessimistic and think they will tell me it is my responsibility to file a claim against the carrier.

I see you have the same processor and gfx card I ordered in this shipment, I hope they have been treating you well so far

 

[NMDante]

if it arrived damaged and in unuseable condition it is NewEgg/UPS's problem and if the item gets damaged in transit then NE will claim against the carriers insurance.

I hope you are right. I am kind of pessimistic and think they will tell me it is my responsibility to file a claim against the carrier.

I see you have the same processor and gfx card I ordered in this shipment, I hope they have been treating you well so far

I haven't had an issue RMAing things back to Newegg.

I had some RAM come in, and they didn't work. I stress tested the living begeezus outta them before I filled an RMA (didn't want to waste my time returning them).

Newegg received them, and shipped me a new pair in a few days.

 

[booyaah]

I would be pretty confident they would RMA ram for you no problem as they do not have a special "RAM return policy", but they have a very different policy for CPUs that pretty much claims no responsibility against them. Well, I am going to bed. I'll give a follow up post tommorrow after I talk to them. At least from the posts so far I can sleep a bit better.

http://www.newegg.com/CustomerService/FAQDetail.asp?Module=5&Menu=detail208#xdetail208

 

[NMDante]

I would be pretty confident they would RMA ram for you no problem as they do not have a special "RAM return policy", but they have a very different policy for CPUs that pretty much claims no responsibility against them. Well, I am going to bed. I'll give a follow up post tommorrow after I talk to them. At least from the posts so far I can sleep a bit better.

http://www.newegg.com/CustomerService/FAQDetail.asp?Module=5&Menu=detail208#xdetail208

Ah, I see. There is a difference.

I would still call them, explain the situation, and ensure them that you are only asking for a replacement, not a refund.

That's what I would try, anyway.

 

[CompuTronix]

Chin up, you may not have to RMA your CPU. If you're lucky, the broken pin is a ground, so it may not be a problem, as there are many redundant ground pins on the CPU. Open source pin-outs are available, (can't look it up for you at the moment - check AMD's white papers, etc), so you can identify which pin is broken.

I broke a pin while trying to straighten it (which turned out to be one of dozens of ground pins) about 3 years ago on an XP 2500, and it's still running in my nephew's computer OC'd to 2.4 Ghz.

As for the other pins, you can slide 2 single edge razor blades between adjacent rows or columns to carefully straighten the pins.

Hope this helps. 8)

 

[booyaah]

Well, I really gave up after I broke the pin. There was no way in hell I was going to get these 2 pins back with my novice pin bending experience The toothpick I had, did manage to get in between the pins (it was a plastic martini sword), I just couldnt apply enough pressure since the pin was buried so deep into all the other pins. I didn't think of using an exacto or razor, I'll try that next time.

So I just called newegg, I told the woman upon opening the package, the CPU had already bent pins. I told her I wanted to RMA it. She asked if the packaging was damaged and I told her some of the styrofoam eggs were shredded. She then said I could RMA it. She even suggested that I just go ahead and RMA it for a full refund so I could order a new one and not have to wait for them to get the defective processor back. Not only that, she said she would credit $10 bucks to my credit card to pay for shippin back the defective processor. Hell, I think I'm gonna use the cheap $5 shipping, pocket the other 5 and buy one more case fan

At the end of the day, I am glad I don't have to wait 2 weeks to get another amd and I will definitely be giving a positive review on newegg.

 

[apt403]

Congrats Booyaah! Hopefully the next cpu you get will be in full working order.

 

[commanderspockep]

Not only is it good customer service for newegg, but here is the secret. Since the package arrived damage they alot of times will make a claim with UPS. So its really win win for everybody.

 

[kona]

I have straightened bent pins on a number of processors, most recently a socket 478 P4 that had about 20 or more pins bent. Some of them were bent pretty badly too. What you should use is a knife iwth a fairly thin blade and has a fine tip on it so you can get in there between the pins and gently nudge them back over. This method has worked well on 5 or more processors. Exercise some patience and when you think you have them all pretty close test fit the proc into the motherboard and try to look from the side which pins are still catching. Eventually you will get them all straight enough that it will drop in and you'll have it. Just be patient with it. It might be more worth your patience to straighten the pins that to try and send it back.

Just my two cents

 

[pottymonster]

whats the problem?

from newegg:
All defective and DOA CPUs will be replaced upon return.

just rma.

 

[pshrk]

Everytime i go with newegg i pay a little extra for fedex.

In my experience fedex is always early and treats the packages well. I bought something with standard ground shipping on black friday, and Fedex had it to me on monday morning. They weren't supposed to ship on the weekends but they did.

UPS seems to break things sometimes. Once UPS returned a package to the sender without even leaving a note on my door. I guess the driver couldn't find my apartment and was too lazy to leave it in the office (or even ask for directions).

 

[CompuTronix]

Our moto is: "How can Brown let you down?" Regardless of cost, everything goes FedEx. Period. No exceptions. 8)

 

[bliq]

A trick with bent pins that usually works: use the tip of a mechanical pencil. Only caveat is that today's pins are pretty damn small so you might need to use a 0.5mm lead pencil.

 

[booyaah]

Congrats Booyaah! Hopefully the next cpu you get will be in full working order.

Ya, hopefully UPS doesnt damage the next one. If they do again, Im going fedex for sure. I just had never had anything busted from UPS before!

A funny story about all these ppl saying fedex is better. One of my ex-gf's used to work shipping for fedex. I got a 60lb CRT monitor shipped from them back in the day. It was in fine condition when I got it. She looked at it and said she was surprised cause they usually just literally throw the things out of the back of the truck onto the ground lol.

 

[NMDante]

Congrats.

I'm glad to see that you didn't lose out for someone's else mistake.

Congrats, again.

 

[pausert20]

Best way I have found to unbend bent pins is with a .5mm Mechanical pencil. remove the lead from the pencil or push it all back into its holding tube then very gently insert the mechanical pencil over the bent pin and gently bend straight. You will usually need to go past vertical to fully straighten the bent pin.

 

[monkeymanuk]

Here's a little rhyme

Don't play, just RMA!

It's really easy to break a pin, you need a very delicate touch to bend it back. I've just repaired an Intel machine with LGA775 P4. I must say, no pins to bend sure does seem like a good idea.

 

[booyaah]

I would have to say from this experience, bent pins usually follow the rule of 3:

1) the initial bend
2) the first attempt to bend it straight
3) the 2nd attempt to bend it straight

3rd attempt = snap crackle pop!

Best way I have found to unbend bent pins is with a .5mm Mechanical pencil. remove the lead from the pencil or push it all back into its holding tube then very gently insert the mechanical pencil over the bent pin and gently bend straight. You will usually need to go past vertical to fully straighten the bent pin.

Ya that definitely seems like the best way to go. My only problem is the 2 pins were bent so far that they were touching the straight pin in the next column next to it.

 

[Bache]

Here's a little rhyme

Don't play, just RMA!

It's really easy to break a pin, you need a very delicate touch to bend it back. I've just repaired an Intel machine with LGA775 P4. I must say, no pins to bend sure does seem like a good idea.

Well the LGA socket is worse to repair.

There are a few posts in these forums about purchase of lga MB's with damaged pin/s in socket.

These socket pins are designed to flex and line up with the contact on CPU.

If you/after straighten these pins, you do not know wheather it has aligned itself correctly.

With CPU pins as long as it is straightened successfully, you know that it is in the correct position in socket.

 

[Bache]

And there's like a total of 8 pins bent on outer 2 rows on one side. I just got the thing a couple of hours ago from UPS. Two of them were bent at a 45 degree angle right into the next pin beside it. I bought it OEM from newegg. I originally remembered reading their return policy for CPUs as something like, "you only get a few days to return for a refund, and a month to get it replaced unless you obviously toast the processor by being wreckless".

So I am thinking if I can't get the pins bent back straight I will just RMA it. I manage to get 6 of the 8 pins unbent fine. It's the 2 that are bent inward so much I can't even get barely touch without messing up other pins, having to come into from the side which is 5 pins deep itself. The second I finally manage to slightly move the pin it snaps (I was using a toothpick at this point).

I would also like to note that when I opened the box that had all 3 packages in it (gfx card, mobo, and the processor), that nearly a third of the styrofoam eggs were shredded into small pieces. The processor was ironicly placed on top in a thin layer of bubble wrap and I had a gut feeling a heavy box had been thrown on top of my box. I actually did hear the UPS guy knock on my door when he came to my house. It took me about 20-30 seconds to throw on a shirt and come to the door. By that time, the guy was already getting back onto the truck to drive off, and I figured oh well I've never had anything damaged before.

At this point I stopped knowing there was point in even messing with it anymore as I should probably just RMA it. I guess I didn't read the fine print good enough, as it says "bent/chipped CPU pins makes the processor considered physically damaged and newegg.com does not allow refunds OR returns for physically damaged processors". I will obviously call them tommorrow and ask them what my options are, but I kind of get the feeling I am going to get a "better luck next time" response. I realize it is stated at the bottom of their return policy that AMD and Intel do not take back physically damaged CPUs. Obviously they would be taking a big hit in general if they let everyone get a processor replaced, especially the ones buying top of the line $800-1,000 processors. They note that the reason they do not replace processors with broke pins is primarily due to idiots who try to force the processor into the socket when it is not properly aligned, or turned at the wrong angle to the cut side. Obviously, I agree with them on this that people whose negligence causes them to damage it should be their fault, but I didn't even get once chance to drop the thing in my mobo. It just seems like crap that you can legitimitely get a damaged processor and no one will claim responsibility.

I personally have used newegg for 5 years, they have always given great service, and will probably just end up buying another as I have a grand worth of hardware for this system just sitting in the boxes still. It just sucks to get shafted like this. I was wondering if anyone has had this experience. Did newegg help at all or did you manage to get some kind of reimbursement from the shipping company? I'm figuring UPS will say it's my fault for not checking the delivery.

Sorry about the long post, but you can take it as you want. I guess I'll have to call and pick up the next processor from the shipping facility and check it there on the spot to be 100% safe.

/rant

Tip :idea:

Never repair damaged item if you want 100% sucessful return.

They usually say, you could have damaged it further and it's now beyond repair, etc (in your case you have by breaking a pin) and they might want to get the courier to visualize the damage and charge them for replacement cost.

 

[jhalf]

whats worked for me is cruching a staple in the stapler..letting it fall out and holding it with pliers and hooking it around the broken pin and pulling it back up straight. Just did this last week when i was replacing thermal compound. When i pulled the heatsink off the processor came with it and bent about 8 or nine of the pins.