Newegg Iron Egg Price Guarantee *** Warning to Others ***

[Smittytec]

I've been a long time Newegg shopper and have been very satisfied with everything until my last order and I want others to know what the Newegg Iron Egg Guarantee can do. My order consisted of six server hard drives (WD 2TB Re4) and upon searching Amazon.com, I found that a few other sellers had them in stock and priced $40 below Newegg. The Newegg product page for the drives had a price guarantee that states "BUY WITH CONFIDENCE This product qualifies for the Newegg Iron Egg price guarantee, we'll match any qualifying competitors price" and trusting this, I decided to place the order and file a claim as a long time customer of Newegg.

To my surprise, I received an email stating that the price was under Newegg's cost and I'm being offered a $29.99 gift card in lieu of the $240 price difference. I have replied that this would not be acceptable and they simply closed the case with a denied claim. I have no way of knowing what their actual cost is and this method of denying a claim is just bad business in my book.

Has anyone else had such an experience with the Newegg Iron Egg price guarantee? I'm going to fight this probably via the credit card company but if it's an ongoing issue to many others, I'd like to pursue it further. Let me know and buyers beware of this bad business practice!

 

[Mr_J_Marston]

Wow, that is VERY bad business practice, I just bought a whole desktop parts* set for my new gaming/casual rig at Newegg, and reading this post is making me quite concerned. Post a few more post and i'm sure if newegg want to keep a good rep they will fix it soon.

 

[ssddx]

5. A Competitor's item that is advertised below Newegg's actual cost.

they stated this right up front. the wording is also arranged in such a way that they can deny any non-major retailer (including individual stores on amazon) if they so wanted.

while completely true that you as a consumer have no way of knowing what their actual cost is they do give you an extended return window and newegg did not do anything wrong in only giving you a $30 gift card.

while i do not agree with newegg closing the case like that i would imagine with $240 on the line you were less than considerate.

do remember that they did offer an extended return window. they might even let you keep that gift card (which equals out to what the shipping would cost back with ups) so you could then buy from the other seller on amazon if you so wanted.

i completely agree that the price match policy is very shady and full of holes however that is not to be unexpected and is quite common in the retail world. look at almost any retailer offering such a policy and they will be similar.

so while i do feel for you, its hard to say newegg did anything wrong here.

 

[Mr_J_Marston]

Well after stating that the price was under Newegg's cost, they closed the case after the customer tried to follow up. If this is the case whats the point of iron egg price guarantee at all if all is does is to look good on the screen? A company that goes back on the promises that they make to their customers is a shady business indeed.

 

[ssddx]

while i agree that closing the case wasnt exactly a great move on their part the op did say that he refused the $30 gift card since it was not acceptable.

they should have responded back saying that this was the best they could do and that he can always return the products (as stated in the IEG) instead of closing the case right away but there is no way of knowing exactly what he said to them.

newegg didnt go back on its word. it followed it to the T. (read the IEG if you dont believe it). while definitely very vague and purposefully limited they did list in plain text.

definitely a buyer beware situation however cant say they did anything wrong by it (at least no worse than every other retailer out there does)

 

[Smittytec]

5. A Competitor's item that is advertised below Newegg's actual cost.

they stated this right up front. the wording is also arranged in such a way that they can deny any non-major retailer (including individual stores on amazon) if they so wanted.

while completely true that you as a consumer have no way of knowing what their actual cost is they do give you an extended return window and newegg did not do anything wrong in only giving you a $30 gift card.

while i do not agree with newegg closing the case like that i would imagine with $240 on the line you were less than considerate.

do remember that they did offer an extended return window. they might even let you keep that gift card (which equals out to what the shipping would cost back with ups) so you could then buy from the other seller on amazon if you so wanted.

i completely agree that the price match policy is very shady and full of holes however that is not to be unexpected and is quite common in the retail world. look at almost any retailer offering such a policy and they will be similar.

so while i do feel for you, its hard to say newegg did anything wrong here.

There is no way that I can verify Newegg's actual cost and this is a catch all reason to decline a claim in my opinion. Hover over the IronEgg Price Guarantee and it simply states “BUY WITH CONFIDENCE” “This product qualifies for the Iron Egg guarantee. We’ll match any qualifying competitors price.” I did buy these items with confidence that Newegg would do exactly that and Newegg has completely lost my trust.

I think it would be more honorable if condition #5 would be "If God deems you unworthy" or something I could eventually verify. How many people would be satisfied with a $29.99 gift card in lieu of the $240.00 difference?

 

[Smittytec]

while i agree that closing the case wasnt exactly a great move on their part the op did say that he refused the $30 gift card since it was not acceptable.

they should have responded back saying that this was the best they could do and that he can always return the products (as stated in the IEG) instead of closing the case right away but there is no way of knowing exactly what he said to them.

newegg didnt go back on its word. it followed it to the T. (read the IEG if you dont believe it). while definitely very vague and purposefully limited they did list in plain text.

definitely a buyer beware situation however cant say they did anything wrong by it (at least no worse than every other retailer out there does)

This is where our opinions differ... While you feel that Newegg did nothing wrong and didn't go back on their word, If you make such bold statements as "IronEgg ... BUY WITH CONFIDENCE" implies a bit more to me. I can understand the typical "in stock, no closeout or special circumstances but this was a very clear case of a qualifying competitor that had an item in stock for less.

 

[Smittytec]

*** Update ***
I received an email this morning offering a $240.00 gift card as an exception.

I hope that Newegg doesn’t let anyone else down as they did in my eyes as they have built such a great resource in the IT community over the years and a trust that should never be compromised.

 

[Mr_J_Marston]

Agree!

 

[Smittytec]

*** Update to Update ***

The $240.00 gift card was cancelled along with the entire order. A total waste of time and a worthless price match guarantee. Yes it's all in the fine print however, they can simply deny any claim at any time with reasons that the customer can't verify or know of prior to the purchase. The name implies strength and confidence but the reality is completely opposite and has caused our organizations to cease doing business with Newegg.

 

[thenetvines]

I have to defende Newegg on this one. You DO get such an excellent costumer service, extended warranty periods, and PAID return shipping labels on lots of hardware unlike very much 90% of shady, and horrible liars from Amazon third party vendors, and even Amazon's so called products that are backed up specifically by Amazon!!!

I buy a LOT of different high end and low end hardware off Amazon, and I can't even look at the other vendores they have, no matter what their silly and fake rating system says. Even Amazon itself let me down so many times.


I've only had 2 DOA's on Newegg over the last 5 years. One was a 180$ motherboard, and a 500$ SSD drive... that were priced really well, and fairly at that time. So instead of whining like a little girl and forgetting in a simple snap their previous reputation, and service for me, I just understood, and got new ones back from them with an almost painless return. Good luck getting any service or good quality hardware off Amazon at all.

 

[prongATO]

Exactly why I have had Amazon Prime for years. I stopped buying from newegg a long time ago. They take days to "process your order" then ship it out UPS ground. UPS SUCKS!! I received so many mangled, deformed and partially opened boxes delivered by UPS that I called amazon.com and they took UPS off my list of companies they use to ship my orders. They only ship FedEx or USPS now, AND I've received orders on Sundays and holidays because Amazon Prime gives you 2 day shipping on any prime eligible for free. I was completely surprised when I ordered an item Friday afternoon and the package arrived on Sunday! Amazon always ships the same day and you don't have to pay 5.99 for "faster processing" of your order like new egg. Amazon prime items ship the same day, on every order.
In fact, if you pay 3.99, you can get your item shipped overnight with amazon prime.

A few years ago I bought a Silverstone TJ07 case, paid 3.99 to have it next day shipped. That alone paid for my entire year membership. A Tj07 is ~40-50lbs in the box. Think about how much that would have cost normally!

If there is anything wrong with your item, amazon will cross ship you a new item (again 2 day guaranteed) and they provide you with return shipping postage so you aren't out-of-pocket for a DOA item.

I ordered 16GB of some ECC ram last week for 189.99. The very next day it was 149.99. I emailed them and they credited my card the difference. Granted, this type of service might only be for Prime members but it is worth it. It has been 79.99 a year but they are increasing it in 2015 to 99.99.. And I'll still get it. You can also invite up to 5 "family members" to also enjoy your prime membership. Not all of the people I've added to my list are family and they still get the benefits from my membership.

Long story short, amazon's customer service and practices are head-and-shoulders above new egg. (And the prices are the same or cheaper 99% of the time)