RTX 4090 From Newegg Arrived as Metal Blocks, Claims Customer
The question in this kind of case is who to believe?
Getting short-changed is pretty annoying, but a redditor claims he is owed a considerable sum of money in the wake of a component purchase from Newegg. Getting to specifics, a Reddit user writes that he received a couple of blocks of heavy metal instead of a shiny new Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.
The Reddit thread complaining about the purported Newegg Switcheroo is full of advice about a customer's next steps. Victims of this kind of mail order swindle have various paths they can follow to try and make good from the dispute; through direct contact with the retailer, taking the issue to their credit card merchant, or through the business regulator/legal systems, for example.
Unfortunately for the complainant, one of the first doors a disgruntled customer might try for recompense is claimed to have been slammed shut. The redditor says, "Newegg seems to have locked my account instead of responding."
Of course, several Reddit comments seem to be quite cynical about the customer's claims. Some amateur detectives have noted that the large metal objects, particularly the square, don't seem to have shredded the inner carton on its journey from Newegg to the customer. However, it is hard to say how long or rough that journey might have been.
The redditor provided further comment on his expected RTX 4090 GPU. He said that he took pictures of the box before opening it, thinking he might need to complain to Newegg about poor packaging. Then, another picture was taken of the box's damaged corners before opening it. Then, progressing to unpack the graphics card, the Newegg customer said that as they turned the box around, there was a noticeable "clink."
The above story might remind readers of the plight of Gamers Nexus editor Steve Burke earlier this year. Luckily, being a big wheel in a tech YouTube channel with millions of subscribers meant Burke's open-box order dispute with Newegg got ironed out pretty quickly. This user isn't quite so lucky, but his Reddit post caught the eye of Burke, who says he will be helping investigate and is interested in buying the two weights in the picture.
We will be watching developments in this case with interest, so please stay tuned.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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Getting to specifics, a Reddit user writes that he received a couple of blocks of heavy metal instead of a shiny new Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.
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L397TWLwrUUView: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L397TWLwrUU&ab_channel=JudasPriestVEVO -
InvalidError The poster claiming his box had external damage while foam shows no apparent damage from the square block getting bumped around does seem suspicious. Unless the external damage was done before the contents swap.Reply -
Alvar "Miles" Udell Ever since my Ryzen 1800X arrived as an empty box from Amazon, I take an all sides video of the box before I open, then as I open and then as I open the product box. Takes a couple of extra minutes but it's cheap and free insurance should something like this happen, which it easily can.Reply -
PlaneInTheSky I don't believe anything written on Reddit. It's just a cesspool of a site where people make up anything for attention.Reply -
waltc3 I don't believe the complainant here. With the two metal objects free floating in the package as shown, the metal objects would have clanged together and made a fair amount of racket whenever the package was handled. In fact, the noise generated by the pieces hitting each other would have made the shipper and the recipient think that something was broken or loose inside the package--which he apparently doesn't even mention. Hopefully, the guy paid extra for insurance in the shipping, which would be a no-brainer with something that expensive. As the switch could have taken place anywhere en route from Newegg, and not necessarily at Newegg itself, I hope the guy had insurance on his $1600 component!...;)Reply -
JamesJones44 If it were Amazon I would say 99% sure it's a scam. With Newegg... it's closer to 50/50Reply -
10tacle ReplyJamesJones44 said:If it were Amazon I would say 99% sure it's a scam. With Newegg... it's closer to 50/50
I disagree. It all depends on if you are buying from NewEgg and Amazon direct instead of from a 3rd party reseller that they are hosting the sale from. A lot of buyers in a rush to get the latest hot item really don't bother to pay attention to what vendor they are actually buying from.
That said, I take photos of all boxes of expensive items before opening when delivered from an E-tailer. So that's not unusual for the buyer here to do that as some accuse of being suspicious. However, as others have noted, something still doesn't pass the smell test. If I got jacked, the absolute last action I'd even think about doing was posting photos and comments about the situation on Reddit...if I actually had an account in that dumpster juice platform. -
junglist724 Sucks if it's true. The contents could have been swapped out by someone from UPS closer to the destination.Reply
I just got my Gigabyte 4090 gaming OC and the only real seal was the tape on the anti static bag around the card. Would have been really easy to swap out the contents.