Newegg's Revised Return Policy Angers Customers

GeForce RTX 30-series lineup
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Newegg has sold combo deals for years now on computer components, and now you pretty much have to buy a combo deal if you plan on scoring a new GPU. However, when you bought a combo deal in the past, you could return some of the items you bought in a combo package deal instead of returning the entire order. As reported by HotHardware, Newegg has now enacted a new policy that certain combo deals have to be returned in their entirety

Interestingly, this applies to all the graphics card deals we've seen on Newegg. To help combat bots and scalpers, Newegg has put most of its latest graphics card inventory into bundle deals to hopefully keep as many GPUs as possible in consumers' hands instead of in the hands of scalpers. Unfortunately, this didn't work too well in the past, as scalpers could simply return the unnecessary products and keep the graphics card. This new policy should give scalpers less incentive to buy new GPUs simply because they have to keep all the products in the combo deal.

But the new policy can also hurt regular customers, many of whom used Newegg's old refund/return policy to get the graphics cards they wanted and return the remaining product(s) they didn't need. That is no longer an option, so customers now have to keep the extra product they bought in the graphics card combo deal.

For Newegg, offering combo deals to fend off scalpers is a double-edged sword, as it could anger its regular customers, too. But perhaps there are better ways to prevent scalpers from getting your products; MicroCenter, for example, requires an ID and limits the number of GPUs that one customer can acquire per month. Hopefully, Newegg can implement a better system in the future, but for now, regular customers are turning out to be collateral damage in the retailer's war with the scalpers.   

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • mrv_co
    I wouldn't mind seeing Newegg discourage some of the wildly inflated prices from their third-party 'Sellers' from surfacing on their site so readily.
    Reply
  • caseym54
    I have no problem with this. So I get an extra disk drive. I usually need one.

    What does bother me is if I ask for a notification on the bundle, they immediately notify me that the add-on device is available and mark the notification done.
    Reply
  • MorganPike
    May not be a perfect solution, but at least they're trying something. And that's more than most are doing.
    Reply
  • LolaGT
    "But the new policy can also hurt regular customers, many of whom used Newegg's old refund/return policy to get the graphics cards they wanted and return the remaining product(s) they didn't need. "

    People doing that are committing the same abusive practice as the scalpers, newegg putting the hooks into them is a good thing.
    I am fine with the change.
    Reply
  • purple_dragon
    If you buy a combo from newegg just to get a new RTX/RX gpu and your angry you can't return the ssd or whatever came with it that's pathetic. It's a combo for a reason, so newegg can make extra money off selling a hot item. If you don't wanna pay the early adopter tax then wait until gpu's are readily in stock or stop whining and enjoy your gaming experience. If not being able to return something you deliberately purchased is all you have to worry about in these times when many don't have a job count yourself blessed!
    Reply
  • kyle382
    purple_dragon said:
    If you buy a combo from newegg just to get a new RTX/RX gpu and your angry you can't return the ssd or whatever came with it that's pathetic. It's a combo for a reason, so newegg can make extra money off selling a hot item. If you don't wanna pay the early adopter tax then wait until gpu's are readily in stock or stop whining and enjoy your gaming experience. If not being able to return something you deliberately purchased is all you have to worry about in these times when many don't have a job count yourself blessed!
    this isn't an early adopters tax, its a "we are aware this was an actual paper launch and to lessen the blow to our customers we are gonna bundle half our stock of these extremely rare items with stuff you definitely don't want."
    Reply
  • dan_L
    Admin said:
    Newegg annoys customers with a new return policy that directly affects graphics card combo deals.

    Newegg's Revised Return Policy Angers Customers : Read more
    Wow, your headline made it seem like some terribly cruel new return policy. Actually, it's a pretty fair policy. If you purchase a two or three item bundle, then it should be treated as a bundle and if you want to return any of it, you should be returning all of it. Newegg.com;'s motivation seem reasonable. I don't have any problem with it and will continue to purchase largely from newegg.com and MicroCenter's bricks and mortor store.
    Reply
  • tproveau
    Sounds like it angers authors on Tom's Hardware!
    I don't see any angered customers and if I was Newegg I would not want customers who abuse return policies like that. Abusers are the reason they have had to tweak their return policy on bundled graphics cards!
    Give it time, they will come back in stock eventually!
    Reply