My husband bought a computer case from newegg.com. It was defective. He sent it back, having to pay $50 for shipping. They sent a new case. It’s also defective. If he sends it back, he’ll have to pay another $50 for shipping.
On their site: “We are not responsible for manufacturing defects. We are not manufacturers.”
It’s a nice scam. If my husband decides he doesn’t want to fuck with it anymore, they’ll charge him 15% just for the pleasure of doing business with them.
Why do consumers let companies get away with this bullshit?
If you paid with a major credit card, file a beef with them. American Express and my bank debit/MasterCard holders have been great about putting pressure on shady dealers. Good luck.
What, exactly, constitutes a defective case? The only breakable components would be the power switch and the front LEDs. Right? If not, what was the problem? If so, was it the exact same problem as the first one? That’s an odd defect to have happen twice in a row. Are you sure the motherboard works?
What happened when he put the motherboard in the case, hooked everything up, and pushed the power button? Nothing at all? If so, your motherboard could be making contact with the case in a place that it shouldn’t and shorting out. I’ve seen this happen a few times.
Both times, the power supply has been bad. He can put in a power supply from another computer and the motherboard works. He can take the motherboard out and put it in another computer and it works.
The first time, he took the power supply to a repair place to have it tested. Dead. This time, I don’t know what he’s going to do, since having it tested just adds to the expense.
So, even if you can demonstrate that there is a problem with the merchandise, and if you don’t want to risk having to pay yet another shipping bill, they will charge you for the pleasure of doing business with them. That’s where I see the scam.
Well, since you’re paying so much to ship this thing back and forth, why don’t you just bite the bullet and buy a quality power supply? A lot of PSUs, especially the ones that come with inexpensive cases, are utter crap. Many put out inconsistent voltage and some don’t even live up to their wattage claims.
Spend $30-$50 on a PSU from a good manufacturer like Enermax or Antec and save yourself the headaches.
When I build a computer, I always look for inexpensive cases that don’t include power supplies and add my own.
At this point, that means being out the money paid for the original power supply, out the money for a new power supply, and out the money for the shipping of the first case back (they wouldn’t accept him just shipping the power supply).
And while that’s probably what’s going to happen, newegg.com sucks for putting us in this position. Maybe being in customer service makes me too sensitive, but I think this is a complete ripoff. They have nothing to lose by sending out bad merchandise.
JS, I bet this is one of them times that you can get a Cust Support Agent to waive the restocking fee. Especially having been in customer service yourself, I imagine that you know all the appropriate buttons to push to make that happen for you. I’ve always found the customer service experience invaluable in that regard.
I am rather surprised that you are having a problem with newegg. I hope that it works out for you, because I’ve always been really happy with them! Good Luck!
Well, my company absolutely bends over backwards when someone has defective merchandise. We pay to get it back or we send someone in to take a look and discard on-site. We only charge restocking fees if the material is not defective. That’s because we pride ourselves on quality and service. We’d be embarrassed as hell to have a thread like this about us, so it will never happen.
Fifty bucks to ship a case? My company bought an entire computer system from NewEgg–case, mobo, CPU, memory, hard drive, floppy drive, DVD+RW–and the shipping was only $40.
We had the same defective merchandise problem with the memory, though. The first one they sent was bad. We paid to ship it back, they paid to ship a new one, and the new one was bad too. We just shipped it back and paid the 15% fee - I think 1 GB of RAM will be enough for now.
I’m a little confused as to how its Newegg’s fault the case was defunkted. Next time before you deal with a company hopefully you’ll read through their Terms and Conditions of Sale before clicking the “Yes I agree to this” button. I’ve ordered thousand(s) of dollars worth of stuff from them and have had only one RMA, and it went pretty slick. Better luck next time.
They can make a buck simply by selling defective equipment, passing it on to people until someone just gets lazy or frustrated and keeps it. They can even resell the defective cases you sent back as “refurbished” items, or mislabel them as new and unused.
The problem is proving that they know it’s defective.
I got a sound card from them that went south 1 week after purchase: just died out. No big deal, I have onboard sound to cover while I get an RMA. But then my video card crapped out three weeks in. If I send my vid card in for an RMA, I’m stuck without a working computer for two weeks (since they will not send a replacement until they have my old item). I’m not saying that newegg is bad here, but it really makes me rethink whether online purchases were the great option they seemed.
I RMAed em a hard drive that died after 24 hours of use and all I had to pay was a couple bucks to ship it out to them. They even sent my new one back Express Overnight, just like I’d ordered before, free of charge.
I RMAed a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti4400 card from them. Second one works fine. It seems to me that if you are going to trust rock-bottom priced computer equipment, you are going to run into defective merchandise at a higher level. This may be their fault or it may be. In defense of newegg, these same complaints can be made of any lower-priced online retailer and stores like Fry’s. A significant proportion of the merchandise is defective. That’s what you get for saving $500 on the hardware: defective merchandise, bitchy return policies, and restocking fees. When I have the option, I don’t buy from those stores (I bought an iPod from Best Buy instead of Comp USA – same price and no restocking fee just in case). I encourage you to do likewise if you don’t like it.
Next, as someone who has put together a number of computers, never trust a no-name brand power supply. They burn out a lot. As neutron star said: buy an Antec or a Enermax. Or at least one that has some weight to it.
The best option, IMHO, is to find a local e-tailer who can compete with online prices. You sacrifice paying tax, but you don’t pay shipping if you can pick it up. You may still have to pay a restocking fee, but if you give them a significant amount of business, these stores get to know you and like you and they will waive it. They’ll also be able to help you out on things like this. Before I bought my Enermax power supply, I returned 2 dead power supplies to them and they gave me new ones without questions.
