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RMA for fun and profit!

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Originally posted by: nitromullet
It's probably simpler than that... Someone probably bought a BFG GTX 280 at a retail store, picked up a cheap or free (maybe even broken) GTX 260 ES, swapped the HSF, and returned the "GTX 280" to the retailer for a refund.

Zap... can't NV track where/who they sent engineering samples too, or are there just too many to make it feasible?
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Yeah I see that now. Shameful.

I'm sure NV knows who the cards went to, but proving the physical chain of possession would be quite difficult if not impossible if the RMA individual is not the same person.

NV would probably still want to know though so they can add the ES point-of-distribution individual to their blacklist of folks to not bother sending ES's too. Once you know you got someone with loose fingers they need to be evicted from the good list.
 
Originally posted by: Denithor
Can they be charged with anything in those cases?
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IDK. We just turn around and send it back to the vendor (since it was their fault) or the customer who RMA'd it... that is if we knew who did it. Some get through.

Originally posted by: rarebear
And I guess God knew what I had thought and Maxtor RMAed my one month out of date drive anyway...
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With stuff like hard drives, typically the manufacturer adds a few months to the manufacturing date for warranties. If you got "shorted" due to buying an older model drive way past when they were made, then you can provide a receipt. Otherwise, you typically get a longer warranty than advertised.

Originally posted by: chizow
Pretty crazy, although I wonder how many of those were returned to a B&M first (before BFG) and people actually got away with it.
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Plenty, I'm sure.

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Zap... can't NV track where/who they sent engineering samples too, or are there just too many to make it feasible?
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I wondered that too, and asked our product manager. He said it was a "maybe" but that it was probably too much hassle (unless things got out of hand).

I've got a nice one on my desk that just came in this morning. Will take pics and post about it later. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Idontcare
NV would probably still want to know though so they can add the ES point-of-distribution individual to their blacklist of folks to not bother sending ES's too. Once you know you got someone with loose fingers they need to be evicted from the good list.
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That was my thinking. I'm assuming that pretty much all ES are provided free of charge for testing purposes, and are not intended to make their way to the general public. Especially not to RMA scammers.

 
Originally posted by: apoppin
Best Buy was known to accept rocks in boxes for RMA and just put them back on the shelf; The unsuspecting good customer would get screwed and Best Buy would call THEM thieves - they had lawsuits filed over it. i remember opening expensive HW packages inside their store also - before i walked out the door. i was not alone; right alongside other customers - just before we left the store in front of the guard.
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I know. This thread is starting to scare me. I still have four HD4850s, new in box, purchased on two different dates at BeastBuy. Now I'm thinking that I'll have rocks in the boxes when I open them. I still have the reciepts, but I purchased them when the 4850 just came out, whenever that was. OTOH, since they had just come out, it seems unlikely that someone could have swapped them for rocks already. I hope.

 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: apoppin
Best Buy was known to accept rocks in boxes for RMA and just put them back on the shelf; The unsuspecting good customer would get screwed and Best Buy would call THEM thieves - they had lawsuits filed over it. i remember opening expensive HW packages inside their store also - before i walked out the door. i was not alone; right alongside other customers - just before we left the store in front of the guard.
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I know. This thread is starting to scare me. I still have four HD4850s, new in box, purchased on two different dates at BeastBuy. Now I'm thinking that I'll have rocks in the boxes when I open them. I still have the reciepts, but I purchased them when the 4850 just came out, whenever that was. OTOH, since they had just come out, it seems unlikely that someone could have swapped them for rocks already. I hope.
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Well just open them and you will know.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I know. This thread is starting to scare me. I still have four HD4850s, new in box, purchased on two different dates at BeastBuy. Now I'm thinking that I'll have rocks in the boxes when I open them. I still have the reciepts, but I purchased them when the 4850 just came out, whenever that was. OTOH, since they had just come out, it seems unlikely that someone could have swapped them for rocks already. I hope.
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This is a silly question, but why would you buy four HD4850's and not use them?

Originally posted by: Zap
OMG, it's really a 9800 GTX
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Now that's just crappy thru and thru.
 
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I know. This thread is starting to scare me. I still have four HD4850s, new in box, purchased on two different dates at BeastBuy. Now I'm thinking that I'll have rocks in the boxes when I open them. I still have the reciepts, but I purchased them when the 4850 just came out, whenever that was. OTOH, since they had just come out, it seems unlikely that someone could have swapped them for rocks already. I hope.
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This is a silly question, but why would you buy four HD4850's and not use them?
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😕 Holy depreciating asset Batman!

 
Originally posted by: nerp
Wait. Did someone send a bag of weed with a card? Or is that a turd?
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HAHAHAHAHa. I think he said it was a bag of screws.

Resellers are horrible when it comes to RMAs. Even newegg is notorious for accepting anything. Also frustrating is when a product is RMA'd and it is completely brand new and unopened, someone just changed their mind.
 
Originally posted by: nerp
Wait. Did someone send a bag of weed with a card? Or is that a turd?
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You talking about that ziplock baggie with the VLB card? That was a bag of assorted used screws, to add weight.
 
Originally posted by: WelshBloke
Originally posted by: Idontcare
This is a silly question, but why would you buy four HD4850's and not use them?
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😕 Holy depreciating asset Batman!
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Well, I got them for 25% off, both times, so I only paid around $165 for each card. Not too much depreciation yet.

I got them for my quad-core builds, which I've only now started to build, about what, six months later? (Got the first Q6600 up to 3.6, haven't started on the second quad.)
 
Obvious fraud doesn't worry me too much. The RMA practice of sending out refurbished cards for warranty replacement does. I've been on the receiving end (from a company known for their supposed stellar warranty) of getting an RMA card that was absolutely used up. Scratches, scuffs, peeling labels and bent bracket on the outside, quite severe stuttering in all games on the inside. Basically used and abused by someone and then sent back within the step-up/upgrade window or RMA'd and cleaned up.

Basically if you're an honest person that takes care of your hardware and it still fails for whatever reason you're most likely never going to get something as good as you had back.
 
Originally posted by: AmberClad
Originally posted by: SunnyD
I'm guessing you work for BFG?
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I thought it was pretty commonly known that both Zap and JonnyGuru are BFG employees 😛...
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I knew two people here were - one of them being Jonny. I must have read Zap was too somewhere along the line, but it never stuck in my mind.
 
Originally posted by: Zap
Originally posted by: nerp
Wait. Did someone send a bag of weed with a card? Or is that a turd?
Click to expand...

You talking about that ziplock baggie with the VLB card? That was a bag of assorted used screws, to add weight.
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AHhhh, OK. I was gonna say. I was skimming pics, saw that bag and I guess it went over my head. I thought someone accidentially sent a bag of herb, like it fell out of their shirt pocket or something.
 
The SATA ports on some motherboards get blocked by dual-slot cards. I know, let's mod the fan shrouds so they fit! Who cares that blowers expel air around their whole circumference and need that shroud to channel air to the right place (through the heatsink).
 
AAAAk! Looks like a beaver chewed on that card. :shocked: They could of at least used a dermal to make it look good. As for functionality, heck, it still works right?. :roll: Just plain stupid no matter how you look at it.
 
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