My HORRIBLE return experience with Newegg

[Randy Lahey]

I've been buying from them since 2011. I recently bought a monitor, DIDN'T OPEN IT as I changed my mind, and returned it to them at my expense (cost me $60 to ship it back to Ontario, plus I lost the original $10 shipping). I have NEVER returned anything to them before.

I get the return invoice today and here they charged me a $90 restocking fee because they said I opened it!!! What a load of absolute BS!! The box had a small piece of tape holding it closed, that's it. I even taped over that with my shipping label just to be sure it couldn't be tampered with. I chatted with their support, they wouldn't budge. They said I needed to 'prove' that it was unopened. They could easily just slice the tape and say I opened it. What a bush-league joke.

After this experience I will NEVER buy anything from them again. Only Costco, Memory Express, Canada Computers, or Amazon. I've never had any issues returning things to any of them. What a bad taste this leaves in my mouth.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Where is the Steam related issue?

Your mistake was covering the tape.

Scammers do this to try and return old items in the new box. They buy old or broken items for next to nothing, buy the same item new from a store, replace the new one with the old one and try to seal it up to look like it was never opened.

Basically get a brand new item for pennies.

[Randy Lahey]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

Where is the Steam related issue?

Your mistake was covering the tape. Scammers do this to try and return old items in the new box.

:qr:

It's the off-topic forum. I covered it with clear packing tape so it was still clearly visible. What's stopping them from just cutting the little 3 inch strip of tape and say I opened it? None of this was my fault, they are just scumbags. Buyer beware. And they could clearly see that it hadn't been opened and the new monitor was in there.

[nullable]

We all have bad experiences. Some of us have a zero tolerance policy apparently. One bad experience in ten years doesn't seem crazy to me. If your expectation that every interaction should go just so or else, well that seems like a recipe for disappointment to me.

After all what's newegg supposed to do with this item they believe is open boxed? Take your word and resell it as new, and then get dinged for lying to customers if you were lying? You're such a valuable customer they should be glad to absorb the loss? I get you don't like feeling screwed. Neither does Newegg though. And customers will lie any time it's convenient (whether or not you personally would) so I can't blame them for not taking your word if it looks like the box was opened after all.

Your decision is yours alone. I wouldn't expect a lot of sympathy outside of a few other people who are similarly reactionary by nature to any less than perfect outcomes. Maybe be a little more careful about buying things and changing your mind, and effectively tampering with the box even if it was well intentioned.

[nullable]

Randy Lahey님이 먼저 게시:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

Where is the Steam related issue?

Your mistake was covering the tape. Scammers do this to try and return old items in the new box.

:qr:

It's the off-topic forum. I covered it with clear packing tape so it was still clearly visible. What's stopping them from just cutting the little 3 inch strip of tape and say I opened it? None of this was my fault, they are just scumbags. Buyer beware.

Yes Newgg's new business model is to grift customers through returns... /s

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Randy Lahey님이 먼저 게시:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

Where is the Steam related issue?

Your mistake was covering the tape. Scammers do this to try and return old items in the new box.

It's the off-topic forum. I covered it with clear packing tape so it was still clearly visible. What's stopping them from just cutting the little 3 inch strip of tape and say I opened it? None of this was my fault, they are just scumbags. Buyer beware.

I edited my post once I saw it was moved to here from the Steam Community forum.

Read my edit.

[Randy Lahey]

Snakub Plissken님이 먼저 게시:

We all have bad experiences. Some of us have a zero tolerance policy apparently. One bad experience in ten years doesn't seem crazy to me. If your expectation that every interaction should go just so or else, well that seems like a recipe for disappointment to me.

After all what's newegg supposed to do with this item they believe is open boxed? Take your word and resell it as new, and then get dinged for lying to customers if you were lying? You're such a valuable customer they should be glad to absorb the loss? I get you don't like feeling screwed. Neither does Newegg though. And customers will lie any time it's convenient (whether or not you personally would) so I can't blame them for not taking your word if it looks like the box was opened after all.

Your decision is yours alone. I wouldn't expect a lot of sympathy outside of a few other people who are similarly reactionary by nature to any less than perfect outcomes. Maybe be a little more careful about buying things and changing your mind, and effectively tampering with the box even if it was well intentioned.

Wow. I see why they get away with this nonsense when people actually defend them! Do you work for Newegg? The box was sealed! I didn't open it! Why would I come on here and complain if I had opened it?? It's a single 3 inch piece of tape! If they wanted to avoid tampering, they should actually seal up the box properly!

I have NEVER had a bad experience returning ANYTHING to Costco in over 35 years, same with Amazon. I've only returned one thing to Newegg so they're batting 0%. Unbelievable. And yes, I will be more careful and not buy from Newegg again.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

These are Newegg's Overall Return Guidelines. All returns must meet the overall guidelines in order for the individual return policy to apply.

• Any product which appears tampered with, customized or altered in any way.
  
• Any product that is returned with markings or writing made by the customer on the original box.

https://www.newegg.com/promotions/nepro/20-2902/index.html

And you said...

Randy Lahey님이 먼저 게시:

The box had a small piece of tape holding it closed, that's it. I even taped over that with my shipping label just to be sure it couldn't be tampered with.

[Randy Lahey]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce님이 먼저 게시:

These are Newegg's Overall Return Guidelines. All returns must meet the overall guidelines in order for the individual return policy to apply.

• Any product which appears tampered with, customized or altered in any way.
  
• Any product that is returned with markings or writing made by the customer on the original box.

https://www.newegg.com/promotions/nepro/20-2902/index.html

And you said...

Randy Lahey님이 먼저 게시:

The box had a small piece of tape holding it closed, that's it. I even taped over that with my shipping label just to be sure it couldn't be tampered with.

:qr:

The CLEAR tape was over the shipping label (which was on the front of the box, not the top) and stretched out over the top of the box. The original sealed tape was clearly visible and could NOT be tampered with by anyone other than Newegg. It's a BS excuse for them to charge me $90, nothing more. Why don't you tell me what's stopping them from just cutting the little 3 inch sliver of tape and saying I did it? I truly hope it happens to you one day...sounds like you work for them.

They won't ever get my business again, period. From here on I only buy from companies with retail stores that I can return stuff to first, free of charge (Costco, Memory Express, Staples, Best Buy, etc.). Then there's still Amazon as a last resort, whom have never screwed me over on a return, nor have any of the others. There are lots of other options besides Newegg. I hope it was worth losing the lifetime sales for $90 and their overzealous policy nonsense. Terrible (now) Chinese-owned company.

[Morphic]

This is why whenever I need to do returns I ship the box within another box. I was afraid of a similar experience with Nvidia when I found out my RTX 2070 Super was faulty. Tech sent out a box I was supposed to place the card in with the original box etc.

So I did as was instructed but then placed that box inside another box, filled it with packing fillers and sealed it up and shipped it off. Got my replacement card in ~3 days. I do that practice with everything now... clothing returns, amazon returns, etc.

Don't let a single bad apple make you write off eating apples. Also, while you are entitled to your mindset... I hope you realize your "lifetime sales" ultimately is chump change for such a company. They aren't going to bend over backwards to "make it right" when you didn't fully comply with their guidelines. However, "stupid" you may feel those guidelines are.

[MikeBob2013]

Randy Lahey님이 먼저 게시:

My HORRIBLE return experience with Newegg

I've been a NewEgg customer for nearly two decades and I've never had a bad experience with them. (I do try to make it a point to buy only from them though and not any of their 'marketplace partners.)

Having said that, I've also never had to return anything for any reason.

Thanks for the heads up. 👍

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

I used to have an actual business account with newegg in the tens of thousands of dollars area.

They were a bit better 10+ years or so ago, but their slow as hell shipping (even when I often paid for express) and their return policy became a massive problem for me, especially as product quality has continued to decrease over time meaning I'd have to return more items than I used to.

Almost every time I had to return something usually a "changed mind" item or something that arrived too late (many times WEEKS too late) or something that was broken during shipping like TVs and monitors, it would involve a 30 minute to hour+ long chat with their customer support and getting bumped around to so called "supervisors" and the usual anti-consumer bullcrap hoping for me to just give up and pay the "fees".

I'd usually have to figure out the personal number of whatever district or warehouse or business manager and go all "Ken" on them and remind them just how much money I had spent there and that I would lose no sleep or business switching to some other company to get computers and electronics over their bullcrap "Restocking" and such. Sometimes I'd have to quote local and federal consumer protection laws to them about returns and such before they would begrudgingly "waive" the fees and then tell me some flowery crap about "your business is important to us".

And this was when amazon already had super fast shipping and a no hassle return policy. I gave newegg three chances to annoy me enough that I will NEVER give them another cent, and that was 2 chances too many.

[Little Miss Terror]

Why can't you just not pay the fee?

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Roseate, Her Thighness님이 먼저 게시:

Why can't you just not pay the fee?

I'll tell you why, but it will cost you $90 to find out.

[MinionJoe]

I stopped using NewEgg a few years ago because they refused to take back a bum drive they sold me.

The drive failed after 28 days, I spent a couple days trying to get it to work again, then initiated the return on day 30. It was still listed in my recent purchases (within 30 days), but they said it was over 30 and I'd have to contact the manufacturer (Toshiba).

So I cancelled my NewEgg account, did a chargeback on the card I used, and never looked back.