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Let me first say that I have been a Newegg customer for years and up until now, I have never had a single issue. But that's what makes this situation difficult for me to understand. On 8/18 I ordered a new Seagate 2TB networked external hard drive. After it arrived, the box looked a little worn (for a new item) but I ignored it once I set it up and began moving all my archived data onto it. It was a bit slow over the network so I had to do this over several days. When I was finished moving the data, it was over 800GB in all. The next day, I went to the drive as normal, and the drive was no longer detected by my system. I tried from another computer (and going through the same setup process) but to no avail.
So I setup an RMA with Newegg, no big deal. My computer's been a bit strange lately so I really wanted to make sure my data was backed up. I found a new Seagate portable drive at a local store and it was very well priced so I purchased that and once my data was on it (which didn't take nearly as long) I sent the RMA back on 8/25.
The next day I got an email saying they had received my return, but on 8/30 I received an email stating "Wrong item, RMA Denied Item received was not sold by Newegg, Return to customer, Unfortunately, the item(s) you requsted for RMA was not what we received.
At first I thought perhaps the UPS place I took it to screwed something up and sent a box with the wrong label (I remember not seeing her affix the label before I left), so I started a chat session. That was not the case. I was told that the hard drive I sent back had a serial number different than the one they sold me, and were sending it back (as according to their records, they had never sold the item with the serial number it DID have). I told them that was a mistake, I sent back the drive they sent ME, (I don't have another one of those drives, and I only ordered the one, so there could be no mixup there) and they agreed to look into the matter again.
I checked on the RMA status over the next few days, and it kept changing. I received another email, I suppose for their paperwork going through the process again and at one point it even said (refund) and I was assuming all was right. But on 9/3 I received (seemingly) the hard drive back.
Now, looking at it from Newegg's point of view, they would have to assume that I (either by accident or on purpose) sent them back the wrong drive. I didn't do it by accident, like I said I only ordered/had the one drive, and it's a very bulky item, you can't just mistake it for something else. I certainly didn't do it on purpose (which doesn't make much sense anyway, this is a brand new drive. Surely if I got it elsewhere and had issues with it, I could just return it THERE and not try to pass it off to Newegg, a company I have been pleased with for a very long time).
So, looking at it from my point of view, I can see two things. Either the wrong item was in the box when I received it (there was no way for me to know this unless I checked the serial number when it arrived, but does any consumer actually do that? And even if I did, wouldn't I be in the same situation and they would just tell me the serial doesn't match?) Or somehow the item got switched somewhere afterwards and now does not match the "box" serial number.
After inspecting the drive when it came back, the "box" serial number and the hard drive serial number definitely do not match, but it is impossible for me to defend myself and prove that I did not do this (besides the fact that I didn't) or even prove that it was/wasn't correct when I first received it. There's nothing on my invoice stating the serial number, so it's impossible to compare. I can only assume I received the wrong drive in the first place, and they didn't catch the error until I tried to return it.
(During this time, I did a lot of investigating into the matter. I found similar Newegg stories of receiving an item, immediately needing to return it for one reason or another, but being denied because the serial number was wrong. And of course, the customer says they returned the item they were sent. I can only accept these as here-say since I was not personally involved but it is interesting to note the fact.)
I asked Newegg to look into the issue but instead they just sent the item back and now I am stuck with a defective drive *and* I am out the money I spend for it. Is this really how you treat your loyal customers Newegg?
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
I'm dealing with a similar Newegg/Badegg scenario. I recently purchased a $400 refurbished TV from their site, which arrived promptly, but as soon as I opened the box, I saw that the screen was smashed to pieces. I immediately looked up their instructions for returning items, requested a replacement, printed up the RMA they gave me, taped the box back up, and sent it back via FedEx.
The next day I found an alternate set of instructions for returning damaged items. I contacted Newegg customer service via web-chat and was told that I should have referred to the second set of instructions, but that it could and would be sorted out.
While waiting for them to receive the damaged TV (which took a much longer, scenic route this time), I saw that the TV was now out-of-stock. I contacted them again through live chat, and was told I'd be issued a refund instead.
They eventually received the broken TV and emailed me a notification that it would take a few days for them to inspect it and process the refund. A few days passed, and I got another email saying that the refund would be denied because the serial number on the TV did not match the one in their records. I have no idea why their serial numbers don't match. In retrospect, I should have made a video from the time the TV was delivered showing me unboxing it and including the serial number. Unfortunately I didn't. Nor did I even fully unpackage the TV, as the damage was so obvious.
I was livid, and logged back onto their chat line again, where I spoke with a customer service rep who couldn't be bothered to do anything more than read the mismatched numbers to me and tell me over and over again that there was nothing they could do, because the TV I sent them was not the one they sent me, although (as I pointed out repeatedly) I never even fully removed the TV from its packaging!
I carefully recounted every step of the process (ordering, receiving, returning, contacting them about misleading return instructions, etc) but this knucklehead kept insisting that I'd sent them a TV that they never sold me.
I found a phone number for Newegg (1.800.390.1119), and spoke with a rep there who at least took the time to listen to the story. After some digging, he said that there may have been a mix-up between the serial number issued by the refurbisher and the number they had associated with the TV. He said he'd look into it some more and call me back.
In the meantime, I received a new email saying: This notification has been sent because we provided you with an earlier email in error. You were sent an email indicating that we had posted your item(s) as part of the “Return.” Unfortunately, this was sent in error; although it is rare, RMA numbers are occasionally posted by mistake. To clarify, your return has not been posted in our system, so please ignore the email you previously received. We will send you an updated confirmation email once the return is actually posted, which I optimistically translate into “Hang on, we're gonna look into it.”
Please note the original purchase was made on 7.10.2017. It is now 7.27.2017, and I've been out $400 with nothing to show for well over 2 weeks. Pardon my rambling; I'm largely venting here, but if there's any advice I can offer, it would be:
Open and inspect deliveries (and photograph the whole process, including serial numbers and the packge itself) in the presence of the deliverer (FedEx / UPS / USPS etc)
Don't bother with Newegg's chat line. It takes hours, and your unlikely to get much help there. Instead refer to the number I posted above.
Don't click on Newegg's “Return an Item” link. If you receive a damaged item, refer to their (much harder to find) “Report a shipping problem” page in the Customer Self Help section.
Should you trust Newegg at all? I'll try to update this as soon as it's resolved.
We are also in a similar situation- we purchased a Buffalo TerraStation NAS from NewEgg - over the years of owning the unit we had mutilple warranty hardware issues which Buffalo took care of. Last month the unit crapped out again and after a week on the phone with Buffalo tech support trying various diagnostics they determined it was eligible for a replacement unit. The only catch was we had to send a copy of the original receipt. I had the office manager get a copy of the NewEgg receipt and sent it to them- next Buffalo tells us they can't swap it because the receipt shows we got an 8tb raid 5 unit but the one we have is a 12tb raid 5 unit based on the serial number - i contacted NewEgg and spoke with a manager who said they would research it - after multiple inquiries to see where they were at with it and getting no response via email from that manager, I called again and asked for any available manager to deal with this issue. A "supervisor of the day" Gabriel M got on the line and in the most unprofessional condescending mocking tone told me it was our fault for not itemizing the exact model number of the unit talking over me the whole time and then hung up on me when I asked to speak to his manager. I immediately called back in and got another agent on the phone who said they wanted to take care of this issue - his suggestion was to email a release form to us allowing NewEgg to contact Buffalo on our behalf to deal with the issue. Filled out form and emailed back - currently waiting to see if something actually gets done this time.
To update this complaint, Eugene has looked into and corrected my problem quickly and to my satisfaction. I am happy to report that Newegg has determined that they did sell me the scanners and is accepting them back for a refund. Thank you Eugene for your time and effort involved in looking into this matter.
This is very familiar to me as I am in the same situation. I ordered 3 wired scanners for my company to use in our retail stores. After they arrived my boss informed me he changed his mind and wanted wireless scanners instead. I immediately requested an RMA. I foolishly opened one and did not save the box. It was a generic brown box so I didn't it was necessary. All 3 were returned to me because 1 did not have the original box. OK so I figured my bad, I'll just keep one. I requested an RMA for the remaining 2. Next the 2 were returned after an email saying the serial numbers don't match anything that Newegg sold. As the person above stated, if I didn't buy them from Newegg why would I be trying to return them to Newegg? They are brand new in the box. I'd be returning them where I bought them. There is no possibility of any mix up. There were no other wired scanners purchased anywhere else. My boss wants me to get his money back but I cannot get a reply from customer service. I'm embarrassed that I lost the company money by ordering from Newegg.
I'm dealing with this exact same situation. The Western Digital drive that I received didn't work. I returned it and was told it was the wrong drive and was even provided with the wrong serial number. I checked with Western Digital and the serial number was from a drive that was supposedly to be installed in an original manufactures system. I had ordered a boxed, non-oem drive. I emailed Newegg and told them not to return the defective drive and change the reason for return to them having sent me the wrong item. No reply. The latest no charge "invoice" they sent me indicated they were sending it back to me. Why didn't they contact me in the first place to at least see if I made a mistake and sent them the wrong drive? They seem to be assuming that I'm trying to deceive them when in fact I've read that this same thing has happened to other Wester Digital purchasers and apparently Bestbuy has been equally unsympathetic to their customers to whom they've sold bogus drives. I admit that I've done tons of business with Newegg without a hitch but I feel like I've been walking on thin ice with hard drives as they always come poorly packaged. Now I'm dealing with a bogus drive. Should I give Newegg a break for all the years of good service I've had and just eat the $55 cost of the drive or.should I make my point and spend more of my hard earned money and ship it back again? Mostly it just irritates me that someone wouldn't take the time to look into my problem than just assuming the I was trying to rip them off or made a mistake.
BTW. The drive was drop shipped (and dropped while shipped) from some other location and was boxed loose in a large box so it could bump all around inside during shipping. I've read numerous complaints now about how poorly Newegg packs drives and cannot recommend purchasing drives from them anymore.
Eric N. Pedersen, AIA
eric@west.net