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Neweggs open box policy explained: NOT

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eye of the hawk

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Nov 7, 2007
I'm kind of in shock by this conversation. This policy is absurd to me. So, basically according to the website, when you buy an open box item you get none of the accessories. This seemed a bit odd to me, so i decided to go into the live chat to figure out if this was indeed the case.

Well...here

Please wait while we connect you to a Newegg representative.
Thank you for contacting Newegg. My name is Phoebe. How may I assist you today?
--Me: I’m looking at motherboards and came across a few open box items
--Me: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131025R
--Me: It seems, based on the text under the pictures, that none of the accessories are included
--Me: is this always the case?
--Phoebe: :We do not guarantee the accessories for open box item.
--Me: Is there any way to find out?
--Phoebe: :There is no way to determine the accessories of the open box item since they are returned by our customers.
--Me: k...but they aren't shipped to me from the customers. You guys have to take the time to list the item on your site, you can’t take the time to peak in the box? That seems a bit silly
--Phoebe: :Newegg does not test any products, including Open Box items. The original manufacturer therefore only tests Open Box items. Due to the fact that quality varies between manufacturers; there may be a risk when purchasing Open Box products.
--Me: I understand that risk, I’m just trying to understand why, as a customer, I’m not able to find out what exactly I’m buying. That is to say, what is coming in the box that I’m buying.
--Me: That seems like an unnecessary risk to me. I'm sure someone somewhere could flip the box open to find out if the antenna for the wifi is in there...
--Phoebe: :Open Box products do have considerable higher return rate than brand new items. If you are just looking to get a good deal, please only buy new products.
--Me: I'm not sure you're understanding me. I know the risk involved in buying open box items in that there may be a problem with them. Presumably this is a problem you couldn't see though. That has little to do with knowing what comes with it.
--Me: Will my motherboard come with a BIOS chip?
--Me: Who's to know...
--Me: is that what you're telling me
--Me: ?
--Phoebe: :Newegg is limited to the barebone part of the item itself.
--Me: So, just so I understand, an item is returned to you, you return it to the manufacturer to make sure it works, and they return it without the accessories?
--Phoebe: :The items are returned by our customers. If they returned to us with accessories, the item should have accessories. If not, there is not.
--Me: Ok. So, there is no way for newegg to look into the box to let us know what we're buying?
--Phoebe: :We do not test any items, only manufacturers do.
--Me: Is this simply an attempt to get us to buy new items or is it merely the cause of laziness. I love newegg for its customer service but you guys have me baffled on this one.
--Me: Who says anything about testing?
--Me: All I’m asking is why you can’t open the box and figure out if the customer returned items A, B, & C.
--Phoebe: :Since we do not have technical department, we ship the item as what we receive from manufacturer.
--Me: I'm not trying to be a jerk, honestly, I’m trying to understand. I love you guys but I’m trying to figure out if I still should here. You just told me that when an item is returned it is returned to you as is and is sold as is. Is this correct?
--Phoebe: :We will return the item to manufacturer for recondition and then sell it as opened box item.
--Me: Does the manufacturer remove the accessories from the box?
--Phoebe: :It depends.
--Me: So why can't newegg look in the box in order to provide maximum customer service?
--Me: If I don't know what I’m buying, then why would I buy it?
--Phoebe: :Thank you for your suggestion. I will forward your thoughts to our related department for consideration. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
--Me: ...I didn't suggest anything, I asked a question.
--Me: Is this newegg.com's attempt to end the discussion?
--Phoebe: :Currently our policy for open box is what we offered you just now. We need to contact our related department for consideration.
--Phoebe: :They will make any change if they deem necessary.
--Me: Oooook. I guess I’ll look somewhere else. Even if the new version of the board was in my budget, which it isn't, I would not buy it from you at this point. I understand it is your policy, but it is a silly policy and the fact that it can't be explained to me makes it even sillier. Thank you for your time.
 
your just over thinking the process. It couldn't be more simple in my mind, your paying less for a motherboard, a GUARANTEED working motherboard, thats all your paying for, nothing more, there is just a possibility of you getting the accessories with it or not. Chances are you will get the main accessories (like the IO plate or maybe the included sound card etc...) and you will be left without a few worthless cables.

Newegg has a lot better things to do than looking in each box and making sure each accessory is in it.

basically by paying less you run a risk of getting the accessories or not, if you want those, buy the full price. if you don't really care if you get them or not buy the open box. (as i said before, chances are you will get the accessories, so i say take the chance)
 
Newegg has a lot better things to do than looking in each box and making sure each accessory is in it.

How do you figure?

They have to restock them right? Why not open the box and check "accessories" "no accessories" then put a disclaimer "may be missing some accessories"

basically by paying less you run a risk of getting the accessories or not, if you want those, buy the full price. if you don't really care if you get them or not buy the open box. (as i said before, chances are you will get the accessories, so i say take the chance)

That's not what their site says. The site says that you wont be getting them. So which is it?

All i was looking for was an answer. Any of the following would have worked:

Newegg.com does not have the time or resources to check every returned item for accessories.
It is not our policy to discuss policies with customers.
I do not know the answer, i can look into it for you and get back to you.

Beating around the bush is something i've not come to expect from newegg, and its a shame that they stoop to that.
 
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Newegg.com does not have the time or resources to check every returned item for accessories.
True, they don't have the time, no would any sane man bother with doing that.

Beating around the bush is something i've not come to expect from newegg, and its a shame that they stoop to that.

I agree, but all of the representatives are taught how to speak to you, and their goal is to tell you whats what, not upset you, but still keep their business practices in tack. but most of the time they a blithering idiots and dont know a half arse what they're talking about, just deal with it, and buy the damned thing, if you don't agree with the pricing, don't buy it.



New egg on their website claims that you won't receive any of the accessories, this is false to some extent, you may or may not receive some or any of the accessories, its just luck of the draw, you may get all of the accessories, some of them, or none at all. the only way to change that is to buy the retail package.
 
open box is not for everyone if you are not comfortable buying it then you will just have to go retail, which is what most people do anyways.
 
There are alot of accesories to check, depending on the product. Then you have to check their functionality, how pretty they are, etc. And most manufacturers don't support checking the accesories, so all that to say, I don't think aynthing is wrong with this policy. There is too much work on their end to make it worth their while.
 
I agree with the folks who responded. While it might seem like a simple and easy task to you for Newegg to check inside the box to see what is in there for you there is a lot more that would have to go on for it to be done correctly. Maybe someone threw some cables into the box and Newegg tells you that cables are in the box...but it could be the wrong cables, just something the person sending it back threw in. Maybe the ATX backboard thingy (that flimsy metal piece that goes around the connectors) is inside of the box....but again, maybe it is the wrong one. Just from something like that, a simple misunderstanding, you could have a case for legal recourse against them if they did not provide you with what they told you was included inside of the box. Now, figure all of the stuff returned every day, and think of all of the possible liability. Much better decision to just say "None of the accessories are included. You are taking a gamble buying an open box product. Being Newegg, however, we will still take it back on a return from you even if it is bad".

To do it correctly, Newegg would have to have pictures and descriptions for every single item that they sell. There is a lot of time and resources that would need to be applied at the beginning to just organize this. But lets say that this was being done. Now, for every single return, someone would have to check the product against the pictures and descriptions to see if it is correct stuff in the box. Maybe the SATA cables in the picture are red but the ones in the box are yellow...which can happen on different revisions. But they have to make sure. And this process would have to be done on every single item. This is a lot of extra labor and hassle for a unit that was returned and will have to be sold at a pretty big discount.

Much easier to just stamp a returned box with "Open Box" and stick it on a shelf.
 
Harassing tech support gets you nowhere. Its a simple policy. You just MIGHT not get those USB cables, etc big deal. PTS has the Asus grab bags on their site where you might be able to get the stuff that comes with your mobo.
 
Harassing tech support gets you nowhere. Its a simple policy. You just MIGHT not get those USB cables, etc big deal. PTS has the Asus grab bags on their site where you might be able to get the stuff that comes with your mobo.

I wasn't harrassing, i was asking for an explanation, i got four conflicting explanations.

The only accessory i'm worried about is the wifi antenna.
 
Your chat in several points in the second half does sound harassing. Their policy is that the accessories are not guaranteed to be in the box, period. This isn't to say some, one, or none will be there, just that they don't know and can't guarantee they are. It's pretty simple language.

A BIOS chip is obviously not an accessory, just the same as the northbridge, CPU socket, and ATX connectors are not accessories.
 
Sounds perfectly fine to me, until you started to blackmail and harass near the end. You're overthinking it too much, the policy makes perfect sense. You do pay a lot less.
 
Your chat in several points in the second half does sound harassing. Their policy is that the accessories are not guaranteed to be in the box, period. This isn't to say some, one, or none will be there, just that they don't know and can't guarantee they are. It's pretty simple language.

thats not what the site says.
 
--Me: Is there any way to find out?
--Phoebe: :There is no way to determine the accessories of the open box item since they are returned by our customers.

Whether or not they could open the box does not change the fact that if they choose not to (as they do in this case) doesn't change his answer, which, did answer your question.

From what I gather, you asked if there was a way for them to let you know what accessories you would be getting with your open box item. They said there isn't a way to determine it, and you really didn't like that answer, so you were trying to complain as to why such a simple task would be so hard for them to do.

Its their policy, while not a very good one from a customer point of view, but from a business one, where it is common knowledge added to the fact they already don't guarantee *any* accessories, that open box items contain only what is returned.

While a simple yes or no answer could of sufficed, it just seems to me that you were disatisfied with the policy and expressed your complaint. It does seem it was a little far in the end, like continuing an argument that is already over. Thats just from my 3rd view though.
 
I merely wanted to know why, i not sure thats too much to ask. If they can't tell me why then how do i know that the information i'm getting is accurate.
 
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It would be cool if we could know what we would get in an Open Box purchase. But the fact is that newegg is just too busy to spend the time verifying all the components in the box. And as someone else said, that would create another liability for them as they would then be saying "sure everything is there" and then some schmuck buys it and his "Powered by Nvidia" sticker isn't in there or something and he complains.

I hate the fact that they can't at least guarantee a backplate though. That would be quite nice. But like I said, I just don't think it could be done with the volume that Newegg moves. It's cheaper because you are taking a risk on the product, just have to deal with that.
 
eye of the hawk--

Do you realize that by the time a newegg employee takes the time to open the box and check for all the accessories, you would lose any money saved because you will have to pay for that amount of payroll to do what you want to do.

Logistically, it would be insane to try to keep track of multiple returns of the same item with each containing a different combination of returned accessories. Consider that newegg might receive a dozen identical returned motherboards, each originally including I/O shield, SATA cables, wi-fi antenna, case header cables, owners manual, driver disk(s), backplane Firewire/USB/sound jacks, (etc.). Do you expect them to have someone open each box and create a separate entry for each to sell because the original customers didn't return the same combination of accessories?
1)...comes with I/O shield, manual, driver disk.
2)...comes with SATA cables, and driver disk.
3)...motherboard ONLY
4)...wi-fi antenna, Firewire jacks..

Are you getting the point yet? There would be so many possible combinations of accessories just for a single returned item (and therefore multiple open box sale entries) for a single stock item that keeping track of them all would be a nightmare--and cost a fortune. It would be cheaper for them to simply throw the item away. Now consider doing that for EVERY stock item they want to sell to you at a discount.

Yes, the policy says you don't get the accessories. CONSIDER THAT TO BE THE THE TRUTH. That is all they guarantee--just the main item in working order. Don't expect anything else with your open box purchase. If you do luck out and get some or all the originall accessories--consider it gravy.

One last thing to think about: Have you also considered how much payroll you ate up by trying to hassle a CSR into changing their very reasonable open box policy? Did you expect the CSR to even have that kind of authority to do so? You just increased their costs, and therefore the prices of all their items for throwing your little tantrum [yes, I know that may be a little harsh]. You would have been better served to shoot an email to their corporate office. Don't bother, now, though. This post is the response you would have received.
 
I merely wanted to know why, i not sure thats too much to ask. If they can't tell me why then how do i know that the information i'm getting is accurate.

But they did tell you why, you just wasn't satisfied with it. Sure, it is understadable why you would argue the point, but they did answer the question.

--Phoebe: :There is no way to determine the accessories of the open box item since they are returned by our customers.


--Phoebe: :Newegg does not test any products, including Open Box items. The original manufacturer therefore only tests Open Box items. Due to the fact that quality varies between manufacturers; there may be a risk when purchasing Open Box products.

--Phoebe: :The items are returned by our customers. If they returned to us with accessories, the item should have accessories. If not, there is not.

--Phoebe: :We do not test any items, only manufacturers do.

--Phoebe: :Since we do not have technical department, we ship the item as what we receive from manufacturer.

eye of the hawk--

One last thing to think about: Have you also considered how much payroll you ate up by trying to hassle a CSR into changing their very reasonable open box policy? Did you expect the CSR to even have that kind of authority to do so? You just increased their costs, and therefore the prices of all their items for throwing your little tantrum [yes, I know that may be a little harsh]. You would have been better served to shoot an email to their corporate office. Don't bother, now, though. This post is the response you would have received.

I disagree with this. He wasn't asking them to change their policy, just asking for a reall reall really accurate explanatition, which in all honesty, a CSR probably wouldn't know. However, him asking that question wouldn't increase their costs at all, since they are paid to answer such questions. From what we know, most likely it was done during running hours, so unless it took OT to answer this question, it woulnd't of increased their cost for anything.
 
She didn't explain it at all

--Phoebe: :There is no way to determine the accessories of the open box item since they are returned by our customers.


--Phoebe: :Newegg does not test any products, including Open Box items. The original manufacturer therefore only tests Open Box items. Due to the fact that quality varies between manufacturers; there may be a risk when purchasing Open Box products.

--Phoebe: :The items are returned by our customers. If they returned to us with accessories, the item should have accessories. If not, there is not.

--Phoebe: :We do not test any items, only manufacturers do.

--Phoebe: :Since we do not have technical department, we ship the item as what we receive from manufacturer.

They are returned from the manufacturer
No, they are returned form the customers
NO the manufacturer
Yeah, the manufacturer

Which is it? And why cant the manufacturer tell newegg whats in there?

I also think you guys are thinking about this way too much. My beef with her and my beef with neweggs policy are two things.

All i wanted was an explanation of the policy, which according to the website is as follows:
The pictures shown are from the NEW version of this item. If you purchase this Open box product you will receive an OEM BAREBONE, meaning it is just the item itself. Accessory items are NOT INCLUDED with Open box products. Accessories are shown in the pictures so that customers will know what is missing from the item

This implies, to me, some sort of attempt to actually remove accessories from the box. Which is why i asked them in the first place

She then tells met he policy is this
--Phoebe: :We do not guarantee the accessories for open box item.

She tells me it is because of this
--Phoebe: :There is no way to determine the accessories of the open box item since they are returned by our customers.

Mind you, this is after i ask her if there is a way to figure out what's in the box. At this point she could have just said that "neweggs volume is to large to check every box, doing so would increase the cost and defeat the purpose to you"

Instead, she decided to go this route
--Phoebe: :Newegg does not test any products, including Open Box items. The original manufacturer therefore only tests Open Box items. Due to the fact that quality varies between manufacturers; there may be a risk when purchasing Open Box products.

So now newegg doesn't know what's in the box because of the manufacturers, not the customers.

She then says
--Phoebe: :Newegg is limited to the barebone part of the item itself.

Which indicates that it will never have accessories.

But sometimes it might
--Phoebe: :The items are returned by our customers. If they returned to us with accessories, the item should have accessories. If not, there is not.

Sounds to me like she simply doesn't know what she's talking about. Do the customers dictate what goes on, or do the manufacturers. She's indicated to me, thus far, that an item is returned with or without accessories, ok fine, she then says the item typically goes back to the manufacturer for testing, great, she then says if it has accessories it will be sold with them, but she also said that when the manufacturer returns the item from testing, it is "OEM barebone". Which is it? Is it sold a s it was returned, or is it sold barebone as she and the site indicated?

If it's sold as it was returned, i don't see how the manufacturer can't simply note what comes with the open box item. You might tell me "thats an issue with the manufacturer". This is incorrect, i deal with newegg, newegg deals with the manufacturer. If newegg cared about customer service, they would discuss the matter with the manufacturers.

Ultimately
--Phoebe: :Open Box products do have considerable higher return rate than brand new items. If you are just looking to get a good deal, please only buy new products.

I don't know about you guys, but i buy open box to get a good deal...that's kind of the point isn't it? It seems newegg doesn't think that it is.
 
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Eye of the Hawk,

Whoah there buddy, step back and take a deep breath...
1. Only manufactors test their returns. (What Newegg sends back for refunds/rmas, etc)
2. Newegg does not test the returns.
3. Open Items from Newegg do NOT come with the accessories.
4. If you do GET any accessory with your open box item, bonus!
5. If you are not happy with them, shop elsewhere.

You maybe looking for a great deal. Newegg has great deals. The open box deals are awesome! If you want to be guaranteed to have everything, pony up the extra $$$ and get it new. (Still awesome deals).

The lady wasn't misleading you, you didn't like her answers and began to harass the poor lady. That's a pretty gentleman thing to do....
 
With 90% of the items out there, this would be fine. With items like the p5B deluxe, you are essentially paying some of that extra $ for the accessories. If the item is tested, the box is opened. Why can't someone take a note of what's there?

Eye of the Hawk,

Whoah there buddy, step back and take a deep breath...
1. Only manufactors test their returns. (What Newegg sends back for refunds/rmas, etc)
2. Newegg does not test the returns.
3. Open Items from Newegg do NOT come with the accessories.
4. If you do GET any accessory with your open box item, bonus!
5. If you are not happy with them, shop elsewhere.

You maybe looking for a great deal. Newegg has great deals. The open box deals are awesome! If you want to be guaranteed to have everything, pony up the extra $$$ and get it new. (Still awesome deals).

The lady wasn't misleading you, you didn't like her answers and began to harass the poor lady. That's a pretty gentleman thing to do....
 
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