WTF EVGA??!

I'm getting sick of making/seeing EVGA threads, but what the heck. I just checked their site to see if they are doing extended stepups for 9800GTX like they are for GX2. I see a banner ad for 9800GX2 SC, KO, and SSC. I figure 'yeah that'll be an extra $50 or so' ... I check the product pages.. Base 9800GX2 $599, 9800GX2 SC (625 core/1000mem) $589, 9800GX2 KO (650mhz core, 1025mem) $599, and 9800GX2 SSC (675mhz core, 1050mem) is $609.

Are they leaving the base price at $599 just to screw with people who are stepping up, or what??

Take a quick look at NewEgg and check out the Intel prices. (E6700 - $330, E8400 - $250)

Really only confusing though to the people that just need to blow money and have no idea what they're buying. People that would actually be buying from EVGA.com probably know better.

Well, I just talked to someone at EVGA. He said they don't exactly bin the cards, but they do pull aside a certain number of them to test and see if they can handle the SC/KO/SSC speeds. If they don't, they sell as base models. Some of the cards coming in are not checked at all for OCability. He said he would 'put in a word' as far as the KO version costing the same as the base model, but step up will only net you a base card. Even though they sell them for the same price. BS.

He also said you can't upgrade the shipping once the stepup has been submitted, you would have to cancel it then start again, which doesn't make much sense to me - just print a different UPS tag for the stupid thing.

My next card ain't gonna be an EVGA, now that BFG has step up too. Too much shady stuff going on there.. You'd think they would treat someone buying a $600 video card a little better..

He also said you can't upgrade the shipping once the stepup has been submitted, you would have to cancel it then start again, which doesn't make much sense to me - just print a different UPS tag for the stupid thing.

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Having worked in customer support, I can tell you that there are probably no large companies like EVGA that will ever do that. The reason is that the support people are usually 100's if not 1000's away from the warehouse that actually handles shipping/receiving. Also, there's no way the support people can speak directly to anybody in the warehouse. I've also worked in a huge warehouse that does RMAs. They handle thousands of pieces a day. Yours is just a box in a bin or a loading platform. If the label has already been printed, it will be on a truck in less than an hour (that does not mean it is going anywhere soon. these companies have trailers backed up to the warehouse for hours as they're filled.) EVGA is not going to root around a massive UPS or Fedex truck just to find one box, because someone wants it to get to them earlier. It would cost them $100's and delay everyone else's items.

Even if your replacement card is nowhere near ready to be shipped, for some reason the automated systems that these companies like to use to handle RMAs absolutely hate changes of address or shipping upgrades. I'm tempted to think that the system buys the freight immediately upon order and that the label is already in EVGA's "inventory" of labels. There's no way to change a shipping label once it has been purchased. UPS just will not let you.

Sorry if it seems like I'm on your case or something. It's just that, that is an unrealistic expectation for such a huge company.

Also note that this is all just speculation as to how EVGAs operation is run. I have experience with both Microsoft and Dell and that's just how it works with those two monolithic organizations.

While I am glad BFG is offering it as well, they are treating there Trade-up the same way MSRP. Here is an example.

you bought a BFG 9600 GT for $179.99. You are eligible to Trade Up to a BFG 9800 GX2, which has a current MSRP of $599.99. In this example, you would pay $420 plus applicable tax and shipping.

They are doing the right thing at offering the 100 day trade-up. So wait like 80+ days for the MSRP to drop (I doubt it does though, evga never changes)

I can see how changing the shipping MIGHT be hard for them to do.

What burns me most is the pricing of the cards. The base model goes for $565 after rebate on newegg. EVGA kept the pricing for the base model at $600 to milk the people stepping up. The SC is $10 less, the KO is the same price. There is no reasonable explanation for why they kept the base model at $600, other than that's the only one they let you step up to.

I just hope mine is not one of the ones that failed the binning process.

ratbuddy said:

I can see how changing the shipping MIGHT be hard for them to do.

What burns me most is the pricing of the cards. The base model goes for $565 after rebate on newegg. EVGA kept the pricing for the base model at $600 to milk the people stepping up. The SC is $10 less, the KO is the same price. There is no reasonable explanation for why they kept the base model at $600, other than that's the only one they let you step up to.

I just hope mine is not one of the ones that failed the binning process.

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Common business practices, companies like EVGA hope that some idiot with way too much to spend will buy before he does his research.

ratbuddy said:

I can see how changing the shipping MIGHT be hard for them to do.

What burns me most is the pricing of the cards. The base model goes for $565 after rebate on newegg. EVGA kept the pricing for the base model at $600 to milk the people stepping up. The SC is $10 less, the KO is the same price. There is no reasonable explanation for why they kept the base model at $600, other than that's the only one they let you step up to.

I just hope mine is not one of the ones that failed the binning process.

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How else are they supposed to stay in business? They HAVE TO keep the prices on their website high (for some items, at least) to minimize the losses for getting old cards back.

reclaimer122 said:

Take a quick look at NewEgg and check out the Intel prices. (E6700 - $330, E8400 - $250)

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Most older motherboards don't support 1333FSB so a lot of people can't upgrade to e8400. e6700 is a bad buy at this price, of course, but my point is that people still buy older generation CPUs for the FSB reason. (ex, I bought a Q6600 not to long ago because I can't go for Q9300)