Newegg has shared a letter on Twitter advising its followers of new return policies for select open-box merchandise following a huge customer service fail.
The PR disaster was prompted by GamersNexus’ Steve Burke, who recently returned a GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS XTREME motherboard that, despite never being opened, was rejected by Newegg for being damaged. Following some drama between both parties and an eventual refund, it was later discovered that the motherboard was actually an open-box product with bent pins.
Newegg has apologized for the “unintentional” and “isolated” incident by setting forth new policies that will make returning open-box motherboards and CPUs less of a hassle. The company also stressed that customer satisfaction and integrity are at the core of its business.
Customer Service Update pic.twitter.com/qxAYjDCdCU
— Newegg (@Newegg) February 14, 2022
Newegg apologises for well-documented customer service fail, says it has enacted better policies (PC Gamer)
- Newegg eventually refunded the channel and returned the motherboard, though only after being called out on Twitter—not exactly a valid course of action for every customer.
- As it turns out, the motherboard was an open-box product, meaning it had already been opened prior to being sent out to Gamers Nexus. That also explains the damage, which as shown in a more recent video was spectacularly bad—like bent pins in the socket bad.
- Worst still, it turns out the product still had a sticker attached to it from a recent RMA between Newegg and Gigabyte, the board’s OEM, from when it had been sent for repair prior to Gamers Nexus receiving it. Following up on the information on this sticker and from talking direct to a Gigabyte customer service rep, Gamers Nexus discovered that the Newegg had rejected the cost to repair ($100) and instead had the item returned to them broken. From there, it was sold on to Gamers Nexus.