Please enjoy the opportunity to be the first audience to
observe the opening salvo in my newly-declared war on Newegg.com. I
just got off the phone with their Customer Service Department, after
having sent then a courtesy advance copy of the short article included
below. I wanted to give them one last chance to correct what I believe
will be a much larger mistake than they might have anticipated. Next
stop Slashdot, then Linux Today, then CNET, Wired.com if they will have
it as an editorial. Linux Journal, Linux Journal (Facebook). I'll
become a fan & write on their wall for all 6,384 other fans to
read. Linux Magazine Online, Linux Online, Linux Magazine (different
from Linux Magazine Online), etc.
This might surprise some of you, but I can become a large pain
in the ass when I get pissed off.
And I am pissed off.
I admit it up front. I want to take $399 out of the hide of
Newegg.com. Here's why:
I purchased a refurbished Asus K50 Series K50IJ-RX05 laptop
from Newegg 4 weeks ago, for -- you guessed it -- $399. The laptop
arrived three days later, and I installed Kubuntu 9.10 on it. No muss,
no fuss, no hitches. Everything worked, right out of the box:
wireless, graphics, the whole shebang.
Well, apparently everything worked. The laptop was a
birthday present for my wife, you see. So the first thing she asked
for was for me to install Skype on it so she could make video calls to
her daughter.
No problem, says I. Presto, Skype got installed. Oops, the
picture is upside down. This laptop was manufactured/assembled with
the webcam installed 180 degrees out of whack!
Well, ok. I guess. There's a Video For Linux patch just for
this situation. So I installed the patch (a library to pre-load prior
to running apps that use webcam). Alrighty, the webcam video is no
longer upside down in Skype. I handed the laptop back to my wife.
Day two: the wife says, "My laptop locked up." I asked her
what she had been doing at the time. "Moving the mouse."
Oh, oh, this isn't right. The Asus K50 is running an Intel
T4200 dual-core processor and the Intel 4500 graphics chipset. The
Linux Intel graphics drivers are pretty solid. In fact, I've installed
Kubuntu 9.10 on several nearly identical Acer T4200 laptops with the
4500 chipset, and they are all rock solid under some pretty heavy-duty
use.
So, I installed the very latest Kubuntu update, which brought
the kernel and modules up to version 2.6.31-19, and handed the laptop
back to my wife. Again.
No go. Three - four times a day the machine just locked up.
Randomly. Hard. Power cycle required to reboot.
So now I go to the intertubes to do some
research (I know, I know) and discover [careful, big surprise coming]
that the Asus K50 Series K50IJ-RX05 machines had the webcam installed
upside down at the factory. Oh, and they randomly lock up several
times a day. Linux, Vista, XP. Whatever. They lock up. There's a
reason that so many "refurbished" units of this model are up for sale.
Clearly an unsatisfactory situation. So I contacted Newegg and
explained that I was unhappy with the defective laptop they had sold
me. After a brief consultation with her supervisor, the nice lady
approved my RMA refund request and sent me a free UPS return label for
me to use to ship the laptop back.
Not to shabby, I thought. This kind of service is why I have
been a good Newegg customer for the past 7 years. Spending about
$2,000 - $3,000 per year. For seven years. At Newegg.
Oops, not so fast. [I bet some of you saw this coming.] See
the email I just received from Newegg:
Thanks again for shopping at Newegg.com.
We recently received your RMA and your return was then
sent to our Inspections Department for closer examination.
User changed OS to Linux Kubuntu
System has been modified/altered original
manufacturers operating system has been removed cannot access restore
partition, this voids Newegg warranty. Unit cannot be accepted or
resold as received.
RMA denied return to customer
Because Newegg would be facing a loss if we were to
replace this item, we are returning the product to you and recommending
that you contact the manufacturer directly to request that they repair
or replace the item under your manufacturer's warranty. Please visit
the following link to view a listing of all the manufacturers whose
products we carry: http://www.newegg.com/app/contactmanufacturer.asp?DEPA=0
RMA Inspections Department
This email was sent from Newegg's Automated Email
System so please do not reply.
That's right: I installed Linux on the laptop, and therefore
Newegg is not going to honor my refund.
Need I say more? Newegg is now on record as a vendor from
whom you purchase at your own risk. They have demonstrated that they
will knowingly sell defective hardware, and not honor refund requests
on same.
A very good way to go out of business, in my opinion.
Buyer beware.
