[mythtv-users] WAY OT: Storage designs

[Greg Oliver]

On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 3:41 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> It's hard to say if it's truly NewEgg's fault. I doubt they actually unbox gear and test it, so it may quite likely be the
> manufacturers fault. Not knowing the details I can't say for sure.

I do not blame them at all for the bad hardware.  My experience is
with their customer support.  Although they paid for shipping in every
case, explaining to them I need to send it all back (hard to test for
ATX power supply or motherboard failure without a known good unit)..
I know you can jumper the pins on the ATX connector, but that is
detrimental to that unit..  I wanted to send it all back at that point
and just get new ones.  They refused, and instead decided to replace
the motherboard.  Keep in mind, these are non - I repeat non-technical
people (which is how Newegg gets to keep their costs low - no tech
support whatsoever).  Good business plan except in these cases.
Anyhow that pissed me off, so I just told them to credit me and I
bought a local board at Frys..  Worked great.  It was the motherboard
I was thinking..  We took a semi-vacation this weekend and when I
returned late last night, the system was dead again..  This time I
jumped the supply..  It was dead  :)

I went and bought a new one even though I could not find one of the
flex12v slims at any local store for this case, I was determined :)
The old PSU had also killed this motherboard..  So I can only assume
it killed the first one as well..  Back on with the customer service
to see what I should do..  Of course they want me to send it all
back....  Ok - another 5-6 days wait...  At least I talked them into
just replacing the PSU so I do not have to take everything else out,
put all the little screws back in the bag..  (The PSU came with the
case)

Oh well, another trip to Frys to get this motherboard swapped...
Should have just bought it all there to begin with I guess..
I have bought quite a few things from Newegg in the past..  I'm pretty
sure both of my HDHRs, and various other items - the only complaint I
have ever had was that shipped boxes have been *crushed* to some
degree in 3/5 shipments.  This has always been OK since they always
overbox (put small items in boxes way too big for them), and line with
paper.  This makes them get squashed to some degree..

> All vendors receive bad gear once in a while, the question is how well do they accomodate you when you report it, do they
> ship a replacement right away? Do they require you to pay twice and await a refund? Pay for shipping both ways? Good
> vendors will take good care of you when the inevitable problems crop up.
>
> Having said that, NewEgg is usually the last place I will look for hardware. They seem to cater to gamers (which I am
> definitely not), and I felt they were somewhat deceptive with my 20-something nephew in offering him credit, then rescinding
> and reducing it, in spite of the fact that he had never missed a payment. I also intensely dislike mail in rebates, and
> try to never buy from any vendor that uses them.
>
> I have found the best bets to usually be to buy one or two steps removed from the "latest and greatest", often buying
> refurbished units. I usually buy from "second tier" sellers like geeks.com, with whom I have had excellent luck, and
> immediate satisfaction in the one case where I received a bad unit. That's just me of course, others may have had different
> experiences.
>
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