So I had to share this experience with you all because it is COMPLETELY ridiculous.
To start things off with a little back story. I live in the ex-Team Reign house with Mirhi, Axslav, DoA, and a couple other outstanding individuals. Since I moved in about 3 months ago I had only my crap 2 year old laptop to game with, so my mates kindly decided to let me use their PC's to game when they weren't using them. After a while it was time for me to get my own CPU.
Having never built a computer before I obviously needed a little help, luckily I lived in one of the nerdiest houses on the planet and finding a helping hand as far as what parts to buy and where to get them from was extremely easy.
Mirhi jumped at the chance (considering this meant he got his amazingly awesome Alienware laptop back lol) and directed me to ***newegg.com***. He talked with me about what I wanted the cpu to do what my budget was, and all that good stuff. I decided I wanted something that I could play sc2 while streaming...pretty much my only CPU requirement in the last 2 years.
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however d3, HoN, and LoL are also frequented in the home
Anyways after much deliberation we decided on this list of parts
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837 - Asus motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151255 - DVD writer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148321 - 1TB hard drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345 - Corsair Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 - i5 processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148046 - 700w power supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992 - windows 7 pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009256 - 20" monitor
I purchased the Video card of DoA directly because he had a brand new one (after swapping out one recently won by Axslav at a tournament.
I won the case from a LaN I played in about a year ago when I was still VT|Arlock
Anyways down to the meat of the story.
I spent about a $1,000 building this computer from newegg and received all my parts within a week of ordering... so far so good...
Now as I said I've never built a computer so I enlisted the help of my very kind mate DoA (who had just finished building a super sweet cpu about 2 weeks prior) to help me learn how to put all these pieces together.
He explained to me very simply what each part was, where it went on the motherboard, how it received power, and how it worked. I NEVER thought building a CPU was this easy... I've done 200 piece puzzles that were more difficult...
The only issue was the video card stuck up a little higher than it should have... we figured out that my CPU case actually had risers built into it, so when we installed the motherboard it sat a bit higher than it should have. I decided that I would take the CPU apart the next day to remove the risers and put it back together.
After successfully teaching me how to put it all together, we turned it on...SUCCESS!! It started right up, I installed the OS, and all other updates etc etc. (starcraft 2)
Day 2
I unplugged the CPU, removed the power from all components, and started disassembling the CPU I had just built. Removed the risers, and put everything back in... It went very smooth without issue. The only thing I didn't take out was the processor from the motheboard since it wasn't necessary.
I go to turn the cpu back on after all this... NOTHING...just... nothing. There was a LED lit on the motherboard... I knew it was getting power, but it simply wouldn't turn on, no fans whirring, no startup, just dead.
After I went onto our roomie skype channel crying my heart out "I broke something, something wrongs etc etc" They all told me to relax and would inspect the issue when they got home.
Mirhi was up to bat having the most CPU experience.
He checked all connections, checked the power switch cables (about 10 times), took everything apart, put it back together. Spent a good hour and a half, scratching his head thinking, "WTF did Arlock do to this thing...there's NOTHING wrong"!
He took the processor out and checked the pins... nothing wrong.
Mirhi's Verdict, "Mail the shit back, get another one, this one is defective in some way shape or form"
I sighed and said alright T_T, got a RMA code from newegg, spent $20 something bucks shipping it back and patiently sat on my thumbs.
Then finally hearing back from newegg, they sent me this message:
Thank you for requesting a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) at Newegg.com.
Your RMA return was received and sent to our Inspections Department for closer examination.
Unfortunately, the below item(s) was physically damaged and beyond the applicable Newegg.com warranty coverage as indicated in our Standard Warranty Policy.
Motherboard Damage
The motherboard was received with apparent end-user caused physical damage to CPU socket contact pins. Items received with physical damage cannot be processed by Newegg and voids our return policy. End-user would need to contact the product manufacture for direct support.
For further assistance, we recommend contacting the manufacturer directly to see if they can offer repair or replacement of the item(s) under manufacturer warranty. Please use the following link to find the contact info for any manufacturer whose items we carry: Contact Manufacturer.
We greatly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and thank you for your patience and understanding. The item(s) are currently being shipped back to you and should arrive in approximately 5 - 10 business days.
If you have any questions, please visit our Contact Us Page.
Sincerely,
Your Newegg.com Customer Service Team
WTF!!!?? No... that did not happen, basically newegg was trying to screw me out of $160 saying that somehow either me or my genius nerd house mates, made one of the MOST trivial mistakes every in CPU building, fucking with the pins.
After 5 calls speaking with several different newegg employees, they all kept telling me the same thing, "I'm sorry sir but physical damage voids the Newegg warranty and you'll have to take this up with the manufacturer"
I WAS FURIOUS
I demanded to keep being transferred to whoever the fuck their boss was and kept insisting that it was 100% unacceptable for them to simply mail me back the now physically damaged board and fend for myself... after about 5 more people all told me very politely to fuck off, I got in touch with someone able to make a decision
The sales director blah blah person told me... "This isn't even worth the trouble your causing, I'm going to just mail you a new board and be done with this, for all I know it could have been one of out guys who accidentally damaged it."
Finally!
After a week of complaining, defending myself, explaining to them just how amazingly sick nerds my house mates are, and how UNLIKELY it is that they would have made such a trivial mistake they gave in and are mailing me a new board...
It is safe to say I will NEVER use newegg again. The hoops of fire I had to jump through to save myself from paying $160 for someone else's mistake were ridiculous.
Please, purchase with caution!!!!
Take pictures of EVERYTHING as you un-box them, and TONS OF PICTURES OF EVERYTHING before you mail them back.
TL;DR: I fucked something up, and newegg fucked something else up... They are mailing me a new motherboard after I QQ'd for hours.