Is this acceptable?

F

FaRKle0079

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
2,686
Fellow [H]ers,

I recently purchased a 7970 from a member in the FS/T forums that upon receipt, found was missing EVERY single screw except for the four GPU bracket screws. I want to test this card before I put a GPU block on it, take apart my loop, and install it, but am hesitant to do that to a card in this condition (was also shipped without an anti-static bag, although it did come in the original box).

I find this very unacceptable and feel that if the seller can't send me the screws he should accept return of the card. The card was advertised as part of a system part out, and didn't mention that anything would be missing. Yes, I've contacted the seller and am waiting to hear back on if he has the screws or not.

Am I getting worked up over nothing?
 
what was the description of the card in the fs thread? if it doesn't mention anything about missing screws or anything weird, I would say take pictures and document everything and send it back.

I would be pissed if this happened to me.
 
I don't think this is a big deal, though I understand your frustration. The best way to handle this is to ask him why the screws are missing and see what he says. Keep us posted.
 
Some forget to add the screws. If it had a water block on it. He may have forgot to put them all in. Perhaps got in a rush to send it out. Not taking his side on it. We are just human and forget things. If he doesn't have the screws then I would see a slight problem with the card.

He should have them though since they are missing. Hopefully he can find them and get it sorted for you. Good luck on it. Thanks
 
I would want the screws if I were you, but I end up buying and selling GPUs rather frequently. If they made no mention of the screws missing I would work with the seller to get some replacements or send the card back, but that seems like large hassle for both parties.
 
gotendbz1 said:
what was the description of the card in the fs thread? if it doesn't mention anything about missing screws or anything weird, I would say take pictures and document everything and send it back.

I would be pissed if this happened to me.
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The description was just a line item of the card itself since it was listed as specs of a system for sale or part out:
-XFX Radeon 7970 OC

KILLER_K said:
Some forget to add the screws. If it had a water block on it. He may have forgot to put them all in. Perhaps got in a rush to send it out. Not taking his side on it. We are just human and forget things. If he doesn't have the screws then I would see a slight problem with the card.

He should have them though since they are missing. Hopefully he can find them and get it sorted for you. Good luck on it. Thanks
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It did have a waterblock on it, and in my email to the seller I politely asked if he knew where they were and if he could send them to me. I'm hoping that he does.



I'm just annoyed that I can't play with this card already (was looking forward to finishing up my rig with the two water cooled 7970s today).
 
I completely understand you would like to use the card. I just thought perhaps he had it under water. As that is one of the main reason to take it off. Unless he changed the thermal paste on it to something better. But I see you are going to water cool them though. So you really need the back screws then. Thanks
 
Still no contact from the seller. Looks like I'll have to start a paypal dispute to get his attention :(.
 
I think it's more than reasonable to expect him to send you the screws, though I wouldn't have jumped straight to wanting to do a return/refund without hearing his response first.
 
MavericK96 said:
I think it's more than reasonable to expect him to send you the screws, though I wouldn't have jumped straight to wanting to do a return/refund without hearing his response first.
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The entire purpose of opening a dispute is to restore communication. A claim is for a refund.
 
bigddybn said:
The entire purpose of opening a dispute is to restore communication. A claim is for a refund.
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I didn't say he shouldn't have filed a dispute, I was just referring to his wording in the first post. But I do now see that he says if the sender doesn't send him the screws he could refund/return, which I do agree with.
 
KILLER_K said:
Some forget to add the screws. If it had a water block on it. He may have forgot to put them all in. Perhaps got in a rush to send it out. Not taking his side on it. We are just human and forget things. If he doesn't have the screws then I would see a slight problem with the card.

He should have them though since they are missing. Hopefully he can find them and get it sorted for you. Good luck on it. Thanks
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I've never forgot to put all the screws back in something I was putting back together. That's either absent minded, or lazy.
 
Dan_D said:
I've never forgot to put all the screws back in something I was putting back together. That's either absent minded, or lazy.
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Same, I've always put every screw in a video card after taking the water block off. I even test my cards afterwards and confirm my previous on air OCs are still good so I can give that info to whoever buys my card next.

I'd really like to believe that the seller simply forgot the screws, but the fact that ONLY the GPU bracket screws were there (less than 1/4 of the screws on the card) makes me suspect something else.
 
Dan_D said:
I've never forgot to put all the screws back in something I was putting back together. That's either absent minded, or lazy.
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Yes but that can open up a whole new level of what people do here. I'm just trying to keep it civil and not get into that part. Plus I'm just not trying to be rude about it. Hopefully it gets sorted out though. Thanks
 
KILLER_K said:
Yes but that can open up a whole new level of what people do here. I'm just trying to keep it civil and not get into that part. Plus I'm just not trying to be rude about it. Hopefully it gets sorted out though. Thanks
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I call it like it is. Seems unlikely someone would misplace all but four of the screws. Generally the four that are used to secure the cooling solution to the GPU are larger than the others. Either they substituted screws, (hopefully ones of similar length and thread size) and misplaced all of them, or they did a half ass job reassembling the card. Personally I don't think there is an excuse for either if you are going to sell the card and not disclose that fact. I'd rather buy the bare card with no cooling than something which was hastily and half-assed assembled. The latter could indicate negligence and damage.
 
I personally would send it back and demand a full refund...selling a card that is not put together correctly and missing pieces is completely unacceptable to me.

if someone cant remember, or just does not care that parts are missing from an item they are selling, I can only imagine how it was cared for while in their possession
 
Well the seller managed to reply to my email shortly after I sent them one saying I would open a dispute if they didn't respond to me by the end of today. The reply pretended like he never received my initial email (which I also sent as a PM on [H]). I responded to the seller's email right after I received it and more than 8hrs later still haven't heard back with any answers to any of my questions. Dispute opened.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Well the seller managed to reply to my email shortly after I sent them one saying I would open a dispute if they didn't respond to me by the end of today. The reply pretended like he never received my initial email (which I also sent as a PM on [H]). I responded to the seller's email right after I received it and more than 8hrs later still haven't heard back with any answers to any of my questions. Dispute opened.
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I think a dispute is more than necessary. Seems he's trying to avoid you and not answer why the missing screws are missing. It's kind of stupid IMO.
 
As far as the anti static bag, I know some parts don't come with them new. Neither of my past 2 ASUS motherboards have, and I want to say my 2 Visiontek 3870s didn't either (or I really have misplaced them, which could happen). They were all in secured in plastic. It still would have been a good thing to find one and wrap it up if it wasn't shipped in its original packaging.

Hope your dispute works out. 1 or 2 screws, maybe, but nearly all of them, without so much as a mention of it? Absurd if you ask me.
 
Neither of my past 2 ASUS motherboards have
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Which mobos were those? Were they open box? Every new ASUS mobo I've ever bought back to the A7N8X series has come in an anti-static bag. Some times it was a faraday cage bag and others it was a mylar bag, but always an anti-static bag.

I'm positive this card shipped with a faraday cage anti-static bag. It's an XFX and they always comes with those.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Which mobos were those? Were they open box? Every new ASUS mobo I've ever bought back to the A7N8X series has come in an anti-static bag. Some times it was a faraday cage bag and others it was a mylar bag, but always an anti-static bag.

I'm positive this card shipped with a faraday cage anti-static bag. It's an XFX and they always comes with those.
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Maximus Formula SE and Rampage IV Formula. Not sure if ROG has anything to do with it, because both boxes had the flaps to open it up to see the board. Wouldn't have been able to see through a bag to see the board I suppose.

Now I could be wrong on the 3870s and maybe I did misplace them. But generally I put the bags back into the boxes and the 1 box I still have for those cards didn't have one in it the last time I checked.
 
Dan_D said:
The latter could indicate negligence and damage.
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Seems like you called it Dan. I got an email from the seller saying that he found the screws, and that he did put thermal paste on the core and that all thermal pads were re-installed on the card. Explicitly he said, "It's ready to go besides the screws."

Based upon his info I took the screws off of my other 7970 and installed them on this card and went to test it in the rig. Not surprisingly I ran into a few issues... The first issue is this card doesn't run at the rated 1000core/1475mem OC speeds that it's supposed to (this is an XFX OC BE model). The stickers on the box and PCB itself both say this card is indeed the OC BE model, but CCC, GPU-Z, Afterburner, and Trixx all read the stock clocks (and set them to if you reset) as the normal 925/1375 speeds. The second issue (and more serious one) is the fan profile on this card is broken. As I opened Trixx to see if what Afterburner, CCC, and GPU-Z reported was true I noticed the card's temperature was 103C!!! In less than 10min in my computer the card near overheated itself. Not once during this time did the fan spin up to high rpms like it should have (and the fan was plugged in and spinning). I almost burned myself just touching the plastic shroud taking the card out of my PC shortly after.

Needless to say, I've asked for a refund now.

TheGardenTool said:
Maximus Formula SE and Rampage IV Formula. Not sure if ROG has anything to do with it, because both boxes had the flaps to open it up to see the board. Wouldn't have been able to see through a bag to see the board I suppose.
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Maybe it is an ROG thing. I've never bought an ROG board. Did the boards have antistatic foam beneath them?
 
ROG boards come inside a cardboard box with a plastic cover on top, so no anti-static bags are used so that the board can be showed off. Accessories and stuff are inside a second cardboard box. Those two boxes are then put inside the outside box.

Let us know how it goes. Sounds like the bios was modded or something along those lines.
 
Tsumi said:
ROG boards come inside a cardboard box with a plastic cover on top, so no anti-static bags are used so that the board can be showed off. Accessories and stuff are inside a second cardboard box. Those two boxes are then put inside the outside box.

Let us know how it goes. Sounds like the bios was modded or something along those lines.
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Right. ROG boards have an anti-static film layer beneath them and the plastic cover on top.
 
Screws from the MFG would cost little to nothing if it's under warranty (they'd cost nothing)
 
So, they'll charge you like two bucks.

I'd make sure it works before sending it back.

Screws aren't a huge deal.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Seems like you called it Dan. I got an email from the seller saying that he found the screws, and that he did put thermal paste on the core and that all thermal pads were re-installed on the card. Explicitly he said, "It's ready to go besides the screws."

Based upon his info I took the screws off of my other 7970 and installed them on this card and went to test it in the rig. Not surprisingly I ran into a few issues... The first issue is this card doesn't run at the rated 1000core/1475mem OC speeds that it's supposed to (this is an XFX OC BE model). The stickers on the box and PCB itself both say this card is indeed the OC BE model, but CCC, GPU-Z, Afterburner, and Trixx all read the stock clocks (and set them to if you reset) as the normal 925/1375 speeds. The second issue (and more serious one) is the fan profile on this card is broken. As I opened Trixx to see if what Afterburner, CCC, and GPU-Z reported was true I noticed the card's temperature was 103C!!! In less than 10min in my computer the card near overheated itself. Not once during this time did the fan spin up to high rpms like it should have (and the fan was plugged in and spinning). I almost burned myself just touching the plastic shroud taking the card out of my PC shortly after.

Needless to say, I've asked for a refund now.
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Well I don't blame you for trying to get a refund. But have you tried taking the heatsink/fan off to verify that there is paste and thermal pads installed? I suppose it's possible that he forgot those too. Even if not, maybe because the screws weren't there it didn't seat the paste right or the pads slipped? I guess it depends how much effort and time you want to put into troubleshooting something that should have worked when you received it.
 
CleanSlate said:
So, they'll charge you like two bucks.

I'd make sure it works before sending it back.

Screws aren't a huge deal.
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Except that it doesn't work and I tested the card by taking the screws out of my other 7970 and installing them on this card. I detailed it in a few posts above yours.


TheGardenTool said:
Well I don't blame you for trying to get a refund. But have you tried taking the heatsink/fan off to verify that there is paste and thermal pads installed? I suppose it's possible that he forgot those too. Even if not, maybe because the screws weren't there it didn't seat the paste right or the pads slipped? I guess it depends how much effort and time you want to put into troubleshooting something that should have worked when you received it.
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I thought about it, but decided that if I opened it up and found out I had to put all those things there it'd still cost me time and money (for new thermal pads). The seller could also claim that I tampered with, and broke the card if I did that. That also doesn't fix the BIOS clock issues or the fan profile. It's not worth my time or money to fix what should've worked out of the box. I'm not letting the seller get away with fraudulently selling on [H]. I gave him till tomorrow to reply to my refund request before I escalate to a PayPal claim.
 
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