This story is long, but it may be to your benefit to read it. You'll see what I mean by the end
My friend Nick knows very little about computers. I honestly don't know a whole lot more, but I do know a bit more. Like how to find RAM that is compatible with your specific motherboard, and I know a few good places to find a good deal, like pricewatch or newegg.
Well, Nick wanted to buy 1GB of RAM for his computer. He has a (lame) Dell, and according to their website, his "model" could only have up to 1GB of RAM because apparently, the motherboard couldn't have more than that. He has two RAM slots on his motherboard, both with 128MB in them, at present.
So we go to pricewatch. We find purchase a cheap Samsung 1GB RAM chip. Nick paid with his Debit card. From a company called Micro Magic. The chip arrives in a package with no return address, and covered in stamps, which makes it obvious the guy selling it didn't go into the post office to buy postage. He just bought a book of stamps and sent it on the way via mailbox, which is totally legal, yet suspicious, nonetheless.
We pop open his computer, pull out his current two chips, and put in the 1GB chip only. Upon starting it up, nothing happens. Black screen. Fan's spinning, lights are on, nothing's happening. I take out the 1GB chip, and put in the original chips, and it works like normal. We try all sorts of combinations, and still, nothing.
On the invoice included with the package were the return instructions, should you not be satisfied with your purchase. So we see the company's number on there, and the instructions to ask for "Leo". So I call the number, spoke with "Leo", and told him that I think we needed 2 512MB chips rather than a single 1GB chip, which is actually a problem I've heard of before. Never encountered personally, but I have heard of such a thing. So he says to send the chip back with a check for $30 to cover the remaning price of the second chip we'd need, and to include a letter informing him of the whole situation. All the while, he's obviously rushing me. He's in a hurry to get me off the phone, and is having a conversation with another person while we are talking. I figured it was because his paper said to call between 9AM and 5PM, and it was now 5:30, so I thought he was in hurry because he was closed or whatever. So we drop in the check, the RAM, the letter and we pack it up, go to the post office, get a real label printed and ship it off.
About 2 weeks later, we finally got the two 512MB chips we needed. The check for $30 had cleared, and "Leo" had gotten his payment. Twice.
We, again, opened the comp, and dropped in the two chips, totalling 1GB.
Black screen, yet again.
Nick was obviously p*ssed because he sent him $50 for the first 1GB chip and then another $30 to buy a second chip, for a total $80 invested in RAM.
Interestingly enough, this time "Leo" forgot a return address. Only this time, there was no paper with returning instructions or a phone number or even an e-mail address. Nick had a few seemingly automated e-mails from his company, Micro Magic, in his email inbox and he e-mailed the guy back, and got no response.
Nick was curious, so he googled Micro Magic.
[url=http://www.resellerratings.com/seller11850.html]This[/url] is what he found, near the top of the list.
EDIT - And [url=http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff174190.htm]this[/url] is one that I just found right now. This one is even more interesting than the first one! Seriously, read the whole thing, and you'll be going crazy with how lame this guy is.
No. Ram is really fun to purchase. Seriously.
Well, you got totally shafted. Moral of the story - if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Thats just the luck of buying over the faceless internet.
You either have to do your research on somebody before you blindly go buying stuff, or just hope that they aren't going to shaft you.
...And even then people can mainpulate their eBay ratings... :rolleyes:
:shake:
I found the part at the bottom of the second link most interesting. The part about the BBB being evil scam artists trying to bribe every cent out of thier members.
Stick to newegg, and make sure you research companies to make sure that you are getting a good deal vs buying from a company that gives **** service.