Used stuff as new from Newegg?

[ddrueding]

I just unwrapped a Samsung 80GB PATA drive from the ABS plastic wrapper it was shipped to me in from newegg. I bought it new for ~$70 about 2 weeks ago. I notice as I'm installing it that it already has a significant amount of dust around the screw heads and sides, clear signs IMO of a used drive. I've also had retail A64 CPUs arrive with dust on the HSF and cases where the headers were already installed.

Has anyone else had this problem? What did/would you do about it?

 

[ddrueding]

Better.

I just installed the drive and it still has data on it

If I had more time, I'd discover the original owner and let them know they were screwed. Whatever, I'm in a hurry.

 

[Handruin]

I forget the name of the utility, but one of them can show you the number of powered-on hours for a hard drive. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[P5-133XL]

Isn't it illegal to sell used products as new? Stuff like that makes my blood boil and it becomes a matter of principal, for me, to make sure others are not duped ...

 

[ddrueding]

That's one of the reasons I'm posting it here, Mark. Unfortunatly, I need to put the drive into production tonight, so I'll be destroying the evidence.

Any util that can check SMART data can tell the number of times the drive was spun up; that would be enough.

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting...the OS installed on the drive was "Windows Whistler Professional" according to the boot.ini file. I always wonder why this survives a format...

 

[blakerwry]

when i bout about $200 worth of mouse pads from newegg around Halloween half of the packages had been opened nd missing parts.. no sign of use though... Buying new and getting used parts instead is one of the main reasons I've never shopped at tiger direct, as I've heard several complaints.

It's kind of scary that apparently newegg is putting their returns in with their new stock...

 

[Pradeep]

I just unwrapped a Samsung 80GB PATA drive from the ABS plastic wrapper it was shipped to me in from newegg. I bought it new for ~$70 about 2 weeks ago. I notice as I'm installing it that it already has a significant amount of dust around the screw heads and sides, clear signs IMO of a used drive. I've also had retail A64 CPUs arrive with dust on the HSF and cases where the headers were already installed.

Has anyone else had this problem? What did/would you do about it?

Was the little AMD stickers intact on the A64 retail box? The one I opened the other day, when you remove the sticker it shows "VOID" underneath it.

 

[Will Rickards]

One of the 'secrets' of retail stores is they have a shrink wrap machine in the back. So used stuff will get placed back on the shelves. It was only a matter of time before online stores started doing this. It does suck though.

 

[timwhit]

Why don't you contact Newegg the next time that you get a product that you can tell has been used. They can always sell an item that has been returned as used or refurbished. Best Buy sells open box items all the time, which is fine because you know that someone brought that item home and then decided that they didn't want it and returned it.

 

[RWIndiana]

Handruin, is that utility free? That would be handy for me, if you have it.

 

[time]

I forget the name of the utility, but one of them can show you the number of powered-on hours for a hard drive. I'll see if I can find it.

Many utilities that read SMART data are not free. Handy may yet come up with one, but in the meantime, try PC Wizard.

 

[CityK]

Courtesy of honold, I know that HDD Health can.

 

[Handruin]

The tool I had is called DTemp. It's old, so it won't be as nice as the other tools mentioned.

 

[Bozo]

Your problem might not be Neweggs.
I don't believe any of the online resellers actually stock merchandice. When ever I order from Newegg, most of the time it's shipped from NJ. When I order from Aberdeen, it also comes from NJ. I used to deal with an outfit in Maine called NEC. They also ship from NJ. It seems that when you buy from a reseller, they have it shipped directly from a wholesaler.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[sechs]

Newegg does outsource some of warehousing/shipping operations. This is why they suddenly sprang up two shipping locations outside of California a year or so ago.

 

[RWIndiana]

Dunce here again Handruin. I can't decipher the DTemp program. It says something like 252 hours on my hard drive (the number is either 252 or 253 for just about all the stats on the list), and I know that can't be right.

 

[i]

Must be 252 metric hours. :wink:

 

[time]

I couldn't see actual hours in the Dtemp program.

Try CityK's link instead. It works.

 

[Handruin]

I second time's suggestion of using the newer tool. The DTemp tool is pretty old (2 years?) and may give you erroneous results.

 

[blakerwry]

Dunce here again Handruin. I can't decipher the DTemp program. It says something like 252 hours on my hard drive (the number is either 252 or 253 for just about all the stats on the list), and I know that can't be right.

you need to look at the raw value

 

[blakerwry]

dtemp just reports the info and actually works better than any tool I've used for reporting SMART statistics in a meaningful way... so a newer tool probably wont help.

 

[time]

dtemp just reports the info and actually works better than any tool I've used for reporting SMART statistics in a meaningful way... so a newer tool probably wont help.

DTemp: Power-on time count = 000000001CCAh

HDDHealth: Power-On Hours = 7370 minuties (hours)

I guess blakerwry must have 16 fingers.

 

[Jan Kivar]

One interesting feature of the Samsungs is that they log one unit every 30 seconds (to the Power-on time count RAW value, that is).

Cheers,

Jan

 

[blakerwry]

yup, different drives count differently.

Maxtor seem to add one unit per minute, while IBM, WD, and Seagate add one unit every hour... My Samsung seems to add 2 units per minute (while this makes little difference from one every 30 seconds, it does appear to be 2 per minute with dtemp or the linux smartctl on my computers).

 

[RWIndiana]

Ahh, thanks! That makes much more sense. Power-on hours now shows 29,735.