Got a message from Lawrence (manager? owner?) at gameve.com, and I called him back.
He says he is investigating matters.. There is a possibility that some merchandise that went out last Thursday and Friday may have been repackaged at BFG and accidentally shipped to them (uh huh). He claims that they don't do any inspection of the boxes, just get em in and send em right back out. Out of 1000 (he said) cards that they sent out last week, 27 had problems. Of those 27, 10 are problems like reported here -- stuff not working out of the box. He said he's getting 10 of them in on Friday, from BFG, for us 10 people. BFG won't get another large shipment for a couple more weeks.
He gave me a couple choices.. advance replacement where they charge me the full $169 for another card, and then refund that when they get my card. No thanks. RMA with BFG, which he claims that a "VP" said I wouldn't have to pay a return fee. I told him about calling BFG last night and that they told me I would have to pay the $15 fee. No thanks.
So I asked for a full refund, no restocking fee, no $6 free shipping fee. He was willing to do that. But he argued with me for a good 10 minutes about it. Offered to test the new card before sending it out - no, I want a sealed box. Kept trying to get me to do the advanced exchange, even offered not to charge me the $169. I wouldn't take it, I just told him that they've lost my trust and I want to completely wash my hands of any dealings with his company. He, kinda half jokingly, said, "What if I offered you $1000, would that make you happy?" I told him nope, I just want my money back and pretend that this never happened.
They sent me a used, defective, old product and they've lost my trust.
This will teach me to only order from newegg in the future. There's been several people looking to order computer parts recently... Lowest price isn't always best.
