Imagine spending US$1,200 (~RM4,930) on a brand new ASUS TUF RTX 5080 from a “reputable” hardware retail chain, having the GPU shipped to your house, only to open it and find nothing but rocks inside the package. Sounds unbelievable, no? But that’s exactly what happened to an unfortunate BestBuy customer in the US.
Redditor GnarDead regaled their misfortunes on Reddit, saying they had ordered an RTX 5080 last month from BestBuy. Three days later, they received the package and was shocked by just how irresponsibly it was handled. The shipping labels were just slapped on, the vendor didn’t even bother to pack it into a generic brown box to conceal the nature of the product, and the seal had clearly been tampered with.
As mentioned at the start, upon opening it, GnarDead found four rocks in the cutout where the GPU should be. From there, they filed a claim through BestBuy’s customer service within the hour, assured that a replacement was on the way.
Several days since and at the time of writing, GnarDead says that they still haven’t received their replacement RTX 5080. Instead, BestBuy sent them an email saying that the vendor would not be replacing or refunding them the amount paid, after the company’s “investigation” said that it found nothing wrong and that “nothing further could be done.”
GnarDead hasn’t provided an update on their situation, but several Redditor who viewed the thread gave more or less similar advice: they advised him to call his bank and have them perform a chargeback with their credit card, as well as provide them their photos of the “fake” RTX 5080 as proof. As one Redditor put it:
“Chargeback with your credit card and provide them with the photos. You paid for a product and did not receive said product. BestBuy doesn’t want to make it right so f&%$ em.”
(Some) GPU Scams Through The Years
GnarDead’s RTX 5080 was clearly stolen, either somewhere in the warehouse or in transit. Sadly, he’s not the only victim to be scammed of their GPU. Years ago, a Brazilian gamer ordered and paid a tidy sum for an RTX 3090 Ti from Amazon, only to receive a package filled with bottles of sand. Last year, a gamer fell victim to a scammer’s con job when they purchase what they believed to be an RTX 4090 from the Facebook Marketplace. When they tried (and failed) to start up the card, they thought the card was junked and took it to a repair shop, where they found out that the PCB had been stripped clean of the components. Lock, stock, and all the bloody silicon.
Earlier this year, A PC gamer in the Netherlands purchased an RTX 5090, only to receive several bags of pasta and a mystery GPU. The original post has since been deleted, and at the time of their last post, they never actually said what the older mystery GPU was.
(Source: Reddit)
