nickt
Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2015
- Messages
- 131
This is a cautionary tale for any Australians out there planning a FreeNAS system and considering buying parts from NewEgg. Don't do it. They'll initially refuse to provide warranty support if anything ever goes wrong, and you'll find them breathtakingly difficult (and slow) to work with should you ask that they honour their consumer guarantee obligations under Australian consumer law.
When I was planning my system, two of the components I wanted couldn't be found in Australia. They were the AS Rock C2750 D4I board and a Seasonic 360 W power supply - both motivated by wanting to build a low energy system. Australians will be familiar with the frustration of trying to source computer parts from local businesses - all too often the part can't be found, or perhaps it can but far more expensive than in the US.
So I decided to give NewEgg a try. They had what I needed, they advertise directly to Australians, they display Australian prices / shipping details on their website and they are reasonably priced.
Great - they took my money and supplied my parts pronto. All good.
But then it wasn't. My Seasonic power supply died in less than 1 year (it was advertised with a 5 year warranty). NewEgg fobbed me off to the US Seasonic distributor, who wouldn't help me as they only provide support to US customers. Seasonic global refused to help me as I had bought from a US retailer (NewEgg). Ten emails and two months later, NewEgg refunded me the cost of the power supply.
This was annoying, but not terrible - I was able to buy a replacement from the local bricks and mortar shop nearby - not as energy efficient, but I'm still on air.
A few months later, and my AS Rock board died. If you're interested, you can read about that saga on this thread. Same story. NewEgg declined to help me as it had passed their return policy (15 days!!! - never mind that the product has a 3 year global warranty). 16 emails and 60 days later, I finally received a replacement board by RMA.
This was a whole different level of annoying. No dropping down to the local shop to get a temporary alternative this time. My FreeNAS system off the air for 60 days and absolutely nothing I could do about it.
In both cases, I had to repeatedly remind NewEgg about their legal obligations under Australian consumer law when retailing directly to Australians. In the end, threatening to initiate proceedings against NewEgg with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (multiple times) was what it took to get a result.
In both cases, NewEgg reluctantly agreed to provide support as "an exception". They obviously have no plans to operate legally in Australia on a permanent full-time basis...
So my advice to Australians considering buying from NewEgg is don't do it. Just don't. It's not worth it.
As a post-script, I would speculate that this tale may also have relevance elsewhere in the world. Many European countries, for example, have similar consumer law protections (often stronger than Australia). I don't know...
When I was planning my system, two of the components I wanted couldn't be found in Australia. They were the AS Rock C2750 D4I board and a Seasonic 360 W power supply - both motivated by wanting to build a low energy system. Australians will be familiar with the frustration of trying to source computer parts from local businesses - all too often the part can't be found, or perhaps it can but far more expensive than in the US.
So I decided to give NewEgg a try. They had what I needed, they advertise directly to Australians, they display Australian prices / shipping details on their website and they are reasonably priced.
Great - they took my money and supplied my parts pronto. All good.
But then it wasn't. My Seasonic power supply died in less than 1 year (it was advertised with a 5 year warranty). NewEgg fobbed me off to the US Seasonic distributor, who wouldn't help me as they only provide support to US customers. Seasonic global refused to help me as I had bought from a US retailer (NewEgg). Ten emails and two months later, NewEgg refunded me the cost of the power supply.
This was annoying, but not terrible - I was able to buy a replacement from the local bricks and mortar shop nearby - not as energy efficient, but I'm still on air.
A few months later, and my AS Rock board died. If you're interested, you can read about that saga on this thread. Same story. NewEgg declined to help me as it had passed their return policy (15 days!!! - never mind that the product has a 3 year global warranty). 16 emails and 60 days later, I finally received a replacement board by RMA.
This was a whole different level of annoying. No dropping down to the local shop to get a temporary alternative this time. My FreeNAS system off the air for 60 days and absolutely nothing I could do about it.
In both cases, I had to repeatedly remind NewEgg about their legal obligations under Australian consumer law when retailing directly to Australians. In the end, threatening to initiate proceedings against NewEgg with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (multiple times) was what it took to get a result.
In both cases, NewEgg reluctantly agreed to provide support as "an exception". They obviously have no plans to operate legally in Australia on a permanent full-time basis...
So my advice to Australians considering buying from NewEgg is don't do it. Just don't. It's not worth it.
As a post-script, I would speculate that this tale may also have relevance elsewhere in the world. Many European countries, for example, have similar consumer law protections (often stronger than Australia). I don't know...