In brief: We've seen plenty of stories in the past about reputable retailers sending customers the wrong or fake graphics cards (or something else entirely). It usually ends with the companies apologizing and rectifying the situation, but an online seller is not only disputing one of these claims, it's also posting about it on social media.
According to a post on the PCMasterRace subreddit by user adowad, Overclockers UK, one of the largest online PC retailers in the United Kingdom, returned an RTX 3050 even though he had sent the company an Inno3D RTX 4070 Ti for RMA.
Rma'd my 4070ti with OVERCLOCKERS and received this in return please advise
byu/adowad inpcmasterrace
Companies tend to respond with generic "we are investigating the matter" lines in cases like these, but it seems Overclockers is so adamant that it did nothing wrong that the company posted a lengthy message on X/Twitter defending itself.
Overclockers first points out that, based on the photo on Reddit, this RTX 3050 graphics card is likely an OEM model that would have been exclusively manufactured and distributed by the brand for use in its own PCs, meaning the retailer would never have stocked this particular card.
The other piece of evidence is the weight. Overclockers says the package was reported to be 500g when returned to the company, but the weight of an inno3d 4070Ti is 1.2kg, so whatever was sent was apparently 700g lighter.
Finally, the firm says the value of the products it sells means enhanced security measures are in place, ensuring that tampering with customer returns and bringing in products from the outside is not possible.
We are aware of a Reddit thread by user 'adowad' on the PCMR sub reddit where an inno3d 4070Ti was RMA'd and allegedly a Dell Optiplex 3050 returned to the customer. It is accused Overclockers UK have deceived the customer out of a faulty inno3d 4070Ti, which had been returned…
– Overclockers UK (@OverclockersUK) April 9, 2024
There's a lot of debate about what happened here and who's at fault. Some are siding with the Redditor, others with Overclockers.
While Overclockers is pointing towards the package's weight as the smoking gun, adowad says he never weighed the RTX 4070 Ti, and that it was the delivery service that did it at the depot. Moreover, the RTX 3050 package he received weighed 100g according to the courier service, when in reality it was much heavier.
adowad posted an update in the last hour stating that Overclockers wants to work with him on the matter. They also provided details for if he wishes to start claims proceedings and contact the police. It seems the company wants to investigate the weight discrepancy provided by the courier to see if it can be clarified in writing.
We've seen many cases where people have received the wrong or fake graphics cards. In January, we heard that Amazon sold an RTX 4090 with an RTX 4080 GPU and fried components. Amazon also sent a customer a putty-filled RTX 3060 Ti in 2022 and wouldn't replace it with a real one. There was also the case of Newegg refunding a customer who received an RTX 4090 box filled with weights. The company previously had to make changes to its internal return process following a public dispute with popular hardware enthusiast and YouTuber Steve Burke from Gamers Nexus.
With more stories like these arriving all the time, it seems the best course of action is to record the opening of expensive computer hardware just to be sure.
