What just happened? With so many stories about people being scammed when buying PC hardware, it's nice to find one with a happy ending. The person who purchased an RTX 5080 from Best Buy – only to be sent a pile of rocks and have his refund request denied – has finally received his card. He even got a commemorative tattoo marking the experience.
At the start of December, Redditor GnarDead posted that the $1,200 Asus TUF RTX 5080 he'd bought from Best Buy arrived with some worrying signs: it wasn't concealed inside a plain cardboard box to hide the product's identity, shipping labels had been placed directly onto the box itself, and the seal had clearly been tampered with.
Those suspicions were confirmed when he opened the packaging. Instead of an RTX 5080, it was filled with rocks to replicate the card's weight.
Things went from bad to worse. Best Buy initially promised to replace or refund the card, but after what GnarDead described as a rushed investigation, the company did neither. The Redditor said Best Buy asked for photos of the packaging, which were sent. Just seven minutes later, an email arrived stating that the investigation was complete and no refund or replacement would be provided.
**UPDATE** Received Rocks In Place Of ASUS TUF 5080
byu/GnarDead inpcmasterrace
Understandably not willing to let this go, GnarDead called customer service daily. He also visited a local store, which told him they could only expedite the support ticket as the store's retail and online elements were handled separately.
Frustrated with the lack of progress, GnarDead filed a police report, started the process of a credit card charge back, and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
It seems that the BBB was the biggest factor in helping resolve the case. After the agency reviewed the evidence GnarDead submitted – especially the fact that the package gained nearly three pounds while in transit with FedEx and lacked any concealment from Best Buy – the store agreed to a replacement. It also agreed to price-match the original purchase, as the card had been on sale when the Redditor bought it.
To commemorate the incident, GnarDead says his girlfriend tattooed a gap-filler on his leg between his other tattoos. It's a very apt set of rocks with the Asus TUF logo inscribed on one.
These types of incidents aren't unusual. We've seen people buying graphics cards that have had their GPU and VRAM removed, an RTX 5090 buyer who found the box was filled with rice, pasta, and a mystery GPU, and the Blackwell flagship that Micro Center was selling turned out to be boxes filled with backpacks.
With memory prices reaching insane levels, DDR5 scams have recently become more common than graphics card cons.