newegg will not refund computers that have Linux installed if hardware is faulty

[Primefalcon]

http://consumerist.com/2012/06/so-does-installing-a-new-os-violate-newegg-return-policy-or-not.html

sheesh so they refuse refund.... apologize to media and give a refund, then tell future complainers.... oh that was just a one off thing....

I'll never buy a computer from newegg... ever

[Copper Bezel]

Damn. I like NewEgg, and honestly, I make sure the hardware is working with the shipped OS before installing mine, but still, that's a crap rule.

I guess this avoids, though, the possibility of people returning something due to unexpected software incompatibilities, which would be tacky.

[AllRadioisDead]

You Voided the Warranty. Maybe these people should have read the ToS on their warranty before erasing the operating system. Any easy solution would be to clone the original installation and if things go south, simply restore it.

[kurt18947]

Damn. I like NewEgg, and honestly, I make sure the hardware is working with the shipped OS before installing mine, but still, that's a crap rule.

I guess this avoids, though, the possibility of people returning something due to unexpected software incompatibilities, which would be tacky.

I suspect you've hit on the reason for that policy. How many computers would have been returned if they shipped with one of the wifi adapters that may work with NDISwrapper, or maybe not at all. Or one of the machines with hybrid graphics. It's a pain but I can see their point. A machine shipping with Linux installed and warranted to work would be another matter entirely, or even a manufacturer making a statement like "we guarantee our latest glowy wonder will work with Ubuntu 12.04 as released by Canonical". Except for System76, ZaReason or certain Dells, I know of no such animal.

[Primefalcon]

Yeah but for PR to actually and blatantly lie about it is ridiculous and far worse than not honoring a warranty or not!

But still if the hardware is defective it's defective....

[wilee-nilee]

I believe most any busines that sells a computer has a no returns on a modified policy. With a OS this is an easy fix, have an image of the original, or a install disc, and make an image of what you don't want to loose.

Having images/clones is one of the better ways to assure ease of travel in a large number of areas of computer breakage, or loss of an OS.

I have an acer I thought needed a factory repair, it turned out to be a bios update actually fixed this. I had purchased the OEM reinstall disc set cheap just for such an occasion. I had wiped the originally fairly quickly including the recovery partition, just common sense really.

Don't demonize the purveyor when it is in the fine print and easily avoided.

[ExSuSEusr]

wow - i can't believe how hard it is to find an email address to these people - no not the customer service email that'll just get read and deleted.

[Bandit]

http://consumerist.com/2012/06/so-does-installing-a-new-os-violate-newegg-return-policy-or-not.html

sheesh so they refuse refund.... apologize to media and give a refund, then tell future complainers.... oh that was just a one off thing....

I'll never buy a computer from newegg... ever

I never buy computers period. LOL

But there are reasons they do this, not because they dislike Linux in anyway. But they ONLY support or warranty a system with the TESTED OS they are shipped with. IF they shipped one with Linux, then since it was tested with Linux then they would offer a warranty. ALL computer resellers and manufactures do this regardless of the OS. Even installing windows on a Mac will void Apples warranty.

So just buy the hardware and build your own. Takes about 30 mins to assy a PC and thats with a 20 min nap in the middle. So seriously dont understand why so many people rather spend money on a crap built PC and not build they own with quality products.

[KiwiNZ]

I never buy computers period. LOL

But there are reasons they do this, not because they dislike Linux in anyway. But they ONLY support or warranty a system with the TESTED OS they are shipped with. IF they shipped one with Linux, then since it was tested with Linux then they would offer a warranty. ALL computer resellers and manufactures do this regardless of the OS. Even installing windows on a Mac will void Apples warranty.

So just buy the hardware and build your own. Takes about 30 mins to assy a PC and thats with a 20 min nap in the middle. So seriously dont understand why so many people rather spend money on a crap built PC and not build they own with quality products.

In the past I have built my own but now I have better things to do with my time.

[Bandit]

In the past I have built my own but now I have better things to do with my time.

So many people just seem to act like its a chore or something. I spend more time washing my work cloths in a single week then putting together a computer. But all to their own I guess. It just seems strange to me. :confused:

[KiwiNZ]

So many people just seem to act like its a chore or something. I spend more time washing my work cloths in a single week then putting together a computer. But all to their own I guess. It just seems strange to me. :confused:

I owned my own Computer Company (as well as being CIO for a large Company) I have assembled too many PC's over the years just can't be bothered to do it now and the savings are minimal.

[Copper Bezel]

Scrubbed.

[Bandit]

I owned my own Computer Company (as well as being CIO for a large Company) I have assembled too many PC's over the years just can't be bothered to do it now and the savings are minimal.

Fair enough I guess. I am equally tormented trying to un-install all the preloaded mess for hours on end. :D

[Randymanme]

I owned my own Computer Company (as well as being CIO for a large Company) I have assembled too many PC's over the years just can't be bothered to do it now and the savings are minimal.

I guess it's a matter of how much disposable income one has to spend on a computer in the first place. Where I live, at the local computer retailing giant, one can build their (his/her) own computer in the store, buying the parts in the store, and end up with a higher-end product for less money than if they purchased a lesser quality, factory-built, computer off the floor.

Plus, for some people, that would be recreation.

[wirepuller134]

I never buy computers period. LOL

But there are reasons they do this, not because they dislike Linux in anyway. But they ONLY support or warranty a system with the TESTED OS they are shipped with. IF they shipped one with Linux, then since it was tested with Linux then they would offer a warranty. ALL computer resellers and manufactures do this regardless of the OS. Even installing windows on a Mac will void Apples warranty.

So just buy the hardware and build your own. Takes about 30 mins to assy a PC and thats with a 20 min nap in the middle. So seriously dont understand why so many people rather spend money on a crap built PC and not build they own with quality products.

This is incorrect on the warranty part. We have been IBM/Lenovo customers for years and never had issues with warranty when changing the OS, we have sent in a few with Fedora or Debian installed that came with Windows XP and didn't have a problem. We just recently started using Apple and while they do not give support to Windows running on our Macbook Pro's through bootcamp (they refer you to Microsoft for support), they still are covered under warranty. We asked before we purchased what Apple's policy was on installing Windows.

[aysiu]

So many people just seem to act like its a chore or something. I spend more time washing my work cloths in a single week then putting together a computer. Some people outsource laundry, too. Some people eat out instead of cooking at home. We all choose what things we want to spend time on and what things we want to pay others to spend time on for us.

[Primefalcon]

The thing is though I still do build my own tbh, however to argue that is cheaper to build your own these days is wrong, do a serious per parts price check, and you'll see that these companies are actually doing it cheaper... simply because they buy the parts en-masse....

Also the markup these days is very very minimal due to the competition which is why no company really offers too much of an after service these days compared to what they used to.

10+ years ago you used to be able to save some serious money building yourself... now... it's the other way around

[jockyburns]

Have to agree PrimeFalcon. Some years ago a friend built his own computer. He bought the latest Mobo, CPU, Graphics card, Soundcard, etc, etc .Put it all in the latest case available. Total cost was around £1800. Less than 6 months later, he could have built the same computer at around half the price, and could have bought a mass produced comp with similar spec even cheaper.
Must admit, it's not half as much fun, buying mass produced, but at least it's almost plug n play.

[Bandit]

This is incorrect on the warranty part. We have been IBM/Lenovo customers for years and never had issues with warranty when changing the OS, .............
Most vendors/manufactures doesnt mean ALL of them. Sorry if that confused anyone.



The thing is though I still do build my own tbh, however to argue that is cheaper to build your own these days .................
No doubt it is cheaper to buy pre built 99.99% of the time. Hard to beat the price on many eMachines at walmart going for $299-$399 that have Quad Core CPUs and 4-8GB of RAM and 1TB HDDs. But what I was getting at was the quality of the products. Even if ASUS makes the mobos in those systems, they are going to be stripped of the branding less the serial/model info and even cheaper components will likely be used to get those boards cheap as possible. The stuff they sell to consumers is much higher quality and feature rich over the stuff they sell to system builders like eMachines, HP, DHell computers and such. So if you dont mind a hot running system with 5400RPM Seagate HDDs, low low wattage PSU and other cheapest parts possible. By all means go buy one. Then complain a year from now when its barely running. Its your money :D
Guess the difference is I invest money, I dont spend it. I rather invest an extra 300USD and have a system that will last 10 years if I needed it to then spend half that every year. To each their own..

[Randymanme]

Have to agree PrimeFalcon. Some years ago a friend built his own computer. He bought the latest Mobo, CPU, Graphics card, Soundcard, etc, etc. Put it all in the latest case available. Total cost was around £1800.

And then, too, there are people who cannot afford to pay anything for any kind of computer; people who would go to sleep hungry if it were not for government-run food-assistance programs, people who struggle just to have a roof over their heads. For those persons, enter FreeGeek en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Geek.


I used to be economically disadvantaged like that and some friends arranged for me to get a computer from FreeGeek Columbus. It was my first computer and, per FreeGeek Columbus' mission statement, it came with Ubuntu 8.04, the then-current LTS. FreeGeek recycles hardware, software, and technology and believes that no one should be denied any of those things for lack of financial resources or technological ignorance.


While I'm on the topic of dismantling the digital divide, let me mention the One Laptop Per Child Foundation http://laptop.org/en/vision/mission/index.shtml. Think of it. A group of people with the audacity to believe that they can form a movement that will place an internet-connected, solar-powered, water-proof, shock-resistent laptop computer in the hands of every child in the 3r and 4th worlds! And achieve an economy of scale that will allow them to produce the Linux-driven laptops at $100 each![/SIZE] (See screenshot)


It sounds to me like some of the posters in this thread have the resources and technological & management know-how to make some substantial contributions towards making that happen.


Perhaps even in this generation. :guitar:

[SeijiSensei]

I have Dell machines that have run continuously for years without incident. My only problem with Dell these days is that they no longer ship machines with NVIDIA graphics. (They got burned (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1137463/nvidia-dell) a couple years back and since then only appear to offer ATI parts.) You can solve that problem by buying the adapter yourself (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600030348&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20).

If you're going to buy a pre-built system, I recommend sticking to the business-class lines (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/) which typically have higher quality parts and better support.

[CharlesA]

I have Dell machines that have run continuously for years without incident. My only problem with Dell these days is that they no longer ship machines with NVIDIA graphics. (They got burned (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1137463/nvidia-dell) a couple years back and since then only appear to offer ATI parts.) You can solve that problem by buying the adapter yourself (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600030348&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20).

If you're going to buy a pre-built system, I recommend sticking to the business-class lines (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/) which typically have higher quality parts and better support.
+1. I understand why they won't take a PC back if it doesn't have the factory OS installed.

Clone the disk before you mess with it and then restore it if it has problems. I've done that many, many times. I even restored a factory image on a laptop I had to ship in for repair by taking the hard drive out and putting it in another machine.

[Primefalcon]

I have 2 dells in this household one of them being a tad over 6 years old.... no problems with it ever, I've added in more ram since and a second hard drive, but that's about it.

and honestly I bought it far cheaper than the parts were separately, and honestly it was about $100 cheaper than it would of cost to buy parts and assemble... cpu, graphics, and motherboard alone exceeded the price of the whole machine from dell

and @ charles, easy enough for a lot on here probably... but a lot of people would give you a blank look at the mention of cloning or such

[alexfish]

So many people just seem to act like its a chore or something. I spend more time washing my work cloths in a single week then putting together a computer. But all to their own I guess. It just seems strange to me. :confused:

Most of the BITS a COMMON SENSE

:popcorn::guitar::lolflag::P

regards

alexfish

And Thanks to ALL

[wirepuller134]

Most vendors/manufactures doesnt mean ALL of them. Sorry if that confused anyone.


Nope didn't confuse me at all, the part about Apple was the main point.

[alexfish]

Finally):P

You seen one of my comments

Search for it

GOOGLE THE BITS

ITS ALL THERE.):P

:p;)

[jockyburns]

And then, too, there are people who cannot afford to pay anything for any kind of computer; people who would go to sleep hungry if it were not for government-run food-assistance programs, people who struggle just to have a roof over their heads. For those persons, enter FreeGeek en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Geek.




Sorry to disagree with you, but the last thing someone living in a third world country, that can't afford to feed themselves, needs is a computer whether a laptop or desktop. What they actually need is food.
Sorry if you fail to understand this concept.

[Randymanme]

Hard to beat the price on many eMachines at walmart going for $299-$399 that have Quad Core CPUs and 4-8GB of RAM and 1TB HDDs. . . . Its your money :D
Guess the difference is I invest money, I dont spend it. I rather invest an extra 300USD and have a system that will last 10 years if I needed it to then spend half that every year. To each their own..

Walmart has a reputation for being cheap, but I find Micro Center to be the place that guarantees to beat all competitors prices (plus, there's a mom & pop computer store next to Micro Center's Central Ohio/Columbus, Bethel Road, mega store that happens to know that Micro Center began as a mom & pop store in Columbus).

I personally think that those cheap eMachines you mention are a good investment when you get it even cheaper at Micro Center and then couple it with one of Micro Center's extension protection plans.

But then again, btw, I do have a 12-year old eMachines Gateway 4000+ running Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and Windows 7 Ultimate just fine. Granted, it's rather slow, but it'll do in a pinch.

[aysiu]

For cloning pre-messing-around, I'd highly recommend CloneZilla.

[CharlesA]

for cloning pre-messing-around, i'd highly recommend clonezilla.
+9000

[nec207]

Damn. I like NewEgg, and honestly, I make sure the hardware is working with the shipped OS before installing mine, but still, that's a crap rule.

I guess this avoids, though, the possibility of people returning something due to unexpected software incompatibilities, which would be tacky.


The OS has nothing to do with hardware going bad . Well people that do not even have A+ cert to fix computer.

Goes to show how little they know of how computers work.

[sffvba[e0rt]

The OS has nothing to do with hardware going bad . Well people that do not even have A+ cert to fix computer.

Goes to show how little they know of how computers work.

I disagree. There have been cases of hardware running much hotter due to some or other kernel related issue... this will reduce the lifespan of hardware and may make them fail prematurely.


404

[Randymanme]

Sorry to disagree with you, but the last thing someone living in a third world country, that can't afford to feed themselves, needs is a computer whether a laptop or desktop. What they actually need is food.
Sorry if you fail to understand this concept.

There, I was talking about the United States. As far as I've heard FreeGeek doesn't operate internationally, 'though I suppose it's just a matter of time before it does.

And with regard to the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, yes, children in developing countries often need food, too, as well as medical care, and shelter, et al; but that's not all they need. Often they need to need to be taught how to fish, too, so to speak -- i.e. , learn how to provide for themselves.

Again, from the One Laptop Per Child website (http://laptop.org/en/children/index.shtml)

Most of the more than one billion children in the emerging world don’t have access to adequate education. The XO laptop is our answer to this crisis—and after nearly two years, we know it’s working. Almost everywhere the XO goes, school attendance increases dramatically as the children begin to open their minds and explore their own potential. One by one, a new generation is emerging with the power to change the world.

The laptop not only delivers the world to children, but also brings the best practices of children and their teachers to the world. Each school represent a learning hub; a node in a globally shared resource for learning.

The laptop takes learners beyond instruction. They are actively engaged in a process of learning through doing. Children also learn by teaching, actively assisting other learners.

“With the laptop we can say that our school is really elevated because the children are really learning more... They see themselves discovering things that they have never been doing before.” — Mrs. M., Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am reminded of a proverb a college professor told to one of his classes:

There was a horse walking down the road one day when he happened upon a sparrow laying out in the road with it's legs up in the air. “What are you doing?” asked the horse?

The sparrow replied, “I heard that the sky is going to fall today.” To which the horse responded, “And what? Do you think you can hold it up with your little spindly legs?”

The sparrow said, “One does what one can.”

And so, I don't need to try to judge whether children in the 3rd and 4th worlds need food more than computers or vice versa; I need only to do what I can.

When enough of us do what we can – when we practice Ubuntu – it all comes together.

Peace be with you.

[Primefalcon]

The OS has nothing to do with hardware going bad . Well people that do not even have A+ cert to fix computer.

Goes to show how little they know of how computers work.
well it could be possible, higher the read/write speed to over heat components maybe (I think there's protections in place these days... but... never say never eh)... virus are in the wild now that will write to the firmware of a graphics card and will reinstall to an OS from there... of course this is under windows but yoh well.

[nec207]

I disagree. There have been cases of hardware running much hotter due to some or other kernel related issue... this will reduce the lifespan of hardware and may make them fail prematurely.


404





well it could be possible, higher the read/write speed to over heat components maybe (I think there's protections in place these days... but... never say never eh)...



Okay I had no idea the OS can do that .

[Bandit]

I disagree. There have been cases of hardware running much hotter due to some or other kernel related issue... this will reduce the lifespan of hardware and may make them fail prematurely.


404

I agree. Although linux kernel these days and xserver (x.org) take care of video and system settings. Back in the day when I started using Linux it was common to have to program your mode line into xfree86.conf to get your resolutions and refresh rates up. Which also ment you could burn your monitor up in a heart beat if you didnt know what you was doing. Also its easy to control power consumption and cooling on linux which someone can burn their system up. Which mind you you can do on many gaming rigs runing Windows also, but hey I dont make the warranty rules.. :(

[SeijiSensei]

Not to mention the situation where someone buys a computer, installs Linux on it, and discovers that the wifi card no longer works because of missing firmware or a poorly-written third-party driver. Should the retailer accept a return in this case? I'd argue the answer is clearly no. Yet how do you distinguish this case from one where the hardware is really broken when the customer calls tech support? Especially when the support person can only afford to spend five or ten minutes on each individual case?

[MisterGaribaldi]

Honestly, I'm with Randymanme on this one...

The third world hardly needs hand-outs. That does nothing but keep them down and at the level of indigents and, if I may use the term, slaves to their own condition.

There comes a point when you have to ask why you're trying to keep from starving to death. If the only reason you're eating today is so that you don't starve so you can eat again tomorrow, then that isn't a very good reason to bother. People need more than that (even though obviously we do need food, too!) and part of the reason that, to put it bluntly, so much of the world is a nasty place is that the people in it are stuck in a bad situation. Things like all the community and medical outreach, along with the OLPC initiative and other things are equally valid (maybe even moreso, given the corruption in many of the so-called "charities" out there) and anything that can be done to help those folks become enabled so they can then pull themselves up by their bootstraps is a wonderful thing.

I would wish that, were our roles reversed, that someone in Africa would be willing to come to America and help pull us up.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Honestly, I'm with Randymanme on this one...

The third world hardly needs hand-outs. <snip>

This thread is about computer hardware and warranties and guarantees... not about 1st and 3rd world issues.

Back on topic please...


404

[MisterGaribaldi]

This thread is about computer hardware and warranties and guarentees... not about 1st and 3rd world issues.

Yes, dear. (Oh and btw, it's guarantees, not guarentees.)

Well, I think newegg is in a pickle here. The places I've worked for would all refuse to even service equipment that didn't have the originally-shipped OS on them, much less accept them as a return. So, I agree that it's the customer's responsibility to ensure everything is stock before returning the equipment, and to verify if changing the OS will cause problems, prior to doing anything like that. On the other hand, newegg is obviously going to have issues with this no matter what direction they take.

[Bandit]

Yes, dear. (Oh and btw, it's guarantees, not guarentees.)

Well, I think newegg is in a pickle here. The places I've worked for would all refuse to even service equipment that didn't have the originally-shipped OS on them, much less accept them as a return. So, I agree that it's the customer's responsibility to ensure everything is stock before returning the equipment, and to verify if changing the OS will cause problems, prior to doing anything like that. On the other hand, newegg is obviously going to have issues with this no matter what direction they take.

Yea I agree, its a double edged sword per se.

[neu5eeCh]

I haven't read all the comments here, but the problem seems to be Newegg's duplicity. If they're going to tie hardware warranties (strictly in terms of whether the hardware is faulty) to the utterly irrelevant issue of which OS is being run on it (what if a customer wanted to move to a different version of Windows?), then they need to say so clearly and plainly up front; and buyers need to find a different company if they don't like it.

What that in mind (and if compatibility is a concern) individuals should buy their computer from System76 or Zareason (or any other pre-installed Linux retailer) and stop whinging and whining about the price. That extra cost is going to save them the hassle of a retailer like Newegg. If not, get over it.

[CharlesA]

What that in mind (and if compatibility is a concern) individuals should buy their computer from System76 or Zareason (or any other pre-installed Linux retailer) and stop whinging and whining about the price. That extra cost is going to save them the hassle of a retailer like Newegg. If not, get over it.

Not just Newegg. I have a feeling other retailers do the same, as they ask for all the original equipment and whatnot.

+1 to buying a *nix box from Zareason or System76. Kinda defeats the purpose of buying a Windows box from a random retailer just to put *nix on it. Unless you specifically know *nix will work without compatibility issues (video and wireless mostly, from what I have seen), don't get it.

I had a hardware problem with my mum's HP laptop and had to reinstall the stock OS cuz the tech told us to do a "system recovery." Funny, system recovery doesn't work when you don't have a system recovery partition.. cloned drive ftw tho.

The point being, if you want support for a potentially broken/defective part, and want to work with the manufacturer, you will need to have the stock OS on the box, otherwise they will tell you do do a "system restore" in order to rule out software causing the problem.

[cprofitt]

I believe most any busines that sells a computer has a no returns on a modified policy. With a OS this is an easy fix, have an image of the original, or a install disc, and make an image of what you don't want to loose.

Best Buy will take a return even if you have installed Linux (at least my local one had no issues... they also allowed me to test systems with a live USB too.

In general people do have to take note of the 'fine print' though... and support vendors that support Linux... if more folks did that the point might be driven home a bit more.