Motherboard problems

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2003-05-30 at 09:24, Richard L. Proctor wrote:
> You do realize that 90% of Fry's hardware is returned items?  All the
> hardware that gets returned either because it was deffective, or the
> customer simply didn't want it,  don't just get thrown away.  I goes back to
> the manufacturer and is ispected, refurbished, repackaged, and sold to big
> outfits such as Fry's at a substantial discounted rates.  When you go in and
> buy these products they look new,  and you would never know the difference.
> In fact that motherboard that you bought has probably already been returned
> by someone else.
> 
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I think that this is an exaggeration of monumental proportions.

Fry's has a VERY liberal return policy and they repack their returns and
put them back on the shelf and tag those items (affectionately referred
to as WSOD). Indeed they do sometimes put defective items that are
returned back on the shelf without adequate testing but normally they
will send defective items back to manufacturer.

If you return a package, unopened and still in shrink wrap, they will
still remove the shrink wrap and inspect it and tag it and I commend
them for that.

On motherboards, Fry's seems to have a large number of returns (WSOD)
which are on ad in combo with processors and their pricing is tough to
beat.

Fry's is definitely not alone in stocking 'factory refurbished' items
which are typically packaged in plain box and offer 90 day warranties at
substantially discounted rates but these items are unrelated to the
'WSOD' stuff referred to above. These items are ALWAYS marked 'factory
refurbished' clearly as required by law.

I have purchased many motherboards and bare bones systems from Fry's and
I have had some problems but probably consistent with industry average
and of course, my own stupidity. There was one time when the lock down
tab for a Volcano CPU fan broke when I was connecting it that I thought
was a poor manufacture and Fry's refused to warranty because admittedly,
it broke under my own hand.

I think Fry's is a reasonable place to buy components.

Craig