A Redditor was hit with an unpleasant surprise when his pre-built gaming PC arrived with half its components destroyed.
Let’s face it, not everyone can build their own PC. Whether it is due to lack of space, lack of time, or the lack of the relevant skills and knowledge, for some people it just makes much more sense to buy a prebuilt gaming PC and have it shipped to your door. This does not always turn out according to plan, however, as one unfortunate Redditor discovered.
Reddit user AngryToastwithButter posted on the PCMasterRace subreddit with images of the prebuilt gaming PC they had ordered from a seller on eBay. Alarmingly, the desktop tower had been crammed into a cardboard box with minimal packaging, with only a few crumpled bits of paper to hold everything in place. The front fascia had become dislodged from the rest of the tower in transit as a result.
Internally, the damage was even worse. None of the internal components such as the RAM, graphics card, or SSD had been removed or secured for transit. The PCIe slot for the GPU was damaged to the point where the slot was cracked in half, making the motherboard useless. The PSU and CPU cooler were similarly damaged and rendered completely unusable, or as the Redditor puts it: “royally f**ked”.
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Salvaging the mess
AngryToastwithButter wisely filed a dispute with eBay, and was refunded the money they had spent on the build. Astonishingly, the CPU, RAM, and even the graphics card all still appear to be in working condition, and the eBay seller told them to keep the components. Now, they plan on using the salvaged parts to build a PC themselves, since the experience of buying a prebuilt has clearly not gone smoothly.
Showing concern for fellow PC gaming enthusiasts, AngryToastwithButter said they didn’t want to sell any of the working components, just in case there was damage that affected to longevity of the parts.
Commenters on Reddit advised anyone engaging in a similar purchase to carefully document any PC component purchase in case of incidents like this one. Others suggested only buying from reputable retailers.