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MemEx buys used motherboards for customers!?!?

Cannon Fodder

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Yeah, the topic is correct, which I thought was really weird. :unsure:

Anyway, I have a few things for sale on Ebay, one of which is a used motherboard(for 4th Gen. Intel), and while I was out yesterday, someone bought it, and from the timestamps of the emails, 15mins. later they requested a cancellation. While looking through the info in the emails, and via Ebay, based on the name, and the ship-to address, it turned out to be Memory Express that was apparently buying a 4th Gen. Intel board for a customer! 😲 While it's certainly not out of the realm of possibilities, it struck me as really, REALLY odd that a retailer of new hardware would go to such lengths for a customer, rather than, if said customer was dead set on buying a 4th Gen. board to replace a dead one, simply pointing that customer to Ebay to buy it themselves.

Anybody else think it's really weird, or have folks heard of this sort of thing being somewhat common? :unsure:
 

crazyea

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Well if a customer has a pc that needs fixing, has limited knowledge to do it themselves, and the only way to get the part is used then it makes sense. Especially if the customer is distraught over it or there are some incompatibilities with switching to newer gear or the customer has financial problems.
 

sswilson

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The most likely scenario I can see is for a business maintenance account. They'll often have a "fleet" of PCs with specific hardware which has been tested/certified to work with their existing software and thus can't be replaced with a newer piece of kit when one of them fails and needs replacing.
 

Cannon Fodder

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Well if a customer has a pc that needs fixing, has limited knowledge to do it themselves, and the only way to get the part is used then it makes sense. Especially if the customer is distraught over it or there are some incompatibilities with switching to newer gear or the customer has financial problems.

Yeah, I suppose that's a possibility, but in a case like that, I would figure that a retailer like MemEx would more than likely refer such customers to a local 'Mom 'n' Pop' shop to see if they have old hardware kickin' around, rather than take it upon themselves to buy used stuff from Ebay..... you'd think that could potentially leave them open to further headaches down the road.

The most likely scenario I can see is for a business maintenance account. They'll often have a "fleet" of PCs with specific hardware which has been tested/certified to work with their existing software and thus can't be replaced with a newer piece of kit when one of them fails and needs replacing.

Hmmm, now that seems pretty plausible, especially since part of the reason for cancelling was, "item wouldn't arrive on time". :unsure:
 
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