movaid7
Epic Member
Deal Thread URL: PNY GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB VERTO
Seller: @stevenwiner
Buyer: @movaid7
Description of Bad Deal:
Jan 24th
On January 24th, I contacted @stevenwiner to inquire about the availability of the card and asked him to WhatsApp me if it was still available.
I was told that a salesperson would check and reach out. Someone WhatsApps me a few minutes later confirming that they do have the card in stock.
I ask for an official quote to be sent via email (as they seem to be operating as some sort of company), which she sends along with their banking details.
I had reservations about making the payment based on banking details received from an unknown third party and to a company (SMD Technologies) that was never mentioned to me on Carb nor appears on the thread or his profile.
I chose to verify the banking details with @stevenwiner directly on Carb, which he does.
Up to this point I had noticed a few red flags:
In fact, I was meant to get a friend to pay (the GPU was for him) but I rushed to do it myself when I saw this; to prevent any delays between then and when my friend would get down to paying it.
Jan 25th
They acknowledge receiving payment the next morning.
Jan 30th
Now five days later, and I still had no idea whether I'm actually getting the item for which I've paid.
Still no order confirmation (post payment), no tracking info, and they never respond or provide updates unless pushed multiple times to do so.
When they do respond, it's unfulfilled promises for someone to check and follow-up.
After pushing for a cancellation and refund, they now finally admit that the card isn't even in stock!!
They claim that they are now processing the refund. As of this morning, I have requested, and am presently awaiting, proof of payment for the refund transaction.
Seller: @stevenwiner
Buyer: @movaid7
Description of Bad Deal:
Jan 24th
On January 24th, I contacted @stevenwiner to inquire about the availability of the card and asked him to WhatsApp me if it was still available.
I was told that a salesperson would check and reach out. Someone WhatsApps me a few minutes later confirming that they do have the card in stock.
I ask for an official quote to be sent via email (as they seem to be operating as some sort of company), which she sends along with their banking details.
I had reservations about making the payment based on banking details received from an unknown third party and to a company (SMD Technologies) that was never mentioned to me on Carb nor appears on the thread or his profile.
I chose to verify the banking details with @stevenwiner directly on Carb, which he does.
Up to this point I had noticed a few red flags:
- Disjointed comms and fuzziness around SMD
- Staff mischaracterized the card as a GTX 3070 rather than an RTX 3070 Ti - most probably an honest mistake tbh
- Dead www.smdtechnologies.com website (URL from email signature) - there is a semi functional site at SMD Global that I come across later but which often redirects certain pages to smdhongkong.com and smdtechnologies.azurewebsites.net...
- The seller closed the thread early, marking it as sold, immediately after replying to my message to confirm the banking details and before I had even made payment - this just seemed off to me but perhaps internally they had considered it as sold.
- Additionally, there was no mention of who the item was sold to. It wasn't indicated to me (in any form) or mentioned in the thread that I was the party to whom the card had been "sold".
Bear in mind that I see this while confirming banking details.
In fact, I was meant to get a friend to pay (the GPU was for him) but I rushed to do it myself when I saw this; to prevent any delays between then and when my friend would get down to paying it.
Jan 25th
They acknowledge receiving payment the next morning.
Jan 30th
Now five days later, and I still had no idea whether I'm actually getting the item for which I've paid.
Still no order confirmation (post payment), no tracking info, and they never respond or provide updates unless pushed multiple times to do so.
When they do respond, it's unfulfilled promises for someone to check and follow-up.
After pushing for a cancellation and refund, they now finally admit that the card isn't even in stock!!
They claim that they are now processing the refund. As of this morning, I have requested, and am presently awaiting, proof of payment for the refund transaction.
