Want to start Monday morning with something a little light-hearted? Or not, if you don’t like sand. A customer from Brazil bought a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti on Amazon and received a Tupperware full of sand, proving once again that these kinds of stories are not just urban legends.
During its Prime Day, Amazon discounts a large number of items offering more aggressive prices, making it a much-awaited date to go on a shopping spree. However, for this unlucky Brazilian customer, things didn’t turn out as planned.
Just imagine it. There you are, eagerly awaiting your new graphics card to finally finish your build, just to discover something doesn’t quite feel right. This is what happened to Mauricio Takeda who treated himself to Palit GameRock RTX 3090 Ti on July 2nd for the princely sum of 14,500 RBL (£2,196).
The very next day (got to love Prime) his order arrived. With box in hand, Mauricio started to become suspicious. He felt that weight distribution was odd for such a product. Despite a correct-looking seal, he asked his wife to record the unboxing procedure, and boy he was on point. Inside he discovered a large plastic box plus two jars full of sand.
Mauricio has since filed a complaint – we’d love to know exactly what he said – and the story inevitably made it to national headlines. Given the spotlight, his issue was then swiftly rectified. Whether or not he managed to keep the sand remains unknown at this point.
Amazon typically has an effective return policy, though there are always some looking to take advantage by sending back packages after exchanging their original content for something less valuable; in this case, sand. If Mauricio’s story is anything to go by, Amazon will need to do much more than merely check weight is correct before moving on and reselling a product, opening the door for abuse.
Unfortunately, Mauricio isn’t the only one to get scammed when buying a seemingly new graphics card. Patrick J Kennedy from ServeTheHome bought an EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 sold as “new” by Amazon, only to be surprised by a broken box seal and an RTX 3070 inside.
While the chances of getting caught out are admittedly low, keep an eye open for any weird-looking boxes, especially if you purchase something expensive.
