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MacVidCards

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 17, 2008
6,096
1,056
Hollywood, CA
A while back I upgraded the CPUs in my 4,1

I had purchased it new with the Dual 2.26 4 cores.

As I explained at the time, I was pretty sure I had ruined my tray so I got a new one at DVWarehouse and finished the job. But before I did, just for fun I put the 2.26s in the "dead" tray and to my surprise they worked !!

So the "dead" tray has been sitting in a box making fun of me from a shelf. With 5690s now officially a dime a dozen, I decided I wanted to finish that tray. TO do so I needed the 2 Heatsinks, A & B.

Talk about sticker shock ! New parts through official channels were pricey ! I managed to find Heatsink "A" on EBay new for $139. I was thrilled but still needed "B". I was going to get one through MacPalace in Burbank but reading some reviews of them it seemed that they frequently do a bait and switch, raising price after you order.

Then to my surprise I found a used CPU "B" Heatsink on Ebay from Powerbook Medics for "just" $200. I ordered it and got ready.

A few days ago all the parts were in place. I started with A, and after just one additional tightening I had the first CPU done, all 4 RAM slots working. It seemed so easy !!! Then I got to "B". I got the CPU dropped in, I cleaned the old paste off and greased it up with some new paste.

As I carefully lowered it down, I realized it wasn't lining up correctly. I couldn't understand what was going wrong, and then I noticed that the "A" Heatsink has a cutout to allow for a smaller metal heatsink that is already on the tray. And oddly, my PowerbookMedics "B" Heatsink also had this cutout.

And then I realized that they had sent me the wrong part. I had in fact gotten an "A" heatsink. And it won't fit. It is a true pity that Apple didn't design these to be the same part. I imagine it was to keep the thing aesthetically balanced and pleasing to the eye. In any case, my upgrade was stopped dead in it's tracks.

I sent them a message via their website informing them that they had sent wrong part. I also went on Ebay and saw that they had also listed a CPU "A" heatsink. Looking at the photos I realized that the "A" they had in the photo was actually the "B" unit with the flat bottom. And going back to the auction I bought the first "B" from it was clearly an "A" with the little cutout for the tray heatsink in the photo, it also had a little sticker in the photo that was on my unit. So obviously they had just mixed up the listings.

So I message them again that I was going to buy the listed "A" unit since they had switched them. I asked that they get a tray out and verify that they had switched the listings and to not ship it until they were sure I would finally get the right part.

The next day I awoke to notices that my new purchase had shipped ! No answers to any of my queries. I started firing off messages via their website and through Ebay. Once they shipped the thing it gets much harder for them to realize their mistake.

And sure enough, when they finally read my messages, they start claiming that I bought the wrong part. They tell me that they aren't real photos and they only use stock photos. They also claim that they had no record of me buying the first one.

At this point I realize that I had used a different Ebay account to buy the 2 items. However, both Ebay accounts go to the same person at the same address and are paid via the same exact Paypal account. I can not for the life of me understand how they can't connect the dots.

Has anyone else had dealings with these guys? The messages I get from them are completely clueless. I have sent photos and explanations and they just will NOT pay the least bit of attention or admit they made a mistake.

Today I was forced to file a claim against them. I HATE filing claims as I know as a seller that the very first thing Ebay does is lock the money up to get your attention. As a seller, this stinks, especially when the buyer got wrong item. But in this instance I knew exactly what I wanted and was sent the wrong item. Had they read their support email in a timely manner they could have verified that BEFORE shipping the 2nd one.

Aldso, now I am worried that the 2nd one will really be an "A" as it is listed, even though the picture shows a "B".

And I find it very insulting that they have fallen back on the "Oh, the picture doesn't matter, those are stock photos" when the picture clearly shows the exact WRONG unit I got. Right down to the secondary part number. (Which can be googled and found associated with an "A" heatsink)

We occasionally make mistakes. We have sent people a 3GB version when they ordered a 6GB GTX780. We have had cards die between testing here and install at the customer's end. But we own up to these mistakes and do what we can to fix it.

Now I have no idea what is coming in the mail.

When people say that doing a 2009 CPU upgrade is a pain....it's true !
 

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buster84

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2013
428
156
A while back I upgraded the CPUs in my 4,1

I had purchased it new with the Dual 2.26 4 cores.

As I explained at the time, I was pretty sure I had ruined my tray so I got a new one at DVWarehouse and finished the job. But before I did, just for fun I put the 2.26s in the "dead" tray and to my surprise they worked !!

So the "dead" tray has been sitting in a box making fun of me from a shelf. With 5690s now officially a dime a dozen, I decided I wanted to finish that tray. TO do so I needed the 2 Heatsinks, A & B.

Talk about sticker shock ! New parts through official channels were pricey ! I managed to find Heatsink "A" on EBay new for $139. I was thrilled but still needed "B". I was going to get one through MacPalace in Burbank but reading some reviews of them it seemed that they frequently do a bait and switch, raising price after you order.

Then to my surprise I found a used CPU "B" Heatsink on Ebay from Powerbook Medics for "just" $200. I ordered it and got ready.

A few days ago all the parts were in place. I started with A, and after just one additional tightening I had the first CPU done, all 4 RAM slots working. It seemed so easy !!! Then I got to "B". I got the CPU dropped in, I cleaned the old paste off and greased it up with some new paste.

As I carefully lowered it down, I realized it wasn't lining up correctly. I couldn't understand what was going wrong, and then I noticed that the "A" Heatsink has a cutout to allow for a smaller metal heatsink that is already on the tray. And oddly, my PowerbookMedics "B" Heatsink also had this cutout.

And then I realized that they had sent me the wrong part. I had in fact gotten an "A" heatsink. And it won't fit. It is a true pity that Apple didn't design these to be the same part. I imagine it was to keep the thing aesthetically balanced and pleasing to the eye. In any case, my upgrade was stopped dead in it's tracks.

I sent them a message via their website informing them that they had sent wrong part. I also went on Ebay and saw that they had also listed a CPU "A" heatsink. Looking at the photos I realized that the "A" they had in the photo was actually the "B" unit with the flat bottom. And going back to the auction I bought the first "B" from it was clearly an "A" with the little cutout for the tray heatsink in the photo, it also had a little sticker in the photo that was on my unit. So obviously they had just mixed up the listings.

So I message them again that I was going to buy the listed "A" unit since they had switched them. I asked that they get a tray out and verify that they had switched the listings and to not ship it until they were sure I would finally get the right part.

The next day I awoke to notices that my new purchase had shipped ! No answers to any of my queries. I started firing off messages via their website and through Ebay. Once they shipped the thing it gets much harder for them to realize their mistake.

And sure enough, when they finally read my messages, they start claiming that I bought the wrong part. They tell me that they aren't real photos and they only use stock photos. They also claim that they had no record of me buying the first one.

At this point I realize that I had used a different Ebay account to buy the 2 items. However, both Ebay accounts go to the same person at the same address and are paid via the same exact Paypal account. I can not for the life of me understand how they can't connect the dots.

Has anyone else had dealings with these guys? The messages I get from them are completely clueless. I have sent photos and explanations and they just will NOT pay the least bit of attention or admit they made a mistake.

Today I was forced to file a claim against them. I HATE filing claims as I know as a seller that the very first thing Ebay does is lock the money up to get your attention. As a seller, this stinks, especially when the buyer got wrong item. But in this instance I knew exactly what I wanted and was sent the wrong item. Had they read their support email in a timely manner they could have verified that BEFORE shipping the 2nd one.

Aldso, now I am worried that the 2nd one will really be an "A" as it is listed, even though the picture shows a "B".

And I find it very insulting that they have fallen back on the "Oh, the picture doesn't matter, those are stock photos" when the picture clearly shows the exact WRONG unit I got. Right down to the secondary part number. (Which can be googled and found associated with an "A" heatsink)

We occasionally make mistakes. We have sent people a 3GB version when they ordered a 6GB GTX780. We have had cards die between testing here and install at the customer's end. But we own up to these mistakes and do what we can to fix it.

Now I have no idea what is coming in the mail.

When people say that doing a 2009 CPU upgrade is a pain....it's true !

I can't attest for the wrong parts, but i did buy a new trey from them last month since my blew up on me a while back. It worked great, not an issue so i didn't have to bother communicating or trying to return. Hopefully it workout for you. Either way you will get your money back and have it shipped back because of ebay.

I actually bought a tray 3 months ago from a different seller. He had a low rating but i took the chance because of his 100% feedback. Little did i know that feedback is no longer what it used to be. When i received the tray i received it in the box that he got a replacement tray in (big flag). It Had the apple part numbers all over it. I still gave the tray a try but it wouldn't even post cpu a.

So i contacted the seller and he tried to claim that i bought the wrong items. I argued with him in a few e-mails and gave up. I then did a return request, he denied it so i moved onto the claim. Ebay took my side, sent me a prepaid label and refunded the money the day it arrived back to him.

I also left him a negative a few days before getting a refund and when ebay processed the refund the negative got removed. I was so mad, but what can i do. At least i got my money back, but it sucks because he deliberately tried to screw me and ebay should have kept that feedback to warn others.

Anyways. It does suck in that regards to that but at least ebay will fix the issue. Now as a Seller I've 100% given up being a seller now a days because of the buyer scams and the ebay buyer protection actually helps scammers as well. You can no longer list an auction as no returns, ebay will always favor the buyer and force the return.

I sold my macbook pro 2 years ago right before christmas. The buyer then contacted me 28 days later telling me that he bought a new macbook pro because the one he got from me wasn't the macbook that i sold him. He then took photos of his new one uploaded it to ebay (probably to help his case) and claimed it was the macbook pro that i sent him. I told him that is not the serial of computer i sold you and i won't accept the return.

Well ebay favored the buyer. Forced the return. I got it back, all scratched up with a missing hard drive. He left a copy of his receipt showing that he got a new macbook pro for 1k (he paid me $950). He blacked out his name with a sharpie and wrote "HAHA i told you i would return it, thanks for letting me borrow your macbook... P.S i decided to remove the hard drive instead of removing my information from it".

I showed the paper to ebay, but they wouldn't re-open the case or help. After that i told myself never to sell on ebay. Right now ebay is Great for buyers, but Very Bad for Sellers. That one auction really screwed me since i had bought a new computer with that money before the refund. Then on top of it it was all scratched up (value dropped a lot after Christmas) and i needed a new hard drive. I ended up just giving it to a family member since trying to resell on ebay wasn't going to happen.

I guess in the end i should have been happy to have gotten it back, he could have shipped me an empty box and ebay would have still refunded (seen this types of complaints online). My guess is that the buyer wasn't a big their, just a small one or maybe he would have been worried that it would have been caught upto him since i could have sued and won based on the empty box's shipping weight lol.

LOL way off topic, but my story's are just a way to re-assure you that ebay has the buyer covered so don't worry. The sellers are the ones who get screwed now a days not the buyers. They copied this buyer policy from Amazon's A-Z program (which is why i won't sell on their either).
 

nigelbb

macrumors 65816
Dec 22, 2012
1,140
264
eBay buyers can get screwed too.

The power supply failed on my 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 I knew it had failed as I have another identical Mac Pro & swapped the power supplies back & forth & the fault followed the power supply.

I tried to get my power supply repaired by a seller on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/cpsupport but after paying in advance & sending him my power supply he not only didn't repair it (he said it was working OK in their testing) but refused to return it even when I offered to pay for the return. I eventually got eBay to refund me the money that I paid up front for the repair but I didn't ever get the power supply returned so that I could get it repaired somewhere else. These crooks are no longer selling their repair service on eBay but I see that there was other negative feedback after mine where people got scammed. eBay wouldn't provide me with details of the seller beyond what was available on the listing e.g. a phone number that was disconnected. They had his credit card details & PayPal must have verified address, bank details etc but eBay & PayPal just ignored all my requests for help.
 
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