I got my GPU in the mail today... but it wasn't what I ordered...

When I woke up this morning to see that the tracking information for the package for my GPU was set to be delivered today I was excited! I was finally going to have an awesome GPU to put into my budget build so that I can play modern games. I opened the box to indeed see a Sapphire Pulse RX 570 4GB box and I was so happy to see that beautiful box! I opened the box and that's when I started to notice issues with the GPU. While there was in fact a GPU in there, it wasn't an Sapphire Pulse RX 570 4gb. This is instantly apparent when I seen the Nitro stickers on the fans and not Sapphire stickers that I knew that this wasn't what I ordered. Further, the card only had one display output port which was a DVI output. A Sapphire Pulse RX 570 has no DVI ports and instead has 2 display ports and 2 HDMI ports. As I don't have a DVI to HDMI cable, I can't even use the card at the moment, but it at least fits into my system and looks decent. I powered up my PC and the fans do spin so that's something. I looked on the side of the card which is where I seen that the card was instead a Sapphire Nitro RX 470 4GB. While this isn't a bad card, it's not as good as an RX 570 and would need to be overclocked to achieve similar performance to an RX 570.

This puts me into a bit of a bind because I can't afford return shipping at the moment. I could purchase a DVI to HDMI cable which would make it usable but that would be another 6 bucks and it wouldn't arrive until Monday. I sent the seller a message to express my disappointment and to see what could be done to remedy the issue. At the time of this writing, the seller has yet to respond to my message, but as I only sent the message within the last hour, it may take some time before they respond. It would be silly to expect an instant response. The seller has great feedback so I'm sure that they will be willing to work with me on a possible solution. The best case scenario would be that the seller would refund my purchase and let me keep the item as I don't have enough money to return it. That's being optimistic, but I wouldn't be upset anymore. Even if the seller was to pay for return shipping, it would take several days for them to receive the item back and then a few more days for me to get my refund. Then, I'd have to shop online for another GPU and it would take a week before I'd be able to play modern games on my PC.

This card also has had it's warranty stickers removed off the back screws meaning that at some point in this card's lifetime, this card has been opened up either to be repaired, to have it's thermal paste changed, to be clean or possibly modified in some way. I have a feeling that most likely the seller will respond sometime tomorrow. I will probably not return the card though because I really don't want to wait a week to get another one. I'd rather just buy the correct cable I need and just use it. It would still be good enough for what I need, just not as great as what I ordered. I also sent the seller some pics of the card that I received to show them what I actually got. I don't think that the seller knowingly sent me the wrong item. I believe what happened is that the seller may have purchased several cards in bulk and wanted to resell them to make a profit. If so, there's nothing at all wrong with that, but as he/she also has several other GPUs for sale and he/she should have, at the very least, opened the item to make sure that the correct GPU before turning around to sell it.

At first, I was pissed off and I believe I was right to be mad. Now, I'm mostly just disappointed. I don't know what will be done to remedy the issue that would be reasonable for both the seller and me. Most likely, if they don't respond with a good solution for the both of us by morning, I'm just going to purchase a DVI to HDMI cable, get it Monday, and just use the GPU. They do have several other RX 570s for sale (or so they say) that they could send me, but none of them would fit as this one just barely does. It's at least in nice shape, but it's used and not open box as they described.

Update: As I write this, they just responded to me and responded with the following...

"Hi,
We are very sorry for our packaging personnel mistake.
FYI, open box item is typically a customer return.
We received this from retail stores.

Please start the return and ship the video card right away.
We will refund your money + shipping once the item is shipped.

Thanks"

The seller responded much quicker than I expected so +1 for good customer service. They let me know that it was an honest mistake (these things happen) and that they would not only issue me a refund, but also refund me the cost to ship it back as well. They said that as soon as it's shipped, that I'll receive my refund... so it looks like it may be another week before I get a GPU for this budget gaming PC. It sucks, but I appreciate the fact that they are willing to work with me to resolve this issue. I'll probably ship it out tomorrow (as it's late today) and purchase another GPU at that time.

For now, that's all, but I decided I should write a post about this. Thank you for reading.

As always, have an awesome day!