I sold:

• CPU Intel I7-7700
• Mobo Asus Prime B250M-K
• RAM 2x8 GB 2400MHz CL16
• CoolerMaster HyperX Evo 212

for €250. Which is a pretty decent price compared to what others ask for their 7700 (180-200€ range is the normal price). The Mobo had a "ding" on the M.2 port, which didn't stop me from using a SATA M.2. drive w/o probs (this imperfection was obviously known to buyer).



I literally switched off the system that worked correctly for months and took out the MoBo, unmounted the cooler, removed the RAM and put the Mobo incl CPU in its original box and shipped it (guy lives at 800km)

Buyer informed me upon receipt that the system was not working. He troubleshot (troubleshooted?) for a while and couldn't find the problem until 2w later he got hold of a gen7 CPU and 270 Mobo to inform me that both my Mobo and the CPU were kaputt.

WTF? That's about 190€ of value that evaporates. Buyer seems an honest respectable guy with the same 100 positive feedback I have on the site.

Who do you think should absorb this hit? Who is most likely to have ****ed up? Should I as the buyer compensate 100% or should be split somewhere else?

I'm obviously not 100% objective in this issue, so looking for your views on this, thanks.

190€ might be a big blind for one guy, for the other it is a couple of w of shopping

I think it's very unlikely both the board and esp the cpu went bad, assuming you shipped in original packages. I mean think about it, that's a lottery shot...
either the guy's an idiot or trying to scam you, not sure which is more likely, but plenty of *******s in the world, I've had to deal with so many of these petty thieves and ill mannered douches alike.
I guess tell him to try again with 1 different ram stick on your parts, mby that's the booboo, if he can get his system to boot with a different cpu and board, can't be anything else, except for physical damage he inflicted, either bent a pin or shorted smth out, either way not your fault. Wouldn't lose any sleep about it if I knew I did absolutely nothing wrong. Also wouldn't split ****.

It's got nothing to do with ram. He had several sticks and mine were confirmed OK. When he boots with the 270 mobo, a CPU error LED lights up.

I don't know what the **** happened, but when I disassembled the system the CPU was 100% OK.

still, look at the big picture
you send 2 working parts and some random guy informs you they're actually both damaged
ye..right...
he fcked up and bent pins, he fried the chip with a shady psu, he shorted smth on the board, he's using the wrong board/ram to test the cpu? who knows but all a lot more likely explanations than your parts got damaged in shipping somehow. a cpu is well protected in its box, they'd have to smash it with a hammer to get through and then the box would be cooked.

CPU wasn't shipped in its box. CPU never left the socket and was in the mobo and the mobo was in its box.

ah ok I assume you put in the anti static bag it came with and the box was not damaged on receival

Obviously in an anti status bag and the box was in another box. Required an elephant to sit on it for physical damage

The guy uses a thermaltake 750W PSU

This issue is bothering me a decent lot. I have done business over internet for decades and never disappointed anyone

if u want to keep your rep do a full refund its a obvious defective part/s


you shoulda shipped as is/ or stripped down and confirm working after tear down.

^nonsense

lol

Tell me how I can confirm working after teardown without building the system back up?

You're at the mercy of the auction/selling platform, and refunds favor the buyer. It could have been damaged in transit or you could have ran into a bad buyer.

If you were in the USA and dealing with the ebay monopoly, your funds would have already been taken back out of your bank account. Up to you whether its worth not selling on the platform.

where I live we don't use trading platforms with buyer protection. either you're careful who you buy from or you buy new. we meet with the courier in person, open up the package in his presence, do a quick check of the contents and sign off / pay in cash or credit card or reject the delivery.

unfortunately, for electronics that don't show physical damage, it's impossible to check working status, so either we arrange a personal meeting with the buyer and run tests, if that's not possible, I just don't buy any electronics that are not new in box and sealed and keep in mind the price has to be significantly lower than retail, because I can't return it and there's no warranty. fortunately, retail prices are not inflated over here in East Europe as they are in the UK for example so the sh market has to drop prices quite a bit to compete.

I actually am not, because we ran the transaction off the selling platform - saved him 15€ shipping. Buyer took that gamble because I'm a 100+ feedback seller

I've been in the buyer's spot already, when I bought a motherboard (F2F) that didn't work and the seller simply said: you broke it and unregistered from the site. End of story. The platform doesn't help if you don't use their escrow payment service and insured shipment. They didn't make money on you: you are on your own. That is their policy.

I lost 40€ on the motherboard deal, but I gained that back easily by saving on shipping multiple times.

Anyway, now I'm in the seller's spot and the buyer is basically at my mercy. If the mobo would have been broken, I would have (partially) paid the costs of another one (would have been 30-40€) and slept well. But the CPU, that's another story (180€ ish) and also MUCH more unlikely to break during disassembly, given that I didn't even take it out of the mobo. I just cannot find a good reason for me to assume the damage.

i meant strip down and put partially back together if you saw the defect on the photo

Did this happen before you bought it originally and you managed to get it working?, or did it happen whilst you have been using it and you are now aware of it, it looks like some type of short happened and caused that to "melt" which probably means there's another fault somewhere on the board and a multi metre could detect where.

It remained working while together but once stripped down it no longer did (circuit is broken) , so i assume this happened while u have been using it and it probably wouldn't be an issue until being stripped.

My opinion give full refund and if anything ask the person to ship it back to you .

what is this guy talking about

me ?

I'm not sure you get it

• I had a working computer
• I shut down the computer
• I opened the computer
• I took out the motherboard incl RAM, CPU and cooler.
• I removed the RAM and cooler and packaged them separately.
• I put the motherboard in its original box with the CPU still in it
• I put the tree packages (motherboard, ram, cooler) into a bigger box and send it to buyer.
• I basically sent a complete computer minus power supply, case and storage media
• Buyer assembled it and connected a power supply and the system didn't work.
• The RAM and cooler are confirmed good. The CPU and motherboard are dead, so the buyer claims

Where exactly can one find defects on photos of a processor/motherboard that doesn't work?

How is it possible that I killed the CPU, when I didn't even take it out of the motherboard, after switching off the power and opening the PC case? Isn't it more likely the CPU got killed by the buyer when he connected the system back to power?

Why should I accept the damages of the non-working system when it might have been the buyer assembling the system and shortcutting it or connecting a power supply that killed the system with overvoltage?

What is the probability I killed the system when disassembling? What is the probability that buyer killed the system assembling? That is my question, because although I can get away giving him nothing at all, my intention is to handle this properly and assume responsibility for that what is mine.

I don't really have a good answer to this issue, but there are many different paths to try to come up with a reasonable answer. I don't think the posts here about the technical issues are very helpful - I think this is an ethical question, rather than a technical question.

If you are able to do so, the refund would be very kind and generous. Also, giving no refund is also defensible.

Ultimately, I think you need to consider the moral issues here, not the technical issues.

say you lend a friend something and he returns it broken, says it just stopped working
are you to blame?

I personally think it is a mix of technical/moral issue.
First I want some input on the likelihood that the system broke during (my) disassembly and that it broke during (his) assembly and connecting power.

After that I can establish whether I am morally entitled to do a partial refund.

What I also consider is that the buyer isn't yelling at me, threatening to report me to the police or to the sales platform. Either he is an extremely mild and patient guy performing tests or he knows he is the one that has ****ed up

From the start I have been active with suggestions on how to troubleshoot and questions about his power supply. From now on I play the passive game. If buyer doesn't come to me for a refund, I don't have to think about giving one.

Assuming you know what you're doing, didn't lie in your OP, and you're not doing something ridiculous like running your feet along the carpet while disassembling the tower, the damage is more likely to be done on his end.

I've seen a few motherboards fried due to a power surge or a bad PSU - but I've not run into an event which fried both the motherboard and the CPU at the same time. I'd commiserate, then ask him to ship everything back to me before you refund any money. If the CPU isn't working, then I'd assume he's done something catastrophic when hooking everything up. At that point, decide what your 100% positive rating is worth and decide accordingly. If the CPU is working, then there's a small chance that you might've fried the motherboard when removing it or shipping it, at which point I'd refund the money and then sell the CPU: a 7700 still goes for a good amount if you find the right buyer.

If you've gone through basic steps, like grounding yourself before touching the inside of the computer and unplugging the PSU before tinkering around inside of the computer, then damaging the CPU without unseating it seems very remote.

I worked in a pc shop for a couple of years and there were 3 of us building or servicing pcs pretty much round the clock and we've never managed to short anything out with just static. none of us wearing grounding straps, there were carpets and it was pretty cold in the basement workshop so we tended to wear fleece jackets, we've even vacuumed inside the particularly disgusting systems we were sent and not a single case of shorting anything out (obv when working inside a computer you unplug it and fully discharge the capacitors on the mobo, that much we did). Electronics these days have all sort of extra protections, you have to try hard to damage anything when not working with the power on.

^^ yeah i havent spent THAT much time inside comps, but a decent amount, and never so much as had a scare in that sense..

ive probably started to type a response to op 3-4 times now and just cant come up with anything helpful... weird spot, agree with josem mostly tho.