Purchased a Detuned EVGA GTX 1080 Ti By Mistake

I wanted to purchase a GeForce 1080 Ti, and I narrowed down the model to the 3 fan version from EVGA. I added it to my wishlist and waited for the right time to buy.

On Wednesday 12/13/2017, I was in the office, and I decided to go ahead and buy the GPU. I went on NewEgg, bought it and went about my day.

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 DT DirectX 12 11G-P4-6694-KR 11GB

The next day, I wanted to do a quick check of the clock speeds of the card to compare with my existing GPU. I logged into my account, and clicked on the link to the GPU page. I noticed that the card had only 8 reviews, and I remember seeing a lot more reviews previously.

I did not think much about it, but I clicked on the reviews, and I found this review -

DT (Detuned) vs GAMING

I realized that not only did I purchase the wrong card, I purchased an "inferior" version of it. Needless to say, this was an expensive mistake to make. I contemplated keeping it, but upon comparing this card with other lower priced cards, the base clock speeds for the detuned (DT) version are lower than other factory overclocked versions, and they also cost less than the DT card.

At this point, I decided that there is no reason to keep this card. I went to the order history page to start a refund process, and I noticed that this card is covered under Extended Holiday Replacement-Only Return Policy, and so there was no way I could get initiate a refund process.

Extended Holiday Replacement-Only Return Policy

I decided to call NewEgg, and there was a 1hr wait time. They did have a call back feature, which I decided to use. Surprisingly, I got a call back from NewEgg within the allocated time.

I spoke to the customer care representative, and he told me that I could refuse the delivery from FedEx. Fortunately, I was off from work the next day, so I could do this, but just in case I missed the delivery man, he issued me an RMA label.

After I was done with the phone call, I decided to buy the GPU that I wanted. There was no point in waiting. I contemplated buying this card -

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC2 GAMING, 11G-P4-6593-KR, 11GB GDDR5X, iCX Technology - 9 Thermal Sensors & RGB LED G/P/M

In the end, decided to go with MSI instead. I went their GAMING version of 1080 Ti, and it was the same price as the equivalent EVGA version.

MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti DirectX 12 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X 11G 11GB 352-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

I purchased this late Thursday (12/14/2017) for $769.99, and I paid extra to have it shipped on Saturday. It was worth it for me because I can use it over the weekend. So far, I am very happy with it. I am going to post the review at a later time.

On Friday 12/15/2017, I happened to catch the FedEx deliveryman, and I refused the package at the door.

I then called FedEx and informed them about this. The FedEx representative told me that it will take a day or two for the system to reflect the latest status.

Sure enough, after a day, the tracking number showed that there are two results for it. One of them was for the delivery, and the other was for the delivery back to NewEgg.

Dual entries for my tracking number, showing the return of the item back to NewEgg

After a couple of days of NewEgg receiving the card, I got a full refund for my card.

GPU refund issued by NewEgg

This was followed by a refund for Destiny 2.

Destiny 2 refund issued by NewEgg

In the end, it all worked out OK, but had I not logged in to check the clock speeds, I probably would have been stuck with a GPU that did not pass overclocking quality tests. I emailed NewEgg to let them know that the product description should highlight the fact that the card is a Detuned version.

Response from NewEgg regarding having a better product description for the Detuned version

As of today (January 8, 2018), the product description has not changed. I hope this post will prevent someone from making the same mistake as I did.