HD 7970's flying off shelves like hotcakes, retailer greed knows no bounds.

[MatTheCat]

I went to buy a Sapphire HD 7970 earlier today from Aria.co.uk. for £460....I got distracted, by the time I got back there were none left in stock.

I then decided to head over to Scan.co.uk where I saw the same card for just ten quid more, i.e. £470. New price of card: £530!!! GREEEEEEEDY FRIGGGGGN BUSTURDS! £60 price hike in the space of just one morning!

I hate getting ripped off just cos I am British so i am now looking at the VTX for £439 (from Aria). Although by the time I have pondered over it and read a few replies from here those will probs be gone as well.....

....could anyone tell me why the VTX brand is cheaper than all the rest? Is there any reason why I should not buy the VTX version of the HD 7970?

(I will be adding probably a Zalman air cooler to this card just as soon as they become widely available)

Danke Schön!

[entropy13]

Don't get "distracted" then.

And so long as they're all the reference design there isn't really any differences except for the warranty.

[Jarman]

ocuk has plenty available for £460.....

[MatTheCat]

Originally Posted by entropy13

Don't get "distracted" then.

And so long as they're all the reference design there isn't really any differences except for the warranty.

Are they all made using the same grade of components and same grade of workmansip?

The vendors must surely do more than simply put their stickers on the cooler, otherwise why have vendors at all?

Originally Posted by Jarman

ocuk has plenty available for £460.....

Overclockers are biggest greed merchants of them all....no way am I buying from them.

[Doomedspeed]

ebuyer has the Sapphire 7970 for £455.

Sapphire HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 HDMI DVI Dual Mini.. | ...

[MatTheCat]

Originally Posted by Doomedspeed

ebuyer has the Sapphire 7970 for £455.

Sapphire HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 HDMI DVI Dual Mini.. | ...

Yeah..problem with them is that they insist that I live in the 'Scottish Highlands' (I dont), I have to pay more for delivery and would have to wait until the weekend for my card.

[Hokum]

Having worked for Aria I wouldn't buy from them, the cheapest 7970 i've seen is £444.98 from ebuyer.
PowerColor HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Dual Mini.. ...

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Doomedspeed

ebuyer has the Sapphire 7970 for £455.

Sapphire HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 HDMI DVI Dual Mini.. | ...

Thanks.... the Powercolor is even cheaper!

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Jarman

ocuk has plenty available for £460.....

Try to avoid them, if possible, as they get up to shady practices. You just don't wanna give people like that they're money.

[Jarman]

of the big etailers ocuk is where i go. At least they are "reasonable" with returns etc.

I've never had a problem with ocuk in 12 years of buying from them?! I assume that's not the same for everyone?

[Hokum]

Originally Posted by qubit

Try to avoid them, if possible, as they get up to shady practices. You just don't wanna give people like that they're money.

I had to take them to small claims court to refund a DSR return. Ended up sending in the bailiffs! Another company I wouldn't buy from...

[Tatty_One]

Have had loads of issues with OCuk..... Novatech is my etailer of choice...... top class customer services and couriered collections for returns!

[scaminatrix]

Originally Posted by Jarman

of the big etailers ocuk is where i go. At least they are "reasonable" with returns etc.

I've never had a problem with ocuk in 12 years of buying from them?! I assume that's not the same for everyone?

Even with the risk of turning this into another ocuk bashing thread, yes you're right
They ripped me off £180 and their returns policy is the worst ever. I've spoken to loads of people who say they've had no problems but after talking more, they say "oh yea they did something to me once where they sent the wrong item and tried to blame me" etc. etc.

They are actually quite terrible with returns, the worst I've ever encountered and I'm an RMA freak!

I can pull up my old posts of info I found about ocuk and the amount of companys that Mark and Claire Proudfoot actually own (they own a network of companies and Mark has been in trouble in UK and in other countries), but I'll leave that up to TPU's almighty search function.

Novatech is "best" at the mo it seems.

[MatTheCat]

Originally Posted by scaminatrix

Novatech is "best" at the mo it seems.

Far too expensive!

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Jarman

of the big etailers ocuk is where i go. At least they are "reasonable" with returns etc.

I've never had a problem with ocuk in 12 years of buying from them?! I assume that's not the same for everyone?

You're right, it's not the same for everyone. If you buy a brand new product that's selling in high volume and it doesn't have a defect, then you'll probably be ok. However, the problems start when you need customer service, where they deliberately miss out things like refunding your postage, every time, even if you remind them beforehand. Sometimes, even these brand new items aren't even new, because they've fobbed you off with someone else's return, which is illegal.

That's nothing though. All their clearance stuff is a dodgy place to go to. I bought a new Q9550 'OEM'CPU a while back, but it was anything but new or 'OEM' - it was full of scratches and had clearly been used and abused. Also, it was the old C0 stepping. I returned it and had to chase them several times for the shipping costs both ways, which they tried to wriggle out of by saying "there was nothing wrong with it". They also totally ignored my complaint about being sold dodgy hardware. I bitched loudly about it on TPU and if I had been inclined I could have gone to Trading Standards over this, but that's a lot of hassle and TD aren't all that effective anyway, which is why they get away with it all the time.

Hokum's experienc below, is unfortunately more common than you'd think.

Originally Posted by Hokum

I had to take them to small claims court to refund a DSR return. Ended up sending in the bailiffs! Another company I wouldn't buy from...

Finally, their prices aren't usually very good, either. They tend to slap on an extra £10-15 compared to other retailers and the shipping tends to be minimum a tenner too, so I don't see what the attraction is with buying from them.

And as others have said, Novatech are excellent. They're my supplier of choice and I get consistently excellent customer service.

Originally Posted by MatTheCat

Far too expensive!

Not necessarily. All retailers have their strangely priced goods, but I normally find them to be reasonably priced.

[Fourstaff]

I am so happy you cannot upgrade a laptop, no need to have this dilemma

[pantherx12]

Originally Posted by Jarman

of the big etailers ocuk is where i go. At least they are "reasonable" with returns etc.

I've never had a problem with ocuk in 12 years of buying from them?! I assume that's not the same for everyone?

The majority of people have issues with them, hence the 2 star rating on google shopping

[qubit]

Originally Posted by pantherx12

The majority of people have issues with them, hence the 2 star rating on google shopping

I'd like to know how those barstewards stay in business with business practices and reputation like that. They don't even have good prices unless something is on special offer.

[scaminatrix]

Originally Posted by MatTheCat

Far too expensive!

Sorry, I was talking about customer service rather than the card

Originally Posted by qubit

TD aren't all that effective anyway, which is why they get away with it all the time.

Actually from what I've read, TS have been very effective against OCUK but the thing is, Mark just pays the fine every time and doesn't care about OCUK's reputation, as he has a whole load of other companies to fall back on. Personally I would have done it because I like to rape companies that have attempted to rape me, just for the people that got raped

Originally Posted by qubit

I'd like to know how those barstewards stay in business with business practices and reputation like that. They don't even have good prices unless something is on special offer.

They pay the fines and move on, even the BBB can't be trusted now as it takes "bribes"

[qubit]

You'd think that after X number of times, the penalties would get progressively harsher and end up with a court order to shut down the company, wouldn't you? Nah, that would be too effective.

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Fourstaff

I am so happy you cannot upgrade a laptop, no need to have this dilemma

I never have a dilemma..... out of principle I will never spend more than £250 on a graphics card

[NdMk2o1o]

Originally Posted by MatTheCat

The vendors must surely do more than simply put their stickers on the cooler, otherwise why have vendors at all?

You obviously don't understand how a channel works, AMD could sell direct and they would have one sales team doing all the work, or recruit a large number of global distributors and partners and have 100's of sales teams selling your products.

[scaminatrix]

Originally Posted by qubit

You'd think that after X number of times, the penalties would get progressively harsher and end up with a court order to shut down the company, wouldn't you? Nah, that would be too effective.

Constant fines = cash-cow for local council? You never know. Maybe they see the money rolling in and think "f*ck it, let them gather fines"

[Damn_Smooth]

Originally Posted by qubit

You'd think that after X number of times, the penalties would get progressively harsher and end up with a court order to shut down the company, wouldn't you? Nah, that would be too effective.

I honestly thought that this was a news post from you until I got in to the thread.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by scaminatrix

Constant fines = cash-cow for local council? You never know. Maybe they see the money rolling in and think "f*ck it, let them gather fines"

Actually, that sounds like a nice little earner, doesn't it? I wouldn't put it past them.

Originally Posted by Damn_Smooth

I honestly thought that this was a news post from you until I got in to the thread.

Yes, it does read like one of mine, doesn't it, lol. It's a very good title.