What’s worse than having to spend over a thousand dollars on an RTX 4090 GPU? Spending thousands on a GPU, just to be an empty chest, save for some useless weight.
This is the situation a Newegg customer apparently found himself in after sharing a photo NVIDIA GeForceRTX 4090 A square must contain one of the world The best graphics cards Instead, it contains some mineral lumps.
Thank God for the replies to last reddit The unlucky customer, it seems, was able to get their money back – and hopefully they can get a physical RTX 4090 soon – but their tale reminds us that we always need to be careful when buying online.
This advice is especially important as November and Black Friday approach.
Analysis: How to Avoid Scams on Black Friday
As we head into the Black Friday sale season, you should expect to see the internet awash with discounts and Black Friday Deals Encourage you to shop. But among these real deals there will be a lot of unsuccessful losers.
We’re not just talking about situations like the example above – where a user appears to be cheated into buying one item because they think it’s going to be another – but the discounts aren’t what they seem and are offers on the items you want. It would be better to avoid it.
So what are some of the best practices you can follow to avoid the Black Friday purchases you regret?
For starters, you only want to shop on reputable sites that you identify with that offer some kind of buyer protection. If you’re browsing an online store you’ve never heard of, go for it. The Google “[Site name] Legitimate” should show details about it on websites like Trustpilot. You’ll also likely see links to Reddit posts celebrating the site or bemoaning it depending on whether it’s a hidden gem or a hoax. If you’re still not 100% sure after doing your research, Shop elsewhere – the potential extra savings isn’t worth the risk.
You also want to make sure that you’re buying from the seller themselves, and not from a third party that uses the site as a marketplace. Newegg, Amazon, and Walmart are some of the stores that allow other people to sell items on their sites, and while many third-party sellers are fine, there are some bad actors that can slip through the gaps.
Once the site has passed the verifications, it’s time to check the quality of the product you want as well. Unfortunately Despite their best efforts Online stores like Amazon are inundated with fake reviews. While you can use our guide on How to spot fake Amazon reviews To try to separate true opinions from mass-produced lies, we also recommend again googling the item and trying to find independent reviews for it if you can.
If you are looking to capture a file Black Friday gaming laptop deal a Black Friday OLED TV Deal a Air Fryer Deal Black Friday or even a Black Friday coffee machine deal, most likely the model you’re interested in has been reviewed by a publication like TechRadar. We are not incentivized to make a product look better or worse than it actually is, so if you want an opinion you can trust on a tool you like, then read our review and decide if you want to buy this product.
Finally, before you hit buy, make sure the discount is as good as it sounds. Ahead of Black Friday, it’s not uncommon for brands to raise their prices to make the discounts seem bigger than they really are. Plus, even if the deal was a good deal, stores may have already sold them for a lower price — which could mean a better discount will drop near Black Friday. When balancing a deal, try to look at the price history of an item to make sure that this is indeed the best price.
Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee that you’ll never get caught if you follow these rules, but this guide should help you avoid some of the traps that Black Friday can bring.
