Amazon Destroys Customer's Ryzen 5 5600X CPU In Another Soft Pack Mail Fail
The situation surrounding the latest generation PC gaming hardware is both frustrating and annoying—certain desirable items are in short supply, and scripted bots only exacerbate things. So imagine finally getting your hands on a Ryzen 5000 series CPU, only for it to arrive damaged, as if Ace Ventura was the delivery person.
Unfortunately for an unlucky chap on Reddit, no imagination is needed. After waiting two months to get their hands on a Ryzen 5000 series CPU—any Zen 3 CPU—they finally scored one, a Ryzen 5 5600X. Normally that would be cause for elation, but any good feelings quickly turned sour when the thing arrived, sent out in a soft pack mailer.
The result is what you see in the image above, an elusive $299 Zen 3 CPU with several bent pins.By my count, eight of them are obviously bent, and it looks like a few more might be as well (it's not the best photograph in the world). That's just one corner of the chip, though.
"There are so many bent pins around all four edges of the CPU and I don't have the first clue as to how to fix them. I've tried tweezers and razor blades and using my phone camera as a magnifier, but haven't been successful on a single pin. They are too small for me to work on. AARRGGHGHGGH!!!!," the user wrote.
Here's how I imagine it was delivered (except with a soft pack mailer)...
Adding salt to the wound, Amazon's best offer is a refund and a paltry $5 store credit. The user is unable to have it replaced because it is out of stock.
The mutilated Ryzen 5 5600X might not be the last of its kind. Amazon has been sending out Ryzen 5000 series CPUs in soft pack envelopes, as another user posted an image of a beat up retail box for a Ryzen 9 5900X they ordered. Fortunately for that buyer, the CPU survived the ordeal, even if the retail box is no longer showcase worthy.
There's blame to go around here. On one hand, would it kill Amazon to stick these things in a cardboard box, given how hard these parts are to come by? I've received less expensive (and smaller) items in big boxes that could have been sent in a mailer instead, so I'm not sure how Amazon determines what is cardboard box worthy, and what is not.
On the other hand, AMD's retail packaging could certainly be a little sturdier, or better designed, to avoid this kind of thing. Amazon is a major retailer, and AMD has to know that their CPUs are being shipped out in soft pack mailers.
Delivery companies do not get a pass either. Sure, it's an incredibly busy time of the year, but a little bit of care is necessitated here. In event, buyer beware.
