Amazon denies refund after €3,000 rtx 5090 turns into $2 detergent
A Spanish gamer who paid €3,060 for Gigabyte’s flagship GeForce RTX 5090 WindForce OC 32 G opened his Amazon box last week and found a 1 kg pouch of store-brand detergent worth $1.89. The retailer’s response: the shipment was “correct” and the refund request is closed.
Weight mismatch that no algorithm caught
The parcel’s shipping label showed 1.56 kg. A boxed RTX 5090 weighs 2.9 kg. That 1.3 kg gap should have triggered an automatic flag in Amazon’s fulfilment software; instead it travelled 1,400 km from a Czech warehouse to Valencia untouched. Reddit user u/EmptyPCIeSlot filmed the unboxing after noticing the outer Amazon tape had been slit and re-sealed. Inside, Gigabyte’s retail sleeve was scalped open, the anti-static bag missing, and the card’s foam cavity stuffed with lavender-scented washing powder.
Amazon Spain’s executive-relations team spent eight days “reviewing images and carrier tracking” before declaring the merchandise “delivered as described” and archiving the ticket. Only when the buyer emailed a draft small-claims brief did customer service re-open the case—then closed it again four hours later, citing “insufficient evidence”.
Seller ghosting and a 0 % vat invoice
The order was listed as “fulfilled by Amazon” yet the invoice names a Lithuanian shell seller that has zero ratings and no VAT registration. Spanish electronics carry 21 % VAT; the bill shows 0 %. Amazon EU’s marketplace rules require sellers to provide verifiable tax IDs, but the account was still active at press time, now offering RTX 5080 Ti cards at 30 % below MSRP.
Gigabyte’s Spanish RMA centre confirms the serial number on the exterior box belongs to a card already activated in Dubai three weeks earlier, suggesting a classic serial-swap refund fraud: a genuine GPU ships, is replaced with ballast, then returned for resale to the next unsuspecting buyer.
Amazon’s public line remains that “third-party inventory commingled in our FCs undergoes weight and barcode checks”. Workers at the Prague 4 facility tell TechBloom those checks have been spot-only since Christmas peak, and GPUs are exempt because their weight “varies by packaging revision”.
Marketplaces still can’t police high-value silicon
The incident lands as Nvidia’s Blackwell cards trade at 200 % premiums and scalper bots target every major drop. PayPal and eBay have tightened escrow for items above $500, but Amazon’s A-to-Z guarantee still relies on customer photographs and call-centre discretion. Consumer watchdog OCU reports GPU fraud claims up 340 % year-on-year, yet fewer than 12 % end in reimbursement when Amazon itself handles fulfilment.
Charlotte Gibson’s advice: if you must buy a 5090 online, choose Sold by Amazon.com (not “fulfilled”), film the unboxing in a single take, and weigh the parcel before the courier leaves. Otherwise you may discover the only thing rendering is your laundry.