Calmly send a message to the seller letting them know they sent you non-parity RAM despite the listing indicating it was parity RAM and that the difference is actually very important and that you specifically needed parity RAM. See if they'll be willing to just up and send you the correct kind, as some eBay sellers are willing to do that when they make a mistake, or they may ask for the other RAM back first before they send the correct kind out. Either way, see if the seller's gonna be reasonable or not.

If not, start an "Item Not as Described" dispute and get your money back. :P

The seller may not know the difference. Anybody can cut & paste another seller's old listing into a new listing.

Well, I wasn't going to go off on the guy, I was just a bit bummed that it wasn't what I ordered. I haven't had a chance to try it in my machine yet, it shouldn't damage it. If it isn't going to work it just won't work. If it does work, then I have to decide if it is worth the hassle to get it switched out if the system doesn't really need it.
I like using parity/ECC in my systems but it's not like I'm sending anyone into space, here, and I'd probably never notice a random flipped bit. I'm going to give it a try before work today and see what happens.

When I'm not totally happy then I politely point out the seller's mistake and see what they offer to make things right. If they don't reply, negative feedback. If they just give me a 'woops sorry' then I suggest that they refund the shipping and take it from there. I generally can't be bothered sending things back either, but the seller should still be told at least. They're usually good about it.

The last three times I ran into eBay purchase troubles:

1. I was getting the first of the two Leisure Suit Larry collections I bought for Episode 69 of ADG. I was instead sent a Harry Potter game. When I told the seller they simply sent out the right game and didn't ask for the mis-sent game back. I gave it to a friend who gave it to a friend who was into Harry Potter. :B

2. I was getting an old board game and the copy I was sent was incomplete and missing a few pieces. I told the seller and instead of simply sending me the missing pieces, they sent me an ENTIRE second copy of the game!... also missing a few pieces. But by combining pieces from both copies I was able to make one completely copy. :)

3. I had bought the entire series of Star Trek: Voyager from a seller with over 500 positive feedback only to discover they were bootlegs. The seller not only offered to refund the entire purchase cost, but also offered to refund the cost to send the DVDs back, and the seller did indeed do all that. Not too many weeks following, said seller suddenly got nearly a dozen negative feedback in relation to bootlegs and their account was removed.

So yeah, while I have run into issues on eBay, typically I'm able to get everything sorted out. Only once did a seller basically just take my money and never send me anything, but their positive feedback was so incredibly high my negative feedback didn't really do much to them. That was the event which taught me to always get in touch with sellers ahead of time, to double-check negative feedbacks to ensure there isn't a pattern which might affect me, and it's also what prompted me to sign up with PayPal, because I would've been able to get my money back if I had paid that way. Up to that point, I was still using money orders. :P

Well it won't be a complete loss if I can't get a refund, I still have an AWE 32 I can put them in, although I think it will only "see" 28 MB of that. I'll have to keep the other 32 for something else or trade them.

You're looking at this the wrong way!

It's an opportunity 🤣

Learnt this from my last boss. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Oh the pain, I needed this for a project, it will set me back weeks and cost me a fortune 😵

Get a partial refund and get the goods. That is what I always do. Sending it back is the worst option for both parties involved.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

You're looking at this the wrong way! […]
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You're looking at this the wrong way!

It's an opportunity 🤣

Learnt this from my last boss. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Oh the pain, I needed this for a project, it will set me back weeks and cost me a fortune 😵

Get a partial refund and get the goods. That is what I always do. Sending it back is the worst option for both parties involved.

So wait, keep the existing RAM, get a partial refund, AND get new RAM? I like a bargain as much as anyone, but that seems like pushing my luck. I already talked the guy down to half price originally (but still paying crazy prices if you go by modern RAM prices).

I already sent him an email stating I want a refund or to send them back for replacement, too bad I didn't see this earlier. I can't really play up the hard luck angle.

No, just keeping the RAM. You don't want to sound ridiculous / greedy 🤣

E.g. I ordered several sticks of 32MB RAM. A few however were 16MB. So the outcome was that I got a partial refund for those incorrect sticks, and I keep the lot and positive feedback 😀

Ah ok I see what you're saying. I was thinking I was going to have to brush up on my Ferengi to pull that one off, 🤣.

I guess I've been lucky because I've never had a truly bad experience buying online.

I once bought a Rubik's Magic Snake which turned out to be a cheap copy, but in all fairness, the seller listed what country it was from and showed the packaging. I just assumed that it was an official product.

I also bought a couple games, CD-only, from one seller with a lot of complaints from buyers saying that they received broken discs and in each case, the seller told them that they should have paid for insurance. I paid for the insurance and the discs arrived intact, albeit just stuffed into a padded envelope with nothing extra to protect them from breakage.

A few years ago, I bought a CPU from a seller on Amazon and they sent the wrong chip. When I contacted them, they apologized, said that they didn't have the one I needed and told me to keep it. It was only like $10, but I thought that was nice.

Many years ago, I used to collect video game cartridges and I bought an Intellivision Pinball cartridge from one guy. It came, I plugged it in, turned on the system and was greeted with Atarisoft Pac-Man! I contacted the seller and he said he hadn't tested the carts because he wanted to send them out mint. I asked him to please test one to verify that it was Pinball and send it to me. He did so, and sent it out immediately without waiting for me to send the other one back (which I did).