Amazon, Please Stop This Gaming PC Scam

The more I looked at this, the worse it got.
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Chapter Titles:
0:00 Amazon has some explaining to do...
0:33 The Amazon "Gaming PC"
2:40 Meet Alarco
3:40 But how bad is it?
6:13 How are they doing it?
7:47 Custom vs Scamazon PC
11:38 Where are the reviews?

[@b_man-25]

It's honestly infuriating how all these amazon sellers make absolute garbage and then hide it behind RGB and false promises hoping to trick some unsuspecting parent into buying it because their kid wants to play Fortnite with his friends. I get that a lot of people make their product look better than it is, but blatantly lying about it should NOT be allowed.

[@massformationpsychosis7681]

True, but hey, I’m sure it’d run Fortnite good enough

[@b_man-25]

@@massformationpsychosis7681 yeah, it runs "good enough" in the video, about 40 fps. But the fact remains that for the same price you can build a much more modern system with literally twice the performance.

[@TheSaltyyOG]

Buy from amazon then and not sellers??

[@TheCommanderTaco]

You just said it yourself "parents buy". Most people aren't that tech familiar especially parents looking to just satisfy their kid's want to play a simple game. I tell people all the time when they come looking for computers to run games they aren't going to find anything cheap that is pre-built, and it doesn't help that some local stores have a huge markup for "assembly" prices which also scares non tech people from trying to build their own. I remember I had a lady arguing with me because she wanted a touch screen laptop under $100. I told her a touch screen would at least start out at $200, and she started yelling at me she could find one for $80 online. When I later told my co-worker we were laughing thinking if she was able to find one for that price it was either a refurbished or a very cheap slow parts type of computer lol.

[@acelix3087]

what you typed really sounds like a consumer problem, they can list RGB cause they have RGB and it's on you thinking whatever you want how RGB affects performance, and about "false promises" i missed that part but if you get parts you didn't see on the listing you can just return the product

[@CodenameRockerika]

There was a period when sites like Amazon actually recommended the industry leading brand when you search for a product. Now everything feels like the scammiest internet ad from the bottom of a buzzfeed article all across the internet.

[@SkateClipsAndTips]

Using the same generic image for the pre-builts and it has nothing to do with what's actually in it. Very sus, do not purchase those posts

[@fabricator77]

I bought one of the Anker Powerport USB power bricks and some cables to go with it. Excellent quality and sold by Anker themselves, entire product line and company vanished from Amazon now. I gave up on Amazon Prime when I found all the tech I wanted wasn't anywhere to be found, only cheap e-waste grade trash products. Amazon is just a dumping ground for poor quality junk China cannot sell any other way.

[@TakeThis_L]

not on the canadian amazon site

[@VideoVibes583]

They can probably bribe them to put them on top

[@kuebby]

I've found myself using eBay a lot more in the last couple years (after not using it for several years) because Amazon has gotten so bad.

[@UmmmmActually]

"hey bro your pc looks expensive, what can it run?" "gta 3"

[@msstefani]

14 years ago, I was using pre-builds. Now I built my own pc. I am glad my nephew has someone like me. I can build him a pc he can game on.

[@innovativeadvertising6463]

Hey there! As a fellow PC enthusiast, I totally understand the joy of building your own gaming rig. It's a fantastic experience that gives you complete control over your hardware choices. If you're looking for a versatile cleaning tool, I highly recommend the HOTO Compressed Air Capsule. It's a compact device that combines vacuuming and blowing capabilities, ensuring your desk and other spaces stay spotless. Plus, its reasonable price and excellent quality make it a great choice. Happy gaming and building!

[@maskscraper]

what? you should train your nephew so that you can game on!😜

[@bambamsbubble5249]

I build all my friends one and i am building a pc for my brother from my old part he is gettin a ryzen 5 3600 and a 3060 so i think he will be so much happier than if he bought a prebuild like those

[@Alpatrixx]

i bought a custom built purely for the reason i could pay in instalments (cause believe it or not i dont have 2 grand lying about), i know how to build a pc and have taken my pc apart once already

[@theremix54]

"Im glad my nephew has someone like me" - A literal Narcissist

[@antonistiger]

I really hope more people take this seriously. It's very odd that other tech youtubers don't shine any light on this issue. A lot of people are getting scammed by a "legitimate" business, which also happens to be one of the most successful sites out there. And this has been happening for a few years now.

[@acelix3087]

i don't know what you define legitimate or not, it's good that KZbinrs are raising awareness for these overpriced part pc but it's on the costumer for not having a clue on that they are buying and not doing a research before they buy a PC, you can always return if you don't get that you ordered and they list their parts, they are not sending you a rock, start reading more people

[@TheCommanderTaco]

​@AceLix the problem is the majority of people who buy are those that aren't familiar with tech, but trust the listing because it's on a major website sadly not knowing it's a 3rd party. As a person who works at Walmart I can sadly confirm people aren't that smart to differentiate between 3rd and 1st party listings ( the amount of times people come in looking for an item complaining it is on our website and we have to point out it's a 3rd party vendor lol). I blame the ease of drop shipping and how so many people try to preach how easy it is to make money doing so for most of the garbage making it that much harder to find legitimate products. I was recently looking to see how much a replacement battery for an older iPhone would be and even though it was listed from "different" companies all the listings had the same picture which scared me away from purchasing any of them lol.

[@acelix3087]

@@TheCommanderTaco people can complain all they want, it's their right, hopefully tho after they realize they didn't do much research on what they are buying and feeling "scammed" they will learn from their mistake or just keep doing it over and over again. Again this video is a good way to show the reality but it's not a responsibility of the company or anyone for that matter to educate everyone if they are not aware of the tech

[@antonistiger]

@@acelix3087 So as you saw in Autstins video, the listing on Amazon had different parts from what he received. I don't see how that is the customers fault. I also got scammed both on Amazon and Ebay lots of times. Not because I didn't do research, but because they sent something completely different. Or because the seller somehow has overwhelmingly positive reviews, even though they scam their customers. They also tend to delete negative reviews, as Austin also pointed out in his video.

[@acelix3087]

@@antonistiger just return if you don't get what you buy

[@hanktank45]

Really cool to see Austin take this seriously and call it out. Hope it gets some attention, I feel bad for people wasting their money on scam products. This PC would be fine if they marketed it for what it is and gave it a lower price.

[@gyhgamer0]

this item was fulfilled by amazon and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience (this is a joke im not a bot)

[@theElemDragon]

@@lunarvvolf9606 No, it's not "the industry wanting people to over pay for shit hardware". The "industry" wouldn't even sell that crap to people anymore. ESPECIALLY not for $500. This is just people out trying to make a quick buck by ripping off people who don't know any better. People who don't know the difference between a GTX 750 or a GTX 1650. People who don't even know what a GPU is. It's hardly any different from scalpers..... just that scalpers try to make a quick buck on things they KNOW people want, rather than just taking advantage of the uninformed.

[@theElemDragon]

@@lunarvvolf9606 I don't know about you, but I don't consider Joe Schmoe sitting in his basement buying anything he thinks he can make a profit on just to turn around and resell it part of an "industry". At least not any respectable one that shouldn't go up in flames. I wouldn't say people who order sought-after cars like Rivians and electric Hummers just to sell those for a huge markup are in the "automotive industry". Which I wish more car companies would have put a stop to, or attempted to do so. "Reselling" is an industry. Scalping, or any selling practice used to lure clueless shoppers (like the false advertising this crap uses) isn't quite the same, and should be illegal and result in heavy fines.

[@ViolentMLG]

Honestly its not as bad as Austin makes it out to be, but it is a poor configuration. The whole premise of this video is a little absurd. For $450 the system with an I7 2600 and 750 isn't bad, with the I5 and 650, that's a different story. He calls the system 'ewaste' which I think is a little over the top, and he continues to claim its probably 'recycled' but any tech enthusiast would know its not the case simply by looking at it. Its an OEM Chinese board, and NOT an OEM board that belongs to any companies in the US. Therefore, its not recycled. You can also tell from the graphics card, its also a Chinese import. Its clear they're importing Chinese supply paired with send-hand HDD's to build these systems. Regardless of who you are, building will ALWAYS be cheaper than buying a direct product, but not everyone and their mom want to build a PC. The competitors for this product is not a 5600G, but rather, a laptop or some bestbuy desktop with a Pentium that can't even game. At the end of the day, they're spending probably close to $200 on the product, then you have to cut in packaging materials, etc, which is $15 on average, paired with shipping, $30 on average, and Amazon fees, which would be maybe $50 on average, the all in price is maybe $300. Then of-course you have to actually make a profit on the system, which $100-$150 isn't out of the realm of normal. So to imply the system should be sold for $200 is absurd. Austin compares a $450 system, which would be $600-$800 for any reasonable profit to this system, which it barely outperforms, minus some other caveats. Its not really comparable. Austin should build a $200 system as a comparison with direct pricing, but I would suspect that wouldn't make for as interesting of a video. Is this a bad PC? Sure. Should you buy this PC? No. But if you're expecting to buy a "Gaming PC" at $450, after the cost and labor, you're getting a $200 system. At that price, everything will suck, its just the truth. I think its unfair to call this company a 'scammer' company, if they're not serving people on a budget, who will? Go find a cheaper I7 config with an SSD and maybe a slightly better GPU and that's about as good as you'll get. This PC is definitely not a scam IMO.

[@theElemDragon]

@@ViolentMLG no, it's a scam. They're marketing it as a gaming PC, yet it's running mid-range or lower hardware from basically a decade ago. There's also basically zero upgrade paths for these computers, either... At least none that would make any sense to do. Leave "gaming" out of the marketing, and yeah, it's an ok computer for $400-500. And I think his comparison PC was reasonable. Yeah, it's basically double the cost of the hardware itself which equals out to the purchase price of the other one, but using older hardware (though not 10 year old hardware) that's easily obtained for cheap is the perfect way to start learning how to build ones own computer. Getting an overall BETTER computer as a result is just a bonus.

[@npctrucker1367]

I'm honestly, glad someone looked into this. I looked at this PC before ultimately making my own and lets just say there is so many red flags, ik not everyone is going to see or even know what too look for. I really hope you get a far reach with this video to raise awareness it's tragic that they're getting away with this stuff.

[@BigZ971]

If i don't already know the brand, and I can't pronouce them easily, I'm not buying from them

[@swish3814]

​@@thehousepartyhq4522what would you like them to do? Raid the sellers warehouse?

[@Abelii]

i recently ordered a motherboard on amazon (for some reason the shipping was set for a month) and when i look at the seller, every single negative review is crossed out by amazon, similar to this, which made the ratings 100% positive, even with hundreds of negative reviews im praying that everything turns out okay

[@DetroitDJSpade]

The saddest part about this is because of how tech savvy this channel's audience is, this message won't reach who it needs to.. at least not enough of them. ☹ Thank you guys for bringing much needed light to this trash.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

It is called tax on stupid. If you buy something just because it look cool (be it PC, iPhone or a car) , before doing some research, then ... tough luck.

[@kathrynb130]

I’m not tech savvy and I’m not a gamer but I watch this guy 😂

[@kkouga_]

@@aleksazunjic9672 how are you gonna compare a pc or iphone to a car? in fact how are you gonna compare anything other than a house to a car? pcs cost a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars and iphones cost up to 1500 dollars. baring in mind, only top of the line pcs will cost over 3000 and only the newest and best iphones are gonna cost 1500. cars cost anywhere from a couple thousand (if it’s an old car), to millions. also if you go onto say, amazon and search ‘phones’, most of the top results are pixels, samsungs, oppos, honor, etc. there are quite a lot of cheap phones that show up but you said “iphones” and when you search ‘iphones’ on amazon, what do you know every result is an iphone and guess what, unless you go for an iphone se, none of the iphones will be bad. if you search ‘gaming pc’, every result is dogshit and a complete scam. it’s reasonable to say a 12 year old could buy an iphone or a pc if they saved up their money. literally no child can afford a car and even if they could, they can’t drive it. in the us you have to be 16 to take a drivers test and in the uk it’s 17. someone buying a car is gonna have a license and if they have a license, they’re at least 16. a 16 year old would know not to buy say, a 200 dollar car. most 12 year olds aren’t gonna think about what pc they get. they’ll see the price tag, comparative price to the other results, and good reviews and will choose it. when it comes to their parents, it’s even more of an excuse since unless they work in it, they aren’t gonna know anything and will also see the price tag, comparative price to the other results, and good reviews and will choose it. are you seriously saying a 12 year old could reasonably afford a car???

[@kkouga_]

@@aleksazunjic9672 oh and i forgot to mention, who the fuck buys a car or iphone bc of how cool it looks? iphones are simplistic in design and if you’re old enough to buy and drive a car, how cool it looks is the last thing you’re gonna think about

[@aleksazunjic9672]

@@kkouga_ Wall of text without sense 😁 Both PC and a car are technical products. To buy either of them you need certain technical knowledge. If you buy them because they "look good" then you will pay tax on stupid. Car being more expensive than PC means that you could potentially waste more money on a car, but for a kid PC could be just expensive as a car for adult.

[@pjsw]

You need to find that 12 year old kid and provide him with a pc

[@daviddenoncourt757]

Yes, made me very emotional to know this kid got ripped off!

[@b_man-25]

Austin should send him the $450 PC that he built in the video! I mean I wouldn't expect that he needs it for anything

[@preetipujni1]

yesss

[@gyhgamer0]

@@b_man-25 i would like that but um how

[@GregoryShtevensh]

Im the 12 year old kids uncle cousin brother

[@BananaVRyt]

i lowkey feel bad for the 12 year old luckily my parents bought me this pc so they knew what they were doing... hope that kid is ok and feelin well hahha

[@YourDudeAdam]

Bruh he must have saved his money for years only to get it scammed by evil people behind amazon.

[@IvannaNukya]

Hopefully the boy is outside playing real sports not cooped up in a basement playing pc games

[@YourDudeAdam]

@@IvannaNukya Games aren't bad. So are sports, they are equally as great.

[@Dizpiz569]

​@@IvannaNukyasays the guy in youtube comment sections lol

[@DeepfriedBeans4492]

@@Dizpiz569well no, obviously electronic media is only bad when it’s mentally engaging /s

[@jonathanlai3073]

Thanks for doing this. I’m so shocked that this is happening especially since I’m a computer enthusiast myself. Hopefully you can save some people from getting scammed. ❤

[@bubbledoubletrouble]

Would have been interesting to check the SMART data from the hard drive… also see if you can recover the old data from it to check whether it was securely wiped.

[@XxTWMLxX]

I'm willing to get it was right clicked and format NTFS. no data wiping. Gutmann, DoD, 0'ing. Nothing.

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi, but also the hours logged on the old hard drive. I replaced a hdd from a older thin client that i used as a local server at home, it had over 50,000 hours but only 30 starts - that is about 6 years 24/7 - it worked ok but had lots of hours

[@DaxyGamer]

@@georgemaragos2378 on average that hdd was on for 69.44 days!

[@georgemaragos2378]

@@DaxyGamer about right a restart every 2 to 3 months

[@zachjusta7874]

My friend just got that exact pc and as soon as I saw it I told them to RETURN IT NOW, thankfully she was still within the return date, so sad to see people getting taken advantage of not knowing what they are getting

[@MadTy]

"Her"

[@Whaddif_]

@@MadTy 🤡

[@m1ataaa]

@@MadTy what's wrong with a female owning a pc?

[@MadTy]

@@m1ataaa shush

[@Wyrmver]

@@MadTy stereotypical stereotyper ironic

[@Divineblonde]

Yes! Thank you for taking the time to call out those that are dishonest. You do great work, the world needs more people like you. Thank you.

[@randomgrinn]

Check out the 150,000 lumen flashlights that Amazon recommends. When measured, they are more like 300 lumens. Amazon has absolutely no problem ripping off its customers because the government does not come after them.

[@richardirvine2220]

Thank you for helping bring this to light. As a system builder for people it makes me so mad to see others getting robbed of their hard earned money by upselling used older parts.

[@abd-animation-22]

I tried planning out on building a pc 8 years ago but ultimately give up because it is too dang HARD there is soooo much knowledge u need to know in order to build a pc that causal audience like me can't even comprehend I bought a ps4 and saved my self from the headach Plugged in and started playing immediately and i am satisfied with it even after 8 years But now i am at the same road again my ps4 is old and it's time is nearing it's end Should switch to pc or move to ps5 if only there was an easy way to build a pc

[@sirbee7911]

@@abd-animation-22 well, you're not wrong that it *is* a challenge to build a pc yourself, especially if you aren't too knowledgeable about the subject, but compared to 8 years ago, the information is a lot more readily available on the internet. youtube is a great source for learning about computers, there are videos on everything from how to build a pc, to how components function, to even how to choose parts based on your price range and pc usage. I'd seriously recommend looking up the things you're curious about, because technical knowledge is extremely useful, regardless if you end up deciding to build a pc or buy the ps5. and if you encounter terminology that you don't know, look it up! it is never too late to start learning, and I wish you the best of luck :) p.s., i would recommend the channel linus tech tips to start out with :)

[@AshtonCoolman]

This is sickening to see. Amazon needs to be sued for false advertising.

[@zee-fr5kw]

why? amazon doesn't sell them, its like suing eBay's for someone on eBay scamming you

[@Bozebo]

@@zee-fr5kw Seems Amazon claim responsibility as they fulfil the order apparently.

[@Deadinthehead87]

as a former amazon employee who used to take pride in my work making sure people got their packages on time it saddens me but with the betrayal the company did to me I hope they get held responsible for allowing this scam bs, removing reviews used to be against company policy. (let amaaaaazon buuuuuuurnnnn)

[@Jeffplays-rr5ly]

Really glad that you're making this video to give people insight on what kind of garbage that they're buying on amazon. Was also entertaining to watch this video. Definitely make some more of these insightful but entertaining videos!

[@MasterclassEdits]

Some are garbage but i own a cheap one for 600 dollars and it gets 70 to 135 fpd high settings in these games cod mw2. Fortnite overwatch apex minecraft etc some are good tho

[@btgm25]

Tbh, the review removal by Amazon is not that uncommon - I bought a watch from amazon and was sent an empty box, left a 1 star review as they just straight scammed me, and it was removed by amazon with the same excuse

[@Kadori328]

I mean Amazon is responsible for fulfilling your order so it makes sense they take the blame since they had the stock not the seller

[@DavidStruveDesigns]

@@Kadori328 Yeah except they're clearly _not_ "taking responsibility for the fulfillment experience" - since the experience starts at searching and ordering and lasts all the way up to the point when you first try to use the product. They're not providing _any_ customer service whatsoever, they're simply deleting 1-star reviews. And worse, it looks like it's not even a _human_ doing the deleting. It's a bot they've programmed to automatically remove 1-star reviews. Hence the identical message each time.

[@Kadori328]

@@DavidStruveDesigns oh that's crazy

[@kuebby]

Did you get your money back though?

[@INK3D]

when I bought the pc from amazon and left the review u saw in the video they deleted my cousins amazon account for suspicious activity I sold the crappy pc on facebook and listed it as only good for parts I bought it for 500 dollars so that was 300 dollars lost

[@MuhammadXVV]

These companies and items are the main reason why I research on what I'm going to buy, and I always look for a reasonable price for its quality.

[@Texto_Teiegrama_crunchyrolli]

Thank you for being an amazing subscriber I selected randomly from my comment section and you were opportuned to be picked You have been shortlisted for our giveaway!!

[@Rivejix]

This is honestly why when I said to my parents that I'd have to get a PC in order to use the monitor they got me for Christmas, I told them I wouldn't get one off of Amazon. I just have a feeling that every PC that could come off Amazon is just a Front facing Scam to catch those who are unsuspecting.

[@PrincessofKeys]

I'm sure you can buy one on Amazon from an actual reputable seller or an official seller at least thats why I always look for them instead of some other seller

[@Broslush]

@@PrincessofKeys Yup and he could always try building his own system if he has the time and ability.

[@Gavynnnnn]

you’re better off buying parts off Amazon. Nothing wrong with parts, but don’t buy anything prebuilt from there.

[@Gavynnnnn]

@@Broslush Building a system only takes a few hours and PCPartsPicker for compatibility. PCs these days are so easy to put together I’m half-convinced a literal monkey could do it

[@Broslush]

@@Gavynnnnn True

[@thomas7529]

You didn’t mention it in this video, but I just watched this and went straight to your “Cheapest Gaming PC from Amazon” video from two years ago. Literally in the first minute of the video, the exact same Alarco listing popped up

[@Ajme-kb4os]

Austin and the team here are my favorite creators on KZbin. You all have a great way of providing entertainment while educating.

[@Texto_Teiegrama_crunchyrolli]

Thank you for being an amazing subscriber I selected randomly from my comment section and you were opportuned to be picked You have been shortlisted for our giveaway

[@TheLegend-vp9nc]

@@Texto_Teiegrama_crunchyrolli fake account, don’t trust it

[@bigpvzfan42069]

​@@Texto_Teiegrama_crunchyrolli no

[@CanyonR]

I think this is one of the most important videos you’ve done. This is a great use of your influence and reach. Please do more videos calling out and exposing the scams and predatory offers clogging the gaming space today.

[@arts6821]

As someone who asked my parents to buy me a PC back when I was a kid and then receiving one of these kinds of systems it makes me upset that there are people out there who have to go through what I did. Not knowing anything about computers and finally getting your first one only to find out that the components inside are a decade old which your parents paid 5-6 hundred dollars for.

[@KillaBeave]

To be honest I bought one of these types of things for my daughter. Not this exact one, but obviously a used business desktop motherboard/cpu thrown in an RGB case with a 1650 through Newegg. It's not terrible, but expectations were really low. Fully expected to need to swap out the motherboard/cpu/ram next time she needed an upgrade. Really wanted to get a basic turnkey system that we could later tear apart and upgrade ... and that's what we got. And yes, we set it up to play fortnite, but she gets a reasonable 70-ish FPS on very medium graphics settings.

[@MasterThunderYT]

My first pc was an Amazon scam lol

[@gangstarv1nce41]

Not all of them you can find some good ones

[@teamofone1219]

You poor soul.

[@b_man-25]

I'm sorry for your loss

[@smple-xt7pj]

It happens

[@goldy3916]

I feel so bad

[@bigdoge]

I just think that you should be able to return it (with no problems) and Amazon shouldn't be allowed to just remove reviews because they think their "inspection" is good enough. I think Amazon was paid a lot to remove those reviews.

[@YTcommenter712]

Amazon is removing because it was fulfilled by Amazon. If the item was sent by the seller itself, Amazon won't touch it.

[@ForumcoldiArchon]

​@@YTcommenter712 and fulfilled by amazon just means the Person ships it to a storage and they ship it further ahead. There is no excuse.. they even fulfill scam fake usbstick 100tb ssds

[@EatAtJoes]

FBA is the actual scam: Amazon telling sellers "just join this program and we can cross out your negative reviews." The only way Amazon makes money, other than data mining of its users, is fulfillment.

[@hamstercage0619]

This is heartbreaking. I hope this video will reach more people.

[@wolv1x482]

ikr. like i am a ten year old and i barely know anything about PC's. i prefer prebuilts, but i am scared to buy one for my 11th birthday because i don't wanna get scammed. but if you know some good pc's for 1200€ pls put a link

[@SyedFaiz3347]

I'm so glad that I'm smart enough to not fall into these traps. Hurts to see so many people getting scammed

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

I was looking for an affordable laptop for video editing about 6 months ago. I looked all over Amazon at first but then once I did some research on the power I'd actually need, it became a lot easier to just look for the specs I wanted elsewhere.

[@Peponlikespeson3684]

Thank you for sharing and raising awareness since no other tech channel does so.

[@PraetorianAU]

You guys made me feel old when you were discussing your first PCs. My first was an IBM XT. Before that I had the Commodore 64.

[@SebOnline127]

This is true. Amazon deletes my reviews when a product has a problem or is deffective

[@D3ATHCOR3_DAD]

You should bring this issue up with some other big tech channels. We've seen many times just how quickly things can get done when entire communities come together on an issue.

[@JakubChalupnik]

The RAM sticks you found on eBay are REGISTERED and they won't work in that computer, they're meant for servers. What you have in that computer are regular DDR3's that will be more expensive.

[@Bob_Smith19]

Wait, are you expecting a tech KZbinr to know what they’re talking about….

[@EvilTurkeySlices]

Regular DRR3-1333 is around $30-40 for 16gb desktop kits.

[@justinmoore8087]

Nice to see you still thriving bro haha you helped me build my first gaming pc at 400$ when I was in middle school 😅

[@nebraskaninja1984]

Need the part list for this build!

[@belwup4698]

Amazing Video! Amazing that you talked about this!

[@mrtrain4real254]

It's amazing that you built the same computer that I did in Q4 2021 for $900 CAD, but with 32 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB and a slightly better board. I didn't buy a GPU with the system at the time due to the gpu crisis, but in Q3 2022 I did buy a used GTX 970 for $100 CAD, that works really well with the CPU-intensive games I play.

[@MHG796]

Paradox games i assume?

[@mikejones-nd6ni]

This was a Great video. That's Soo crazy Amazon is allowing this.

[@Posh_Quack]

I recently bought an refurboshed OptiPlex 7020 and was very confused at why it was freezing sometimes and needing to be restarted when my dad (who is a software engineer) recognized that its disk was damaged (presumably during shipping, but who knows).

[@dragofand]

I'm so glad I have a microcenter nearby. Now they still had some junk gaming pc's there, but most of them were good, and the sales rep did help me navigate to a good one in my budget.

[@309electronics5]

now its so sad that microcentre is not in ful europe nor the netherlands where i live had go pay 189 euro for a i5 12400 instead of the 160-170 dollar on microcentre rip my money

[@theonlyraid8372]

@@309electronics5 that is a lot better than some people ive heard out in india, australia, and other locations far from North America. That is a slight upcharge comparatively

[@kobysliwka]

@@theonlyraid8372 im in australia i paid nearly $400 fo a i5 12400f and around $1300 for a rtx 3060 but that was through the gpu shortage not that the prices are much better now

[@theonlyraid8372]

@@kobysliwka Fair. I pay a premium in Canada. Are Australia prices back near US prices now?

[@kobysliwka]

@TheOnlyRaid kinda we are still paying around $200ish more on most things but its always been like here probably doesn't help that i live in a relatively small town with only a handful a small computer stores they can basically charge whatever the hell they want and people will pay it

[@JamesCarbon42]

love your video's bro i've have been watching for the last 4 years just happy that you and your team are doing great good on you ❤❤❤❤❤

[@xl1nus]

“ok I just wanted to know if you did your rebooted there” -camera man

[@CragScrambler]

I used to work for a E-Waste recycling center as an PC technician, ( the company also recycled white goods, washers, dryers, fridges ect ect) and you're right that companies used to pay us to come in and take away and recycle all their old office tech. We then used to test, dismantle and grade the components and then rebuild systems and sell them on as a lot of it was only a few years old though mostly mid rage components, a lot of standard Dell, HP/Compaq or even at the time Gateway. I would say 30% of the stuff got repurposed the rest got sent abroad to Africa when they would repurpose the slower older systems or in the case of CRTs they would sell them for their rare materials that they contained.

[@iCatchingAnimations]

Ever since you split off a lot of the content I enjoyed watching on here to this is and the other channel I’ve felt Austin’s channel has been lacking. This kind of video is why I subscribed to you here so please keep this kind of content coming. Love it!

[@amazinglyfee7309]

I'm glad you are shedding light on issues like this. I feel so bad for the 12 year old. Thanks for showing us scams like this. Hey, can you please place in your video description, the items your purchased to make your PC? Thanks.

[@joshjonson2368]

Tbh, that 12 year old should be content with a 10yr old pc, he can go play sports with his friends instead of burning his parent's credit card on fortnite or call of duty skins

[@fishyninjja9103]

@@joshjonson2368 Fellas, is it wrong to like videogames?

[@ownedmaxer607]

@@fishyninjja9103 no, you're just replying to a person who's only played big corporate games, and is sad said corporate games lack a soul. Shocking, I know.

[@joshjonson2368]

@@fishyninjja9103 that 10yr old pc can run flash games and halo combat evolved, that will suffice for any 12 yr old

[@cytarea]

Damn. I never realised because I dont own a gaming pc, but I definitely planned on getting one. Thank you for getting people aware of this. This is very frustrating

[@RetroEraGamer]

Real stuff austin i never seen you so pissed off man,good exposure i thought i was just seeing the mistakes

[@bep1s]

one thing that yiu didnt mention about your 450$ pc is the fact that you could at any later time spend an amount of money and get a dedicated gpu, which would massively increase the performance (of course the gain would be relative to the amount of money spent), but without having to pay the full amount right when getting the pc

[@MattZeeX]

Yeah that’s a great idea for a kid, but him a pc with good integrated graphics for Christmas, 6 months late or more for his bday buy then a mid range graphics card. It’d be fun to put it in, and it’d massively bump the performance up without putting a dent in your wallet.

[@RussXDX]

Austin, i just randomly remembered back in the day when you had a house fire. it has been great seeing you progress and grow. it’s been a decade since i started watching. Love the videos keep it up man🙌

[@Cheeseypoofs85]

theres also a scammer seller posing of platinum micro from newegg and they are claiming to sell ryzen 7000 cpus and sending every single person iphone camera lens protectors. the fact that amazon hasnt taken action is absurd. its happened to a lot of people. this was one of the very few times i didnt check the seller first. this is why i avoid third party sellers as often as possible-

[@erickephart9453]

You guys should do a challenge where both of you try to build a pc that costs as close as possible to a certain price. For example $750, then compare the two and see you wins with the broke vs pro standards

[@bland9876]

didn't linus tech tips do that?

[@MrSevenEleven]

You mean Storage Wars?

[@ItzSimplicity]

The one main thing here is that this isn't a scam. Even if your return window expires and the PC has a major issue or is a straight up scam, since its fulfilled by Amazon, they will refund the people after they return it for free. That cross out doesn't mean it's removed, it means they contacted support, got a return and refund, and then Amazon crossed out the review because the buyer no longer owns the product.

[@NanoBudgie]

I got a graphics card off Amazon when building my first computer. After a month of trouble shooting thinking I built it wrong turned out the graphics card just didn’t work. I went through every line of the 3 page legal crap in the Amazon posting and found one tiny spot they slid in the fact that it was refurbished but most of the sale made it appear new. Finally got a refund and new graphics card and my PC turned on first try. Month of hell for nothing.

[@46babaganoosh]

The most expensive piece of that PC was the case.

[@DavidLee-cr4xv]

Amazon is legitimately a risky place to buy PCs now.

[@GoofyRyan]

A moment of silence for the 12 year old

[@deadhelix]

I got an amazon pc and whole year ago for christmas, and the first one that came in was seemingly working fine, except at random points it would just turn off and it started doing it more and more, and I had my brother look at it and he immediately noticed the pc start up didnt even have bios, and when he wanted to look at the parts it was sealed off completely. Thankfully my mother had a warranty and immediately called to get it replaced, and after a few days a replacement was delivered… and when it arrived the delivery got dropped it on his way to the door so my mother told him to take it back, AND FINALLY GOT A WORKING COMPUTER after all that. what’s actually messed up is I immediately noticed the one I have clearly has more parts like a second fan missing from the original. Never will I look at amazon for a computer again because that was the most dreadful month of my life

[@kaziklombax2126]

Off topic but I love the shirt Austin. Laguna Seca race way as a monster!

[@histerical90]

The steam deck is cheaper and has more power, also is portable and has a built in screen.

[@bland9876]

can't play fortnite unless you want to use a streaming service with all the downsides that comes with.

[@histerical90]

@@bland9876 What do you mean? You can run windows on steam deck and play fortnite >.>

[@bland9876]

@@histerical90 ya if your willing to mess around with it and potentially screw it up.

[@histerical90]

@@bland9876 there is nothing to mess up, is basically a pc in handheld mode, if you installed a windows ever you can do it on the deck as well and there are a bunch of tutorials what you can follow. Although it was more challenging in the 98/XP era, now installing a windows is mostly next, next, next, wait, restart, done...

[@thelazyworkersandwich4169]

@@histerical90 it really isn't it requires additional accessories and the game doesn't run well.

[@lamardoss]

I was about to seriously spend almost $2,000 total on a prebuilt gaming pc and setup from Amazon. Glad I saw this video. Thank you. I’ll be looking elsewhere to buy.

[@eronic_]

Knowing someone didn’t buy into the scam thanks to this video makes me so happy

[@Mjdecker1234]

Build it. Was in the same boat as you but didn't have this video (was 3 years ago now) but I was confused. Found this PC discord group (one of these guys posted it (pc channels)) so asked some questions. They convinced me to build one. Again, I was new. PC still running strong, even tho I nearly killed it a few times (had to reinstall windows once lol (was on the dev build and well ya)). Oh forgot to mention, I saved so much cash building, I got better parts and a Monitor for around the same price.

[@imstupidbut]

@@Mjdecker1234 i bought a prebuilt dell like 4 years ago for $800 (plus upgraded ssd) and it still works

[@BriBCG]

It might have been fine, just cause these scammers are on amazon doesn't mean everyone on amazon are scammers. For that matter buying prebuilts from known brands are practically just as bad a scam with all the cheap and proprietary components inside to stop you from being able to upgrade or repair it. Unfortunately the only good advice is to go by a trusted review or get someone who knows about it to check it out.

[@vadwvea7153]

build one on PC specialist

[@kingsuperbus4617]

dude i bought a laptop with college funds from lenovo and it crashed during my first term. i tried to claim something, sent it to them and they said that it was user error that the hard disk failed. yes i had it in my backpack a lot. just be careful guys with your purchases, even from people/companies you trusted

[@hydrobud89]

The worst part is they're selling these systems as new and none of these parts are probably new at all they're probably all salvaged like you said

[@lando0486]

I'm honestly wondering why there are so many scams in the tech industry. It is very alarming.

[@EvoKin_]

Because it's easy to scam people who aren't tech savy or new to PC gaming

[@FNLNFNLN]

Any industry that requires a lot of technical knowledge yet is poorly regulated will be infested with scams.

[@sirbee7911]

likely because it's an industry where while majority of people use the technology, not all understand it or are knowledgeable about it. to a lot of people, mainly older folks, the specs don't mean much because they don't know what it means. thankfully this information is becoming more available thanks to sites like youtube where people can educate others about it, but for as long as there is a part of the population that doesn't interact with this sort of content or have this information, scams like this will exist to take advantage of them :')

[@ZGreenGaming]

Even new components sometimes with the price feel like a scam almost lol but this is on another level…. so sad 😢

[@mustasheolll2020]

Agree

[@Noqtis]

@@lunarvvolf9606 Luckily this isn't as easy as Klaus Schwab might thinks. You will need the computing power of every home system in a serverfarm. Even if 10% of all users start to use cloud streaming for all of their tasks, this will need gigantic investments. And at some point it's not profitable since you have to keep updating the hardware for a gazillion users, at some point the company will start to save money, this will lead to a worse experience for the user. In a world without home computers maybe since no one could compare but in our world your own system will always be cheaper in the long run. even if could computing cheaper for a short time, no company will ever undercut the price for very long.

[@TheBusbyBabes]

as someone who recently bought a pre built pc on amazon, seeing this, im glad i have a friend who knows a lot about pcs and now a little bit myself. that shits scary wtf how is this legal?

[@7F0X7]

I bought an HP Omen with a 2080TI on amazon years ago with an additional warranty and it turned out great. The tower is quite small so I damaged a fan by dropping a controller on it from a height of 1.5ft above it... But they repaired it, paid for shipping, and even overnighted me a super nice shipping box. Then they sent it back to me literally on the 3rd day after sending it to them and I haven't had any major issues with it since. But I did my research: looked at the seller's history, read many reviews, and looked at many similar products.

[@davidblackmore9428]

Its Sad that alot of families will end up losing money and having their Pc experience ruined i hope amazon does something but i feel they are so out of touch that nothing will truly happen

[@joeysmit4644]

out of touch? they buy the parts for that pc for $100, then sell it for $500. This is all according to their business plan.

[@rottenchickennugget9005]

If you're looking for a budget, pre built PC, then I would suggest the HP pavilion desktop PC. I've had it for half a year now and it works splendidly. It's not the most powerful PC, but I rarely experience lag on max graphics, and it does everything I expect it to. It is a perfect first pre-built gaming PC.

[@gamin546]

It's always a good idea to buy a prebuilt PC from a company you've heard of, even if it has some cons like proprietary parts or a bit of false advertising, it's still better than buying a random prebuilt from a company you've never heard of IMO.

[@rando3962]

although it might be decent. Its actually not the best. If you want good performance for the money, I would recommend buying from the likes of skytech of abs.

[@TurboGroszek1]

Bro just build the pc yourself. Why would anyone pay for a pre built if its not some crazy shit with custom water loop and custom modyfications where its better to pay someone for the work instead of doing it by yourself. And if you tell me you need some knowledge to build a pc you are a moron. Its literally easier than building lego.

[@rando3962]

@@TurboGroszek1 Because some people dont want to nor know how to build the pc. Also buying prebuilts usually have better warranty and you can always contact the manufacture.

[@Riccccccc]

Yeah no, back at 2014 I bought an HP pavilion that had an i3 2100 2gb ram 1tb hdd and no gpu at a whopping 600 usd. I knew nothing about PCs back all thought I knew was expensive pc = good at games. Realization kicked in and had to buy a GPU. I also felt scammed at that point. I don't know their current line up but I don't think much has changed

[@bad2603]

there's also alot of this "gaming PC" scams on other platforms too

[@bloxoss]

So glad I’m tech savvy, I’ll definitely be saving my friends from these scams

[@tyguy849]

I have a friend with a pc like this. I'm a kid myself and if I didn't know anything about PC's and heard that PC's get more fps than lets say a ps4, I would want to get one because the "pros" have PC's with more fps.

[@voyager33mw]

I ran that same i7 from 2011 to early 2020. It served me well.

[@fatbloke26]

i7-3770 for 10 years until 2 months ago. Sadly barely up to the task now but what great workhorses they were.

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

This amazes me. I've recently built a plex server, its an i7-3770 with 16gb ram and a 2gb Radeon 520 graphics card. All together it was under 150 bucks including the case.

[@-v3ga]

I bought that pc a few years back when i didn’t know anything about pc’s and i just thought that if you wanted to actually play games you need a $3k pc. it broke a few months ago, and took it apart recently and since i now know about pc’s i was absolutely shocked at how horrible the components were especially for $500!

[@nathan22211]

I would definitely talk to the FTC, or whatever the Canadian equivalent is, about this, as this might be a widespread problem on the site

[@Tugela60]

What is a widespread problem?

[@bearabletable7527]

thats why many ppl build their own now. I only buy stuff ships and sold BY AMAZON. noone else. and sometimes that is a hit and miss as well.

[@ErdanMNE]

Because of that, I always pay one month later, so you can check if the item is what you need or expected and if not u just send it back

[@scribble71891]

This is the kind of shit that made me scared of ordering a pre-built pc off Amazon. I've gotten a few items that didn't match my order (non-pc items) and I know I'd snap if I didn't get what I paid for with a pc.

[@lawyerdhop]

Built my first PC in 2012 and the parts were newer than what’s in this PC! I had an i5 3500 and a HD 7770!

[@GalaxyYT.]

Nice, i will probably build my first one this summer.

[@lawyerdhop]

@@GalaxyYT. Good Luck! You can do it!

[@GalaxyYT.]

@@lawyerdhop Thanks!

[@TheDwarvenDefender]

Wow! It's just like the CyberPower "Gaming PC" my parents bought me like 10 years ago! (It was garbage then, and if I hadn't upgraded every part in the system Ship-of-Theseus-style, it'd be garbage now.)

[@tentontim]

thumbs up just for a Ship of Theseus reference.

[@Exaso]

I saw the same case on a PC at a mall yesterday but the one at the mall was probably better.

[@bigMax1337]

tbh the most reasoable thing that amazon could do as a policy is policy to have the components list in the short description. They don't create the listings and i doubt they have full capabilities to moderate all the listing that get created.

[@CityShadow9888]

I deliver for Amazon and find videos like this regularly. So me being the PC freak I am I tend to write on a piece of paper slap it onto the box of what I can only hope is just a PC case and make sure they know if they bought a prebuilt from Amazon that they should return it and take the time to build there own for less. I try not to make it sound like I am telling them what to do but they can only take the note how they want. I just hope I saved at least one or two kids from a hopeless future.

[@PrograError]

hope they took your advice...

[@CityShadow9888]

@@PrograError Thank you I really hope so as well. Just would hate to be the one that spends that money just for it to basically be for the case.

[@someguy6369]

I wanna buy my first gaming pc, but stuff like this scares me.

[@YoureBad42069]

If you buy a prebuilt, just buy from a reputable seller, not some random trash on Amazon or eBay lol.

[@masift1494]

as long as you're educated, you won't fall for these scams

[@typhoon_8086]

If you want to buy a Gaming PC, try shopping in physical stores like Costco, Walmart, or Best Buy and compare how the price and specs of the Gaming PCs you can find in those stores compares to the price of similar or the same parts you can find on Amazon if you wanted to build your own. This is how I would shop for a Gaming PC since I also don't trust Amazon and my Mother (her advice is legit good) always wants me to buy electronics from a physical store so I can physically look at the device before buying it. And I've seen some good deals from these stores that are even better than Amazon

[@manik2978]

build one 🙂

[@Motion_God]

If your going prebuilt always buy from a actual computer building company

[@KrooTon]

Love the Cortex shirt!

[@damedameslame]

Thanks for calling out the Amazon scammers Logic!

[@iv_km2881]

to be fair they could be sued for false advertising in this case but I love they pain you go through to entertain us, thank you my friend

[@Raikos100]

The funniest part is the fact he got a computer better than advertised, and yet it was worst then expected. Imagine if they sent the actual specs. I feel like they found a way to know it was being purchased by a big tech youtuber so they did that lol

[@Arrythmic798]

More likely case is, that the old specs they listed are no longer available, so they had to replace them, and only better ones were available.

[@Jean-Denis_R_R_Loret]

@@Arrythmic798 They sell the bottom of the barrel first.

[@SevenZeroEleven]

​@@Jean-Denis_R_R_Loretread their comment, they're saying the bottom of the barrel was probably not available in their recycled junk yard so they had to give him better specs

[@Jean-Denis_R_R_Loret]

@@SevenZeroEleven And that just made my point: the bottom of the barrel was already sold out...

[@user-kr5ws3zr4d]

I was about to buy this a year ago but luckily I knew what was up :)

[@elektrified_7167]

I have a friend who decided to buy a $300 gaming PC. his sole basis was that his cousin told him it could run minecraft at 500 FPS, something my $2,500 gaming PC can barely reach half of. Me arguing with him over it tore our friendship apart, and now he doesn't even talk to me anymore. The PC probably didn't even have a GPU.

[@NR20244]

It could probably run Minecraft at 500FPS with really low graphics

[@TheBigkal201]

We need more people like you as well as videos like this that exposes garbage and foul play thank you! There's a million and one businesses ,ppl ,products etc. that are Chinese and they’re legit good ppl but there's criminals in every country

[@Sapphire-Neon]

This was actually the first PC I bought. Not sure if it was the same one, but definitely from the same company. Fortunately the operating system was broken on startup and I was able to return it in time... dodged a bullet there.

[@emithesheep]

Previous longterm Amazon employee here. Even from a warehouse standpoint, there wasn’t even a good way to report ASIN (barcode) abuse internally. So for buyers, I know there really isn’t a way to report false advertising like this. It’s completely disgusting, glad I moved on from such a trash company.

[@rev3274]

That's insane. My wife got an IbuyPower PC (generic name brand, sure) for 500$ and it still runs 5 years later. I feel so bad for the younger generation dealing with this crap because they didn't have the 20 previous years to understand the tech they are being sold. Also to build a mid-high range PC you're looking at around 1000-1500$ MINIMUM if you get a good deal on parts.

[@Adrianwe44]

I built a system for my GF with very similar parts for around 90$ a week ago and I didn't even chose the cheapest parts🤦🏻‍♂️😂