Was I just taken? Bought a 1tb SSD and only 111gb shows up

[ctark]

Bought a 1TB 850 Evo off ebay and only 111gb is showing up. The box it came in was sealed and the serial numbers match. Also the sticker on the bottom side of the drive appears to have not been tampered with. 111gb usually means its a 120gb drive, yet on the drive and box it says 1tb. Did I just get suckered?


UPDATE: Today was the deadline for the seller to respond. As far as I know he never responded and paypal found in my favor and already return my money. I never got any instruction on returning the item. So I head over to ebay and it said refund had been completed and that I could keep the item. So I got a 120gb SSD for free I suppose. Don't know why I get to keep the item but it saves me the hassle of returning it and now the wife has an SSD to use for her Sims 4 game.

 

[frowertr]

It shouldn't need repartioning (assuming it's really a 1TB drive) if it's a factory new unit. I'd be skeptical myself.

How are you checking the available space?

 

[shabby]

How much did you pay for it? Was it much cheaper than buying from newegg?

 

[ctark]

How much did you pay for it? Was it much cheaper than buying from newegg?

I paid $225, and the seller was american. It came shrink wrapped however I dont think these drives have shrink wrap when you buy them. It was also sealed in the right spot.

Here are some pictures I took for the dispute. As you can see the label is still in tact. Is it possible that samsung could have just goofed? The serial number is different in samsung magician so that is why I suspect tampering.

http://imgur.com/a/YwiTC

 

[nerp]

You might have been ripped off. There's probably a way to open that unit up without messing up the sticker. Or they have fake stickers. I've seen it. It's like sellers like Gohardrive that scam people by selling server pulls as new hard drives on Amazon and Newegg. Dig deep and you have 10,000 hours on them already. Sucks when they're being advertised as new.

I could be wrong but if the drive is being detected as 120GB, chances are you got ripped off. Your experience is a prime example why I only buy new from Newegg or Amazon only, no third party sellers.

 

[nerp]

My thought is the seller cracked open a 1TB and a 120GB and swapped them. Just a guess.

 

[ctark]

You might have been ripped off. There's probably a way to open that unit up without messing up the sticker. Or they have fake stickers. I've seen it. It's like sellers like Gohardrive that scam people by selling server pulls as new hard drives on Amazon and Newegg. Dig deep and you have 10,000 hours on them already. Sucks when they're being advertised as new.

I could be wrong but if the drive is being detected as 120GB, chances are you got ripped off. Your experience is a prime example why I only buy new from Newegg or Amazon only, no third party sellers.

Well hopefully I'll win the dispute. I got the drive in the mail today and paypal usually holds funds. However I know paypal and ebay split recently so I dont know if something has changed. The seller could have just gotten the drive really cheap and got ripped off himself without knowing it. I'm glad I checked the drive right away instead of putting it off for a week.

 

[nerp]

Well hopefully I'll win the dispute. I got the drive in the mail today and paypal usually holds funds. However I know paypal and ebay split recently so I dont know if something has changed. The seller could have just gotten the drive really cheap and got ripped off himself without knowing it. I'm glad I checked the drive right away instead of putting it off for a week.

You never know. It could also me a weird assembly line screwup but I doubt it. And the seller might not be evil. He could have bought a batch of what he thought were perfectly fine drives. Have you poked around his other listings? Any red flags?

 

[Elixer]

Pretty sure they tried to pull a fast one, or the seller got scammed as well, as is trying to pass it on to you.
The serial #'s don't even match is a dead giveaway.

 

[ctark]

No response from the seller yet. His ebay feedback was fine. One item had neutral feedback due to bad description, the other was that the product smelled like smoke (which mine did as well).

From his selling pattern it seems like he gets good deals on things and then sells them for profit. So he most likely got ripped off. But I'm not going to let him off the hook.

 

[nerp]

Oh man. I'm picturing a chain smoking hoarder.

Freakin ebay.

 

[thesmokingman]

My thought is the seller cracked open a 1TB and a 120GB and swapped them. Just a guess.

Yeap.


OP do see any warranty void stickers that would be on a seam of the drive case?

 

[Hellhammer]

OP do see any warranty void stickers that would be on a seam of the drive case?

There are no warranty void stickers on the drive. Two screws are under the drive label (i.e. impossible to unscrew without tampering the label) and one is openly accessible.

I'm inclined to believe that this is an error on Samsung's part. Switching the label from drive to drive (this is easier than replacing the actual PCB as the label has to be removed in both cases) is difficult and would likely leave some signs (air bubbles, loose corners etc). It's of course possible that someone is using professional equipment to create counterfeit labels and package seals, but to me that sounds unlikely given that you will be caught almost certainly.

Anyway, let's see what the seller responds and go from there.

 

[Deders]

Have you checked it in Disk Management?

Also what are you connecting it to?

 

[thesmokingman]

There are no warranty void stickers on the drive. Two screws are under the drive label (i.e. impossible to unscrew without tampering the label) and one is openly accessible.

I'm inclined to believe that this is an error on Samsung's part. Switching the label from drive to drive (this is easier than replacing the actual PCB as the label has to be removed in both cases) is difficult and would likely leave some signs (air bubbles, loose corners etc). It's of course possible that someone is using professional equipment to create counterfeit labels and package seals, but to me that sounds unlikely given that you will be caught almost certainly.

Anyway, let's see what the seller responds and go from there.

I think the difference is if its a one time thing or its a counterfeit business. For an end user it would be a hassle to do just one, but if you're in it to scam multiple sales and then disappear it's par for the course.

Btw, have you tried it in a different controller or computer altogether?

 

[Nashemon]

Have you checked it in Disk Management?

Also what are you connecting it to?

I've seen 64GB flash drives from HP show up as 32GB straight out of the package until you go into Disk Management and reallocate the partitions.

 

[UaVaj]

have a 850 evo 500gb from egg. crystaldiskinfo do shows the internal serial number matching the label serial number. looks like u got scam.

 

[thesmokingman]

I've seen 64GB flash drives from HP show up as 32GB straight out of the package until you go into Disk Management and reallocate the partitions.

It's kind of assumed that the OP has at least done that, I hope right?

 

[LTC8K6]

There are no warranty void stickers on the drive. Two screws are under the drive label (i.e. impossible to unscrew without tampering the label) and one is openly accessible.

I'm inclined to believe that this is an error on Samsung's part. Switching the label from drive to drive (this is easier than replacing the actual PCB as the label has to be removed in both cases) is difficult and would likely leave some signs (air bubbles, loose corners etc). It's of course possible that someone is using professional equipment to create counterfeit labels and package seals, but to me that sounds unlikely given that you will be caught almost certainly.

Anyway, let's see what the seller responds and go from there.

It's pretty easy to remove and replace those stickers.

https://youtu.be/wfOZKj8ZGqo?t=592

 

[bigboxes]

Pretty sure they tried to pull a fast one, or the seller got scammed as well, as is trying to pass it on to you.
The serial #'s don't even match is a dead giveaway.

This. You've disputed it with PayPal. Send back the drive and hopefully they'll ban this huckster. He knew what he was doing whether he is the original scammer or got scammed himself. You should have known better than to expect a legit drive of that size at that price.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

This. You've disputed it with PayPal. Send back the drive and hopefully they'll ban this huckster. He knew what he was doing whether he is the original scammer or got scammed himself. You should have known better than to expect a legit drive of that size at that price.

If the seller "got scammed" and didn't open the product to test, how would he "know what he was doing?" OP should still try to get your money back, but the seller and the buyer are both victims here.

I bought a 1TB Mushkin for $230 a few weeks ago, so I don't think $225 for a 1TB SSD on eBay is suspiciously cheap, like, at all.

 

[smitbret]

You might have been ripped off. There's probably a way to open that unit up without messing up the sticker. Or they have fake stickers. I've seen it. It's like sellers like Gohardrive that scam people by selling server pulls as new hard drives on Amazon and Newegg. Dig deep and you have 10,000 hours on them already. Sucks when they're being advertised as new.

I could be wrong but if the drive is being detected as 120GB, chances are you got ripped off. Your experience is a prime example why I only buy new from Newegg or Amazon only, no third party sellers.

How do you "dig deep" on these Hard Drives. I picked up a couple of 3TB drives that were white label from GoHardDrive. They ended up being Hitachi drives and HD Sentinel reported them as new. Just curious what else I could use to look into it.

 

[Elixer]

How do you "dig deep" on these Hard Drives. I picked up a couple of 3TB drives that were white label from GoHardDrive. They ended up being Hitachi drives and HD Sentinel reported them as new. Just curious what else I could use to look into it.

They do got utilities and tools that can reset SMART data, so, there is really no way for a consumer to know if the HD has been used before hand.

 

[bigboxes]

If the seller "got scammed" and didn't open the product to test, how would he "know what he was doing?" OP should still try to get your money back, but the seller and the buyer are both victims here.

If the seller knew he was scammed and then resold the drive then he is a scammer as well. He sold it for less than it was worth because it was not what it was claimed (i.e. a scam). Anyone can shrink wrap a product.

Let's just hope this all ends with the current owner and wrongs are righted.

 

[thesmokingman]

^^Yeap.

It's pretty easy to remove and replace those stickers.

https://youtu.be/wfOZKj8ZGqo?t=592

Not to mention its easy as pie to shrink wrap on top of that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-i5uumJSwc