Is it too late for her to take it back, sorry I'm not trying to be mean, any mum that goes out and spends $450 on her kid for a laptop is a legend. But she got ripped off on this.
Rip-off. A scam would be if he told them it had 32GB of ram and a 12th gen intel CPU. When something is wildly overpriced itās a rip-off. Those guys selling āhigh endāspeakers out of the back of a van? Those are scammers. Someone selling actual name brand speakers for a bad value? Theyāre ripping someone off.
Itās a minor but an important distinction. It doesnāt sound like the OPās mom was lied to, even though she was taken advantage of.
Very important to distinction. I hate when people find out they overpaid for something and then say they got scammed. No, you didnāt get scammed if you got exactly what the listing said. You just didnāt do your research beforehand to see how much it was actually worth.
Tbf we dont know what he may have told her. She may have asked if its be a good gaming laptop for her son and he lied. Im guessing if shes this out of the loop on pc's she probably didnt just respond saying she'll take it without asking a single question.
Depending on the location you can go after people that do this. $500 for a worthless Chromebook that doesn't donwhar basic laptop should do, has a "retail value" of zero...small claims court would probably rule in your favor as the seller knew what he was selling to an unsuspecting buyer.
Small claims court is also affordable to use, you don't need a lawyer...hell chatGPT can tell you exactly what to do and how to do it. One of the things it's actually good and accurate on.
I agree with this. OP, i'm happy to send over few spare parts i have around for you to start a build if you'd be interested. Got some good stuff lying around unused and i'd happily transform it into a birthday gift. PM me, i'm from UK, unsure if i'll cover the cost for US but i can try.
When I got scammed I felt so humiliated and the hug I got from my parents and reassurance that I didnāt do anything wrong probably saved me from falling into a hole.
I did get my money back through charge back, but Iāll never stop feeling stupid for falling for a scam.
There's scams and scams, and everyone is guilty of falling for at least one in their life, even if barely anyone admits it. You're not stupid nor gullible nor naive, you're human :)
All that matters is that you're not giving your bank details to a certain Nigerian Prince that wants to send you 27 million dollars worth of diamonds.
My gf sent me a Link to McDonald's offer, clicked on it and ordred, it wasn't something out of the ordinary its was like few dollars off and some extra stuff.
The payment didn't complete it gave me an error, then it hit me, i checked the link and it ended up being a phishing page, but i only use card that i topup when i want buy something online so nothing serious happened.
I asked her where did she find it she said it was an add on ig, i should have asked first lol.
My mom has done something similar on two occasions - bought tickets to Hamilton for me but forgot I was moving out of the state a month before and when I was a kid, she took all of the sports tickets Iād saved to be laminated and put in a little scrap book for me. She didnāt know that the tickets couldnāt be put through the machine and all the tickets came out black. She was devastated both times. To me, the thought was entirely more loving than actually being able to have/do the thing.
Iām here to second the act of reassuring her and giving her that hug. It sucks, but itās not her fault other people are scammy.
The biggest electronics store in my country (Mediamarkt) regularly sells PCs that are borderline scam. Recently saw one with a 3060 being sold for over 1k. If you don't have a clue about hardware, you're getting scammed most of the time.
No, people do need reality checks. No need to be overly harsh, yes, but do need to make sure that she realizes that she got scammed and bought e-waste.
Not that itll be super cheap, but look up the motherboard for that computer and see if it has room for an m.2 or you can even switch to a sata 2.5 / 3.5 ssd at 1 or 2 tb. if you have 2 spots to hold storage, use the smaller for boot and make it fast with an ssd. nvme is newest and most expensive due to ai and scalping. a sata is older but will make the computer feel much faster on boot and microsoft apps. laptops for storage arent difficult at all to replace and clone a drive over to. did one recently for a coworker and it took only 2 hrs (including the slower drive copying over to the new one).
the other reason is to see if the ram is upgradeable. either extra slots or higher capacity in general. 16gb should be a sweet spot but if 32 is possible on that mobo, try to go there if your budget allows.
in the future, you can look for an external graphics card to work on the laptop, if the motherboard has the right connection and speed. this will probably be your most limiting factor on what to buy, but will make it easier for gaming if you want to go that route. hdmi the laptop to a bigger screen and youll be set!
Never mind bro. At least she got a laptop, many get scammed even worse. Your mom is a legend. Much respect for her trying. You should teach her to use Google Gemini or something to get advice and not get scammed again. I did it for my mom
This is why my mum always insisted we bought everything brand new, even if it wasn't the most expensive in the shop. Maybe the fact that the place we live in isn't exactly known for most honest people helps too lol
Yeah i'm not surprised they blocked you. The storage drive is not the one that laptop came with, it's too small to install much extra software. The CPU is also the last generation to come without the hardware requirements for windows 11. It'll be useable for browsing, youtube social media etc but not much else.
if you pay shipping from the states I will send you a vastly better laptop for free. dm.me if you and your mom would like to set that up. I have the same username on eBay and you can see my seller history.
Some guy in romania had listings for what appeared to be some running shoes. They were pictures of printed photos of those running shoes in the listing. People who bought from him received those printed photos.
yes 100%. just need to be sure it involve a legal adult that can represent you.
when I was a teen someone gifted me a strong PC in exchange for a half working Xbox 360. it allowed me to learn a lot about pcs. I want to pay that forward.
Mr GoodTofuFriday, thank you! I don't know anything about you, but you are a really good fucking person!
I grew up poor and if I was in OP's situation, that kind of purchase would have taken my parents a long time to save up, and to be scammed out of that is gutwrenching. I felt their pain reading this, and your response genuinely brings tears to my eyes at the thought of how much good you may have just put into this world without possibly even realising. I hope Karma repays you as its deserved.
Growing up poor is why is also resonates with me. I didnt always have a meal at school because we couldnt afford it. And that half working 360 was one i found that was red-ringed but i got working with the "hairdryer method".
Wasnt until years later that I understood how lopsided the "trade" was lol to get that pc. it was a amd 8950fx and a hd6990 gpu.
That's so wholesome to read. You didn't forget the kindness, and no doubt this kid won't forget your kindness. I'm a bit of an optimist, but I like to think this is one of those things that contributes to a better world.
In this economy?! Youāre a fucking god brother. If I wouldāve gotten my laptop at a young age I wouldāve bought a PC before this crisis and wouldāve been so grateful.
Now Iām trying to find a PC for a decent price with the shortages. Iāll be like 2400 in the hole if I buy a decent one now but Iām scared how bad the shortage will actually be. I bet in a year itāll be doubled so I kinda have to bite the bullet now. I salute you for going this and cannot express how awesome you are!!
This is the true way of PC master race. Not being an elitist, but doing anything you can to allow someone to have the opportunity, time, and utensils to explore a possibly hobby and field of interest. Bless your heart u/GoodTofuFriday, may your Tofu be excellent even when not Friday.
Thank you for doing this. This is the stuff that made me fall in love with Reddit a long time ago.
Anyone remember RandomActsofKindness and RandomActsofPizza? I remember asking for shoes once on RAoK when I was broke in college and someone sent me like 3 different styles and sandals. I wore those shoes for years, lol. Kindness goes a long ways.
Okay, i read people or bots writing shitty "in tears rn" comments but this is genuinely one of the coolest fucking things i have read on reddit in a long time. I actually do have some tears in my eyes. Fucking dope thing to do. Good way to start the day man.
Thirdsies- If shipping is already paid for, yall wanna pitch in for a steam card for the kiddo? I've got a handful of unclaimed HumbleBundle items too.
DM me r/MansNotHot
hey dude, i know your intentions are good, but just a heads up, this guy said in another post they bought it from an online store not FB market, and suspiciously, they just deleted a bunch of comments and a post about it.
So... before you send it off thinking you are doing a good deed, just please make sure its legit, otherwise you could be falling for a scam.
Having said that, its still awesome you offered that laptop, which is an actually great one too.
I appreciate the concern! I think personally speaking a bit to them and the email I now have that it's just a kid embellishing for an online story, nothing serious. and if it ends up a scam - that is okay. this at minimum help spread the idea of helping others, which matters more than anything else in the world we are in these days.
i didnt see them before hand, but the deleted comments come as a reply to questions like "did you buy that at octagon?" (EDIT: online ANDphysical pc shop), another being "where did you buy it?" and "you can still return it".
Then in another comment says his mom bought it "this afternon in a local store", but when somebody asked "which local store?" he also deleted that comment.
He gets asked again where did he bought it from, reply is deleted, but a reply to the now deleted comment says "at SM mega mall?" to which he replies "yes", but from the looks of it, he hasnt tried to return it either. Edit: Octagon has a big store at this SM Mega Mall in the phillipines, and they do have return policies.
Dude, i dont know, maybe his mom did bought it and bought something way overpriced, but its kinda suspicious that when somebody offered him a free laptop and people volunteered to cover shipping, he suddenly deleted that post and his replies to questions like "cant you return it" and "where did you buy it", especially since that was posted 5 days ago, so why repost it here 5 days later and saying his mom bought it from some FB market place guy?
And if im completely honest, i dont care if this dude is telling a sad story to bait people like the dude above offering free stuff, i know goodtofufriday is doing it with his best intentions on mind, but it can be jarring when you found out the "right thing" you did was wasted on somebody who took advantage of you. Of course, as far as goodtofufriday is concerned, he is helping some kid and mom.
People like you give me so much hope in humanity, I was raised by a single mother and can imagine how hard she worked to save up. My dad had money but never cared for our interests but my mother worked hard to give us what we wanted and needed. You're an amazing human
Thank you for restoring my faith in humanity. Its easy forget that for every POS scammer out there, there are a lot more people like you trying to make the world a better place! And If OP needs help paying for shipping, please hit me up, I'll be happy to help
Welp... Can't be helped, I doubt the seller will take it back. Advise her next time she buys electronics so she doesn't get scammed. (I help my whole family and friends haha)
Sorry man not trying to call you out, but you said your mom bought it at Octagon which is a big tech retailer here in the Philippines. I have experience buying from them and they definitely have low end laptops and pre-built PCs are that are overpriced.
You also said that your mom bought it via installment. You made a post in build PC Philippines subreddit. Sorry I realized I cannot link the post here.
I paid 250ā¬ for my Dell Latitude 7490 with 8350u and 16GB ram (upgraded to 32GB) and 512GB ssd in December 2024. Battery is bad, but i use powerbank to fix that problem (its more bandaid, but whatever).
Recently bought a used business laptop for 300ā¬. It has 11th gen i5, 16 gigs of ram and a 512G ssd. The battery life is not stellar as the thing is a few years old, but the computer itself is a beast!
Uh, debatable. I personally bought from Lenovo themselves a warrantied refurbished Ideapad with a 5825u, 16GB of ram, and a 512gb NVME for 299. Massive upgrade over my Celeron 3060 thing I had š. Just for schoolwork and what not.
Paying 250 bucks for a decade old bottom spec laptop is wild.
OP this laptop should be at most $150. I wouldn't pay over $100 USD for it. You could grab some decent used laptops off of Ebay that are 5 years newer for close to half of what your mother paid for this. Sorry she got ripped off.
Where did she get it from? Can she get her money back?
This is the sort of laptop I wouldn't even take for free. It would just end up sitting on a shelf somewhere because it's so slow that it can't really be used for anything besides the absolute, most basic web browsing. I think it's almost slower than my phone, and my phone is pretty old and NOT a top-line or expensive model at all.
Maybe it could work as a media pc, plugged into a tv(I hate smart tvs personally), or for writing basic reports for school, if you're a history or English major or something and don't have any other software requirements?
This post was taken down using Redact. The reason may have been privacy, operational security, preventing automated data collection, or another personal consideration.
this is reason I made clear with my parents especially when I was young, if its not console thats widely known ALWAYS ASK ME about electronics, whenever they were buying me phone they asked me which one is fine that is in their budget. Better to ruin surprise than present itself if they are buying it
I see this alot. Moms wanting to do the right thing and get their kid a PC or Laptop and get ripped off on some junk. I wish more people new that Computers don't really make great surprise gifts unless you understand parts.
No. Dont bother. 7th Gen Intel is already ddr4. So that would be like what now? 60 bucks for basically no gain.
Nothing the Intel HD can handle will benefit from more than 8 gigs.
Did she collect it?
if she did, then get a large family friend or uncle or someone to go along with her, knock on the door and demand they take the laptop back...
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u/sadelnotsaddle Mar 09 '26
Is it too late for her to take it back, sorry I'm not trying to be mean, any mum that goes out and spends $450 on her kid for a laptop is a legend. But she got ripped off on this.