Regular readers of Kitguru will have seen news we published yesterday regarding dutch retailer Your Game Specialist (HERE). Today we wanted to follow up on this story after we received multiple emails from unhappy customers of the same etailer overnight. Right now, we are working our way through the emails showing screenshots and communications with the etailer and while we need to be careful what we publish from a legal standpoint I felt it was worth addressing some potential concerns I have based on what has happened so far.
We all know that Nvidia RTX 50 pricing has been very high, that is when stock is actually available. This is not exclusive to the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, it is a global issue.
Any company quoting an ‘MSRP' will argue that pricing is not their concern after all this (conveniently) is just a ‘Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price'. In reality this means that if stock is low and demand is high – any etailer can charge whatever they want, if people are willing to pay to get the product. Any etailer will be happy maximising their profit margins for an in-demand product. Sometimes I feel this is killing the industry that means so much to us all, but that is a discussion for another day.
While I could turn this editorial into a detailed piece on pricing and concerns, especially some of the prices we have seen in the United Kingdom for Nvidia partner RTX 5090 cards, I wanted to focus on something important as I feel could impact a lot of people.
After we received a lot of confirmed confidential information from one of our readers Ben detailing his experiences with (uwgamespecialist.nl) – and possible RTX 5090 ‘recalls' after their customer support team quoted ‘fire hazards' – we felt this was worth a story and further analysis.
This retailer told Ben, (a customer who spent 3399 euros in January on a custom MSI RTX 5090 GPU) that all 5 of their samples were recalled “Nvidia has recalled a large number of video cards due to various safety issues. We currently have five units of this model in stock, but they all have to be returned due to an increased fire hazard. In this situation, we do not give priority to anyone; all customers are treated equally based on the ranking when pre-ordering or ordering the video cards.”
Nvidia got in contact with me later claiming to know nothing about this recall and MSI said their custom card had not been recalled. I then spoke to uwgamespecialist CEO Jeroen Vukkink directly in email and he retracted the claims one of his customer support staff made in email to customer Ben. KitGuru then published a follow up story last night which detailed the latest experiences. In this updated editorial I ensured that people could reach out to me directly at allan (at) kitguru.net if they were experiencing any issues with the same, or any other etailer. That offer is still open.
It was rather telling at this point that Ben emailed me to say that uwgamespecialist got in touch with him claiming he would now in fact get his RTX 5090 next week. At least our story hopefully pushed this etailer to get this customer his very expensive graphics card – but why should this be needed?
I then went to bed.
I woke early this morning to several emails from other customers of uwgamespecialist.nl who said they bought RTX 5090 cards around the same time as Ben and still were waiting on shipment. They sent me some emails of communications and one of the customers called Jaap reached out to me to explain that while he paid for his MSI card in January (3399 euros same as Ben) – he had not yet received it, after being told he would get it in February.
So far this doesn't seem like much of a story update, however this is when it gets interesting.
Jaap also sent me screenshots of the card being sold on the uwgamespecialist.nl website in March – showing stock available now of the exact same MSI RTX 5090 32G Suprim SOC at a much higher price of 3999 euros.
Both Ben and Jaap have subsequent order numbers of #8004 and #8005 and while Ben said uwgamespecialist.nl emailed him yesterday to say his card would be shipping soon, Jaap has had no email. We have other customers claiming their cards have not shipped yet either even though stock has shown on the company's website at higher prices from time to time.
This raises multiple concerns for me, because while I appreciate that an etailer wants to make as much money as possible, is it ethical to take customers money at 3399 euros, make them wait for an indefinite period of time, get stock available of the exact same card, and then sell it to someone else for 3999 euros? Should the customers who paid 3399 euros in January not get the cards first?
Of course they should.
Is this etailer telling customers that the cards they ordered are showing in stock but they have to be ‘recalled as a fire hazard' because they are selling them to other people?
We wonder if this is becoming a more common practise now with etailers, but we hope this issue is isolated. I would advise any reader seeing this story to keep tabs on the website of the etailer if you are waiting for an ‘in demand' product such as an RTX 5090. If you see it in stock at a higher price while your card has not shipped then you need to take action. Take a screenshot with a time stamp in the image and save it. Contact the etailer and issue a complaint, keep all the emails and if you run into issues, then let me know. These kind of shady practices need to stop.
We would hate to think that taking money from a customer for an in-stock product and withholding it to sell at a higher price is a common practise, but it has certainly raised some concerns for us recently. While this kind of practise is likely not just related to RTX 50 graphics cards, we have a lot of correspondence from readers highlighting that this seems to be a specific problem right now. Likely due to the margins.
If you are in the Netherlands it might be worth checking out customer feedback for uwgamespecialist.nl on this page.
MSI have been quick to distance themselves from this etailer and sent us a public statement over HERE
KitGuru says: Are you waiting on a graphics card for a long time now after an etailer has taken your money? If so, be sure to check the website you bought it from to see if the card is back in stock, and at a higher price. if it is, then take action. Stand up for your rights as a consumer. If you run into problems then email me directly – allan(at)kitguru.net
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Bought an RTX 5090? – be aware of etailer ‘price hiking stock scams’ first appeared on
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