RAM and SSD memory tampering before you buy.

[oldman78]

Is it a concern buying a HP laptop "through" Walmart online, "sold and shipped" by a 3rd party?  I've heard they buy bulk from HP, unbox, remove the bottom and upgrade the ram and ssd.  The warranty is shared.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

It depends.

You would need to know the product number of the notebook and enter it in the HP partsurfer site at the link below:

HP PartSurfer

The parts list will tell you how much memory the notebook originally came with and what storage capacity the hard drive is.

If what they are selling differs from that and  if the seller doesn't offer a 1-year warranty in writing, HP will not provide any warranty support since the original memory and storage drive was removed.

This happens on Amazon too.

[oldman78]

Yes, running the laptop product number through the HP site would show an upgrade or not.  Since my original post I have found out 3rd party sellers on Walmart.com can have either of 2 motives for buying bulk from the manufacturers and reselling through retailers like Walmart.  (#1) To upgrade and sell at Walmart website, competing with Walmart's prices (because the laptop would have been upgraded to a larger amount of ram and storage)  (#2) To simply, using supply and demand, having stocked up on a certain popular model that Walmart is out of stock on, sell at a mark-up, not having a reason to open the box from the manufacture at all.  So when Walmart's sales site shows "sold and shipped by a 3rd party" and not "sold and shipped by Walmart", and you had rather have an un-open box without a shared warranty, then, yes, enter the product # into this website and verify upgrades or not.  Thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.