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Gigabyte demanding customer pay the shipping both ways for an item covered under warranty?

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

Permabanned
Joined
9 Jun 2009
Posts
11,924
Location
London, McLaren or Radical
Hello,

I am helping a friend return a faulty R9 280X that's still covered under warranty and has a hardware fault.

I have just opened the RMA with Gigabyte and they are asking us to do one of the following:

- Include a postal order or cash for £15 to pay for return shipping of the repaired or replaced unit
- Arrange courier collection when we are notified that the repaired or replaced item is ready
- Visit their warehouse ourselves to drop off and collect

This is the first time I have ever heard of such a practice... usually it's the customer who returned the item and the other side covers the cost to get it back to the customer. Once in a while you find a provider who will pay shipping both ways for a faulty item as the cost should not be bared on a user who should have a faultless experience during the warranted period (although that last one can be quite rare).

Is this demand even legal?

Thanks
 
crinkleshoes said:
usually it's the customer who returned the item and the other side covers the cost to get it back to the customer.
Click to expand...

Hi mate,

The sentence I quoted from your post was how it worked for me when I RMA'd a Gigabyte card. Have you tried contacting the retailer the card was purchased from instead of going through Gigabyte directly?
 
They told us to go straight to Gigabyte




Was a bit of a pain actually... first contacted gigabyte and they told us they don't deal with RMAs directly and to go through the retailer... then the retailer pushed us back to gigabyte... for some odd reason, this time gigabyte accepted the rma process... yet have sent us this email:

The attached RMA form must be completed and returned back first by e mail so a returns number can be given and further on screen instructions whichever choice is chosen from the options detailed below. Please place a “X” in the appropriate box also when returning the form to receive a returns number (Op 1, Op 2 or Op 3) as seen.
Choice 1: You may return the item to GBT Tech direct for repair and the handling fee for this service is £15 per item (non refundable) and is payable only by Royal Mail postal order which must be sent with the item. Please note: Repair is not guaranteed on any OOW items. You may send cash in GBP but if so, please use Registered post and ensure a insurance value is given to Royal mail before posting. GBT-Tech cannot be held responsible for missing or stolen cash on arrival of the package to our offices. Please note if you live in the Republic of Ireland the handling fee is £40, for Northern Ireland fee is £15
Choice 2 (Most popular choice and used by many) If you do not wish to pay the handling charge given above, you may organize your own delivery and pick up courier service or deliver and collect the item yourself by prior arrangement. On completion of any repair we will notify you by e mail and the item can then be collected at a date of your own choosing (except Weekends and Bank Holidays) with the courier chosen or by yourself. Most customer who choose a courier go for “My Hermes” where their prices start from £2.99p depending on weight and postcode location. How-ever you must give notice to us, the name of the courier collecting quoting your RMA number and at least 24hrs notice before they are due to collect. GBT Tech cannot be held responsible for goods returned by 3rd party courier services that are lost or damaged in transit.
Choice 3: You may hand deliver the item to our office to avoid any handling charges made by us. How-ever prior notice must be given first and a returns number issued too from us. We do not do any form of waiting service and all goods are to be left on site till repair(s) are complete. We will then inform you by e mail for you to collect the goods at a mutual convenient time/date. If hand delivering, our hours are 09.00-17.00hrs Monday to Friday only. Address will follow on request or issued RMA returns number.
If your original seller has ceased trading, please advise in your next e mail and each case then will be judged individually on any cost but you must provide the name of the trader for our checking with telephone number
To All Users: If you wish to deal direct and either wish to pay the fee or organize your own delivery and collection of the goods or by hand delivery, please now fill in the attached excel RMA form filling in all fields marked with the “???” and return back to us by e mail only for a returns number and further on screen instructions. Please do not send goods without a returns number being issued as the item may be rejected. We advise using a recorded delivery service when sending items to us. Returns numbers are normally issued within 48 hours of request and receiving the RMA form filled in correctly. Incomplete forms can cause delay. No fault found items are backed up by photographic evidence. The preferred method of any status enquiry is by e mail to this address: [email protected] where a reply can be given in most cases within 1 hour. Telephone calls welcome too on 01908 322878 from 08.30hrs to 17.30hrs Mon-Friday for the same enquiry but this dept cannot give tech support or advise on solutions to issues. Please call our tech support dept for this.
Thank you
Regards
Returns Administration Dept
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and I just received this reply to my query:
Hello,

If you wish to deal direct with the manufacturer, then a handling fee applies to cover our cost of returning the item to you. Most customers though return via their sellers as this is the norm as the product was sold by them. As with any high street purchase, we find customers simply return the item to the seller for assistance with proof of purchase. Gigabyte are the manufacturer only not the seller but offer a direct service for quicker turnaround if desired. If you do not wish to go for option 1, then we find most customers choose option 2 when dealing direct and use a courier called “My Hermes” as their prices start from £1.99p depending on postcode location and weight of item. To date no customer has issue with our range of options available and they wish the item back within a few days.

Please note if you return the item via your seller this may take longer as dealers tend to wait till they have a few items to send then log them on our website. We notice your seller is ****.Com and we can inform you they regularly send to us their customers goods for return for our repair service. We only require the faulty item no added accessories such as cables, driver disc etc need to be sent.

Regards

Returns Admin Dept
Click to expand...
 
Well that isn't very good. Its fair enough that the customer pays to get the item to the RMA center but to pay to get it back too seems a bit harsh. If the retailer is unwilling to help though Gigabyte have you over a barrel really.
 
This is really bad. I'm concious of how much I slam gigabyte and this adds fuel to my fire.

I've had a ticket open for 3 days not answered yet. On the other hand, corsair answered as soon as their working day started.
 
Haven't had a bad experience and never heard a bad word about the RMA. Hopefully their standards arent slipping, would be a big shame.
 
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If Gigabyte are saying the retailer usually deals with their returns then I'd keep on at the retailer. How old is the card and how long was the warranty?
 
I had to pay the delivery costs too with an RMA to Gigabyte (twice). Unfortunately I wasn't the original buyer so couldn't go through the retailer avenue but as I had proof of purchase by the original buyer Gigabyte sorted it for me. I would go through the retailer if at all possible, turn around will be quicker too.
 
Shall not be considering Gigabyte for anything after reading through this, they just went into the Asus pile.

Best RMAs I have ever had are Samsung, they instructed a courier to pick up a broken monitor when replacing a dead unit. Logitech, usually don't have to return the unit just prove it's destruction (picture of the unit with USB lead cut off)
 
You have no contract with Gigabyte, and they could even say their repairs are all chargeable if they liked.

You DO have a sales contract with the retailer, and your dispute is with them. As they may use the manufacturer to repair, this usually just adds time on to the process (as it adds a middle man) but in this case it's probably best.

If they retailer tries to push you to Gigabyte the response is "no, my sales contract is with you, you need to deal with the issue". They may well forward the unit on to gigabyte but that's not your problem. If they won't deal with you, the eventual result is a county court claim.
 
I keep seeing more and more of these issues where retailers are forcing customers to contact the manufacturers, I hope this isn't becoming a trend. It's unfair to expect customers to pay postage both ways when their product fails inside the warranty period, unless the failure was directly caused by them of course.

Seeing as your friend is getting the cold shoulder from the retailer, they probably have no other choice.
 
My understanding is the first year is with the retailer, legally they cannot fob you off, thereafter the manufacturer is responsible for the remainder of the warranty. As to who pays for shipping costs I don't know. :)
 
Just LOL at that rubbish service.

I heard around this forum that Gigabyte were said to have the best warranty for UK customers, truly shocking.

Not buying a gigabyte product until I hear that this practice has been abolished.

Hopefully a Gigabyte rep will see this thread.
 
XFX was horrible to deal with, took nearly a month since it had to be sent to Hong Kong. I was more annoyed how I had to pay import tax on the return :@
 
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