Gigabyte RMA through OcUK

[CHokKA]

Hey everyone

I returned my faulty Gigabyte Radeon 7950 to OcUK almost two weeks ago, and they tested and sent the card on to Gigabyte on the same day (according to the email). I haven't heard anything back from Gigabyte and neither have OcUK (I contacted them for an update the other day). I've seen posts on here about their RMA service taking 3 - 5 days, but I presume that's for RMAs dealt with directly through them? The email from OcUK says it can take anywhere up to 28 days but I was hoping that this was just a general message and not specifically for this RMA. Does anyone have any experience with a Gigabyte RMA that's been done through OcUK? I have another Gigabyte 7950 that I was originally trying to use in CF (it didn't work, presumably due to the issue with my GPU), but it was borrowed from a friend and he wants the GPU back soon. I've been using that with no issues since sending the other GPU off.

The issue is an odd issue that was occurring intermittently. I sent OcUK pictures and a video of the issue. I'm hoping they've sent them through to Gigabyte to help them see the issue.

The video is below:

Thanks all!

Edit: I just wanted to put up here on the first page that the serial number policy issue I experienced during the process of this RMA has been reviewed by Gigabyte and it will now be handled by proof of purchase rather than tracked by serial number. I've had confirmation from Gigabyte regarding this and I said I'd amend my post here to show that. They'll also be posting something up shortly.

 

[CHokKA]

I've been looking around and this doesn't seem to be a common issue but it does happen every so often.

Still not heard from OcUK or Gigabyte though

 

[CHokKA]

Thanks for the reply. I contacted OcUK on Thursday, they said they'd contact Gigabyte but I heard nothing back from them. I'll try that other post

 

[CHokKA]

So Gigabyte have rejected my RMA due to it being out of warranty according to the date of manufacture. I purchased it from OcUK on the 27th March 2013 and it has a 3 year warranty, but according to Gigabyte the serial number of the product puts the manufacturing date as January 2013 so the warranty has now expired. OcUK have kindly offered me a partial refund, but I don't understand how Gigabyte can operate this way when a company as large as OcUK is vouching for it being under warranty based on date of purchase still. Very frustrating.

Edit: I just thought I'd post up that a very helpful chap at Gigabyte is looking into this for me as we speak. Despite my message above, I don't want anyone to think that Gigabyte haven't been helpful in this situation. The person I've been dealing with by email has been very prompt and extremely helpful so that's a big plus

 

[CHokKA]

Well the most annoying thing from my point of view is that I sent the card off on the 18th February, it was received by OcUK on the 19th and then sent to Gigabyte on the same day. We're now on the 11th March, 22 days after the card was sent off to Gigabyte and I had to chase both OcUK and Gigabyte for updates on the situation. Now if Gigabyte change their stance and accept the RMA, I've likely got another few weeks wait before I get whatever they're going to sort for me. Throughout the process I've emailed OcUK several times for updates and at no point did anyone tell me that it had been rejected. When I got a reply from Gigabyte to say they didn't even have the card yesterday, I then had to phone OcUK to find out what was going on. I was then put on hold for ages and when the chap came back to me I was staggered when he told me that it had been rejected by Gigabyte for that reason.

The partial refund is a nice gesture but it doesn't cover anywhere near the cost of a card of the same range that the 7950 would have come from when I bought it. I'd have to pay a fair difference for a better card based around the price I paid for the 7950. I know you can argue that I've had good use from the card, but on the flip side you can also argue that the card shouldn't have developed a fault and if it hadn't, it'd still be a more than capable card for my PC right now and would do for another year at least.

 

[CHokKA]

Guys, please don't jump on Gigabyte-Gaming. He's gone the extra mile to sort all of this out for me and has been incredibly helpful in the process. It's not his fault that the company has this policy. I am just glad that this is getting sorted and that it'll be reviewed with their HQ. Then everyone buying from Gigabyte can benefit from the proper warranty

 

[CHokKA]

I'm glad it's been sorted for you, sorry for jumping on your thread.

There's no problem with that Rich, I was just saying that Gigabyte-Gaming has been really helpful with this and despite the oddness of the warranty being based on the manufacturing date, I don't want people to jump all over him when he's doing his best to sort it all out

 

[CHokKA]

That's cool mate, as you'll understand the situation has caused a little controversy and now hopefully we'll hear clarification on the warranty issue.

Of course. I'm glad I'm getting somewhere and that from this, perhaps a change might happen to Gigabyte's policy.

 

[CHokKA]

I'm not sure if it's 37th week of the year or of manufacture. I suppose they'd be close enough together anyway though. My Gigabyte starts with 1304.

 

[CHokKA]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I thought I'd post up an update because things seem to have taken a very odd turn. I had an email this morning from OcUK saying that they were shipping me a replacement HIS 4GB 380X. I hadn't heard anything about this and was surprised because Gigabyte told me they'd be replacing the card, so I contacted OcUK and they said that as it's been over 28 days they've swapped it. As nice a gesture as this was, I've turned down the replacement as I have had trouble with HIS in the past, and this one would have no warranty on it despite it being brand new, so OcUK have given me a partial refund on the 7950.

Add to this the fact that I've heard nothing back from Gigabyte. I contacted them yesterday, was asked for the part number and serial number again, and then heard nothing back after that. I had to then contact OcUK once again to see if the card had actually gone off to Gigabyte. It was sent on Monday this week. I have also chased again earlier this morning and there's been nothing back from that either. I really don't understand what's been going on here, the entire process has seemed strange to me from start to finish, and it frustrates me that I'm the one doing all the chasing throughout the entire process. I only found out that my card had been rejected because I called OcUK to find out what was taking so long. I'm also quite disappointed that after I seemed to be getting great help from Gigabyte, that all of a sudden it's just all gone quiet and I'm getting nothing back at all and OcUK have now had to refund me.

To be perfectly honest, this entire RMA process has been a disappointment from the start. I can't believe it's taken so long to get to this point. I thought that Gigabyte were supposed to take 3 - 5 days to sort it, then they reject my card due to a silly policy and now we still don't even get to an end point with them, OcUK have had to take ownership. It hasn't been a smooth experience, and if I didn't have a spare GPU, I wouldn't have been able to play anything for a month! I'll be thinking again before purchasing another Gigabyte product in future

 

[CHokKA]

I was just thinking...you said Gigabyte has gone quiet, but could it be possible that they have actually been in touch with OcUK directly, which led to them offering the 380x 4GB as replacement? Because as far as I know, most manufacturers have policy of not dealing with customer directly, as the contract is between the buyer and the store/retailer...

I don't know how much you got for your partial refund, but a 380x 4GB is a pretty good replacement for 7950, even if it is HIS and that you no longer have warranty.

I've been dealing with Gigabyte-Gaming from this forum. I emailed him direct about it about a week ago and have been discussing it with him since. He's emailed me back now though saying he's ill today and that's why he hadn't replied so that's fair enough.

I agree that the card was a good replacement, there was no issue there, but it's a brand new card with no warranty and if anything did go wrong, that's essentially £190 gone. I also had terrible issues with HIS previously so by choice I wouldn't buy one of their cards again.

 

[CHokKA]

If you are getting £190 back as refund for the 7950, then yes it make perfect sense to take the money and buy a new card instead since it will have full warranty

It's not £190 I'm getting back for the partial refund, nowhere close tbh but paying the difference to upgrade to another card for a full warranty seemed the most sensible option as it's a brand new card, and a new warranty from today.

 

[CHokKA]

Well, in my opinion it's a poor showing from Gigabyte here and seems OcUK have stepped in to resolve the problem.

So when/if my 980ti gives up, 2.5 years down the line do i just suck it up and move on? And then do i buy a trusted EVGA warranted card next time?

Come on Gigabyte, it's not the customer service i expected from such a company.


CHokKA can i ask, do you think you got your monies worth out of the 7950?

It was a good card and I'm disappointed it went wrong. It actually started exhibiting issues just over two years into my having it but I didn't realise there was a three year warranty on it at the time so I never did anything. In terms of use from the card, I do feel like I got good use out of it and I'd still be happily using it right now if it hadn't been problematic. So to summarise I suppose I can say yes, I do feel like I got my money's worth, I just feel like I've been let down with the way the warranty has been handled.

 

[CHokKA]

And that is what would make me/you consider another brand in future.

What card do you think you'll get now then?

I ordered an Asus through OcUK earlier. Their new RMA service in place with OcUK swung it for me. It was a bit more on the price vs other cards but if the RMA works as well as they say it should, it's worth it to not have this same experience again.

 

[CHokKA]

It keeps getting better! Even though OcUK have issued me with the partial refund, and I took delivery of the new new Asus GPU that I paid the extra for, I've now had an email from Gigabyte to say that they've finally received the card back today and the engineer has said that the warranty is void because there's a component that's been removed from it and there are scratches from the removal. He sent me some pictures:

Now fortunately, I took numerous photos of the card on my iPhone 6 whilst I was packaging it up, just in case anything happened to it whilst in transit. Here are mine, clearly showing the missing part still fixed to the board. They're the full-sized images from my iPhone so I've put them in a spoiler tag:

Spoiler

I don't quite know how something like this could have happened to such a small part on the board. Granted, it's made a trip from me to OcUK, then from OcUK to Gigabyte where it was rejected on the serial number, then it went from Gigabyte to back OcUK, and then again from OcUK to Gigabyte after it was all cleared up, so I suppose it's possible, but for there to be scratches present as well? I don't know what's going on here, but something isn't right. I've sent my pictures in (along with a few others showing the complete packaging and then the subsequent collection of the package a few minutes after sealing the box, which can be corroborated by the date and timestamp on the images. I was in the middle of packaging it all up when the courier turned up and had to wait for me to finish).

Now I really don't know what on earth has gone on here, but it's all very strange to say the least. I have emailed OcUK as well because this needs to be investigated. I know I have a new card, but I don't know where things will go from here as far as Gigabyte are concerned.

 

[CHokKA]

This must be leaving a sour taste in your mouth?

Not much you can do now is there as OcUk have paid out on it.

Well there's not much I can do, but OcUK and Gigabyte can figure out between themselves just exactly what has happened in this situation. I've been left without a card for almost a month and I've paid out extra to get an equivalent value card to what my 7950 was worth when I originally bought it, and now we come to a point where again I'm being told that the warranty has been voided for sure due to damage to the actual card itself and then asking me how it happened. I can prove that it wasn't me so something somewhere has happened to cause this damage.

Sour taste would be putting it lightly to be honest. I find the entire situation has been awful, from both OcUK and Gigabyte. I've been left in the dark throughout this entire process, only getting information when I ask for it, and I only found out that it was originally rejected when I involved someone at Gigabyte about this all. When I enquired about what was going on last week, nobody at OcUK or Gigabyte seemed to know. Neither Gigabyte nor OcUK could tell me where the GPU was even though it was supposedly sent back on Monday of last week. I know it's now dealt with but I'm not very happy with how it's turned out after everything that's gone on.

 

[CHokKA]

Hey everyone

I've refrained from posting up more in this thread whilst I let OcUK and Gigabyte figure out between themselves just what happened with my RMA. I know the original issue with the RMA being rejected wasn't great, but Gigabyte have reviewed their policy on this. They'll also announce something soon. In the end, the mixup occurred between both companies and they have both worked hard to resolve this for me, despite the hiccups along the way. I've had good service from both sides in the end.

As for Gigabyte, I can honestly say that now that the serial number policy has been altered, I'd be happy to purchase another Gigabyte product in the future. They're one of only a few manufacturers to back their products with a 3 year warranty, so if it had been from a different manufacturer I wouldn't even have been able to RMA the card when I did. That they base it off the serial number is an oversight but I'm glad they've acknowledged this and are trying to sort it out.

Regarding the damage to my card when it was received by Gigabyte, the investigation of this is ongoing and hopefully someone can figure out what happened there. Hopefully they can get to the bottom of this.

At the end of the day, mistakes happen and no company gets things right everytime. But what sets them apart is their customer service, and I can honestly say that in the end, Gigabyte were excellent in handling my issue, despite it having taken a bit longer than it normally would. The person I've been dealing with is Rodrigo (Gigabyte-Gaming on the forum) and he has been most helpful throughout this whole issue. He's gone out of his way to assist me with this.

Hopefully this puts your minds at ease with any future decisions regarding Gigabyte products.

 

[CHokKA]

I'm a bit confused about the partial refund.. if the card was under warranty, shouldn't it be directly replaced with the same or equivalent new card.

I hate to defend Taxdogers site that begins with A, before I used overclockers I bought a GTX560 it failed under warranty and said taxdogers replaced with a GTX660.

As has been said, I was offered a replacement by OcUK after the 28 days but it was a HIS 380X with no warranty on it. I didn't want to take the risk of having a replacement card with no warranty so I chose to take the partial refund (which was a fair bit less than the cost of the 380X) so that I could purchase a new card that had a full warranty on it. That was initiated by OcUK at the time because the RMA had gone on for so long.

 

[CHokKA]

sorry that's still not good enough for me.. a warranty should be replaced with a new card the same or equivalent with fresh warranty, unless of course the card can be repaired which is unlikely.. as long as your happy that's what counts, but imo (and its just my opinion) OCUK and Gigabyte seem to have got away without honouring the warranty. I'm no legal expert so I may be totally wrong

Both OcUK and Gigabyte worked something out for me though so it's all good As has been mentioned, if it had been repaired the warranty would be whatever was left and any replacement gets the leftover warranty as well. I'm better off now even though I had to pay money toward a new GPU

 

[CHokKA]

Wow, I'm away from this thread for a few days and things heat up!

Personally id have taken the 380x that was offered. Surely you could've sold it for more than the partial refund received?

Well I didn't for several reasons and I still wouldn't if I had to do it again. The partial refund that I was given wasn't close to the £188 for the 380x but, after all the hassle I'd been through for the month, why should I be expected to accept a card that was never in the mix, and then have to go through the hassle of selling it on with no warranty left? How much would you pay for a GPU that retails at £190 brand new with no warranty on it? I'd have been lucky to sell it for £120 (which was less than the partial refund) with no warranty. Would you want to spend all that money on a GPU that has no backup on it when you could spend another £50 - £60 on a card that's brand new and also has a full warranty? I had to weigh up the potential for getting a new card as soon as possible, against going through yet more hassle just to arrive at that same point. I chose the option that offered the least amount of headache for myself. I'd already been through weeks of going back and forth between OcUK and Gigabyte. I just wanted an end to it all. Sometimes time isn't worth that kind of hassle.

The principle here is that I had a faulty card and it should have been replaced under warranty. I originally purchased a Gigabyte card because I was happy with that brand, and I then had to spend almost a month waiting for nothing to happen before all of a sudden receiving an email telling me my HIS 380x was being prepared for dispatch. OcUK had never even contacted me prior to this email to agree this with me. As I explained in my previous post, whilst the gesture was appreciated, I didn't appreciate just receiving an email about a new card being sent to me when I had no idea of the circumstances. It was then up to me to contact OcUK to establish just exactly why they were sending me a new card from a different manufacturer. That's then when all of this came to light.

Me too. Seems daft not taking it and selling it on, it was a great offer!

Unless you were me throughout that entire month, I don't see that it's fair that you say I was daft for not taking that card and selling it on. You weren't the one having to deal with both OcUK and Gigabyte every few days throughout this debacle. I'd challenge you to be in my shoes under the same situation and then see how happy you would be to receive a GPU with no prior consultation from a manufacturer that you'd had poor service from in the past. I had absolutely no choice in what manufacturer was selected, it was just done for me and I had no involvement in that process until I made the call to OcUK to find out just why I'd been sent an email regarding a replacement item being selected and sent to me.

As it stands, I stuck to my principles and someone at OcUK was very helpful in sorting things out for me. Let's just say that I've now ended up with something far more favourable than the HIS 380X, for far less than I'd have originally had to spend to make up the difference between the partial refund and the card I purchased. And, I'll also add that Gigabyte threw a little something my way as a gesture of goodwill as well. Perhaps that goes some way to highlight just how totally backward this entire RMA situation was, and how hard OcUK and Gigabyte ended up working to sort it all out, even if the outcome wasn't any normal RMA process.