Gigabyte Warranty Guidance

[Stunt]

Hey guys,

Avid roamer for years here, much like the Stackoverflow for Gaming Hardware, so I've never really had the need to post anything, at least not until now.

Back in 2107 I purchased a Gigabyte AORUS GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce Xtreme Edition 11G GPU, using Amazon.com (US) - I was living in South Africa at the time.
Just before buying the GPU I cancelled when I noticed that the warranty would only be honoured by Gigabyte USA. I reached out to Gigabyte via their eSupport portal to confirm and verify if this was the case and if so, how to best go about sorting any issues out if the warranty ever has to be honoured.

The exact response I got from Gigabyte was one I was happy enough with as I've dealt with Amazon US many times. Their exact words:

Kindly understand, we do not support global warranty and the warranty terms are dependent on your sale of contract and whatever your supplier sold you. End users have to claim the Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) service through dealers where the product was purchased and dealers should help arrange RMA procedure which is Amazon.us in your case.

This was alright for me, because as mentioned I've been dealing with Amazon US abroad for years without issue, until now. My GPU pump freaked out, started by making a weird gurgling (water/air rushing) sound as it's a closed loop AIO Card. Followed by the temps skyrocketing to 90 and the fan going ballistic. I did the only thing I could think of doing at that time and I turned my PC off. Turns out there is air in the tubes and I suspect a air hammer or pocket reaches the chip and causes the over-heating.

Original message to the RMA UK team:

Spoiler: Longish email

Hi Return Support,

I apologise for contacting you directly but it was suggested by the vendor Amazon.com. I live in the UK now, we relocated as my wife took a job here.

I've always been a huge Gigabyte fan since your G1 days, previously running 2x Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980's in SLI. And then in late 2017 I decided to go 10-Series and get the latest and greatest that you guys had on offer. This was the AORUS GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce Xtreme Edition 11G, which I have right now.|

This card has brought me endless hours of joy and honestly has been a beast and a blessing especially in how well you guys have done the integrated, AIO water-cooling. Literally brought my rig together and it's been a blissful experience all together.

Up until tonight. Was playing Destiny 2 when I realised a massive drop in frames and an increase in noises in my office, popped off my headset to find a fan in my Rig going at max speed. This almost made my heart stop to be honest and I shutdown my PC immediately, hoping maybe something went up Driver or Firmware related.

Sadly, merely booting into Windows drives my fans up but during boot something sounds grindy, almost like a failed pump (I'm guessing here - the sound is terrifying) but this made me rather just turn everything off in hope to not cause any further damage.

How do I go about getting my card fixed guys, I love this damn card and brag about her constantly, I feel absolutely defeated with her in this state? Below is absolutely everything I have on my card, please help! (I still have all the original packaging etc).

Amazon Order Number:
Order #REDACTED

Model:
GV-N108TAORUSX-W-11GD rev 1.0

Serial Number:

REDACTED

Regardless I have at a 3-4 year warranty with Gigabyte, so I reach out to them as I'd forgotten the original conversation from two years ago and am told that Amazon is to deal with it, while browsing about I came across their eSupport portal and saw my ticket to pursued that path.

Unfortunately, Amazon can only assist me within the first month of purchase according to them, which was not the response I was expecting after what I was told by Gigabyte. Anyways, a long journey of sending mails and logging tickets without getting replies lead me to phone Gigabyte USA's Warranty/RMA team. After much deliberation with them they basically refused to help me as I am unable to provide a USA return address for once they've RMA'ed my card.

I live in the UK and the only other address I have is in South Africa. I have this great card that works perfectly but obviously has some defect whereas air somehow pockets somewhere, and my only option is to find someone in the USA to receive and post my RMA'ed card back to me even though Gigabyte is an International Tech giant?

I'm at wits end and feel almost like I want to chance fixing the card myself at this time because right now if I had to get the funds together to buy another card, I can't currently, for the life of me, even consider going Gigabyte again, given my job I could move again.

Does anyone have a bit of advice, or maybe someone has had a similar experience over the yeears? I'll take anything at this point.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Stunt]

Just an update, the sound the Card is making almost constantly. Pardon the Buzz (it's actually a very small vibration - waiting for a spacer).

 

[Stunt]

Apologies, for only replying now, had a project to get through. Thanks everyone for your input

Did you try going back to amazon again and pressing them on what gigabyte said?

I had a similar situation with amazon uk recently and i just kept repeating to them that under uk law the retailer is responsible for returns and in the end they sorted it.


You not being in the US is going to be a big problem either way as no one is going to want to be liable for shipping. You'd probably be as well to try repairing it yourself than paying through the nose for shipping.

Yeah, I've been quite persistent really, but even when reaching a department manager within their Customer Services (I believe) I was assured that they can't help as it's outside of the first year. Which does make a lot of sense to me. Just hoping I can get some feedback from someone from Gigabyte, this is driving me to madness. Pretty much an emotional rollercoaster because every now and again a slit of hope appears and then I don't hear anything back...

there's an unbelievably helpful gigabyte rep on the forums so if there's anything can be done i'm sure he'd find a way to do it - @GIGA-Man is man in question, though I can't remember if he is maybe a rep for motherboards.

@GIGA-Man I'm sure you get bothered a lot with similar things, but could I possibly send you a PM regarding this? It would be highly appreciated!

Hate to say this, but that's just how regional warranties are...regional.


If you are moving across the globe all the time, you would NEED to buy products that which warranty covers globally be it mobile phone, graphic card or any other electronics in general.


I mean people buy phones and other electronics from China for example for the sake of the lower price, but they are doing so acknowledging that should anything go wrong, they will not be able to get anything sort via warranty (and even if the manufacturer or seller is willing to repair or replace, the cost of international shipping which the customer would have to pay would often make that not a worthwhile thing to do).

I gathered that, but I'm unable to even pursue the Gigabyte USA RMA route because they need a USA return address. No matter who I talk to there, the situation is the same. I spoke to them last Thursday again trying to arrange something or other and the guy actually just ended the call on me. Which would've been alright if I was rude or short with them. I've been maintaining a pretty stoic composure through this really even though I'm pretty upset that I would need to replace my card while it's still under warranty and this is becoming more of a reality to me.


When I bought the card I was not aware that Gigabyte USA was unable to assist if you did not have a USA return address, I was also not planning on moving abroad, ever. It kinda just happened as my role grew at my workplace. I'm just hoping I can get some route to a resolution as it's been almost a month soon and so far I've got Aorus UK on Facebook reading my messages, but not replying (they did ask me to provide them with my problem via the messenger directly) and I'm being hopeful that Giga-Man might be able to bring some hope into my dilemma.

 

[Stunt]

Hey Stunt,

I understand your frustration, I think you've messaged on social media too as someone mentioned this case to me this morning. You should get a reply soon and we'll do our best to help locally.

Thanks so much @GIGA-Man!

Just an update, my case has been taken on by Gigabyte UK and they are assisting with my RMA!

This is seriously rad and deeply appreciated, it's always amazing to see a manufacturer support their base as well as their base supports them. The entire process since Aorus and GIGA-Man have gotten involved has been smooth and painless, and my card is happily on it's way to the RMA department.
Thanks again for all the suggestions, guidance and most of all assistance.