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My horrible RMA experience

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Alex J said:
Thanks for all the replies guys. I'll let you know what happens as soon as I hear something back.
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As I said earlier you have the right to have MSI repair your card via the retailer, it seems that it could be OCUK's own 28 day policy that is causing the issue rather than MSI.
Having personally dealt with many OEM's in Taiwan/China for Motherboards/Graphics Cards etc. when dealing direct (if OCUK do) then they need to ship the items to MSI for analysis and repair, which sometimes will be done in bulk when they have enough to send at once, and the turn around time will be variable and not guaranteed to be weeks, it could be months.

If you are happy to wait tell them this, and make sure you are very clear and have it all in writing. I would also ask them to provide the MSI RMA number for your card once they have it, and possible even an email address for the FAE once assigned to your case this would let you track the card, and not just let them leave on a shelf and tell you it has been sent and offer you the same terrible refund amount in 6 weeks.
 
Going back a while, the MSI RMA centre used to be in the Netherlands I think, but now it's Poland? https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/msi-rma-royal-mail-polish-postal-system-disaster.18927372/

Tom Rawes who was previously at ARIA, he used to be the PR/Marketing manager at MSI, looks like he left MSI in 2018, found him on LinkedIn. Another MSI manager I've got on my LinkedIn, he's gone from Asus to Nvidia UK, doh.:(

Don’t be fobbed off if you want a retailer to repair or replace a faulty product. Use this letter to ensure the retailer takes action >> https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-ri...-item-to-be-repaired-or-replaced-adL425f1TlgZ
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
As the RTX4070 is not selling well,and they are being discounted MSI can replace the RTX3080 with an RTX4070.

Also make a tweet to MSI directly:

Tell them about your experience and ask themselves to explain the poor service.
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Sounds like a good idea, I would tweet them.
 
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I had exactly this same scenario many years ago through OcUK, but my GPU was a Gigabyte. RMA was direct through OcUK but after investigation (mostly done by myself) it turned out the GPU supposedly went back to Gigabyte, it was initially refused due to the serial number showing the manufacturer date was passed the warrenty period, despite my purchase date being well within the warranty period. Then it turned out that the GPU hadn't actually been sent to Gigabyte according to their RMA centre (I was in direct contact with Gigabyte). I queried this with OcUK and then mysteriously Gigabyte then received the GPU a few days later, but when it arrived at Gigabyte, they then refused the RMA because of physical damage to the GPU, saying a component had been removed and there were scratches on the card showing it had been forcibly removed. They sent me photos of this damage and asked if I knew what had happened. I explained that I wasn't aware of any damage to the GPU and that I certainly hadn't removed any parts of the GPU, and that I could back this up with photos that were time and date stamped just before the package was collected as I had digital photos of me packaging the card up because I had fallen victim to items being damaged by courier in the past and documented this RMA due to the value of the GPU. On these photos you could clearly see the component that they alleged had been removed by someone was absolutely fine.

Then, because this had been ongoing for over 28 days, out of the blue I received a shipping notice to say that a new HIS GPU had been dispatched. I contacted OcUK as I hadn't ordered anything, and they stated that because it couldn't be sorted by Gigabyte within 28 days, they were sending me a replacement as per their terms. I could have the replacement or a partial refund. The partial refund wasn't anywhere near enough to purchase a replacement that would be anywhere near equivalent, so I refused this. And the replacement HIS was a brand that I'd previously had poor experiences with, and it would have no warranty according to OcUK despite it being brand new, so I refused the replacement as well as I didn't want a brand new GPU that wasn't equivalent and that had no warranty.

Eventually I managed to get a brand new replacement card that was far better and had a full warranty, but I had to pay something toward it myself. After over a month of fighting though, I felt it was worth it in the end just to have a far better spec card with a new 3 year warranty. So I guess what I'm trying to say is keep at it, learn about what your rights under UK consumer law are, because eventually after calling both OcUK and Gigabyte out on their "policies" which are not UK law by the way, the situation was settled. And it also brought along with it an entire review of Gigabyte's RMA policy which hopefully has ended up helping others out after my horrible situation. It was a slog to get to that point and I wasn't particularly happy at the fact that someone involved in the RMA process had actually physically damaged my GPU to invalidate the warranty in an attempt at covering up the fact that the GPU went missing for so long, but at least things got resolved for me.

Here's my full thread experience here. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/gigabyte-rma-through-ocuk.18721152/
 
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Also, just re-reading my thread from years ago, I'd like to point out that some said I was crazy for not accepting the partial refund, some felt I should have settled on the GPU with the brand that I didn't trust (with no warranty as even though it was brand new I was told that as it was a replacement for a faulty product, the warranty would be void on this brand new GPU), but I stuck it out and in the end got a far better ending for myself. I guess the most relevant part of that thread would be my final post:

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

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

Threepwood said:
Me too. Seems daft not taking it and selling it on, it was a great offer!
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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.
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So my advice would be to stick to your guns. You are entitled to a working equivalent and you should also have a choice as to what you get. And don't accept a replacement with no warranty which is something you might get offered. That's unacceptable and whatever you get told by MSI or OcUK, it's not ok for this to be an option.
 
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as a consumer, these are the sort of stories that would put a lot of folk off retailers, treat your customers fairly or watch it spread like wildfire, sometimes your no better off buying 2nd hand, you may get unlucky, but its better that being shaftered by a retailer, even if msi wernt playinf ball, that refund offer was a straight **** You
 
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