My MSI RMA Experience...

Cleeecooo · 1 Dec 2012 at 22:41

Geo-Gamer said:
Yeah that's the point I'm trying to get across no company is good since profit is what matters.

Sorry iPad auto correction again...

Not really - whilst all companies need to make a profit, there are many ways in which you can achieve this.

The best analogy I can give is that there are two main ways to sell coffee. You can get dirt cheap coffee picked using kids working in poor conditions and get plenty of money, or you can go for fairtrade schemes and pay everyone a much better wage but make less profit.

The same will be true with businesses, some will look for a short term quick buck by selling products and not providing aftersales support and others will sell you the product, give you aftersales support at their expense in order to build a brand name for themselves which gives them the right to later on charge more.

This is shown between XFX and EVGA. EVGA charge a handsome premium for great CS, whereas with XFX you buy cheap, buy twice :eek:

pgi947 · 1 Dec 2012 at 22:52

Surveyor said:
It would seem that as soon as stocks are gone then the lifetime warranty is worthless.

Are they likely to have stocks of your card beyond the more common 2/3 year warranty period you get with other manufacturers?

Wow, that is quite possibly the worst kind of small print on a warranty I've ever seen, especially for one branded as being lifetime! PNY should make life easier for them selves and just stick a 2 year warranty on and have done.

And yes, companies can be 'good' and still turn over large profits at the same time, OcUK is a pretty good example of this, as is the place I work at, we make plenty of money, but make sure to go the extra mile for our clients as well as giving them daily updates on work progression. Its why we win and retain contracts and our rivals don't, the little things do go a long way in the end users eyes.

As for MSI, we'll wait and see, tbh if they tell me what I want to hear (by saying "Sure we'll send you back the box etc...") and are polite in doing so (as I was with my email to them) then this whole thing can get pretty much forgotten about.

Jay85 · 1 Dec 2012 at 23:41

Surveyor said:
It would seem that as soon as stocks are gone then the lifetime warranty is worthless.

Are they likely to have stocks of your card beyond the more common 2/3 year warranty period you get with other manufacturers?

Wow so what the frick :S, if my card dies after the gxt 680 has ran out of stock do they offer a replacement card that's on par with it in the current gen or no warranty at all of any card???

spoffle · 1 Dec 2012 at 23:47

Jay85 said:
Wow so what the frick :S, if my card dies after the gxt 680 has ran out of stock do they offer a replacement card that's on par with it in the current gen or no warranty at all of any card???

On par from the current generation, sometimes people get lucky and get the equivalent back from the new generation, like if you sent a GTX580, you'd get a GTX680 back.

Jay85 · 1 Dec 2012 at 23:50

spoffle said:
On par from the current generation, sometimes people get lucky and get the equivalent back from the new generation, like if you sent a GTX580, you'd get a GTX680 back.

Ha, that would be nice...

Hopefully my card won't die as i hate RMA procedures and the enduring wait....

Surveyor · 1 Dec 2012 at 23:58

Jay85 said:
Wow so what the frick :S, if my card dies after the gxt 680 has ran out of stock do they offer a replacement card that's on par with it in the current gen or no warranty at all of any card???

They don't have to offer you any replacement according to the information I posted above.

They could just offer you financial compensation instead which may only be a relatively small proportion of what you paid for it depending on how long you'd owned the card.

Jay85 · 2 Dec 2012 at 00:26

Surveyor said:
They don't have to offer you any replacement according to the information I posted above.

They could just offer you financial compensation instead which may only be a relatively small proportion of what you paid for it depending on how long you'd owned the card.

It's actually got me thinking, i should maybe sell this card i own now a month in advance before the release of the next series of cards come to light... at least if anything does go wrong i won't be left in the dark. Really don't fancy forking out another £400 for a gpu!!! It's madness...

xxxsonic1971 · 2 Dec 2012 at 00:42

msi replaced a board for me, they were quick and sent me a memory stick too!

smilertoo · 2 Dec 2012 at 02:09

I had the same issue with an Asus motherboard, but it seemed to be the OC rma dept that binned the box AND the sound expansion card that came with the motherboard.

RetrogamerX · 2 Dec 2012 at 05:49

Rusty0611 said:
Yes we heard you the first 50 times you said the same thing in this forum

I'll say it 50 more times if I have too. This is my feeling on the matter. don't like it, tough!

spoffle said:
Hurts who? He moved on from an MSI card, so did I. I don't think anyone actually "cares" in that way. It's just a bit silly hyping this issue up so much.

In my case, it ended up being a bonus since I got better cards for the same price as the MSIs.

Good for you, but I haven't moved on. I remember what people or company's do to me. 3 times was too many, a 4th was not going to happen. I ain't no sucker :rolleyes:

weehamish · 2 Dec 2012 at 18:17

Lifetime warranty means they should replace with the next gen card, i had a 9800GX2 and was replaced with a 285 so its not like they have nothing to replace it with, if they throw that in your face say i want the closest thing to the price i paid for it!

RMAs have to be the trickiest thing ever it all boils down to the person on the other side, if you get a **** your screwed! If you get a nice guy you could be like be and go for a decent upgrade!

Say your 580 breaks and no stock you should atleast get a 670-680 even though the 660Ti probs beats it, its still not the same thing if you get me?

Cleeecooo · 2 Dec 2012 at 18:29

weehamish said:
Lifetime warranty means they should replace with the next gen card, i had a 9800GX2 and was replaced with a 285 so its not like they have nothing to replace it with, if they throw that in your face say i want the closest thing to the price i paid for it!

RMAs have to be the trickiest thing ever it all boils down to the person on the other side, if you get a **** your screwed! If you get a nice guy you could be like be and go for a decent upgrade!

Say your 580 breaks and no stock you should atleast get a 670-680 even though the 660Ti probs beats it, its still not the same thing if you get me?

I see where you're coming from, but I think that they should give like for like. So if you had a 480, it shouldn't have to be replaced with a 680, but a 660Ti would be a very reasonable replacement.

A 580, I'd say a 670. The better brands will always give you an up/side grade whent here's no stock left

spoffle · 2 Dec 2012 at 18:41

RetrogamerX said:
Good for you, but I haven't moved on. I remember what people or companies do to me. 3 times was too many, a 4th was not going to happen. I ain't no sucker

Ahh, a victim complex, I understand now. These companies aren't doing things "to you".

"I ain't no sucker" means you are a sucker, so you know, you said it and all.

Cleeecooo said:
I see where you're coming from, but I think that they should give like for like. So if you had a 480, it shouldn't have to be replaced with a 680, but a 660Ti would be a very reasonable replacement.

That kinda reads like you're objecting to companies giving a better card, this only benefits the consumer so I don't get why you'd be against it really.

Would that been correct, or have I misunderstood?

weehamish · 2 Dec 2012 at 18:44

Yes a 480 is a bit old, so maybe a 580 if they have any or even a 660 not even a Ti as its a much older card.

Yeah 580 to a 670 is a nice upgrade, i would refuse to accept it if they said no we have none in stock your screwed!

Id go and blow up their factory lol that is just not acceptable!

The 9800GX2 to a 285 was only like a year apart or maybe 1.5 years but the difference was massive, i think the 9800GX2 was the worst card ever made though?

480 to even a 660 is massive not just in performance but it many ways.

Cleeecooo · 2 Dec 2012 at 18:46

spoffle said:
That kinda reads like you're objecting to companies giving a better card, this only benefits the consumer so I don't get why you'd be against it really.

Would that been correct, or have I misunderstood?

Sorry, I should have made it clearer. I think like for like should be the industry minimum. ie, 480 OC should be replaced with 580 reference, not a 560.

But I most certainly won't complain if manufacturers choose to give free upgrades

Gregster · 2 Dec 2012 at 19:06

spoffle said:
Ahh, a victim complex, I understand now. These companies aren't doing things "to you".

"I ain't no sucker" means you are a sucker, so you know, you said it and all.

A little harsh. He had a bad experience and like anything, it can put you off.

spoffle · 2 Dec 2012 at 19:10

gregster said:
A little harsh. He had a bad experience and like anything, it can put you off.

I understand that part, but when some one say things like "I remember things companies do to me" it shows that they really do think the company is persecuting them directly.

kissenger · 2 Dec 2012 at 19:13

My two cents: MSI doesn't deserve some of the slack they've got in this thread. Their RMA guidelines are pretty clear and fair.

Regarding the replacement for EOL cards issue. I think the fairest thing any company can do is replace the EOL card with a new gen card that gives similar performance. Eg. 580 > 660. Doing anything more than that is self defeating as it gives customers no incentive to upgrade.

Gregster · 2 Dec 2012 at 19:13

spoffle said:
I understand that part, but when some one say things like "I remember things companies do to me" it shows that they really do think the company is persecuting them directly.

I guess it could feel that way but it isn't a personal thing of course

pgi947 · 2 Dec 2012 at 19:21

kissenger said:
My two cents: MSI doesn't deserve some of the slack they've got in this thread. Their RMA guidelines are pretty clear and fair.

Regarding the replacement for EOL cards issue. I think the fairest thing any company can do is replace the EOL card with a new gen card that gives similar performance. Eg. 580 > 660. Doing anything more than that is self defeating as it gives customers no incentive to upgrade.

I agree they don't deserve some of the grief they are being given, after all the initial turn around was pretty quick, as for the RMA instructions, they could have been a whole lot clearer IMO, yes the returns policy is quite crystal, but I wasn't shown or linked to that working from the presumption all the vitals would be in the not-so-clear RMA instruction.

The RMA instruction didn't tell me to keep the box and bits etc...it just said to return the faulty item only, underneath telling me incomplete items would be rejected. To me, that says send the whole thing back.

As for the EOL thing, its a tough one, if you paid £400 for a card that became EOL, you should really be getting a £400 card in return rather than a same performance £200 card. But then again 'like for like' on performance isn't such a bad thing as the similar performance new gen card is likely worth more than a 2-3 year old top line card.