Poor service after components caught fire!

Andygully

Andygully

Andygully

Associate
Joined
18 Apr 2013
Posts
823
Location
Liverpool
My Phanteks cable extensions and my Vega 56 caught fire.

As shown here

I contacted them today by phone and message. I was told this

"Hi,

I'm sorry to hear the your PSU extension cable has caught fire and damaged your PSU and graphics card.

Unfortunately you will need to make a claim with Phanteks and Sapphire in regards to covering the loss of damaged components.

All the contact information for both companies can be found on their website."

I came downstairs I found the room smelt of smoke and found the damage. It could have caused a fire which is bad news for me and my partner and kids which is pretty scary .



At first they was refusing to do anything about it. I then call up and was told I can send them back but this would be refused by the Manufacturers and it would be a waste of my time to send them back. I am sending them back to them anyway but they basically told me it's pointless.



When I did get a return email they only sent it for the cable to! Both are in warranty



Pretty poor If i'm honest I had to order a new PSU as well as that is dead.



I have been a customer of OCUK for years to and this is quite shocking.
 
Bit surprised the PSU died from that. I've accidentally connected live to earth (via my hand) without ill effects. Maybe check the fuse in the plug?

The gfx does pull a lot of current though, and it looks like the connection to the card wasn't good enough. Seems likely to be a fault with the extension cable.
 
unless system was built by ocuk, would be going direct to vendors with OCUK proof of purchase and emails sent from themselves . Vendors are finaly port of call for RMA not resellers , few times you can see OCUK over turning RMA decision by vendor or vise versa (Gigabyte rep has done this a few times with parts from lessor resellers) .

@Phanteks_Care most likely would ask info about your PSU used and if you happened to have snaps of it installed before incident .

if your PSU was Seasonic, they have been known to have issues with Vega GPUs , and should be used with seperate PCIe power cables
 
Andygully said:
I contacted them today by phone and message. I was told this

"Hi,

I'm sorry to hear the your PSU extension cable has caught fire and damaged your PSU and graphics card.

Unfortunately you will need to make a claim with Phanteks and Sapphire in regards to covering the loss of damaged components.

All the contact information for both companies can be found on their website."
Click to expand...

The correct procedure as advertised to the consumer was not followed by the staff member. You were told you would need to make a claim with Phanteks and Sapphire, however that is only "advice" stated as the only option in this case, when the official policy is as follows:


AFTER 30 DAYS / WARRANTY PERIOD
Sometimes goods may become faulty after the acceptance period has expired but within the warranty period. Depending on the product, you will receive either a replacement or your product will be repaired.

Reducing the time you are without a working product is important. You can often save time and money by handling the return directly with the manufacturer. We will advise you of this option when appropriate. Please click here to check service availability and contact details by manufacturer.

If a direct service is not available or you would prefer Overclockers UK to handle your return, then we encourage you to contact us. We will send your goods for repair or replacement to the manufacturer under warranty.

Turnaround times vary between manufacturer and product type. Overclockers UK is in constant contact with our suppliers and will endeavour to return the items in the speediest manner possible.

Goods returned for repair or replacement should be sent without any accessories as we cannot guarantee that they will remain present with the original item throughout the whole return procedure.

If the manufacturer is unable to return the items within 28 days, we will give you the option of a refund. Depending on the age of the items, the refund may include a deduction for the length of time you have used them (known as rescission).

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/returns
Click to expand...

So they initially failed to inform you of the option to have OcUK handle the return. This has happened in the past, even when the consumer has expressed their preference to have OcUK handle the return, and can leave a bad taste in the mouth. Unfortunate to see it reoccur.

The retailer, not the manufacturer, is responsible to the end-consumer. Some (indeed many) manufacturers choose to provide end-care direct to consumers but they are not legally obliged to. It can also be faster, as stated in OcUK Returns policy, but it is not the only option.

I hope someone higher up can apologize to you for the incomplete advice you were given initially, and that they get this sorted for you.
 
They have taken the cables and the GPU back not sure what happens from here though. I hope it gets sorted but I was basically told on the phone they would not accept them.
 
Under UK law your contract is with the retailer, not the OEM. Also while that could be manufacturing related, it could equally be user error - I had similar with one of my GPU mining set-up’s on a 7990 where I failed to make sure the power cables were properly seated and had similar results. Only damage was the cable thankfully.
 
That looks to me like a poorly seated or faulty connection which would have been arcing slightly and eventually gotten too warm leading to the failure, see it a lot working in electronics manufacturing. Although I use them myself, I tend to shy away from extension cables as you're deviating from "specified tolerance and spec" which can, at times, leave you open to the rebuke that you were not using the equipment "in the manner in which the manufacturer intended". I work as tech support for a ~£50M pound turnover electronics company, if we saw anything like that, user error or not, a full investigation would be carried out, we'd not shy away from it (a lot of the time, and I mean a LOT, it's the user that borked it) and we'd then do our best to ensure that there's no further risk.

Hope you get sorted :(

DB
 
got those phanteks extensions myself 24 pin and 8 pin

its even the same colour i have as well
personally i thought they are decent quality

forgot how long have had mine but never had any issue

how long were you using it?

for the extension i agree first point of call is the person who sold it to you not manufacturer

but the incidental damage caused by a faulty cable is a bit trickier as how to prove it was the cables fault
that it wasnt the end user not connecting it properly is the issue

can see it from your point of view obviously as a customer and a diy builder
but also the point of view of ocuk as user inflicted damage to adjoining components could cost them a lot of money if just replacing everything every time became normal procedure

i know corsair offer a damage caused by leaks from AIO thing but guessing proving its another thing

perhaps ocuk should start doing the component installation insurance policy that one well known competitor offers?
wont mention their name in case get my wrist slapped for naming competition but guess ocuk mods would know who it is anyway

but i hope you get a good outcome from this
 
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