RMA Offering of B-Grade cards seems wrong

[dpwrussell]

Hi,

I had to RMA my KFA2 GeForce RTX 4090 SG 1-Click OC GPU as it was failing.

They've contacted me and said they are looking to replace my card (which I assume means they've determined repair is not an option). They don't have stock of my card, so I've been offered one of these as a replacement:

• B Grade Asus GeForce RTX 4090 TUF OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card
• B Grade Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

This feels really wrong to me. I am 1-year into my 2-year warranty, but the new card would only have a 90 day warranty, and on top of that, has a completely unknown provenance. Someone could have been using it to mine bitcoin before it was reconditioned!

I have replied saying this does not seem reasonable and asked what else they can do.

Is this usual? Has anyone else had a similar experience and got some advice?

Thanks,

D

 

[dpwrussell]

Hi Guys,

I just thought I'd drop on here, to clear this up officially.

The TLDR version; We use B-grade items from stock, rather than waiting for one from the manufacturer (much faster in most instances), original warranty is not effected by the replacement we send.

Long version for those that like to read;

When an item is returned to us and its over 6 months old, we aim to replace it with the same product but one from B-Stock, As the original item had been used for that amount of time or longer we are therefore replacing the item with another that has been used. This doesn't effect the warranty peroid on the graphics card in anyway, this will run from the original purchase date.

When we don't have an identical model available, we will then offer an alternative make or model that provides like for like performance or better. The warranty peroid is still unaffected and will run from the original purchase date.

I'd also like to point out that this policy is now in effect as soon as possible after we have confirmed the fault with the item, we originally would return the card to the manufacturer and allow upto 28days for them to resolve the claim, which may have ended up in a warranty replacement (the same as a B-Grade item) after that period, or potentially a diminished value refund. We felt that the best way for us to proceed would to issue replacements sooner, rather than making our customers wait, so this is why this is being done.

It's only when we sell B-Grade items as a stand alone product that we restrict the warranty that we support, its also worth mentioning that its a 90day warranty with us, if the manufacturer provides direct end user RMA, then this remains unaffected.

Thanks, this is useful.

1. In this case I have been offered a couple of alternate vendor cards. Who would the warranty be with? If I choose the Asus card, would I have my remaining 1-year warranty, but with Asus themselves instead of KFA2? How is this contractually enforced?
2. What guarantees can you give me about the provenance of the B-grade stock I receive? As I understand it, there's no way to determine that the card I receive has not been thrashed for a year Bitcoin mining before being reconditioned.
3. Do I retain the option to wait for KFA2 to do the upstream RMA? This wasn't mentioned in the email I received.

Thanks

 

[dpwrussell]

Which is why the OP should be engaging directly via email replies.

I am awaiting a reply by email. I just reached out here initially because I was concerned about the offer I had received where the details of warranty etc were not made clear. I'm certainly planning to ensure that my personal support case has every important piece of information in writing.

 

[dpwrussell]

If you DM me your ticket ref, I can pick it up for you.

Hi, That would be great, but I do not appear able to send a DM on these forums. Potentially as I'm a new user. Can I get it to you some other way?

 

[dpwrussell]

As the OP I thought it important to explain the resolution here.

I agree with various posters and OCUK themselves that new for old doesn't seem fair on the vendor, it was never my intention to demand that.

An advantage of my card going to KFA2 for repair would have been that when returned, I would know the provenance of my card. I know I haven't stressed it through bitcoin mining etc. However, I can see this from OCUKs point of view, being able to issue replacement cards straight away instead of waiting a long time for KFA2 to return it, is a positive customer service step. I accept that sending individual cards to manufacturers may have become cost/time ineffective.

The warranty term of 90 days on B-grade cards only applies when it's purchased directly, not during a replacement like this. My warranty term remains unaffected. I think this is reasonable and OCUK should make this much clearer. Until this was mentioned in this thread by @Feek and confirmed by @Bicepo, I did not know that and clearly neither did almost anyone else.

It was clear that the only offers on the table were this replacement alternative card or to wait for an indeterminate period of time for it to be batch shipped to KFA2, then their processing time. Also, quite possibly it would have resulted in me being sent a B-Grade card anyway if they couldn't repair it.

The combination of a B-grade card of unknown provenance with a short warranty was totally unacceptable, but the B-grade card with my full remaining warranty seemed fair.

The card I received (ASUS TUF OC) was boxed with all accessories, spotless (literally not a spec of dust, it's hard to believe it had ever been used) and covered in the "remove before use" film. If it's been reconditioned I'd be very surprised. Even the display ports show no scratches or any sign of ever having been used. I have stress tested it and it passed with flying colours, so I am happy with this service.

In a bonus, I bought the KFA2 because it was what was available at the time. It's RGB was incredibly garish. The TUF is understated which I much prefer!

Thanks to all who offered advice and to @Bicepo for jumping into my RMA ticket and getting the new card out to me next day.

OCUK: Make the replacement warranty term clearer! Mention it in RMA emails and post it more prominently on your website!