Sad news - ABIT - RMA service moving to Netherlands.

Nelly · 11 Mar 2008 at 03:57

Abit - RMA service moving to Netherlands?

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/03/06/abit_has_new_boards_and_a_brighter_outlook_/1

One thing that attracted me to Abit motherboards was the fact that they had a fast turnaround due to the fact RMA was based in Stevenage UK, just read a report that states the following.

Apart from Abit’s ‘wares, we were also alerted that the UK office has lost all but one person and has effectively shut down. To RMA a board now you have to send it directly to the Netherlands instead – while we were told this should prove a faster turnaround time, it’s also more expensive for us end users to ship it out of the country. So while there were a lot of smiles from (most of) the Abit crowd here in CeBit, it still looks like tough times ahead for UK customers.

Do any motherboard manufacturers have UK RMA service anymore? DFI - Netherlands, Asus - wait 20 years because it goes to foreign country & now Abit!!!

It's getting to a point that we dont have any UK RMA service for anything soon, will cost a small fortune as well in postage fees.

BUFF · 11 Mar 2008 at 05:50

if true it will be a shame as abit UK were good.
The important thing though imo from a customer's pov is whether abit Nl can keep upto that standard & of course in the 1st year in the UK your first point of call should be your vendor anyway.

iirc WD RMA is Germany, Maxtor are Ireland, Corsair is the USA etc. etc.

Nelly · 11 Mar 2008 at 14:30

It's a shame becaue it was one of the advantages that Abit had over the other motherboard manufacturer's for UK customers, I've only had to rma 2 Abit motherboards over the last 10 years & the turnaround was within 5 working days both times.

I doubt its very often any motherboards go wrong, at least with Abit if a bios update goes wrong I can simply have the bios chip replaced not like MSI, Asus & whoever else use soldered on bios chips meaning a full motherboard rma.

Nelly · 11 Mar 2008 at 14:39

Some more info for people, I cannot give details where the info is exactly from as it contains comeptitor links.

Sean @ Abit UK said:
I can confirm that the UK office will close and have the following statement for all of you.

RMA is sent to the
reseller who either sends this direct to ABIT or to the distributor. So
for the end user, there will be no change seen. The changes are in the
background. Also for technical support this is being centralized to the
European HQ where there will be a toll free number in place in a few
weeks which will be open 10-5pm, which is longer than the hours that
were operated in the UK.

From the info gathered here, it doesnt look like it will effect postage fees too much for us.

Vir · 11 Mar 2008 at 14:39

Ahhh nasty for you guys!

Not that bad for me though as I live in The Netherlands

*strokes Abit motherboard*

Cob · 11 Mar 2008 at 16:48

Nelly said:
Do any motherboard manufacturers have UK RMA service anymore? DFI - Netherlands, Asus - wait 20 years because it goes to foreign country & now Abit!!!

I think Gigabytes still go to Milton Keynes.

Schnippzle · 11 Mar 2008 at 16:52

OCZ is in Belgium

Got my two sticks of ram back two weeks after I sent them, quite good tbh.

nightmare99 · 11 Mar 2008 at 17:01

As already mentioned your re/etailor should be looking after your warranty service. Centralized european service centers should be able to offer a faster turnaround and better replacement stocks to draw from. The location of the service center shouldnt matter as it should be the reseller/distributor shipping to here.

WJA96 · 12 Mar 2008 at 00:48

nightmare99 said:
As already mentioned your re/etailor should be looking after your warranty service. Centralized european service centers should be able to offer a faster turnaround and better replacement stocks to draw from. The location of the service center shouldnt matter as it should be the reseller/distributor shipping to here.

If you buy a board 2nd hand then the only option is to ship directly to the manufacturer's RMA centre. This is just another reason to buy Gigabyte, who thankfully still have a UK RMA centre.

BUFF · 14 Mar 2008 at 14:06

well, with the demise of abit UK I thought that I would ask abit Nl re. spare parts availability (BIOS chips etc.).
I was stunned to get a reply within 2 1/2 minutes! :eek:

If that's an indication of service levels (& tbh I don't expect it to be) then I think that we can live with it

KDU · 15 Mar 2008 at 01:00

Abit were fantastic with me when I had to RMA my motherboard. The guy even took the time to call me up! Then I dropped the motherboard off myself and he made me a coffee and showed me around. Best service I have ever had. Granted, I do live in NL, but still, very impressed.

Andeh · 15 Mar 2008 at 01:40

Western Digital's RMA service is still based in the UK. I RMA'd a faulty 160gig drive my mate gave me a few weeks ago.

BUFF · 15 Mar 2008 at 08:32

Andeh said:
Western Digital's RMA service is still based in the UK.

that must have changed because it definitely used to be in Germany - I had to RMA a Raptor there.

WJA96 · 15 Mar 2008 at 10:19

BUFF said:
that must have changed because it definitely used to be in Germany - I had to RMA a Raptor there.

It still is in Germany, they just have a deal with DHL/Fedex now so you can send the RMA drive to an aggregation centre in the UK from where it will be sent on. This means the cost to send it back is substantialluy reduced from what it used to be.