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why do so few register their cards

Guardsmon

Guardsmon

Guardsmon

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Joined
4 Sep 2006
Posts
1,843
Location
Bristol
Looking to buy 2nd hand cards - the first thing I've learnt to ask - whats the status of the warranty, its the card registered.

Why on earth do I get back the response - "I bought the card from a well known retailer and I have a receipt, but no I haven't registered it under my name." 90% of the time.

It's not like its no obvious that you aren't going to get warranty on your card if the manufactorer doesn't know you have it?! Or do people just like spending a ton on a nice graphic card from a company that people only use because of the 10 year warranty and then screw themselves and any other after them?

Do retailers need to stick label to boxes - "REGISTER ASAP WITH MANUFACTORER", but that would probably make no difference!
 
2nd hand cards don't generally have transferable warranties so you don't have a warranty unless the orginal owner gets involved. Registering ties it down even more.
 
It is possible to change the address. And for companies like eVGA registration of your equipment is required for the warranty to be valid... and even if the original user can't change the registration to the next they can still give them the details.
 
guilty lol.

ive never registered any of my cards.

i guess im going to learn the hard way some day.
 
then again, working in an rma department, and having rma'd stuff myself to other stores and to companies direct I've NEVER once had a problem with registering the product, or lack thereof.

You want to know what registering does, puts you on their mailing list. I'd be fairly sure you can't be stripped of your rights because you don't register.

Again since I worked in a rma department, and worked directly with the companies we'd send off the dead parts to and recieve replacements from, none ever once brought up registered products, thats every major manufacturer in the computing business I can think of.

No I don't register my products and no i don't feel the need to and no it won't effect your warranty.

As for selling on, i've rma'd parts for people i've sold to, i've had them sent to me to send off or be collected, I've had parts collected directly from the person I sold to and sent directly to them rather than back to me. I've yet to come across a problem with warranty/rma'ing, again either from a store or direct from a manufacturer on 2nd hand parts. i think i've yet to rma anything i've bought off anyone, but have dealt with several rma's of things i've sold. Buy off someone trustworthy who will help you out in said situations and there isn't any issue.
 
Every time i update my drivers i get asked to register my cards, even though i have done once, anybody else get this?
 
i never register anything but have had several bits of hardware replaced by manufacturers without problem including a 8800gtx
 
Spyke_UK said:
Every time i update my drivers i get asked to register my cards, even though i have done once, anybody else get this?
Click to expand...

if you go through the custom rather than express driver install, you will see the register card option, untick that, along with folding(if you don't fold, though the option is actually earlier than that), wow trial and i forget if theres one other bit I don't install or not, might just be the folding app.

Then you won't be prompted to register, you don't in any way need to, to rma a card. Plenty of ati and nvidia cards came back to be rma'd, no one along the entire chain, no one ever even said the word "registered", asus, sapphire, club 3d, gigabyte, etc, etc, etc, same for mobo's, memory, cpu's, psu's, nothing, no one ever gave a monkeys, the parts are bought with warranty and that warranty is NOT void if you don't register.

A "few" companies offer an increased/priority/extended warranty only if you register and thats fine but they take away your standard rights, they can only ADD to your basic rights. Even then I doubt any company would actually refuse whatever the standardly advertised warranty was on the card when you bought it. IE if every website said card x has a 3 year warranty, at some later date you find out it was 2 years and the 3rd year was for registered users only, anyway I've yet to see anyone refuse.

The only slight, very slight possibility will be evga or someone who offers a lifetime warranty, never dealt with them and they will try to limit who qualifies as if someone sends in a non working evga, lets see gf3 now and gets a nice 260gtx in replacement, you can be sure they'll back out of it if they can ;)
 
Each time I install new video drivers I get the register prompt so I don't bother since I've already done it. As mentioned above that doesn't really matter, you have warranty anyway and consumer rights. People buy goods and get sold an extra three years cover, like with the 360, they needn't shell out for this, they're just making extra money out of you.
 
Never registered a single card i ever owned and never had any problems because of it. A warranty from a certain maker is valid with or without registration.
 
Guardsmon said:
And for companies like eVGA registration of your equipment is required for the warranty to be valid...
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I believe that to be true. They've refused me before for not registering a product with 3 months of purchase. Just because the majority don't require registration doesn't mean all don't.
 
If thats the case then it's a good reason to not buy evga as xfx, inno3d, asus and gigabyte do not refuse just because you havn't registered or at least they havn't in the past when i have returned cards to them so evga can sod off if that their attitude :).
 
RizlaKing said:
If thats the case then it's a good reason to not buy evga as xfx, inno3d, asus and gigabyte do not refuse just because you havn't registered or at least they havn't in the past when i have returned cards to them so evga can sod off if that their attitude :).
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True to an extent but I think they enforce this due to their "Step Up" program that allows you to trade in your card if a better one gets released within 3 months of registering\purchase and just pay the difference...Or something like that :o

...Not quite sure of the details as they seem a little pricey to me.
 
Probably because they view it as a waste of time and effort.

I've been buying 3d accelerator cards since the Voodoo Graphics and the only time I ever had to return one, I took it back to the shop who replaced it (ironically this was that very same Voodoo1 some 11 years ago).

To be honest, I'm really struggling to think of ANY hardware (not just computer hardware, literally any) that I've actually registered with the manufacturer unless it was done at point of sale.
 
Guardsmon said:
I believe that to be true. They've refused me before for not registering a product with 3 months of purchase. Just because the majority don't require registration doesn't mean all don't.
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They cant legally refuse you, there are plenty of consumer protection laws, which are all in your favour not the hardware manufacturers.

EU regulations are getting tighter, and in norway (ok they arnt actually in the EU..) they are pushing 5 years fault free as "legally required" for all electronic devices!. On the whole its getting harder and harder for a company to sell a duff product, and get away with it, but that wont stop them trying.

They may refuse an extended warrenty, but they cannot reduce your legal rights just because you chose not to register.

Oh yeah, kinda reminds me, I had a second hand Creative Sound blaster, which stopped working, and 1 email to creative with the cards serial number, and they replaced it without question... Honestly registering isnt much better than being added to a mailing list.
 
its just not worth the time and effort to me...

Generally by the time any of my cards develop a fault I'm looking to replace it anyhow and I rarely sell stuff 2nd hand I usually give it away.
 
Rroff said:
its just not worth the time and effort to me...

Generally by the time any of my cards develop a fault I'm looking to replace it anyhow and I rarely sell stuff 2nd hand I usually give it away.
Click to expand...

Well if you want to give any of your graphic cards away to me I don't mind :D

Happily I'm moving away from eVGA now. They were very helpful with my 680i, but not the 8800GTX that wasn't registered. Guess I won't worry about it too much in the future.

Thanks for the help people.
 
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