BFG Completely Liquidating, no more RMAs accepted. Project Manager blames Fermi

Sad to see a company that had a good reputation for customer service go down. Thanks Nvidia.
 
NKDietrich said:
Yeah. Sounds like BFG was full of shit.
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odds are they planned to do the RMA'ing and at some point the bank or who ever controlled their loans they sold the company and its assets to them to cover the loan cost which then the bank/company liquidated everything to get their money back.. so while yes they may have had plans to continue the RMA service for video cards and continue to sell power supplies.. the contract loss with the bestbuy pretty much put an end to that..

anyone that actually thought a lifetime warranty ment it was a lifetime warranty needs to go back to business 101 and learn how this crap works..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
odds are they planned to do the RMA'ing and at some point the bank or who ever controlled their loans they sold the company and its assets to them to cover the loan cost which then the bank/company liquidated everything to get their money back.. so while yes they may have had plans to continue the RMA service for video cards and continue to sell power supplies.. the contract loss with the bestbuy pretty much put an end to that..
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Well they claimed they had cards on hand, and claimed they had money put aside. They should not have come out and said that if they hadn't already cleared it by their lawyers. You're right that they were probably assuming they'd have cards and money available instead of actually ensuring that they did.
 
Sad to see them go, I still have a BFG T-Shirt that came with my 8800GTX

I don't think they lied when it came to RMA support, they were basing that statement on the assumption that they'd continue selling PSUs, but as the OP explains they were crippled by major retails dropping their products.

You wont get any money for trying to sue them, the business is being liquidated, 90% of the assets sold off will go to pay the comapny who is overseeing the liquidation and whatever is left will go to pay off any immediate debts.
 
RIP, BFG. The 6800GT I bought from you way back in the day provided a ton of great gaming memories.
 
night_2004 said:
So what happens to people that now no longer have warranties on stuff they purchased from them? I got a GTX 275 from them less than a year ago and now it has no warranty? Complete bullshit, I want my money back.
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Good luck, they're out of business = No Money or assets.Like the old saying goes, "You can't get blood out of a turnip." To bad they're gone.
 
This sucks. They should have jumped ship to ATI at the first sign of nvidia's bullshit though. I also don't think they lied about continued support but they just couldn't after the rest of their business caved. Real shame though, they were a good business with some great products. I'm certain they will be missed around these parts.

Fuck you nvidia, fuck you.
 
Spare-Flair said:
It looks like Fermi really was the culprit that drove them under.


http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6921&page=2

Nvidia (major supplier that would not support their business) denied allocation of Fermi to BFG, consequently, BFG lost it's main volume channel through Best Buy who refused to stock BFG powersupplies after learning that they could not get allocation of new graphics cards.
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You're speculating based on something quoted out of context.

I was replying to Phaedrus who had stated a good deal of misinformation in his news post. He had stated that poor GTX200 sales, Phobos and Deimos were the reason for the demise. I had said that it was none of that and that Fermi allocation was the biggest part of the problem. I never said Nvidia denied Fermi to BFG. There is a back story that is much larger than just lack of allocation.
 
Reus said:
This illustrates why being vendor exclusive is a bad idea. Your supplier totally fumbles a product cycle, or wants to be difficult, you're screwed. If they would have sold ATi cards alongside nVidia, we most likely would not be mourning the death of BFG. EVGA could be in the same boat, but at least they have a rather successful motherboard business to help compensate.
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True. Evga's diversification is what gets them through the tough times, and XFX doing both ATI and Nvidia cards saved them. Nvidia can scold them and tell them they can't get Fermi chips because they weren't a good partner, but at the end of the day they're still a partner and still get Nvidia chips... as well as ATI chips.

Cali3350 said:
Im absolute sure ATI would have welcomed them if theyd ask before hand. +1 XFX.
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What makes you think they didn't ask?

jeremyshaw said:
Sapphire and the other AIB probably weren't happy with XFX jumping onboard, and Sapphire is (arguably) ATi's favorite, and closest, partner.
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Exactly. It doesn't really help ATI to bring in more board partners at this juncture. Sure, competition is good because it keeps prices down, but TOO MANY competitors just ends up stealing Peter to pay Paul and at the end you sell the same number of units, less people make money and eventually someone dies off.

Sure, you can buy and sell ATI cards from a partner in China and just import them into the U.S., but when ATI catches wind of this, they can and will do what it takes to get the FTC to stop those imports at the border.
 
This was obviously a well orchestrated sell off with talent probably being absorbed elsewhere. Check into what the results will be and where the money will go, instead of customers, RMA's ect. If they were given Fermi, they may have immediately bankrupted themselves and gone under after wasting millions on production. To have nVidia conveniently do this was most likely a planned occurrence.
 
TheJakeyl88 said:
This was obviously a well orchestrated sell off with talent probably being absorbed elsewhere. Check into what the results will be and where the money will go, instead of customers, RMA's ect. If they were given Fermi, they may have immediately bankrupted themselves and gone under after wasting millions on production. To have nVidia conveniently do this was most likely a planned occurrence.
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Wow. Imaginative bunch here.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
5.4 years and you were expecting something else? The video card forum is not exactly a shining example of logic or reason even on a good day.
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That's 5.4 years since the HardForum originally crashed, lost most of the registrations and I bothered to come back and register again. ;)

It's quite entertaining, really. :D Everyone has little tidbits of information as to what's happening/happened with BFG and they're building a lot of interesting little stories. None of it true... but interesting none the less. :D This is going to be a fun week for me to sit back and watch from my Android as I stand in the unemployment line. ;)
 
Truly sad to see a company, like BFG, go under when there are FAR too few acting as advocates for the consumer. :(
 
BFG should of further developed their Traffic Cop technology...from what I hear, it was heavily used during Quakecon this year.

bfgtrafficcop.jpg
 
This would be a fine opportunity for another board partner (EVGA perhaps?) to step up and offer some sort of discount or special program for those people who got shafted by what's left of BFG when it comes to the warranty.

It really sucks that a company can just up and vanish and suddenly no one is responsible for the warranty anymore. Something needs to be put in place in the law books that provides more severe penalties for the individuals behind a company that 'goes out of business' or whatever you want to call it. Yes, I realize that you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip but it all boils down to individuals or a group of individuals - and you can be sure that said people are not hurting and have probably moved onto other business ventures.

I find the whole thing rather sad and unfortunate, not only because I really liked BFG as a company but because all these people with BFG branded Nvidia cards (and most of these are reference cards, BFG didn't do any custom PCB reworks) are basically SOL.
 
As mentioned earlier about BFG asking to make ATI cards. Wasn't it ATI that actually came out and said they didn't really want any more Nvidia partners to switch over BESIDES BFG. If my memory serves me correctly they actually singled out BFG as a partner that they wanted.
 
ah so that explains everything now they tried to make me jump through hoops for rma and lied to me about never registered for the card and saying my s/n is wrong and etc etc

well I am glad you all go out of business then.
 
Scintir said:
As mentioned earlier about BFG asking to make ATI cards. Wasn't it ATI that actually came out and said they didn't really want any more Nvidia partners to switch over BESIDES BFG. If my memory serves me correctly they actually singled out BFG as a partner that they wanted.
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I remember this as well. No idea where the article is though.
 
So they went out of business because NVIDIA couldn't supply them with enough Fermi? ("Allocation") Am I reading this right?
 
Of all the companies that could (should) go bust, this is not one I wanted to see go!! I love their products. THey are 1 of 3 companies that I swear by (other 2 are EVGA and XFX). Wonder why they didn't grab a Radeon contract? I am running an XFX Radeon 5870 atm, if the rumors are true about BFG and XFX having issues with the green team.
 
And to think people totally got pissed off at me and called me a liar when I said they were totally going out of business.
 
I never had a bad gtx 260, 275. So I woudnt worry about the warranty, just bake it! You wont be getting a dime from bfg. RIP, just like 3dfx. Nvidia screwed me on that $2000 worth of stock also. Nvidia bought the tech, but not the company, my $20 3dfx stock dropped to 20 cents instantly. I remember every time I look at my VooDoo II 12mb card, in the closet. The celeron 300 oc to 450, VooDoo II, Quake days...
 
This slightly upsets me as I went out of my way to get a BFG GTX285 when they were launched because I knew BFG was a solid company.

Guess not. :( Oh well, cut losses and move on. The 285 is still kicking, and when it finally does drop, it'll be about time for a new generation anyway I suppose..


Would be a fantastic PR opportunity for anpother major manufacturer to step up and say "We will cover your warranty because BFG shit the bed". Guaranteed to provide a massive boost in loyalty toward them, not sure if it would be enough to cover the costs of taking over RMAs though. I know if EVGA for example said "We will do BFGs RMAs, please contact us", the next time I buy a card, it would be an EVGA. Even if I didnt have a BFG card, that would win me over.
 
FighterAce124 said:
Would be a fantastic PR opportunity for anpother major manufacturer to step up and say "We will cover your warranty because BFG shit the bed". Guaranteed to provide a massive boost in loyalty toward them, not sure if it would be enough to cover the costs of taking over RMAs though. I know if EVGA for example said "We will do BFGs RMAs, please contact us", the next time I buy a card, it would be an EVGA. Even if I didnt have a BFG card, that would win me over.
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You know what would be even cooler and almost poetic? If ATI or an ATI board partner did the same... Talk about a huge opportunity to win a fanbase. Not only via first hand experience but the rewards from word of mouth alone would be huge.

Wishful thinking, but cool nonetheless. :D
 
I was always curious how sustainable BFG was considering they were pretty lax in their replacement policies. While I loved BFG, I always figured it would bite them in the ass eventually. I'm sure it contributed a little bit.
 
IRSmurf said:
So they went out of business because NVIDIA couldn't supply them with enough Fermi? ("Allocation") Am I reading this right?
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I think that's complete crap and probably something someone made up. The Fermi based cards would have made up but a small portion of BFG's product lineup.
 
Scintir said:
As mentioned earlier about BFG asking to make ATI cards. Wasn't it ATI that actually came out and said they didn't really want any more Nvidia partners to switch over BESIDES BFG. If my memory serves me correctly they actually singled out BFG as a partner that they wanted.
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Scintir said:
I found it!
I found the part I was mentioned (although it isn't on Hardocp)
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2008/08/02/evga-wanted-to-sell-ati-card/1

This is pretty much the same thread that [H] was sporting a bit ago.
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That's pretty old. Two years ago, things were quite different. That was before XFX made the switch. My guess is Nvidia threatened to cut off BFG and that would be bad for BFG because of the back end rebates provided by Nvidia, something ATI doesn't provide, and the fact that Best Buy was such a big BFG customer (hence: a LOT of back end rebates). Of course, Nvidia eventually stopped the rebate program altogether, so in hind sight you could say it would have been better for BFG to go to ATI. Of course, hind sight is always 20/20. When XFX made the switch to ATI, it was a risk, but it actually increased their Best Buy presence, so this ended up being a good move for them.

When BFG considered ATI late in the game, it was too late. ATI did not/does not want any more AIB partners because this will take business away from their current partners. I believe that even if an existing AIB partner dies off, like Visiontek or someone, I seriously doubt that ATI would even look into filling the gap given the current state of the market.
 
Blue Falcon said:
I think that's complete crap and probably something someone made up. The Fermi based cards would have made up but a small portion of BFG's product lineup.
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Right. Like I said, I was quoted out of context. I did not "blame Fermi". I said that Fermi had something to do with it, but the back story is much larger than no/little allocation.

Like I said earlier in the thread:

jonnyGURU said:
I was replying to Phaedrus who had stated a good deal of misinformation in his news post. He had stated that poor GTX200 sales, Phobos and Deimos were the reason for the demise. I had said that it was none of that and that Fermi allocation was the biggest part of the problem. I never said Nvidia denied Fermi to BFG. There is a back story that is much larger than just lack of allocation.
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Of course, the part where poor GTX200 sales and profits and the launch of Phobos and Deimos were blamed for BFG's demise was deleted out of the original news post, so what I said instantly becomes out of context and has a much different meaning than intended.

You want instant out of context? Simply delete what a person is responding to. ;)
 
night_2004 said:
There is no question about it. I am going to try and get my money back. This is complete bull that companies can just give up on their customers like this, bankruptcy laws be damned.

Here's to hoping my bank will support a charge back 7 months after a purchase :(. Best Buy has been surprisingly flexible previously but this one would take the cake if they did anything.
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Sigh, is your card dead? If not, why return it? So you can get your money back on a 7 month old card that works fine? If BFG has no money to pay employees or stock replacement cards, how do you propose they support their customers? Did you think at all before posting this or just get mad that on the off chance that your card dies in the next 5 months, you won't be able to get a replacement? Odds are extremely low of that happening, usually you're a victim of infant mortality or the card runs to wear out, they rarely die after running fine for 5 or 6 months.

I'd feel bad for you if your card died, but if it's working fine shut up and enjoy it. What's complete bull is people thinking that the world revolves around them and any perceived inconvenience is cause for a lawsuit or making somebody else pay. I wasn't happy when the company I worked for went bankrupt and I lost my vacation pay, but what the hell could they do? They had no money. I was just happy I had a job for 3 years. I'd advise you to buck up and not be a whiney bitch.
 
While its understandable that BFG was screwed by Nvidia in terms of allocation BFG is using this as a scape goat for its overall failure business wise. Its also kinda rotten that they told current card holders that they will continue to honor warranties when they knew that wasn't going to be possible with big retail chains dropping the sale of there brand. That part of it pisses me off more than anything , up front lying to the customer and putting up the good PR face.

I have to give BFG credit on having the best warranty support in the biz though , they were pros when it came to that. However they should have branched out to ATI/AMD cards instead of putting all there chips into Nvidia's long delayed basket. I wouldn't be surprised if other vendors are now strongly considering selling both brands instead of completely putting there chips into one brand with BFG as an example of what not to do.
 
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