What's going on with EVGA RMA?

Unknown-One

Unknown-One

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Here's the timeline so far:

1. I bought an ACX cooler directly from EVGA, installed it on my GTX 780, found out the fan has issues at specific RPMs.
2. RMA that cooler.
3. Replacement arrives, and it's worse in every way. Grinding noises at all low speeds.
4. RMA that cooler.
5. Replacement arrives, and it's a pre-used reference Nvidia GTX Titan cooler (wrong part entirely) in the box.
6. Went back to their ticket system and asked WTF is going on.

Edit: 2/4/2014 Update...
7. Returned the incorrectly-packed Nvidia cooler to EVGA.
8. Replacement arrives, and it has exactly the same problems as all the others.
9. Went back to their ticket system AGAIN and complained AGAIN.

Edit: 2/7/2014 Update...
10. Got a response back that they were going to do extended testing before shipping the next replacement out.
11. Confirmation that my (tested) replacement had shipped out. Unfortunately, they tested and shipped the wrong cooler AGAIN.
12. Shot them an email informing them of the mistake.

Edit: 2/10/2014 Update...
13. Correct cooler arrived, even though their confirmation email said otherwise. Was also defective, just like all previous ACX coolers.
14. Return shipping label missing from the box.
15. Shot off yet another email explain PRECISELY what's wrong. I don't know how they missed this issue if they "tested" it... waiting on a response back.

Edit: 2/26/2014 Update...
16. EVGA has become unresponsive. No further e-mail received from them.
17. Still no return shipping label for the last replacement... guess that means I have two now?

Edit: 2/27/2014 Update...
18. EVGA remains unresponsive.
19. Got tired of waiting, fixed the cooler myself:




TL/DR version:
Original purchase = Defective
Replacement 1 = Defective
Replacement 2 = Wrong item
Replacement 3 = Defective
Replacement 4 = Defective
EVGA no-longer responding
Fixed the cooler myself

So their service got successively worse with every iteration. Has anybody else experienced this level of pure incompetence with product RMA's from EVGA?
 
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The same reason they've been steadily gutting their warranty program, to cut costs.
 
At least you've got something back. I've been waiting on Gigabyte to send me my GPU back for over a week now! How long can it possibly take?!
 
Dig way back into my post history and you'll see my wonderful experiences with their GPU RMA process....
 
All I can figure is they were testing an ACX cooler before sending it to me, so they pulled a Titan apart and fired it up... and they somehow boxed up the stock heatsink from the Titan instead of the ACX cooler.

What I ended up with was an Nvidia reference Titan heatsink, with the thermal paste already wrecked, and the thermal pads ruined. They had shoved the installation instructions for the ACX cooler into the bubblewrap along side the Titan heatsink, and it stuck to all the thermal pads, no way to re-use them even if you wanted to.

I've already gone ahead and put the return-shipping label that was included with it on the box and sealed it back up. Going to drop it off at a shipping center tomorrow... I hope they'll take it back, it would suck if they assume I'm pulling some kind of bait-and-switch on them and deny any further RMAs.
 
It's not restricted to video cards. It's the same churn going on in every business, in every sector: inflate profits in any way possible and cut costs in any way possible, all to enrich the top 1%. The former is a factual function and duty of business. Combined with the latter it is the single most important crisis facing humanity in the 21st century.
 
requiem99 said:
It's not restricted to video cards. It's the same churn going on in every business, in every sector: inflate profits in any way possible and cut costs in any way possible, all to enrich the top 1%. The former is a factual function and duty of business. Combined with the latter it is the single most important crisis facing humanity in the 21st century.
Click to expand...

True . You should see QA department in my company. lol The system is broken...


Posted from Hardforum.com App for Android
 
Well, they're taking it back. They apologized for the mix-up and told me to notify them the second it was in the mail so they could ship the (hopefully correct) replacement out.

If it still has the same issue... I'm just going to ask for a refund. If this goes on any longer, Maxwell will be out before I get a properly functioning heatsink for this 780.
 
It's the general attitude of "Why the hell should we bother with quality, to retain customers, when we can make cheap shit, and thus sell more stuff, though none of the buyers will ever come back" in many different business branches. I know, that the one and only goal of any business is making money and free market should regulate itself, but the modern approach via "lets fuck the customer" way is sick and all the agencies that take care of customer rights, should be bitchslapping some companies hard.
 
requiem99 said:
It's not restricted to video cards. It's the same churn going on in every business, in every sector: inflate profits in any way possible and cut costs in any way possible, all to enrich the top 1%. The former is a factual function and duty of business. Combined with the latter it is the single most important crisis facing humanity in the 21st century.
Click to expand...

Um, not much of a student of history are you? Your "crisis" has been humanity's lot since the dawn of time, and it's been much worse than it is now.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

- Robert A Heinlein
Click to expand...
 
Just got a phone call from EVGA, wasn't expecting that.

Explained the situation pretty quickly, since I was at work. They want photos of what I received + the tracking number for the return shipment.

Guess they escalated the case :confused:
 
requiem99 said:
It's not restricted to video cards. It's the same churn going on in every business, in every sector: inflate profits in any way possible and cut costs in any way possible, all to enrich the top 1%. The former is a factual function and duty of business. Combined with the latter it is the single most important crisis facing humanity in the 21st century.
Click to expand...

LOL the 1% argument is horrendous. Makes absolutely no sense.... Anyways eVGA service is a lot better than ASus. As for the Gigabyte GPU taking so long they have different procedures than other companies. I just know that when a Corsair PSU was responsible for frying my system Corsair did nothing and refused to replace it. Gigabyte on the other hand replaced my GPU, MOBO, CPU, and PSU. They even upgraded me from a 560ti to a 580. I filed a lawsuit on Corsair and eventually dropped it because of Gigabytes amazing service.
 
Pitbully said:
Great and they were one of the good ones left in this industry...
Click to expand...



They still are. Shit happens, so much so that even under the best of circumstances you're going to have issues with any company if you RMA enough. You're rolling the device that you wont be that horror story.
 
All companies are subject to human error. Now I would be just as frustrated as the OP is in that situation, but track record wise I do think EVGA are a step above other companies in terms of CS. I'm not even a huge fan of EVGA GPUs, i've always liked Asus DC II and MSI lightning cards - but the few times i've dealt with EVGA CS, they were great to deal with.

The OP's situation does suck though. I would be just as frustrated, but I think EVGA will make it right in the end.
 
This is why i purchase IPR warranty from the store so if anything happens, straight across exchange.
 
Got another call just as I was about to leave work. They were able to verify that they slipped up and sent out the wrong item. New RMA and tracking information arrived in my email shortly thereafter.

They really suspected me of attempting to pull a bait-and-switch. Wow, nice of them...
 
I sent the (incorrectly-packed) Titan reference cooler back to EVGA and received another replacement ACX cooler.

Guess what? It has the same problem as the original unit! Ticking, whining, grinding, and rattling. You can't run the fans slower than 40% PWM without extremely bad whining (and at 40% PWM frequency, this cooler is far louder than the Nvidia reference cooler at idle).

Submitted ANOTHER ticket to EVGA. This is beyond ridiculous. Is the ACX cooler fundamentally flawed, or what?
 
Through my work and personal computing experiences, I have performed countless RMA's with EVGA as well as other brands. In my opinion, the have the bust public facing policies in their industry (customer communication, RMA turnaround, etc). However, behind the scenes, it's another story. Not only is it uncommon, I expect to receive a defective product from EVGA at least once when doing an RMA. It hasn't been uncommon to have to RMA a card 2-4 times to get a working one. Instead of expecting a working unit, I am now surprised when it works the first time. Sadly, this still leaves them miles ahead of most of their competition. I still choose to use EVGA, because I know, when I do run into issues, they will have someone readily available to talk to and they will stand behind their warranty. I just know better than to hold my breath for the right solution :(
 
I'm waiting on my 5th rma gtx 690. 2 were sent DOA...ohh well 1 worked 1 day.At least the RMA has a fast turn arround
 
OP,

If I had that many issues with a product I would demand a full refund and plan on buying only custom cooled cards out of the box next time so that you don't have to deal with this kind of mess.

Good luck and I hope they resolve it for you after so much time and effort.
 
Ultima99 said:
Dig way back into my post history and you'll see my wonderful experiences with their GPU RMA process....
Click to expand...

+1

They return used, untested cards back as replacements on a chance that it "works"
 
sleepybp said:
OP,

If I had that many issues with a product I would demand a full refund and plan on buying only custom cooled cards out of the box next time so that you don't have to deal with this kind of mess.
Click to expand...
If I had bought a card with the ACX cooler already on it, I'd be returning the whole graphics card over-and-over instead of just the heatsink... that seems worse... Especially since I won the GTX 780 lottery and got a card that can hit 1300 MHz core clock.

At least I can use the Nvidia reference cooler in the meantime, which seems to work better than every ACX they've shipped me so far.


sleepybp said:
Good luck and I hope they resolve it for you after so much time and effort.
Click to expand...
Yeah, me too... if this goes on much longer I might have sold the card and upgraded before they ship me a working heatsink.
 
Just got this response from EVGA:

Hello,

This is just a notification to let you know the replacement (reference design) Titan cooler was thoroughly tested for noise and verified 100% functional and has been shipped out to you.
Click to expand...

You've got to be kidding me... They tested and shipped THE WRONG COOLER a second time. How do they keep mixing up the reference and ACX coolers?

Going to have to respond back, see if I can get this sorted out...
 
I guess that EVGA EU handles things better. Recently had to send GTX 570 there and they replaced it with GTX 660 Ti. They approved the RMA almost instantly and when the card arrived there they processed it almost straight away.
 
Definitely a few issues with their overall policies. I recently tried their step up program, and although they had stock I was not able to actually trade my card for 89 days after I started the step up process. I would say that customer service kept me buying from EVGA, but their service has definitely taken a hit over the last year or so. Just my opinion.
 
Unknown-One said:
I've already gone ahead and put the return-shipping label that was included with it on the box and sealed it back up.
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That's awesome they include a return shipping label right along with the wrong product they sent. Maybe the RMA guys really really like the UPS delivery girl? Maybe the service dpt just knows the rma dpt is so bad that it's necessary to prepare for 4-6 returns per RMA. I hardly see how this policy of employing unqualified personnel saves a company money in the long run. Isn't there supposed to be a labor surplus?

This thread is mind-blowing. The incompetence, the carelessness...
 
I have sent in my 560ti for fan problems twice and it always came back in about a week.
 
RMA arrived today. To my surprise, the correct part WAS shipped to me (despite the e-mail saying otherwise).

Aaaaand, you guessed it! Still has the same problem as every other ACX cooler I've been shipped. Severe whine at low PWM frequencies.

I have the Nvidia reference cooler installed on my card, AGAIN. I've got both defective ACX coolers boxed up, AGAIN. I've sent an e-mail off to EVGA, AGAIN.

I'll keep you guys posted...
 
damn, im gonna sub. that sucks man. terrible service. whats this, 7 coolers youve had now?
 
I want to say there's either something wrong with the fans/cooler design or there's something going on between your particular reference card and the ACX standalone cooler kit. Seems likely the former as I'm seeing other complaints about this issue. Perhaps the upcoming Accelero 4 will interest you?
 
Bluesun311 said:
I want to say there's either something wrong with the fans/cooler design or there's something going on between your particular reference card and the ACX standalone cooler kit. Seems likely the former as I'm seeing other complaints about this issue.
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Well, it doesn't seem to matter if I plug the ACX cooler into the graphics card, or run it stand-alone off a motherboard header. The same issues present themselves at the same fan speeds.

Seems like some kind of fundamental flaw with the ACX cooler (or at least a large batch of them).

Bluesun311 said:
Perhaps the upcoming Accelero 4 will interest you?
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If it's not too long, sure.

I had looked at the Accelero Xtreme 3, but it's so long it doesn't fit in my Fractal Design R3. Runs right into the HDD cage (which is non-removable).

That said, Arctic doesn't have the best track-record with fans, either. I have an HD 6970 with an Accelero Twin Turbo II on it, and they had to send me 3 different fan assemblies before I got one that didn't tick like a clock.
 
There is a good bit of complaints about the ACX cooler at about 45% fan power and the whine happening. Most are doing a fan curve and just skipping the 45% fan speed all together. Even though you shouldn't have to do this on a high priced gpu. But it s a get-my-by until something is fix or redone on the design on the cooler. Good luck on the next try.
 
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Astral Abyss said:
When are you going to realize you're wasting your time and just get a refund?
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Would you also have suggested giving up and getting a refund from Arctic when they kept sending me ticking fans over and over? They eventually came through with a working set.

That said, the set that worked was the one Arctic tested before sending it out. The cooler EVGA claims to have tested has the same issue as all the others...

Anyway, when I shot an email back I asked how they thought we should proceed at this point. I did not directly ask for yet-another RMA.
 
Unknown-One said:
Would you also have suggested giving up and getting a refund from Arctic when they kept sending me ticking fans over and over? They eventually came through with a working set.

That said, the set that worked was the one Arctic tested before sending it out. The cooler EVGA claims to have tested has the same issue as all the others...

Anyway, when I shot an email back I asked how they thought we should proceed at this point. I did not directly ask for yet-another RMA.
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Well, it's your time after all, so I can't speak to what it's worth to you. I can understand the desire to see this through to it's conclusion at this point.

But if it was me, I would not trust it to work reliably even if I finally got a "good" one. What if it starts acting up 3 months from now? Do you start this process all over again?
 
Astral Abyss said:
But if it was me, I would not trust it to work reliably even if I finally got a "good" one. What if it starts acting up 3 months from now? Do you start this process all over again?
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Not sure they'll be able to replace it in 3 months... they don't even offer this cooler as an aftermarket add-on anymore. They pulled it from the EVGA store.

Maybe that's telling, in and of itself. They've halted sales...
 
Unknown-One said:
Not sure they'll be able to replace it in 3 months... they don't even offer this cooler as an aftermarket add-on anymore. They pulled it from the EVGA store.

Maybe that's telling, in and of itself. They've halted sales...
Click to expand...

I don't see this ending with you satisfied, unfortunately.
 
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