EVGA Quietly Changes Warranty Policy

rgMekanic

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Long praised for their customer service, and transferable warranty, EVGA has apparently, and very quietly changed their warranty policies as it pertains to used hardware. Any piece of EVGA hardware, including video cards, motherboards, power supplies, cases, laptops or peripherals that were purchased on or after May 25th will need the original invoice in order to make a warranty claim. The exact wording on EVGA's warranty page states:

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Limited Warranty, the Transferable Limited Warranty is available to second-hand purchasers with a valid proof of purchase from a reseller.

While that is somewhat unclear, a post from a moderator on the EVGA forums clarified that the original owner can give a copy of their invoice to the second owner for the proof of purchase.

While I can understand EVGA's reasoning for this, especially with the flood of mining cards that has been hitting the market, I have to assume that this will hurt EVGA's sales. Nearly every recommendation for EVGA products come because of their customer service and warranty policies, and with that gone, there isn't much keeping buyers tied to the brand. Thanks to [H]ardOCP reader Steven for the story.

EVGA Corporation ("EVGA") warrants that the Product (defined below) delivered hereunder to the original purchaser ("Original Purchaser") from EVGA.com or an EVGA Authorized Reseller (each an "Authorized Reseller") will be free from material and workmanship defects that adversely affect the performance of the Product under normal use, pursuant to the terms outlined below. This Limited Warranty is only valid for the Original Purchaser, is non-transferable and does not extend to any used Products or Products not purchased from EVGA.com or an Authorized Reseller.
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.

Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.

This isn't a realistic requirement...
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.

Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.

This isn't a realistic requirement...

Not that it is a good change, but since a large percentage to a majority of invoices are electronic to your email (or you have a choice to have them sent to your email) it is not as onerous as it once was.
 
Shades of BFG and their lifetime warranty. Most receipts will probably be electronic, so easy enough to forward to a buyer, but the additional PITA and uncertainty means that EVGA cards just went from the top of my list when buying used to basically as sketchy as the rest.

EVGA has generally awesome customer service so I'll still prefer them when buying new, but it's still kind of a bummer.
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.

Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.

This isn't a realistic requirement...

It's not a huge deal. I've made it a point to register every EVGA card I've bought since 2012 (8 to be exact, brick and mortar and online) soon as I could, and it's dead simple to take a pic of your paper receipt, or screenshot of an online one and then upload it to EVGA during the registration process (they already required this if you want shit like free games offers).

Once that's been done, there's no more worries of keeping track of the damn thing, or hunting down a 2.99 year old email, and since it's tied to serial number, if/when you sell it, they still have a record of the original receipt, and you can download it from them if you want to give the buyer a hardcopy and didn't store yours outside of EVGA.

Even less hassle if you buy direct from them, don't even have to faff about with receipts at all.

Now, I suspect the reason they're doing this is to cut down on service time fudging...that card you SAID you bought in June 2015 needs replaced, but it turns out you bought it September 2014 and it's now long out of warranty. Without a receipt, they have no way of knowing anything other than when the card was built and what distributor it was sent to, and for years they were taking people's word for it, and for years, people have been taking advantage of them.
 
OMG, I lost my receipt. Jokes aside, I am sure Micro Center sent it to my email and it is buried somewhere. Only 2-3 years old.
 
I been eyeballing this change for a while now.

Figure it was coming to this. All good things comes to an end.
 
I never understood the need for invoices when it pertains to A) Lifetime warranties and B) When the product hasn't been out long enough to even be out of warranty.

I remember I bought a used Zotac GTX 980Ti...a week later it busted. Emailed for an RMA and they NEEDED an invoice to verify warranty. I didn't have one so I argued why I need one when it's a three year warranty and the card had been out for like a year. OF COURSE it's in warranty it would literally be IMPOSSIBLE for it not to be.
 
eh... I always uploaded my receipt when I registered my cards with them.

For me, EVGA distinguished itself with it's warranty and service... but over the past few years, they've been consciously eroding that lead.

Now that you mention it. The original invoice is uploaded (when it is registered) and tied to the account/serial number in a way.

So... if anything. Making the 2nd owner provide the original invoice is somewhat unnecessary. If anything it isn't for customer service but likely to defer the buyers from buying used gpus.
 
I bought some cards from a guy and used his invoices to register them at evga.

Lots of personal information on those.
 
I have an EVGA video card and have had one for a long time. Their customer support is American based and is legit. I register my card every time, and I've used their RMA and step up services. No problems using any of them.

What I'm trying to say is....I'm sure that EVGA is doing this because their system is being abused and costing them money. That's understandable. Until they prove otherwise, I still believe in their products and will continue to give them my money.
 
After thinking about my first response, it still seems EVGA is trying to support second hand purchases which is a good thing. I think miners have ruined a good thing and EVGA had to respond accordingly
 
It's because of this type of policy I won't ever buy Corsair again. But I do register all my EVGA products because of the fact that their warranty support is so fantastic. Plus they just added 2 more years to their power supply warranties effective on purchases from June 5th on.
 
So who's GPUs do you prefer to buy over EVGA now?


I'm glad Newegg keeps all those order history invoices for me, I can go back to my 2005 purchases.

NCIX did that too...

I keep a digital copy of my important invoices with my backups now.
 
I keep my receipts for the length of the warranty so I don't care.
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.

Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.

This isn't a realistic requirement...
In this day in age, who buys computer hardware in a store? Pretty much most online websites keep records of your purchase for a good while, and even MicroCenter will print out a receipt from years ago. Of course, who will go through the trouble to print a receipt for someone buying your card off Ebay? Some store receipts aren't even accepted for warranty, which just complicates things more. Also what's to stop me from Photoshop'ing a receipt, cause I doubt the people at EVGA call NewEgg or Amazon to confirm purchases. A paper receipt is just outdated and can be exploited.

Also, why is a receipt needed for warranty? It says EVGA on the card, I don't think there's many other EVGA companies that exist. It has your model and serial numbers on it, therefore it is made by EVGA. The only reason companies want a receipt is cause they know nobody keeps those fucking things around and use that to deter from people claiming warranty.
 
Plenty of retail places still don't do that though. So, not exactly a catch-all.

Not that it is a good change, but since a large percentage to a majority of invoices are electronic to your email (or you have a choice to have them sent to your email) it is not as onerous as it once was.
 
What I'm trying to say is....I'm sure that EVGA is doing this because their system is being abused and costing them money. That's understandable. Until they prove otherwise, I still believe in their products and will continue to give them my money.
If their system is being abused, that means there's a lot of failed EVGA cards being returned for warranty. Exactly who is abused who here, cause failed EVGA cards seem kinda alarming to me. Even if the miners were using them to mine 24/7, that doesn't mean they deserve any less warranty.

From my experience, when the warranty of any product has limitations, it usually means the products are being made worse. I used to buy Delco batteries for my cars cause they were the best. They had a 5 year warranty on those suckers until recently when the batteries started to be made in China, which resulted in a 30 month warranty. But it turns out those suckers can't even last 1 year. Maxtor did this with their hard drives as did OCZ and Seagate. Those things failed so often you'd think it was intentional.
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.

Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.

This isn't a realistic requirement...

It's an annoying requirement but I think that they're doing this because of the current mining craze. I also never have any issues finding my receipt unless it was a local purchase made at Altex or Fry's. Even Best Buy will email you receipts.

Lets find my receipt ...where is oh, it's in my email and logged as a purchase history item that I can print the invoice from since I buy computer parts.

Wayyy too easy. Won't change my recommendations 1 bit

I still find them preferable but I have had nothing but good experiences with them in comparison to MSI and ASUS.

I'm glad Newegg keeps all those order history invoices for me, I can go back to my 2005 purchases.

Exactly.
 
If their system is being abused, that means there's a lot of failed EVGA cards being returned for warranty. Exactly who is abused who here, cause failed EVGA cards seem kinda alarming to me. Even if the miners were using them to mine 24/7, that doesn't mean they deserve any less warranty.

From my experience, when the warranty of any product has limitations, it usually means the products are being made worse. I used to buy Delco batteries for my cars cause they were the best. They had a 5 year warranty on those suckers until recently when the batteries started to be made in China, which resulted in a 30 month warranty. But it turns out those suckers can't even last 1 year. Maxtor did this with their hard drives as did OCZ and Seagate. Those things failed so often you'd think it was intentional.

2 things:
1. Second and 3rd hand purchases are harder to verify, which happens all the time in the mining business
2. I don't think you understand how hard mining cards are used. Using your example, this is like your Delco batteries are being put under 100% load 24/7/365. They are not, they under load a fraction of that time, and that's what the warranties are designed to cover when they figure out the business cost of having such a warranty. And let's not forget that there's all the other things you get with EVGA, such as their step up program or cross shipping. You don't get those with any other vendor. They also have a phone number that will be picked up by someone in the states. Try that with ASUS.

It's the reality of the business.
 
For stuff bought online, receipts should be fairly easy to produce. Many vendors keep an account history for you. You can print a copy to pdf and store local. You can print a paper copy and store local(PITA). There is usually an email trail of the purchase, order receipt, confirmation, tracking, etc. Worst case is you bought at a B&M and paid cash and only have the original receipt on now blank thermal paper. If you use a CC, they will have a record of the purchase.

I'm glad Newegg keeps all those order history invoices for me, I can go back to my 2005 purchases.

Sometimes its scary to see how long some of the stuff I have has been in service.
 
I'm glad Newegg keeps all those order history invoices for me, I can go back to my 2005 purchases.
Just wait until your Newegg account gets hacked and somebody tries to order stuff on your account.

Then Newegg will delete your account and have you make a new one and all your order history goes down the drain.

Yep, happened to me a few years ago.
 
2 things:
1. Second and 3rd hand purchases are harder to verify, which happens all the time in the mining business
And?
2. I don't think you understand how hard mining cards are used. Using your example, this is like your Delco batteries are being put under 100% load 24/7/365. They are not, they under load a fraction of that time, and that's what the warranties are designed to cover when they figure out the business cost of having such a warranty.
Remember the DeskStar, or DeathStar hard drives? Yea, those weren't meant to be used 24/7/365 but turns out that's how servers work. Gaming cards aren't meant to work 24/7 but we've all had our binge moments when 1 hour turned into 15 hours. Doesn't exactly give confidence saying mining cards get abused when they're under similar conditions as gaming, just running all day everyday.

I would look at mining as a very extensive stress test. If the card can't last under mining, it was a shit card.

And let's not forget that there's all the other things you get with EVGA, such as their step up program or cross shipping. You don't get those with any other vendor. They also have a phone number that will be picked up by someone in the states. Try that with ASUS.

It's the reality of the business.
You work for EVGA? That's exactly what someone would say if they worked for EVGA.
 
it's sad but that's life. I'm not surprised. Disappointed? maybe a little. But not surprised.
 
It's not that hard these days to keep proof of purchase on pretty much anything these days. I do, indeed, have my proof of purchase for everything in my email "Buy" folder, as well as just about every email of any importance over the last 15 years, and yet my mailbox is only 717MB in size. I do not find this demand unreasonable.
 
Lot of groaning.

Just let me swap the stock cooler and not void the warranty (thank you evga).

Better register my card, oh it extended the warranty(thanks evga).

Time for a new card, lets sell it with a forwarded email of the invoice and transfer the warranty and retain more value(thanks again evga).

Crap a new card just dropped after I bought mine AND its eligible for an trade-up(thanks yet again evga)

Oooh look custom cooler with new tech and colors(thanks evga)

Get my drift

Seriously, best brand out there for me, my FE is rock solid
 
Not that it is a good change, but since a large percentage to a majority of invoices are electronic to your email (or you have a choice to have them sent to your email) it is not as onerous as it once was.

I think personally it's not such a big deal. I keep invoices for any major tech and other purchases nicely filed away - it's hardly a massive imposition, and I can see why they are doing it personally. The warranty is still transferable - nothing much has changed. As you say also, many invoices are electronic.
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.

Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.

This isn't a realistic requirement...

I have my receipt for my Pentium 3 500mhz... t-bird, a64, x64 x2 absolutely everything.
The email has them all, the mailbox have almost unlimited space for invoices and receipts :)
 
Ah yes, but I'm sure other industry leaders like Corsair have our backs! Surely warranties are transferable and no receipt is necessary for the original owner!

"Except where prohibited by applicable local law, this warranty is limited to the original purchaser and is non-transferable. To exercise your warranty rights, you must present a sales receipt and provide product serial number information."

In other words...nothing to see here, par for the course. As several have mentioned it is because of people who abuse the support system that this has to be so vigorously enforced.
 
Who the fuck keeps their receipt or invoice for every single computer part they buy? Warranty should be time based, not require a piece of paper everyone throws out shortly after buying the item.
Most people aren't interested in being a receipt accountant.
This isn't a realistic requirement...
Have you been to other parts of the world? In certain countries, receipt is the only proof of purchase. No distributor will entertain a warranty claim without any proof of purchase. Even though a product has lifetime warranty, the distributor wants to know the source of the product, whether its meant for this region or oversea. (A product with XX country receipt is not valid in YY country). Lost your receipt and try to get the purchase record from the hardware store? Nope, the storekeeper will not entertain such data retrieval. Trying to register your hardware serial number online? No, there is no such website tailored for that country. Trying to sell a week old GTX1080 online? Your selling price is badly impacted if you don't have a receipt. There's also stolen goods or smuggling issue.
 
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