BFG is at it again...

T

turtletrax

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 31, 2005
Messages
460
This is my first post but I have read these forums for years. I had read many BFG threads about their declining RMA support and acuracy, so I thought I should tell my story in the hopes that BFG will begin to take these stories seriously.

I had a BFG 7800 GTX OC die on me so I phoned to get an RMA (this was December 9th) and it was the most confusing and frustrating tech call I have ever made. My last name is huge and quite strange, but not so strange I would have to spell it about ten times (which I did, then the same for my address.

I live in Canada but their support line is for Noth America so I assumed they would have alittle knowledge about the Postal Code system in Canada. I was wrong. Also most Canadians pronounce the letter z as "zed" and elsewhere is "zee". This caused them to get my shipping adress wrong not once but twice delaying my return by over two weeks. Each time the address bounced, meant another hour or so on hold on their support line. The second time I thought maybe my address isnt supported so I offered an alternate and they said it would be fine. Turns out I was right. Gave them the alternate and all was well... Wrong!!!

Decide on the 30th I should phone to see where the package is and spend about my 7th hour on the phone and get though to track the package and the package is delivered to teh alternate addy. I go and pick it up and there are two shipping boxes (one inside the other). The one on the inside had the wrong name on it and my phone number, the other had my name and the wrong phone number. Strange I thought, then I open it to see the card and there is a GT OC staring at me!! I couldnt believe it!! Yet another 45 minutes on the phone and they are sending me a GTX but talk about making sure they make every mistake they can.

I will be going with an alternate vendor for my future purchases. I hope BFG can find a way to correct these problems plaguing thier RMA department as I loved the card I had, but the mistakes are to big to deny for me. The main reason I bought the BFG, and for substantially more I might add, was the stories of great support and lifetime warranty. A lifetime of bad warranty is the same as none at all in my opinion.

So that is my story. Not as bad as others, but a story non-the-less.
 
54YW4T said:
As an alternate vendor, you should choose Evga.
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Thats what I thought. I will prolly be picking up the NV50 (or whatever the codename is for the next gen dx10 card) so I will wait till then to see who is looking after things the best at that time.

Thanks for the info on who has got it together right now.
 
I had a BFG, but after two or so months, the fan malfunctioned! X(

I use EVGA now also.
 
Both brands are good but eVGA has more competitive pricings with similar performance to BFG.
 
everyone knows my thoughts on BFG :mad: you are making a great choice picking another vendor. bfg didnt just lose me and others this time around,they lost me and others for life, alot of money they losing if you ask me,especially being i buy a new card once a year.
 
BFG and Evga are both good and sadly you mostly hear of only the bad stories from them not all the good which is prob. 95% of the products they deliver. I can tell you this I currently have a bfg 7800gt oc'ed now to 554 core/1.30 memory and runs perfectly this is one of the latest bfg 7800gt with the pure copper cooler and copper ram heatsinks. The only other card my card takes its hat off too is the 7800 512mb... and x1800xt move aside please Im passing you up hehe
 
I thought the world of BFG also, untill that new card's fan went out and I had to put in my 4 year old Gforce 3. I called them, waited on hold for 45 minutes, hung up, and stashed the BFG somewhere where i soon forgot about it.

anyone want it? jk, I do not even want to see it again, even to get rid of it.
 
for some reason ever since eVGA stepped up their services, BFG is just pooping out.
 
Shane said:
BFG and Evga are both good and sadly you mostly hear of only the bad stories from them not all the good which is prob. 95% of the products they deliver. I can tell you this I currently have a bfg 7800gt oc'ed now to 554 core/1.30 memory and runs perfectly this is one of the latest bfg 7800gt with the pure copper cooler and copper ram heatsinks. The only other card my card takes its hat off too is the 7800 512mb... and x1800xt move aside please Im passing you up hehe
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Huh? I've not read any eVGA stories like the above?

BFG has begun to suck, period, no questions asked.

eVGA pwnX0rs them.
 
Shane said:
BFG and Evga are both good and sadly you mostly hear of only the bad stories from them not all the good which is prob. 95% of the products they deliver. I can tell you this I currently have a bfg 7800gt oc'ed now to 554 core/1.30 memory and runs perfectly this is one of the latest bfg 7800gt with the pure copper cooler and copper ram heatsinks. The only other card my card takes its hat off too is the 7800 512mb... and x1800xt move aside please Im passing you up hehe
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554/1.3? Pics?
 
guys fans go out on video cards all the time... I would agree that eVGA seems to be having a less of a failer rate, but the is only from a point of view... there is a lot more to play with numbers... as in does BFG seel more then eVGA? if so does that mean a lot less % of failers due to total numbers?

Anyways eVGA or BFG both seem good...
 
I dont think that anybody is denying the numbers. Stuff breaks... It is how a company deals with that issue. Seems that BFG is making Kindergarden mistakes, and usually over and over again.

Unacceptable.
 
turtletrax said:
I dont think that anybody is denying the numbers. Stuff breaks... It is how a company deals with that issue. Seems that BFG is making Kindergarden mistakes, and usually over and over again.

Unacceptable.
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I hate to tell you, but they all do... I think most people here have BFG cards, so you are going to see more of the goofed ups then any other cards manufactures cards...
 
Zardoz said:
I hate to tell you, but they all do... I think most people here have BFG cards, so you are going to see more of the goofed ups then any other cards manufactures cards...
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Look, if you cant get a name or address right you suck, that simple. Then you get the wrong product there. And some people have been getting multiple hooped cards. So I hate to tell you that all I am saying that, as consumers, the only vote we have is our purchases. I will go to the next company and the next and the next untill I get one that figures out how to do it proper.
 
Wow...Im starting to become glad I've never picked up a BFG card in my life.
Sad to hear your story...I hope everything works out. I'd be pissed off if they sent me a GT instead of a GTX...Talk about rip off =P

eVGA :D
 
My BFG card works.

OMG WTF?

Now imagine how many threads there would be if everyone who has one here made a thread about it to say that it worked fine.
 
well i remember a couple months ago when hardocp reviewed a falcon northwest fragbox2 that didnt perform as expected. it turned out to be a bad bfg 7800 card according to falcon northwest. bfg does seem to stand out as having some issues with faulty cards. it seems most people only complain when the rma gets screwed up. that makes me think there are a hell of lot of people getting faulty bfg cards that never complain because the rma goes well. i will never purchase another bfg card myself.
 
Ive been with BFG since they started up and have not had one problem with their service.
my 5900 started to act up I called em and they gave me an RMA I sent it out the next day and had a new one back pretty fast. and she was working perfect untill I sold her :)
my friends went out after the fan got pretty much clogged from cat hair.
We called em up again they sent out a perfectly working card that he is still lusing to this day.
Ive never had a problem and will continue to use them and suggest them to others.
So Im sorry you had a bad experience, food for thought tho it was long ago EVGA wa shaving a shit load of problems.
only nit pick I have with your problem is assuming those of us in american know WTF "zed" is :p
 
I was tickled with my BFG6800 Ultra OC ..but yo g-funk ..how about a big shout out loud to my holmies over at XFX ..yeah ..word up

done busted out wit' dos GTX'rs now dawg ...yeeeeeee'ah boi'


I'm sure glad I don't really talk that ..mother would not be very happy if I did.


and on a side note ..I must say that I really do enjoy the 2 free dual analog controllers that came with my 256meg GTX'rs ..and my friend is still enjoying my old BFG6800U OC to this day with alot of other "old" parts that I sold dirt cheap to him.


 
Visable-assassin said:
only nit pick I have with your problem is assuming those of us in american know WTF "zed" is :p
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Im not saying that all Americans dont know what "zed" is, just the guy that took my RMA info. I tell you, it was frustrating. Probably for both of us. He thought I was a retard, and vice versa :p Just felt like I was the first person in Canada to phone the CS line.
 
turtletrax said:
Im not saying that all Americans dont know what "zed" is, just the guy that took my RMA info. I tell you, it was frustrating. Probably for both of us. He thought I was a retard, and vice versa :p Just felt like I was the first person in Canada to phone the CS line.
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You could be the first person from Canada that the person who helped you had spoken with.

Just to tell you I don't know anyone who'd know wtf "zed" was unless you told us.

If you knew you were talking to an American why didn't you just pronounce it "zee" so he would understand since you obviously know both pronunciations, whereas he only knows one.
 
turtletrax said:
Im not saying that all Americans dont know what "zed" is, just the guy that took my RMA info. I tell you, it was frustrating. Probably for both of us. He thought I was a retard, and vice versa :p Just felt like I was the first person in Canada to phone the CS line.
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it is possible hes never spoken with someone from up north dude.
Only reason I know what "zed" is because alot of my companies clients are in Canada.
The first time I heard it I didnt know what it was, and the postal codes threw me off to.
But unless you are familiar with it..it will throw you off. So I wouldnt go as far as saying they are full of morons.
Also id take into consideration that its still close to xmas (even tho it has passed) that its possible their RMA crew is getting slammed.
So I wouldnt count them outta the game yet.
 
One item to consider. BFG sells more nVidia cards in the US than anyone else. So, subsequently, you will hear about more failures than other brands. They all use the same reference designs. All BFG does is change the cooler, or, in the case of the 512 OC, put a sticker on. I do have to agree that service is key. If you make the best product in the world and do not back it up, then it is worthless. I just hope I never have to call for any RMA efforts on my cards.
 
nobi125 said:
My BFG card works.

OMG WTF?

Now imagine how many threads there would be if everyone who has one here made a thread about it to say that it worked fine.
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The big problem here isn't weither or not your card is working or not (mine is now. :) ) but what happens if the crap hits the fan and it stops working fine. The law of averages agrees with the notion that if you sell lots of cards that you will have a higher possible amount of problems with those cards - the trick is that if you can't deal with the problems that come along with selling that many cards then you simply won't end up selling lots of cards because people won't buy them.

I hate to say it but BFG is gonna have to really start to "get it's house in order" if it wants to stay competive with other manufacturers. I don't think the company as a whole is the problem but there are some definitive glaring problems at the company. The hold time when you have to call support is high, the last time I checked most call centers don't shoot for hour long hold times. :eek:

The biggest problem (from my amature position) is the people and/or policies at their warehouse. It's been stated in threads by actual BFG employees that their shipping warehouse is several cities detached from their call center that processes their RMAs. The guy you call for support has to (guessing here) send an email/IM to the people at the warehouse to get things shipped, if there is a disconnect there then this type of crap happens.

I'm not about to write BFG off as a company as they still ship good cards but you can sure as hell bet that I'm going to tell people about problems that I've had with them and that kind of word of mouth is never good for business.
 
Wow, I've been hearing a lotta BS from BFG lately. A lotta people have given nighmarish stories about how their RMA experiences have been, but some people also gave praises to the process. That, however, is a problem in of itself. Why are they doing an RMA in the first place? Because the first card they paid big money for didn't last as long as it should. Even the [H]'s evaluation of the Falcon NW had a faulty BFG card in it, though that could have been sheer coincidence.

I've heard little praises from eVGA other than that they're doing their job well. I haven't much feedback on RMA processes... probably because they don't bust on you as often. The best story I heard so far was a USMC guy on the forums who had troubles with his BFG RMA, called up eVGA for help, and they stepped up and offered him a new one.

All of the stories I've heard on this forum swayed my purchase to eVGA.
 
a0gamer0a said:
The big problem here isn't weither or not your card is working or not (mine is now. :) ) but what happens if the crap hits the fan and it stops working fine. The law of averages agrees with the notion that if you sell lots of cards that you will have a higher possible amount of problems with those cards - the trick is that if you can't deal with the problems that come along with selling that many cards then you simply won't end up selling lots of cards because people won't buy them.

I hate to say it but BFG is gonna have to really start to "get it's house in order" if it wants to stay competive with other manufacturers. I don't think the company as a whole is the problem but there are some definitive glaring problems at the company. The hold time when you have to call support is high, the last time I checked most call centers don't shoot for hour long hold times. :eek:

The biggest problem (from my amature position) is the people and/or policies at their warehouse. It's been stated in threads by actual BFG employees that their shipping warehouse is several cities detached from their call center that processes their RMAs.
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I agree with your points fully. Too many people are like "if you knew how many cards BFG sold, you would be quiet". Thats crap!!! I have never had a problem this large. Take the RMA to Logitech for my Dinovo. My BT hub croaked on me and they spend ten minutes with me on the phone to make sure it was toast, which it was, then said they would send me a replacement. A week later a whole new set showed up. I phoned to see if they had made a mistake and they said no. I asked if I had to send the old set back and they said keep it.


Yoshiyuki Blade said:
Wow, I've been hearing a lotta BS from BFG lately. A lotta people have given nighmarish stories about how their RMA experiences have been, but some people also gave praises to the process. That, however, is a problem in of itself.

I've heard little praises from eVGA other than that they're doing their job well. I haven't much feedback on RMA processes... probably because they don't bust on you as often. The best story I heard so far was a USMC guy on the forums who had troubles with his BFG RMA, called up eVGA for help, and they stepped up and offered him a new one.

All of the stories I've heard on this forum swayed my purchase to eVGA.
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Seems as Evga is taking these problems seriously in the BFG camp and capitalizing. Its good business. It just seems to me that when a company gets too big, too fast there is a breaking point. It looks like BFG has hit that wall, and is stressed to the point of making mistakes.

Again I want to state that I fully understand that stuff breaks. Evga's RMA service doesn't have you arent hearing bad stuff about a service that is built into the cost of your card. I paid a premium for BFG, OVER eVGA, for their warranty, and it turns out to be crap.
 
Wasn't BFG ex-members from VisionTek that pulled out and left them high and dry? Then the remaining people at VisionTek said the hell with nVidia products and reworked their product line for ATI? Yeah, thats how it went. And thats actually when VisionTek became a better company. From what it sounds like BFG is just continuing where they left off when they packed up and left VisionTek. Any company that acts shady like that, never has gotten a penny of my money.

The computers that I build for friends and family that want nVidia always get an eVGA card. They are truely one of the best companies to deal with in Costumer Service. On the ATI side, VisionTek was also very good to deal with when I had a 9800 Pro fail on me. Rushed shipped a new one to me in 3 days once I had a tracking number on the failed one.

I don't deal with companies that screw their own ppl the way the former VisionTek now BFG guys did. Its just plain wrong.
 
SnowBeast said:
Wasn't BFG ex-members from VisionTek that pulled out and left them high and dry? Then the remaining people at VisionTek said the hell with nVidia products and reworked their product line for ATI? Yeah, thats how it went. And thats actually when VisionTek became a better company. From what it sounds like BFG is just continuing where they left off when they packed up and left VisionTek. Any company that acts shady like that, never has gotten a penny of my money.

The computers that I build for friends and family that want nVidia always get an eVGA card. They are truely one of the best companies to deal with in Costumer Service. On the ATI side, VisionTek was also very good to deal with when I had a 9800 Pro fail on me. Rushed shipped a new one to me in 3 days once I had a tracking number on the failed one.

I don't deal with companies that screw their own ppl the way the former VisionTek now BFG guys did. Its just plain wrong.
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Dude, spreading that kind of misinformation is just not cool man.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzM5
 
I don’t want to get involved in a pissing contest over which manufacturer is the “best”, but I have seen enough anti BFG comments that I thought that I would throw my 2 cents in.

I bought a BFG 6800GTOC back in march and it worked perfectly for about 4 months until my PSU malfunctioned and killed the card along with my board. I contacted BFG and spent 5 minutes total on the phone with them, both describing the problem and setting up the RMA. I told them that the card had died, was given an RMA# and I shipped it out the next day.

A week and a half later I get the replacement in the mail. I have been using it for 5 months now without any issues. I am more than pleased with BFG’s customer support and speedy resolution of the problem. I will continue to buy cards from them in the future.


cyks said:
I thought the world of BFG also, untill that new card's fan went out and I had to put in my 4 year old Gforce 3. I called them, waited on hold for 45 minutes, hung up, and stashed the BFG somewhere where i soon forgot about it.

anyone want it? jk, I do not even want to see it again, even to get rid of it.
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And as far as a dead vpu fan goes there are replacement options. Have you tried another cooling fan? Is the fan dead or is the fan port on the card dead? Is the card itself dead? These are some things that you should look at before, tossing it aside. If this is something as simple as a dead fan just replace it, this is not that big of a deal, yeah it sucks but shit happens.
 
I have had good luck with eVGA and BFG. Only had to RMA with BFG though. It was a 6800GT... the one I got back appeared to be brand new with the copper sink. It was cool how they picked up the phone so fast and spoke real English. :p

There, they say no one posts success stories so there's one.
 
texuspete00 said:
the one I got back appeared to be brand new with the copper sink. It was cool how they picked up the phone so fast and spoke real English.
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Same experience here.
 
BFG treated me well with my RMA so I should speak up too...

The only bad part about it was that they had to wait to receive my card before shipping a new one.. but I got a better card than the one I sent in.. so it was worth it ;)
 
I dont think anyone is denying that there are tons of good stories. The fact is the increase of bad ones. That is my take on it anyways. I was almost waiting for something bad to happen from all the bad threads I had read, then it did.
 
Chris_Morley said:
Dude, spreading that kind of misinformation is just not cool man.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzM5
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John Malley, visionteks Director of Marketing & PR, same position at BFG
Shane Vance, vice president of sales at VisionTek, same position at BFG
Scott Herkelman, director of Business development at visiontek, EVP of Marketing at BFG
Ric Lewis, executive vice president, Business Development and Strategic Relationships at visontek. now EVP of Operations at BFG.

Thats a bunch of former visiontek employees now working for bfg.

Why VisionTek is sueing Mitac, Nvidia, VC and five ex-staff
 
As others have mentioned, sounds like there is just as much fault with yourself in the address mishaps as the tech guy. You were talking to an American, it's not his job to know the Canadian pronunciation of certain letters.

I'm sorry to hear that they sent you the wrong card, I hope the situation is taken care of soon, if not already.

I have had two great experiences with BFG's RMA process in the last month, one myself, and one a friend. Both of us bought used cards which turned out to be duds when we received them and BFG replaced them promptly and sent us both brand new cards. We each received the new cards within a week of sending the old ones. This is the 3rd BFG card I have had, and the only problem I have had was with the used bum card. My other two cards, ti4200 and 5950Ultra still work flawlessly after years.
 
Axoman said:
As others have mentioned, sounds like there is just as much fault with yourself in the address mishaps as the tech guy. You were talking to an American, it's not his job to know the Canadian pronunciation of certain letters
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I would totally have to dissagree with that. They should know these things, and after I found out he didnt I made sure he understood. Then he put the letter "o" instead of 0 in my postal code. But this is not the main issue I have, it is after so much hassel, i still ended up on the wrong end of the stick.
 
Spank said:
John Malley, visionteks Director of Marketing & PR, same position at BFG
Shane Vance, vice president of sales at VisionTek, same position at BFG
Scott Herkelman, director of Business development at visiontek, EVP of Marketing at BFG
Ric Lewis, executive vice president, Business Development and Strategic Relationships at visontek. now EVP of Operations at BFG.

Thats a bunch of former visiontek employees now working for bfg.

Why VisionTek is sueing Mitac, Nvidia, VC and five ex-staff
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Yeah, I know all those guys, and just because somebody files suit doesn't mean that the allegations are true.
 
turtletrax said:
Look, if you cant get a name or address right you suck, that simple. Then you get the wrong product there. And some people have been getting multiple hooped cards. So I hate to tell you that all I am saying that, as consumers, the only vote we have is our purchases. I will go to the next company and the next and the next untill I get one that figures out how to do it proper.
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That is pretty unfair to say that they suck - because they aren't familiar with another countries postal code system. I have shipped to many countries and have trouble with the coding systems, which is why I have everyone e-mail me their address as it should be written down on the package. I would like to see someone send something to :eek:Japan:confused:, Greece, England, etc. without messing up (taking it down over the phone). I would recommend that anyone talking to another person in a different country about their address - that they e-mail it (I know BFG does e-mail for Proof of Purchases - you could slip it in there). And as for the name thing I to have one hell of a last name and have to tell it to the person I am talking to multiple times and confirm it a few times as well <- it just how it is with hard to spell names.
 
Then BFG needs to inform their tech support reps of nuances like this. Either that or dont offer the same lifetime warranty to any other country than the US.
 
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