Be careful with AMD direct guys and gals

[kirbyrj]

They have a 30 day return policy so what does it matter? How can you invalidate a 30 day return policy due to damage during transit? They don't deny that the damage occurred before I received it.

It's a catch 22 but I agree that it's likely ok. But given the need for a quick turnaround it was easier to be 100% certain by grabbing a CPU elsewhere. I had a work need and a motherboard via 3rd party so I needed to get moving to make sure that was ok.

I'll repeat myself though. You can't return this because it's damaged but you should open and test it to make sure. But if you open it then you also can't return it because then you opened it. (I could actually get the CPU out easily without breaking the seal because the retail box was smashed flat and torn.)

The logic of having past success with Digital River is flawed. Clearly not everyone has this experience. I've also have 2 past success stories with DR via Nvidia. I think the difference here is that it's AMD's warranty group but I can't tell who it goes through. Every single response has been in the middle of the night. When I called AMD during the day they instructed me to soldier on with the night crew. Regardless, I convinced them to escalate and several days later I now have an RMA in process.

Anyways I regret posting here so believe my story, don't, whatever. It does not matter.

This could have gone completely different with a few pics right off the bat of both the shipping box and the CPU box...just saying...

 

[FrgMstr]

They have a 30 day return policy so what does it matter? How can you invalidate a 30 day return policy due to damage during transit? They don't deny that the damage occurred before I received it.

It's a catch 22 but I agree that it's likely ok. But given the need for a quick turnaround it was easier to be 100% certain by grabbing a CPU elsewhere. I had a work need and a motherboard via 3rd party so I needed to get moving to make sure that was ok.

I'll repeat myself though. You can't return this because it's damaged but you should open and test it to make sure. But if you open it then you also can't return it because then you opened it. (I could actually get the CPU out easily without breaking the seal because the retail box was smashed flat and torn.)

The logic of having past success with Digital River is flawed. Clearly not everyone has this experience. I've also have 2 past success stories with DR via Nvidia. I think the difference here is that it's AMD's warranty group but I can't tell who it goes through. Every single response has been in the middle of the night. When I called AMD during the day they instructed me to soldier on with the night crew. Regardless, I convinced them to escalate and several days later I now have an RMA in process.

Anyways I regret posting here so believe my story, don't, whatever. It does not matter.

Just seems very odd as your story and the actions of Digital River are not matching up at all. Should you wish to share your ticket number with me, I know a bunch of folks over at AMD still that I can hand this off to in order to get you a better conclusion.

 

[vegeta535]

Still waiting on pictures.

 

[Deleted member 143938]

Still waiting on pictures.

Why? Are you the RMA department? I'm confused why so many are demanding pictures from a guy just sharing his experience with a purchase =/

It's as if some believe OP is trying to scam AMD and make a quick buck, by posting his experience on some random forum?

 

[primetime]

Why? Are you the RMA department? I'm confused why so many are demanding pictures from a guy just sharing his experience with a purchase =/

It's as if some believe OP is trying to scam AMD and make a quick buck, by posting his experience on some random forum?

Most of us just dont find certain posts credible with out pictures. (I know i dont)

 

[kirbyrj]

I don't know where the scam comes in to play. If it's damaged, it gets replaced. There is no scam. It's not like it was a case of Newegg a couple weeks ago where the physical CPU was ripped out of the CPU box and the package arrived with NO CPU.

A picture would have definitely resulted in better opinions. I was able to post a picture of the box and packing materials without too much effort.

 

[Nobu]

Some of us just like to see smashed boxes. Why so defensive?

 

[jerry8169]

Some of us just like to see smashed boxes. Why so defensive?

Then you'll love the new 11900k box, it comes pre smashed from Intel.

 

[brentsg]

Just seems very odd as your story and the actions of Digital River are not matching up at all. Should you wish to share your ticket number with me, I know a bunch of folks over at AMD still that I can hand this off to in order to get you a better conclusion.

AMD came through with a refund just fine once they got their shit straight and approved the RMA. I got the money 4/1 so they were quick once they received it. Thanks for the offer though. Regarding Nvidia/AMD and Digital River, my memory was actually jogged to revisit this because I saw a Reddit thread where someone sent a 3090 for RMA and received a 3080 back, so was enlisting help there. I'm a bit unclear about who's doing what between AMD support, customer service, and the storefront ops. Regardless, stuff does happen despite your previous (and my previous) flawless experience with them.

My gut feeling is that AMD (and NV for that matter) is handling warranty and tech support, while DR is handling customer service and logistics. I once returned an Nvidia card and it was all handled thru CS, so I think DR. Similar returns for AMD are funneled thru warranty for approval, then DR for the return transaction and thus the possible confusion? It's all I can guess. Being asked for the pictures 3x (twice warranty people, once CS) was odd and made me think multiple groups touched it. I know both CS and warranty had a separate case open.

And for those alleging some kind of fraud, I'm not sure I see that opportunity here. They have a 30 day return period where the buyer pays shipping so that would have been available to me in the event I just wanted to send it back. I simply wanted a replacement when it arrived like that, but after getting weird pushback I was able to grab one from a Newegg shuffle.

Edit: So here are some pics for the thirsty. I didn't post them sooner because I sent them to AMD via iCloud and it reveals personal identifying information (which is an odd thing to worry about when you used your first name for a forum almost 20 years ago but..). I put them on imgur which I rarely use and find not intuitive. The thing that static pics don't show is that the box would go almost flat with light pressure but then pop back to this state without any pressure applied. I actually made a video of that before I sent it back.

Pics

Was the CPU ok? Maybe but I won't know. I didn't want to take that chance under the circumstances though I'm sure some would have.

Edit #2.

I also learned that Fedex won't allow a recipient to file a damage claim without the sender signing a document giving up their right to do the same. When AMD wasn't going to help I tried to file a claim, figuring if I tested the CPU and it didn't work then I'd have that route available. I heard nothing from Fedex until maybe 2 days after I got the AMD refund, got a snail mail letter from Fedex stating this. Makes sense I guess.

 

[FrgMstr]

AMD came through with a refund just fine once they got their shit straight and approved the RMA. I got the money 4/1 so they were quick once they received it. Thanks for the offer though. Regarding Nvidia/AMD and Digital River, my memory was actually jogged to revisit this because I saw a Reddit thread where someone sent a 3090 for RMA and received a 3080 back, so was enlisting help there. I'm a bit unclear about who's doing what between AMD support, customer service, and the storefront ops. Regardless, stuff does happen despite your previous (and my previous) flawless experience with them.

My gut feeling is that AMD (and NV for that matter) is handling warranty and tech support, while DR is handling customer service and logistics. I once returned an Nvidia card and it was all handled thru CS, so I think DR. Similar returns for AMD are funneled thru warranty for approval, then DR for the return transaction and thus the possible confusion? It's all I can guess. Being asked for the pictures 3x (twice warranty people, once CS) was odd and made me think multiple groups touched it. I know both CS and warranty had a separate case open.

And for those alleging some kind of fraud, I'm not sure I see that opportunity here. They have a 30 day return period where the buyer pays shipping so that would have been available to me in the event I just wanted to send it back. I simply wanted a replacement when it arrived like that, but after getting weird pushback I was able to grab one from a Newegg shuffle.

Edit: So here are some pics for the thirsty. I didn't post them sooner because I sent them to AMD via iCloud and it reveals personal identifying information (which is an odd thing to worry about when you used your first name for a forum almost 20 years ago but..). I put them on imgur which I rarely use and find not intuitive. The thing that static pics don't show is that the box would go almost flat with light pressure but then pop back to this state without any pressure applied. I actually made a video of that before I sent it back.

Pics

Was the CPU ok? Maybe but I won't know. I didn't want to take that chance under the circumstances though I'm sure some would have.

Edit #2.

I also learned that Fedex won't allow a recipient to file a damage claim without the sender signing a document giving up their right to do the same. When AMD wasn't going to help I tried to file a claim, figuring if I tested the CPU and it didn't work then I'd have that route available. I heard nothing from Fedex until maybe 2 days after I got the AMD refund, got a snail mail letter from Fedex stating this. Makes sense I guess.

FYI, I reached out to AMD about your case on March 25 and gave them the link to this thread. A ticket number would have helped.

 

[brentsg]

FYI, I reached out to AMD about your case on March 25 and gave them the link to this thread. A ticket number would have helped.

Appreciate it. Maybe that silently helped. I was worried because the box was hanging together by a thread but separated completely while I was trying to pack it. Figured they'd receive it and claim it was opened and deny the thing.

I was actually going to send it and was threading together all the actual back and forth replies but I got busy and never finished it. One of the projects I'm working on pulled a surprise move and decided to host a 12 hour per day mass vaccination site for 3 months and everything went sideways.