DigitalEmperor
Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
- Messages
- 760
Well, I am now quite paranoid about this whole BFG "greater than star" tech support I've bought into. I have a story to tell, and while it isn't quite over yet, so far it's not been a pleasant journey.
First of all, I have always been a firm believer in BFG because I've seen nothing but good news come from everyone about how fantastic their RMA policy is and how good their tech support is. Well, maybe I got caught in a cosmic rift, but my experience thus far as been, well, below average to say the least. I own 3 different BFG cards. I believe in the company, and I respect what it stands for and is doing. I have a ti4200, a 5200 fx, and a 6800gt oc. I have stayed with BFG because I had such good experiences with the cards I have bought, and fully intended on staying with them.
Now this all started when the admittidly long in the tooth ti4200 started to have problems. I was getting some artifacting and frame rate haults/locks with it and was going to just throw the card away seeing as it's, what, a $40 card or so. But, then I remembered it was BFG and I remembered back to all the love stories people had about the ease of the RMA process.
I call them up, go through the typical "tech support trouble shoot" (motherboard bios, chipset drivers, vga drivers, etc etc). Still having problems, so I recieve an RMA # and happily send it off to BFG in good faith expecting a working card back in about a week or so. Well, BFG was very good about getting a card in the mail to me. When it got here (in the time frame I was promised), it was a similar model ti4200, and low and behold, it artifacted WORSE than the card I sent off in the first place.
Next, I called up tech support again, and again was told to jump through the "tech support trouble shoot" even after explaining i'd been over the process once before. It didn't bother me much because, hey, maybe I did miss something. Well I was told to try the latest beta drivers and because my Internet connection wasn't exactly being the fastest and "call back" if I had any further problems. Well as expected, the beta drivers did nothing to fix this card, so I call back and get another tech who says "their notes don't indicate that i've been over any trouble shooting steps" .. now I am starting to get a little annoyed. I finally get the situation explained in about 30 minutes of back and forth.
BFG seems to be the good guy again and making up for the mistake in my book because THIS time they are going to send another card "advanced" with a pre-paid shipping label to send back the broken RMA.
All seemed to be well and fine again until yesterday. I recieved the "advanced" RMA. Can you guess where this might go? It sure caught me by supprise. This card, another variation on the ti4200, did not even post. It simply didn't send a video signal at all. Nothing, nada. And yes I have multiple systems to test the cards on and they exibit the same problems. (Believe me I was convinced it was user error this time around, could a company with such highly reguarded tech support honestly send two cards that did not work?!). Now I am thinking, yep throwing it away would've been a good idea. This is a lot of effort for a little ti4200. But then I started thinking, you know, if this were to happen to my much more expensive 6800gt I would not settle for this. So I am continuing on basically in principle at this point.
After checking power supply rails and going through a few more steps I was finally asked to speak with a supervisor. Now the lesson I have learned up to this point is that, this should have been my first step. The supervisor I spoke with was very understanding of the situation and seems to have me taken care of. I am being "upgraded" to a 5700 after getting permission from the boss, because they feel so bad about the situation. (however, now that I looked at some benchmarks, I am not so sure this is even an upgrade!! ugh!).
We will see where this episode goes next, but lets just say, the BFG tech support everyone else seems to have fallen in love with, isn't the same one I have been dealing with for the past month.
First of all, I have always been a firm believer in BFG because I've seen nothing but good news come from everyone about how fantastic their RMA policy is and how good their tech support is. Well, maybe I got caught in a cosmic rift, but my experience thus far as been, well, below average to say the least. I own 3 different BFG cards. I believe in the company, and I respect what it stands for and is doing. I have a ti4200, a 5200 fx, and a 6800gt oc. I have stayed with BFG because I had such good experiences with the cards I have bought, and fully intended on staying with them.
Now this all started when the admittidly long in the tooth ti4200 started to have problems. I was getting some artifacting and frame rate haults/locks with it and was going to just throw the card away seeing as it's, what, a $40 card or so. But, then I remembered it was BFG and I remembered back to all the love stories people had about the ease of the RMA process.
I call them up, go through the typical "tech support trouble shoot" (motherboard bios, chipset drivers, vga drivers, etc etc). Still having problems, so I recieve an RMA # and happily send it off to BFG in good faith expecting a working card back in about a week or so. Well, BFG was very good about getting a card in the mail to me. When it got here (in the time frame I was promised), it was a similar model ti4200, and low and behold, it artifacted WORSE than the card I sent off in the first place.
Next, I called up tech support again, and again was told to jump through the "tech support trouble shoot" even after explaining i'd been over the process once before. It didn't bother me much because, hey, maybe I did miss something. Well I was told to try the latest beta drivers and because my Internet connection wasn't exactly being the fastest and "call back" if I had any further problems. Well as expected, the beta drivers did nothing to fix this card, so I call back and get another tech who says "their notes don't indicate that i've been over any trouble shooting steps" .. now I am starting to get a little annoyed. I finally get the situation explained in about 30 minutes of back and forth.
BFG seems to be the good guy again and making up for the mistake in my book because THIS time they are going to send another card "advanced" with a pre-paid shipping label to send back the broken RMA.
All seemed to be well and fine again until yesterday. I recieved the "advanced" RMA. Can you guess where this might go? It sure caught me by supprise. This card, another variation on the ti4200, did not even post. It simply didn't send a video signal at all. Nothing, nada. And yes I have multiple systems to test the cards on and they exibit the same problems. (Believe me I was convinced it was user error this time around, could a company with such highly reguarded tech support honestly send two cards that did not work?!). Now I am thinking, yep throwing it away would've been a good idea. This is a lot of effort for a little ti4200. But then I started thinking, you know, if this were to happen to my much more expensive 6800gt I would not settle for this. So I am continuing on basically in principle at this point.
After checking power supply rails and going through a few more steps I was finally asked to speak with a supervisor. Now the lesson I have learned up to this point is that, this should have been my first step. The supervisor I spoke with was very understanding of the situation and seems to have me taken care of. I am being "upgraded" to a 5700 after getting permission from the boss, because they feel so bad about the situation. (however, now that I looked at some benchmarks, I am not so sure this is even an upgrade!! ugh!).
We will see where this episode goes next, but lets just say, the BFG tech support everyone else seems to have fallen in love with, isn't the same one I have been dealing with for the past month.