Corsair vs. Seasonic RMA policies

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larkin

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After going through a number of PSU's I've realized that reliability is more important than just the efficiency numbers. Also, when a PSU dies, which they all do and faster than HDs, how does the manufacturer handle returns; do they pay one way shipping, do they have a processing fee, how fast is their turn around.

I want to start this thread to get to the bottom of these two popular manufacturer's RMA policies to see what the real price of RMA is for each in terms of money and time.
 
Thermaltake: This week, my 2006 Thermaltake Toughpower 850 Watt, W0131RU went completely dead, after running perfectly for almost 5 years;

1.5 months left on a 5 year warranty; excellent service; cross shipping a better/newer unit, to arrive in 5 days from across the US. Only needed credit card number, receipt, and must send old unit back. Very prompt, and happy w/ the new unit they are sending W0315RU, I think.


Before I found my receipt, in hast, I ordered a ($69.99) PSU ROSEWILL | HIVE-650 650W, replacement, to show up 2 days before the Thermaltake replacement. Might hold onto the extra psu, or install the Rosewill, and sell the Thermaltake....really doesn't matter because both will handle my rig.

FYI, the Hive-650 is really a re-hash of the venerable/new Sirtec/OCZ ZS, reviewed by JonnyGuru. It's modular and has plenty of single rail umph.
 
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General RMA procedures for all manufacturers is for you to pay return shipping, they will test it and verify it is in non-working condition, then send the replacement out to you at their own costs. If the item is working, they will charge you a fee (again, standard industry practice) to send it back to you.

Some have advanced RMA policies where they allow you to cross-ship items. I believe Corsair does this, so down time is less, but I believe it also costs extra money.

My personal RMA experience with Seasonic was fast. Sent them a support ticket one day, got RMA number the next, sent it in, got my replacement a week after I sent it in. So most of the time was actually spent in transit, not at the manufacturer.
 
Zero82z said:
I would hardly call it venerable. It's decent, but nothing particularly impressive.
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Yeah, "venerable"...poor choice of words by me; should be an ok unit though. Sounds like the level of Thermaltake support is above average....no extra costs, and an immediate cross shipping.
 
Just submitted an RMA request with Corsair for this new AX850, horrible cap whine. I'll post my experience here.
 
Tsumi said:
My personal RMA experience with Seasonic was fast. Sent them a support ticket one day, got RMA number the next, sent it in, got my replacement a week after I sent it in. So most of the time was actually spent in transit, not at the manufacturer.
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Did you pay both shipping? Was there a cross ship option?


cre3d said:
Just submitted an RMA request with Corsair for this new AX850, horrible cap whine. I'll post my experience here.
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Look forward to hearing about that
 
I didn't ask for a cross ship option.

I think you should read the rest of my post regarding paying for shipping.
 
The Seasonic S12 620 in my gaming machine died over the weekend so I should be able to contribute to this thread soon.
 
Chris F said:
The Seasonic S12 620 in my gaming machine died over the weekend so I should be able to contribute to this thread soon.
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Disconcerting isn't it, having a psu go; and waiting to see if it took out your motherboard, etc. New "hive" supply tomorrow, and my free replacement supply comes in Thursday. Wish me luck.
 
Well... I'll say this... I had to rma my hx850 b/c one of the cables on the m/b 8-pin connector came loose, within 15 minutes of calling, they were sidegrading me to the ax850 (they were OOS on the hx850), I provided a credit card and 3 business days later I had a new psu waiting for me at my door.

At the same time I had to rma a corsair force gt 120gb ssd... the process took over two weeks...
next time I will just provide my cc for cross shipping.

Corsairs rma process is pretty quick and painless, and as such I feel that they are a safe bet.
Maybe someone can share their rma experience with seasonic.

The only seasonic psu that I have had die on me was a antec neo power, that was probably out of warranty but antec was kind enough to send me a replacement regardless. I couldn't find the receipt.. you figure after two years the psu is not going to die.
 
Today I received my my Corsair 650 TX back, some components had popped and smelled horrible. The RMA process was hassle free. The total from when they received it until today took 12 days. I have had one bad experience with Antec, they denied my RMA for a SmartPower 2.0 500 watt because I was using an 8800GT in that build.
 
Corsair will take care of you, but it may take a long while. I had to RMA an HX850 for a rattling fan and I ended up having to ask Redbeard here about the status of my RMA after not hearing from corsair after 2-3 weeks to find out my replacement wasn't in stock. I wish they communicated better.
 
I needed a side panel replacement for my 650D. It took a whole month to get my replacement.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Corsair will take care of you, but it may take a long while. I had to RMA an HX850 for a rattling fan and I ended up having to ask Redbeard here about the status of my RMA after not hearing from corsair after 2-3 weeks to find out my replacement wasn't in stock. I wish they communicated better.
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Having active employees on the forum would almost count as another plus-point in their favour, imo. I buy my products now-a-days based on the RMA/Support I'll get with it, even though I've only had 3 or 4 things die (on their own anyway) in the past 10 years.
 
I have done two RMA's for Corsair PSU. one was with an hx520. I paid shipping to send the psu to them. They paid shipping on the replacement. I got an HX650 in return!

I did another RMA on a CX430 V2 cuz of the cap whine. Same thing. I paid shipping to them and they pay the return. i got the same psu in return.

I have done 3 ram RMA's and I am always satisfied with Corsairs customer service.
 
Tsumi said:
General RMA procedures for all manufacturers is for you to pay return shipping, they will test it and verify it is in non-working condition, then send the replacement out to you at their own costs. If the item is working, they will charge you a fee (again, standard industry practice) to send it back to you.

Some have advanced RMA policies where they allow you to cross-ship items. I believe Corsair does this, so down time is less, but I believe it also costs extra money.

My personal RMA experience with Seasonic was fast. Sent them a support ticket one day, got RMA number the next, sent it in, got my replacement a week after I sent it in. So most of the time was actually spent in transit, not at the manufacturer.
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When I RMAd a old monitor they paid everything, guy turned up at door with new monitor and I gave him old one at same time, so I didnt even have to wait. I had a choice of waiting for the one I gave to be repaired or getting a instant refubrished model. I wish I waited now tho as that other one died soon after.

Some companies allow you to give them credit card info and then they advance ship brand new replacements but if they then believe they not in breach of warranty or the return gets lost in post they charge you for the replacement.
 
Because I was, and still am, having a bunch of problems with Corsair products I was shipped a sealed AX1200 to replace my defective one and I did not have to pay for the return shipping on my failed unit.

But this being Corsair, my replacement came with the wrong size mounting screws. Fortunately I still had my old screws so the new PSU could be affixed to the case as well as some reinforcing material to construct a blast shield in case there are further incidents of spontaneous fan blade failure.
 
dekruyter said:
Disconcerting isn't it, having a psu go; and waiting to see if it took out your motherboard, etc. New "hive" supply tomorrow, and my free replacement supply comes in Thursday. Wish me luck.
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I think the rest of the system is likely OK. The computer would not return from sleep so I assume it died at or more likely after the point of hibernation. No visible damage to any of the connectors. I ordered an Antec HCP-1200 to replace it (way overkill, but I plan to re-use it for a SLI LGA2011 build) which should arrive tomorrow. Good luck with your new PSU. :)

Anyhow, back to the topic. Email RMA response (with RMA # and shipping info) from Seasonic was very fast with no hassle. I give the response time an A. I shipped the PSU out to Cali last Wednesday. It will take a week or so to arrive by ground at which time I expect a fairly quick turnaround. My shipping cost from Ontario, Canada was ~$25CDN. Shipping materials were free as I re-used a UPS box + some bubble wrap from work.
 
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I had a fair experience with Corsair. TX750 went tits up. RMA request was accepted within 24 hours. They had received my PSU within a week. Cannot honestly remember how long it took to receive the replacement part, but I'm getting the impression that it took a reasonable amount of time.

There was no jumping through hoops or anything of that ilk. Overall a decent experience. It's a shame they replaced my model with a V2 about a year after my RMA.

- Nim
 
I'm having some reason comprehension issues with your last sentence. Are you saying it took a year to receive your RMA?
 
Carlitos714 said:
I have done two RMA's for Corsair PSU. one was with an hx520. I paid shipping to send the psu to them. They paid shipping on the replacement. I got an HX650 in return!

I did another RMA on a CX430 V2 cuz of the cap whine. Same thing. I paid shipping to them and they pay the return. i got the same psu in return.

I have done 3 ram RMA's and I am always satisfied with Corsairs customer service.
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Yup same experience for me. I had a Corsair HX520 and one of the PCIE plugs wasn't putting out any power. I emailed them about it and RMA process was completed in about 6 days. Emailed them July 25 got my replacement HX650 (UPGRADE) August 1st!

Corsair by far has an EXCELLENT RMA/Customer service from my experience.

Antec on the other hand was sluggish. I emailed them about my problem October 9th, didn't get an RMA number till the October 18th and finally got the replacement today, HALLOWEEN!!
 
larkin said:
I'm having some reason comprehension issues with your last sentence. Are you saying it took a year to receive your RMA?
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No. He's saying that his model line was replaced by the V2 line a year later. If his model had failed a year later, there was a good chance he would have been upgraded to the V2 line.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Corsair will take care of you, but it may take a long while. I had to RMA an HX850 for a rattling fan and I ended up having to ask Redbeard here about the status of my RMA after not hearing from corsair after 2-3 weeks to find out my replacement wasn't in stock. I wish they communicated better.
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I just received a HX850 and mine has the same rattling fan issue. I sent a RMA request using their website today and I already received the RMA authorization. Customer service has been quick so far. It's disappointing I have to ship it back on my dime over a simple fan issue. The unit is heavy and shipping is not going to be cheap.
 
Earlier this year i had to rma a corsair hx620 because it had issues with the ip35pro board it was powering - total rma time was around 1 week to 10 days from reporting issue to receiving new hx650 unit

i had a different but overall decent experience with my 600t se, initial response was quick but then a month went by without a response while i emailed once weekly. at the end of the month they apologized sent a new case and a 16gb usb 3.0 flash drive as an apology.
 
Have used corsair RMA several times now from the UK to US, each time has been painless. When my 950TX went they sent my a HX1000 in its place. Total turnaround was less than 2 weeks.

Another factor with corsair is that warranty is based on the product not the purchaser. I had some less than a year old but 2nd hand patriot RAM went bad - I can't RMA it as i'm not the original owner

Support is a big factor as I run my rigs 24/7 and want a decent warranty and quick service if things go wrong.
 
Nathan_P said:
Have used corsair RMA several times now from the UK to US, each time has been painless. When my 950TX went they sent my a HX1000 in its place. Total turnaround was less than 2 weeks.

Another factor with corsair is that warranty is based on the product not the purchaser.
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They don't ask for an original receipt?
 
larkin said:
They don't ask for an original receipt?
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Corsair does not ask for a receipt.

I have sent bad ram and a power supply that I did not buy. I actually bought a 2 x 2 gb DDR2 on Craiglist for 8 bucks (2 years ago) because they were "bad". I already knew about corsairs dont need receipt policy. I bought the ram, sent it in and got a new pair. It ended selling on ebay for $63. I spent 13 bucks. 8 for the ram and 5 to ship to corsair. 50 dollar profit. took my family out for dinner.
 
Teenyman45 said:
Because I was, and still am, having a bunch of problems with Corsair products I was shipped a sealed AX1200 to replace my defective one and I did not have to pay for the return shipping on my failed unit.

But this being Corsair, my replacement came with the wrong size mounting screws. Fortunately I still had my old screws so the new PSU could be affixed to the case as well as some reinforcing material to construct a blast shield in case there are further incidents of spontaneous fan blade failure.
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The wrong size screws? I've never heard of this for PSUs - could you send me a picture or something? We've never changed the spec on the screws that came with the AX1200....
 
Carlitos714 said:
Corsair does not ask for a receipt.

I have sent bad ram and a power supply that I did not buy. I actually bought a 2 x 2 gb DDR2 on Craiglist for 8 bucks (2 years ago) because they were "bad". I already knew about corsairs dont need receipt policy. I bought the ram, sent it in and got a new pair. It ended selling on ebay for $63. I spent 13 bucks. 8 for the ram and 5 to ship to corsair. 50 dollar profit. took my family out for dinner.
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That's a great policy!

Anybody have experience with Seasonic that can answer if they require receipts?
 
larkin said:
That's a great policy!

Anybody have experience with Seasonic that can answer if they require receipts?
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They didn't for me. And they even fixed it for me even though the warranty seal was broken.
 
Ive had fabulous support from Corsair.

I have had two sets of RAM go bad, completely painless replacement within 10 days.

I broke a connector on my AX1200, entirely my fault. Wrote a ticket and left a PM to Redbeard here.

In less than one week I had two pairs of replacement cables, no questions asked. I didn't even have to send the broken ones back.
I have a bunch of Corsair PSUs, never a problem in the lot. Range from HX650, TX750, TX850V2,HX850 and my AX1200.:D
 
Not a single Seasonic experience? Maybe never go bad..

While Corsair service might be better than Seasonic, I do however think that Seasonic makes a little better products.
 
Fair play to corsair, I think asking for a receipt is over the top. If I kept every single receipt for everything I buy I would need a dedicated room for it.
 
hmz said:
Not a single Seasonic experience? Maybe never go bad..

While Corsair service might be better than Seasonic, I do however think that Seasonic makes a little better products.
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Try reading my posts.
 
My Seasonic RMA number was 18xx which depending on when they started counting seems to imply a pretty low failure rate. Still waiting for a note from Seasonic on the outcome, I'm assuming the PSU got delayed in customs. Shipping Canada<->US is slow and often frustrating. (for both parties)
 
yea corsair is okay with RMA support, altho they did try and give me the run around when my 850HX died, Seasonic was pretty easy to deal with in the past not sure on how they stack up today.
 
Update:
Got an email yesterday from UPS and my replacement Seasonic PSU is set for delivery Nov 22.
So ~1 month turnaround of which about 3 weeks was shipping time from eastern Canada to California and back.

Other then the painful shipping times (no ones fault) it's been a smooth process and I am satisfied with the end result. If you live in the US I bet you can probably get a complete RMA done in 1-2 weeks depending on locality to California.
 
Javatango said:
I just received a HX850 and mine has the same rattling fan issue. I sent a RMA request using their website today and I already received the RMA authorization. Customer service has been quick so far. It's disappointing I have to ship it back on my dime over a simple fan issue. The unit is heavy and shipping is not going to be cheap.
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Update: Corsair's RMA process was painless. Once Corsair received my defective HX850 they took two days to process the order, then they sent out a new HX850. The unit was shipped back UPS ground and I received it yesterday. Not bad.

My string of bad luck continues since I also received a bad set of Corsair Vengeance memory, so I will have to go through the RMA process again.
 
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