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First RMA experience

S

ssnake323

n00b
Joined
Dec 10, 2009
Messages
37
Hi all,
This is my first post here as a new member. I am RMA'ing my BFG 8800 GTX OC2 today after having it for a little over 2 years. I actually had to look up when I got it.(can't believe its been that long) A real great card, still able to keep up with the newest games. until it died two days ago. I was playing Dragon Age and the screen froze up completely with random red dots everywhere. I've had issues in the past with games freezing up the system, particularly COD 4 & 5, but I thought it was mostly heat related. Never bothered to RMA before because it would always come back up without issues after a reboot. This time I just got a black screen during power up and I verified it with an old BFG 7600 gt oc card I had. My question is what card can expect in exchange for this? Is an exact card replacement a common occurance or would I expect a comparable newer card? If so, which? Thanks for any insight and I will be posting my RMA experience as well. Hopefully all goes well. I've heard great things about BFG's customer service with RMA's/ Lifetime Warranties. So far it's been an easy experience. Had to call in twice, second time because they spelled my name wrong. But both times was on hold for no more than 3-5 min each.
 
technically you should get another 8800GTX back but may not be the same version you rma'd.. but odds are BFG will just send you a GTS 250 or something seeing as how old the card is though the GTS 250's not really an upgrade to the 8800GTX but at least you will have full hardware acceleration support instead of just mpeg 2.. also what ever card you do get back will most likely be a refurb and not a brand new card so dont be alarmed if it is..

its kinda one of those wait and see things due to the age of the card.. i know when i rma'ed my BFG 6200 OC i ended up getting an 8600GT which was a very nice upgrade..
 
Thanks for the input. Hopefully they are generous to me as well ;)
Update: UPS tracking has the package status as received today.
 
I love BFG. Whenever looking at vid cards I only consider BFG. My experience with them has been one of the best. When I was having an issue with my system and concluded my BFG card was the source of the issue I phoned up BFG and they did a little troubleshooting with me and when it didn't solve the problem they, without hesitation told me to send it in. Well, I eventually figured out the problem b4 sending it in. It was the Asus A8N32-SLI board. Anyone who has or ever had this board knows the deal with one of the printer port (LPT1). You have to disable it or ur system will keep shutting down (I love and hate Asus!):p :mad:. Anyway, after that I was a dedicated BFG consumer and have only bought BFG cards for the past 6 years.
 
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I RMAed that exact card last year and received an GTX 260 OC2 in return.
To put it mildly I was ecstatic. Jumping two generations of videocards for an RMA! BFG has my business for life. I was also told that the lifetime warranty applies to the replacement card as well.
 
Update:
Checked the status and the card has been received by the warehouse. :D Took one business day to update status from Friday's delivery date.
 
rcat1 said:
I RMAed that exact card last year and received an GTX 260 OC2 in return.
To put it mildly I was ecstatic. Jumping two generations of videocards for an RMA! BFG has my business for life. I was also told that the lifetime warranty applies to the replacement card as well.
Click to expand...
That's great to hear. Here's to an updated card!
 
Update: Checked my status this morning and my replacement card is on its way. Called in to find out that they will be sending back another 8800 GTX OC2. Not an upgrade but at least not a downgrade ;). Should get this card on the 18th.
 
Update:
Received my replacement card on Sunday, popped it in and it crashed within 5 min of use. I read about the 191.70 driver issue and my system had been running fine with it. When I used the 195.81 drivers my card crashed the next day. I tried reverting back to the 186.18 to be safe as these drivers gave me no issues what so ever. However, even with these drivers. I plugged the brand new looking RMA replacement 8800 GTX OC2 card and the first thing I wanted to look at where the idle temps. I clicked on the GPU-Z icon, when the "Do you want to run this" message came up the system from and started to flicker. With only the mouse cursor still responding. So do I need to reformat, get a new mobo, upgrade my PSU to 1000w, send in for another RMA? This really blows.. Anyone have this issue with this card and got it actually working again without any of the above? I plan to call in to BFG later today to get another RMA number and hopefully ship out today.
Oh btw the FedEx guy cam in regular clothing and also on a Sunday when I was originally expecting my card on Friday then was updated to Saturday according to their tracking site. They are, of course backed up for the holidays and I wouldn't expect my card back with the same turnaround time as before.
 
bummer... well, they often replace cards with cards they qualify as re-certified.. but many of them still have issues.. my friend went through 3 RMAs with BFG on a brand new GTX285 until he got a good working one. He said they were extremely cool about each return, but after all the time and $ spent shipping the cards he was pretty frustrated. I hope the next one you get is a keeper! (maybe they'll send you a 9800GTX+ or something next round :))
 
well they should not be sending you a downgrade.........should be equal to what you have or better. to make things right that is.
 
Make sure you put the card though the paces the moment you get it.

Not saying it's going to be bad or anything but if BFG is anything like EVGA, after your use of the 'lifetime warranty,' you get a 1 year warranty. Not a big deal. I RMAed my 8800gtx to EVGA and got a GTX 260 core 216. Nice little upgrade. I can see why they dont carry a lifetime warranty on the replacement because if they did I would have a free middle-of-the-line card for the rest of my life.

Put it through everything you can because I doubt they have any NEW 8800gtx's left, and you dont wanna get screwed a year down the road.
 
Called in today and they recommended I try a different power supply just to be sure. I agreed because I wanted to upgrade to a more efficient 1000w PS anyway. That way the unit might not be so close to running at max load. Might even get a BFG because of their Lifetime warranty. Either way I'll pick one up today to troubleshoot at least. I really hope this fixes it. I'm about to enter my little mini vacation and would love to be able to finish Dragon Age during that time. Funny thing they mentioned was that it definitely was not the drivers causing the issue because during POST the drivers have not loaded yet but I'm guessing that doesn't rule out damage caused by said drivers, if that even is the case.
 
So I picked up a brand new Antec 750w PSU last night and popped it in my tower and just to make sure it was working properly, powered it up with my 7600 GT. No issues, so I replaced the 8800 GTX and no change, still artifacting and Windows does not boot past the loading screen. Called back in and they asked if I swapped the PSU. I told them there was no change and they are sending me an Advance RMA. So shipping will be taken care of for my old card and hopefully I won't have to wait as long for a replacement. Props and many thanks to the BFG agent helping me out. He had to go ask his Supervisor if they could send out the advance because normally it is restricted with that card ;). I was surprised by their accurate note taking. Kudos!
 
I rmaed a bfg 8800 gtx, they sent me another 8800, which was bad. I mean its cool to be without a computer for a month. Fuck bfg.
 
Update,
After a call to the BFG RMA department a few days ago I found out that my advance RMA was not sent out and they have no record of an advance ever being requested, approved or sent to me. Which really sucks because they told me not to send in my old card until I got the replacement. So after I found out there was no card on the way I decided to go ahead and send mine in with the pre-paid fed-ex label they sent me via web-link. I printed out the label asap because there was a note that the label would expire and not be available for printing after a certain day (1-4-10). I sent my card on 12-31-09, I believe. The problem now is that since I printed the fed-ex shipping label I did not write down the tracking number and fed-ex has no record of the package ever being sent out. My other main concern is that I don't remember putting the RMA details in the package. It was on the shipping label though. BFG has yet to receive my package and Fed-ex has no idea where it is. Am I screwed?
 
talk to Jeff K around here, he's the official BFG rep on here
 
Is there a reason you cant go back to the web link they sent you for the label and check tracking there? In either case FedEx should have the info...the type all the info (street address, names, etc.) on the spot, they have to in order to charge you.

Someone is lying somewhere here...something sounds awry. Youd have to be able to get tracking and/or information on the package.

Another good reason why its important you SAVE AND COPY ALL DOCUMENTS. I cant tell you how many times a company has tried to say my mail in rebates never got there and stuff when I had proof and was able to get them.
 
The link they provided had a log-in and password that no longer works. I'm guessing it expired and is no longer available. I called in and spoke to a Fed-ex rep for about half an hour and he looked at all packages going out with my address (apartment) and incoming packaged to the BFG rma department and could not find anything remotely similar to what I sent out. They also said that they cannot give out tracking number over the phone, even if I provide all the package info. They also cannot retrieve my package info from the log-in they gave me. I don't know if I made a PDF copy of the label, which I normally do, but in this case I was caught off guard when they told me I was getting an advance RMA from the get-go. I'll have to double check at home when I get off work now that you mention it. Thanks.
 
Ok, so after a few days of panic, my package made it to the RMA center and has been received. Yay! Hopefully my next card will last longer than 5 min of use. I hope the next card has better luck. I was thinking of using it as a PhysX card.
 
Jeez, I'm in a similar situation, with 8800 Ultra sent for RMA and waiting for them to respond. I can't believe your RMA is so complicated. Why would they send you a 8800GTXOC2? They probably attempted to fix your card, and evidently failed.

And you also had to get a new PSU over this whole ordeal? Ridiculous

Hopefully things will work out for your RMA. BFG is slow this month, since they are probably backed up over the holidays.

Did Jeff help you sort things out?
 
Thankfully for me I've NEVER had to RMA a product but maybe thats just my 7 year experience.
 
SuperAwesome said:
Jeez, I'm in a similar situation, with 8800 Ultra sent for RMA and waiting for them to respond. I can't believe your RMA is so complicated. Why would they send you a 8800GTXOC2? They probably attempted to fix your card, and evidently failed.

And you also had to get a new PSU over this whole ordeal? Ridiculous

Hopefully things will work out for your RMA. BFG is slow this month, since they are probably backed up over the holidays.

Did Jeff help you sort things out?
Click to expand...

Luckily I was able to return the PSU i used for troubleshooting. Why buy it if I don't need it? I don't think it was the same card they sent me back as I wrote down my serial number and even took pictures of it in case they sent it back damaged or to see if I would get back the same card. Oh, an interesting side note, the revision/ firmware number which was etched to the back of the card, I believe, was blacked out by marker. Wonder what that is all about? This was on the first replacement card they sent. Will make sure and look at the new one on the way. Card was shipped out by the next day of receiving.
 
HardwareFiend said:
I love BFG. Whenever looking at vid cards I only consider BFG. My experience with them has been one of the best. When I was having an issue with my system and concluded my BFG card was the source of the issue I phoned up BFG and they did a little troubleshooting with me and when it didn't solve the problem they, without hesitation told me to send it in. Well, I eventually figured out the problem b4 sending it in. It was the Asus A8N32-SLI board. Anyone who has or ever had this board knows the deal with one of the printer port (LPT1). You have to disable it or ur system will keep shutting down (I love and hate Asus!):p :mad:. Anyway, after that I was a dedicated BFG consumer and have only bought BFG cards for the past 6 years.
Click to expand...

You LOVE BFG because they graced you by giving you permission to proceed with an RMA? :confused:

Great Expectations there.
 
So far my replacment card is working fine. No crashes. Running GPU-z shows an idle temp of 55 and 46 degrees Celsius. Not sure why there are two temps listed. Are these normal temps? fan is at 60%.
 
Arkuatika said:
Thankfully for me I've NEVER had to RMA a product but maybe thats just my 7 year experience.
Click to expand...

so you figure your experience is keeping your hardware from breaking? i have a little experience also. please tell me how i can use that to prevent bad quality assurance, bad design, caps exploding, old age, accidents, etc from breaking my hardware.

to op - they sent you another gtx oc2?


to the "i love bfg" guy. you love bfg because their tech support managed to troubleshoot your issue incorrectly?
 
Update:
Video card temps cap off at 85°C with fan at 100% during a L4D run. From what I've been seeing online this looks like the norm. Correct?
 
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