I made a mistake... I think... An RMA story

M76

M76

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
14,038
So to get the full picture. If you're not into stories, don't read go to TLDR.

I wanted to build a mini gaming PC last summer, and to that end I got a GTX 1080 mini. (before the mining craze hiked the prices)
But as it turns out the card might be small (for a 1080), but the heat it generates is still huge. So it wouldn't work in an ITX case.
After failing miserably and frying a hard disk with the excessive heat, I abandoned the project. And put the 1080 in my sig. PC.
Replacing the aging 980TI that was in it.
For a while I had the 980 hooked up to do rendering work. It was nice because I could render while doing other stuff with the PC, with a single GPU the rendering caused everything to stutter, but with a dedicated GPU that was no longer an issue.

But as GPU prices started to rise I decided that it was a luxury to use a still relatively hiend gpu in this manner.
So I opted to sell it. (This was in January)
I offered it at a reasonable price so I got a buyer quick, and I delivered the card personally, he was a gamer (thankfully, I'd have hated myself if I sold a gaming card to a miner)
But the next day he calls that the card doesn't work, it crashes. He said he tried every remedy but it still won't work properly.
So I had to buy the card back. Well I didn't have to, but I didn't want to screw over anyone, I was just hoping I wasn't being screwed over.
When I'm selling valuable hw components I always fear the worst, that the buyer will replace it with a faulty one and claims it is bad. Honestly I hate dealing with classifieds and potential buyers. I have a ton of unused stuff that needs selling, I just can't be bothered to list them.

But back to the story, I got the card back, and it was the same card I gave. I ran home slammed it into my computer and it crashed for me as well. It didn't take 10 seconds, as soon as I started a game or any fullscreen 3d app, the screen went blank in a few seconds.
How can I be so unlucky? I wasn't even sure if the card had any warranty left on it. I didn't have a warranty card for it, only the invoice which didn't mention warranty.

The card was 2.5 years old, so if it came with 2 years I'm screwed, if it came with 3 I was hopefully OK.
So when I had an assignment near the retailer where I purchased it I returned the card.
I feigned ignorance I acted as if I was sure it was under warranty.
To my surprise the service guy tested it and the card run 20 minutes in some 3D test without issue.
I started fuming at this point, but he said he doesn't want to dismiss my claim, he'll do more through tests with the card, and then contact me.
This happened mid February.

I waited one week, two weeks, three weeks, nothing no calls, no nothing. So I sent them an email after 3 weeks to ask about the card.
But got to four weeks without a reply, so I tried calling them. No answer, or busy tone.
Tried again the next day. THEY PICKED UP! But immediately told me that I have to call another number, as they only deal with sales on this one:(
I call the number they gave me, a completely bewildered guy answered who had no idea what the hell I was on about. THEY GAVE ME THE WRONG NUMBER :mad:
After some investigation I found the number I was supposed to call as suspected one of the digits were incorrect.
So I called that, finally someone competent picked up, and told me, that the guy who was on my case no longer worked there :eek:
But supposedly my card was escalated to the distributor level, so he must've found some fault with it after all. These are the exact words they used, "must've" so they had no idea on the status of my card, or what fault had they found, or if it was being repaired under warranty or WTF was going on with it. They told me to wait, they'll probably know more in a week or so.
Then to my surprise on the next day after this phone conversation took place. Someone else replied to the email I sent over a week before. But gave about the same info, that the card was at the distributor and they'll contact me if they know more. They didn't mention firing the guy in the mail tho.
Time went on and on. Finally 6 weeks have passed since I took the card to the shop. Which is the maximum allowed time an RMA can take according to local laws.
Therefore I called again. The guy on the other end told me he's on a housecall at the moment but will get back to me when he returns to the shop in about an hour.
I was never called back. So the next day I called again. And told that somehow they failed to call me back.
This time he apologized and told me that he'll check what's going on with the card.
After about 15 minutes this time he really called back, and told me that the card was still MIA.
But since the 6 weeks was up by a few days at this point. He offered me to replace the card with a 1080. What? I couldn't believe it, the best I was expecting was a 1070.

And here it comes, my mistake. Or what I think was a mistake.

TLDR: They offered to upgrade me to a 1080Ti for a mere $125, but I declined. I thought I'll be able to use the 1080 with my existing card in SLI, and everything will be great. Only after I hang up did I start thinking that hey, I should've just opted for the TI, and sold my 1080, and I would not just have upgraded but also richer by at least $500 as well.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake? The card arrived on Monday and honestly the games I was playing ran good enough with a single card already. I can jerk to 3dmark results but that's no longer my hobby. I mean it's good for e-peen to see that I'm back in the top 1%, but I don't feel that special by that.

Or there is another option: Just sell my old 1080, keep the new one, and go on a bender with the money.
 
What is the condition of the cards proposed ? NEW / Refurb / Used / Demo ? I would of taken the TI for that price if it's a NEW Refurb (non-opened) and make sure the warranty follows.
 
I would have gone with the 1080Ti just to be done with it, that RMA process sounds like more stress than it's worth.
 
The key thing would have been to ask what they had in stock to send right then (not in a week), the 1080 or the 1080 ti. Considering your prior experience with delays, I wouldn't trust them to ship me anything they didn't have in front of them lest you might be waiting another two months.
 
ti without a doubt.
But without question I would feel fortunate in so many respects if I ended up with a 1080 after that support debacle, the warranty length issue and potentially dodgy customer killing the card!
At least the shop stuck to the letter of the law.
Huge win!
 
^ Yeah I'd be happy to escape with the clothes on my back after being dumped on that many times. Enjoy your new (?) card
 
Master_shake_ said:
i would have jumped on the 1080ti

and sold the 1080 for a tidy profit.
Click to expand...
In hindsight that's what I should've done. But that ship has sailed.
The 1080 is a new card, MSI Armor OC, with 3 years warranty. So it's not refurbished. The box was beat up, but the electrostatic bag seemed unopened in it.

What is funny, that it came with a foil on the fans that said "play hard stay silent". But the card is much louder than the zotac.
 
M76 said:
In hindsight that's what I should've done. But that ship has sailed.
The 1080 is a new card, MSI Armor OC, with 3 years warranty. So it's not refurbished. The box was beat up, but the electrostatic bag seemed unopened in it.

What is funny, that it came with a foil on the fans that said "play hard stay silent". But the card is much louder than the zotac.
Click to expand...

So it arrived ok and intact? Do the fans shut off in 2D mode?
 
Huh. So they gave back the mini1080? AND gave you a 1080???

Shrug. The -right- thing? Take the equivalent card they owe you.
 
c3k said:
Huh. So they gave back the mini1080? AND gave you a 1080???

Shrug. The -right- thing? Take the equivalent card they owe you.
Click to expand...
If this was a conversation you overheard and didnt catch all of it you could be forgiven.
But its there in black and white.
Choice of not commenting, or providing entertainment.
Wise pick ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: M76
like this
M76 said:
So to get the full picture. If you're not into stories, don't read go to TLDR.

I wanted to build a mini gaming PC last summer, and to that end I got a GTX 1080 mini. (before the mining craze hiked the prices)
But as it turns out the card might be small (for a 1080), but the heat it generates is still huge. So it wouldn't work in an ITX case.
After failing miserably and frying a hard disk with the excessive heat, I abandoned the project. And put the 1080 in my sig. PC.
Replacing the aging 980TI that was in it.
For a while I had the 980 hooked up to do rendering work. It was nice because I could render while doing other stuff with the PC, with a single GPU the rendering caused everything to stutter, but with a dedicated GPU that was no longer an issue.

But as GPU prices started to rise I decided that it was a luxury to use a still relatively hiend gpu in this manner.
So I opted to sell it. (This was in January)
I offered it at a reasonable price so I got a buyer quick, and I delivered the card personally, he was a gamer (thankfully, I'd have hated myself if I sold a gaming card to a miner)
But the next day he calls that the card doesn't work, it crashes. He said he tried every remedy but it still won't work properly.
So I had to buy the card back. Well I didn't have to, but I didn't want to screw over anyone, I was just hoping I wasn't being screwed over.
When I'm selling valuable hw components I always fear the worst, that the buyer will replace it with a faulty one and claims it is bad. Honestly I hate dealing with classifieds and potential buyers. I have a ton of unused stuff that needs selling, I just can't be bothered to list them.

But back to the story, I got the card back, and it was the same card I gave. I ran home slammed it into my computer and it crashed for me as well. It didn't take 10 seconds, as soon as I started a game or any fullscreen 3d app, the screen went blank in a few seconds.
How can I be so unlucky? I wasn't even sure if the card had any warranty left on it. I didn't have a warranty card for it, only the invoice which didn't mention warranty.

The card was 2.5 years old, so if it came with 2 years I'm screwed, if it came with 3 I was hopefully OK.
So when I had an assignment near the retailer where I purchased it I returned the card.
I feigned ignorance I acted as if I was sure it was under warranty.
To my surprise the service guy tested it and the card run 20 minutes in some 3D test without issue.
I started fuming at this point, but he said he doesn't want to dismiss my claim, he'll do more through tests with the card, and then contact me.
This happened mid February.

I waited one week, two weeks, three weeks, nothing no calls, no nothing. So I sent them an email after 3 weeks to ask about the card.
But got to four weeks without a reply, so I tried calling them. No answer, or busy tone.
Tried again the next day. THEY PICKED UP! But immediately told me that I have to call another number, as they only deal with sales on this one:(
I call the number they gave me, a completely bewildered guy answered who had no idea what the hell I was on about. THEY GAVE ME THE WRONG NUMBER :mad:
After some investigation I found the number I was supposed to call as suspected one of the digits were incorrect.
So I called that, finally someone competent picked up, and told me, that the guy who was on my case no longer worked there :eek:
But supposedly my card was escalated to the distributor level, so he must've found some fault with it after all. These are the exact words they used, "must've" so they had no idea on the status of my card, or what fault had they found, or if it was being repaired under warranty or WTF was going on with it. They told me to wait, they'll probably know more in a week or so.
Then to my surprise on the next day after this phone conversation took place. Someone else replied to the email I sent over a week before. But gave about the same info, that the card was at the distributor and they'll contact me if they know more. They didn't mention firing the guy in the mail tho.
Time went on and on. Finally 6 weeks have passed since I took the card to the shop. Which is the maximum allowed time an RMA can take according to local laws.
Therefore I called again. The guy on the other end told me he's on a housecall at the moment but will get back to me when he returns to the shop in about an hour.
I was never called back. So the next day I called again. And told that somehow they failed to call me back.
This time he apologized and told me that he'll check what's going on with the card.
After about 15 minutes this time he really called back, and told me that the card was still MIA.
But since the 6 weeks was up by a few days at this point. He offered me to replace the card with a 1080. What? I couldn't believe it, the best I was expecting was a 1070.

And here it comes, my mistake. Or what I think was a mistake.

TLDR: They offered to upgrade me to a 1080Ti for a mere $125, but I declined. I thought I'll be able to use the 1080 with my existing card in SLI, and everything will be great. Only after I hang up did I start thinking that hey, I should've just opted for the TI, and sold my 1080, and I would not just have upgraded but also richer by at least $500 as well.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake? The card arrived on Monday and honestly the games I was playing ran good enough with a single card already. I can jerk to 3dmark results but that's no longer my hobby. I mean it's good for e-peen to see that I'm back in the top 1%, but I don't feel that special by that.

Or there is another option: Just sell my old 1080, keep the new one, and go on a bender with the money.
Click to expand...


when's the last time you took a nice long vacation?
 
You refused a 1080 Ti? If I could smack you from over the internet right now, I would. But since I cannot, I think just telling you that I am abusing and laughing at you in my head should suffice. :p.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top