MSI motherboard RMA experience

bigddybn

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Just wanted to drop this here for anyone that might search in the future.

Bought a motherboard from F/S/T here. This board to be exact http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130233&Tpk=785gm-e65

It arrived in working order but failed a bios flash. It was working when I got it so I contacted the seller not to get my money back but to get help with RMA. While he investigated the proof of purchase I checked out their RMA process. MSI doesn't need a receipt, they go by the S/N of the item which contains a date code. Mine was 0907 which was July 2009. The board has a 1 year warranty so I was just *barely* in warranty. Started the RMA process online which was painless. Got an email the next day with my RMA number and directions.

Sent the board to MSI to a california address. They sent an email as soon as they got it. About 3 days later I got another email with a tracking number. Now this board was just a bad bios flash so I expected them to simply reflash the board and return it. The board I got back was immediately obviously not my board. It had a date code of 1003 which would be March 2010. Not only that but it was a BRAND NEW BOARD in full retail packaging with all accessories and stickers in place.

So from start to finish was about 2 weeks and most of that was shipping time due to the fact that I'm in FL and they are in CA. I sent a busted used board and got a brand new board back. At no time did this require any phone calls or hassle. Just a quick online RMA form and a few emails.

Everyone always comes on to bitch when things go wrong so I wanted to make sure to give props to MSI for taking care of this customer. It has already influenced my buying decisions. Recently decided I wanted a 12 inch netbook. Had narrowed it down to 3 models. One of them was an MSI.

I'm typing this on it.
 
Very cool. Nice to hear their RMA process is straight forward. Helps me consider them for future purchases.

Certainly a change of pace from the norm horror story threads. :p
 
This was a very similar experience I had with MSI. 2 slots on my GD85 board went out after about 4 months. Within 2 weeks I had a brand new retail box as a replacement from MSI. Would definitely buy other MSI products base on their excellent customer service.
 
I've had good luck with MSI's warranty service as well. Really, there's only been a couple of tech companies with which I haven't had good luck on warranty returns.

However, a motherboard that only has a one year warranty would be a board I would avoid if buying new.
 
this post has my finger really itchy right now to pull the trigger on a MSI P55-GD80, and the [H]ARD|OCP Editor's Choice Gold Award mention on Newegg doesn't hurt either...

:D
 
Great news ..... nice to hear positive experiences like this. I usually buy Asus but my Daughter has an MSI board that has worked perfectly since day one.
 
Glad to hear that we have another option that offers good customer service.

The only thing that you did not mention, had the board been purchased a year ago, or was the 1 year warranty running while it sat on the shelf at the store?

Western Digital does something similar ... the warranty starts from the manufacture date unless you register it, then it starts from the date you purchased it. If it has been sitting on a shelf, you are better to register it to get full benefit of the warranty.
 
I was not the original owner so I couldn't tell you exactly when it was purchases. I'm sure if I had passed the date but have proof of purchase it would have been honored. The Magnuson Moss Act stipulates certain warranty protections in the US that would cover your butt there.

Regardless pretty happy with MSI. Wish HTC would learn a thing or two from them.
 
If it's a single component, many companies will just ship you out a new part so long as it's in warranty. Going through the hassle of installing a processor, memory, hard drive and psu (bare minimum) is a lot more annoying than just pulling a new board off the shelf, shipping it out, and getting to a reflash/inspection at some point down the line (if ever).
 
Thanks for posting a positive experience! We spend so much time concentrating on the negatives, its nice to hear some good news finally.
 
MSI is what I use exclusively in my business for new builds. The only time I deviate is when I have a coupon from Intel for some crazy deal. Even then I have sold trhe Intel boards on ebay to get an MSI board. They are top notch and in the current market customer service is where it is at.

Ever had to deal with Asus RMA process or RMA from a supplier, those can take 6+ weeks to see your product returned. Not with MSI. EVGA used to be good too, however they have recently lost my business.

Also for hard drives I can not say enough good things about WD and there cross shipping policy, they will want a credit card number for it but they will advance exchange a drive and supply a return shipping label.
 
Yeah MSI is awesome. a little slow but awesome. I had to RMA my 8800 ultra and it took about 3 weeks, but It was painless. I think it was 3 emails and one way shipping cost and I got either a new or extremely clean refurb.The emails were very short too I explained my problem which was hard to explains since after about 20 minutes of game playing nvidia drivers would crash. I tried it on multiple systems and os's and same thing. I though it would be a long drawn out "Try this driver" but they gave me teh address and said ship it here.

Mushkin is awesome as well. i had 4x1gb sticks and there was a errors on one stick in each pack and asked if i could get a 2x2 back and they said yes. so i bought another 2x2 that day. 9 day turnaround.

WD is pretty good as well. 10 day turnaround for a 74gb raptor

APC battery warranty took forever but they sent us a new unit instead of a replacement battery we mailed.

Dell is insane though with there next day parts and 4 hour server parts. new computers in 3-5 days. always pay the extra for next business day!
 
Haven't built a desktop in some time, but

MSI was quick, a week or so for a brand new part
WD replaced a brand new drive within a week/week and a half.
Dell will ship components without too much of a hassle, next day/overnight if you've got the right warranty. You can take as long as you like to return the bad part before they start to ask what's up.
Corsair and Crucial have been quickish, maybe two weeks turnaround on memory.
Asus used to be quick, but became slow around the time Asrock started.

Keep in mind, the slower you send something to the mfg, the longer it takes to get back. The times above are based on my estimate of when they received to the day I got a replacement. Slower the shipping method I chose, the longer it took (except Dell).

I'm really surprised by the APC response posted. I thought for sure it'd just be a battery, nothing more.
 
MSI is really stepping it up, I'm proud. I own a handful of MSI boards and even recommend them to family builds.
 
When we got a new unit I was suprised. maybe it was by accident but then I went and got a "replacement battery" from buy.com or somthing. now we have 2 ups's.
 
Same here,I had a mother board go south on me after 2 months sent it in and had it by the middle of the next week,they said they replaced all the TIM on the heat sinks and that it was running stable and not overheating but if I had any more problems with it to contact them asap.

well it died 2 days later so I called them and they said to send it back again,I did and received a brand new retail board by the end of the week,

MSI,XFX and antec have been awesome for me,only had to do 3 RMA's and they were quick and painless.
 
I am happy to see this thread and will definitely be forwarding this to my friends at MSI :D ... I have used RMA here in the US and its definitely a painless process, anyone I have talked to at MSI has been very nice and extremely helpful.

Everyone I have met with MSI is awesome, here in the US and the HQ in Taipei ( They made my OC Workshop trip a blast). Best of all they were honestly nice, not faking it :) So refreshing to deal wish people like that
 
I am happy to see this thread and will definitely be forwarding this to my friends at MSI :D ... I have used RMA here in the US and its definitely a painless process, anyone I have talked to at MSI has been very nice and extremely helpful.

Everyone I have met with MSI is awesome, here in the US and the HQ in Taipei ( They made my OC Workshop trip a blast). Best of all they were honestly nice, not faking it :) So refreshing to deal wish people like that

or they were just so good at faking it you never knew the difference...

:p
 
or they were just so good at faking it you never knew the difference...

:p

LOL - true, though in the year or so that I have been working with them/ talking to them I had many times where we just "shoot the sh*t" and just talk a bit... very nice people that I have talked to, though a few things definitely get lost in translation, and need to be explained a bit...
 
nice to know msi takes care of there customers. i will consider buying from them .......next time in the market for a motherboard.
 
I have really been impressed with MSI as of late. The 790FX-GD70 board is phenomenal, easily the best 790 based board I have ever used. And I built a system with a 785G chipset that was free from Micro Center with a AM3 chip. It was the better than any ASUS or Gigabyte board I used that used the same chipset. MSI is quickly becoming my first choice for motherboards.
 
there low end to lower high end stuff is awesome but either they don't make a high-end board or no one buys it. I have used MSI stuff since the 478 days and noticed that they put some quality components on there dirt cheap boards. like around the cpu socket they used solid state caps on a board that was on sale for like $45 bucks then.
 
there low end to lower high end stuff is awesome but either they don't make a high-end board or no one buys it. I have used MSI stuff since the 478 days and noticed that they put some quality components on there dirt cheap boards. like around the cpu socket they used solid state caps on a board that was on sale for like $45 bucks then.

I started using MSI because beyond just solid quality, the PCB was RED. :D
 
I love their color schemes lately as well, the blue and black (and sometimes sliver/gray) looks great on the boards...
 
Bumping an old thread, but I would really like to find an answer to this. I don't know if the OP is right about his board having a one year warranty.

I just bought a MSI board from Fry's for a very nice price. Their web listing is gone now, so I went to Newegg and their web page for my board says it has a 1 year warranty. But MSI's web site shows that motherboards have a 3 year limited warranty.

Safe to assume that Newegg listed the wrong info?
 
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Looks like MSI will be moving up my preference list.

Last RMA I dealt with was Asus for my M4A785TD-V, sent in my board, turn around was pretty quick (~10 days)...of course when you just send the same board out without fixing it, I suppose it shouldn't take very long. Great waste of postage though!
 
I RMA'd my ASUS M3A78-EM earlier this year and turnaround time was fine - about a week. They repaired the old board instead of replacing it. Now the PC is dead - may be the MB but not 100% sure yet. But that's in a different thread :)

I just may give MSI a shot for new (re)build.
 
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I have to say my RMA experience with them has been pretty good. I just wish the products were beefier to avoid the RMA in the first place.
 
This is going to be my first RMA with MSI after owning a hand full of their previous boards (back from S939 nForce4 SLI). I hope to get the experience like everyone else did. To bad my P55-GD80 suddenly gave me problems after a month.

board will be shipped out tomorrow and hopefully i will recieve a repaired or a replacement.
 
I actually RMA'd a 10 month old GTX280 after it started artifacting, I recieved back a brand new OCed 2GB GTX285 a week before it was released to the general public. MSI is a great company to deal with!
 
Mine was 0907 which was July 2009. The board has a 1 year warranty so I was just *barely* in warranty.

MSI has 3 year warranty not 1 year warranty. Unless were talking about Biostar?

Glad your RMA was great. I am usually an ASUS fan but my past few MSI RMAs have been nothing but smooth.
 
Looks like MSI will be moving up my preference list.

Last RMA I dealt with was Asus for my M4A785TD-V, sent in my board, turn around was pretty quick (~10 days)...of course when you just send the same board out without fixing it, I suppose it shouldn't take very long. Great waste of postage though!

last time I sent a motherboard to asus they had it for over 5 weeks and sent it back still broken. combined with the fact that they also managed to spell 'athlon' wrong in the post screen of a different motherboard I had at the time, that was the last asus product I touched.

i've built a bunch of systems using msi boards now. have not had a problem yet, if I do I hope it gets replaced quickly like other people in the thread.
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Personally I've had nothing but positive experiences with their products so far which is why I've continued to buy them. Thanks for sharing.
 
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