MSI RMA experience so far - not impressed

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collegeboy69us

Supreme [H]ardness
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so a 7970 of mine that's under warranty decided to start smoking one evening and poof gone.

Reference card, never took the heatsink off or did any fiddling with it.

RMA was approved, they received it successfully, had it for about 2 weeks. I get an email saying they can't fix it, and have no stock of 7970's available. Would I be willing to accept a fair market value refund of $150

WTF? I can understand the card only being worth 150 if the whole mining craze didn't exist, but I can't even go and buy a R9 270 (a downgrade) with that money.

I wrote them back asking when anticipated stock might be back in, if they would be willing to sidegrade me to a 280X. I included links to amazon and ebay showing that the "fair" market for a 7970 was actually closer to 350-450 dollars. Doubt they will be willing to give me that in cash.

In the end I just want a card (don't care which) that's just as fast and powerful as the one I sent in.
 
collegeboy69us said:
so a 7970 of mine that's under warranty decided to start smoking one evening and poof gone.

Reference card, never took the heatsink off or did any fiddling with it.

RMA was approved, they received it successfully, had it for about 2 weeks. I get an email saying they can't fix it, and have no stock of 7970's available. Would I be willing to accept a fair market value refund of $150

WTF? I can understand the card only being worth 150 if the whole mining craze didn't exist, but I can't even go and buy a R9 270 (a downgrade) with that money.

I wrote them back asking when anticipated stock might be back in, if they would be willing to sidegrade me to a 280X. I included links to amazon and ebay showing that the "fair" market for a 7970 was actually closer to 350-450 dollars. Doubt they will be willing to give me that in cash.

In the end I just want a card (don't care which) that's just as fast and powerful as the one I sent in.
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Most companies will give you a minor bump up if they no longer have stock.
 
Fair market value of $150, but the market has no stock and the stock they do have is $300+. Sidegrade to a 280x is a reasonable request, but that's an additional $100 premium over the 7970. Not sure what they will do but MSI has notoriously bad customer service.
 
I just checked the "recently sold" ebay listings for my used TF3 7950's, and they were selling for $240-$260.
Based on that, there's no WAY that "fair market value" for a 7970 is only $150.

My friend got a $306 refund from MSI for a 280x gaming card about a month ago.
Technically, the 280x and 7970 are the exact same, as you know. I'm sure MSI knows that too.
 
Do not let them give you $150. They have plenty of stock of equivalent cards. Why on earth they would put a claim like "a fair market value refund of $150" in writing is beyond me. Makes the company look pathetic. I am sure that they are just fishing for consumers who are out of touch with the market. They will probably offer you something reasonable in the end if you fight it out with them. Its just rubbish that you have to go through the hassle. Poor customer service. I was quite liking MSI until a few recent things that I have heard, like their gaming series 290s leaking oily shit all over peoples systems.
 
The $150 offer is definitely too low.

But as far as the side grade offer that is pretty standard among all the manufacturers.
 
I would not take $150 at all and counter proposal with current prices or possible side grade offer.
 
What's really crazy is that's probably what Newegg (and other etailers) was getting them for ($150). It's the vendors that jacked prices up, not the manufacturers.

I would also not accept $150, though.
 
thanks for the input guys -- I returned their email pretty much 5 min after I sent it. With my questions and proposal for a side grade to a 280.

Haven't heard back in 3 days ... typical corporate slow ass stuff I'm sure.
 
That is not a fair offer at all. I wouldn't accept. Let us know how you make out with this.
 
Subbed.
Interested to see how they respond, so far very dis-satisfactory.
 
their response today:

They said they don't even have any 280X's in stock. Basically "we will just put you on a wait list" for which they have no ETA. A company as large as MSI, has no stock of old or even comparable cards, and they don't even have the ability to tell me when they are getting more in? Who's running this place?

If you are a company doing billions in sales every year -- how can you not know anything about your stock situation?

I linked some of their retailers, (MSI products) and if accepted their offer of $150, I could only go out and buy a 7750 2GB card.... so I give them a 7970 3GB card and that's what I'd be able to buy in return? Nope -- don't think so.

As it stands right now I'm sitting in limbo, no card, no dates, no information, nothing. Their offer of 150 is only 37% of what "market value" says a 7970/280x chip is worth. I don't want to look like I'm pushing for a free upgrade to a 280x... I honestly don't care 7970/280, my point is i want something just as fast as what I gave them. There is no reason I should accept a downgrade for an issue like this.

I'm sure I could find a 7970 based chip on here for $300ish, condition/warranty would always be in question though. I'd prefer a direct replacement from MSI as they would be the ones to have their hands on it, verify it, all that jazz.
 
msi is pretty much don't care we'll hold you hostage and the only cards they will send you is refub's.

i'm on my 3rd rma with them trying to get them to send me a working card.

no matter how nice i am or if i complain they won't budge.

pretty much the last time i'm going to buy another msi product.

once i get a working card from them i'm going to ebay it and buy something else other than msi.
 
Not sure why you would expect a brand new card for an RMA... equivalent refurbished card sounds fair to me.

And MSI is at the mercy of AMD (technically TSMC) and contractual obligations to retailers. Fulfilling retail obligations would take priority over an RMA. So if they promised XXXX to retailers ASAP, they can't be diverting cards to RMAs unless retailers cancel orders.
 
EVGA needs to start making AMD cards to make my purchasing decisions simpler.
ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI... Can't trust the lot of them.

AMD needs one all-around amazing manufacturer to cling to.
And no, Sapphire doesn't fit the bill.
 
Tsumi said:
Not sure why you would expect a brand new card for an RMA... equivalent refurbished card sounds fair to me.

And MSI is at the mercy of AMD (technically TSMC) and contractual obligations to retailers. Fulfilling retail obligations would take priority over an RMA. So if they promised XXXX to retailers ASAP, they can't be diverting cards to RMAs unless retailers cancel orders.
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I don't expect a new card shrink wrapped... I just want an equivalent (working) card... or (and im quoting their email) fair market value.

150 dollars they offered me doesn't even get me a base model 270 thats 1/2 as powerful as a 7970. Does their offer sound fair?

I've learned a lesson here -- never buy MSI, will stop using them on my (and others) builds, and unless they can resolve this quickly and to my satisfaction will take every opportunity to bad mouth them and cost them as much business as possible.

Even if they'd offer me $270-300 (there's that fair market again) I'd have been perfectly happy because I could have bought a 7970 or 280x that I see floating around the FS/FT forum.
 
When they sent me 3 defective refurbished Big Bang Xpower boards in a row, after the 3rd one they sent me a brand new in retail packaging board with no intervention on my part. And they paid for return shipping each time.

I definitely think it's in large part due to the mining craze. AMD cards are sold out everywhere, and supply is low.

As for the fair value, it's probably some tech support guy who doesn't care about his job looking at a chart. Had this generation's GPU advancement matched the other generations (and without the mining craze), the 7970s would probably be worth around $150 now and the $500 cards would be almost twice as powerful as the 7970s.
 
This is really sad for such a large company, keep us posted OP on the results if you get an update!
 
looks to be on the way to a happy ending. Email today said if I would be willing to accept an R7970 Power Edition 3GD5

I happily accepted -- same chip, same amount of ram, after market cooling (fine with me)

Soon as I get it in hand and test I will report back, will even be happy to post on their facebook page for a happy and good resolution that they stand behind their products.
 
I'm glad to hear you got taken care of.

I have a pair of GTX 670 and 680s from MSI and I'm hoping not to have to send any back. :p
 
collegeboy69us said:
looks to be on the way to a happy ending. Email today said if I would be willing to accept an R7970 Power Edition 3GD5

I happily accepted -- same chip, same amount of ram, after market cooling (fine with me)

Soon as I get it in hand and test I will report back, will even be happy to post on their facebook page for a happy and good resolution that they stand behind their products.
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Good to hear, as I have a Lightning and Power Edition 7970 from them and have had to go through the rma process. Took like 3 months though to get a working card. I had to send them back 2 cards in which they sent me were defective.
 
MSI replaced my reference 6970 with a 7970 Lightning. It was my only RMA experience with MSI, and it was fantastic.
 
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hopefully I get a working card :)

Will report back on it all when I have the card in my machine and tested :)
 
MSI has pulled through for me -- got my 7970 replacement (lightning version to boot)

Card is installed and gaming like a champ! Took some back and forth with MSI but in the end they did what's right.

Kinda glad I didn't settle for the 150 dollar offer for my 7970 hah
 
My guess is that they saw this thread and had to act to keep face.
I'm not sure I can trust them enough to recommend them to less tech savvy people.
That was quite a scam they tried to pull.
 
true -- I will be more wary in the future when it comes to any "deals" I see with MSI.

In the end though - I'm happy, I have the same GPU back in working order, that I sent out. I do understand that the whole mining craze that has jacked video card prices isn't something they can be expected to follow or keep on top of on a day to day basis.

Speaking of -- looks like prices are falling, I saw an MSI 270 from newegg for 168 - pretty slick deal, but with the experience i just had, i'd probably be tempted ot pay 10 or 20 more for a brand like Gigabyte.
 
Nenu said:
My guess is that they saw this thread and had to act to keep face.
I'm not sure I can trust them enough to recommend them to less tech savvy people.
That was quite a scam they tried to pull.
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I'm not entirely convinced that was willful deception on their part or just some uncaring employee or manager following a generic formula sheet. One or two bad apples in tech support doesn't make the entire company at fault.

I also highly doubt they saw this thread. It stayed nowhere near the top for long enough and didn't gather quite enough attention. If this were the MSI forums, maybe, but not [H]. Especially since no MSI rep posted.
 
The reasons matter little if it happens to an unsuspecting consumer.
I have a reputation to consider, I dont want to give bad advice when there is reasonable suspicion.
Its naive to think they dont have someone who checks the major forums.
They dont need an account to do that, its under the radar.
They certainly dont need to make a post.
They can even use Google to pull up recent threads based on the basic info of those questioning their rma.
Its very easy.
 
The unsuspecting consumer deserves what they have coming to them if they don't bother to check what existing market value prices are. If you're too lazy to do a basic 5 minute ebay search, you deserve to get cheated.

MSI didn't even try to bully OP into it from what I understand. OP got one email stating that they had no stock to replace it with and if he was willing to accept $150, at which the OP felt the need to go on a rant here before letting the situation play itself out. He didn't let MSI respond to his email before posting rant. To me, the OP is the unreasonable one for being so quick to jump the gun.

They have someone that replies to every negative review on Newegg. If they were checking [H] as well, what makes you think they wouldn't answer here? What makes you think they wouldn't have a hardware rep here? The answer would be because they don't have anyone dedicated to checking [H] and other enthusiast forums.

Also, there are multiple people in this thread that have vouched for MSI. Additionally, they did do right by the OP in the end, and it wasn't as if they were ignoring the OP, or trying to bully him, or flat out denying that the OP deserved anything. They are willing to cooperate and work with consumers, unlike some other companies that do everything they can to avoid liability for RMAs.
 
Tsumi said:
The unsuspecting consumer deserves what they have coming to them if they don't bother to check what existing market value prices are. If you're too lazy to do a basic 5 minute ebay search, you deserve to get cheated.

MSI didn't even try to bully OP into it from what I understand. OP got one email stating that they had no stock to replace it with and if he was willing to accept $150, at which the OP felt the need to go on a rant here before letting the situation play itself out. He didn't let MSI respond to his email before posting rant. To me, the OP is the unreasonable one for being so quick to jump the gun.

They have someone that replies to every negative review on Newegg. If they were checking [H] as well, what makes you think they wouldn't answer here? What makes you think they wouldn't have a hardware rep here? The answer would be because they don't have anyone dedicated to checking [H] and other enthusiast forums.

Also, there are multiple people in this thread that have vouched for MSI. Additionally, they did do right by the OP in the end, and it wasn't as if they were ignoring the OP, or trying to bully him, or flat out denying that the OP deserved anything. They are willing to cooperate and work with consumers, unlike some other companies that do everything they can to avoid liability for RMAs.
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that's the biggest load of crap I've ever read.

The fact that they even offered such a low amount to begin with is bad.
 
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Agreed.
They werent reasonable from the start.
When he refused the offer he was told he would be placed on a non ETA waiting list with no guarantee of what he would get at the end of it either.
Again unreasonable.

There was a fair outcry against them here.
All of a sudden he immediately gets a better card than the one he sent in, doesnt have to go on an unknown length waiting list for an unknown resolution.
And its nowhere near the $150 value he was offered at the start.
You reckon they arent covering their arses.
Lol.
 
tonyyy said:
they only thing they will stock in refub's.

they wont send you new cards shrink wrap in box.
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I am struggling to see how this is legal.

in my mind if somethign fails inside warranty I am either due full refund (what I paid for it not current market value) or a brand new replacement, doesnt matter how old it was when failed.

When a old monitor of mine failed ironically days before end of warranty, I was impatient so accepted a refurb replacement same time mine got picked up, the refurb died a week later with the same issue as my original had, but at that point warranty was expired, to me sending refurbs as a replacement is wrong.
 
Tsumi said:
The unsuspecting consumer deserves what they have coming to them if they don't bother to check what existing market value prices are. If you're too lazy to do a basic 5 minute ebay search, you deserve to get cheated.

MSI didn't even try to bully OP into it from what I understand. OP got one email stating that they had no stock to replace it with and if he was willing to accept $150, at which the OP felt the need to go on a rant here before letting the situation play itself out. He didn't let MSI respond to his email before posting rant. To me, the OP is the unreasonable one for being so quick to jump the gun.

They have someone that replies to every negative review on Newegg. If they were checking [H] as well, what makes you think they wouldn't answer here? What makes you think they wouldn't have a hardware rep here? The answer would be because they don't have anyone dedicated to checking [H] and other enthusiast forums.

Also, there are multiple people in this thread that have vouched for MSI. Additionally, they did do right by the OP in the end, and it wasn't as if they were ignoring the OP, or trying to bully him, or flat out denying that the OP deserved anything. They are willing to cooperate and work with consumers, unlike some other companies that do everything they can to avoid liability for RMAs.
Click to expand...

Next time your car breaks down under warranty - I'd love to see them tell you "sorry we don't have any parts to fix it, would you like to be placed in a waiting queue". No? Okay then we will give you $3000 dollars for the car you paid $15,000 for. Which would be about 3000 short of buying any sort of comparable replacement on your own.

In the end MSI came through for me - I'm satisfied and the whole situation was resolved in about a months time. I don't know about you but if something like this happens I'm not just going to sit around for 1/12th of a year "letting the situation play out" as you said, without telling fellow hardware enthusiast what's going on.

I don't fault them if it was the case of some employee in india reading from a "value" sheet that's 2 years old. But when a company uses the term market price, they have to really know what that means if they want to be taken seriously. You would probably be quite offended if I offered you "market price" for your car that's 50% under what everyone else is buying and selling for, yes?

I won't revive this thread anymore since the entire situation was resolved (eventually)
 
Nenu said:
My guess is that they saw this thread and had to act to keep face.
I'm not sure I can trust them enough to recommend them to less tech savvy people.
That was quite a scam they tried to pull.
Click to expand...

I have this suspicion as well. When my back's against the wall with a CSR I tell them I'm writing about the experience on Hardforum.com and it has never failed me. It's kinda chickenshit to namedrop like that but they pull whatever tricks they can think of sometimes, too.

I used to wait tables at a popular 24 hour diner down here in TX and the cops knew me. I got pulled over once doing like 85 in a 65, the guy saw I was wearing a Jim's shirt and said... "Oh... go get some sleep".
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
that's the biggest load of crap I've ever read.

The fact that they even offered such a low amount to begin with is bad.
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Again, you don't know enough about the internal policies to make that judgement call. How many tech support people have you run into that know significantly less about computer hardware than you do? I've ran into quite a few.

chrcoluk said:
I am struggling to see how this is legal.

in my mind if somethign fails inside warranty I am either due full refund (what I paid for it not current market value) or a brand new replacement, doesnt matter how old it was when failed.

When a old monitor of mine failed ironically days before end of warranty, I was impatient so accepted a refurb replacement same time mine got picked up, the refurb died a week later with the same issue as my original had, but at that point warranty was expired, to me sending refurbs as a replacement is wrong.
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Most companies offer an additional 30 days to 90 days warranty for the refurb if the original warranty would expire soon.

How is a full refund/brand new item fair to the company? You've had your use out of it. That's just the sense of entitlement. It's not like you're paying for the repairs.

collegeboy69us said:
Next time your car breaks down under warranty - I'd love to see them tell you "sorry we don't have any parts to fix it, would you like to be placed in a waiting queue". No? Okay then we will give you $3000 dollars for the car you paid $15,000 for. Which would be about 3000 short of buying any sort of comparable replacement on your own.

In the end MSI came through for me - I'm satisfied and the whole situation was resolved in about a months time. I don't know about you but if something like this happens I'm not just going to sit around for 1/12th of a year "letting the situation play out" as you said, without telling fellow hardware enthusiast what's going on.

I don't fault them if it was the case of some employee in india reading from a "value" sheet that's 2 years old. But when a company uses the term market price, they have to really know what that means if they want to be taken seriously. You would probably be quite offended if I offered you "market price" for your car that's 50% under what everyone else is buying and selling for, yes?

I won't revive this thread anymore since the entire situation was resolved (eventually)
Click to expand...

Hahaha, car analogies always fail.

Would the mechanic really give you any amount of money for your non-working car? Would the dealership give you any amount of money for your non-working car that was under warranty? Nope, they would tell you to go get a rental car while they wait for the parts to come in. They won't replace your car. They won't buy it off of you, unless you give them an exceptional deal (way below market price). No, you will be stuck without use of your car. The best you can get is compensation for the rental car (very unlikely). And you have to pay for repairs.
 
Tsumi said:
Again, you don't know enough about the internal policies to make that judgement call. How many tech support people have you run into that know significantly less about computer hardware than you do? I've ran into quite a few.
Click to expand...

How is that even relevant here? You stated he came on here and made a stink about MSI offering him a low amount of his card. How is the Tech Support / RMA / Customer Service Reps level of hardware knowledge relevant? Your position is a load of crap, their offer was an even bigger load :p
 
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