Petitioning for 970 Refund

[Methadras]

Do you really think nvidia is gonna disclose that? besides, they already stated it was due to a "communications error" between the engineers and the tech PR teams during the product launch until some tech head detective on another forum sniffed "too deep" and found their "mistake" and thus, this shit storm

That's all were gonna get from them

Hey, all I wanted to know is why this happened, who is responsible, and if Nvidia knew about it all along and released the design anyway.

 

[Methadras]

I have the same mindset. You are angry at a company for selling you a bad product, therefore you return it and buy the more expensive version?

This is clearly a luxury item market as if something like this happened in the essential market it would cause a lot bigger uproar.

1st world people problems.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

So it's just slightly less stupid. You're still rewarding the company by buying their more expensive item...

If one doesn't like the alternative to that company, then one must take the "less stupid" route.

Besides that, the 970 is still a very good card, and performs quite well. I think if they had just stated these specs in the first place, the benchmarks would have spoken for themselves, and there would've been no problem. I think the people getting partial discounts have the right idea. It sends a bit of a message, they keep a pretty nice card, and then the price is more inline with the performance restriction in the high-end.

 

[Nenu]

Hey, all I wanted to know is why this happened, who is responsible, and if Nvidia knew about it all along and released the design anyway.

Yes it was designed that way so they could use silicon that isnt good enough for the high end card.

The released specs for the 970 were wrong, they didnt reflect the design of the card and its true performance when 3.5GB of memory is exceeded and utilised.
This only came to light when its performance became suspect and was reported by users.

 

[Disposed]

This thread: "Honda totally screwed me on that civic I bought that didn't perform near as well as promised but if they refund me I'm going right back to buy an Accord"

 

[Deleted member 83233]

This thread: "Honda totally screwed me on that civic I bought that didn't perform near as well as promised but if they refund me I'm going right back to buy an Accord"

To be fair, the Honda dealer is also giving back 20-30% for those that still want to use their Civics that are more than usable, but maybe not top-tier.

 

[wikidlad]

No go from Tiger Direct...but then is anyone surprised?. Amazon have won my loyalty as the 2 I got from there I got 20% refunds on both.

 

[8du8]

I just did the same and I had my refund in less than 5 minutes. I accidentally let the chat time out but they honored 20% for mine. Wish I had saw your post first and shot for the 30%.


Initial Question: Hello, I recently discovered some news about the NVIDIA GTX 970 graphics cards were incorrectly advertised as having 4GB of usable VRAM when in reality it only has 3.5GB. This has stirred quite a bit of controversy online and I'm quite upset with the turn out of this. I've read about other Amazon customers who were responding to the issue on various news and forums and stating that they were able to be refunded 20% of the purchase price due to false advertising. I am contacting you to see if about a 20% refund on my purchase as well.

09:20 AM PST Amazon(Amazon): Hello gentoo, Thanks for contacting Amazon, I hope you're doing well. My name is Uriel and I'll be happy to help you.
May I please have order number, just to confirm I'm looking at the correct one?
09:20 AM PST gentoo: Certainly, it is XXXXXXXXXX.
09:20 AM PST Amazon(Amazon): thanks, allow me a minute to request the refund for 20%
09:21 AM PST Amazon(Amazon): the request is complete, you should see a refund for $80 on your CC statement in the next 3 business days
09:24 AM PST Amazon(Amazon): I’m sorry but the chat has been idle for over 5 minutes. For quality reasons, the system will close the chat right now. If you have any other questions, doubts, or problems feel free to contact us at any time. We are open 24/7 and we’ll be more than glad to help. Thank you for shopping with Amazon, we hope to see you again.

Well I just contacted Amazon and was only able to get 20% refund even after pushing hard for 30%. So I think he got lucky somehow getting the 30%.

 

[MrRuckus]

This thread: "Honda totally screwed me on that civic I bought that didn't perform near as well as promised but if they refund me I'm going right back to buy an Accord"

The memory debacle is a shitty deal. Nvidia realizes this and is paying the price for it. I have been buying Nvidia cards since the TNT days (Riva128 was ass). Im not going to write them off for one SNAFU. Maxwell is hard to deny performance wise. If ATI had a better offering, you can bet I would be going with them.

 

[schizrade]

Yes it was designed that way so they could use silicon that isnt good enough for the high end card.

The released specs for the 970 were wrong, they didnt reflect the design of the card and its true performance when 3.5GB of memory is exceeded and utilised.
This only came to light when its performance became suspect and was reported by users.

This seems to be lost on most people upset about this.

Card still tears.

 

[Disposed]

To be fair, the Honda dealer is also giving back 20-30% for those that still want to use their Civics that are more than usable, but maybe not top-tier.

Thats true. Id take the partial refund and call it good.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

I just saw what Kyle posted haha!

 

[DejaWiz]

This thread: "Honda totally screwed me on that civic I bought that didn't perform near as well as promised but if they refund me I'm going right back to buy an Accord"

Not even close to giving an analogy about 970 owners returning them and buying a 980. What alternative is there? 290X? A 290X is slower, draws more power, and spits out more heat than both the 970 and 980. If they buy a 290X, then the analogy would be Civic owners returning them and then buying an old air-cooled Porsche 914.

What to do, what to do..

 

[Nenu]

This seems to be lost on most people upset about this.

Card still tears.

What bugs me still is that none of the released specs indicate the performance difference once the card reaches over 3.5GB memory.
NVidia state one speed for the ram yet it isnt uniform over the whole 4GB.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

Thats true. Id take the partial refund and call it good.

I just did. I had to think about it for quite a while before actually doing it though. Honestly, the card performs quite well, and was a great step up from my 660Ti. However, I do think they should have represented it correctly. I still would have bought it even. Amazon gave me 30% back, which is more than sufficient. That basically just locked me into buying all of my next upgrades through them, as that level of service is above and beyond. And, I'm still very much enjoying the 970.

I will also stick with NV, as their products are still tip top. I just think they should have let that stand on its own, or possibly gone with a "real" 224 bit bus and called it a day. I try AMD every so often, because I like the company, but many of my games (usually id games, but others too,) don't quite work right. Also emulators, and other Open GL based things aren't quite as good. So until that changes, they aren't quite an option for me in my main system.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

Not even close to giving an analogy about 970 owners returning them and buying a 980. What alternative is there? 290X? A 290X is slower, draws more power, and spits out more heat than both the 970 and 980. If they buy a 290X, then analogy would be Civic owners returning them and then buying an old air-cooled Porsche 914...

That's not a good analogy either. I've owned several air-cooled (well, oil-cooled really) Porsches (911T, 911SC, 914 1.7, 914 1.8, and some water cooled ones as well) and they're actually quite efficient, and perform well for their respective sizes and weights.

I'd adjust your version to something like a mid range American muscle-car. Something that performs well(ish) but isn't all that elegant or efficient.

A 914 is more like a 750Ti. Peforms well, and is fun enough for its size, shape, and power requirements.

 

[DejaWiz]

That's not a good analogy either. I've owned several air-cooled (well, oil-cooled really) Porsches (911T, 911SC, 914 1.7, 914 1.8, and some water cooled ones as well) and they're actually quite efficient, and perform well for their respective sizes and weights.

I'd adjust your version to something like a mid range American muscle-car. Something that performs well(ish) but isn't all that elegant or efficient.

A 914 is more like a 750Ti. Peforms well, and is fun enough for its size, shape, and power requirements.

Fair enough.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

Sorry, got a little carried away, since that's a former hobby of mine as well.

 

[Makaveli@BETA]

I have the same mindset. You are angry at a company for selling you a bad product, therefore you return it and buy the more expensive version?

This is clearly a luxury item market as if something like this happened in the essential market it would cause a lot bigger uproar.

That's like expecting an iphone user to not buy another Iphone when the first one breaks.

Most of them will continue to go back so nvidia can do it to them again but the next time the blind fold is off and the room is bright. Might as well see who your daddy is!

I would switch brands in a heart beat if it was my money!

 

[n=1]

The most ironic thing is had nVidia just come clean with the specs at launch, people might've been even more impressed -- "hey look it's got 12.5% less ROPs and L2 cache but it's still truckin'".

As for the 3.5GB+0.5GB thing, well if the 3 threads here are any indication, about 30% would've bought the 980, 50% would still have bought the 970, and only 20% or less would've actually seriously considered AMD alternatives.

 

[Mugato]

Serious as the pope, who CARES? I've run 970's in SLI and solo, they both perform admirably, wouldn't buy a different card within 50$ either way. The features, the speed, the noise, the power draw, the OC'ing FUN. Nvidia one up'ed themselves this time. AND NO I AM NOT AN NVIDIA FANBOY. I am currently running an R9 270X 4GB. At least I think it has all 4gig available.

 

[Nenu]

Serious as the pope, who CARES?

Those having performance issues, those who dont like being mis-sold under specced cards and those that dont like a company that back tracks on its support.
You could have found that out for yourself but I guess its easier to make yourself look foolish

 

[n=1]

Serious as the pope, who CARES? I've run 970's in SLI and solo, they both perform admirably, wouldn't buy a different card within 50$ either way. The features, the speed, the noise, the power draw, the OC'ing FUN. Nvidia one up'ed themselves this time. AND NO I AM NOT AN NVIDIA FANBOY. I am currently running an R9 270X 4GB. At least I think it has all 4gig available.

Go... play some games or something

 

[polonyc2]

AjFreimuth, thanks for this information! I sent an email to Amazon, asking for the same 20% discount off of the purchase price of my eVGA GTX970 Superclocked (04G-P4-1972-KR), which I purchased in September 2014.

Gawd damn. That's some good-ass customer service. I took the 30% discount, by the way. I wouldn't have thought to do this if it wasn't for you AjFreimuth, so thanks a ton. I didn't realize people were getting partial refunds from different retailers/e-tailers cuz of this issue.

I just did the same and I had my refund in less than 5 minutes. I accidentally let the chat time out but they honored 20% for mine. Wish I had saw your post first and shot for the 30%

I just called up Amazon...I had an RMA setup with my 970 and the card needed to be returned by March 2nd...I was all set to keep the card and cancel the RMA but after reading your posts I called Amazon and inquired about the partial refund...without any hesitation they gave me the 30% refund on my purchase price of the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970...so I'm getting a $121 credit, meaning I paid a total (including taxes) of $281 for the card...I'll take that even for a 3.5GB 'gimped' GTX 970 ...wow Amazon is bar none the best retail company ever

 

[MavericK]

Just got off live chat with Newegg. At first they only offered a full refund. Mentioned that many others were getting 20% partial refunds. Newegg rep put me "on hold" for about 15-20 minutes while they "investigated the issue", and eventually came back with either a full refund or 10% in-store credit. Told them I'd think about it, but 10% store credit is basically a joke. Considering returning for a full refund but ultimately, I'd have to go with a 290X for that to make any sense. They said they wouldn't do a discount if I had wanted to go with a 980 or something.

Should have bought from Amazon, I guess. Newegg CS is a joke.

 

[DejaWiz]

Return it for a full refund. Then talk to Amazon about selling you one with the 20-30% discount applied at the time of purchase.

 

[Vathral]

This whole thing has been great for me. Bought a 970 off a friend for 250. Most of the games I play don't even push 3GB and getting 60+ fps so win-win for me. Playing on 2560x1080 monitor so I haven't really done anything crazy to hit the performance drop yet.

Wanted a 980 but the opportunity came up and if the 970 gives me problems later, I'll upgrade.

 

[xorbe]

$264 (20% refund) is a decent price for a 145 watt card anyways. 30% refund is generous.

 

[Flogger23m]

Just got off live chat with Newegg. At first they only offered a full refund. Mentioned that many others were getting 20% partial refunds. Newegg rep put me "on hold" for about 15-20 minutes while they "investigated the issue", and eventually came back with either a full refund or 10% in-store credit. Told them I'd think about it, but 10% store credit is basically a joke. Considering returning for a full refund but ultimately, I'd have to go with a 290X for that to make any sense. They said they wouldn't do a discount if I had wanted to go with a 980 or something.

Should have bought from Amazon, I guess. Newegg CS is a joke.

That is still better than nothing. Most stores will tell you "tough luck". But it looks like I can't get a partial refund as I bought my card so long back. Didn't even bother with Amazon CS. Had issues with some 560tis a few years back and got some replacements; Amazon emailed me some months later saying more RMA/refunds might get my account closed which is not something I want to deal with.

 

[MrRuckus]

That's like expecting an iphone user to not buy another Iphone when the first one breaks.

Most of them will continue to go back so nvidia can do it to them again but the next time the blind fold is off and the room is bright. Might as well see who your daddy is!

I would switch brands in a heart beat if it was my money!

This is also the first time this kind of thing has ever happened. The only other thing I can ever recall coming from Nvidia would be the Riva128's extreme performance (60fps+) but it came at a huge graphics quality loss (ie wheels in Interstate 76 were blocks). While the benchmark scores were high, the quality was not there.

I can almost guarantee anyone buying a card in the future will take a closer look or wait for its release to be fully inspected/tested before making a decision. I know I will at least. and I'm sure others are in the same boat.

Im not a blind brand whore. The 980 is just in a class of its own. A passively cooled (when idle) top tier card is great to me. My bedrooms temps reflect it without the old GTX 295 heater. ATI cant match it, so I chose the 980..

 

[Accursed]

Ok, so I forgot I got impatient with Amazon that seemed to never have it in stock and ordered a 970 from Newegg. Newegg would not refund me a % of sale instead they offered a full store credit. I asked for a refund and they sent me a RMA slip.

Newegg, you lost a customer.

Will slap my old 680 into my Gaming PC and will wait for the eventual updated 970 and order that from Amazon.

 

[Geno750]

I ordered my 970 in September from newegg. Contacted them today and asked for a refund which they had no issues with(store credit).

 

[Dayaks]

Well at least it seems the right actions are starting to happen. Took long enough.

What was nVidia thinking? "Shit we have to fix this before the 390x launches."

 

[polonyc2]

so is Nvidia giving Amazon some $$ under the table to fix this mess and accept returns and partial refunds?

 

[n=1]

Amazon is just being Amazon which is to say amazing as always. They just change their name to Amazin

 

[BlankIt]

Amazon is just being Amazon which is to say amazing as always. They just change their name to Amazin

I agree completely. Amazon CS is unmatched and is what I consider the golden standard to compare too.

 

[DriZzLe]

Well, I got a 10% refund on my 970 through Amazon. $40 bucks back is better than a sharp stick in the eye, which is what nvidia gave me. lol.

 

[noobferguson]

Good to see some people are being made whole, albeit at the expense of some poor CS representatives' nerves.

I hope this moves up through the right channels so that Nvidia gets the message that people won't take being shit on quietly.

 

[OwNjaH]

Though communicating with Newegg was indeed a pain they did offer me a full refund. I should have bought my 980 from Amazon, though. I think I'm going with Amazon for the next system I build.

 

[spaceace420]

Amazon rules is all I have to say. They seem to be stepping up to the plate more than anyone else by far. I don't care if it costs me a little more they have more than earned my business through this fiasco.