Banner for Class Action Lawsuit against ABIT?
- Thread starter Fern
- Start date
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
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Yeah, plus AT (likely) gets a chunk... for running the ad. WTH, this is a hardware-oriented website, it's good to spread the word about the lawsuit... (I guess?) It was a little bit wierd to see that banner ad suddenly though.
- Nov 27, 1999
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Very true on The Lawyers mainly the ones that benefit from these Lawsuits.
I was involved in the Fujitsu Hard Drive Lawsuit, there was a settlement, I along with 300,000 other people have not seen a penny but the Lawyers got millions.
Not to mention it's BULLCRAP - Why isn't BP6 covered? I sold the effing VP6s, I still have the busted BP6s. They ALL had bad capacitors! :|:|:|
it's like advertising fifty cent trying to sell his g unit sneaks
at the end, everyone get screwed over except him
at the end, everyone get screwed over except him
- Sep 30, 2003
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Hi Malak,
Generally good advice. And I'm all for doing research. However, this is only a proposed case. Only after it goes through the courts (adjudication, damages, appeals) will we know what the plantiff will recieve. So, there's nothing to read at this point on what WILL recieve.
quote:
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As part of the proposed Settlement, Class Members who submit a timely Claim Form will be entitled to send their motherboard into ABIT or one of its repair facilities and have their motherboard repaired at no cost to the Class Member. The repairs and all associated costs, including parts, labor, and shipping, will be paid for by ABIT. In addition, ABIT will extend the warranty on the repairs and on the capacitors for a period of two years following the repairs. Class Members who have already incurred direct out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the faulty capacitor on the motherboard are entitled to receive reimbursement from ABIT for the repairs directly related to the faulty capacitor and all associated costs to the repairs including parts, labor, and shipping provided such costs are reasonable and verifiable. Your Claim Form must be received no later than February 15, 2006 in order for you to take advantage of the benefits of the Settlement. To obtain a Claim Form, please click here. To view a sample claim form, please click here.
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Please see above response. I.e., this is only what the lawyers initiating the class action are suggesting (to entice people to join).
It's really up to the judge(s).
I could coment further, but then I feel this would more correctly belong elsewhere. As a forum issue, I was just a bit surprised to see the banner here. I suppose Larry's correct in that's it's merely advertising revenue for AT.
But it pains me to see these lawyers do this and the ad here cuz I really believe it'll just drive up the cost of hardware due to so much $ going to attorneys. I suspect bogus RMA's (which generate heated threads so often) are trivial matter in comparision.
But I'll take Larry's suggestion that it's advertising revenue as the answer.
Fern
I've had a few bad cap boards from Abit over the years and they never once questioned the repair and always turned it around quickly w/ no charge, even when it was clearly beyond warranty and I was willing to pay. Maybe I got lucky, but from my perspective, Abit has treated me well.
At least I don't have an ABIT mobo... They're suing because of an "allegedly" faulty capacitor?! DOH!
- Sep 30, 2003
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I've always been treated really well by Abit. Didn't have the "bad caps" experience, but thought it was from a bad batch of chemicals anyway and not really Abit's fault.
Looks like a "shake down" to me, where the lawyers will at least get a settlement so Abit can avoid their own high legal fees from mounting a defense.
Any such settlement money is just gonna make its way into added costs for products. I.e, we'll be paying for this crap.
Also, I can't help but think - who wants to RMA a mobo from 1999 etc? Get real! (to paraphrase the Dell dufus- Dude, you're gettin a coupon). Jeez, I've got an NF7-S and I'm tech road kill now.
I could see if the prob was on newer mobo's and Abit wouldn't stand by 'em. But that aint the case. No, this looks like a naked shakedown by trial lawyers b4 tort reform is passed by Congress. Who's next MSI etc (although I know some would cheer that) They and others had bad caps too.
I sent an email to Abit Legal Dept/Corp Counsel through Public Relations at the Abit site. Please do so if you feel likewise.
Thanks
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
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Well, it sort of was, they bought bad (cheaper) caps, and used them on their mobos, and, IIRC, at the time refused to RMA/repair out-of-warranty boards. Now that the problem is far more well-known, most decent mfgs (including Abit, I owned a BX6-r2 and it was an awesome board back in the day) will repair it even out of warranty.[/quote]
You might be right about that. What I would *love* the outcome to be, would be for Abit to offer to replace/repair any remaining defective mobos, at their cost, and NOT just pay out $$$, mostly to the lawyers.
To be sure, there were an awful lot of people affected. I didn't actually read the terms of the proposed settlement (since it doesn't apply to me), but your right, even repaired, most of those older mobos would be rather useless now. Would be better if they offered a current-gen comparable replacement instead.
No, apparently the problem now is with Asus (and Intel, since they use Asus as an OEM). Someone posted in the Mobo or GH forum last week, and there were reports of both an Asus and an Intel 865xx board with bad caps. For shame! As for MSI, well, they either have already, or are going through, a class-action suit as well, I think. At least I know that there was talk of one being filed, not too overly long ago. They deserve it as well, they knowingly used cheaper caps, even after this whole "bad cap" scam started to break. MSI has skimped on caps (both quality as well as quality) on many of their boards. (Including my current one, although none of them have gone bad yet, thankfully.)
I thought about it afterwards, and I think your initial response was right. Unlike my initial impression that this was some sort of public-service message (which might be mandated by the outcome of the court decision about the settlement, as those things often are), but rather more of the ambulance-chasing lawyer sort, trying to increase the size of the "class" for the pending suit/settlement/whatever, so as to try to gain either a higher total amount, or a greater number of claimants, increasing the amount of $$$ that the lawyers will get in the end. More or less, they're shopping for victims to make more money. You're right, that is rather disgusting and unethical behavior. Then again.. these are lawyers we are talking about.
(Highly-trained in the art of ignoring ethics, IMHO.)I've had to change out 6 or 7 Abit SE6 motherbaords for bad caps the last couple of years. On the first few I ck'd after filling out the RMA info form on Abit's site I was infromed the warranty had expired and I would be required to pay the $25 repair fee and ship the mobo at my expense. All these rejected mobos were replaced at my or my friends expense with newer, better quality hardware. The last one I had I submitted and of course it too was rejected but I decided to pay the $25 and send it in as these mobos are getting scarce. To my surprise Abit waved the $25 fee. Curious if this was the scenario for all your repairs in the past?
Bottom line how many people have thrown away a defective Abit product because they did not want to spend more money repairing their motherboards? I have receipts for a few of these mobos but the defective units were trashed long ago. How much money has Abit saved with this business practice? :|
ProfFate: Since it has been a while, to the best of my recollection, the bad cap boards that I've had were a VP6, BE6II, BP6, and possibly a BH6. The only ones I took action on were the VP6, BX133, BE6II, and the BP6.
All were out of warranty and the only ones I purchased new was the BP6 and the BH6. I didn't take action on the BH6 as the value of the board was not worth $25 plus shipping at the time the repair was needed, so I didn't bother trying to get it fixed. All the others were fixed without question or fee (other than initial shipping).
So yes, perhaps if I had known for sure Abit would have repaired the BH6 free of charge, I may have sent it in for repair. And yes, Abit perhaps saved some money there since I chose to trash the board due to a hazy repair policy. But the fact of the matter is, Abit has since acknowledged the bad caps and, at least in my situations, has made good on the repairs. In addition, they have been using Rubycons for quite a while from what I can tell, so a better product has been the result of an unfortunate situation.
Had Abit not been responsive in my repair needs nor had taken corrective measures to ensure quality mobos in the future, I would certainly have a differing opinion. But the fact that they had publicly acknowledged the problem, and to my knowledge the other manufacturers have not, makes them a very easy target for another absurd lawsuit. From my viewpoint, the suit will not benefit the consumer, nor will it solve any problems that I believe Abit is already rectifying via the RMA policy.
Again, as I previously stated, I may have been fortunate in the fact that Abit cleanly resolved issues and that may skew my judgement. But remember these issues were, in some instances, boards that 1) I was not the original purchaser w/ no proof of purchase, and 2) not days, but years out of warranty.
Though not exactly the same situation, for those who frequent the Video Forum, the unfortunate nVidia PVP situation will more than likely never be publicly acknowledged, even if nVidia was to initiate an exchange program. Once the problem is acknowledged, the blood suckers will come and nVidia will be an easy target just as Abit is here.
All were out of warranty and the only ones I purchased new was the BP6 and the BH6. I didn't take action on the BH6 as the value of the board was not worth $25 plus shipping at the time the repair was needed, so I didn't bother trying to get it fixed. All the others were fixed without question or fee (other than initial shipping).
So yes, perhaps if I had known for sure Abit would have repaired the BH6 free of charge, I may have sent it in for repair. And yes, Abit perhaps saved some money there since I chose to trash the board due to a hazy repair policy. But the fact of the matter is, Abit has since acknowledged the bad caps and, at least in my situations, has made good on the repairs. In addition, they have been using Rubycons for quite a while from what I can tell, so a better product has been the result of an unfortunate situation.
Had Abit not been responsive in my repair needs nor had taken corrective measures to ensure quality mobos in the future, I would certainly have a differing opinion. But the fact that they had publicly acknowledged the problem, and to my knowledge the other manufacturers have not, makes them a very easy target for another absurd lawsuit. From my viewpoint, the suit will not benefit the consumer, nor will it solve any problems that I believe Abit is already rectifying via the RMA policy.
Again, as I previously stated, I may have been fortunate in the fact that Abit cleanly resolved issues and that may skew my judgement. But remember these issues were, in some instances, boards that 1) I was not the original purchaser w/ no proof of purchase, and 2) not days, but years out of warranty.
Though not exactly the same situation, for those who frequent the Video Forum, the unfortunate nVidia PVP situation will more than likely never be publicly acknowledged, even if nVidia was to initiate an exchange program. Once the problem is acknowledged, the blood suckers will come and nVidia will be an easy target just as Abit is here.
:Q I have an SE6 sitting at home with busted caps!
Chances of getting a replacement (newer?
) board from here in the UK?The only reason I upgraded from my 2x450MHz BP-6 platform was b/c the board failed. It was running fast enough and just fine.
The only reason I "upgraded" from my 2x1000MHz VP-6 platform was b/c the board failed. Again.
My new uniprocessor box is a POS. Those boards were great boards. I got them cheap. I would love to have them back.
- Sep 30, 2003
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Well sorry to hear it. Hope you at least got good use out of them. I don't get upset if I get 3 or 4 yrs worth of use. I've only got one I'm still using older than that. Too slow for use in the office anymore. Got it set up as email/sandbox cuz I can't get the ladies here to stop opening attachments. "Hi ! Wanna win a free luxury house? Open the attchmant and fill out our brief survey.." AArgh!! Fern, Say Hello to Melissa or Chernobyl or whatever toxic malware is circulating this month
Not really upset, but no one really makes "consumer" MPS boards. I go to replace them and I remember how I paid $100 for the boards plus the cost of the processors, and I just cannot bring myself to spend $400 on the board alone when that is probably the total cost of my old VP-6 box. Now I have a uniprocessor box and it's just awful.
- Sep 30, 2003
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Ahh yes, I see. Good point. I've never fooled with multi processors myself, but in looking at old Slot 1 mobo's (have some old pentiums and celeron's with ram just sitting around and thought I'd throw together something for the heck of it) Man was I amazed at the prices of the MPS boards.
I looked hard too and long b4 giving up, and kept seeing the same peeps at ebay and FS/FT dealing in those things. At the time looked they could be making some really good $.
Same damn few guys kept outbidding me on the uniprocessor boards. And when I stumbled upon the MPS stuff, well, there they were again.
So good point and I can see now why this would be of valid interest to you.
Thanks,
Fern
- Oct 10, 1999
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I just sent my Epox 8RDA+ off for RMA due to bad caps. This is a 2 year old board, out of warranty and getting fixed for free.
I will see what I get back in 2 weeks.
I will see what I get back in 2 weeks.
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