Best RMA Policy?

[ltwentoncha]

Right now I'd say MSI. Asus want's you to put down a Credit Card, Gigabyte's is pretty much clandestine; MSI seems to be the only one out there with an RMA link directly on the site.

Just for kicks and giggles, anyone else have opinions on vendors too? I'm leaning towards Newegg and the MSI Neo4 Plat SLI for this reason.

Thanks again for reading and posting.

 

[ToeJam13]

ltwentoncha,

There is an alternative to the Spanish Inquisition treatment that manufacturers give you when attempting to return product. Its called the reseller extended warrenty.

When I purchased my system, I bought the mainboard from NewEgg and had them toss in a 1-yr extended warrenty. Now when something breaks, I just send it back to NewEgg. My processor's warrenty is even better. I bought my XP/3200+ through PortaTech.com and purchased a 3-yr extended warrenty for my OEM CPU for a cool $9.

The best part is that you can buy any product you want based on the features, not the tech support behind it.

That said, I've worked with both Mushkin and BFG directly. Mushkin's RMA team can take up to a week to respond, but once they do, things go quick from there. BFG's RMA team was very fast and easy to work with.

 

[o1die]

I'd say MSI is the easiest to use. Abit is also ok, but may take a little longer.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

BFG's got a solid customer service department, and you pay a premium for it. Thermalright's customer service email is a very fast response (about 6 hours or so, 24/7). ASUS has a bit of a slower customer service email response, but they know exactly what they're talking about. I'm not sure if Hercules is still around in a big way (this was back in the Kyro II days), but they've got some of the best phone support that I've ever encountered in a computer-related field ... <5 minutes on hold to an 800 number and speaking with someone who's first language is English? Incredible! That, and my problem was troubleshooted very quickly by a very knowledgable tech -- it had something to do with the differences in AGP specs along with memory controllers on particular motherboards under Windows 98 ... I don't even remember it anymore, but I remember the experience, and given the chance to purchase another product from them, I won't hesitate because I'm afraid of the customer support issue.

The only product that I've ever RMA'd has been an incorrectly labelled product back to NewEgg, and it was a bit of a hassle (since the sticker on the wrong product matched the code for the product I wanted, if that makes sense), but everything was eventually straightened out OK (minus shipping). Guess I've just been lucky.

Retailers? DealSonic (http://www.dealsonic.com ) has one of the best customer service departments for an etailer that I've encountered.. Email response within 3 business hours? Telephone number where people actually answer? That and they go the super-extra-mile to please their customers. This is all second-hand, unfortunately, as I've never had to deal with an RMA with them since everything's been great from initial order with them. They don't have a gigantic selection, especially of top-of-the-line-just-came-out-today merchandise, but they're the first place I look when I'm going to buy computer stuff online and I haven't been disappointed with them yet.

 

[EvilHomer]

Asus want's you to put down a Credit Card

I am dealing with Asus now and its a pretty clear ..send us the MB we'll work on it for 10 days and send it back ...I asked if they could crossship with a CC and they told me know .. Gigabyte sucks ..I sent them a board ..be it a year old ...they told me its going to take 30 days and i need to pay for shipping ...I know this is the MB section but ..I RMA'd an AMD 2100+ cpu ..and the crossshiped a 2200+ to me next day air.. awsome service...