FYI: BFG **not** honoring some warranties at this time.

[SunnyD]

A fellow over on Ars (not me) posts:

I RMA'ed my 9400 and just received it back today with the enclosed note:

BFG Technologies, Inc. is winding down and liquidating its business. Unfortunately our major supplier would not support our business. As a result we are returning your graphics card without being able to repair it. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Be aware that TECH Support will NOT tell you this!!!!

Please note, I'm only posting this for informational purposes, not to get everyone to gather their torches and pitchforks. We already knew BFG was dying.

 

[Pantalaimon]

Unfortunately our major supplier would not support our business

That's an interesting statement.

 

[God Mode]

Thats total BS. Why make the customers bother wasting time and money to send the thing in?

 

[SlowSpyder]

That's an interesting statement.

Very. I wonder if Nvidia and BFG had some sort of falling out?

 

[Kyanzes]

I thought you could sue someone's ass off in the US for stuff like this.

 

[Markfw]

I thought you could sue someone's ass off in the US for stuff like this.

Yes, but they are going bankrupt. Who are you going to sue ? You can't get blood out of a rock, or money from a company that no longer exists.

 

[Meghan54]

Same thing was posted over at JonnyGuru's site by another person with a copy of his letter.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6921

 

[Puffnstuff]

Contact your state ag's office and ask for guidance.

 

[tweakboy]

BFG is cheap PCB, not a good company to begin with and you think theyll have awesome support like the big boys,,, gg and tc

 

[smackababy]

Tweakboy why do you bother posting?

 

[Keysplayr]

BFG is cheap PCB, not a good company to begin with and you think theyll have awesome support like the big boys,,, gg and tc

BFG was one of the best 3 IMHO. eVGA, BFG, XFX. All basically used reference PCB's.

 

[Leyawiin]

Interesting how they lay blame for their predicament on their "supplier". It couldn't possibly be poor management and bad financial decisions on their part contributing to it. Smaller PC tech companies come and go - its nothing new. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the same thing happen to EVGA someday - its all part of the weeding out process in that industry where either bankruptcies and buyouts leave only the biggest players (think back to all the graphics card companies ten to fifteen years ago compared to now - not to mention 3dfx).

 

[nenforcer]

I would much rather own a BFG card than a Mad Dog "multimedia" video card.

 

[brybir]

Tweakboy why do you bother posting?

I often wonder as well. He apparently can make a list in his sig that makes sense yet his posts....maybe English is his 3rd or 4th language?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

BFG was one of the best 3 IMHO. eVGA, BFG, XFX. All basically used reference PCB's.

Not to mention there are at least two stand-up guys from JonnyGuru working there.
*hugs BFG ES-800 PSU*

 

[Skurge]

I guess that's the problem with only selling one companies cards if you aren't a large outfit.

 

[Meghan54]

Interesting how they lay blame for their predicament on their "supplier". It couldn't possibly be poor management and bad financial decisions on their part contributing to it.

No, it couldn't possibly be in any way related to the fact that their supplier was 6 months late with its new video card lineup, couldn't supply enough new product to every vendor it had cultivated and encouraged over the years to become exclusive vendors for its video cards, and because of the horrendous supply problems, the supplier started removing some card vendors from its preferred list--like BFG--which put undue financial strain on the company. After all, if your sole supplier isn't giving you product to sell, kinda hard to remain in business selling your main product line.

No, couldn't in any way be the supplier at all.

 

[Keysplayr]

No, it couldn't possibly be in any way related to the fact that their supplier was 6 months late with its new video card lineup, couldn't supply enough new product to every vendor it had cultivated and encouraged over the years to become exclusive vendors for its video cards, and because of the horrendous supply problems, the supplier started removing some card vendors from its preferred list--like BFG--which put undue financial strain on the company. After all, if your sole supplier isn't giving you product to sell, kinda hard to remain in business selling your main product line.

No, couldn't in any way be the supplier at all.

eVGA and XFX, among many other vendors, seems to have done allright with the six month delay. Why is it that BFG is the only one that went out of business?
And do you have access to this "preferred vendor list"? Was BFG actually "dropped" by it's supplier? I wouldn't think so seeing how BFG was one of the biggest suppliers of Nvidia cards and among the most popular. Do you think it's possible that something else happened? Or is it always going to be worse case scenario?

 

[SlowSpyder]

eVGA and XFX, among many other vendors, seems to have done allright with the six month delay. Why is it that BFG is the only one that went out of business?
And do you have access to this "preferred vendor list"? Was BFG actually "dropped" by it's supplier? I wouldn't think so seeing how BFG was one of the biggest suppliers of Nvidia cards and among the most popular. Do you think it's possible that something else happened? Or is it always going to be worse case scenario?

Well, EVGA is probably still *the* premium card maker, so I could see how they could make it through a tough time. They'd still have people buying from them. Maybe XFX made it because they didn't even bother with Fermi and sell GPU's from both vendors?

Obviously other Nvidia-only vendors survived, so Fermi's delay can't be the only issue, something wasn't done right that they couldn't live through lean times while others did. Though I'm sure the Fermi delay didn't help either.

 

[bryanW1995]

BFG was one of the best 3 IMHO. eVGA, BFG, XFX. All basically used reference PCB's.

yes, bfg was one of the top dogs. their problem was that they couldn't get deep enough, fast enough into other markets when the downturn + fermi hit back to back. asus, gigabyte, msi are best situated to ride out market swings, though evga has such a solid reputation that they should be ok as well. If xfx hadn't started selling amd cards when they did then they could have also gone out of business. xfx just made a better decision than bfg.

@whobedaplaya: the guys from jonnyguru no longer work at bfg.

 

[Leyawiin]

No, couldn't in any way be the supplier at all.

I didn't say they weren't strained by Nvidia's issues this past year, but somehow fellow one-trick poiny EVGA weathered the storm. BFG Tech was founded in 2002 right before the FX 5800 series debacle and somehow grew and flourished during that time. What was different this time around? There must be in-house issues contributing to BFG's troubles in addition to Nvidia.

 

[shangshang]

Contact your state ag's office and ask for guidance.

yeah right. There are (rare) situations where the local AG would be a good resource, but not this one. Company goes bankrupt, I move on.

Are we as a society are going to just "contact our local authorities" every time something goes wrong in our lives, especially something as insignificant as a video card? How about man up and work a few more hours and get another video card?.. and use the time you save by not calling the ag towards the family? Americans are unrealistically demanding, and when something goes wrong, first thing comes to mind is "sue them" or "call the police". Kinda ironic that I hear so many Americans hate the lawyers instead of embracing them. But I digress.

 

[ZimZum]

I didn't say they weren't strained by Nvidia's issues this past year, but somehow fellow one-trick poiny EVGA weathered the storm. BFG Tech was founded in 2002 right before the FX 5800 series debacle and somehow grew and flourished during that time. What was different this time around? There must be in-house issues contributing to BFG's troubles in addition to Nvidia.

EVGA isnt a one trick pony. They have a healthy motherboard buisiness as well.

 

[Leyawiin]

EVGA isnt a one trick pony. They have a healthy motherboard buisiness as well.

That's not what I meant. BFG had power supplies amongst other things as well. EVGA's GPU business is exclusively NV based just like BFG. When a company lays all the blame for their troubles at the doorstep of an outside supplier you can be guaranteed that's not the whole story.

 

[Genx87]

Considering the volume isnt at the high end. I doubt they folded because Fermi was late and supply constrained. Probably just a victim of the global recession.