How LONG do your RMAs Take? (ATI wants a month!) UPDATED:Result

[apoppin]

Just curious. Most of my hardware RMAs over the years have taken a few days to perhaps a couple of weeks (tops).

What do you think of ATI's proposed RMA turnaround time for my defective Radeon 8500?
(From their e-mail to me)

Repair RMA's require up to 10 business days to process from the time we receive
the product at our repair facility in Canada, and 6 business days to ship back
to you. It takes 2-3 days for the product to get to our repair facility from
the receiving office in New York. If you have not received your product back in
that time, please let us know and include tracking information for the shipment
to ATI.

*Add it up . . . "business days" - this can easily take a month.*

I am REthinking my next videocard purchase with this in mind.
(In the meantime I am evaluating a Radeon 9600xt and am not terribly impressed)


EDIT: *To be fair to ati, they did say "up to". I asked ati about "upgraded" shipping over UPS' Ground - I am waiting to see.

and edited
Tues, 2/17 EDIT: it didn't take too long . .. tracking shows my 8500 is due today.

 

[apoppin]

I did a search . . . found no general questions on RMA turnaround times . . . SPECIFICS show generally a FEW DAYS.

ANYone have experience with ATI's return times?

IMO, a MONTH is UNreasonable.
If it takes THAT long, I will no longer support ati (big deal, huh)

edit: (damn) I have to go to work early and will leave this to you to discuss . . .

 

[mrgoblin]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Just curious. Most of my hardware RMAs over the years have taken a few days to perhaps a couple of weeks (tops).

What do you think of ATI's proposed RMA turnaround time for my defective Radeon 8500?
(From their e-mail to me)

Repair RMA's require up to 10 business days to process from the time we receive
the product at our repair facility in Canada, and 6 business days to ship back
to you. It takes 2-3 days for the product to get to our repair facility from
the receiving office in New York. If you have not received your product back in
that time, please let us know and include tracking information for the shipment
to ATI.

*Add it up . . . "business days" - this can easily take a month.*

I am REthinking my next videocard purchase with this in mind.
(In the meantime I am evaluating a Radeon 9600xt and am not terribly impressed)


EDIT: *To be fair to ati, they did say "up to". I asked ati about "upgraded" shipping over UPS' Ground - I am waiting to see.

and edited

This is a owrst case scenario. If you order it from newegg, they rma it within 30 days and give you a new one. Do yourself a favor, spend the extra money and get a 9800 pro. Were talking like 50 bucks. If you cant afford that the 9700 pro is still cheaper and better.

 

[rbV5]

Its been awhile, but it didn't seem that long to RMA my AIW card. I had another card to use, but I don't recall the turnaround time being a big deal.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I've gone through the RMA process twice. When they recieved mine, it took them 2-3 days to ship me back a new card using next day shipping. I was impressed!

I am Canadian, but I live on the West coast (ATI is on the East).

 

[Looney]

Last time i had to do a ATI RMA was a couple of years ago, and i don't remember it taking long at all... i know i would certainly have remembered it if it took a month.

I'm sure that's just a worstcase scenario number they've given you.

 

[Aikouka]

Most of my RMAs are fast, especially Advanced RMAs. Advanced being they ship new hardware to you, then you ship the defective hardware back. Maxtor took about 3-4 business days to get me a new HDD through advanced RMA. TCWO took about a week and a half overall for the time for me to ship the bad CPU to them and for them to ship a replacement CPU back.

Don't forget about time, but also money. RMA'ing an IBM hard drive has been a practical time/money nightmare for me so far. They have no advanced option, and I had to pay $25 just to send it back ($8 for packaging, $7 to send the packaging to me from www.wic-store.com and then $9 to send it out via UPS.) Hitachi (you don't ship all IBM drives to IBM) received the drive seven days ago (when it was delivered), but according to their website, they received it two days ago.

Soon I'll get to go through Western Digital to RMA a broken 40GB drive so I'll tell you how that goes .

What about your opinion on carriers (UPS, FedEx, Airborne)? I've found that even though they're expensive, UPS is usually the best in terms of speed/money. FedEx likes to send things back and forth until it needs to be delivered. I had a package from New Jersey, it was shipped here in PA, then shipped BACK to New Jersey and then back to PA. I haven't had many experiences with Airborne, but they haven't given me a problem yet.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

RMA it, sell it, and get a new card brudda I dumped my 8500 quite a ways back because even with a Barton@2.35ghz 422DDR dual channel synch mode it couldn't run DF:BlackHawk Down@10x7*newest game I had at the time* without lowest setting and no AA/AF even with the card overclocked or it was a slide show. I know you game and that you just shelled out for a new system, but you need at least that 9600XT, but far more preferably that 9800pro for $215@da egg since that will be fast enough for decent gaming for a good while.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
RMA it, sell it, and get a new card brudda I dumped my 8500 quite a ways back because even with a Barton@2.35ghz 422DDR dual channel synch mode it couldn't run DF:BlackHawk Down@10x7*newest game I had at the time* without lowest setting and no AA/AF even with the card overclocked or it was a slide show. I know you game and that you just shelled out for a new system, but you need at least that 9600XT, but far more preferably that 9800pro for $215@da egg since that will be fast enough for decent gaming for a good while.

Phew . . . that was a long day at work and now I gotta get ready to go OUT.


I know about getting a new card . . . I was just shocked at the RMA turnaround time quoted to me. :Q

In the meantime, I have that 9600xt from Circuit City - for evaluation for 14 days. Personally, I am NOT impressed with it and will take it back for a refund (it doesn't "blow away" the 8500 like even a 9700pro would do - except in DX9).

When my 8500 finally shows up, I will use it until Spring when the 9800 prices should take a steep dive . . . then UPgrade (to ATI, if their RMA turnaround time is reasonable; else I will look at nVidia offerings).

 

[foofoo]

hi,
just rma'd a 9600pro to ati. took less than 2 weeks from my ship to their return. i shipped to the us, new york address. are you in canada?

 

[Viper96720]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
RMA it, sell it, and get a new card brudda I dumped my 8500 quite a ways back because even with a Barton@2.35ghz 422DDR dual channel synch mode it couldn't run DF:BlackHawk Down@10x7*newest game I had at the time* without lowest setting and no AA/AF even with the card overclocked or it was a slide show. I know you game and that you just shelled out for a new system, but you need at least that 9600XT, but far more preferably that 9800pro for $215@da egg since that will be fast enough for decent gaming for a good while.

Phew . . . that was a long day at work and now I gotta get ready to go OUT.


I know about getting a new card . . . I was just shocked at the RMA turnaround time quoted to me. :Q

In the meantime, I have that 9600xt from Circuit City - for evaluation for 14 days. Personally, I am NOT impressed with it and will take it back for a refund (it doesn't "blow away" the 8500 like even a 9700pro would do - except in DX9).

When my 8500 finally shows up, I will use it until Spring when the 9800 prices should take a steep dive . . . then UPgrade (to ATI, if their RMA turnaround time is reasonable; else I will look at nVidia offerings).

If 50 more frames in UT2003 isn't blowing away an 8500. Don't know what is.

 

[boyRacer]

my 2 RMAs with ATI was only a week... if it hits the weekend... it goes to 10 days...

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: foofoo
hi,
just rma'd a 9600pro to ati. took less than 2 weeks from my ship to their return. i shipped to the us, new york address. are you in canada?

Canada?

No . . . close . . .

. . . SoCal.



And 2 weeks would be reasonable. A month is not.

If 50 more frames in UT2003 isn't blowing away an 8500. Don't know what is.

I am not finding that great of a difference from the 8500 to the 9600xt - perhaps 1/3 faster in DX8 games. And the 9600 is definitely NOT worth $150 (to me) when only $70 more will get me a 9800.

I can live with less resolution and/or FPS (and certainly less AA/AF) for a couple more months. For a 3 year old card, the 8500 isn't really THAT awful.

 

[apoppin]

Well I checked UPS tracking today and it looks like ATI sent my card back yesterday and it should arrive today.

In the MEANtime, I took back my Radeon 9600xt and bought a 9800Pro - nice card EXCEPT it raises my case temperatures by 12*F.

Twelve degrees?!? is this normal? The card is a bad repack (scratched CD, missing cables) from Curseit City and I am gonna return it for a "new" one (IF I "keep" it - just in case).

So, anyway, it's a reasonable turnaround time with an ATI RMA - 12 days to SoCal . . . and I DO like the 9800pro (compared with the 9600xt).