OCZ Memory: Are they able to regain consumer trust?

[KristopherKubicki]

Hi Everybody!

ocz memory recently sent me an email asking us to put their memory products back in the Price Guides. Several weeks ago we pulled them due to some poor ratings and upset readers. What do YOU think we should do? I have copied the email their Director of marketing sent to me and written it below:

Hi Kristopher,

Thanks for the quick response. I know ocz had a somewhat a bad relationship with readers on Anandtech, but I can assure you that any problems we had have been solved now and we do have one of the highest performance memories on the market. In addition, we do have excellent tech support and customer service. For example, we do have life time warranty on all our memory products and we do take direct RMA from endusers without any extra charge. As you might know, a lot of computer manufacturers, especially motherboard ones, they don't take any direct RMA from enduser and if they do, they charge a handling fee for it. Anyway, just want to let you know ocz is not the ocz before, and we are working hard to be one of the best high-performance memory manufacturer in the industry.

-Steve Lee
Director of Strategic Marketing and Business Alliance

Note: This topic was up for discussion on the AnandTech articles forum a couple weeks ago. Please refer to http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=44&threadid=899864&highlight_key=y&keyword1=ocz for more information.

Let me know what you guys think!

Kristopher

 

[gf4200isdabest]

Honestly I don't feel qualified to answer a question like that. I think this decision should be a vote amongst the members of the forum/AT that have really been around for a while as opposed to giving a vote to everyone who comes along...

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
Honestly I don't feel qualified to answer a question like that. I think this decision should be a vote amongst the members of the forum/AT that have really been around for a while as opposed to giving a vote to everyone who comes along...

Agree fully. The only vote that means anything is from someone who has bought from these folks and thus has real knowledge. The rest is pap. I just bought about $400 worth of DDR XMS memory from NewEgg, and can't even comment on that because I haven't used it yet.

 

[Daovonnaex]

Regain? You mean OCZ had any trust to begin with?

 

[Bovinicus]

Actually, I have ordered a few things from OCZ before without any problems. Granted, none of it was memory, but I can at least tell you my experience. I bought an OCZ Gladiator, OCZ Silver Compound, and a fan for the heatsink. All of my equipment performed in line with what reviewers said. They shipped pretty quickly, and the prices were excellent. So, I have had a good experience with OCZ, but I was never forced to return any equipment so I cannot comment on their RMA service.

 

[microAmp]

Kristopher Kubicki,

I would use the Reseller Ratings as the determinating factor in this. I have seen several people here (AnandTech Forums) get 'burned' by them for all sorts of problems. If they have truely "fixed" their problems, let them know that if they can achieve a 7 or 7.5 in Reseller Ratings in the previous 6 months then they can be back on the Price Guides and continue to increase that number and not get under the 7 or 7.5 rating.

But I think that should be for all companies in your Price Guides. Kind of like what HardOCP is doing for their price guide. I can't find the article I read from them before, but came up with this blurb about it all from HardOCP.

Of course they'll have to do something to get the word out to any or if any consumers buy from them by posting it on their website saying to rate them on Reseller Ratings to help boost their rating. Of course they could rate themselves to boost the 6 month rating, but in the past Reseller Ratings have done a good job of preventing that.

I have one time purchased something from OCZxxxx before a couple of years ago, had no problems, but that was a long time ago. Like everyone is saying, the people who purchased from the recently would be the best to ask.

 

[murphy55d]

ive never used it, but with all the bad stuff i've read, I'll be sticking with corsair xms.

 

[Frosty3799]

I have bought a stick of their ram once, and had very good luck with it.. so I can't really complain.

The stick was a pc3000 256 mb w/ huge copper ramsinks, back in the day when they were the only company that sold this chip. I easily achieved 180 fsb with it on a Iwill XP333 board (when they first came out) and a XP1600+ unlocked.

I might buy from them again, but for now I am happy with my mushkin 512 mb high performance pc2700 2-2-2 stick of DDR

 

[KristopherKubicki]

motoamd's first post: Thank you for your input. We do in fact use resellerratings.com, bizrate.com and our own rating system on AT. As you can tell from all 3, OCZ does not rate very high.

 

[LukFilm]

I'd vote for keeping them OUT. Just count how many times they tried to disguise themselves as a different store? And just recently, their PC3200 was a heavily overclocked PC2700 RAM. They will never get my business because if they did, I'd support them in fooling public with their marketing gimmicks. Just say NO to OCZ!

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: KristopherKubicki
motoamd's first post: Thank you for your input. We do in fact use resellerratings.com, bizrate.com and our own rating system on AT. As you can tell from all 3, OCZ does not rate very high.

Good to know, I just remember one Price Guide that had a vendor on there with low Reseller Rating, but I couldn't remember if it was a fluke or not.

 

[Lizardman]

Too many lies and too many bad memories. Let the history die and Ocz along with it.

 

[Rackemup]

I'm using a 512Mb stick of OCZ PC3200 RAM in my new system right now... works great, system runs perfectly. I read a lot before buying my RAM and while there were some people who'd had bad experiences with OCZ before I also read lots of messages from people buying their new stuff and were pleased with it.


Put them back on the list on a probationary period... if lots of people buying new product still have problems then reevaluate their listing.

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Rackemup
I'm using a 512Mb stick of OCZ PC3200 RAM in my new system right now... works great, system runs perfectly. I read a lot before buying my RAM and while there were some people who'd had bad experiences with OCZ before I also read lots of messages from people buying their new stuff and were pleased with it.


Put them back on the list on a probationary period... if lots of people buying new product still have problems then reevaluate their listing.

hell i would wiat a while longer before even considering that.

 

[ViRGE]

My problem lies not with OCZ's quality, as much as their buisness practices(otherwise I'd be using a P4 w/Rambus right now). While I have not made a purchase from OCZ, I have a friend who doesn't visit this board who does, so consider this speaking for him. OCZ's memory is fine stuff; it hits the speeds they say it will, it overclocks decently, and over the last year, has worked fine for my friend. However, I take issue with their "multiple existances", their re-badging of other memory and passing it off as their own, and their false advertising of their corperate status(see their current "corperate info" and "product" pages. Do they really have/reside in that large building? Do they have a manufactory like what's pictured?). As a company, they seem dishonest; they will give you what you ordered, but they are dishonest in getting that sale. If OCZ can prove to me they're being honest, then I would accept them. Otherwise they're sharing a spot in my heart with Rambus.

 

[kgraeme]

Kristopher,

I just want to say thanks for asking. I know the TigerDirect deal got a lot of people rankled, and it's nice to see some interest in hearing the popular opinion.

I have never personally ordered from OCZ. I've only seen the negative opinions and experiences as well as the reports of the company working under many different names. All of that is beside the point though. The one question I would ask is if they will guarantee that the ram they are selling is not remarked. The biggest concern I would have from their past is buying ram from them that is only overclocked to the advertised speed and not actually spec'd chips for that speed.

 

[smokedturkey]

what trust? they lost me on the FIRST purchase. these guys suck!

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
My problem lies not with OCZ's quality, as much as their buisness practices. However, I take issue with their "multiple existances", their re-badging of other memory and passing it off as their own, and their false advertising of their corperate status(see their current "corperate info" and "product" pages. Do they really have/reside in that large building? Do they have a manufactory like what's pictured?). As a company, they seem dishonest; they will give you what you ordered, but they are dishonest in getting that sale. If OCZ can prove to me they're being honest, then I would accept them. Otherwise they're sharing a spot in my heart with Rambus.

Exactly what I was going to say. Any of you remember reading that thread over at MadOnion about OCZ a few months ago? It's since been deleted so don't bother looking now.

As for their products, the only thing I've ever bought from them was 2 sticks of PC2700 memory. I've been running them for about a year now with no faults, but that's been at PC2100 speed on an EPOX KT266 mobo.

 

[RanDum72]

Another example is their PC1066 RDRAM. Some people here have bought it and the memory reads as PC800 when the motherboard does readings by SPD.
With DDR, everything above DDR333 (pc2700) are overclocks anyway as the only JDEC standard so far is up to that speed. PC3200 and 3500 are merely OC's of handpicked PC2700. What distinguishes OCZ is they try to sell poor quality PC2700 as PC3200 or PC3500. I don't think their chips are carefully choosen to run stably at those speeds for extended periods of time. I won't even be surprised if they try to pass higher quality PC2100 as PC3200 or higher. The only thing that would bring them back to the good graces of AT readers if they come up with products that actually live up to their claims and do it consistently over a long period of time. Maybe AT needs to run a comparison of the different brand DDR sticks out there, test them on a variety of mobos and see how high they can go.

 

[rudder]

Anyway, just want to let you know ocz is not the ocz before, and we are working hard to be one of the best high-performance memory manufacturer in the industry.


Don't they just rebadge other manufacturers memory?

 

[tbates757]

I recently bought a 512MB stick of OCZ PC2700 Revision 3.2 and it works great. Running it at 352MHZ DDR @ Cas2 1T, all memory timings at turbo. It could probably go a lot higher, but my motherboard is VIA266A and it's being held back by the processor (FSB is 176). I trust them, I know they had some controversy a while back but no reason to hold a vendetta against them now, they put out great memory products in my opinion.

-Ted

 

[greendonuts2]

I ordered 256 pc-150 2 years ago, then 128 pc-150 about 6 months later.
Packaging was a little cheap, but other than that I never had a problem with them, and
the memory runs great even (slightly) above spec (and my board's bios won't allow further pci/agp dividers, so I think
that's the real hangup anyway).
Back when I bought the ram, the website said "we hand-pick the best modules from other manufacturers" so I doubt
they've changed their rebadging habit.
Now they try to come across as a manufacturer - that bothers me.

 

[BD2003]

I havent ordered from them but I see it this way:

There are a million different manufacturers, if they have proven to be untrustworthy in the past, let the door hit them on the way out. Theres more than enough places to buy memory from, I say let them cry a river if they want to be put back on the guide. If they really are selling rebadged and overclocked ram and not saying so, that is false advertising and stealing, and letting them back shouldn't even be considered.

Unless theyre giving away free ram, I say dont give them the time of day. Its no big loss without them, I dont know them, I dont care about them, fvck em.

 

[KristopherKubicki]

It appears as most of the feedback is seeded in problems occuring in the past. Perhaps we should set a target reseller rating for them to obtain before relisting them. What do you guys think?

Kristopher

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: KristopherKubicki
It appears as most of the feedback is seeded in problems occuring in the past. Perhaps we should set a target reseller rating for them to obtain before relisting them. What do you guys think?

Kristopher

For their history of problems I would set it high, but no less than 7.5, maybe 8 would be a good target number for 6 months history. It shouldn't be too hard to achieve 7.5+ if NewEgg can get in the 9.7's, along with TCWO with 8.96, and MWave 8.80. I won't say anything about Crucial.... 9.9's.

These are all great companies and probably everyone here would buy from them without thinking twice and have not to worry about getting screwed.