BladeVenom
Lifer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcrLbzcscqY They are offering SATA cards to fix the problem.
The problem I am having is that the people at TigerDirect.com are not very knowledgeable or helpful.
If TigerDirect still doesn't comply, contact Gigabyte.To ensure the highest standard of customer support & services, GIGABYTE recommends that all customers who purchased GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards contact their local dealer (retail store where you purchased the motherboard) at the end of April for a motherboard exchange. GIGABYTE will provide an equivalent new motherboard replacement.
To be fair to tiger direct there, it isn't their fault they don't have replacement boards and they are adhering to their return policy. I suppose ideally they would extend the replacement period...but that is kind of a iffy proposition on when you don't know when you'll have more stock. Really the motherboard maker should be handling this like you said.
That's pretty smart of them. Give you a $20 SATA card and get $88 back from Intel for the Cougar Point recall. Not a bad business decision if they can pull it off.
If Intel didn't insist on breaking compatibility with existing chipsets every time they released a new cpu in order to boost chipset sales or allowed other companies to make compatible chipsets...