Two months, Gigabyte, yay.

[shilala]

Here's the email I got...

TO:
Scott Shilala
FROM:
GIGABYTE RMA/Customer Service Department
SUBJECT:
RMA#
176208

We received your
GA-K8NS
GIGABYTE motherboard / video card

Serial Number
0505532924

Due to physical damage, the warranty on this gigabyte product is voided and
the item is being returned as is.
The PCB is bent.
Due to this physical damage, repairs to the product can not be made to correct the problem.

Here's the pic...
http://home.adelphia.net/~shilala/GIG.JPG

Here's my reply...

Hi,
You're shitting me, right?
Scott Shilala

 

[idiotekniQues]

did you do that to the PCB?

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I'm pretty sure physical damage voids most warranties (for electronics).

Are you suggesting this happened in transit (while shipping)? Either way, you certainly could have worded your response better.

 

[BladeVenom]

Maybe you should start at the beginning?

 

[shilala]

I should have been more clear, you're right Blade.
The mobo was spotty, losing the hdd's. I sent an RMA request. It was ignored. I waited right around two months and decided, "Aw, what the heck, I'll try again".
That was back in late December that I sent that RMA request.
I had pretty much given up when I received an RMA response on January 29th.
I packed up the board and sent it via Priority Mail. I put the board in an antistatic bag, put foam around it, and packed it as I would expect a motherboard to be packed.
It sat around at their place for seven weeks. Strangely enough it obviously got dropped on a sharp edge.
It sure as hell didn't go out that way.

I'm just dismayed at the service from start to finish. I've never purchased a Gigabyte product in my life. This board was from a machine that I bought from a friend when I built him a new machine.
I don't buy Gigabyte products because Asus has ALWAYS treated me right, and because I've heard a number of stories concerning Gigabyte's RMA process.

I really was amazed that things have been handled the way they were on their end. I've read the "horror stories" about how they treat their customers, but I just thought it was "kid hype".
Live and learn, I suppose.

 

[trOver]

gigabyte blows

 

[tenax]

why does gigabyte blow any more than any other mobo? i've read of lots of asus mobos that have had issues.. as i have gigabyte, epox, abit, msi...there's always going to be some bad boards out there..then there's the chronic "lines" of bad boards. i play no favorites beyond asus, msi and gigabyte. i find msi in my experience to be lousy overclockers for the most part, but rock solid in stability. i've had good asus boards..i've had bad asus boards..i've had more asus rmas than any other board in spite of owning more gigabyte boards then any other. i have the ds3 and it performs exactly as promised..and it's the only mobo that i've ever owned that if i push it too hard playing with it, simply requires me to turn off my power switch and my psu power switch and it will boot to default without having to go into the box and mess with trying to get the battery out or screwing around with cmos jumpers. so, you get a bad board..i bought a biostar before this that wouldn't even post despite the many who have had great success with the budget board..so, i rmaed it..and got the ds3..move on..i had the asrock vsta "budget board" before the ds3..you'll read as many comments saying it's asus' second line company with cheap components..yet, it worked great for me and it's a best seller.

so, if you're saying gigabyte blows relative to the support desk...i can't say i've had experience with that. if you're saying the product blows, step back and take a breath of fresh air cause i have this one and another one (the 7vtxe) that's been around since probably 2000 or so and it's still going strong through 3 cpus, 3 users, 3 sets of memory and 3 power supplies without a hitch

 

[IEC]

That's an unacceptable RMA turn-around time and unacceptable to void your warranty for something THEY did. I've only RMA'd two things in my life: a Gainward GF4 Ti 4200 video card, and a TI-83+ Silver calculator. Both companies treated me right and got me my replacements within a week.

 

[tenax]

i usually buy at ncix.com and express rma shipping so that they deal with any issues on a product..and i don't have to they haven't let me down yet.

 

[Conky]

Just to play the devil's advocate you can't really expect a company to fix a board that is obviously damaged when it shows up.

Next time I would recommend getting insurance when you ship.

 

[humanure]

I always take pics before I send something for RMA showing the serial number and any damage. You might be able to make an insurance claim, you get $100 by default if you used UPS/fedex. After this much time though I'm not sure.

 

[BladeVenom]

Taking pictures before you RMA something seems like a real good idea. I've seen a few other people complain about damaged parts that they say happened after they sent it in.

 

[classy]

Originally posted by: humanure
I always take pics before I send something for RMA showing the serial number and any damage. You might be able to make an insurance claim, you get $100 by default if you used UPS/fedex. After this much time though I'm not sure.

Thats what I do. This is not Gigabyte's fault. It may have arrived that way. And no board maker would give rma service under these conditions.

 

[idiotekniQues]

ive used gigabyte in a few builds from years back and they are still goin strong.

my current rig is on a sweet performing gigabyte after asus failed me twice.

i never had to deal with their RMA service though, that is a whole other animal.

 

[ribbon13]

How the #%*! does a motherboard wrapped in a box sustain the kind of damage just from say being tossed in an air cargo crate or the back of a delivery van? That looks like someone smacked the board against a metal edge of perhaps the inside of a PC. Now, I can't imagine there's a bunch of snoopy UPS drivers that would open a package, especially one marked for RMA. So I'd have to wager it was someone at Gigabyte who didn't feel like bothering logging out of whatever web addiction he was tending decided to tell you to sod off. Best to take photos and insure and let the hardware company and cargo carrier squabble about it. Especially when it's a company you've not dealt with before. Sorry for your loss.

 

[tenax]

sorry for your loss, as well. don't be surprised at anything ups does. our company has a big contract with ups (purolator before) simply to save money..our engineer who gets a lot of parts, refused to use ups as he had audio components, ranging from large to small, get damaged by ups. he has had boxes that were lightly damaged with heavily damaged components inside. a bit of a mystery but his theory is that they don't shy away from throwing around the boxes, setting heavy stuff on top of boxes that somehow damages stuff inside..darned if i know