Why I will buy an EVGA videocard again

[MetaDFF]

Why would I purchase another EVGA card again? It is simply because they have support staff that care. After a shady rebate submission process, eleven months of delay, two missing rebate cheques, and losing hope I would get my rebate, I finally got my $30 rebate cheque. In this case my rebate story had a happy ending.

I promise I will *try* to keep the long story short.

About 11 months ago (Aug 2007) I purchased an EVGA 8800GTX from a Tigerdirect walk in location. The card at the time retailed for $590 but had a $30 mail-in rebate. Knowing that rebates are notorious for being "lost", I figured since the price of the EVGA card was the same as other 8800GTX cards at the time, it wouldn't be huge loss if the rebate didn't arrive. I bought the card and submitted the rebate waiting for some extra "lucky" money to arrive, partially expecting that the rebate would be quickly honored.

Firstly the rebate submission was through a third party website (onrebate.com). I thought, "No big deal, I have seen this before." I submitted the rebate forms as the instructions required expecting to see the cheque in one month.

Three months pass (mid Dec 2007), and I see that the status of my rebate is still "awaiting receipt of documentation". Now I'm thinking to myself, "There is no way it takes three months to receive documents via mail. Something is wrong." Immediately I emailed the (then) rebate supervisor Mike and explained to him my situation along with the rebate details. Within ten days I'm informed that it EVGA would process my rebate for me and that I would receive the cheque in 30 days. I'm thinking, "OK, even though the rebate is late at least they are honoring it."

So I wait. Forty-five days pass and still nothing in my post box. I email Mike again, and tell him that I haven't received the cheque. Mike is apologetic and informs me that he is immediately issuing another cheque and it would take 30 days to arrive. Waiting 60 days, being too busy to follow up, I finally email Mike again telling him that I still haven't received anything (now mid Apr 2008). Chris (the new rebate supervisor) now picks up the case, and without questioning me, informs me he is issuing another cheque and it should arrive in 30 days. (At this point after two cheques being lost I suspect most companies would just tell me tough luck). Of course, after 30 days the cheque doesn't show up. I email Chris and he immediately offers to follow up on the status of the cheque.

To my surprise, 39 days after Chris told me he was issuing the third cheque, it arrives at my post box! A happy ending to my long rebate saga.

The moral of the story? If there is an outstanding rebate that you haven't received yet, it is a good idea to try to chase it down. I could have simply given up after having recieving nothing after 3 months, but I decided to follow up on it directly with EVGA. Fortunately for me the EVGA rebate staff were helpful and willing to resolve the problem. Now I have an extra $30 in my pocket and they have a future customer.

While this isn't a case of my card dying and EVGA doing me a huge favor and shipping me a 9800GX2, the fact they were willing to resolve such a small matter even after so many months makes me feel confident in purchasing an EVGA branded product again.

Sorry for such a long post. If you read through the entire thing give yourself a pat on the back!

 

[andrei3333]

i hate rebates
end of post\

 

[MetaDFF]

I wish they did away with rebates too.

Since they are going to give money back to you, so why not just have it occur instantaneously at the time of purchase? I guess they are leveraging the fact that many people just give up on trying to get their money back.

I haven't had much trouble with OCZ rebates. Twice I have submitted for rebates and the cheques arrived pretty much 1 month afterwards.

 

[Nightblade]

Originally posted by: MetaDFF
I guess they are leveraging the fact that many people just give up on trying to get their money back.

that is 100% the point. It's actually backed up by statistics (ie: amount of products sold to amount of rebates that will be paid) and they use those stats to determine rebate amounts. Thats why they only give you a brief amount of time to claim (30days or less from the date on the invoice) and lets not forget limit one per household. In many cases the comp that issues the rebates isn't even paying them instead they pay another comp (often disreputable) to handle them.

 

[hans007]

its not that people give up on getting them, its that tons of people just never send the rebates in.



that said, if you want to buy a video card with rebates that come quickly get a PNY one. they usually get you your rebates within 2-3 weeks.

 

[NickelPlate]

Rebates are a scam pure and simple and should be outlawed IMO. Designed to increase retail sales followed by profit by making it extremely difficult/troublesome for consumers to get their money back. MetaDFF said it right, why not just give us the rebate price up front? Because you can bet that rebate companies have it figured out to a nat's ass what percentage of people will actually send in the forms, and out of those how many will be incorrect so they can be denied.

Oh and ever wonder why they require the UPC symbol cutout from the box? Do that, and you can't return it. It's a guaranteed sale for the manufacturer. These guys rank on my low list along with insurance adjusters and personal injury lawyers.

*still waiting on an MSI rebate, three months and counting*

 

[PG]

I have an EVGA 8800GS. It has the new G92 core that has problems with via chipset motherboards like the 4COREDUAL-VSTA.

This Via/Nvidia issue first came up when nvidia released the 8800GT which was the first of the G92 cards. In the face of massive compatibility problems Nvidia made bios updates for the 8800GT cards and sent those along to video card makers. EVGA then released bios updates for all their 8800GT cards.

Later the cut down G92, the 8800GS, was released and it has the same problem. Nvidia did not apply the same fix to this card.

I have talked to EVGA and created a thread on their forums and they have no fix for this. They say the combination should work according to Nvidia. I know this is not true because others have the same problem.

Of course I understand the fix needs to come from Nvidia, but EVGA needs to be responsible and push them for the fix. This has not happened.

I ended up spending money I shouldn't have spent on a new motherboard. I just got sick of waiting for a fix from EVGA.

Look at the forums and you will see some other unhappy people here and there.
The EVGA 650i Ultra motherboard which is a great overclocker according to many has some glitches that will probably never get fixed. Many complain that once you overclock at all, even 1 Mhz, you lose fan control and the fans run 100%. This should take a simple bios fix, but it has not been fixed even though EVGA has released 2 or 3 bios updates since this problem was discovered.
And since EVGA makes reference boards they do not even control the bios updates and can't help with a fix. Any comments about this on the forum get ignored.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that EVGA will help where they can, but if they need to go back to Nvidia or someone else for help you probably won't get what you are looking for. EVGA's support has it's limits, and the limits might not be good enough for you, depending on your situation.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: hans007
its not that people give up on getting them, its that tons of people just never send the rebates in.



that said, if you want to buy a video card with rebates that come quickly get a PNY one. they usually get you your rebates within 2-3 weeks.

-I had a $50.00 rebate show up in less than four weeks From a ENERMAX PSU <almost went in the garbage thinking it was junk mail coming so soon , and not marked ENERMAX
lol

- OCZ 8-12 weeks before getting a email saying they just received it.
- Evga 8- 12 weeks

-but got every rebate back so it's still ok.

 

[BassBomb]

I generally avoid rebates, if there is one its a bonus but only if the product already had a good price. 10$ rebates are really stupid and almost not worth my time.

The only recent thing I have had a rebate for was ram (making it dirt cheap) 30$ came 3 months later from OCZ

 

[MetaDFF]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
The only recent thing I have had a rebate for was ram (making it dirt cheap) 30$ came 3 months later from OCZ

I totally have to agree, those OCZ RAM rebates on their lower end kits sometimes halve the price of the RAM. It makes it too irresistible to factor in the rebate into the price when deciding what kit to buy.

 

[vanvock]

They jerked you around for months in hope that you would give up & go away, then they finally gave in to get you to go away. I don't see how that makes them such a great company to deal with.

 

[taltamir]

firstly, that wasn't eVGA, that was the company that they HIRED to do their rebate for them...
Second, this is a HORRIBLE way to do business. you got 5 fake checks not sent to you, only after 11 months and countless calls did you finally get your money.
And typically it takes 1-4 days for an envelope to reach anywhere in the USA. that "get it in 30 days" is another trick, to hope you forget, and just to stall.
Rebates are scam and should be outlawed.

 

[n7]

eVGA was who you emailed who finally sent the rebates?

Or this rebate company?

Either way, i'm making a mental note to avoid eVGA stuff with rebates now as that's an unacceptable joke.

I hate rebates, but i do get them back, & they don't take forever.

 

[TC91]

Originally posted by: n7
eVGA was who you emailed who finally sent the rebates?

Or this rebate company?

Either way, i'm making a mental note to avoid eVGA stuff with rebates now as that's an unacceptable joke.

I hate rebates, but i do get them back, & they don't take forever.

Actually EVGA was good for me, they sent my 8800gts 320mb 30cad rebate about 40days after i got my card.

 

[God Mode]

Its a crapshoot. I had evga rebates arrive within 3 months and others I havent even bothered to pursue. I pretty much avoid buying anything with rebates now.

 

[Bateluer]

This is why I don't bother with rebates ever. I always go by the price I will be paying at checkout.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: MetaDFF

Originally posted by: BassBomb
The only recent thing I have had a rebate for was ram (making it dirt cheap) 30$ came 3 months later from OCZ

I totally have to agree, those OCZ RAM rebates on their lower end kits sometimes halve the price of the RAM. It makes it too irresistible to factor in the rebate into the price when deciding what kit to buy.

Truthfully I just bought another pack of OCZ Platinum 1GBx2 kit for 66, with a 30$ rebate
I'll be buying another one when this rebate is over so I can be entitled for the next one

 

[MetaDFF]

Originally posted by: n7
eVGA was who you emailed who finally sent the rebates?

Or this rebate company?

Looks like it is the rebate company that finally sent the cheque. The cheque arrived at my post box 6 days later after the issuing date printed on the cheque. So much for it talking 30 days to arrive. It's more like it takes a few days to arrive when they FINALLY decide to issue the cheque.

I guess it took some coaxing on EVGA's part to make the rebate company issue the cheque.

Part of the delay in receiving the rebate might have been due to the fact that the rebate supervisor at EVGA changed during the 11 month period (based on the names I see on the EVGA staff website), which might have lead to some confusion/delay...

 

[sutahz]

I dont have any problems w/ rebates. I read the instructions, underline the important stuff, send it in, get check in 6-8 weeks.

 

[flexy]

you're writing like what happened to you is a good thing.

You literally got fooled and lied to a few times in a row, you had to email those people a few times and you had to go out of your way to get those cr*ppy $30 rebate..after 11 months.

>>>
The moral of the story? If there is an outstanding rebate that you haven't received yet, it is a good idea to try to chase it down.
>>>

Sure its a good idea to chase it down..because THEY certainly wont chase YOUR rebate down for you...as your story certainly demonstrates.


Reading your story we can certainly assume that you were not the only one having to go through this...and now think about how many other people actually had the same nerve to be after their checks as you were?
And it takes 11 months and several so called "promises" and emails/calls to actually *get* the money - now do the math....

I agree with all being said about what a scam this is....may it be the fault of that rebate-processing "company" rather than EVGA....i still think that EVGA might very well know about those shady practices - and if they tolerate this EVGA is at fault also.

Dont forget: Every NON returned check is money for EVGA plus cut for the processing company..at the cost of the buyer using the shady practice of advertizing a lower price which (in reality) only seldom is redeemed. Or customers knowingly get fooled and lied to, as in your case.

There is nothing good about it, AT ALL.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: MetaDFF

Originally posted by: BassBomb
The only recent thing I have had a rebate for was ram (making it dirt cheap) 30$ came 3 months later from OCZ

I totally have to agree, those OCZ RAM rebates on their lower end kits sometimes halve the price of the RAM. It makes it too irresistible to factor in the rebate into the price when deciding what kit to buy.

Truthfully I just bought another pack of OCZ Platinum 1GBx2 kit for 66, with a 30$ rebate
I'll be buying another one when this rebate is over so I can be entitled for the next one

read the limitations again...

One per product, per person, per household, must be over 18, must be a US citizen, must be etc etc etc...

 

[MetaDFF]

Originally posted by: flexy
you're writing like what happened to you is a good thing.

You literally got fooled and lied to a few times in a row, you had to email those people a few times and you had to go out of your way to get those cr*ppy $30 rebate..after 11 months.

I have to admit it shouldn't have taken so much effort and time to get the rebate.

Looking on the flip-side of the coin, there was nothing obligating them to follow up on the rebate after 3 months and beyond (unless there is some rebate law that I'm not aware of). I have had a rebate where I contacted the company after 3 months and they simply told me, "Too bad, rebate period is over, you took too long to contact us, we aren't going to send another cheque." (I'm looking at you LEXAR).

Even though it took a bit of time and effort, at least they honored it. (maybe my standards are too low, LOL)

 

[Miklebud]

Why I wont buy another EVGA Card: 9800GTX was released 1 day after my Step-Up ran out on my 8800GTS. They wouldnt agree to a step-up.