Why RMAs Suck...

[King_Gamma]

Hey guys I wanted to share my experience with my recent RMA it is a long frustrating, and ongoing story.

 

I just recently built a new PC and I had the money to afford and fairly nice PC. You can see my rig here. I went with a EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card knowing the great performance and outstanding support from EVGA.

 

My build went off without a hitch. No compatibility issues or anything.

 

The Problem

 

After about a week of completion I start to notice that the display driver would stopped working and then recover. First I thought it was a one time thing, I was wrong, it started to get more noticeable. The weird thing was it stopped working when I was just on my desktop or watching youtbe/netflix it only crashed once when playing a game.

 

So when I found the time I contacted Nvidia thinking it was a bad driver. They were very helpful changed some windows settings and did clean install of the driver. Unfortunately none of that helped, so time to contact EVGA. Loved that EVGA has 24/7 phone technical support the guy was very helpful. He tried to troubleshoot to see if there was a problem hardware wise. We tried plugging it in a different slot, which I wouldn't settle if it only worked in 8x slot because is brand new and I don't want to settle with downgraded performance. I knew he was trying to troubleshoot though and plugging it in another PC is not an option for me right now.

 

We came to the conclusion that it needed to be RMA'ed. I was disappointed but I thought better sooner than later because, I could still RMA it to NewEgg and get a new one rather than a refurbished one from EVGA. I talked to NewEgg asking some RMA questions because I never had to RMA a product before. They answered some questions but I didn't set up the RMA yet (I was still troubleshooting with EVGA at that point in time).

 

Later that night I started the RMA online. I found it upsetting that I had to pay for a shipping label to return a defective product (more on that later) but went ahead anyway trying to get it done as fast as possible. I take it to the UPS store the next morning on a Thursday.

 

The Process.....ugh

 

The card arrived at the NewEgg facility on a Tuesday. I remembered I still need to finish my rebate claim to get my 20 bucks from EVGA. Well there came a problem since I sent back the card I cannot mail all the documentation to EVGA for the rebate in time  so I decide to call them, but their rebate center support is not 24/7.

 

The next day I call them in the morning on the way to work. The lady answered and had her headset way too loud and I was hearing my own voice. She was saying she could not hear me, I start talking louder almost to the point of screaming and then she hangs up. I promptly call back a little upset, the same lady answered I told her she hung up on me and then she had the audacity to  argue with me. I could not believe it! By that point I knew I was not going to get anywhere so I asked for a supervisor.

 

It took awhile to get the supervisor to understand what I was talking about and finally reached a solution. I also told her about that service I got earlier (since I have worked customer service industry).

 

It does not end  with EVGA though....

 

Later in the day I get an email from NewEgg saying they cannot complete the RMA process because I did not ship the accessories with the card. This is because I was never told I needed to include them when I asked them questions about the RMA process.

 

I called them after I got off work to see if they could help. Wrong idea. I did not want to spend the money sending power adapter cables that cost less than what it would take to ship them and I did not want this process to take any longer.  The first rep said nothing could be done because they need the full package to fulfill the RMA. I told them I would ship them but asked if they could cross ship a new card since the collateral (the graphics card) has already been shipped. After a while I knew he did not have the power to do anything so I asked for supervisor.

 

I talked to the supervisor explaining the situation and got the same answer "we can't do anything sir". I even told them to take the cables out of the box that the are going to send me and put it in the other box. She told me that they cannot do that. I told her I do not even need the cables because  I do not even use them. I started to get very frustrated because she was not helping at all and was giving me the same BS that I heard before. Then of course I say the magic words in customer service "let me talk to your supervisor". 

 

She transfers me but her supervisor is busy talking to another customer so I wait on hold. I was on hold for quite awhile and the previous lady keeps checking if I want to stay on hold for another two minutes. After getting the same question a couple times. She tells me that her supervisor told her to let the RMA go through without the cables and also refund my money for the shipping cost to RMA the card. They also upgraded the shipping on the RMA to Next Day Air at no cost.

 

Final Thoughts

 

I am very disappointed with the customer service that I had received from EVGA's Rebate Center and NewEgg. I spent 30 mins with EVGA and almost an hour with NewEgg on the phone. There is no reason that it had to be that frustrating and difficult to address these issues. On the technical support I praise both EVGA and Nvidia both the reps were very helpful. If any of you guys have trouble with customer service just say "let me talk to your supervisor" until you get someone that has understanding and the power to help you. Be persistent and stubborn with them you are the customer they have to help you. When she was asking do you still want to be on hold they were testing my resolve, she said her supervisor would call me back I knew that would not be the case.

 

Anyways thanks for reading if you did read all of this I know it is quite long.

 

Cheers!

[Enderman]

Did you get the new card yet? does it work?

Btw you won't get downgraded performance if you run your card in an x8 slot. This is PCIe 3.0 so it is essentially 16x.

Performance only starts decreasing when you have 3 or more GPUs in the system, and one of the cards needs to run at x4 or lower.

[King_Gamma]

Did you get the new card yet? does it work?

Btw you won't get downgraded performance if you run your card in an x8 slot. This is PCIe 3.0 so it is essentially 16x.

Performance only starts decreasing when you have 3 or more GPUs in the system, and one of the cards needs to run at x4 or lower.

Still waiting...Hopefully it ships tomorrow. 

 

Did not know that but it does not matter because I still encountered the same issue.

[Enderman]

Still waiting...Hopefully it ships tomorrow. 

 

Did not know that but it does not matter because I still encountered the same issue.

Ok cool, just teaching you something new

[King_Gamma]

Ok cool, just teaching you something new

Thanks for reading this I know it is long but I wanted to share my experience.

[Guest]

Actually it's pretty clearly stated that you need to include all accessories for an RMA to be valid :3

 

http://www.newegg.ca/HelpInfo/ReturnPolicy.aspx/

 

• Any product that is returned without all original packaging and accessories, including the retail box, manuals, cables, and all other items originally included with the product

Even still, I've had worse experiences. I do understand the frustration though.

[King_Gamma]

Actually it's pretty clearly stated that you need to include all accessories for an RMA to be valid :3

 

http://www.newegg.ca/HelpInfo/ReturnPolicy.aspx/

 

• Any product that is returned without all original packaging and accessories, including the retail box, manuals, cables, and all other items originally included with the product

Even still, I've had worse experiences. I do understand the frustration though.

 

I know that they told me that time and time again. I went with the info I was told from NewEgg when I asked questions about the RMA process. Not one time did he state that and it was my first time RMA'ing a product.

[RainbowPee]

What a read. There should be a sub-forum for this kind of stuff. My RMAs went more smoothly but it's the product I got back that sucked ass. I swear to god I got a beaten up used 7950 from Sapphire and it overclocked like shit.

[King_Gamma]

What a read. There should be a sub-forum for this kind of stuff. My RMAs went more smoothly but it's the product I got back that sucked ass. I swear to god I got a beaten up used 7950 from Sapphire and it overclocked like shit.

 

I feel you man! I bet it would have went smooth if I included those cables that cost 5 cents to the manufacturer but with my luck there would have been issues.

[Quest]

Better than straight-up not getting your item. Sorry the experience was so shit, but the USPS where I am are flat-out refusing to stay on the phone with me and such; What the hell is "Vacant" supposed to me? I watched the mailman stop in front of my house, and then not deliver anything (since my house isn't listed as a stop, yet he had an item for this address, and they said they could deliver it...), then move on, only for a huge fiasco to come up that they refuse to acknowledge.

[King_Gamma]

Better than straight-up not getting your item. Sorry the experience was so shit, but the USPS where I am are flat-out refusing to stay on the phone with me and such; What the hell is "Vacant" supposed to me? I watched the mailman stop in front of my house, and then not deliver anything (since my house isn't listed as a stop, yet he had an item for this address, and they said they could deliver it...), then move on, only for a huge fiasco to come up that they refuse to acknowledge.

 

Wow! I would be furious!! 

 

My advice would be to keep calling and keep moving up the supervisor chain till it gets resolved.

[Quest]

Wow! I would be furious!! 

 

My advice would be to keep calling and keep moving up the supervisor chain till it gets resolved.

I have, and went in in person twice. They've straight-up lost my item, and it's a priority item as you can see. They keep trying to blame me, yet I pop some common sense and then they just ignore me. I've already spoken to the supervisor of my USPS, but I may have to shoot for a higher higher-up...Really tempted to get some people fired. The ladies in there have always annoyed me, they've worked there for years and are always terrible.

Anyways, you got the card and everything, working?

[Guest]

Ahhhh Australian consumer law...

[ericlee30]

I have never had a problem RMAing something, sucks you are going through this experience bro.

[King_Gamma]

I have, and went in in person twice. They've straight-up lost my item, and it's a priority item as you can see. They keep trying to blame me, yet I pop some common sense and then they just ignore me. I've already spoken to the supervisor of my USPS, but I may have to shoot for a higher higher-up...Really tempted to get some people fired. The ladies in there have always annoyed me, they've worked there for years and are always terrible.

Anyways, you got the card and everything, working?

Not yet. It will probably be shipped tomorrow.

[DeViLzzz]

RMAs suck when the company makes you pay to ship the item back to them.  They offered a warranty and it should include shipping the item both ways.

[samuel]

You should've ask to replace the faulty video card... A week or two in service is not that much waiting when the shipping is free and the refound waiting time is comparable. 

[King_Gamma]

You should've ask to replace the faulty video card... A week or two in service is not that much waiting when the shipping is free and the refound waiting time is comparable.

It would have taken a lot longer if I had to ship those cables. Like an extra week or two.

[King_Gamma]

-snip-

Thanks for reading! Let's face it the mail services are the real winners lol.

Were you able to get rid of the pests?

[menendez1293]

Huh I had the same issue where my Driver would stop working with my EVGA GTX760 Dual SC, it hasn't happened recently so I thought it was just a red herring. 

[King_Gamma]

Huh I had the same issue where my Driver would stop working with my EVGA GTX760 Dual SC, it hasn't happened recently so I thought it was just a red herring.

Keep an eye out for it. Did it stop working under load?

[menendez1293]

Keep an eye out for it. Did it stop working under load?

No, it has only stoped working when my screens turn off and I come back to the computer or when I'm doing some basic tasks. I have about 11 hours into Bio shock infinite with everything on ultra and it has never flaked on me.

[King_Gamma]

No, it has only stoped working when my screens turn off and I come back to the computer or when I'm doing some basic tasks. I have about 11 hours into Bio shock infinite with everything on ultra and it has never flaked on me.

Well if I starts doing it again I would suggest you talk to nvidia and EVGA.

I was afraid what my card might do in the years to come because it was having issues displaying a desktop.

I think if I pay that much for one part it should work perfectly. Just my two cents though.