RMA policy in EU and Mindfactory

[Simon771]

Well in May 2017 I ordered GTX 1070 EVGA FTW 3.0 from Mindactory in EU, and in December 2018 I requested RMA because the coil whine was just too annoying for me.

If I'm not mistaken that GPU have warranty of 3 years, so it's still well in it's warranty.

Today I finally received word from Mindfactory about my RMA status, and they sent me 2 PDF files which I can't even read since it's all writen in German ... but from what I was able to translate, I will either get 201€ or I need to pay 201€. Not sure which one is it, but neither of those options seems okay to me. How can they refund me only partial amount, if product was still under warranty? Shouldn't they either provide me full refund or new card, if they can't fix the old one?

 

Does anyone know what's the law about that in EU, or anyone had any experiences with similar problems? 

Can I demand from them to either give me full refund or new GPU? I mean it's still under warranty, and I don't see any reason why I couldn't be asking for new GPU instead of that poor excuse of refund ...

 

I'm amazed that it took them more than 5 weeks since my GPU was deliver to them, to give me some reply, and now they are pissing me off like that. Its just horrible.

[Simon771]

1 hour ago, James Evens said:

They have there own forum and you should get a reply within 24 hours. 

If you want you can pm me part you don't understand.

If I understand it correctly, they want to give me only 201€ back because I was using my GPU for year and a half ... am I correct?

But if it's under warranty, don't I have the right to get product repaired or replaced?

[DildorTheDecent]

33 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Well in May 2017 I ordered GTX 1070 EVGA FTW 3.0 from Mindactory in EU, and in December 2018 I requested RMA because the coil whine was just too annoying for me.

If I'm not mistaken that GPU have warranty of 3 years, so it's still well in it's warranty.

3 years from EVGA I think. Just RMA with them. You'll probably need to register the SN with them but that's easy enough.

[Stefan Payne]

 

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Well in May 2017 I ordered GTX 1070 EVGA FTW 3.0 from Mindactory in EU, and in December 2018 I requested RMA because the coil whine was just too annoying for me.

If I'm not mistaken that GPU have warranty of 3 years, so it's still well in it's warranty.

No, its not under warranty! Not legally at least.

You had the card longer than 6 months -> No Warranty.

Its something that is translated to "materials defect liability".

The difference is: In the first six months the dealer has to prove that you broke it. After 6 Months YOU have to prove that it was a defect.

 

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Today I finally received word from Mindfactory about my RMA status, and they sent me 2 PDF files which I can't even read since it's all writen in German ... but from what I was able to translate, I will either get 201€ or I need to pay 201€.

You will get 426€ mius 225€ for the time you used the card as 12/36 of the value of the card is substracted.

 

If you want to blame someone, blame EVGA.

Because Mindfactory acts in accordance to the contracts they have with the manufacturer.

If you got a Gigabyte for example, they'd send it to Gigabyte, Gigabyte sends it back after like 4 Weeks or so and you get a repaired or replacement.

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Not sure which one is it, but neither of those options seems okay to me. How can they refund me only partial amount, if product was still under warranty? Shouldn't they either provide me full refund or new card, if they can't fix the old one?

Because that's what they negotiated with EVGA.

And no, a full refund is something totally wrong on your part. They won't operate with a loss. IF that's what EVGA gives them for the card, they give it to you.

 

But you still have another option: YOu can say you don't like it and want the (defective) card back and contact EVGA. That is also an option you should have taken into account as the Manufacturer's Warranty is usually better and quicker than the dealers.

 

That is if they allow you to send it to them...

 

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Does anyone know what's the law about that in EU, or anyone had any experiences with similar problems? 

The law is that you're out of luck.

You can either take it or leave it or ask them to send it to EVGA.

If they don't want to, you can have the card back.

 

That are your options.

As, for the dealer, there is no reason to provide you with warranty as the law does not require it.

 

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Can I demand from them to either give me full refund or new GPU?

No

Why did you come up with this shit?!

A full refund for a used, defective card? That lasted like 1,5 Years?? Ähm, no...

 

 

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

I mean it's still under warranty, and I don't see any reason why I couldn't be asking for new GPU instead of that poor excuse of refund ...

Manufacturer's Warranty. and its entirely possible that EVGA won't repair the card either and do the same.

As that is what Mindfactory usually does is to give you what they did get from the manufacturer. 

 

35 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

I'm amazed that it took them more than 5 weeks since my GPU was deliver to them, to give me some reply, and now they are pissing me off like that. Its just horrible.

Because they probably sent the Card to EVGA, EVGA gave them a partial refund and what they did get from EVGA is what they are offering you right now.

[Stefan Payne]

47 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

because the coil whine was just too annoying for me.

Oh and "Coil Whine" is not really something covered by Warranty.

As its not really a defect either...

[Simon771]

19 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

3 years from EVGA I think. Just RMA with them. You'll probably need to register the SN with them but that's easy enough.

Kinda hard to RMA anything since I don't have card with me anymore ... will have to check with mindfactory if there is also an option to send me back my original GPU.

15 minutes ago, James Evens said:

They want to give you 201€ back and then "keep" the card. The -225€ is compensation for the time you used the card: What you payed * months you used /36 months.

I would chat (in english) with mindfactory and ask the manefacutre if they want to take care of the coil whine problem and by the look of this document they already done it. Took the card and gave a account balance of 201€. At least get them to pay it out so you could spend the money else where.

I sure hope that EVGA didn't already take it, because then I'm only left with 200€, with which I can't buy any GTX 1070, even used ones ...

[Teddy07]

@Stefan Payne

Good post!

9 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Because they probably sent the Card to EVGA, EVGA gave them a partial refund and what they did get from EVGA is what they are offering you right now.

 

It is hard to say because it depends on the contract between EVGA and mindfactory.

 

You could try to claim warranty at EVGA directly but it is not sure if the outcome will be better. It is probably too late because the warranty process of mind factory is nearly done.

[Simon771]

10 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

 

No, its not under warranty! Not legally at least.

You had the card longer than 6 months -> No Warranty.

Its something that is translated to "materials defect liability".

The difference is: In the first six months the dealer has to prove that you broke it. After 6 Months YOU have to prove that it was a defect.

 

You will get 426€ mius 225€ for the time you used the card as 12/36 of the value of the card is substracted.

 

If you want to blame someone, blame EVGA.

Because Mindfactory acts in accordance to the contracts they have with the manufacturer.

If you got a Gigabyte for example, they'd send it to Gigabyte, Gigabyte sends it back after like 4 Weeks or so and you get a repaired or replacement.

Because that's what they negotiated with EVGA.

And no, a full refund is something totally wrong on your part. They won't operate with a loss. IF that's what EVGA gives them for the card, they give it to you.

 

But you still have another option: YOu can say you don't like it and want the (defective) card back and contact EVGA. That is also an option you should have taken into account as the Manufacturer's Warranty is usually better and quicker than the dealers.

 

That is if they allow you to send it to them...

 

The law is that you're out of luck.

You can either take it or leave it or ask them to send it to EVGA.

If they don't want to, you can have the card back.

 

That are your options.

As, for the dealer, there is no reason to provide you with warranty as the law does not require it.

 

No

Why did you come up with this shit?!

A full refund for a used, defective card? That lasted like 1,5 Years?? Ähm, no...

 

 

Manufacturer's Warranty. and its entirely possible that EVGA won't repair the card either and do the same.

As that is what Mindfactory usually does is to give you what they did get from the manufacturer. 

 

Because they probably sent the Card to EVGA, EVGA gave them a partial refund and what they did get from EVGA is what they are offering you right now.

Well GPU have 3 years warranty, so for those 3 years I expect to have GPU that is working normally.

So what would happen if my GPU would die after 8 months? They would give me some money back and that's it?

That hardly looks like a warranty to me.

 

And yes I did expect to get either full refund or new product, because it's still under warranty. And as long as it's under warranty I don't see why would I need to compromise with only getting half of my money back ...

[Stefan Payne]

First, if you do post some documents on the Internet, you have to remove ALL NAMES THAT AREN'T YOURS FROM IT!

Doxxing the Name "Sachbearbeiter" is a very bad move! And in Germany we have very hard privacy laws!

So you should delete and modify it to remove all names the document has.

 

37 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Well GPU have 3 years warranty,

 

Not from the Dealer.

From the Manufacturer.

 

BIG Difference!

 

Quote

so for those 3 years I expect to have GPU that is working normally.

Coil Whine is not somehting that happens overnight.

Either it is annoying out of the box. Or it is not.

So if the Coil Whine is annoying and loud (it can be like heard in the next room 25m further loud), you should have returned it within the first six months. Not a year and a half later.

 

Quote

So what would happen if my GPU would die after 8 months? They would give me some money back and that's it?

That hardly looks like a warranty to me.

We ain't talking about a dead GPU.
We talking about a GPU that's a "bit more noisy than it could be".

So a minor flaw that might make the usage of the card a bit annoying but not unusable.

 

Quote

And yes I did expect to get either full refund or new product, because it's still under warranty. And as long as it's under warranty I don't see why would I need to compromise with only getting half of my money back ...

That is not how it works.

Especially after ~19 Months!

You should be happy that they did something for you and showed some goodwill.

But that doesn't seem to be enough for this slight annoyance, you don't seem to want to understand the other side and only care about YOU.

 

Well, the dealer tries to understand you and your position and did something for you...

And if the contract they have with EVGA state that their users get a refund minus 1/36th per used month, that is what they will offer you.

[Stefan Payne]

26 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

So what would happen if my GPU would die after 8 months? They would give me some money back and that's it?

 

Another thing:
In the RMA formular from Mindfactory, if you want to send something back. You have a big field to write what's wrong with it.

 

Below that is a box named

"Ihr Wunsch", where there are two options:
a) Austausch/Reperatur

b) Gutschrift

 

If YOU choose the "Gutschrift" (=Refund") Option, that is on you and your fault. Not the dealer's!

What you should have chosen was "Austausch/reparatur" (=Replacement). Because that is what you would have gotten if you did choose that box...

 

So my guess is that you accepted a usable card and were fine with it. And you choose "Refund" because you wanted the money to buy a new graphics card.

But it didn't go the way you planned, they only could give you a partial refund of less than half of that because you used the card for 19 Months.

[Teddy07]

30 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Well GPU have 3 years warranty, so for those 3 years I expect to have GPU that is working normally.

So what would happen if my GPU would die after 8 months? They would give me some money back and that's it?

That hardly looks like a warranty to me.

2

You have to separate the warranty by law for the seller and the warranty from the manufacturer.

 

warranty by law for the seller:

He can either say ok he will grant you warranty as a form of goodwill or he could deny your claim and say that you have to prove that the GPU was defective when you bought it.

 

You can instead use the warranty by the manufacturer. He can cover anything under his warranty. It entirely depends on his warranty terms.

 

[Stefan Payne]

30 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

It is hard to say because it depends on the contract between EVGA and mindfactory.

Yes, exactly that is my experience.

If there is a shitty Company that doesn't offer any warranty at all, Mindfactory doesn't either. 
I've seen that in a German Forum with an Inno3D Card.

 

I then went to the Inno3D Site and looked for the Warranty. And I didn't find any. There was none...

So yeah, sucks to be the guy that had an Inno3D Card fail. But its also your responsibility to look up if the Manufacturer offers any Warranty and what the Warranty is. 

 

30 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

You could try to claim warranty at EVGA directly but it is not sure if the outcome will be better. It is probably too late because the warranty process of mind factory is nearly done.

Yeah, it might be hard to get something right now but he seems to have chosen the "Refund" and not the "Replacement" Option in the RMA thing on the Website.

 

Thing is I've worked in Support of a known Tech Company a while back and know how the users are...

And IMO every Company should post what things are sent in and they have to deal with.

At one time I've seen a PSU for replacement sent in, that had:
Black Marker on the Transformer, to paint it black

really bad Sleevejob

 

And that the PSU was opened I don't have to mention at this point, do I?

And those people are the same that claim "Attourney!!111" when they talk with Support...

 

So they can't be that nice because they'd go out of business because too many people will abuse the service...

Sadly...

[Simon771]

13 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Another thing:
In the RMA formular from Mindfactory, if you want to send something back. You have a big field to write what's wrong with it.

 

Below that is a box named

"Ihr Wunsch", where there are two options:
a) Austausch/Reperatur

b) Gutschrift

 

If YOU choose the "Gutschrift" (=Refund") Option, that is on you and your fault. Not the dealer's!

What you should have chosen was "Austausch/reparatur" (=Replacement). Because that is what you would have gotten if you did choose that box...

 

So my guess is that you accepted a usable card and were fine with it. And you choose "Refund" because you wanted the money to buy a new graphics card.

But it didn't go the way you planned, they only could give you a partial refund of less than half of that because you used the card for 19 Months.

They send me pdf form, which I had to print and fill out. There are no option for refund or repair mentioned anywhere.

And I didn't send it back to just get the money back ... I acctually want the same GPU but without bad fan bearing and coil whine. Was the coil whine there before? Yet it was. But not those bad fan bearings, that's why I went for RMA.

And I did write in that big field that it does have bad fan bearing and coil whine, and also wrote that I hope to get repaired or new one.

 

Also removed pictures from post because of that name thing. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

14 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

You have to separate the warranty by law for the seller and the warranty from the manufacturer.

 

warranty by law for the seller:

He can either say ok he will grant you warranty as a form of goodwill or he could deny your claim and say that you have to prove that the GPU was defective when you bought it.

 

You can instead use the warranty by the manufacturer. He can cover anything under his warranty. It entirely depends on his warranty terms.

 

EVGA does allow RMA for coil whine ... and not sure how can I prove that problem was already there when I bought it, since coil whine can't just magically come to my GPU. So it was there all along, but might have gotten worse over those 19 months. Not sure how a user can cause coil-whine or bad fan bearing for that matter.

But okay bad fan bearing might be because PC is running 24/7 and fans are always spinning, so with time those bearing wear off. But still there is coil whine, that is covered by EVGA.