ZOTAC USA international RMA experience

[chad89]

I'll share my RMA experience

I also have some words for ZOTAC

I wrote this in anger... note that the post almost turned in to a letter to ZOTAC at some point...

I also wanted to let you all know how poor the company is handling the product quality, and after service.

 

1st RMA

I bought 1080ti amp extreme core edition on 2018 september through amazon...

considering the machine I was planning, I was short on cash so I delayed the project until october.

but when I finished, the computer was somewhat malfunctioning.

My game kept on crashing.

I struggled to find out that the gpu is malfunctioning.

The chip couldn't handle the factory overclock.

It took me two months of struggle. Trust me I've tried every trouble shootings I can try.

so I contacted zotac USA at about november 2018, and they approved the RMA

I paid for the shipping since I live in Korea. It cost me 140$ both ways

They were cool and fast responding.

They found the defect and they said they were going to replace my unit.

I was feeling good until they noticed me that they are replacing my unit with a refurbish?!

I asked in frustration on the reason why factory defective product is being replaced with refurbish?!

of course Due to their warranty

 

' Warranty claims will be serviced through the repair or replacement of the defective product, with ZOTAC USA holding sole discretion over the option to repair or replace. 

Any replacement product will be based on performance equal or greater than the original product, at the discretion of ZOTAC USA. '

 

Yah you have lawyers working huh

so what they are saying is performance wise, refurbish is same as the brand new GPU...

of course it is better then my factory defective product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I bought a new product with defects!!!!!!

Shouldn't you have some kind of terms covering your own fault for producing and shipping a malfunctioning unit?

but why the hell did I buy new product? to get a refurbish????

The warranty it self is a total disaster

I tried to make it right but they kept on saying its the terms on the warranty.

How can you people in USA live with that?

Customers have their rights to get a fully working new product when we pay for it.

but I gave up. I am nobody living in Asia nobody cares, nowhere to claim this to about other then CS.

I even sent a mail to the HONGKONG HQ in a frustration and they replied....

 

' Dear Sir,

Please refer the reply from our colleagure.Thank you.'

 

??????????????????????

I just became a stupid idiot who bought a refurbish product with more money then a new product.

I received the replacement, no Zotac approved seal(they sealed it with normal tape...) had some scratches but was okey, game worked fine, clock bench came out fine

but guess what, it's not over.

2nd RMA

My computer still had weird symptom.

When ever I played video, sound sync started getting separated and it eventually crashed in almost every 30 minutes.

Video stops and sound repeated like an EDM forever.

I started going through troubleshoots. I thought it was nvidia driver, or something.

Time passed by... since the games were working fine, I tried to ignore the video stopping symptom.

I was planning a second computer and started buying things.

When I bought a 1660ti(I am a sucker I bought a ZOTAC again)

I put it on my original PC to test the card and boom!!!!!!!!!!

Problem solved.

No more video stopping or sync messing up.

I was in my darkest mood that day...

I contacted ZOTAC again. RMA approved... 140$ both ways all over again...

Except this time they couldn't point out the defect, but they replaced it anyway.

I was thankful, I didn't want to argue any more.

I received it today and had no more patience to endure this mess.

They sent me another refurbish with a crap condition this time...

at least they sealed it with ZOTAC seal...

Some parts with hex key screws were clicking...I don't have a hex key to tighten them

I'll add the video...

Why are the fan wings all chipped out?

Why is thermal compound not even touching the chip???

You gave me a 2080ti inner box with some magic eye thing.... gee thanks...

Are you treating me this way because I'm a nobody living in who knows where???

I bought the product I paid my money to get a proper product.

I know what your gonna say when I claim about the condition.

Its esthetic, our terms of condition..... performance... equal... that's what says on the terms...bblah

 

You failed to manufacture properly

You failed to take responsibility on your factory defective unit.

You failed to fulfill your crappy warranty by sending me another defective product

You failed again by providing a not properly refurbished product with your stupid ZOTAC seal on.

 

I've had enough of you ZOTAC USA.

ZOTAC You are a multi national firm. You should take a better care of your customer.

How can you make customer take responsibility for your own factory defective product???

How can you replace a new product with a refurbish at the first place?

How can you fail to refurbish properly? twice? only to me???

 

SHAME ON YOU ZOTAC

 

From this amazing unboxing experience to....

This madness....

[SeriousDad69]

This is why I stay away from Zotac and other b-tier brands like XFX. They're not worth saving ~10%. I remember having a couple Kepler cards from Zotac die back in the day and said "never again, it's not worth saving $50".

[GDRRiley]

replacing a new card with a referb is pretty common for RMAs, especially after a new product has launched.

sounds and seems like when they refebed it, it didn't quite get put back together right. I would have mentioned it to them, maybe sent some proof then I would have asked if they wanted me to return it so they could replace it at their cost or do they want me to tighten it myself and keep my warranty.

(I can't remember if zotac is a brand that voids warranties with coolers removed. Which is illegal in the US but that would be court time)

[Letgomyleghoe]

On 3/3/2020 at 10:17 PM, SeriousDad69 said:

XFX

Xfx is actually pretty good from what I've heard 

[GDRRiley]

On 3/3/2020 at 10:17 PM, SeriousDad69 said:

XFX

not a B tier while they aren't sapphire who does amd reference model, XFX hasn't had any major fups in the last few years.

[Roswell]

If you want a new replacement, you need to return the product within the return period. Why did you wait so long to return something that wasn't working?

[SuperCookie78]

On 3/4/2020 at 1:17 AM, SeriousDad69 said:

This is why I stay away from Zotac and other b-tier brands like XFX. They're not worth saving ~10%. I remember having a couple Kepler cards from Zotac die back in the day and said "never again, it's not worth saving $50".

xfx is pretty good in my experience 

[chad89]

13 hours ago, Vitamanic said:

Why did you wait so long to return something that wasn't working?

First of all, I bought parts one by one. I bought my gpu as a start of my project. I couldn't check until it was done.

Second, I wasn't sure if it was GPU problem or not. It couldn't run fire strike, crashed while gaming, but did work a while so I thought I might have done something wrong.

[GDRRiley]

On 3/5/2020 at 4:51 PM, chad89 said:

First of all, I bought parts one by one. I bought my gpu as a start of my project. I couldn't check until it was done.

Second, I wasn't sure if it was GPU problem or not. It couldn't run fire strike, crashed while gaming, but did work a while so I thought I might have done something wrong.

that is often why it is recommended to by them all at once or buy the GPU latst.

[PineyCreek]

Well, thanks for sharing your experience anyway.  Similar fun customer service experiences are why I'll never buy a Gigabyte product again and supposedly they have more brand recognition than Zotac.  Never bought a Zotac GPU.  After reading this, I think I'll stick with Evga...never had an issue with them.

 

...but yeah, property rights and warranties are mostly garbage in the USA.  The retailer tends to be more reliable than the manufacturer.

[WOJGSM]

Hello

Sorry for refreshing an old thread, but I think it has a lot of common with how Zotac cares of warranty terms.

 

On April 28th we filled out a form on ZOTAC's webpage to confirm warranty time for one graphic card just to make sure warranty period is still in Zotac's records and we've been asked by Zotac USA what was the purpose of the purchase. I've asked why they ask about it. In response we got the following information:

"This is important as the store / merchant should not register the cards.

The possibility of obtaining an extended warranty is for people who want to purchase a card on their own or for companies that do not sell these products.

Unfortunately, I will have to void the guarantee for the 18 cards you have registered in our system."

So I confirmed we purchased it for our internal usage, not for further resale. Our company even does not normally sell computer parts (graphic cards, motherboards, processors, hard drives etc)

Later on chat I've been told that Zotac suspects we are a retailer because they checked Polish Companies Registry (for Christ sake what a practice is that?) and our company's profile is 'telecommunications and electronics'. Besides they have found our auction of Gigabyte 3090 graphic card (not sold by the way) and that is why we are not eligible for extended warranty. Really ? Someone verifies such a things in Zotac ? Maybe warranty of 18 graphic cards is worth such an effort ?

ZOTAC claims it gives them a right to cancel the warranty for all 18 graphic cards purchased by us in 2018.

We also asked several times which warranty term was breached exactly, but in response we got only imagined reasons.

Such an approach is completely unjustified and is based on a discretionary decision not supported by any knowledge. So, once again, As far as I know, card sellers never register their products before sale, so this question from ZOTAC is a complete surprise for me and incomprehensible.  Just one customer lost, but a lot of labour saved on eventual warranty repairs. Although there was not any RMA from us since the date of purchase.

Seems ZOTAC is seeking for any reason to void the warranty even of first owners. Does it mean ZOTAC is unsure of their product's durability and quality ?