I RMAed my MSI 6800 and this is what they wrote back to me, after a month wait.

[zbiggie]

Quote

Dear Customer,

We are extremely sorry about the delay, since 6800 replacement currently not available.  To avoid further delay, we would like to offer refund for this RMA.  Please provide copy of original invoice so I could confirm the amount with my office.  Thanks for your understanding in this matter. 

It hurts bad, but I am hoping that I might be able to turn this into an upgrade with the LTT offering, lol. 

 

Either that or keep pushing my little old 960 2g. 

[Entropy.]

5 minutes ago, zbiggie said:

It hurts bad, but I am hoping that I might be able to turn this into an upgrade with the LTT offering, lol. 

 

Either that or keep pushing my little old 960 2g. 

1. I mean It's MSI. They're selling their entry-level cards at nearly the same prices as flagships from other brands. Either there's something going *really* wrong with MSI's manufacturing, shipping, ect. Or, Well... 

2. Well, I mean not super unexpected. Extreme demand, silicon shortage, extremely high shipping prices, on and on. 

[Moonzy]

say the price you bought at is $100, cards in market now is $150:

 

MSI's choices:

1) give you a card that is worth $150

2) or give you $100

 

I think the choice is clear for them

 

manufacturer who doesn't prioritize warranty over new sales should really... get their teeth kicked in

[MadAnt250]

33 minutes ago, zbiggie said:

Dear Customer,

We are extremely sorry about the delay, since 6800 replacement currently not available.  To avoid further delay, we would like to offer refund for this RMA.  Please provide copy of original invoice so I could confirm the amount with my office.  Thanks for your understanding in this matter. 

1. They did not grammar check the message that was sent to the customer who paid an arm and a leg.

2. I bet they had plenty of cards for the crypto miners.

3. Unacceptable.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, MadAnt250 said:

I bet they had plenty of cards for the crypto miners

why must you bring miners into this? now we have to enter a 20 pages debate and pull @wkdpaul into it

then @Spotty will come and tell us to give it a break

[WhitetailAni]

Cryptocurrency related thing!

@Moonzy

(Hopefully) on topic:

18 minutes ago, zbiggie said:

Either that or keep pushing my little old 960 2g. 

960's not bad, compared to a GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB (yes of course I did and no one can stop me).

OP, how much did you pay for the card and how much will you get?

[MadAnt250]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

why must you bring miners into this? now we have to enter a 20 pages debate and pull @wkdpaul into it

then @Spotty will come and tell us to give it a break

It is not for that reason, it is for this reason:

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

say the price you bought at is $100, cards in market now is $150:

 

MSI's choices:

1) give you a card that is worth $150

2) or give you $100

 

I think the choice is clear for them

 

manufacturer who doesn't prioritize warranty over new sales should really... get their teeth kicked in

 

[Mister Woof]

They want to offer you the refund. Can't you just ask for replacement instead

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Mister Woof said:

Can't you just ask for replacement instead

they simply wont honor it until it makes economic sense for them

which would take few months for the market price to settle down '-'

 

i suppose OP can bring this up to the consumer rights department or something, depending on what your local ruling is

[xg32]

this is so dirty yet expected from msi

[Mister Woof]

I don't know if any of the other AIBs would really be any better tho

[Blademaster91]

It makes no sense for a company to have nothing in stock for RMA replacement, they should be offering a replacement because in the current market a MSRP refund is a ripoff.

But it's MSI, so not a surprise, also that spelling from their customer support is terrible.

 

[GamerDude]

For AMD, I usually stick with Spphire, PowerColor and XFX, they treat customers better since they're exclusive AIB partners to AMD. Those AIB's that play both sides of the field like MSI, Gigabyte, Asus....the big three, don't give a rat's a$$ about their customers....

[Mister Woof]

3 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

It makes no sense for a company to have nothing in stock for RMA replacement, they should be offering a replacement because in the current market a MSRP refund is a ripoff.

But it's MSI, so not a surprise, also that spelling from their customer support is terrible.

 

Replacement are usually refurbs though, aren't they?

 

Unless these cards aren't failing/repairable

[Moonzy]

3 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

It makes no sense for a company to have nothing in stock for RMA replacement, they should be offering a replacement because in the current market a MSRP refund is a ripoff.

agree 200%

 

4 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

that spelling from their customer support is terrible.

that would depend on OP's region

company with that kind of grammar (not spelling in this case(?)) is pretty common for where im at, basically asians trying to speak english heh

 

idc, as long as it gets the message across

[Blademaster91]

9 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Replacement are usually refurbs though, aren't they?

 

Unless these cards aren't failing/repairable

I have no idea with MSI, but a lot of companies send out refurbished replacements instead of new, which is annoying with anything expensive but understandable if they don't have any new spare cards available.

But I was also wondering if these cards are failing and can't be repaired.

7 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

agree 200%

 

that would depend on OP's region

company with that kind of grammar (not spelling in this case(?)) is pretty common for where im at, basically asians trying to speak english heh

 

idc, as long as it gets the message across

Yeah we don't know where OP is, if that is US or EU support, I think the reply could've been better but I agree it still gets the point across.

[SupaKomputa]

I suggest just wait for any replacement as long as possible, at current market situation, you might not get enough refund to buy a new one.

[GreatnessRD]

MSI really is a piece of shit company. That's why I'm trying so hard to get a 6800 XT from AMD direct so I can sell this MSI 60 Ti. They're some fuckin' frauds. If you have the energy, you should raise hell with the BBB or MSI directly. Go down with a fight for them not honoring the warranty while they sell the cards for 1K, lol

[721831101]

thank-you for returning a gpu to miners hand 

[Mister Woof]

I hope your gpu was indeed broken and not just rma for coil whine or something

[GamerDude]

My experience with PowerColor was rather good, I'm in Asia, and my PC VEGA64 Red Devil was a Newegg USA purchase, so when I had to RMA the card, I could send it to TUL in Ca from here in Asia. The repaired or replacement card would only be sent to within the continent of N. America, so I had my niece's apartment in Canada as the return address.

 

The replacement card arrived just weeks after I'd sent it, but rather than have my niece send the card over to me, I was going to her place for a vacation, as well as to visit her father. Regardless, I picked up the card and when I got back home, I installed the card and it's been running like a champ since then (Sept 2019).

 

Hence, my preference for cards from exclusive AMD AIB partners like XFX, PowerColor and Sapphire. Even for nVidia, I'd rather choose their exclusive AIB cards, like the Leadtek GTX 1080 Hurricane OC that I have in my HTPC.

[Mark Kaine]

yeah, something weird is going on with MSI... this isn't the first I hear similar stories... I mean I'm pretty sure they can do this if they really have no replacement cards,  but it really seems more like they just don't want to and rather sell new cards ...

 

Seriously it's quite unrealistic they don't produce any GPUs at all anymore? 

 

On the other hand,  for example in the EU,  MSI would have nothing to do at all with customers RMA request, because that usually has to go through the retailer,  unless the card was actually sold directly from the manufacturer to the customer (unlikely)

 

Options:

 

Ask retailer. 

Get a lawyer. 

Accept the offer. 

Fight MSI and demand a replacement or repair. 

 

[GamerDude]

7 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah, something weird is going on with MSI... this isn't the first I hear similar stories... I mean I'm pretty sure they can do this if they really have no replacement cards,  but it really seems more like they just don't want to and rather sell new cards ...

 

This! Why replace the card when they can refund OP the amount he'd paid, sell off new card (or replacement card) for more money? I'd not put it pass MSI or the retailer/etailer/vendor to pull something shady like this.

 

Just to expand on the ongoing and skyrocketing prices of GPU's. I was told by someone in TPU that although there's stock of Gigabyte RX 6700 XT Eagle and RX 6700 XT Gaming OC, they're priced at a ludicrous 1100 EUR and 1150 EUR respectively (scalpers hard at work, or even some vendor unscrupulously jacking prices, who knows?!). Just for reference, I'd gotten my Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6900 XT at 1105 EUR (effectively), the RX 6700 XT are priced around or a fair bit higher than my AMD flagship level card! It's beyond insane!!!

[zbiggie]

14 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

Cryptocurrency related thing!

@Moonzy

(Hopefully) on topic:

960's not bad, compared to a GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB (yes of course I did and no one can stop me).

OP, how much did you pay for the card and how much will you get?

I paid 1142.39 (cad taxes included), same card goes for 1189.99 (cad pre tax on mem express)

So yeah, I am getting boned pretty hard here. 

9 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

I hope your gpu was indeed broken and not just rma for coil whine or something

Yeah, gpu was dead. Would work until the drivers got installed and would go black screen. Tried everything, it was just a no go. 

I have had no issues since going back to my 960. 

[Smurfmaster2000]

On 3/17/2021 at 9:16 PM, zbiggie said:

It hurts bad, but I am hoping that I might be able to turn this into an upgrade with the LTT offering, lol. 

 

Either that or keep pushing my little old 960 2g. 

Hello, I just completed a rather challenging process with MSI RMA for an RTX 3070 in the USA. Here is what happened:

 

tl;dr My experience as a lawyer and tech industry insider who went through this press strongly wishes (in retrospect) I would have waited 30 days and with no firm commitment / ETA / or replacement tracking # in sight, to have started a politely worded and respectful BBB complaint. I believe this would have decreased the time I waited from 13 weeks to about 9 weeks and would have increased the chance of getting a better card substituted.

 

If you want to take the slow boat from China route, here is what I did instead:

 

I purchased the card at Best Buy just before Black Friday. It failed 7 days later due to bad VRAM (as confirmed using OCCT) and started the RMA process with MSI via their US web chat support first week of December. I made sure to send it back in the static bag with plenty of packaging but purposely did not send back the retail packaging (one should never do that as you won't get that back). I followed up once a week with their chat support and was always told the standard "30 day" turnaround time the whole time. Their MSI status page said very little other than confirming it was received. Of course this was over Christmas and New Year's, so unfortunately even under non-GPU-apocalypse conditions, a delay would be understandable to a certain point.

 

By the first week in January I was told by their US web chat support that the RMA had been validated (as in, they weren't rejecting it for user damage, etc....as indeed it was brand new without a smudge, and I video'd and photographed it in copious detail just in case, but no they didn't try to pull anything). So that was FINALLY a bit of good news. At that time I was referred to email support for all future follow-up.

 

So the lady you're talking with, she offered $450 to bail out of their responsibility under the RMA (of course, that's my words/characterization). And of course I flat-out declined their offer and made clear in no uncertain terms, though politely and amicably. I would end up doing this repeatedly over the next dozen emails...

 

She offered what she termed a "compromise", to provide them the receipt and they would try to refund my card for the price I paid (which was $550). I declined to provide the receipt and had numerous back and forth discussions, but it always came to 99% of the same cookie-cutter response about the 1% difference was trying to extra the tiniest bit of information about cards not being available, nor any other 30xx models as, of course, I expressed my willingness to accept a higher card. At one point I even expressed my true actual compromise offer of taking a slightly-stepped down (3060TI of the better quality Gaming X series than my budget-spec'd 3070) made in legal terms, time limited. That particular offer was ignored.

 

At this point my biggest concern is their presumably non-natively English emailing lady handling this would use my sending a copy of the receipt as the basis for merely refunding the purchase price of the card. There is no basis for this concern other than my general cautionary and skeptical nature.

 

At this point the card price on Best Buy, still out of stock (of course) had gone up from $550 to $750. Please note, as a lawyer I was not going to blindly give them the receipt when it is not legally required. In the USA (specifically, unlike other countries) it is absolutely not legally required to provide the receipt for a company to honor warranty service, however, once they agreed to move forward with the actual RMA once I cautiously provided the receipt (..and one could complain to the FTC about that) I DID provide the Best Buy receipt... or rather the gift receipt. Because no, I absolutely did not want to trust them that as soon as they had the receipt they would issue the refund, minus tax, minus the price increase, and without the ability to obtain a replacement product on the market. And their refunds take 4+ weeks. Thank goodness I had the ability to get a Best Buy gift receipt that shows no price. If I did not have that though (as you may not!!!) I would have only provided the receipt via FAX as part of a letter stating this is for evidence of proof of purchase/first sale only (again NOT legally required) and that you are only providing it to facilitate in-warranty service and do NOT accept refund of your purchase price. I would have further called up MSI to make sure one of their support people got the FAX over to the right lady. Because even after everything, I would still not trust the receipt would be "misinterpreted" as accepting of their buyout offer.

 

I was definitely curious (and skeptical) that they would accept it, but they accepted it just fine and told me they would move forward with the replacement card BUT still with no ETA. This was now in the first week of February and it had been 2 full months.

 

I was told this would be a new card and not a repaired or service replacement. And this did not happen, fyi...

 

I'll also add on a personal note, in the mean time I had TWO EVGA reserve-list opportunities pop up, they released the 3060TI (which I had immediately offered to accept previously) and Best Buy even had another drop of MSI cards. I called into MSI every week, and they would look into it, sometimes talking to the lady you're no doubt emailing with, or sometimes just looking up the case file, and ultimately would tell me there are no updates and to correspond with her again. She would typically get back in 48-72 hours which (at least in terms of response time) I do consider reasonable.

 

As we approached the 3 month mark mainly I contacted MSI phone support to inform MSI I would be moving forward with "other" options after that time. 3 months for a consumer electronic product sold at retail that's still being actively marketed and sold with a warranty is well beyond any possible norm for warranty service/replacement in the USA. Unless you're dealing with something like industrial or highly specialized equipment, 60 days is really at the very, very outer limit. I only "waited" 3 months to give force to any legal demands that would likely come up...

 

As far as that eye towards having to resort to a legal solution, basically, every word in my email correspondence, phone calls (which I did record as my state is a 1-party consent state), and even my posts on social media (which I archive via WayBack machine in case they deleted them) were all designed to be conducive to achieve an actual resolution and to be used in a legal context. However, as a long-time computer support professional my style is much more agreeable and compromise and earnest as opposed to douchey and threatening despite my lawyer background.

 

After 13 weeks from when the RMA was first checked in (acknowledged received) by them, I received what was clearly a service replacement in generic packaging. I never received ANY notice or confirmation that it was indeed on its way. The card itself looked perfect except the bracket was clearly used and slightly mangled. The card itself, sadly, was the exact same model, but is working 100% perfectly. Importantly, there was no indication of anything special in terms of...anything. As in,  it appears this was essentially a "normal" RMA warranty replacement from their normal system...13 weeks not withstanding.

 

Conclusions:

I hate to say it, but my exceptionally nice and agreeable non-threatening attitude during these three months didn't turn out to help. It would have helped in a full-out situation if it went before a judge, but in this situation where it didn't go that far I don't believe it gained me anything whatsoever (other than the fact I am a nice person and hate being douchey to tech support).

 

Keep in mind the WHEN as to this started. It makes me shudder to think how long it would take someone NOW in March 2021 to get this resolved. Maybe it would be quicker? Maybe it would be way longer?? Or maybe the 13-weeks I experienced is still a good bench mark to measure against.

 

Between the beyond-excessive delay, the newer products that were made available, etc., though my course led to a resolution it wasn't anything ideal.  So if you're OK with the course that it took for me, hopefully your 6800 would go roughly the same way. Just keep in mind my belief (as a lawyer, and tech industry insider) that nothing I did especially helped (in my guess, of course it's impossible to say for sure).

 

That being said, if I personally were doing this tomorrow I would chart a different course. I would wait 30 days from when their system showed the device being checked-into their RMA system, call them @ their US number and confirm if my RMA shows any indication of when a replacement would be sent out, email the lady and ask whether she can confirm a specific date when it would be sent out, and assuming not, I would quite unashamedly file a very nice and polite BBB complaint against MSI. They are in the BBB system. I would not wait -- I would get that ball rolling.

 

Based on looking at their BBB public comments, it appears that after a few weeks they agree to express out a replacement product. None of the comments related to the modern GPU apocalypse-situation, but they do actually appear to care about their BBB standing. This pressure might also increase the likelihood of getting a newer card as a substitute.

 

My biggest problem with them is that my card failed right out of the gate, super early on after the release process. Companies should rightfully be expected, out of the gate, to have a certain number of reserve replacement units available and not to sell every damn one to maximize profit. Viewing social media, very few of their cards have (at least at this time) have developed a problem. Which is good, but considering that I view myself as probably being one of the first people to have a problem card AND it took THIS long to get replaced, that's unacceptable. That's them playing the market and not doing their due diligence to have a minimum threshold of replacement cards for those first failures such that latter failures would have available the early failures that have since been repaired and made available as service replacements (of course nobody wants to get a repaired service replacement as a warranty replacement, but that's the nature of the industry).

 

I would strongly recommend the BBB course though, and doing it sooner rather than later. A lot of people poo-poo on the BBB, but they can strongly foster results and no judge enjoys seeing someone before them who didn't try to pursue reasonable courses of actions. And seeking 3rd-party arbitration for a mutually agreed upon resolution is the epitome of reasonable.

 

But, if you are willing to simply hang on to your 960 GPU for now, and don't mind the slow boat to china that I did (or rather a slow cargo container from Taiwan) then hopefully my experience will give you confidence that if you wait (too long in my opinion) maybe the 13 weeks that I did, it'll end up OK.