Please help me expose Thermaltake dishonest behavior on PSU RMA issue

[Juan_P988]

I purchased this power supply, Smart series 500W, on july 14th but I was only able to test it on August 21st because I had to wait for it to arrive my country so I couldn't return it to Amazon on time. It worked fine for about 2-3 hours when suddenly my PC shutdown itself,I thought I was having electricity problems but the rest of my devices continued working fine. I Tried to power on the system again but nothing happened. I disconnected my GPU and tried to power on again, this time the system start working but after a few moments it shutdown again. I continued disconnecting things until there was only a a fan connected, only then the power supply was able to keep working. This make me believe that I was unlucky enough to end with a defective unit that can't bare to supply even the power required by the CPU.

I contacted Thermaltake , and they agreed to RMA the PSU but the RMA process was a waste of time and money. I asked them if the cover the shipping costs and they said that I had to pay the shipping to them but that they will send back the product at no cost to me. I don't live in the US but I made that clear from the beginning and I filled the contact form with the information from my country, that didn't seem to be a problem to them at the time so I decided to send them the PSU. The shipping cost me around 27 dollars but that still was cheaper than buying a new PSU keeping in mind that the would send it back for free. When the PSU arrive to Thermaltake location I didn't receive any notification, I waited a couple of days and then contacted them, I didn't get any answer until a few days later when they told me that there was nothing wrong with the PSU, which is odd because I tested it with 2 different PC but I was willing to trusted them and took it back. The problem was that they weren't willing to honor their word on the free shipment to my country, they told me that they could only offer me free shipping to Florida but if I wanted my PSU to be shipped to my country I have to pay for it.

They ignored my last request on the support plataform until I published this case on one of their twits, then they just lied about the whole thing. I feel cheated and very helpless about the whole situation. The issue is not only that I lost money buying something that didn't work sending it to them, but that they specifically said they would pay the shipping back.

I thought that maybe if I get enough exposure to the case they might consider honor their word and refund me or send me the replacement, so I was hoping for you to help me, I can't do it alone, I don't have many followers or anything like that.

Thanks.

 

You can see their reponse to my claim on twitter here:

https://twitter.com/Thermaltake/status/958067658871705601

https://twitter.com/Thermaltake/status/957049512056512513

 

RMA1.pdf

RMA2.pdf

RMA3.pdf

RMA4.pdf

 

 

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UPDATE

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I filled a complain at the BBB website and that must have caught Thermaltake's attention because days later they contacted me saying that there was some kind of "miscommunication" and they wanted to help me solve the issue. At the end they finally send back a replacement for the PSU. 

[AdoptedAsian]

I would help but I don't see how I can..

[deXxterlab97]

The problem is you bought a crap PSU at the first place without asking for advice and then complain why it didn't work. 

[Juan_P988]

@AdoptedAsian Thanks for your interest, I don't really know what to do about it to be honest but maybe if the word get spreaded on social networks they might change their mind on the issue. You can retwitt  my posts, or just share your thoughts about it.

 

Thanks

 

@deXxterlab97 I bought the PSU trusting the reviews on Amazon. I'm complaining not because it failed but because Thermaltake lied to me when they told me they would pay for the shipping back of the product. 

[AdoptedAsian]

4 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

The problem is you bought a crap PSU at the first place without asking for advice and then complain why it didn't work. 

It was Thermaltake not the products that OP was complaining about.

[deXxterlab97]

Just now, Juan_P988 said:

@deXxterlab97 I bought the PSU trusting the reviews on Amazon. I'm complaining not because it failed but because Thermaltake lied to me when they told me they would pay for the shipping back of the product. 

Customer review is the worst type of review. You should look for reviews from professional people with experience on how to handle PSU in certain loads and tests. But anyway most RMA does not cover shipping too and you should have asked them more about that if you were so worried

[Juan_P988]

@deXxterlab97 you didn't read through my whole post do you? I specifically asked them if they would pay for the shipping back to me and they said yes.

[AdoptedAsian]

2 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Customer review is the worst type of review. You should look for reviews from professional people with experience on how to handle PSU in certain loads and tests. But anyway most RMA does not cover shipping too and you should have asked them more about that if you were so worried

Look:

[deXxterlab97]

1 minute ago, Juan_P988 said:

@deXxterlab97 you didn't read through my whole post do you? I specifically asked them if they would pay for the shipping back to me and they said yes.

sorry i got lost there. I thought you said that you have to pay shipping back not them. 

[heimdali]

They probably didn´t realise that you live outside the US when they said they´d pay for the shipping.  Even if you were to agree to pay for the shipping, they probably do not want to ship it or are incapable of, or both, because of all kinds of issues arising from customs, export regulations and whatnot with which they have no experience at all.  That kind of shipping might cost them easily $500.

 

I don´t understand why you didn´t buy a PSU (made by Seasonic) in your own country, preferably one from a seller with a good reputation.

 

[AdoptedAsian]

4 minutes ago, heimdali said:

They probably didn´t realise that you live outside the US when they said they´d pay for the shipping.

 

I don´t understand why you didn´t buy a PSU (made by Seasonic) in your own country, preferably one from a seller with a good reputation.

 

In lots of cases, it's cheaper to buy products from the US and get them shipped to your country. (eg. I could've bought a 1070Ti for £30 less if I shipped it from the US back in November) They shouldn't have said they could do something unless they knew they could.

[heimdali]

Ok and when there´s a problem, you end up spending $100+ on sending it in and perhaps another $100 or more to get it back --- or you just bin it because it isn´t worthwhile.  What´s the advantage here?

 

[Juan_P988]

@heimdali They knew I was located outside US, the first thing I asked was to change the return address to my country.  I just wanted to give it a try because I trusted the brand of Thermaltake and the Amazon review. I end up buying a EVGA supernova Gold plus.

 

5 hours ago, AdoptedAsian said:

In lots of cases, it's cheaper to buy products from the US and get them shipped to your country. (eg. I could've bought a 1070Ti for £30 less if I shipped it from the US back in November) They shouldn't have said they could do something unless they knew they could.

@AdoptedAsian You're right, it's cheaper for me to buy pc parts in US than in my country and it's the first time I have this ikind of issue.

[seon123]

9 minutes ago, heimdali said:

I don´t understand why you didn´t buy a PSU (made by Seasonic)

Why would you do that? There's nothing inherently better about those. I'd rather take an RMx over a Focus Plus Gold, and the S12/M12 is ancient and crap (I'm terms of protections and fan controller)

[heimdali]

The problem is that they (should) have known and should have realised --- yet either they didn´t, or they are ignoring what they previously said.  In any case, you´re screwed.

 

[seon123]

4 minutes ago, Juan_P988 said:

@heimdali They knew I was located outside US, the first thing I asked was to change the return address to my country.  I just wanted to give it a try because I trusted the brand of Thermaltake and the Amazon review. I end up buying a EVGA supernova Gold plus.

Don't trust Amazon reviewers. All they can say is "it hasn't blown up yet, 5/5 amazing PSU, recommended". And then you look up actual reviews and find out that it can only output half the power on 12V, it lacks protections, and that it has aweful regulation, ripple and transient response. 

Don't buy by brand, all brands are equally capable of selling crap. 

Which one did you buy? The G1 NEX is overpriced and not very good. EVGA has about a billion different PSUs

[heimdali]

9 minutes ago, seon123 said:

Why would you do that? There's nothing inherently better about those. I'd rather take an RMx over a Focus Plus Gold, and the S12/M12 is ancient and crap (I'm terms of protections and fan controller)

I´d buy Seasonic because it´s a company with a good reputation and one of the very few that actually design and build PSUs, for a wide range of applications, including industrial.  It´s what they do, and it gives me reason to believe that they know what they´re doing.  Besides, they come at very reasonable prices.

 

I have one here in my server, and it doesn´t show any issues with its fan controller or protections.  It just works fine 24/7 and efficiently does what I bought it for.

 

[Juan_P988]

 

5 minutes ago, seon123 said:

Don't trust Amazon reviewers. All they can say is "it hasn't blown up yet, 5/5 amazing PSU, recommended". And then you look up actual reviews and find out that it can only output half the power on 12V, it lacks protections, and that it has aweful regulation, ripple and transient response. 

Don't buy by brand, all brands are equally capable of selling crap. 

@seon123 I learned that the hard way I guess, but brands should back their products and give proper warranty for them. For example, Some time ago I had an issue with a EVGA GPU, I sent it for RMA and they didn't had any issue paying for the shipping back, they even sent me a better one, so I think Thermaltake are just being assholes with this whole situation.

Byt he way, I got an EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3, 80 Plus Gold 650W.

[seon123]

5 hours ago, heimdali said:

I´d buy Seasonic because it´s a company with a good reputation and one of the very few that actually design and build them, for wide range of applications, including industrial.  It´s what they do, and it gives me reason to believe that they know what they´re doing.  Besides, they come at very reasonable prices.

 

I have one here in my server, and it doesn´t show any issues with its fan controller or protections.  It just works fine 24/7 and efficiently does what I bought it for.

A good reputation? Apparently not in the industry, as more and more brands are moving away from them.

And they don't produce their own PCBA, IIRC, they're not big enough. 

There's no reason to believe that a Be Quiet designed FSP produced PSU is worse than a PSU built and designed by Seasonic. 

Inferior products tend to cost less. And that's why the Prime series costs so much. Though I have no idea why someone would buy the Prime Gold, as that thing is loud. 

So you're putting a PSU under a light load, and saying that it doesn't show any issues? Then I must assume that you've measured the performance and the protections? The protections aren't there for perfect situations, they're there for when something goes wrong. 

And since you mention efficiency, I assume you've measured that?

And that it's as quiet as it's competitors?

 

5 hours ago, Juan_P988 said:

 

@seon123 I learned that the hard way I guess, but brands should back their products and give proper warranty for them. For example, Some time ago I had an issue with a EVGA GPU, I sent it for RMA and they didn't had any issue paying for the shipping back, they even sent me a better one, so I think Thermaltake are just being assholes with this whole situation.

Byt he way, I got an EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G3, 80 Plus Gold 650W.

EVGA is the exception, rather than the rule. They probably didn't have your model of GPU in stock, so they sent what was available. 

Nice, the G3 is a good PSU. Not the quietest, but that shouldn't be an issue at all

[Stefan Payne]

56 minutes ago, Juan_P988 said:

They ignored my last request on the support plataform until I published this case on one of their twits, then they just lied about the whole thing.

Where did they lie?
Why should they lie?
Why should we assume that you are not lying?!

 

I worked in RMA of a PSU selling company for a couple of weeks and what I've seen there was really amazing - in terms of what people are doing to "get free stuff".

 

 

And why are you asking us for help?
Why aren't you trying to call them and talk to them on the Phone?!

And why didn't you mention where you live??

[AdoptedAsian]

3 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Where did they lie?
Why should they lie?
Why should we assume that you are not lying?!

 

I worked in RMA of a PSU selling company for a couple of weeks and what I've seen there was really amazing - in terms of what people are doing to "get free stuff".

 

 

And why are you asking us for help?
Why aren't you trying to call them and talk to them on the Phone?!

And why didn't you mention where you live??

https://twitter.com/Thermaltake/status/958067658871705601
OP is asking us for help in exposing them

[Stefan Payne]

9 minutes ago, Juan_P988 said:

 

@seon123 I learned that the hard way I guess, but brands should back their products and give proper warranty for them. 

Yes, especially if we are talking about their lower end/cheaper stuff where its safe to assume that the shipping to you costs more than manufacturing the PSU...

 

You are complaining about a not so great 40€ PSU:
https://geizhals.de/thermaltake-smart-rgb-500w-atx-2-3-ps-spr-0500nhsawe-1-a1660428.html

 

Sorry, but I don't understand why you are flaming Thermaltake for the bad support, when you didn't pay for good support.

[Juan_P988]

@Stefan Payne did you went through the whole post including the twitter links? There you can see where they lied.
Why should they lie? I don't know maybe they are being cheap not wanting to make a simple refund.

 

I did mention where I live, the first thing you do to fill a RMA request is put your real contac information, but to be sure I  send my address including the zipcode and asked them about them paying for the shipping back. I'm not asking for free stuff, I sent back the PSU I bought so not only I paid for it but also the shipping to them, so nothing free there.

 

As why I'm asking for help, well they have ignore my mails and my requests on the zendesk plataform so why would be different on the phone?

[AdoptedAsian]

2 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yes, especially if we are talking about their lower end/cheaper stuff where its safe to assume that the shipping to you costs more than manufacturing the PSU...

 

You are complaining about a not so great 40€ PSU:
https://geizhals.de/thermaltake-smart-rgb-500w-atx-2-3-ps-spr-0500nhsawe-1-a1660428.html

 

Sorry, but I don't understand why you are flaming Thermaltake for the bad support, when you didn't pay for good support.

OP was told shipping was free but it wasn't and they refused to fix it. That's the problem

[Stefan Payne]

1 minute ago, AdoptedAsian said:

https://twitter.com/Thermaltake/status/958067658871705601
OP is asking us for help in exposing them

Yes, and?!
What is wrong with that statement?!

We don't know the whole truth, only Thermaltake and he know.

 

As stated above, I worked at RMA for a time and what people do is just appalling...

 

So in other Words:
I trust @Juan_P988 as far as I can throw him.

 

Why should I believe him?!

He didn't give me any reason to believe what he's saying!!

So I've got more reasons to believe Thermaltake than Juan...

 

Sorry to say, but People trying to RMA are either lying in just too many times...

 

 

The worst thing I've seen was a PSU the User has totally messed up with - bad custom sleeving, he used an Edding to paint the Transformer black - and send it in for RMA!!
And then he was threatening with a Lawyer...

Do I need to say more?!