Heads up regarding Memory Express.

[linusnotlinus5272]

Why I'm posting this here:

 

I've heard their IPR (instore replacement warranty) system works, however when you're sold it you're told it covers all costs of servicing and replacement. This is also the terminology used in their IPR FAQ online. However, if you didn't pay them to build the PC the hardware is from (or even if the entire system is IPR'd and wasn't built by them), they hit you with a $50 servicing fee every time you drop the hardware off for IPR servicing.

I brought this contradiction up to them and they're waiving my fees, but wanted to make people aware because what they're doing is giving you the peace of mind of complete coverage for a onetime cost both at time of IPR purchase and in current wording in the IPR terms online, and then trying to hit you for $50 at the service desk *every time* you drop the covered hardware off, if you built it yourself and are in too much of a hurry to fact check or debate it with them.

Here's the IPR terms:

https://memoryexpress.com/Policies/Warranties.cm.aspx

Specifically

"One-time cost is less than service and replacement cost

With IPR you pay only the one-time cost for the IPR plan which is far less than the cost of service and replacement and far less waiting. If you were to replace a component such as a video card without IPR you could pay between $100 and $300 for a replacement card and an additional $100 for a two hour service fee to install it."

Link to picture of the charge (the oranged out bit is the employee's name):

The two hours warranty @ $0 is what they consider the IPR check (they also did cable management for me here which would've been fine if I hadn't already done cable management in a way I preferred that left cables easier to access than their method and still had nothing tangled in hardware or at risk of tangling in hardware), the $50 service charge is what's supposed to be included in the IPR according to current terms and not needing to be argued over.

If you've recently been charged for IPR service beyond the fee of purchasing coverage, send them an email showing the terms stating it's all-inclusive (not only the section I quoted, but none of it currently mentions additional service fees) and get those service fees refunded. If you're looking to IPR hardware with the aim of building it yourself, something to keep in mind.

Also, when I dropped it off the first time they did a bunch of things beyond the IPR check that caused me headaches as I needed to undo unnecessary labor (ie. the cable management, they also plugged my case fans in incorrectly so I took it back and had them correct that and requested a partial refund of that $50 service fee for this, which they did). I don't think this is exclusive to MemEx, it can happen anywhere you get hardware service. Take pictures of everything before dropping off, keep track of the terms of what you bought, the biggest thing is having life get busy and giving up money for something you already paid for due to being too crunched in that window to look.

I've had email correspondence with one of the managers and it's been arranged for me to get my full refund from the service fee they charged me at this dropoff + the half I didn't get from the last one to square it all off. But it isn't being acknolwedged as a rollback of IPR terms despite IPR terms not listing anything about additional fees potentially being incurred or waived, it's packaged as:

"One-time cost is less than service and replacement cost

With IPR you pay only the one-time cost for the IPR plan"

Where in that is there room for "unless x then $50?" Show me. Even the claim "One-time cost is less than service" isn't true if you drop off a system with a part with a $35 IPR (ie. as is the case with my CPU) and they charge you $50 to diagnose it because they didn't build the system it's in.

[AntiTrust]

I read the entire post and have no idea .. what happened? 

[linusnotlinus5272]

38 minutes ago, AntiTrust said:

I read the entire post and have no idea .. what happened? 

tl;dr

 

Sell onetime fee IPR

Hit at time of service for another $50 in spite of IPR terms saying it covers all fees related to service and replacement for that hardware

Read it again.  In full.  It makes sense. Or take the tl;dr and go with no understanding either.  Why I typed the whole thing out.

[aezakmi]

$50/Hr that's INSANE

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, AntiTrust said:

I read the entire post and have no idea .. what happened? 

OP purchased a bunch of computer parts from MemExpress and made a computer. OP also purchased a form of extended warranty on his individual parts that provides on the spot parts replacement for faulty parts. Without it, MemExpress ships the part off to the manufacturer who ship back a replacement/repair/refurb.

 

1 hour ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

they charge you $50 to diagnose it because they didn't build the system it's in.

It seems that OP went in to MemExpress and said "Idk what is wrong with my computer, fix it". Looking at the invoice, it appears that staff at MemExpress undertook a service on the machine, and during that, they discovered that one of the parts was faulty, and they replaced it on the spot under the extended warranty.

 

It seems OP thinks that having warranty on individual parts entitles you to lifetime free servicing. They're going to be in for a huge shock when they buy their first car and take it back to the dealer for a service.
 

@linusnotlinus5272 Since you purchased your parts individually, the IPR warranty is for the individual parts - not the whole system. To  claim the IPR warranty on them, you need to diagnose the part that is faulty and take that individual part in to the store to be replaced. They will test the part themselves to confirm if is faulty, and then provide you with a replacement part if needed.

If you don't know what is wrong with the system and you hand over the whole system for them to discover what it is wrong, then you are asking them to perform a service.

 

It should have been explained to you when you took your system in and said "It's not working, fix it" that there would be a charge for a service. The staff should have said "Sure, we can perform an in store service on that for you today, our standard service is charged as a fee of $50 for the first hour, and $50 per half hour after. We also offer a priority service for $75 per hour, would you be interested in upgrading to the priority service?". I'm guessing this most likely was explained to you when you brought your system in (what staff isn't going to try and upsell the more expensive service plan?!), but judging by the rest of your post, I'm assuming you just ignored them and thought you would get it for free.

Either way, MemExpress waived the $50 servicing fee for you both times, which just goes to show that they are pretty reasonable to deal with and have decent customer support.

Edit: You should be happy. The way I see it the IPR warranty you purchased has already paid for itself. Without it you would still be waiting for MemExpress to post the faulty part back to the manufacturer and waiting even longer for a replacement/repaired/refurbished part to arrive. Returns to/from manufacturers can take weeks. Many, many weeks if it needs to be sent overseas.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Spotty

[linusnotlinus5272]

No part has been replaced yet.  I took the system in and said it could be one of three pieces, all of which are under IPR.  I'm not expecting lifetime of free servicing, I'm expecting them to honor their IPR terms which says it's a onetime cost for that hardware if the IPR coverage is on it.  Which it currently is.  So why the $50 fee for IPR servicing?  And why hasn't their IPR terms page been updated in the last over four years to better detail this charge?  I'm surely not the first customer this has happened to since the last time the IPR terms were updated January 28, 2014.  So why hasn't terms describing this charge been added since that last update over four years ago?

 

Let's play the guessing game, because nobody likes acknowledging the obvious here apparently.

[Guest]

TechLinked videos are so clickbaity. Remember the days when Linus used good quality videos to entice the audience?

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

Also, when I dropped it off the first time they did a bunch of things beyond the IPR check that caused me headaches as I needed to undo unnecessary labor (ie. the cable management, they also plugged my case fans in incorrectly so I took it back and had them correct that

Why would you need to take it back to the service centre to 'fix' cable management or plug in a case fan? Couldn't you do that at home yourself? I'm assuming you must have the ability to do so since you built the PC yourself and said that you cable managed it the first time?

How did they plug the case fans in incorrectly? How is that even possible?
They're either plugged in or they're not plugged in. They can't be plugged in anywhere they don't belong. All I could think of is plugging the CPU fan in to CPU_Opt instead of CPU_PWM, but you specifically said case fans.

Basic cable management is probably part of the service. If it's something you would prefer to do yourself (and I understand a lot of people on this forum would), then in future just request that they don't do any cable management when you drop it off at the service department.

I understand wanting to hold them responsible if their service wasn't up to scratch, but is it really worth the effort packing up your computer and driving back to the store to show them they made a mistake, when you could fix it yourself just by plugging in a 4 pin fan connector that takes 3 seconds to do?
If you were really annoyed, just give their customer support centre a call and let them know that you took it in for a service and they forgot to plug in a fan when they were finished, and that you were unhappy with their attention to detail during the service.

 

 

1 minute ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

I'm expecting them to honor their IPR terms which says it's a onetime cost for that hardware if the IPR coverage is on it.  Which it currently is.

Yes. The IPR is a one time cost. Meaning you don't have to pay a monthly or yearly subscription to access IPR coverage. That doesn't mean that additional services you request them to perform, such as a diagnostic service on a whole system, is covered. You had them perform an additional service that was outside the scope of the warranty cover, and as such was charged for the additional service. Asking them to perform a diagnostic service on the whole system is a service.
 

Quote

With IPR you pay only the one-time cost for the IPR plan which is far less than the cost of service and replacement and far less waiting. 

They're saying it is a one off charge, and that the cost of that charge is less than the cost of their service. They're trying to demonstrate the value of the IPR by comparing it to their service fees.

 

6 minutes ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

No part has been replaced yet.  I took the system in and said it could be one of three pieces

How has it not been diagnosed yet? You said it could be one of three pieces, or they said it could be one of three pieces?
If you go in and say "I think it's maybe the CPU, or maybe it's the motherboard... It could even possibly be the RAM, I'm not sure", then you are asking them to perform a diagnostic service on the system. This is not covered by individual part warranty or their extended warranty.

Their 'IPR warranty' on individual parts covers the testing of a faulty part, and the replacement of said faulty part. It does not include diagnostic servicing on the whole system.
If you purchased the system from them as a complete system assembled by them, then it would likely be covered by their IPR warranty as the warranty would be on the system as a whole, not on the individual parts.
 

Quote

With our In-Store Product Replacement plan simply bring the defective product to the nearest memoryexpress along with the original packaging and accessories. A technician will test it and confirm whether a replacement product is needed.

You did not take a faulty part covered by the IPR warranty to the store to be tested and replaced. You took a full computer and said "I don't know what is wrong with it, it's probably this, or it could be that, or maybe that. I don't know. Can you please spend your time and use your expertise to find out what is wrong for me so I know what I need to replace". That is an additional service that is not covered by the IPR warranty on individual parts.

[linusnotlinus5272]

I'm not on my computer so not answering in proper quotes.

 

"Why take it back to get them to fix it" Because I wanted it documented.

 

I'm not arguing the IPR coverage with anyone but them anymore.  If you aren't being a dolt you can read and the language is clear.

 

"How isn't it diagnosed yet" Because even if you know what pieces it could be it goes in a queue with wait times.

 

"You took it in and said idk lulz fix it" No.  I said it could be one of these three.  And one could be causing something with one of the others so despite potential for all three it needs to be isolated to the likely one it actually is.  Since it's GPU/PSU/MOBO taking in system is easier for both than disconnecting entire thing to take in three parts that need to be tested as one system.  So you don't want individual, you want system.  I already posted that info here so you didn't read.

[AntiTrust]

so let me get this straight, you bought warranties for in store replacement on parts, then when something didnt work you took your whole computer back to mem express instead of the broken part and made them figure out what was wrong with it? so they charged you for one hour service (perfectly reasonable) but you complained and they waived the charge. Then you log onto here to complain and bitch about how they did your cable management for free? 

 

Jeez, I'm so happy I never had to work retail. Some people are just unreal

[linusnotlinus5272]

@AntiTrust I already responded to that first bit.  Go read.  As for doing my cable management free, go read that too.  Doing something for free doesn't mean it doesn't create headaches.  Free is nice covering fire for when it creates a headache, but a free headache isn't a perk.  Someone housesits but they rearrange your furniture for free, and you have to spend time putting it back how you had it in the first place because it creates no hazard it is just preference for how you like to sit in your property.  Sweet deal to need to take the time to undo free unnecessary labor that creates a headache for you.  To you at least.  Good thing you never worked retail, you would've caused a lot of problems.

[Spotty]

39 minutes ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

"You took it in and said idk lulz fix it" No.  I said it could be one of these three.  And one could be causing something with one of the others so despite potential for all three it needs to be isolated to the likely one it actually is.  Since it's GPU/PSU/MOBO taking in system is easier for both than disconnecting entire thing to take in three parts that need to be tested as one system.

You didn't know what is wrong with it. You don't know if it's the GPU, the PSU, or the MOBO. Heck, if you think it is the motherboard then it could also just as likely be a bad CPU or bad memory. So you're looking at 5 potential things. Did you install stand off screws to the case? That now means they also have to check the case for issues as well.
You're asking them to provide a service on the computer to determine a fault. That's an additional service that is not covered under your individual parts warranty.

It should also be fairly simple for MemExpress to test whether the issue lies with a GPU, a PSU, or a Motherboard.
 

39 minutes ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

"How isn't it diagnosed yet" Because even if you know what pieces it could be it goes in a queue with wait times.

But they sent you home with the computer after the first trip? If you were in a queue waiting for it to be serviced, or they were unable to diagnose the cause of the issue, or were going to attempt a repair on a faulty part, they would have kept the system in their service department for a few days until they got it sorted out. They wouldn't have performed cable management, unplugged a fan cable, and then sent you home with it without diagnosing the cause of the issue just for shits and giggles.

I'm curious, after the first service was it reported as "No fault found"? At this point it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be a PEBCAK error.

 

39 minutes ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

I'm not arguing the IPR coverage with anyone but them anymore.  If you aren't being a dolt you can read and the language is clear.

I can see why the manager just gave up and refunded you.

[linusnotlinus5272]

Too vague to pick a clear direction from it.  I'll label it a random late-night dump unless clarified.

[linusnotlinus5272]

It got escalated, they are putting my IPR in line with the terms found online and refunding me the incurred diagnostic fees.  It's needing to buck a bit to get what I was sold initially.  Which is to say, still see topic title.

[Razor Blade]

On 7/4/2018 at 7:38 PM, linusnotlinus5272 said:

*snip*

Because there is also this...

Quote

Worry free product replacement service

With our In-Store Product Replacement plan simply bring the defective product to the nearest memoryexpress along with the original packaging and accessories. A technician will test it and confirm whether a replacement product is needed.

The way that I read it, they're saying that paying for the IPR plan would save you money VS buying a replacement part. If you buy a part from them, the warranty is on the part and not the system you put it in. They want you to take the part, accessories, and packaging to them so they can test it and verify it is bad then they can replace it if it is. I am unable to find in their page where labor is included in their IPR plan? I'm not sure why they're even mentioning the 2 hour service fee in their example, I agree that it is confusing.

 

But the fact that they waived the service fee is pretty nice.

[linusnotlinus5272]

It says one-time cost.  Another charge to service is not one-time.  The only way this would make sense is if it specifically said the replacement cost is gauranteed one-time, and then mention of the potential for a service fee at time of IPR check request due to (insert reasons here) in spite of having IPR.

[Razor Blade]

2 minutes ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

It says one-time cost.  Another charge to service is not one-time.  The only way this would make sense is if it specifically said the replacement cost is gauranteed one-time, and then mention of the potential for a service fee at time of IPR check request due to (insert reasons here) in spite of having IPR.

The IPR is a one-time cost. I believe that means it carries over to your replacement part.

[linusnotlinus5272]

Lots of "I believes" going on because they aren't clarifying terminology on a 2014 service description that has definitely had these issues arise before.  In that case you remove the "I believes" in practice and operate on what's actually stated.  Takes them 5 minutes to add a line saying "$50 to service for IPR checks on non-MemEx built systems" if that's what it is, and it's been over four years.

[Razor Blade]

27 minutes ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

Lots of "I believes" going on because they aren't clarifying terminology on a 2014 service description that has definitely had these issues arise before.  In that case you remove the "I believes" in practice and operate on what's actually stated.  Takes them 5 minutes to add a line saying "$50 to service for IPR checks on non-MemEx built systems" if that's what it is, and it's been over four years.

Ah. I see how this is going to be. FYI the "I believes" in my posts were me being polite. My interpretation of the plan is clearly different than yours. Memory Express tried to work with you despite you being in the wrong.

 

Maybe if you had the forethought to ask about service fees before you requested service you wouldn't be complaining. Your assumption earned you an unexpected bill. You aren't being charged for the IPR service, you are being charged for the troubleshooting and/or repair. The FAQ website clearly states that the IPR covers components you bring in with it's accessories and original packaging. So why on God's green earth do you think the IPR would cover troubleshooting for your entire computer? 

[SansVarnic]

-= Thread Cleaned =-

 

Though we are each entitled to our opinion, you are not free to express it any way you want.

Let's keep the conversation civil shall we?

[linusnotlinus5272]

@Razor Blade Not going over the same things yet again.  Scroll up.  Line break here from my end until I pick it up.

[Razor Blade]

7 hours ago, linusnotlinus5272 said:

@Razor Blade Not going over the same things yet again.  Scroll up.  Line break here from my end until I pick it up.

No need. My opinion was made clear. I agree the website could be a bit more clear as to what the IPR covers and what exactly it does. However I can interpret it well enough that I would have asked if there would be a service charge for troubleshooting my system. Because it did not specify.

 

Maybe laws work differently in Canada. But going by from what I know about businesses in the USA they would have done absolutely nothing wrong.

[linusnotlinus5272]

If it doesn't say there's a service charge, it's because there isn't supposed to be a service charge.  Every piece they need to test has IPR.  If the language was correct they would've told me to eat the charge.  They're refunding the service charges and putting my IPRs according to how they sell it. It's a push that shouldn't need to be made.

[Syntaxvgm]

On 7/4/2018 at 8:53 PM, aezakmi said:

$50/Hr that's INSANE

Not really. Automotive work is 60-90$ an hour typically. 

Not speaking to whether op should have been charged or not. 

[linusnotlinus5272]

Apologies because it was indeed the other dog avatar in this topic.

 

I had run this by others who work in the tech field.  They agreed it reads like there is no service fee on IPRs.  MemEx also never said their terms obviously meant a service fee.  They just said why they tried charging the service fee, which was erroneous according to the current ToS.

 

Regardless they can't fix the problem and even replacing it doesn't fix the problem for some reason.  They are calling my hardware error a "phenomenon" because of this.  idk what to make of this because they can replicate it and not fix it, at the very least they should know the "why" of it because computer science but "phenomenon"?  I can't have my computer gone forever either.  I'm heading in today but this doesn't make any sense.