CGA advice RE PC Hardware failure

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vulcannz

436 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#2057791 17-Jul-2018 14:46

Consequential coverage? Do you mean you're trying to claim some sort of loss? No.

But if you paid them $69 to install it I would say then you'd be within your rights to expect them to remove it for free.

Remember CGA is all about fairness. If you are buying components with it be a GPU or car stereo and fitting them yourself then I think the responsibility lies with you to remove them.

I suspect that they may be within their rights to charge you even if they fitted it themselves, however I think the CGA hammer of fairness would come down on them (especially if the failure is no fault of yours).

SpartanVXL

1317 posts

Uber Geek

#2057796 17-Jul-2018 14:53

I'm not quite understanding some parts of this...but I will mention that pbtech will do only the bare minimum that their stores are required to do.

You bought the hybrid cooler off them and want it RMA'd, this is perfectly fine and it seems they're okay with it too. But you sent in the card along with it?!? This I don't understand. How did you get the cooler on in the first place? And what happened with the stock cooler? Do you still have it or did you chuck it?

As far as the store is concerned they are two different products and you're making a fuss with the product that isn't theirs (regardless of what the 'manufacturer' definition is). If there was a problem with the card itself you'd take it to Computer Lounge sans cooler. They just want the hybrid kit to send off to the actual manufacturer EVGA so they can deal with it.

Yes they can remove the cooler and do the work, but this is unlikely unless they provided the service of putting it on in the first place. No, your 'billable time' is not relevant to this process as you went to them as a regular consumer for an enthusiast piece of kit. They sold you the product, no service after the fact.

Ideally what you should have done is remove the cooler, packed it up ready to go so pbtech could process it quickly. When it comes to bog standard RMA they are generally quite reliable. What you do with the card after is up to you, put the stock FE cooler on or wait till the new hybrid kit comes back.

I somewhat agree with 1101. Not because you're not in the right when it comes to NZ law. If you took this to disputes you probably have a foot to stand on. Because the time wasted thinking about this or taking it to disputes would have been better served by doing it in a way that would have gotten you what you wanted.

Which is still hope is a returned, working cooler + card and not just being 'right'. If the latter then by all means put a claim on them.

toejam316

1466 posts

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#2057961 17-Jul-2018 18:03

SpartanVXL: I'm not quite understanding some parts of this...but I will mention that pbtech will do only the bare minimum that their stores are required to do. You bought the hybrid cooler off them and want it RMA'd, this is perfectly fine and it seems they're okay with it too. But you sent in the card along with it?!? This I don't understand. How did you get the cooler on in the first place? And what happened with the stock cooler? Do you still have it or did you chuck it? As far as the store is concerned they are two different products and you're making a fuss with the product that isn't theirs (regardless of what the 'manufacturer' definition is). If there was a problem with the card itself you'd take it to Computer Lounge sans cooler. They just want the hybrid kit to send off to the actual manufacturer EVGA so they can deal with it. Yes they can remove the cooler and do the work, but this is unlikely unless they provided the service of putting it on in the first place. No, your 'billable time' is not relevant to this process as you went to them as a regular consumer for an enthusiast piece of kit. They sold you the product, no service after the fact. Ideally what you should have done is remove the cooler, packed it up ready to go so pbtech could process it quickly. When it comes to bog standard RMA they are generally quite reliable. What you do with the card after is up to you, put the stock FE cooler on or wait till the new hybrid kit comes back. I somewhat agree with 1101. Not because you're not in the right when it comes to NZ law. If you took this to disputes you probably have a foot to stand on. Because the time wasted thinking about this or taking it to disputes would have been better served by doing it in a way that would have gotten you what you wanted. Which is still hope is a returned, working cooler + card and not just being 'right'. If the latter then by all means put a claim on them.

A fair set of points, and something that I forgot to mention is brought up.

The stock cooler is something I still have, and actually took in with me, and put to them that I'm happy to have the cooler entirely switched out and the RMA done, as opposed to the partial uninstallation of the hybrid cooler to RMA only the faulty bit. They weren't interested in this as an option, and asked me to remove the cooler partially, leaving me with a non-working card. That itself would've been fine if there was intention from the manufacturer for this to be a reversible process, but that's not the intention. To remove the cooler and reinstall the factory cooler requires the thermal pads, new thermal paste, and a reasonable bit of labour, when the manufacturer intention is clearly to install the new cooler and treat it as a single unit going forward.

I'd be a lot happier to just roll over and cop the costs if PB were willing to come to the party a bit more earlier on in the process, but the whole like it or lump it attitude has left me in a similar place, and while I have a spare GPU I've scrounged up, I'm not desperately hurting for the 1080 to come back, just inconvenienced, so I'm happy to be the one to do the slog and get them to do the whole thing properly.

So to sum things up - feeling is word of the law, it's certainly more on my side than theirs, spirit of the law it's mixed ground, practicality of the situation is that most people are happy with the path of least resistance.

My ideal outcome is to hold PB to a reasonable standard of service, and get my GPU back in hand and operational. As far as I'm concerned, I've got a manufacturer card with an aftermarket part supplied by that same manufacturer as a one off replacement, and am having it rejected based on the path it's traveled through the supply chain, which to my mind defeats the purpose of going EVGA.

Anyway, cheers for the feedback guys, I think I'll probably unsubscribe from the thread now because I've gotten the mix of opinions and thoughts I was looking for, though I'll probably check in again if I see a few more posts come through.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

vulcannz

436 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#2058194 18-Jul-2018 10:11

SpartanVXL: I'm not quite understanding some parts of this...but I will mention that pbtech will do only the bare minimum that their stores are required to do.

Not true, I have had several RMAs with them and found them pretty good. One was an out of warranty HOTAS joystick. The throttle buttons started to stop working, I made a claim, the joystick was out of warranty, I explained it was a known design fault (the wires in the throttle are too brittle) - they helped me out. But because the manufacturer had no stock they voluntarily gave me a refund. IMHO a little politeness and patience goes a long way (with any retailer).

Lias

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#2058199 18-Jul-2018 10:16

vulcannz:

SpartanVXL: I'm not quite understanding some parts of this...but I will mention that pbtech will do only the bare minimum that their stores are required to do.

Not true, I have had several RMAs with them and found them pretty good. One was an out of warranty HOTAS joystick. The throttle buttons started to stop working, I made a claim, the joystick was out of warranty, I explained it was a known design fault (the wires in the throttle are too brittle) - they helped me out. But because the manufacturer had no stock they voluntarily gave me a refund. IMHO a little politeness and patience goes a long way (with any retailer).

Good to hear that they can get it right sometimes, but lots of people (including myself) have had bad experiences with RMA's with them.

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