Official GIGABYTE Forum
Other questions related to GIGABYTE => RMA and service => Topic started by: Palencia on August 17, 2010, 09:41:47 am
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Hello.
On May the 18th I've sent a mother board under warranty to my local seller. On July the 22nd, Gigabyte says the part is not under warranty because it was scratched, supposedly, by me. However, before sending the mother board, I took some pictures in order to have an easier assembling later. One of the pictures clearly shows that there wasn't any scratch there. The seller has sent the pictures and everything to Gigabyte, but Gigabyte doesn't fulfill the warranty. This means that Gigabyte has left me without computer for several months (take into account it is one of the more expensive Gigabyte mother boards), and without any answer to me.
Could someone address me to someone inside Gigabyte to ask for a solution, please? Any help would be more than welcome.
Here is the picture showing the before and after:
(http://a.imageshack.us/img815/7593/gigabytewarranty.th.jpg) (http://a.imageshack.us/img815/7593/gigabytewarranty.jpg)
Thanks in advance,
C.Palencia.
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This is always a problem with defects that show up after the component has been RMAed. In fairness to Gigabyte they are in the position of picking up the tab if they just replace any damaged board that is sent and so have to try and decide the fairness of each individual case. I would have thought that with substantiating picturers they would have been more lenient in your case. It could always be inferred that you took the pictures before the board was scratched or indeed of another board but I would say that it would be in the interest of good customer relations to have replaced your motherboard in this instance.
I will contact runn3R the Gigabyte representative on this forum to see if he can help you.
Good luck.
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Thanks for your help, Dark Mantis. I'll contact runn3R.
I understand that Gigabyte should have "good faith" in this case, because, as you said, it could be inferred the picture was taken before the scratch. However, why should I risk my warranty by scratching the mobo? Who scratches a mounted and working mother board in such a place (just next to the outer box)? Even my seller, before sending the part, give me a receipt showing there was no visible damages in the part.
I feel a little bit defenseless in this case. I hope Gigabyte can give me some explanations about this RMA.
Thanks again.
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If you have the added bonus of the receipt from the retailer stating that it was undamaged then I don't think that you should have a problem I have alread contacted runn3R on your behalf.
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To be honest, the receipt doesn't specifically say it is undamaged, but the field where the visible damages must be listed is empty. I remember we checked there if there was some kind of "burnt" caused by a short circuit or similar, and there wasn't any. We would have seen the scratch if it was there then.
Thanks again, Dark Mantis. I'll check this thread to see the updates.
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I am sure runn3R wil be in touch with you directly via PM if he can do anything. He's a bit busy at the moment as he only came back off holiday yesterday ;)
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Hi Palencia
I have just informed our Spain branch about your issue. Please await their reply.
Thanks
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Hi all,
I'm Iñigo from GBT Spanish team.
as runn3r said, He contacted Spanish team in order to solve this issue.
I'm talking with Spanish RMA department yet in order to collect all the info from them.
PALENCIA, also I want to look those pictures if possible (I sent to you my mail by PM)
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Hi Inigo(sorry for the spelling I don't have enya on my keyboard) and welcome to our forum. It is good to see the different parts of Gigabyte international working together. It raises confidence in the cohesion of the company.
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Hi all,
I'm Iñigo from GBT Spanish team.
as runn3r said, He contacted Spanish team in order to solve this issue.
I'm talking with Spanish RMA department yet in order to collect all the info from them.
PALENCIA, also I want to look those pictures if possible (I sent to you my mail by PM)
Hi Iñigo, thanks for joining the forum and looking into this problem
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Thanks to everybody for your quick answers and reactivity. Iñigo, I've written you an email with some pictures. I hope they can help you to trace this issue.
Thanks again.
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Please come back and let us know the outcome of your saga. Hopefully it will be resolved quite soon. ;)
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First of all, I want to make clear one point:
The RMA procedure includes more parts than those any of those involved can control 100%.
The client, for example, has to give his Mobo to the shop. The shop to the Reseller or Distributor, and those to Gigabyte RMA center in Spain.
In this case, even both the final client and us having photos of the product...all the way long from him to us cannot be as well controled as customer and us would like to.
We have photos of each "damaged by user" rated units that RMA dept. proceed, and they matched this unit. So we can say it's not our fault and clean our hands. But any Gigabyte employee would feel that as fair.
It is so difficult to determine of which part of the process is the fault. And, actually we cannot prove if provided photo matches this concrete mobo or not (as Palencia said)...but we cannot prove neither that it isn't and prefer to trust our clients.
So it would be swapped for another unit we'll send to customer home.
Hope this solves this issue in the best way for all the parts.
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Well done Gigabyte!
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I think that is a very fair outcome for the OP and am glad to see that Gigabyte's customer relations are for once exceptionally good. ;) As Inigo said the process of an RMA passing through so many hands is not really ideal and I think that some form of responsibility check should be done and verified by each participant. ie signing for the board in good condition. That way at least you can prove "where the buck stops". 8)
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I must say I'm extremely pleased with this answer from Gigabyte. It is clear that, with the only proof being some pictures taken with a cell phone, Gigabyte wasn't obliged to replace anything, specially, as Iñigo explains, existing so many steps in the RMA procedure.
Having said so, that's why I'm extremely grateful to how the company has handled this case, relying on the customer. So a very big thanks, specially to Iñigo (who has thoroughly followed this case) and to runn3R and Dark Mantis for being so helpful.
Just one thing, about the comment Dark Mantis makes regarding the "responsibility check" through the RMA process. In this case, there was this kind of check in the shop I bought the part! I signed a receipt from the retailer when I delivered the mobo for repairing. It says the mobo is under warranty and that it doesn't boot (along with more details like my data, the model of the mobo, the things I gave like cd, wires, manual, etc.). And there is a specific field for stating the visible damages and it is empty (because there wasn't any). When I showed it to the shop they said that, even with that document, they wouldn't change the part because the damage would have been done by the manufacturer. However, they didn't do anything to prove it, leaving the customer (me) alone.
Honestly, I expected a similar answer from Gigabyte. However, they have preferred to trust me, which clearly shows the difference between a big company (from which I'll stay as a loyal customer) and a company (the shop) that let their customers down (and from which I'll stay as far as possible).
So, in short, many, many thanks for your help and trust, Gigabyte.
P.S. I'm going to edit the first post to show how well Gigabyte managed this case.
P.P.S. I've replied your mail, Iñigo, with my data. I hope my next post here will be from my own computer!
Edit: Ops, it looks like I can't modify the first post nor my previous messages. However, I can edit this one. Maybe there is a time limit or something?
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No I think that you only get four hours to make modifications to your posts. After that it is consigned to history. ;)