PDA

View Full Version : Stupid Replacement Policies! I loathe them.. will be w/o my PC for 2 weeks!



billdotson
March 14th, 2007, 07:49 PM
Ok, my PC is a custom. I built it about 4 months ago. I had to replace the MB and the PSU because they started acting up. I talked to newegg.com and told them that the MB needed to be replaced and that it was very frustrating because I would be w/o my PC for however long I was w/o my MB. They then told me they would pay $10 for the shipping cost to them and would ship it back to me FedEx Overnight! Awesome! I got my MB yesterday btw.

Newegg could not do anything about the PSU because they no longer carried that model and I had thrown out the antec box while going through my old boxes. So I went and called Antec about it and they said they would replace it w/ the newer truepower trio (as opposed to my truepower 2.0) because mine was discontinued. I asked the guy about the RMA process and he said 3-5 days. I then asked him if that was to process it or was the amount of time it would take to process it AND get it back to me. He confirmed the latter. So I was hopeful that I would receive my MB and my PSU about the same time. Well.. today I checked my email and guess what.. they had only shipped the PSU yesterday and it was shipped UPS ground. That means it will take 4 business days to get to me. That means I am now w/o my PC for ANOTHER week! ARGGH!!!

I doubt there is anything I can do about it which is ridiculous, but I guess I will have to wait.
Btw I am on my father's work PC and he uses this for work and does not want me to install anything or boot anything other than XP in fear of messing up either his Windows install or messing up his hardware (by booting a Linux distro). Some of his fears are ungrounded but I can see his concern as this is the PC he takes his work home and works on and cannot have any downtime.

I have 2 questions:

What should I do.. is there anything I can do to get it back earlier? and

Why do companies have policies such as 3-5 day RMA process than 5 business days to get it back? Honestly, THEIR product was defective, then I have to pay to ship it back to them and then they take 2 WEEKS to get it back to me. If I am already having to pay to get THEIR defective product back to THEM so I get a WORKING product that I PAID FOR then why should I EVER have to wait that long to get that product back? Come on, I really SHOULD NOT even have to pay shipping to get it back to them.. I didn't make the product defective it is their fault.

ARGHH!! I wanted to build my own PC so that it would be cheaper than getting say a Dell or HP with the same specs and not having to go through the ridiculous tech support. Also, my building my own PC I have been able to learn a lot about troubleshooting, etc. but now I am really frustrated because now I have to be w/o my PC for yet another week. It almost would've been easier to get an HP or a Dell wouldn't it?

Is there a better way to get PC parts to build custom PCs as going through these RMA processes are incredibly frustrating [and sometimes make me wish I had gotten a run-of-the-mill Dell or HP]?

What are your thoughts on this kind of stuff?

teaker1s
March 14th, 2007, 08:04 PM
waiting for my laptop back-allegedly the motherboard has hardware fault and power button has died:(

prizrak
March 14th, 2007, 08:09 PM
For the most part it's down to luck. I got a friend who spent 2K on a desktop about a year or so ago. Bought all brand stuff none of the generics. He did a custom build and been having some crazy problems. He had to return parts more than once and more than one part.

Another friend of mine went with Alienware in hopes of getting a good high-end system that would be dependable and he had to replace some parts 2-3 times. Though it was easier since they sent a tech to his house.

I built two desktops one for myself and another for my then g/f. Used some brand names for things like boards and HDD's. The rest was completely generic. Both machines are fully operational (well my desktop has had it's HDD taken out so it's off but it works). My ex's desktop had a dead PSU (note it was like a $20 unit) than I replaced with another $20 spare I had lying around and has been working for about a year since.

Basically you never really know with technology. I for one have terrible luck with cell phones, the model that works for all others just completely sux for me and needs to be replaced every few months.

As far as RMA process goes, I have encountered a few companies where they will give you the option of giving them your cc# and sending you a replacement right away. When you get the replacement you return the defective part within like 30 days or something and you are fine. If you fail to get it to them on time they'll just charge you for the part. Some of those actually pay for shipping both ways. So next time you might want to ask them about it, not all companies are upfront about it.

prizrak
March 14th, 2007, 08:12 PM
waiting for my laptop back-allegedly the motherboard has hardware fault and power button has died:(

In my experience it is well worth the $250 or so for on site service when it comes to laptops. I did that for my previous laptop (Toshiba Satellite) and it paid for itself many times over. The screen was replaced twice, the board was replaced once, the keyboard was replaced once, the speakers were replaced twice, the hinges were replaced twice, the cooling system was replaced once, the optical was replaced once, the HDD was replaced once. I think that was it :)

teaker1s
March 14th, 2007, 08:18 PM
Good point, I'm hoping it will appear tomorrow

futz
March 14th, 2007, 08:20 PM
What are your thoughts on this kind of stuff?
Umm... Just curious, but... Do you live in the woods? Are there no local shops you can buy from?

Why not just go buy an el cheapo psu to get you by until the good one comes back. You could unplug a few things that you can live without temporarily to get the power load down enuff for a cheapy psu. It's good to have a spare kicking around anyway, for testing and emergencies, etc.

gus sett
March 14th, 2007, 08:30 PM
if you think this is a ](*,), wait till you see what rental car companies generally
have available when your souped up classic is in the shop for repairs. It doesn't
sound like your dad's system provides the same ride/suspension that you wait
for the FedEx guy to bring back, but you can access the Internet at school or
public library. Wish someone could give you a more friendly warranty arrangement.
:roll:

Ok, my PC is a custom. I built it about 4 months ago. I had to replace the MB and the PSU because they started acting up. I talked to newegg.com and told them that the MB needed to be replaced and that it was very frustrating because I would be w/o my PC for however long I was w/o my MB. They then told me they would pay $10 for the shipping cost to them and would ship it back to me FedEx Overnight! Awesome! I got my MB yesterday btw.

Newegg could not do anything about the PSU because they no longer carried that model and I had thrown out the antec box while going through my old boxes. So I went and called Antec about it and they said they would replace it w/ the newer truepower trio (as opposed to my truepower 2.0) because mine was discontinued. I asked the guy about the RMA process and he said 3-5 days. I then asked him if that was to process it or was the amount of time it would take to process it AND get it back to me. He confirmed the latter. So I was hopeful that I would receive my MB and my PSU about the same time. Well.. today I checked my email and guess what.. they had only shipped the PSU yesterday and it was shipped UPS ground. That means it will take 4 business days to get to me. That means I am now w/o my PC for ANOTHER week! ARGGH!!!

I doubt there is anything I can do about it which is ridiculous, but I guess I will have to wait.
Btw I am on my father's work PC and he uses this for work and does not want me to install anything or boot anything other than XP in fear of messing up either his Windows install or messing up his hardware (by booting a Linux distro). Some of his fears are ungrounded but I can see his concern as this is the PC he takes his work home and works on and cannot have any downtime.

I have 2 questions:

What should I do.. is there anything I can do to get it back earlier? and

Why do companies have policies such as 3-5 day RMA process than 5 business days to get it back? Honestly, THEIR product was defective, then I have to pay to ship it back to them and then they take 2 WEEKS to get it back to me. If I am already having to pay to get THEIR defective product back to THEM so I get a WORKING product that I PAID FOR then why should I EVER have to wait that long to get that product back? Come on, I really SHOULD NOT even have to pay shipping to get it back to them.. I didn't make the product defective it is their fault.

ARGHH!! I wanted to build my own PC so that it would be cheaper than getting say a Dell or HP with the same specs and not having to go through the ridiculous tech support. Also, my building my own PC I have been able to learn a lot about troubleshooting, etc. but now I am really frustrated because now I have to be w/o my PC for yet another week. It almost would've been easier to get an HP or a Dell wouldn't it?

Is there a better way to get PC parts to build custom PCs as going through these RMA processes are incredibly frustrating [and sometimes make me wish I had gotten a run-of-the-mill Dell or HP]?

What are your thoughts on this kind of stuff?

billdotson
March 14th, 2007, 10:38 PM
No I do not live in the woods but I feel that I shouldn't have to go and buy a PSU to suffice because of the ridiculous RMA process and I also live in a place where the ONLY place to buy is from Staples. Staples has 2 types of PSUs in stock according to their website.. an Antec basic 350Watt PSU and an EarthWatts 430Watt PSU. Earthwatts is $80 and 350Watt is $50. They also have a PSU tester http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?prodCatType=1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=150958&cmArea=SEARCH for $13.83 w/o tax and all the other left-out details. I could go buy another PSU.. but Staples apparently doesn't have anything close to my Antec 550watt and I would rather not have to pay for another one. Unless I can use it for a week and then take it back.. but I doubt that would fly. Although I wonder if the Antec PSU tester is a pretty good investment :-k

My dad's PC has access to the internet and I can do python on it and stuff but for any of the other stuff I usually do i.e. Linux, PC games, video editing, etc. I am out of luck. Even if Dad decided it would be safe for me to boot Ubuntu on his PC (from my external USB2.0 HDD) I doubt his PC would allow it. This PC is ~5 years old and I do not think it can boot from USB and even if it could his USB ports are only 1.1. I would assume trying to run Ubuntu from a USB 2.0 HDD that is plugged into a 1.1 port would not work at all, or work abysmally.

Antec has a PSU calculator on their website and according to my PCs hardware (putting this in code brackets to make the post shorter):



System Type:Single Processor
Motherboard:Regular - Desktop
CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2400 MHz Conroe
CPU Utilization (TDP):85% TDP
RAM:2 Sticks DDR SDRAM
Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 470 MHz
Video Type:Single Card
SATA HDD:1 HDD
DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive:2 Drives
Floppy Drive:1 Drive
Sound Blaster - All Models:Yes
Additional PCI Card (avg):1 Card
USB:3 Devices
Front Bay Card Reader:Yes
Front Bay LCD Display:Yes
Keyboard and mouse:Yes
PSU Utilization:100 %
Capacitor Aging (+ W %):20 %
Total:356 Watts

If I change it so that I have 4 sticks of DDR2 SDRAM the wattage is 372watts.
As I have 2 1GB sticks I do not know if by sticks they mean 512MB or 1GB.

Also, I *might get a Direct3D10 capable videocard later on so say I get an nVidia 8800GTX
(laughable I know as that card is the high-end right now)
I would require 453watts (considering I have 2 sticks of DDR2 SDRAM) but if I have 4 sticks
the wattage is 470watts. As I do not know entirely how to make sure that the 12V rails
are giving enough current to certain areas I am not completely sure. I know the 3.3V and 5V give
power to the motherboard, HDD, fans, etc. (right??) and the 12V gives current to stuff like
videocards or other PCI cards that require their own power connector.
If it came down to it I guess I could get the least amt. wattage /amps-per-rail to run my system and have it as a backup later..


Maybe I build a PC prematurely not knowing entirely everything that would be useful to know.. i.e. checking to see if enough amps were supplied on the 12V rails. :/

MetalMusicAddict
March 14th, 2007, 10:48 PM
I know how this goes man. :( I just had to RMA my nVidia 7900GT which i hear after the fact EVGA has had no end of problems with. They have a thread hundreds of posts long on their forum about this card. Some people RMA'ing multiple times. I hope I'm not that unlucky.

In the end it will probably be 2 weeks without my card. And with me developing for Feisty it is really bad timing. :(

Oh well. Its the way it goes. :)

billdotson
March 14th, 2007, 10:59 PM
it isn't like I bought generic parts either.. I only bought name-brand.. Antec, Asus, Seagate, Logitech, Corsair..

there has got to be a better way to do this!

We shouldn't have to put up with ridiculous RMA times like 3-5 days to process then UPS or FedEx ground back to us.. parts like MBs and PSUs you can't just do w/o for a few weeks if you need your computer operational!

futz
March 14th, 2007, 11:14 PM
I also live in a place where the ONLY place to buy is from Staples.
Hehehe!! That counts as "living in the woods". :mrgreen: Staples sucks.

billdotson
March 14th, 2007, 11:27 PM
yeah Staples isn't too good. They only really have office supplies and stuff like printers, commercial software, PCs.. not really any actual PC parts.

MetalMusicAddict
March 14th, 2007, 11:49 PM
Actually, (and off topic) Ive found alot of good deals at Staples on basic things like harddrives and ROMs. I guess it just comes down to which parts you looking for.

Things like cables should always be bought online IMO.

Ive also been impressed with Circuit City lately as they have added alot to their PC parts dept. This could vary though for Staples and Circuit City depending on the are you live in.

In the end RMAs havnt been a big trouble for me. They're just inconvenient. Is a week or so really that bad considering most of it is spent in transit? :) Alot of it depends on where you live.

H.E. Pennypacker
March 15th, 2007, 01:10 AM
concern as this is the PC he takes his work home and works on and cannot have any downtime.

I can only hope he regularly backs up his files.

prizrak
March 15th, 2007, 02:26 AM
billdotson,
By RAM sticks they mean RAM sticks regardles of capacity. For the most part the difference in power consumption because of a couple of extra chips on the sticks is too small to really matter.

Wattage is a tricky concept in general. The watt rating of any PSU generally only lists the highest possible wattage it can do. However it can only do it for a very short amount of time. Generally a PSU will be able to supply 200watts less than it's max for any extended period of time. I believe only server PSU's can handle max loads for long periods of time.

tagra123
March 15th, 2007, 02:38 AM
I try to have a few vital working spares around just in case.

I like FSP power supplies -- very quiet and reliable. Antec is good too, but Ive read about a few problems lately with them. I haven't experienced problems with either -- well one of the supplies that was 5 years old gave up a couple weeks ago, but I have a spare on hand for just such occasions. It was my mythtv system and gotta keep that thing running.

Ordered a new spare. If downtime is any concern keeping a few extra parts on hand is worth the money.

billdotson
March 15th, 2007, 05:11 AM
is there anything I can do?? Can I call Antec and try somehow to get them into speeding the UPS man up.. or am I grasping for straws?

Also, on the mention of the wattage of a PSU being somewhat unreliable..I keep my PC running 24/7 unless I reboot for a software install/system update (Windows..) or am booting into Windows, or a Linux distro. How do I check what wattage I need on it if it is up all the time? For awhile I would turn it off when I wasn't using it.. but it seemed that it would get stuck at the BIOS screen when I booted up or something or maybe some sluggishness in the OS. Maybe this was due to my PSU was slowly failing and I didn't know it.. :-k
My father and my sister also started turning off their PCs at night and my dad said that he noticed his PC would be slow to boot or feel kind of sluggish in Windows so they stopped. Dad got the idea from a co-worker who said we would probably save $50 a month.. (not to mention helping the environment.. although that wasn't our goal) if we kept all 3 PCs turned off @ night

If I didn't use my PC games for games every now and then I could've gotten a PC w/ a VIA MB and saved some energy bills.. but at the time I was pretty heavy into gaming and hadn't heard of such MBs.

Oh yes.. about my father's PC.. he does back up his files but.. He is worried about having downtime so he doesn't want me to install anything in Windows. As for booting Linux he is afraid that booting Linux will mess his hardware up or something which I think is an ungrounded fear.. I even told him I would unplug his Windows drive so there would be no chance of messing it up. About 3-4 years ago when I knew nothing about computers I had downloaded and installed a bunch of sketchy programs on his PC (as I did not have my own) and it took him 3-4 days i.e. his whole weekend to get all his programs back and configured the way they were. Man he was mad. So now.. even though I only install reputable software (OSS and non-OSS) he still has what happened a few years ago in the back of his head. So in regard to that he doesn't trust me around PCs anymore. Anytime I use his and something runs slow after I have been on it it is automatically my fault.. even though I do not have administrative access to install anything into the program folder. It is quite ridiculous.. but I can see as this is his work PC and he isn't too familiar w/ Linux he doesn't want anything messed up. His Dell is now 2-3 years out of warranty.

billdotson
March 15th, 2007, 05:30 AM
but honestly.. don't you guys think that if the product that you bought from their company is defective you SHOULD NOT have to pay to ship it back and you SHOULD NOT have to wait 4-5 business days for them to ship it back?? If the companies had to pay for shipping there and then for 2 day shipping back to the consumer they would make sure those products worked flawlessly before sending them out now wouldn't they?

Personally I think RMA process should be:

-The company would pay for shipping or at least the majority (like $10 if the shipping is $15) of it back to their company since it was THEIR part that was/is defective
-process the RMA in 3-5 days.. I can see how the processing can take awhile.. alot of ones to go through and alot of things to check on certain products.
- send the product back to you FedEx/UPS 2day, 3day max.

Next time a part messes up on me (I sure hope it doesn't happen before I have to get a new PC.. hopefully ~3-4 years or even longer) I am going to try to argue nicely that their product was faulty and I as a consumer shouldn't have to wait 2 weeks because I paid for THEIR product that was defective. I talked to newegg.com through a LiveChat rep and I told them that this was going to cause me downtime so they gave me $10 for shipping, took 3-5 days for the RMA processing and shipped it to me FedEx overnight! That is what I call an awesome RMA service! Although they told me it was an exception.. but I happen to believe that the RMA process should always be like that. Now only if Antec could've been better..

It wouldn't be as bad of a deal for me if I had the $ to have extra parts on hand but as I choose to be a full-time student I don't want to have to rush and stick a job in my schedule.. so I only have the $ I have saved to use.. and if I got replacement PC parts.. that money is going to go pretty fast.

tagra123
March 15th, 2007, 03:02 PM
Here are a couple of decent power supply calculators.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
http://www.schrockinnovations.com/powercalc.php

AS far as saving electric.

Here's a link: http://www.humboldt.edu/~mrd26/home_energy.htm


An efficient 350 Watt PSU isn't necessarly going to draw 350 Watt from the outlet depending how much current is being used to supply devices. A CRT monitor on the other hand is usually between 60 watts and 120 watts. Some more some less. Turning off the monitor helps save.

Heres the formula
Watts / Voltage = Amps
Amps X Voltage = Watts

this helps on the devices that only specify Amps

So for instance if your monitor uses 100 watts and your computer uses 200 watts then you are using 300 watts per hour. If both the monitor and computer were on 24 hours a day it would use 7200 watts per day or 7.2 kilowatts Now if your rate is $0.09 than the PC is costing you about $0.64 per day to run or about $20.00 per month. To offset this you could cost install some of those screw in fluorcent replacement bulbs a lot of them use less than 15 watts.

About your PC acting sluggish or not wanting to start after be shut down.. Power supply could be the problem, but if its starting hard I'd be suspicious of the capacitors near the CPU on the motherboard. Next time you clean the PC look around for bulging or leaking capacitors.

Tachyon_
March 15th, 2007, 03:40 PM
I had to wait for a month to get my laptop back.
I just bought it, it was the expensive and branded (Fujitsu Siemens) one, so I didn't expect any problems but the screen went broke after a month and it didn't keep running over couple of hours without suddenly shutting down.


Funny thing:

I heard from IRC that the company (Powermill - Finland) had overwritten users Linux installation with windows when the problem was broken network cable connector.

Changed parts in my laptop: Graphics card, DVD drive, Screen, Fans and some others I dont remember (maybe motherboad?). But, The good old linux booted up just fine when I was expecting to see Windows XP loading (I wrote a note)... :)

Well, now it has different screen that's not so crisp and keeps awfull noice all the time. Guess it's going to be another month... :(


Is it that they can't or won't build durable electronics?

billdotson
March 15th, 2007, 05:26 PM
I think that some times they build electronics so they won't last as long as they could. Same thing w/ cars. Cars do not last anytime these days whereas in older times they could last forever. That is just my opinion though (about the electronics). Also, there are bound to be errors in manufacturing them but the company should realize it is their fault and get it back to you in minimal time.. ex: Newegg. I just told newegg that it went faulty on me (MB) and they gave me $10 to ship it to them, and shipped it back FedEx overnight w/ no charge to me. Now that is how an RMA should go.

From now on unless a company will at least ship the replacement back to me (if the part goes/is bad) in 3 business days max they are not getting anymore business. Antec has just lost all support for their products from me. Anyone know any other quality brand-name PSUs? I am not dealing w/ Antec anymore unless they can ship it back faster than UPS ground 4 days. The RMA time is acceptable but another week to ship it back is absurd. It would be different if it had to be repaired but I just wanted a working replacement.

tagra123
March 15th, 2007, 09:26 PM
FSP Group Power supplies are good too -- I don't know about their return policy because I've never had to return one.

billdotson
March 15th, 2007, 11:05 PM
FSP Group eh? Sounds like you have used FSP Group PSUs quite a bit.. must mean they are reliable. but from what I heard Antec was pretty reliable but then I got a defect..

teaker1s
March 17th, 2007, 12:39 AM
goans my laptop returned with a new touchpad as hp replaced due to cosmetic wear, while they fixed power button-now it has a sticking left synaptic button-back for repair:(

billdotson
March 17th, 2007, 01:18 AM
sticking left synaptic button?? what is that?