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

[billdotson]

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]

waiting for my laptop back-allegedly the motherboard has hardware fault and power button has died

[prizrak]

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]

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]

Good point, I'm hoping it will appear tomorrow

[futz]

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]

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.

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]

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/st...&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

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]

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]

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!