At one time or another we've all experienced equipment failure. We yell, kick and scream, but the damn thing is still dead, sitting there mocking us. If you're lucky, it's still in warranty. Wouldn't it be great to know what to expect from the service department (RMA Dept) of the manufacturer you're dealing with? It would help to know what kind of turn around time to expect, what is required to send in, and how picky they are about any aftermarket equipment you may have installed (although I know none of us would ever void our warranties ) Perhaps if you had been forewarned of shoddy service, you may never have purchased that particular brand.

What we have here is a chance to compile information on various vendors. We can grade them on quality, durability, service and speed. Share with everyone your experiences with any vendor you've dealt with. Include what led you to buying that vendor's product (include price, reputation, free gifts etc...). Tell us who you bought it from (if different from vendor) and how their service, speed and prices are. Let us know the ease of installation and your general impression (don't go too far into depth, these aren't reviews). For those of us who've RMA'd a product, post your experience with that as well. Give us the vendor's name, and the name of the Service company if different. Post their website URL, or email addy. Tell us about the return shipping cost, how long did it take to get a response (via e-mail, phone etc), were they helpful, (did they raise a stink because you didn't clean off all the adhesive on the ram chips). Post the turn around time they quoted, and the actual turnaround time you experienced. Lastly tell us of the product you recieved back. Was it the same model, better model, lesser model, total screw up and you threw it out the window?

So, take the time to help your fellow pimps, and give them some valuable info to help them wisely spend their hard earned greenbacks.

This post deserves to be sticky........... done!
Let's try to keep this thread on topic too as it is basically for informational purposes.

This experience is with Directron

I guess I will start this thread in the right direction, although I have been fortunate enough to have only had one RMA to deal with so far.
Last November I purchased a Shuttle AN35/N Ultra from Directron (had 2 sticks of PC2100 donated by a longtime friend in FL). Some of you may remember the trouble I had getting her up and running. I RMAed the mobo since I didn't have another PSU to double check that (although I had just gotten the Fortron PSU so I didn't suspect it anyway).
When Lokie came down to Iowa to pick up that huge printer, he was kind enough to bring a spare CPU so I eliminated that as well.
So I contact Directron and got a live human being to talk to (imagine that huh?) and the RMA process was begun rather painlessly after a few questions. I sent the mobo in and in 2.5 to 3 weeks time had a new mobo on my doorstep.
So I put her all back together only to have the same problem (turned out thet BOTH sticks of RAM were bad) and I ended up having to buy new RAM, which was a good thing because I opted for the HyperX PC2700 in hopes of getting the infamous BH-5 chips as they were being phased out at this time (no luck here though, just pulled back the heat spreaders the other day).
Overall my experience with Directron was a positive one and I would recommend them (if Newegg didn't have the item in stock or cheaper) to most anyone.

(out of a possible ten rating)
Initial purchase experience: 8
Initial Shipping: 9 (3 days from Texas to Iowa)
Customer service/tech support: 8.5 (talked to a very knowledgable and helpful tech)
RMA service/speed: 8 (don't have a basis for comparison though)

Mine is also for Directron, but not a real RMA.

In the first week or so I was on PR, I bought a budget video card from Directron, a FX5200. Purchase went smoothly, had no problems. Item arrived on time thanks to UPS. However, do to some mixup, they sent me a MX440 instead of the FX5200. Called up Directron, spoke with a living, breathing human who helped me out. They sent out the FX5200 same day via UPS Ground and emailed me a logo to attach to the MX440 for return. No problems at all.

Other than that, I've never RMA'd. I consider myself lucky.

My RMA was with Sapphire. If you have to deal with them, you will actually have to deal with a company called AlthonMicro. I sent them an email to tell them of my dead 9800pro, and they returned my email within 24 hours telling me what I needed to do to get an RMA #. I had to send them proof of purchase (Newegg Screenshot of my purchase was good enough for them), and the serial # on the card (DO NOT LOSE THE STICKERS ON THE CARD!!!!!). Once they verified my claim for an RMA, they emailed me an RMA form, which had to be filled out and Faxed (this could have been emailed more easily, but faxing is what they said) back to them. They called my house (I was at work), to give me the RMA#, but I wasn't there, so had to call them back to get it. All in all a pretty simple procedure. I had to send them 8 dollars (money order). I sent the card out and they verified that they had recieved it 6 days later. I say "they" verified it, but actually I had to email to ask them about it. I highly recommend pestering the hell out of any Returns department you deal with. You will be a pain in their ass, and they will deal with you quicker. I was informed that turnaround time was 3 weeks. I waited a week and emailed them again to check the status, and let them know I really needed the card, and was told that it would be shipped out by the end of the month (approx 5 days sooner than the stated 3 weeks). It shipped out UPS on 10/28 and I recieved it today (11/3). The card was in an anti-static bag with cardboard pieces on both sides...this was wrapped in bubble wrap. UPS gave it their usual care, and the box arrived smashed. Fortunately for me, the card was unscathed. I recieved the newer version, but still a 9800pro 128mb. I'm pleased with the RMA service, and with Sapphire as a whole.

I would rate my initial purchase as a 10. It was simple and very fast.. I also got a deal as it was a refurb. Newegg is the BEST!

Use of the product had been flawless except of course for it's very premature demise, so at this time I have to rate it at a 7 due to that.

The RMA process went smoothly. I rate it at a 7. It doesn't rate higher since I felt like they wouldn't have worked as quickly if I hadn't kept emailing them.


I said pestering is a good idea, and I'll tell you why. I work for a large sports optics company, in the repair and returns department. I know from working there, that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I've seen our customer service dept waive charges on out of warranty, damaged products. So, sometimes it pays to be a bit of a pest. Just don't swear or threaten, and you'll be good to go.

Only one RMA so far (thank god). It was with Newegg (bad CD drive). It was easy and painless. Newegg rocks

EDIT: Great idea for a thread, BTW
You Have Bling

My RMA experience was with Accupc.com. I bought a video card from them and it was dead on arrival. I gave them a call and they emailed the ram information along with a sheet i had to print out and stick it on the shipping box. The y didnt charge anything for shipping. I called them again the next and asked them to cross ship the card. They told me to mail my card as soon as i received the replacement. They mailed the card about 2 days after my dead card arrived. It was fedex overnight so i had in front of my door the next day.

I'd like to rate accupc.com's service as a 10 since i wasnt on hold for more than a minute and i talked to actual people.

Their service was quick and easy since they emailed me the informtion and they shipped the card over night.

They didnt charge anything for the shipping and they provided me with a shipping label so the rma didnt cost me anything.

Upcoming update will be about MSI's service because the replacement card that accupc.com sent me just died after 8 months of use.

Kicken thread , i wish this was here before my experience w/ xoxide.com.(not a true rma) i ordered a zalman 7000b hsf, arctic silver5, thermaltake l.e.d ram sink, some psu wire sleeving, 3 fans, some ccl's, and a keyboard mouse combo on november-19-04 (3 day shipping). on the 27th i called them up and asked to cancle the order on account that i wasnt going to pay that kind of shipping charge for an order that i havnt recieved yet. the dude on the phone told me that it left west chester PA, 3am on the 26th and that it would arive ON SCHEDUAL the 29th!!!, so i couldnt cancle the order because it shipped already. when it FINALY arived i was about to tell the UPS guy to send it back, but then id have to pay shipping again. open the box and everything inside was organized packaging paper inbetween everyhting, and all products worked none broken.

customer service 8/10-the guy did all he could (a little short with me though)
shipping reliability 2/10- this was my 4th order through them , all have been late(this the latest)
product packaging 9/10- looks good, no bunk/broken products

overall the product selection, packaging, quality and customer service are up to par but the only thing that holds back this site is there inability to meet there deadlines. 7/10

AMD, my mom got mea 2500+ for christmas a year ago i chipped it putting on the heatsink and i called right after, 2 or 3 minutes later i got somebody on the line he was a nice guy said to send it to this addres and hed replace it with a 2800+ right away, when i got it my powersupply died and took it with it, so i called back and it was hte same guy, he said he could only do it once but to send it anyways and see what he could do, i sent it and not to long after got another 2800+ back thats 2 replaced both times my fault, nice people.

i havent had to RMA anything yet, thank the PC gods!

my 3 computer parts online have been with EagePC. i got a watercooling kit from them. shipping was a little high priced, and wasnt as fast as it could have been for the price, but everything got here just fine.

next one is with FrozenCpu. i purchased a clear acrylic case. while the color on the case seems kinda yellowish, i know its not thier fault. i would buy from these guys more often if i had the cash !
my order went smootly online. fair price for standard shipping, and it got there on time.

recently i purchased a RBX and some other items from DangerDen. shipping price was good for standard shipping, and it got here a day early ! DD rocks!

i JUST bought a rad, fillport and some tubing from DD again. called them up to see if everythign would ship out today. they said it wouldnt be a problem, so went ahead and placed the order. i got a little worried it wasnt going to ship today, so i called in about 5pm cst to verify. and they said it was already out the door. shortly after i checked my email and there was a tracking # for my parts! i cant give enough props to DD. they are and will be the source of all my computer needs from now on. i just wish they had better assortment of items. i would like to see more LED lighting and other little things.

i plan on possibly buying a pump within the next few days, i just need to figure out how to get cash into my paypal acct without my wife finding out! once i do tho, DD will be a little richer.....

Hellz

My first real RMA. My Western Digital 160GB hard drive died last week. Mailed it via USPS Priority mail last Saturday. They received the hard drive on the 14th, and shipped the replacement back te 15th, via 2nd day UPS air. That is awesome.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectrum My first real RMA. My Western Digital 160GB hard drive died last week. Mailed it via USPS Priority mail last Saturday. They received the hard drive on the 14th, and shipped the replacement back te 15th, via 2nd day UPS air. That is awesome.

I've also RMA'd a WD. They are great. I did the cross shipping thing, so was only down a few days.

As I seem to be the first to post from the UK (correct me if im wrong) i can't comment on any of the above vendors.

The most pleasant experience ive had was with Overclockers.co.uk. Ive bought most of the parts for my new rig from them, and been amazed with shipping options and delivery times.

Everything ive recieved has been packaged extremely well and they had no problems sorting out a mess i made of an order a few weeks back. I accidently ordered too many of a rather expensive item, they contacted me first about it and it was soon cleared up.

Prices are very good, customer service (phone) is excellent and their product range is amazing

Couple experiences:

One
BuyExtremeGear.com or BuyXG.com
Rate: Horrible
I order once from then with a slightly slow service. Still service was not bad.
Second time i ordered from them. They sent out the wrong CPU and Burner. The RMA on that was a nightmare.
Third, was a order for a case. At first they didnt even tell me that the order was on back log. Get dropping emails into them, finally are 2 weeks they told me its on back log and i told them to refund my money. They did. And i purchased the case from NewEgg.

Since then, i have never boughten anything from the intardnet cept for the Egg

This experience is with PowerColor.

My PowerColor 9800SE died on me, one day over my warranty with Directron. Directron was cool though, they still offered to take it, but warned it'd be hella slow as they don't have any 9800SE's in stock. So, I RMA'ed through PowerColor. They ask a $12 fee to cover shipping, etc for direct RMA's, which I didn't like, but I paid it. I used an aftermarket cooler, so I reattached the OEM cooler, though I still used AS5 on the bottom, but PowerColor didn't seem to care about that. I sent out the card to them via USPS Priority Mail, with delivery confirmation. It was delivered on July 5th. I emailed them July 8th regarding my RMA's status, but didn't get any reply until the 13th, when they notified me it had shipped the day before and gave me a FedEx tracking number. I received the card today, with a turn around time of 7 days. Not bad, not bad at all PowerColor.

However, the card I received was physically bent. It was just the rear bracket that was bent, and I was able to bend it back just fine. The card even works fine, overclocks very nicely. However, it looks like they don't check what they send out, or they just don't care. I sent them an email with a picture, so I'll update with what they say.

The card was however returned with a full retail packaging, with adapters, box, manual and discs.

I am withholding my rating until PowerColor gets back to me regarding the bent bracket.

[Edit] They replied the next business day and were ready to send me a replacement bracket. I'd give them a 9 out of 10 for the overall RMA experience.

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Check out http://resellerratings.com/ for the real skinny on all your favorite/least favorite resellers

This thread isn't really referring to resellers abyssling, rather manufacturers for RMA requests.
Good looking out though.

Doh, I missed that. I'm a tard rofl. I saw the Newegg and Directron reseller rma thing and didnt read all the posts.

Another experience with xOxide, although not an RMA. I ordered an aluminum LED fan (blue) from them. I opened up the box and slapped in in the case, turned everything on, and ::wham:: nice green light shining at me. I took a closer look at the box and sure enough it was marked green instead of blue.

I emailed them, and they said "our mistake, we'll send you the right one, and don't worry about returning the other one".

Great, great experience, even if it was just a fan...

Newegg:

What can I say, they're about the most painless RMA possible. I've had 9 RMAs so far through them and each has been so quick and easy it's unbelievable. Only downside is that now you have to pay for return shipping.

Xoxide:

Haven't had to RMA through them yet, but each and every order I've placed has taken at least 2 weeks to ship even though they have the item "in stock"

Western Digital:
3 HDD RMAs and they've all gone as smooth as silk. The first two I sent back and had the replacements in a matter of 3-4 days. The last I had sent to me via cross-mail and received it in 2 days.

Epson:
Printer wouldn't work properly. After a short phone conversation with a tech, they asked for my address and told me that my new printer would be there in about a week and to just send back my old one in the box that the new one showed up in via the prepaid lable included in the box. The printer arrived on day 3.

Dell:
After waiting the 2 1/2 hours to get through to a tech who spoke english as a 5th language, I had to endure an hour of questions ("Is the computer plugged in?, Is there power to your house?,") after explaining to the man that I had my Hardware A+ certification. After the formalities were out of the way, he told me that he would have to ship the parts to a local authorized tech to have them installed and that it might take 4-6 weeks for final repair... I convinced him that I was more than capable of swapping out a mobo and a PSU on my own and he got PERMISSION to send me MY parts directly to ME.

Hitatchi:
After a 45 minutes of having to endure the cheesy elevator music, I got connected a very polite gentleman who asked a few required questions and informed me where to send my 120GB HDD. I sent it in and recieved an email 2 days later stating that they had upgraded my RMA to a 200GB HDD due to the inconvenience of having to wait an extra day for my HDD return... 1 day for an extra 80GBs? Can I wait an extra week for a couple of raptor drives instead? Great to deal with


Edit:
Just had a lulu of an RMA experience. I have a waterblock for my X800/850 video card from Koolance. Well, in the process of switching out video cards to find one that didn't have the infamous "power cable not connected" error, I managed to lose one of the retaining nuts. So I get ahold of Koolance and they ask me to fill out an RMA form. I fill it out and the RMA department emails me back with the price for the nut......

$9.00............. Then they have the audacity to ask if I will be paying by check or credit card.

According to the tech I spoke with this price includes:
$1.00 - Retaining Nut
$8.00 - Shipping

Edit 2:

I swear the RMA experiences just keep coming.. the latest is in regards to a video card purchased directly from VisionTek. The card arrived D.O.A.. The process so far has involved 3 phone calls to TekSupport, 5 emails with Return services, 2 emails with the RMA division, a phone call to the RMA division, and a phone call to the head of VisionTek Returns. Below is the last email that I received from the RMA division.

Your RMA # is: *******
Be sure to clearly mark your RMA# on the outside of the box when you send in your card. Keep your manual and driver CD, send the defective card and a $10.00 check or money order made payable to Visiontek for shipping and handling:

Visiontek Returns
ATTN: RMA# V600695
2200 Mount Prospect Rd.
DesPlaines, IL 60016

Returned products that are not accompanied by the shipping and handling fee will be returned to you.

As stated in our warranty agreement, VisionTek is not responsible for packages that are lost in shipping. The only way for you to ensure that your package arrives at our warehouse is by shipping the card via a method that is traceable. UPS/FedEx work best but any carrier that will provide you a tracking number is acceptable.

Be sure to package the product inside the plastic retail clamshell or packed inside an anti-static bag. The product is susceptible to damage by impact so be sure to protect it by using adequate packaging material. Returns that are not packaged appropriately will be returned as-is.

Once your defective card has been received and processed, it will be repaired or replaced and shipped to the address you have provided.

Please make sure that the return shipping address marked in the "FROM" section of your package matches the shipping address that you submitted for your RMA. This RMA# is valid for 30 days from the date of issuance.

Thanks,
Visiontek RMA Department

Please visit the VisionTek forum at http://forum.visiontek.com. If you have any trouble logging in, reply to this e-mail with the user name that you provided at registration or your full name and we'll get you set up.

=============End of Email===============

As you can deduct... this would end up costing me to ship the part back to VisionTek and a $10.00 check for them to ship a new one back to me (original shipping was $5.00). All this would be in HOPES that the replacement doesn't arrive in the same condition... According to the person I spoke with in the RMA division... if the replacement arrives bad, I would have to repeat the above process including the payment.