980GTX RMA Problems

[gordon861]

I got one of the first batch of PNY GTX980 cards when they came in stock.

Started off very impressed with the performance across three HD screens. The a screen went blank and flashed up 'no signal', so I went through the usual, check everything is secure, reinstall drivers, check power, swap monitors/cables/adapters to ensure that they are all good. During the last part I start to notice inconsistent results from the adapters and decide to give up.

Contacted Scan, very helpful person at other end RMA sorted, sending back the card and the displayport-DVI adapters so that it can all be checked together to help find the fault.

The Tech Team get the card and soon confirm that it is faulty when using multiple monitors.

That was 47 hours ago, 17:10 on Wednesday, and now my card is stuck in the 'Awaiting replacement / credit' part of the process. Now I can understand that it may take a little time to sort this out but TWO FULL DAYS?

They know I bought it from them a week ago, they know it's faulty, they should have sent the replacement out to me already. I should have been able to spend the weekend playing with my new card, instead I will be cursing Scan every time I switch the machine on for not working at a reasonable speed. The way things are going I'm going to be very lucky if I have a new card waiting for my when I get home on Tuesday night next week.

Come on Scan, most people know you can do better than, why not show us how well you can do rather than disappoint your customers?

[gordon861]

Well just arrived home from work and got an email stating 'Current status of your RMA: Completed'.

No idea if that means the card will be shipping today or how long the replacement card will take to send out.

Next time perhaps I should just reject the card under the Sale of Goods Act and order a new one, might be quicker.

[gordon861]

I see a MOD has moved this to another area where Scan might even respond, in case you want to look up the order etc the RMA is 341961.

No idea what happens now though, just under 48 hours to authorise the replacement and no indication now of when I get my new card. The way things are going right now I'll be lucky to get the card by Tuesday, and even then they will probably forget the adapters.

Anyways complaint is filled through the website.

[gordon861]

This situation with Scan is the first time I've had a problem since 2008 (earliest order on record for me).

I spoke to someone in returns today and he assured me that the card will be sent out today and would be with me on Monday. But considering it is now 10pm and I have had no emails with tracking numbers tonight I do have my doubts. The tracking might not send out emails at the weekend but that would be an odd situation, if you can post there is no reason you can't email too, even if the only email I got was the 'picked up' confirmation that normally comes from DPD.

I know they will sort it out but I wanted to call them out on this because either they are dragging their feet or they have some internal procedural problems that they need to fix. The guy I spoke to said that there may be a delay because they need to put my displayport-DVI adapters in the box being returned with the new card, in which case that may be the internal procedure they need to fix/speed-up.

[gordon861]

Still no DPD tracking number, no response to my phone calls, no response to my emailed complaint. So my next try was Twitter and guess what, they aren't responding there either.

Have they just had an early Xmas party last week or something?

[gordon861]

Well I just called them again, the response is that it will go out today and be with me tomorrow, but that it is within the expected 3-5 working days turnaround. Which is OK until you realise that most of this time has been waiting for them to ship out the card.

The testing team acknowledged receipt of the card for testing on 8 Oct @ 15:39, marked it as faulty 90mins later @ 17:10 which is great service. But then the problems started, it took nearly 48hrs for the warranty team to authorise the replacement card on 10 Oct @ 17:04 (Friday). Considering that they have said previously that DPD collect form them after 8pm, why wasn't it shipped on Friday?

Then on top of all this the feedback from Scan has been abysmal they don't reply to calls/emails/tweets instead you need to keep chasing them for information. This really isn't good enough!

[Mark@SCAN]

Hi Gordon,

Firstly we are sorry that one of the parts supplied on your recent order was faulty. I can see that the goods were booked in, tested and a confirmed fault on the 08/10 which was Wednesday.

Following this a replacement invoice was generated by our returns staff for your replacement, this was done on Friday. I can see that you have spoken to our returns department on a couple of occasions, Saturday and this afternoon to chase the RMA.

Please be advised that we do advise in advance of your return that your RMA will be processed within 3 - 5 working days, I can confirm that your replacement graphics card along with the adapters are to be dispatched today for delivery tomorrow within our quoted time frame. You can track the progress of the replacement using the following link:

https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/sup...ber=&postcode=

I apologise if on this occasion the communication has been lacking, however I can see that both call's to the returns department were answered promptly and the majority of your posts via this forum were submitted out of hours over the weekend.

Regards

[gordon861]

Hi Mark, thank you for replying, I do understand about the out of hours posting on here bit. Yes, your guys on the phones have been quick, polite and willing to put up with being hassled by me regularly.

I know about the 3-5 working days bit, but 48 hours to authorise the replacement after the tech team have told them it's faulty is a bit off. If you could get that down to 36 hours the card could have gone out Friday and been with me today, 24 hours and I may have had it for the weekend. In theory you would think that the testing part of the process should be the most time consuming part of the process, not the person saying 'OK then replace it'. Expectations from the normal very good/fast experiences makes the occasional issues feel a lot worse.

In fact why does anyone need to make a decision to replace it, surely that should be automatic the moment the tech team say it's broken? If the item is accepted as a return and is under warranty, then the moment it is logged as faulty then the replacement should be authorised (unless there is evidence of abuse). The only difficulty in this case is the return of the adapters that needed to be checked at the same time as the card to determine what was at fault.

[Mark@SCAN]

Hi Gordon,

Rest assured we work as quickly as possible to get replacement goods into the hands of our customer's as quickly as possible in the event of an RMA.

I don't find it necessary to get into the complexities and in's/out's of our RMA process. Depending on volumes at a given time it may be possible to get returns turned around the same day! other's we may miss our self imposed target. However in the vast majority of cases we meet our own strict turnaround.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this process.

Regards

[gordon861]

Hi Mark

OK card delivered to neighbour, no problems, Came home and installed the card.

1. Try to boot with all three monitors and the all screens blank.
2. Boot with one card, boots OK. Plug in other two monitors and it all goes black.

I think it's going to have to go back again, I'm starting to wonder if it's a PNY issue. Will call tomorrow to arrange the pickup for a refund.

I'm now doing some online searching to see if anyone has got a PNY 980 to work in surround mode.

[gordon861]

Mark, I called Scan this morning arranged for another card pick up on Friday (as I'm home) may order a new card from another manufacturer to be delivered at the same time, will decide tomorrow.

However, I have been reading some other forums, started a new thread on the Nvidia Forums, and also found thread that may be relevant:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/t...-win-7-64-bit/

This might be worth passing on to the tech team at Scan and ask them to confirm that they are not experiencing similar issues. The description in that thread isn't identical to mine but different people try to diagnose a problem differently, but still confirm that there is a problem. Either way if Nvidia have screwed up something relating to the displayports on the new cards then you might want to know now rather than getting a bunch more RMAs in the future when people start plugging in additional monitors.

edit: Have changed the thread title to better reflect the direction this thread is going

[gordon861]

Another forum thread with displayport problems:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1515655/g...ue-anyone-else

This is starting to look like a major 980/970 problem.

[Mick@SCAN]

gordon861,

As discussed over the telephone I have personally tested this graphics card for you and was not able to replicate the fault at our end, the card was tested using 3 Startech DP to DVI active adapters and a monitor connected to the native DVI port - all 1080p, all four monitors displayed correctly, the card was then tested on a different machine with four different 1080p monitors using the same adapters without issue.

Kind regards,

[gordon861]

Mick, thanks I plan to do more investigating and uninstalling/cleaning/reinstalling the drivers again at the weekend.

It is interesting that there are a number of people with similar problems spread around the web but no solutions firm solutions posted yet.

I will let you know the outcome.

[Mick@SCAN]

gordon861,

Please keep us posted on your findings, I have sent over an email concerning the card that is currently with Scan, if you could please reply to that email at your earliest convenience we will process this for you.

Kind regards,