Hi guys and gals,
I've just phoned about this, but felt I needed to vent and hoped anyone reading this would actually be of some use.
We placed an order in the middle of July for some parts to build a PC, the key things in this case being the motherboard (a Gigabyte GA-H81M-D2V) and a CPU (a Haswell refresh-based Pentium Dual Core G3258).
Before placing the order the Gigabyte website listed the CPU as being supported with the F4 BIOS (though all CPUs were listed as supported with the F4 BIOS, no earlier BIOSes mentioned at all).
I came to build said PC today, but on switching on, it's just whirring the fans up and down, seemingly switching on and off on loop. This appears to mean the BIOS isn't compatible with the CPU. I've checked the usual things (remove anything unnecessary, change the PSU, try individual RAM sticks and in different sockets, etc) and nothing changes, so it does seem to be either a faulty motherboard or CPU, or CPU not supported with the installed BIOS. Obviously I don't know which BIOS is installed on this particular board (no mention on the box or board). We couldn't buy an older non-Refresh Pentium Dual-Core as there were none in stock (I would have been happy with a cheaper one for this build, but they had no "expected" date of arrival, so went for the slightly more expected Refresh model).
On calling Scan, the support guy said that they are happy to update the BIOS, but it's a £10 charge and the cost of carriage (that's approaching the cost of a new motherboard, which was £28). On ranting a bit saying that they sold me these parts, that everything is supposed to be compatible and that surely they're responsible, he took it to our managed account guy, who said they would wave the cost of the BIOS update, but we'd still have to pay carriage. He was happy to blame Gigabyte at any opportunity and eventually said if we wanted to contact Gigabyte they might compensate us for this carriage (yeah, that's going to happen) and our contract is with Scan, not Gigabyte anyway.
Frankly, we flat out refuse to pay carriage. We bought these parts and they are listed as compatible. That Scan don't publish which board has which BIOS installed (to be fair it would be a logistical nightmare) isn't our problem.
If we had an older (or first gen or whatever you want to call it) Haswell CPU that would be fine (obviously we don't), but why should your customers have to pay to make an apparently compatible board compatible?
I'm sure I could have quoted the Sales of Good act at him, but clearly as a business (we're a school), it doesn't apply, but it shouldn't have to be relevant anyway (even if it would be - I don't know).