RMA Woes

[t_aitch]

Regarding RMA Number 172884

I purchased a Silverstone ST60F Power Supply from Scan around 15months ago. After a year of use, i discovered that a few faults were niggling away at me with this. I thought that because the Power Supply was over 12 Months old i would have to send it to Silverstone Direct to get it looked at, however the guys at Scan said that i can send it back to them.

The first, which was quite small was that after several hours use, the fan, when the power supply is mounted upside down would start to rattle against the fan grill. This is the correct way it should be mounted for both my old Lian Li V2000B and my new, matched case; Silverstone Sugo SG01 Case.

The second, and more annoying is that whenever the power cable connecting the power supply to the mains is disconnected and then reconnected, you can hear a crackle coming from the power supply, however the computer system will not switch on, even though all connections remain the same as when it worked before. In order to get it to work, i was required to disconnect and reconnect the power supply several times before it would work.

I opened up an RMA for this, however i decided not to send it back as i would have not been able to do without my computer system for a week as i had a lot of work on at the time, and the use of my computer was essential, i also didn't have a seperate power supply to hand. My computer system was also in a stable state where the power supply would not need unplugging at all.

Now, at the beginning of December i opened up a new RMA as i needed to get this sorted and the use of my computer was not required over the festive period. RMA number 172884 was issued to me and the power supply was sent back to Scan shortly after.

On the 18th December i received an email Scan stating that no fault was found, i found this perculiar as i knew that this power supply was definitely faulty as i had tested it not only in my current computer system, but also on a friends which produced the same symptoms, i made sure just to make sure that i wasnt going to waste on postage sending back an item which was not faulty.

I sent Scan another email stating that i was certain that the power supply was faulty and that i would be grateful if they would retest it, i had a reply back saying that it would not be possible until the new year, this was fine as i understand how busy they might be, fortunately i am borrowing a friends power supply in the mean time.

I decided to give Scan returns a phone call this morning after not hearing anything for a while, and i spoke to an employee named Ian, he advised me that they did not find a fault on the 2nd time of testing.

I then spoke to Ian's supervisor named "Dan" if i can recall correctly, he advised me that there is nothing wrong and that postage will need to be paid in order to be returned. I was very unhappy with this, as i am 100% certain that there was a fault with this, as it was tested in two different systems in my household and both the same problems were reproduced.

I refused to have a product sent back to me which i know is faulty, especially not a power supply as it would be quite dangerous to not only my computer, but my household also having a faulty household running my computer system. Dan offered me free postage back for the power supply, but this just wasnt good enough as i know that the power supply was faulty and returning it back to me would be no good.

I would like to know where i stand on this as i now feel that Scan think that i am lying about the whole situation and that i am trying to take advantage of them.

I also personally feel completely let down by a company, that i have always received fantastic customer service from, however, knowing now the headaches involved in returning a faulty item to them, i'm questioning whether i should purchase from Scan again.

Thank you

[Wiczy]

The crackle is normal with a large number of PSU's and can depend on how 'confidently' you insert the cable. The fan rubbing on the grill is clearly a manufacturing or design flaw.

[t_aitch]

Thanks, i had that 'crackle' sound in my old Enermax, however in the Silverstone one it seems to be a lot louder.

Also, my Enermax one switched on

[Chris P]

Thank you for your feedback

Your query has been forwarded to the Returns Manager to deal with, and will be in contact tomorrow to resolve this problem.

Best Regards

[Mark@SCAN]

Hi

Nobody was saying you were 'lying' just that we could not replicate the problems you experienced both after initial testing and then after you requested an extended test which we did for 24 hours. I explained the reasons why we could not replace an item we had not tested as faulty and offered to either return the PSU to you free of charge as a gesture of goodwill OR to look into the possibility of us returning the PSU to silverstone on your behalf both of these options you rejected.

We want to help resolve the problem as quickly and effciently as possible however as i'm sure you can appreciate with intermittant problems of this nature it is not always easy, however i can't just send you a replacement PSU and write off the unit returned.

I Hope we can come to an amicable solution that suits both parties involved and look forward to your responce

[wesleyaldred]

After reviewing the situation, your notes and the technicians comments from testing i beleive the best way forward is for us to arrange for the item to be returned to the manufacturer on your behalf, obviously you genuinely beleive there to be a problem which we have been unsuccessfull in replicating despite 2 seperate tests.

If this is unacceptable to yourself then i'm afraid our only option would then be to return the item to yourself.

Wesley
Returns Manager

[Blitzen]

Surely if it was faulty, regardless of how much you need your PC, you wouldve returned it straight away instead of still using it til after xmas. Seeing as how you did this, there cant be much wrong with it.
To say that it may be dangerous, then carry on using it is a bit mad.

Surely its either faulty or it isnt.
Sure its not just the kettle lead?

[wesleyaldred]

Surely if it was faulty, regardless of how much you need your PC, you wouldve returned it straight away instead of still using it til after xmas. Seeing as how you did this, there cant be much wrong with it.
To say that it may be dangerous, then carry on using it is a bit mad.

Surely its either faulty or it isnt.
Sure its not just the kettle lead?

Funilly enough this is EXACTLY the point the supervisor was making yesterday on the phone.

[t_aitch]

Funilly enough this is EXACTLY the point the supervisor was making yesterday on the phone.

To be honest, it does seem a little stupid that i didnt send it back in the first place, but after the 3 months or so had past i was advised to send it back as soon as possible by my housemate.

After reviewing the situation, your notes and the technicians comments from testing i beleive the best way forward is for us to arrange for the item to be returned to the manufacturer on your behalf, obviously you genuinely beleive there to be a problem which we have been unsuccessfull in replicating despite 2 seperate tests.

If this is unacceptable to yourself then i'm afraid our only option would then be to return the item to yourself.

Wesley
Returns Manager

Sorry for taking a while to get back to you.

If you could send it back to me that would be great, thank you.

Thanks

[Mark@SCAN]

I will arrange to get this shipped back to you a.s.a.p

Regards