XFX Warranty Update

[Blackbadger]

Hi ChisP/Scan

Earlier in the year we were told that you were actively working hard with XFX to sort out the "mess" that is/was the XFX RMA procedure, since then there has been a lot of confusion, misinformation, locked and deleted posts regarding the situation.

As I understand the situation, there are 3 main scenarios, please respond accurately and clearly to each so we can all understand fully what the situation is.

1) Where the card is doa/faulty upon purchase.
This situation appears to be resolved well. Now the card is tested by scan and a replacement/refund is issued accordingly. (before it was insisted the card had to be sent back to XFX). Good, as it should be

2) Where the card fails after a period of time within the 2 years of warranty. And was purchased prior to "Jan 2009"? (date estimated)
Cards were originally sold with a 2year RTB scan warranty, this has now been changed on your site to a manufacturer's warranty only. Resulting in Scan refusing to hold to the original contract and passing the problem to the manufacturer, which results in mammoth delays for customers, upto 1 month to get sorted. If it does..

Some information on your site that needs clarification.
On your website XFX gfx cards are listed as

Manufacturer: SCAN/XFX UK LTD.

Is Scan really involved in the manufacturing of the cards ? If so why wont you honour the warranty? If not why list yourself as the manufacturer ? Its very confusing for the customer, and makes it look like you will deal with problems, when instead they are at the mercy of a disreputable 3rd party.


3) Where the card fails after a period of time within the 2 years of warranty. And was purchased after "Jan 2009"? (date estimated) These are listed with a 2 years manufacturers warranty.
Faulty cards must be sent back to scan who once every 7 days? send them to xfx for testing, again resulting in up to a month turnaround.

Why are xfx and scan so different to other retailers/manufacturers ?
The procedure should be,
Customer contacts scan obtains RMA
Item is sent to scan
Scan Tests item
If faulty, Scan issues a replacement.
Why does this not happen ? If we were to buy other items from scan, this would be the procedure. If we were to buy a XFX card from another retailer this would be the procedure.

Basically the point is, a gfx card is such a critical component of a PC (you cant see without 1) Anything over 1 week to sort the RMA is ridiculous.


Maybe I misunderstand the procedures. That's exactly why I have created this thread so we can all be clear and find out what great improvements scan have sorted over the last 4 months with there "platinum partner".

Thanks.

[Joey2oo7]

I look forward to Scans response.

[Richh]

Blimey. It's a few weeks since I checked in. The economy is in turmoil, MPs are on the take, the world is apparently going to end in 2012, but at least there are still posts about XFX's warranty support. Thank the lord there's something we can rely on.

Good questions Blackbadger, will be interesting to hear what the position now is.

[Joey2oo7]

[Chris P]

SCAN does not manufacture Graphics Cards.
All other questions have been forwarded to Wesley (Returns Manager), who I expect will be able to reply on Tuesday ..

Best Regards

[Blackbadger]

Hi Wesley, any update ?

[wesleyaldred]

Hi

Point 1 is correct

Point 2 is incorrect entirely

Point 3 is valid in all cases were point 1 does not apply. To speed up the process of XFX returns we removed the testing queue at Scan and upon receipt at Scan we forward the cards to XFX for testing, saving days from the whole process.

ALL XFX products are shipped to XFX each week on a Wednesday.

The warranty procedure is different with XFX simply becuase this is XFX's warranty procedure with Scan.

[Blackbadger]

Hi Wesley, thanks for getting back.

We were told you were actively working with XFX to speed up the process, nothing appears to have changed. Infact it appears worse for us. The process you have set up appears to be incredibly poor for the end user.

Say on a weekend the card fails, Monday I raise a RMA, post it Tuesday, you receive it Wednesday, it will be 9 days until the card is sent to XFX for testing. XFX take a minimum of 2 weeks ? then the item is sent back to scan, then sent to the customer in turn, resulting in over 1 month, for a standard RMA.
Imagine your system without a video display for 1 month... It is totally unacceptable and unreasonable and you know it.

If however someone was to have purchased the xfx card elsewhere, It would be Monday obtain RMA, Tuesday send it, Wednesday/Thursday it is tested. The user gets sorted by Friday or Monday. - Ok you have explained

The warranty procedure is different with XFX simply becuase this is XFX's warranty procedure with Scan

We were told you were sorting this out. A "It is because it is" isn't a fair response.

The point is when people originally purchased, they were told by scan that you would be doing the testing, now it is being sent back to the "manufacturer" to deal with.


You really need to change your advertising to not be so misleading.
If you are not the manufacturer - don't claim to be.
You should make it clear that the RTB warranty isn't the same as other items with a RTB warranty.
XFX cards are good value, or appear to be at first.. If you offer a significantly lesser service with them you should be honest and make this clear at point of sale. If you were upfront and people knew what the deal was in advance there would not be so many unhappy faces.

Would it not be a lot faster for the end user to just deal with xfx directly? - it would avoid your weekly shipping. It would also avoid 2 unnecessary courier trips too, saving £'s and environmental pluses.

Anyway as the first post asked, What improvements have you organised which were being talked about? The procedure is still a total mess. It needs to be sorted.

Thanks.

[wesleyaldred]

XFX do not take 2 weeks to process a return, the average from them now for our returns is 3 days from receipt.

In your scenario it would not be 9 days before the item was returned in fact it would be zero days as it was received on a Wednesday it would be included in that days return to XFX.

RTB is return to Scan, Direct is manufacturer warranty. A customer always has the option to return with XFX directly.

The improvements have been made in respect of DOA returns and in the case of warranty returns items not having to queue for test at Scan before being returned to XFX for test's to be repeated, this has reduced total turnaround times quiet considerably.

[Richh]

A customer always has the option to return with XFX directly.

Hmmm. While one experience is hardly authoritative, I did deal directly with them in the first instance - because the dead card turned up on a Friday and thus, rather than doing nothing over the weekend, I raised a support ticket on XFX's website.

The comms I had with two reps over the weekend was sufficient to confirm in both their opinion and mine that the card was duff. They then suggested I should get in touch with you guys.

When I then came up against your "previous" DOA policy, I got back in touch with XFX and they themselves told me that they thought it totally unfair for you, Scan, to delay sending a replacement while you awaited their confirmation of a fault that had been found both by the customer and your own tech support department. That hardly suggests that you and your supplier are/were singing from the same hymn sheet. Indeed it directly contradicts your claim that "this is XFX's warranty procedure with Scan". XFX's comments suggest that they did not approve of the policy you were running, let alone that it was their idea.

The improvements have been made in respect of DOA returns and in the case of warranty returns items not having to queue for test at Scan before being returned to XFX for test's to be repeated, this has reduced total turnaround times quiet considerably.

Noted. I still fail to understand why this particular brand is treated differently from everything else you sell. This all appears to be the result of some "issue" between Scan Computers and XFX. It's nothing to do with the consumer - yet, despite the "improvements", the Scan customer's experience is still less smooth with an XFX product failure than it is with any other brand. Why is this, how is it compatible with Scan's supposed commitment to great customer service, and why, as Blackbadger has already asked, do you not make clear on each XFX product page that the warranty/DOA service offered on this brand is "unique"?

BTW, I note ChrisP's comment further up about Scan not manufacturing graphics cards. If this is the case, why is the "Manufacturer" field on XFX stuff still listed as "SCAN/XFX UK LTD"? Scan's name first, indeed.

[Joey2oo7]

There's a simple solution to this...don't buy an XFX product from Scan as it's not worth the hassle if a problem arises.... Though you should try dealing with Netgear support, the XFX/Scan issues are nothing compared with having to deal with those monkeys.......

[t4ct1c47]

I think it may be an idea for someone to sticky information regarding XFX warranties in the Scan section of these forums.

A lot of people have the misconception that just because they hear that XFX offers double lifetime warranty in the US and Canda, that this applies to their UK purchased cards too. Both EVGA and BFG opted to limit their lifetime warranties to "only" 10 years, which is still a good amount of time.

However, from what I can see XFX offer no warranty what-so-ever and leave it up to individual contracts between themselves and retailers, such as Scan, to provide support.

[Blackbadger]

Well It's a new year.. and it's time for a update.
I don't normally like dragging up old threads, however this time it's entirely relevant.
Note - First post 21-05-2009, to avoid confusion.

It now turns out that if you have a certain XFX cards, such as the 280gtx that needs a RMA, your in a tough position.
A few people have tried to RMA dead/faulty cards recently, only to find out that the warranty is worthless. No fix or replacements are possible. Neither is a alternative card of equal performance possible for exchange (although available). A token cash amount is offered instead, valuing the cards at 1/2 the price whilst scan themselves still sell, and advertise them for £234.96

This is despite scan claiming to have stock of xfx and other brands of the card types in question.
- stock check taken today.

It is widely known that Nvidia stock levels are limited due to manufacturing being switched to another generation of card. Should people wait until replacements are available until requesting rma's ?

It appears xfx Europe have also changed the warranty details on there website, now choosing not to deal with end users, leaving them at the mercy of the retailers.

XFX warrants that the Product shall conform to and perform in accordance with published technical specifications and the accompanying written materials, and shall be free of defects in materials and workmanship. XFX does not sell its Product directly to the consumer therefore the warranty for XFX Products remains the responsibility of your reseller where you purchased the Product..... . .. ..

They do however continue

Should you experience any difficulty obtaining a fair and proper warranty service from any of our Resellers please do not hesitate to contact us via the Support Ticketing System where we will do our best to help you.

It would be nice if scan can once again clarify what the XFX warranty situation is this year.
The special improvements that were promised, appear to have slipped once again over time.

[Madness_3d]

I've just had a successful DOA RMA,
The cards temp sensor was faulty which caused the fan to go 100% all the time
Was today replaced with a Gainward GTX 260 GS.
To be honest I've had worse. I had to RMA my Asus Crosshair II Formula to Asus via Ingram over the summer... I had to use a socket A linux machine for 3 months :-(
Still scarred by the experience...

turned out it was the PSU after all... although it worked with other motherboards :-(
The PSU Was RMA'd to scan and sorted super fast ^__^

[wesleyaldred]

Blackbadger

The changes that were promised were implemented, we have a whole new and quicker processing of XFX cards now. The way we handle a warranty outcome is dependent on a whole range of scenarios which would be different each time, depending on age, model, stock levels ETC, so it is impossible and always will remain impossible to clarify a generic solution in this matter as each case is handled on its own individual factors.

Wesley