This situation has really annoyed me, and despite me spending a fair bit of time trying to convince both parties to pull their finger out and actually help me get something done about this, I'm torn between binning a faulty card that is still within warranty and sticking to my guns and getting the service I'm entitled to by the manufacturer's warranty.
The card has some intermittent faults: Sometimes giving graphics corruptions during gaming, sometimes BSOD'ing or freezing the system after resuming from S3 sleep, sometimes 2D graphics corruptions after resuming from sleep mode. Asus tech support have already said that they think the product is faulty. After this admission, one would think that it should be a simple matter to get it returned to them and sorted; apparently not.
Asus says that I have to return the card to the supplier I purchased it from (Amazon UK), then the supplier sends it back to them for repair/replacement. I've personally never encountered this behaviour from a manufacturer out of the ~10 returns I've done in the past (though this is my first with Asus).
Amazon UK have simply sent me a stream of fertiliser-grade responses from beginning to end about why this isn't their problem. They began by stating that the product isn't within warranty. I proved that it was by sending them a link to Asus UK's graphics card warranty terms, so they dropped that argument and started saying that because it's not an inherent design fault affecting all of that model, it's not their problem. There were other weird arguments as well, but no matter what I did (including filing a complaint), they've stuck to their guns. It's really odd that Amazon have acted like this because normally they've got a pretty open returns policy, much more flexible than most. In January last year, Amazon gave me a £55 voucher to try and make me go away, and I asked them to remove it from my account but they won't.
Even in light of Amazon's response, Asus's stance remains the same.
I tried talking to Trading Standards (one state-funded organisation here to investigate iffy trading behaviour) and the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and based on the advice of the latter, my credit card company as well. No-one is willing to comment about whose responsibility this problem actually is, and the credit card company disagrees with the CAB's interpretation of the law about the credit card supplier's obligations in all of this. It's like everyone wants to point the finger at someone else, and all Trading Standards had to say is "we've filed your complaint in our records". I also tried some Trading Ombudsman, but they only wanted to take up my case if I wanted to take up the case explicitly against Amazon What I wanted was to find out who isn't living up to their obligation and take their to account for it, at least by having them sort out this graphics card!
The only bit of information I feel I can take away from this experience is that I won't trust Amazon with any high-value item that has a longer than minimum warranty, just in case the manufacturer tries something like this again. I've also ruled out Asus for graphics card purchases in future.
I just wondered if anyone has had a similar scenario but with a better result, and if so, what did you do.
The card has some intermittent faults: Sometimes giving graphics corruptions during gaming, sometimes BSOD'ing or freezing the system after resuming from S3 sleep, sometimes 2D graphics corruptions after resuming from sleep mode. Asus tech support have already said that they think the product is faulty. After this admission, one would think that it should be a simple matter to get it returned to them and sorted; apparently not.
Asus says that I have to return the card to the supplier I purchased it from (Amazon UK), then the supplier sends it back to them for repair/replacement. I've personally never encountered this behaviour from a manufacturer out of the ~10 returns I've done in the past (though this is my first with Asus).
Amazon UK have simply sent me a stream of fertiliser-grade responses from beginning to end about why this isn't their problem. They began by stating that the product isn't within warranty. I proved that it was by sending them a link to Asus UK's graphics card warranty terms, so they dropped that argument and started saying that because it's not an inherent design fault affecting all of that model, it's not their problem. There were other weird arguments as well, but no matter what I did (including filing a complaint), they've stuck to their guns. It's really odd that Amazon have acted like this because normally they've got a pretty open returns policy, much more flexible than most. In January last year, Amazon gave me a £55 voucher to try and make me go away, and I asked them to remove it from my account but they won't.
Even in light of Amazon's response, Asus's stance remains the same.
I tried talking to Trading Standards (one state-funded organisation here to investigate iffy trading behaviour) and the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and based on the advice of the latter, my credit card company as well. No-one is willing to comment about whose responsibility this problem actually is, and the credit card company disagrees with the CAB's interpretation of the law about the credit card supplier's obligations in all of this. It's like everyone wants to point the finger at someone else, and all Trading Standards had to say is "we've filed your complaint in our records". I also tried some Trading Ombudsman, but they only wanted to take up my case if I wanted to take up the case explicitly against Amazon What I wanted was to find out who isn't living up to their obligation and take their to account for it, at least by having them sort out this graphics card!
The only bit of information I feel I can take away from this experience is that I won't trust Amazon with any high-value item that has a longer than minimum warranty, just in case the manufacturer tries something like this again. I've also ruled out Asus for graphics card purchases in future.
I just wondered if anyone has had a similar scenario but with a better result, and if so, what did you do.