I would like to relate a story of how Gigabyte does not support their customers or their products.
I run a computer sales/service business as a secondary job. A little less than two years ago I built, at the time, a high end dual P3 system for a friend of mine who is a practicing engineer from home. It used a Gigabyte 6BXD dual processor motherboard. At the time, we installed two 256 MB memory modules. Also, when installing them I noticed that socket two did not seem to work correctly. The memory worked fine in sockets 3 and 4 so I thought it was just a minor incompatibility problem. So last fall, with memory getting cheaper, the customer decided to add more memory. It was then that we found out that socket two would not register any memory and that socket one would register only half a stick. And at times socket one would not register any memory either.
We then contacted Gigabyte about the problem. They said the board had a one year warranty, which had expired, and that it would cost $55 for repair and return shipping. This, even though I know the board was faulty to begin with, which they said didn't matter, pay or no repair! Having no other options I sent the board and money to them last May. After nearly 6 weeks I finally received the "repaired" board back. Upon installing it again, I found the same problem and also found that after initial testing, the board would not operate at all. I immediately called Gigabyte and the tech told me that all they had done was put the board on the bench, upgraded the BIOS and it appeared OK and so they shipped it back to me. AND IT TOOK 6 WEEKS FOR THEM TO DO THAT! I was told to return the board again at a cost to me of another $15.
This time the turnaround was quicker, 3 weeks, but upon bench testing the board, the same problems were still there. Socket one was intermittent and socket 2 did not work at all. And my customer was without this system now for over 3 months (fortunately he does have another computer, WITHOUT A GIGABYTE BOARD IN IT). I did notice that this time, though, they had replaced the two bad sockets, which obviously did not fix the problem. I called customer service and tech support and was told that the board worked fine there and maybe I should return it again. I told them that it is apparent that this board was never right, probably due to a broken trace in a lower layer of the motherboard, and that it would probably never work right. I asked about getting a different board or another type of board as recompense for this bad board. They ignored me then for 3 weeks and numerous emails and phone calls trying to resolve the problem. Knowing my customer needed this system operational again, I ended up purchasing a Supermicro board last month.
Finally, today, I received an answer from customer (un)support. They said they would refund me the $45 part of the original fee they charged me (not the whole $55) and good luck with your bad board. THIS IS THE TYPE OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM GIGABYTE! I am now left with a bad board, that was bad originally, and a company that cares so little for their customers that they simply leave me in the lurch. In this day and age, customer support can make or break a company and there is no excuse for a customer being treated such. I feel that any knowledgable engineer or technician would realize after examining this board and attempting to repair it, that it was bad to begin with and that Gigabyte should give fair recompensation for this board. And at no charge!
I WILL NOW NEVER PURCHASE OR RECOMMEND ANOTHER GIGABYTE PRODUCT AND WILL HONESTLY LET ANYONE KNOW OF MY EXPERIENCES WITH THIS COMPANY. I also intend to write higher level management about this problem and let them know how I was treated by customer (un)support.
Robert J. Koenn
Performance Computing Systems
I run a computer sales/service business as a secondary job. A little less than two years ago I built, at the time, a high end dual P3 system for a friend of mine who is a practicing engineer from home. It used a Gigabyte 6BXD dual processor motherboard. At the time, we installed two 256 MB memory modules. Also, when installing them I noticed that socket two did not seem to work correctly. The memory worked fine in sockets 3 and 4 so I thought it was just a minor incompatibility problem. So last fall, with memory getting cheaper, the customer decided to add more memory. It was then that we found out that socket two would not register any memory and that socket one would register only half a stick. And at times socket one would not register any memory either.
We then contacted Gigabyte about the problem. They said the board had a one year warranty, which had expired, and that it would cost $55 for repair and return shipping. This, even though I know the board was faulty to begin with, which they said didn't matter, pay or no repair! Having no other options I sent the board and money to them last May. After nearly 6 weeks I finally received the "repaired" board back. Upon installing it again, I found the same problem and also found that after initial testing, the board would not operate at all. I immediately called Gigabyte and the tech told me that all they had done was put the board on the bench, upgraded the BIOS and it appeared OK and so they shipped it back to me. AND IT TOOK 6 WEEKS FOR THEM TO DO THAT! I was told to return the board again at a cost to me of another $15.
This time the turnaround was quicker, 3 weeks, but upon bench testing the board, the same problems were still there. Socket one was intermittent and socket 2 did not work at all. And my customer was without this system now for over 3 months (fortunately he does have another computer, WITHOUT A GIGABYTE BOARD IN IT). I did notice that this time, though, they had replaced the two bad sockets, which obviously did not fix the problem. I called customer service and tech support and was told that the board worked fine there and maybe I should return it again. I told them that it is apparent that this board was never right, probably due to a broken trace in a lower layer of the motherboard, and that it would probably never work right. I asked about getting a different board or another type of board as recompense for this bad board. They ignored me then for 3 weeks and numerous emails and phone calls trying to resolve the problem. Knowing my customer needed this system operational again, I ended up purchasing a Supermicro board last month.
Finally, today, I received an answer from customer (un)support. They said they would refund me the $45 part of the original fee they charged me (not the whole $55) and good luck with your bad board. THIS IS THE TYPE OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM GIGABYTE! I am now left with a bad board, that was bad originally, and a company that cares so little for their customers that they simply leave me in the lurch. In this day and age, customer support can make or break a company and there is no excuse for a customer being treated such. I feel that any knowledgable engineer or technician would realize after examining this board and attempting to repair it, that it was bad to begin with and that Gigabyte should give fair recompensation for this board. And at no charge!
I WILL NOW NEVER PURCHASE OR RECOMMEND ANOTHER GIGABYTE PRODUCT AND WILL HONESTLY LET ANYONE KNOW OF MY EXPERIENCES WITH THIS COMPANY. I also intend to write higher level management about this problem and let them know how I was treated by customer (un)support.
Robert J. Koenn
Performance Computing Systems