not a fan of people ripping off anyone.
rip bfg.
rip evga lifetime warranty.
rip xfx double lifetime warranty.
these are not billion dollar companies making tons of profit. margins are very tight for these companies. most of nvidia's partners almost went through bankrupcty during fermi.
people like you that rip off these companies are ripping off your fellow computer enthusiasts.
If we are going to seriously entertain a discussion on the moral/ethical boundaries touched upon by RMA'ing defective gear then we need to step back and acknowledge/recognize that simply RMA'ing defective gear is not, on its own, an unethical or immoral action.
What is unethical is RMA'ing with
the intent to defraud through means of deception.
I RMA'ed my Mushkin Redline dimms, nearly $1k worth of ram tied up in 4 sticks, killed all four of them by applying too much Vdimm. I emailed Mushkin technical support and told them out of the gate that my redlines were dead and that I believed they died from too much Vdimm.
Technical support asked me how much Vdimm, I told them, and they told me to send them in anyways that they would cover it. RMA issued, deceit not involved, no RMA fraud created.
I also RMA'ed a gigabyte mobo that died while OC'ing, died as in making an audible "pop" and a capacitor blew leaving black/scorched area. Emailed tech support, said my board just died but I was OC'ing the FSB at the time so I would understand if they denied me an RMA. They said no problem, RMA it anyways. RMA issued, deceit not involved, no RMA fraud created.
My MSI GTX460 died, OC'ed of course. Contacted MSI tech support, told them the card was OC'ed when it died, again they told me it wasn't an issue to go ahead and send it in under RMA for warranty service. They sent me back a retail shrink-wrapped box with a new GTX460 cyclone. RMA issued, deceit not involved, no RMA fraud created.
The difference between RMA fraud and no fraud comes down entirely to disclosure, or a lack of it. All the members here telling the OP to RMA his card are not suggesting or encouraging RMA fraud
unless they are encouraging the OP to deceive the AIB in question when attempting to RMA.
RMA'ing dead gear is not fraud, RMA'ing dead gear that died for reasons expressly not covered by the warranty clause is not fraud if the RMA'ing company allows it for your specific instance when you ask them as much.
As for the business aspects of elevated operating costs incurred by RMA's and how those costs must be recuperated by elevated prices on products purchased by other consumers, that is a business model that the company in question endorses. If you don't care for the business endorsing a business model that in the end results in your purchase price increasing then you should vote with your wallet and not support that business model.
This is true of all big-box retailers who accept returns of any kind. Walmart, Target, even your grocery store. Every one of those returned items is returned at an expense to the store, even if they charge a restocking fee (Fry's, Best Buy) the fee in no way covers the labor overhead involved in managing the Q&A aspects of the returned-item inventory management chain.
But lets be clear on what is fraud and what is not fraud.
RMA'ing dead video cards is not fraud if the RMA department allows for the RMA to process if they have been fully debriefed on the usage history including the reasons the user suspects the hardware died. Failing to disclose this information while attempting to RMA is fraud, even if it turns out to not be the actual root-cause of the failure. (
lies of omission = fraud)
Lying by omission
Also known as a continuing misrepresentation, a lie by omission occurs when an important fact is left out in order to foster a misconception. Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions. When the seller of a car declares it has been serviced regularly but does not tell that a fault was reported at the last service, the seller lies by omission.