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I have good reason to believe that Mr. Gary, and even some of his other colleagues at Anandtech, may be presently working directly with the senior management at Gigabyte to seek an amicable resolution to the current stalemate. It is also my understanding that it indeed may be a holiday over there in Taiwan. I further have reason to believe that the right hand does not know what the left hand has been doing on this issue in that billion dollar corporation at the moment - but that the very highest levels of management are being made aware of this impending FIRESTORM as I write this posting.
Therefore, seeing as how this issue has been going along for quite a while, I would suggest that we allow those direct communications a reasonable chance to obtain a positive outcome (until at least early next week). If the efforts don't produce that kind of a result, then it would be reasonable on the part of the purchasers of the N680i board to presume that "all bets are off" and then we can all march briskly off to WAR!! However, if that happens, it will be enlightening to all of us to see where Anandtech will stand. Will AT stand and be counted with the members of this Forum, or will AT stand with GB (or just remain silent) - it's obviously their choice - but it will tell us legends for months and years to come. This may well be AT's "moment of truth" with regard to assisting everyone who has obviously been wronged by Gigabyte's stance on this matter. The actions (or inactions) of Anandtech will be as clear as a ringing bell to all of us.
By my calculations, there are no less than 14 prime Internet sites, and many more secondary sites, that can be utilized for Raising Hell about Gigabyte's attempt to screw its customers. It is also important to remember that most all print media serving the computer industry have published Letters-To-The-Editor columns, and some even have consumer-oriented investigative columns which report on items just like this.
The obvious intention ought to be to super-saturate the known (and unknown) media outlets, day after day, with a constant barrage of criticism concerning this matter. To my knowledge, Gigabyte has not ever faced a ground-swell movement like this, and they are dealing with it in a very immature fashion. In some organizations, the immediate reaction when questioned about their business undertakings is to attempt to kill the dissent. That type of a corporate response may work in a dictatorship, but in the free-world, it's damn likely to be incendiary beyond description.
What GB REALLY ought to be worried about is NOT this immediate issue, but rather its inability to stop is the cumulative effect on the volume of negative postings which are being combed by those carnivorous search engines, i.e. Google, Yahoo, ASK, etc. The effects of this WAR will be felt directly, but most probably indirectly, by Gigabyte for many months and years to come. In fact, GB is creating a wonderful opportunity for their competitors to capitalize on this issue.
If I were one of GB's competitors, I'd consider an immediate advertising campaign that touts my total customer support, etc. I'd even consider some kind of a trade-in program for N680i purchasers where I'd allow them to trade-in their failed N680i board for a new board at a modest upgrade cost. That kind of marketing strategy would really put the spikes into Gigabyte.
HOWEVER, it is VITALLY IMPORTANT that anyone posting on any of these sites MUST clean up your language! If you use profanity, etc. you can almost guarantee that either you'll be deleted and/or even banned from such sites. Likewise, you need to check your grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc. so that your posting does not appear to be coming from a raving lunatic. Once this starts, Gigabyte will pull out all the stops to quell this dissent - that's just the normal corporate reaction to a threat. Actually that reaction is quite dumb, since the cost to GB to settle this whole matter is a mere pittance to them. And that's what is so confounding about this whole thing - from a business point of view - it makes absolutely NO SENSE!
So my friends, the bywords are: METHODICAL, INCESSANT, UNYIELDING, and DEDICATED! Remember, unless you are willing to fight to the death for your rights, they will never be yours!
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