Epic Micro-P, Gainward And Abit Support Failure

Now that it is finally over, I can write up the massive problems I had RMAing a Gainward graphics card and an Abit motherboard I purchased through Micro-P. It took two and a half months to reach a rather unsatisfactory conclusion. It is such a long story I've actually had to structure it. This is the story that inspired me to start this blog.

Introduction

In October 2007 I purchased the components to build my PC from Micro-P. They have a one year return to seller warranty, and a two year return to manufacturer warranty. Among the components was a Gainward GeForce 8600GT graphics card (with a three year warranty), and an Abit AB9 Pro motherboard (with a two year warranty).

Fast-forward to January 2009. I'd just purchased a new HD Asus monitor, so I set it up as my main monitor and left my old monitor as a secondary monitor. I then tested the new monitor by playing some Grand Theft Auto 4. About a week later, on the 16th of January, unsatisfied with the performance of GTA4 on the resolution I had set for the new monitor, I decided to install the latest Nvidia drivers for the GeForce 8600GT chipset. I started up GTA4 again and, literally 90 seconds into the game, my computer switched off. It tried to restart and failed. It did this five or six times, until I switched it off completely. My first thought was that I'd suffered a power surge, but my PC and all peripherals are plugged into surge-protected outlets. I then considered something may have overheated, although this was highly unlikely as the computer had been switched on for 20 minutes, and running the game for only 90 seconds. Regardless, I left the computer alone for 6 hours before trying to restart again. It still wouldn't start up.

By this stage it was clear something had died. I checked the POST codes on the motherboard as it started up to see where it failed. It seemed to fail at different points:

• C5 - "Call chipset hook to copy BIOS back to E000 & F000 shadow RAM"
• 03 - "Initial Superio_Early_Init switch"
• 10 - "Auto detect flash type to load appropriate flash R/W codes into the runtime area in F000 for ESCD & DMI support"
• 25 - "Early PCI Initialization:
  • Enumerate PCI bus number
  • Assign memory & I/O resource
  • Search for a valid VGA device & VGA BIOS, and put it into C000:0"
• 52 - "Test all memory (clear all extended memory to 0)"
• FF - "Boot attempt (INT 19h)"

Everything indicated to me that the motherboard was fried. I posted in the Abit support forums to ask what they thought. I got three responses, all of which said the likely culprit was the graphics card.

This is where the nightmare started.

Part 1: Gainward And Micro-P's Apparent Concern

Monday, 19th of January

Satisfied with the replies from the forum, I check the Gainward site for a contact address to initiate an RMA request. I find a support address, support@gainward.de, and e-mail them:

Hello.

About 15 months ago I purchased a Gainward GeForce 8600GT 512Mb (1xDVI, 1xRGB, 1xHDMI, 1xVideo-out) (all components for this rig were bought at the same time). About 3 weeks ago I purchased a new monitor and connected it via the DVI connection, leaving my old monitor as a secondary display via RGB, and configuring them as Dual View. My setup:

PSU: Win Power ATX-450
MB: aBit AB9 Pro
CPU: E6850 (Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3GHz)
RAM: 2 x 1GB 800 MHz DDR2
GFX: Gainward GeForce 8600GT 512MB
HD: WD Caviar SATA II 250GB
DVD: Samsung SATA DVD/RW
Monitor: Dual View - Asus 22'' WS @ 1920x1080 on DVI | AOC 17'' @ 1240 x 1024 on RGB
No additional cards
PS2 Mouse & Keyboard
USB: VoIP phone, scanner
No overclocking

With the new monitor I found GTA IV to be sluggish at a relatively low resolution, so I decided to try the latest nVidia drivers (181.20). On Friday I installed the latest drivers, restarted, and tested GTA IV on what I felt was an acceptable resolution (1152x864 or something like that). The configuration screen of GTA IV told me this was an appropriate setup. I ran the game, and after 90 seconds my computer shut down and tried to restart. It kept starting up and shutting down almost immediately. My first thought was the problem was power-related, but all my computer equipment is plugged into power-surge protected outlets. I then thought it might be simple overheating (a little strange after only 90 seconds of play, but still) so I left it for a little while. I came back later and tried to restart the computer, but it failed to boot. I checked the POST codes on the motherboard, and it didn't seem to stop at one particular code, so I posted on the Hexus aBit support forums for some feedback. The general consensus was the problem was likely to be with the graphics card. I am unable to test this as I don't have an alternative card to install in my computer.

So to my questions:

1. Does this sound to you like a problem with the graphics card?

2. Could I return this for RMA, even with the card having been purchased 15 months ago (I'm not entirely sure how RMA works)? The card has not been overclocked, modified, mishandled, mistreated or damaged in any way.

3. Could the new drivers be at fault here? I'd had absolutely no problems until now, and I even had the Dual View setup running for close to 3 weeks with no problems (including playing GTA IV), so I'm a little suspicious that there should be critical failure of any component minutes after installing new drivers...

Thank you.

Regards,

Wednesday, 21st of January

Still no reply from Gainward, so I check the website again and find three new contact e-mail addresses for support, prasanna@gainward.de, ronny@gainward.de and zhu@gainward.de. I forward my e-mail to them again:

Hi.

I sent the below e-mail to support@gainward.de on Monday and am yet to receive any sort of response. Can you help? Thank you.

Regards,

I immediately get back an out-of-office auto-reply from Zhu, which tells me they won't be back for while.

Thursday, 22nd of January

I still have no reply from Gainward, so I check their site once again to get the e-mail address for RMA requests, rma@gainward.de, and skip the support step:

Hello.

I require an RMA number to return one of your products. I have already tried to get support via e-mail - I have e-mailed the message I've attached below but have received no response or acknowledgement. Thank you.

Regards,

Friday, 23rd of January

I still haven't even received an acknowledgement of receipt for my e-mails, so I google for support issues with Gainward and find I'm not alone. My search turns up another e-mail address, eitan@gainward.de. I e-mail once again, copying in all the e-mail addresses I have now collected for Gainward, already rather irritated, but this time enable return receipts to check whether they're actually reading them:

Hello.

This is the fourth time I e-mail with regards to this problem. The least I expect is a response acknowledging receipt. I require an RMA number to return one of your products. I have attached below the original description of the problem, in case you're actually reading these, although I suspect you're not.

Unbelievably, 15 minutes after sending the e-mail, I get a read receipt from three of the e-mail addresses. Clearly, they are simply ignoring them. I fire off another e-mail:

Having received the read receipts to my last e-mail from:

rma@gainward.de
support@gainward.de
ronny@gainward.de

It is now very clear to me you are purposefully ignoring my e-mails, failing to provide me with any support, and breaching your contractual obligation to provide me with a 3 year warranty. You are therefore breaking the European Union Product Warranty Directive. Failure to respond to this e-mail will result in further action from my solicitor, via the appropriate court of law.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the legal threat, I now get a response. It is, however, a really lame response:

Hii,,

The graphics card 8600GT does not support latest drivers from NVIDIA. The 180 series drivers from NVIDIA are specially designed form 9000 Series graphics card.

Please uninstall your previous drivers and install the drivers from the CD provided along with graphics card or your can download 163.75 series drives from below link.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_163.75.html.

Use Nvidia control panel to configure your second monitor.

Best Regards
Technical Support
Gainward Europe

How I'm supposed to install the drivers when my PC won't even boot up is beyond me. All that effort and they haven't even read the e-mail to see what the problem is. I reply again, by now royally pissed off:

Funny how you only respond once I threaten with legal action.

In any case, your response doesn't help me one little bit - the graphics card is dead and I can't even boot up the computer, so obviously I cannot install some completely outdated drivers (and I've been using the 178.46 drivers for months without a hitch). The drivers I installed (181.20) *are* listed as drivers for the 8600GT chipset (see here, under "Products Supported": http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/winxp_181.20_whql_uk.html), they are not only for the GeForce 9 series , but I will gladly install a previous version if you either:

a) Replace my current card (I still need an RMA number to be able to do this)
or
b) Send me a new card

When you're responding to a support request you may find it actually helps if you read the request.

A closer inspection of the Gainward site (by checking a PDF with the warranty details) reveals that RMA requests must be made through the reseller. I then e-mail enquiries at Micro-P, explaining the non-responsiveness of Gainward, and asking them about the process to initiate an RMA request.

Monday, 26th of January

I receive a response from rma@gainward.de:

Hi,

Where did you purchased this product?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Best regards

I don't know this yet, but this is the last e-mail I will receive from Gainward RMA requests for a very long time. I reply immediately and tell them I purchased it from Micro-P.

Tuesday, 27th of January

I'm now not getting responses from Gainward or Micro-P. I e-mail Micro-P again, this time copying in Customer Services:

Hi,

I sent the message below last Friday but have received no reply or even acknowledgement of receipt. Could someone help please?

Regards,

This time I get a response, apologising for the lack of response, telling me that my previous e-mail doesn't seem to have reached them, and letting me know that Customer Services should be getting back to me the next day to provide some feedback. In actual fact, I get a reply the same day:

Hi

We no longer supply Gainward graphics cards, you will need to speak to your account manager if you wish to return it for an alternative product. The Gainward cards we sold all had a 12 month RTB warranty with an additional 12 months return to manudacturer. If you can get an RMA number from Gainward then we would be able to accept it back.

Regards

N

Micro-P Technical Support

Hmmm, I thought I'd explained all this already. I e-mail back to explain again:

Hi N, thank you for your reply. I have copied L into this e-mail in order to merge all correspondence with yourselves into a single thread.

As I say, I purchased the card 15 months ago, so the card is no longer under RTB warranty. Regarding RMA, and according to the Gainward website:

"Warranty claims regarding GAINWARD's products can only be carried out by representative parties to GAINWARD Europe GmbH; these meaning distributors, resellers and other cooperative partners under legal contract with GAINWARD Europe GmbH.

Direct claims from end-users towards GAINWARD will no longer be handled directly by GAINWARD. End-users with warranty claims, support issues or other technical enquiries regarding GAINWARD's line of products are therefore required to directly contact their place of purchase. These places will forward any enquiries, claims or other errands to the correct representative within GAINWARD. Direct handling of warranty claims with GAINWARD can only be carried out if the product has been purchased directly from GAINWARD, eg. Via GAINWARD's Webshop or under similar circumstances."

See http://www.gainward.com/support/docs_uk/warranty_new_en_20051007.pdf

You will see from my e-mail that I have tried contacting Gainward multiple times, but I have not yet received any satisfactory reply. As an update, Gainward support has contacted me to tell me to install old drivers (which I obviously cannot do as I cannot boot the computer with no graphics card), and Gainward RMA requests has replied to ask me where I purchased the card, but have not gotten back to me since. The last contact from them was last Friday, and I fear they are simply ignoring all my requests.

How can we proceed from here? Thank you.

Wednesday, 28th of January

I get another reply from Micro-P Customer Services:

Hi

If it is the updated graphics drivers that are causing the problem it should be a simple matter of rolling back the drivers for the card in device manager. Alternatively you could uninstall the driver software, reboot the machine and install the earlier drivers.

My concern would be if this is a driver related issue then Gainward would not class it as faulty. From my experience both Nvidia and ATI quite often have issues with their latest drivers that can sometimes take a while for them to fix.

Regards

N

Exasperated (seriously, are they actually reading the e-mails?), I reply again, rather too arrogantly for my own good:

Hi N,

Sorry, perhaps you didn't read through my e-mail fully. The graphics card is dead - it is completely and utterly unresponsive, kaput, kicked the bucket, it is no more. Because the card is dead I cannot even boot up my computer. The drivers are loaded after boot up, so clearly this is not a driver-related issue. Just to clarify: this has nothing to do with drivers. The only mention about drivers is from Gainward support, who failed to actually read through and understand the problem I am having.

I suspect N didn't like my response:

Hi

As I said in my original reply, you will need to speak to your Micro-P account manager as I cannot replace the card. Your account manager will be able to either source an alternative card for replacement or authorise a return for reduced credit. Of course you still have the option of sending it back to us for repair but I have been advised the turnaround time is in excess of 2 months for us to receive the repaired unit back..

Thanks

N

I decide to take his advice, but I don't have contact details for our account manager, so I reply again:

Hello again N,

The reason I didn't contact our account manager is that I bought this card more than 12 months ago and is therefore no longer under RTB warranty. In any case, do you happen to have a contact e-mail address for our account manager? There is now a great deal of correspondence with regards to this issue, and it would be easier for me to e-mail than to phone as I can then copy/paste the story behind this saga, rather than try to explain everything again. Our sales contact at the time of purchase was R, but I'm not sure if this is still the case. Thank you.

Regards,

I get no reply. Thankfully one of our sys admins managed to get some contact details, so I now send a very long e-mail to our account manager, Luke, explaining the whole story, step by step.

Thursday, 29th of January

No reply from Luke, so I e-mail him again:

Hello Luke,

I e-mailed you yesterday with the below e-mail. I was wondering if you'd had a chance to read it? If you haven't, an acknowledgement of receipt would really put my mind at ease. Thank you.

Regards,

He replies and puts my mind at ease:

Hello

Sorry for the delay

I did receive it, and passed it to my Components team.
Is there any chance you could tell me the invoice/PO number for the order.

Thanks

I reply to Luke again and give him the details he requested.

Friday, 30th of January

Towards the end of the day, I still haven't been contacted by Micro-P, so I e-mail yet again:

Hello Luke,

Sorry to bother you again, but I have not received any further communication regarding this issue. Is there someone else I should be contacting directly regarding updates on this? I ask because N's last e-mail gave me the impression that there was a clear-cut process I could now follow. Is this not the case? Thank you.

Kind regards,

Tuesday, 3rd of February

Still no contact from Micro-P, so it's time to e-mail again:

Hello Luke,

Sorry to be a pain, but I still haven't received a reply to my e-mail below, sent last Friday, or any other communication from Micro-P. It's now been almost a week since N told me to contact the Account Manager, and I seem to have progressed no further in this enquiry. Could I please get an update on this? Thank you.

Luke, the Micro-P account manager, calls me, apologises for the delay, and informs me he has been talking to P at Gainward (one of the people at Gainward I've been e-mailing all along), and they want me to contact them directly. He tells me this is because Micro-P no longer deal with Gainward products, and they are no longer returning items to them. The guy seems helpful, but more on this later. Tired, I tell him that's fine, I just want the problem resolved.

I call the phone number he gives me. It rings. And rings. And rings. No one answers. It is 15:50 CET and no one is answering the phone. I cry a little. Then I e-mail P again:

Hello.

About two weeks ago I tried contacting you, and your colleagues, with regards to a broken Gainward GeForce 8600GT. I gave you a full account of the problems I was having, and I received no reply. I then requested an RMA number to return the card. I received no reply. Eventually, after contacting your company four times, I got a timid response asking me to install older drivers. Obviously I couldn't do this, as the card is broken and my computer will not start up without a graphics card. I replied to this, and have received no response. On the same day, I got a response to my RMA number request asking me where I purchased the card. I replied, letting them know I got it from Micro-P, in the UK. Since then I have received no further communication from anyone at Gainward. Further inspection on the website revealed that, apparently, Gainward will not deal with RMA or support requests from end-users. Instead, I should contact my point of sale to address these issues.

Although I question the legality of this (what should I do if the shop is now out of business - who should I contact then? or if, as in this case, the shop no longer deals with Gainward products?), I did contact my point of sale. I contacted Micro-P last week. I believe Luke from Micro-P has been corresponding, or talking to you with regards to this issue. It has now been two and a half weeks since the card broke down, and still it hasn't even begun to be resolved. Luke called me today (that's right - unlike Gainward, Micro-P actually respond to e-mails, and phone their customers), and let me know that he'd been talking to you, and that he was told you now want me to contact you. Is this right? Am I now allowed to contact you directly?

Well, I've tried. Luke gave me the following contact phone number to get in touch with you:

[phone number]

Is this the right number? I ask because I've called, but no one will answer the phone.

Can I get an RMA number now? And if I send in the card, what will happen then? Will I get a replacement card? How long will the RMA process take?

I am getting extremely annoyed with the level of customer support that Gainward has displayed so far, so please contact me. You can reply to this e-mail (come on, responding to an e-mail doesn't take more than a couple minutes - let me know you're listening) or you can phone me on:

[phone number]

Losing hope,

In the evening, I get a reply:

Hi,,

You can call us on [same phone number] number between 10AM to 4PM in week days.

Best Regards

P

Gainward Europe

I sigh, and let it be for yet another day.

Wednesday, 4th of February

I call the number again. In the morning. At 10:40 CET. I get a recorded message, telling me to call at X times on Monday and Thursdays, Y times on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Z times on Fridays. Apparently, the phone should be answered right now. I check their website, and it gives me different times to both the times given by P in his e-mail, and the recorded message. Quite an achievement. By now I am absolutely furious:

Is this a joke?

1. I have just called the number, at 10:40 AM CET, and received an answering machine message to tell me what times I can call - which by the way doesn't match what you told me by e-mail. According to that it should have been open - why am I getting an answering machine?

2. I called yesterday at 15:50 CET, and no one picked up the phone.

3. I have now e-mailed you six times - you have all the information I can give you. Why do I need to call a phone number to get some customer support? I am not going to be able to give you any more information just because I'm on the phone.

Now please, GIVE ME AN RMA NUMBER SO I CAN RETURN THIS PRODUCT. I have had ENOUGH.

That evening, I get a call while driving home. I call back when I get back home, as I couldn't pick up the phone while driving. I proceed to have a 45 minute discussion with P about this issue. During the course of the phone call, I am told they never received my e-mails (so I collect them all and forward them on to P again, so he can see just why I'm so annoyed). I am also told they never told Micro-P to get me to contact them directly. I am also told they still receive RMAs from Micro-P. I am also told I am a liar. I am also told if I'm not getting any help it's probably because I'm "annoying". This, of course, just enrages me further. I can only assume that it is due to my vitriol and my rebuttals to their ridiculous accusations that I finally get him to agree to an RMA directly from me. I send off another e-mail to finally get an RMA number to return the card.

Thursday, 5th of February

I get not one, but two RMA numbers! I don't know which one to use, so I use them both, just to make sure, and send off the card.

Wednesday, 18th of February

P calls me to tell me they have tested the card on two computers and it works fine. I'm unconvinced. He tells me they will swap the card for a new one, as they have plenty in stock. He will send if off himself, apparently.

Tuesday, 24th February

A missed call from P (he always seems to call when I'm driving). He doesn't e-mail or call again, so I assume it's nothing important.

Wednesday, 4th of March

Still no sign of the replacement card, so I e-mail P to ask him where it is:

P,

You phoned me a couple weeks ago to tell me you would send back the graphics card, but I still haven't received it. Is this going to take much longer? I've now been 6 weeks without a working computer.

Thursday, 5th of March

P replies:

Hi,,

Sorry for the delay,, it has been dispatched by today's UPS shipment.

It got delayed due to insufficient stock of the specific model we
wanted to replace you.

Best Regards
P
Gainward Europe

This despite the fact that he had previously told me they had plenty in stock. Still, at least it's been sent by UPS, so it should be here shortly.

Monday, 9th March

Still no sign of the card, so another e-mail goes off:

Do you have a tracking number for the package? Still no sign of it.

No reply.

Wednesday, 11th March

I finally get the card! I open the package and... Oh for the love of god. I sent off a GeForce 8600GT with 512MB DDR3 memory and HDMI output. I get back a GeForce 8600GT with 512MB DDR2 memory and no HDMI output. I've gotten back a lower spec card. Another e-mail gets sent:

P,

I have now received the card. Let me tell you I am VERY annoyed. I sent you:

Gainward GeForce 8600GT PCI-E 512MB DDR3 HDMI DVI

You sent me back:

Gainward GeForce 8600GT PCI-E 512MB DDR2 TV-OUT DVI

So, no HDMI, and DDR2 memory instead of DDR3! You've effectively downgraded my card for no good reason. This is simply not good enough. How do we proceed from here?

To P's credit, he calls me back immediately and tells me they will replace the card immediately. He explains they wanted to upgrade me to a fan model, but they had none in stock, which is why it took so long, but that the fan model has DDR2 memory. In any case, I haven't even got the fan model. Apparently there was a mixup in the stock room (I thought he was preparing it himself?). An exact replacement will get sent the same day.

Monday, 16th of March

I now receive a replacement card. Support from Gainward was awful, but at least I got a replacement. I breathe a sigh of relief, thinking it's over. It's not.

Part 2: Abit And The Truth About Micro-P

Monday, 16th of March

I install the new card and find the computer still won't boot up. I got so caught up with Gainward's terrible support, I totally lost sight of the issue. Some further testing confirms the problem is with the motherboard. In order to get a working PC as soon as possible, I buy a new motherboard instead of waiting any longer. I will deal with RMAing the motherboard later.

Wednesday, 18th of March

With a working PC, I now set about getting the motherboard RMAd. I check Abit's site, but find very little info there. I e-mail support@u-abit.eu:

Hello. I purchased an Abit AB9 Pro about 17 months which has now failed and I wanted to get it RMAd. How would I go about this as I could find no useful information on the UK website? Thank you.

Regards,

In order to save myself some trouble, I e-mail Micro-P Customer Services at the same time:

Hello.

About 17 months ago I purchased an Abit AB9 Pro motherboard through you, through the company I work for. The board recently failed and I would like to initiate an RMA procedure. I believe the RMA procedure with Abit requires the vendor or reseller to initiate the request. Could you let me know how I should proceed please? Thank you.

Regards,

Thursday, 19th of March

I get a reply back from Abit:

Dear Customer,

Please go back to your reseller there you have your warranty and Service duties, not with the manufacturer.
The Manufacturer is only responsible if the reseller doesn't exist anymore.

God help me.

Friday, 20th of March

I try Micro-P again, as they still haven't replied:

Hi,

I sent the below e-mail last Wednesday but have no response or acknowledgement of receipt. Can you help me please? This is the e-mail I got in response to my query from Abit:

Dear Customer,

Please go back to your reseller there you have your warranty and Service duties, not with the manufacturer.
The Manufacturer is only responsible if the reseller doesn't exist anymore.

Thank you.

Regards,

Monday, 23rd of March

Still nothing from Micro-P, so I decide to e-mail Luke again:

Hello Luke,

If you recall I contacted you a little while ago regarding a problem with a Gainward graphics card. You directed me to speak to them directly. I did, and eventually managed to convince them to allow me to proceed with an RMA request direct, though they were quite insistent that Micro-P does still return products for RMA. Anyway, I've now had it checked and the graphics card is fine, so I've run my own tests. I can conclusively state that the problem is the motherboard. I contacted Abit to get the motherboard RMAd.
Their response:

Dear Customer,

Please go back to your reseller there you have your warranty and Service duties, not with the manufacturer.
The Manufacturer is only responsible if the reseller doesn't exist anymore.

Sorry, but it's back to Micro-P again. I e-mailed customer services and enquiries last Wednesday, and then again on Friday, but have not received any response. Can you let me know how to proceed? How do I return the motherboard to you? Thank you.

Regards,

Luke calls me back. He tells me they will make a straight replacement and send a new motherboard, and will collect the broken one. This is surprising, but I'm happy things are moving along quickly.

Tuesday, 24th of March

I receive the replacement motherboard. It is not a straight replacement. It is an MSI P43 Neo-F, which, though it has a newer chipset, has no eSATA or Firewire ports, fewer SATA ports, etc. As far as I'm concerned it's a downgrade. I call Luke and explain the problem. He passes me on to R in sales, as apparently he's not really sure about the procedure. R then tells me I should not have been sent that motherboard without being asked - I should have been given a choice of motherboards to select from. I ask why I didn't get a straight replacement and he tells me they no longer deal with Abit. I ask him why that is the case. He tells me they no longer trade in the UK. So that's two out of two companies they no longer deal with. In any case, you can still purchase Abit products in the UK. I explain that eSATA is one of the things I really want, and he looks through their stock to check which motherboards have it. After a few minutes of unsuccesful searching, he tells me he will look through them and call me back. He doesn't. I call him some hours later. He tells me he forgot, and makes a show of searching for a motherboard again. He then asks me whether this needs to go out that night. I say it's not essential, but it would be good. He says he will get a list of motherboards which have an eSATA port from the manufacturer and call me back the next day.

Wednesday, 25th of March

I call R as he didn't call me back. He still doesn't have the list.

Thursday, 26th of March

Another call, still no list. I tell him I still haven't been contacted about collecting the motherboards either. He will sort that.

Friday, 27th of March

R calls me at 9:30 to tell me the transport is sorted, and to call when they're ready for collection. He tells me he will call back by 11:00 to sort out a replacement. I call him at 13:30 when he still hasn't called. Still no list. "Funny how they never get back to you when you really need them", he laughs. A stony, uncomfortable silence greets him from my end. He then tells me the problem is the new exchange rate makes it difficult to find a replacement. The AB9 Pro would be about £80 if they sold it today, he tells me. In the middle of the call, the list magically appears in his inbox. He looks up a Gigabyte card, which he tells me is £85. Would I be willing to pay the difference? Of course not. I want an RMA procedure, why should I pay if they're not willing to do that? Additionally, it's only a £5 difference - surely they can take that loss? Apparently R is not authorised to make any loss. So if they still traded with Abit, I wouldn't even be able to get the same card again! I ask the list price for the MSI. It's £53, or £14 less than I payed for the Abit, but they never offered a refund. R refuses to deal with this point blank - I should never have been sent that motherboard, so the refund on the difference is apparently a moot point. I disagree. The only option left to me is a refund. He then tells me that's better than anyone else would offer - mostly I'd just get 50% back. I disagree with this also - most companies would allow me to proceed with an RMA. He then tells me he might be able to find me somewhere to buy the same motherboard for a similar price to what I payed. What the hell? I thought he was under the impression Abit no longer traded in the UK? I give up, tell him I'll get back to him, and hang up.

I e-mail Abit again, hoping they'll let me proceed with an RMA direct:

Hello again.

I've been talking to the place where I purchased the motherboard (Micro-P), who told me they no longer trade with you. They say they will take the card back, but will only give me credit for it. They will return the card to you and get credit for it, but will not proceed with a repair or exchange. This is not what I want - I want the card repaired or exchanged, as credit for the board will not cover the expense of buying a new card today with the current exchange rate. Is there any way I can proceed with the RMA directly with you, as essentially Micro-P no longer exists as a company that trades with Abit?

Regards,

Later, I get a call from Micro-P to arrange collection. I arrange collection for the MSI, but tell them I will not send the Abit until the issue is resolved.

Monday, 30th of March

I get a reply from Abit:

Dear Customer,

To see if your still have warranty and to check what kind of RMA procedure you have to follow, please answer the following questions.

1. What is the name of the company where you bought the ABIT product?
2. What is the purchase date?
3. What is the serialno? (the serialno. always starts with the modelname)
4. Do you still have the purchase invoice? ( only answer this question with yes or no, don't attach any invoice to the email)
5. what is your adress (this for calculating what the shippingcost would be)?

Best regards,

Encouraged, I reply:

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. The answers to your questions:

1. Purchased from Micro-P, UK
2. Purchased on October 17th, 2007
3. [Serial number]
4. Yes
5. [My address]

Thank you.

Regards,

I get two replies back from Abit:

Hi,

Just want to let you know, MircoP still send defective board to us for warranty service and they is no any agreement between MircoP en Abit for return for credit.
All RMA shipment are regular process.

Best regards,

So, that's the second time Micro-P tells me they no longer do RMAs because they no longer trade with the company, and the second time that company has told me that's not the case. Two distinct lies from Micro-P.

Dear Customer,

In the attachment you will find a PDF-file, with 2 pages.
(A PDF reader you can download from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html )

If you want a new BIOS-chip, or extra USB-cable, you fill out the Payment form (sheet 2).
When you want your Abit product to be repaired, please also fill out the Application Form (sheet 1) and send it back to us with a copy of your invoice.

I have to pay. I have to pay €25 for a repair to a product which is still under warranty, for a manufacturing defect that they are responsible for. I can understand that it's up to Micro-P to initiate the RMA, and Abit can't do anything about it, but I was rather hoping they'd see the situation I was in and help me out. No such luck. They passed the buck, much like Micro-P. So I reply again:

Hello again.

I've been talking to Micro-P for over a week now and they keep telling me that the only thing they'll do with Abit cards is return them for credit. They insist that they won't get cards fixed or replaced. The problem is, I don't really want an MSI or Gigabyte card (the only cards Micro-P offers now), I'd much rather have an Abit. But if I get credit from them I get £67 (what I payed), whereas the AB9 Pro would be £80 new today (because the pound has dropped in value so much since I bought it). So if I get credit I can't even get the same card back!

Regarding the PDF documents you've sent, it looks like I have to pay for the repair. Is this correct? It's just I thought there was a 2 year warranty, so I don't understand why I'd have to. I just wanted the standard warranty service. If I have to pay €25 for the repair, that's about £23, so I might as well just get credit from Micro-P - it would work out cheaper overall (£80 - £67 = £13, for a brand new card, instead of £23 for just a repair).

Could you help me clarify these issues? Thank you.

Regards,

Their reply:

Hi,

Yes, you've to pay EUR 25,00 to cover postage returned the baord. Repair costs own cost.
From my point of view, the best way for you is to return the board to MircoP for credit.

Best regards,

Wow. Just wow. The usual, I thought, was for me to pay for postage to get the board there, and them to pay for the cost to get it back to me. That's the experience I've had until now. It is, after all, their defect that has forced me to send it back in the first place. So, giving up on Abit, I return to Micro-P:

R,

I got this from Abit Europe:

Hi,

Just want to let you know, MircoP still send defective board to us for warranty service and they is no any agreement between MircoP en Abit for return for credit.
All RMA shipment are regular process.

Best regards,

Swee-Chong Lee
RMA Europe service center

What the hell is going on? Now Abit are telling me MicroP DO return Abit cards for the regular RMA procedure. You're telling me you don't. This is getting ridiculous.

And R's reply:

Morning,

It may be that we can return a board back to Abit, get it repaired, and have it shipped back to us. However, due to the administration and logistics of this, it will be virtually impossible to track. It would be a gamble whether or not you would even get the board back.

Please accept full credit for original price paid for the board, and I will do my best to find you a comparable board for you to purchase.

Thank you,

"Due to the administration and logistics of this"?! How complicated is it to send a package and receive another? I've just been told they're still doing this, so why is it that my particular request is so complicated? By this stage, it is clear that no one is willing to step up and take care of their responsabilities, so I try to limit the damage and get a refund - I'm certainly not willing to purchase anything through Micro-P again. I send a final e-mail:

Afternoon R,

I'm sorry, but I'm really not interested in store credit. If I can't follow a standard RMA procedure and "it would be a gamble whether or not I would even get the board back", then, to be honest, I'd rather just have a refund. I have no interest in getting another board from Micro-P, as I'd then have no guarantee that I wouldn't be in exactly the same situation in the future. Additionally, I don't particularly want an MSI or Gigabyte motherboard - as far as I'm concerned I'd be getting a lower-spec board (regardless of your thoughts on the chipset).

For the first time in all my dealings with Micro-P, I get a reply within minutes:

When the board is back in our warehouse you can arrange with your credit controller what you want to do with the credit.

Thanks,

I guess they were just waiting, holding out for me to finally give up. Congratulations Micro-P, you saved yourself £20 at the expense of my time, your time, the loss of a customer, bad PR, and several calls. I hope it was worth it.

Conclusions

In the end, the only thing that Gainward, Abit, and especially Micro-P, have managed is to ensure that I will never use their services again, and that I will recommend to my friends and family to do the same. In fact, I may just point them to this blog post and let them make their own minds up.

I will never buy a Gainward product again because, although they did eventually do what I'd always expected them to, it took me such a gigantic effort to get that, and support was generally so terrible, I simply wouldn't want to be subjected to that ever again. Replying to my first e-mail with a quick, simple and to-the-point response stating that RMA requests must proceed through the reseller (like Abit did) would have saved us both a great amount of grief.

I will never buy an Abit product again because, although they followed their guidelines to the letter and responded appropriately and quickly, they showed a level of callousness I'd rather not have to encounter ever again. Clearly, it is not their fault that Micro-P wouldn't do an RMA, but I really hoped a company of their caliber would have seen the predicament I was in and helped me out. They simply weren't willing to take that small final step. At least Gainward managed that much (if with a lot of coaxing).

I will never, ever, under any circumstances, purchase anything from Micro-P ever again. They were unresponsive, they flat-out refused to follow a standard procedure, they lied to me, they refused to help me out, they wasted my time, and they refused to make a slight loss to cover for all of that. In other words, in their eyes it is acceptable to lie to a customer, it is acceptable for the customer to make a loss through no fault of his own, and it is acceptable to ignore their own guarantees, but it is never acceptable for them to make a loss. That, to me, is a sure sign of lack of customer support.

This story is a perfect example of what I call our new culture of non-support. Policies and procedures implemented so a company can shrug off their responsabilites to their customers. Ignored requests for help. Warranties not worth the paper they're printed on. The height of callousness.