Is it normal that AMD/ATI needs over 3 month to replace a card?

[ningo]

I bought an ATI card from Asus mid november last year. Of course not directly from Asus but a retailer. On 16.4.2010 the *FAN* of my card broke. I send it in to the retailer, they ship it to ASUS and 3 weeks later, I have the card back, more broken than before, the whole screen just stays black. So I send it in again and after another 3 weeks the card is still broken. Being fed up with the failure that is the ASUS repair center i send it in *again* to have it conversed (or however you call it, money back essentially) which takes, behold, 6 weeks.
So, 02.07.2010 i'm still waiting on my ATI card OR the money to buy a new one.

Who is at fault? AMD/ATI? ASUS? The retailer?
Why does it take that long to begin with? Why can't ASUS seem to fix a card in the first run or at all? Do they want to force me to buy a new card with this behaviour?

[bridgman]

We sell chips to board vendors (eg ASUS). Board vendors build and sell boards to distributors. Distributors sell boards to retailers. Retailers sell boards to you.

Suggest you follow up with the retailer if you haven't done so already... most likely scenario is that something got lost/misplaced while processing your refund.

[droidhacker]

If you gave it back to the RETAILER, then YOUR problem is with THEM, not anyone above them.

The retailer typically does NOT perform warranty handling. Most retailers that I am aware of will do a replace-only type of warranty and tell you to go directly to the manufacturer (ASUS in this case) for actual service warranty.

Note that the MANUFACTURER will NOT process hardware refunds, since they were NOT paid 100% of your out-of-pocket money. They can't refund anything they didn't receive.

So to clear things up: REPAIR warranty is the responsibility of ASUS (but if you have a really nice retailer, they may forward it up there for you -- they don't HAVE to though).
REPLACE warranty is the responsibility of EITHER ASUS or your retailer (depending on their policy and the local laws).
REFUND is the responsibility of your retailer.
The distributor is irrelevant to you.

[Dandel]

Short Post:

I agree with droidhacker on this one... It'd be best to contact Asus directly to request a fix on this... Most of the time the only out of pocket costs with manufacturers you will see is the shipping costs to send the card to them and possibly an shipping and handling fee to have them send the replacement/repaired card back to you.

Long Post:

I bought an ATI card from Asus mid november last year. Of course not directly from Asus but a retailer. On 16.4.2010 the *FAN* of my card broke. I send it in to the retailer, they ship it to ASUS and 3 weeks later, I have the card back, more broken than before, the whole screen just stays black. So I send it in again and after another 3 weeks the card is still broken. Being fed up with the failure that is the ASUS repair center i send it in *again* to have it conversed (or however you call it, money back essentially) which takes, behold, 6 weeks.
So, 02.07.2010 i'm still waiting on my ATI card OR the money to buy a new one.

Long story, however, the mistake is underlined and bolded.

Who is at fault? AMD/ATI? ASUS? The retailer?

the Party at fault is the retailer.

Why does it take that long to begin with? Why can't ASUS seem to fix a card in the first run or at all? Do they want to force me to buy a new card with this behaviour?

This is a retailer, they always want more of your cash, so of course they could intentionally break the card further... I suggest contacting Asus immediately and dealing with them directly.

[bridgman]

The part I don't understand is exactly what is supposed to be happening. Ningo, did you send the card back to the retailer or the repair center for a refund ? If the retailer, I expect they would have normally given you a refund or exchange on the spot (or at least processed the refund and said that they would send you a cheque).

What exactly happened ?

[yotambien]

I don't know where Dandel and droidhacker are from, but it's not true, in the general case, that you have to address the manufacturer rather than the retailer, or that it's preferable to do so. At least in the UK, and from what I could gather on the net, also in the EU, the responsibility in case that something goes wrong lies in the retailer who sold you the goods. It only makes sense: you bought your stuff from the retailer, they have to deal with it for selling you a faulty product. They can afterwards go after the manufacter if so they wish, but your contract is with them. Some countries in the EU do have some version of what it's called Direct Producer's Liability, and a European directive about it is (or was until recently) in the works. In any case, I think DPL is thought to be an alternative path for the consumer to follow as a way to protect cross-border consumers.

In the EU, you have up to two years (in the general case, it may be more) to demand from the seller a) "for the goods to be repaired or replaced free of charge within a reasonable period and without major inconvenience to the consumer", or b) "for an appropriate reduction to be made to the price, or for the contract to be rescinded, if repair or replacement is impossible or disproportionate, or if the seller has not remedied the shortcoming within a reasonable period or without major inconvenience to the consumer". This, regardless of whatever commercial guarantees you may have been given on top of that.

It's clear that ningo's retailer hasn't solved anything neither in a timely manner nor without causing some inconvenience (4 months and counting is not reasonable). I suggest getting informed about your rights as a consumer in your country; if you are in the EU, you'll be happy to know that all state members have transposed the relevant directive. Find out the details of the customer service deparment of your retailer, and send them a letter explaining clearly the situation and what you want to be done, citing the relevant legislation and including copies of whatever documentation relevant to the purchase you may have, explicitly giving them a reasonable period to answer you (two weeks is reasonable). Further action will hopefully not be needed and will very much depend on how Alternative Dispute Resolutions (out-of-court settlements, arbitration and so on) work in your country. National consumer associations are a good source of information, although the quality varies a lot.

[droidhacker]

I don't know where Dandel and droidhacker are from, but it's not true, in the general case, that you have to address the manufacturer rather than the retailer, or that it's preferable to do so. At least in the UK, and from what I could gather on the net, also in the EU....

Unless otherwise specified, the default is to assume that someone is in NORTH AMERICA, where the warranty is the responsibility of the MANUFACTURER. There is a statutory MINIMUM time period, typically ONE WEEK where the RETAILER is obligated to act AS AN AGENT ON YOUR BEHALF. Some retailers, in order to boost their customer service reputation or based on agreement with the manufacturer or distributor, will offer an extended time period where they will basically offer the warranty (i.e., you bring it back to the retailer and they will EXCHANGE it with a different one), they will then settle up with the manufacturer or soak up the cost. This is usually only the case with STORE BRANDS, where the retailer is regarded *AS* the manufacturer.

Note that in many instances, the retailer will CHOOSE to exchange your product to get you off their backs FAST and then deal with the manufacturer later.

[yotambien]

It's good that you posted how it works in your country. I myself talked about how it works in most of my continent for informative purposes. The more these things are known the better for us, the customers. However, I'm not going to assume anything about the country of origin of anybody, and less than that, adopt your arbitrary default option. If it's relevant, the only sensible thing to do is to ask or specify how whatever is being said may or not apply in different coutries.

PS. I actually assumed the OP is not from the UK or USA, for that 'converse' thing. But maybe it's a term I'm not aware of.

[droidhacker]

It's good that you posted how it works in your country. I myself talked about how it works in most of my continent for informative purposes. The more these things are known the better for us, the customers. However, I'm not going to assume anything about the country of origin of anybody, and less than that, adopt your arbitrary default option. If it's relevant, the only sensible thing to do is to ask or specify how whatever is being said may or not apply in different coutries.

PS. I actually assumed the OP is not from the UK or USA, for that 'converse' thing. But maybe it's a term I'm not aware of.

That's no term you're not aware of... it is simply the wrong word for the context.... the act of having a conversation.

Now like it or not, the world does tend to revolve around the US more than it does the UK. It has to do mostly with population, money, and arrogance. (FYI: I'm not from the US myself -- Canada actually.)

That may change in the coming years though since the US seems to have been spiralling downward since the end of the cold war in much the same way as Britain started around the turn of the previous century, but oh well, empires come and empires go....


Next up: CHINA.

[yotambien]

Uuhhh, we don't want to start talking about arrogance, empires and geopolitics, do we? (sure not!)

I agree with you, there is a dominance of US culture in the western world, I'm not playing blind. Still, I don't think it makes sense to assume that somebody is from north america in this particular forum. Off the top of my head I can mention several nationalities from regular posters here, there's no reason to assume that new people is from only 2 of those.

Anyway, as I said, it's good these things are mentioned. Information is power, power to the people and all that. I wonder what happened with that card in the end...