Saphire Wants me to pay 50$ Cad to RMA My 5770.....

[Xyst]

Our company, Althon Inc., is a logistic company handling warranty (RMA) service on Sapphire product on the Canadian territories.



For technical issue, you may like to file for a ‘Support Ticket’ via Sapphire website. Sapphire technician would come back to you.



For RMA (Warranty) claim against Sapphire, first of all, please check the warranty provided by your dealer. If it is within their warranty period,

you should get the service from them.



Should the dealer warranty expired, and you like to file a claim against Sapphire, then, there are steps which we have to go through before Sapphire would issued an official RMA number to authorize such return.



Note that, Sapphire is not a Canadian company and their head office is in Asia (Hong Kong). Sapphire warranty covers free parts/labor only. Therefore, for any RMA claims against Sapphire, we have

to send the card back and fore to Asia, and back to you afterwards, so there will be costs involved (Administration and Freight). Cost of each card is ranging from CAD$25-CAD$45 depending on your location/province (this does not include the transportation cost from you sending the defective card to us).



Should you decide to go ahead with the claim, please provide the below information :



1 Serial number of the card

2. Part Number of the card

3. SKU number of the card

4. Complete full product description of the card (AGP/PCIE, 256M/512M, Dual DVI / DVI, VO / VIVO.....etc)

5. Details of your mailing address

6. Copy of the purchase invoice – Rec’d

7. Read the attached RMA Policy and email us back with your confirmation of acceptance to all terms/conditions.



That's the email I got. A few weeks of use out of a new 5770 that cost 120$ + shipping and they want to charge 25-45$ for (Administration and Freight) plus god knows how much for shipping. Is it even worth it to try? At this point it seems like I'd be better off tossing it and buying a 480 or 570...




On top of that I got my card from newegg and they want...

3) the invoice must indicate the serial no. of the card or product which corresponds to that of the serial no label of the VGA card product


Does newegg even say the serial number on the invoice?

 

[phishy714]

So what you are telling us is..

It sucks to live in Canada.

Agreed.

 

[-Fran-]

Well, doing the simple math, $50 is still lower than what a 570 might cost... Besides, no one can guarantee that the new card (480 or 570) will be perfect. It's just bad luck IMO.

Whether you should send it and pay, well... Yes you should IMO.

Cheers!

EDIT: Typo

 

[Xyst]

Yeah, but I was looking into buying a 480 or a 570 anyway... So it seems rather silly to pay 50$ for a RMA to go sell the card to some guy for 100$...

 

[Xyst]

Well, doing the simple math, $50 is still lower than what a 570 might cost... Besides, no one can guarantee that the new card (480 or 570) will be perfect. It's just bad luck IMO.

Whether you should send it and pay, well... Yes you should IMO.

Cheers!

EDIT: Typo

Also, its not a 570, its a 5770 ATI Card.

 

[-Fran-]

Oh, your post said "...I'd be better off tossing it and buying a 480 or 570" so I thought you meant the nVidia cards.

If it doesn't matter to you money wise, will depend on how desperate you'll be without a video card to game

Cheers!

 

[Xyst]

Well, I already have a 5770, the newer one was for xfire. However I just might end up buying a new more beefy card.

 

[-Fran-]

That's also a good idea; the 5770 still has a good re-sale value IMO.

I don't know Canada's or USA's re-sale prices, but down here in Chile they're 2/3 sometimes with 2-3 year old cards on the specialized forums and ebay-like sites (deremate.cl).

Cheers!

 

[iam2thecrowe]

That sounds like a load of crap to me. I have never had to return any product overseas, that is rediculous. If that is really Sapphires procedure, to return to Asia, i will not be buying that brand ever. Thanks for the heads up, sapphire are obviously a joke of a company.

 

[-Fran-]

It's the Canadian "Althon Inc" company that actually sucks... They're transferring the costs to the consumer when it might no be their fault. At least, here in Chile, the re-sellers absorb that cost (at least, that's my experience when returning stuff).

Even Dell, when you want to RMA whatever you bought, they pay the transport and admin fees when it's their fault and you're in warranty period, although they sell directly all over Latin America, uhm...

Cheers!

 

[cronos177]

I guess thats why sapphire cards are so cheap. Like $109 for a 5830 or 5850 for 140, yeah sounded too good to be true. I probly won't buy frOm them, after reading this... So fas i like HIS for radeons

 

[cronos177]

So yeah if I were you I'd sell the working 5770 for like $90, and try to sell the defective on ebay for whatever and get 6950.

 

[JDFan]

From the letter it is not Sapphire charging the $ -- it is the company you bought the card from (or extended warranty - ie. Athlon Inc. according to the E-mail !! Have you tried contacting Sapphire support directly if the card is still under warranty ? From the looks of the E-mail Athlon Inc is acting as a third party to handle the warranty process for you for a fee but if the card is under factory warranty you should be able to deal directly with Sapphire or Newegg instead of having to use a third party and pay them to process the warranty (that is an optional service most likely offered for a fee just like extended warranty coverage that only covers the card after the factory warranty expires for a fee !)

 

[Xyst]

This is sapphire, I got it off newegg and the 30 day Warranty is done, so I need to RMA it.

I might get it RMAed after I 100% confirm its not working... I got another shell that I can slap a new HD into and reformat, install the card and see if it works.

Sapphire support told me to contact that place because I live in Canada.

 

[JDFan]

This is sapphire, I got it off newegg and the 30 day Warranty is done, so I need to RMA it.

I might get it RMAed after I 100% confirm its not working... I got another shell that I can slap a new HD into and reformat, install the card and see if it works.

Sapphire support told me to contact that place because I live in Canada.

I'd contact Sapphire again and tell them they want to charge for the warranty return and make sapphire arrange payment to them instead of you paying it if the card is still under warranty ! (you shouldn't have to pay for repair of a defective card that is still under warranty )

 

[iam2thecrowe]

^+1, but technically he is not paying for repair, just shipping which seems rediculously expensive.

 

[Asopas]

Unfortunately I had same experience with them. I think the only solution is to spread the word. There are plenty of other cards you can get just forget Sapphire.

 

[renz496]

i heard stuff like this before if you want to RMA Sapphire cards. still remember a person in my local forum who had to RMA his broken 5870 after 2 week of use. the shop where he bought the card tell him he has to pay the shipping cost himself if he want to RMA the card. he did that and when Sapphire checked the card they tell him: we can't RMA your card because you 'burn' this card yourself. then he ask them to send the broken card back to him and they said: if you want your card back you'll have to pay the shipping cost yourself

 

[Asopas]

I think everybody should complain to BBB. Sapphire should end this scam in Canada.