Advice/Guidance Needed on Faulty Gaphics Card

The_RedFox

In March of this year I finally bit the bullet and decided to build myself a Desktop PC.
Suffice to say I spent many an hour deciding what I wanted in the system in terms of Motherboard, CPU, Memory, Hard Drive and so on. An order was placed with a reputable IT (UK) supplier I have previously used, the order was paid using a credit card and the components promptly arrived, and were successfully assembled, and to my relieve all worked. Great !

Things were all OK until Mid October when the Graphics Card decided to go faulty.
A fault call was placed with the supplier being as the equipment was just over 6 months old. Unfortunately without a working graphics card the Desktop PC will not work/boot up so has been sitting dormant, gathering dust in the study for just over a month. Many e-mails/calls have followed most with me chasing the supplier…but I have finally received confirmation from the supplier today admitting the Graphics Card is faulty.

However the suppliers no longer stocks/supplies the card, even though it is still available elsewhere, if you look on the Internet ! The supplier apparently have tried to find an alternative but they have no stock of anything similar within the same price and as such have offered me “a market value refund”(credited to my account in 5-7 Days!!) which I have calculated to be approx 70% of the original cost of the Graphics Card.

I feel I have no other option then to accept their offer as they do not seemed to be bothered with really keeping me happy and have not offered anything else. Please understand I have been more than happy with the service this supplier has provided in the past and would continue to use if only they gave me a ‘like-for-like’ cost settlement.

Can anyone offer me any advice or suggest what I can do as their market value refund is not going to allow me to purchase a reasonable spec. card for the money and of course my view of their Customer Service has been very much dented.

Your views are gladly welcome….

Esqui

They can choose to offer a partial refund. Take a look at this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2068089 for more discussion.

Personally, I think that inside the warranty, a partial refund is not good service, even if it is (the idea, anyway, no judgment on the amount here) legally alllowable.

You could try looking on ebay to see how much those cards (used) are going for to see if that IS the current market value for a six-month old card.

neilmcl

Does the graphics card come with any warranty? If it does perhaps you could use this to get the manufacturer to replace it rather than accept the partial refund which does meet the obligations of the retailer.

Having said that I'm sure, based on how quick graphics card technology moves, you could probably buy the same spec card or even better for the refund you're getting if you shop around.

The_RedFox

Esqui and Neilmcl,

Thanks for your comments.
I have looked on the internet, including Ebay and it is possible to purchase the same card chearper now than it was 6-7 Months ago.
As Neilmcl mentions technology moves on leaps and bounds and the latest kit doesn't remain tops for long. Unfortunately the refund being offered doesn't equate to the current replacement cost, so it looks like I'm going to have to raid my piggy-bank and go for something more up-to-date but based around the original purchase price back in March.
I will of course be sending a letter to the supplier to "vent one's spleen" but I don't think this will inspire them enough to give me a full cost refund.

I guess another one to go under 'How not to keep your Customer satisfied'.

Esqui

As Neilmcl said, have you tried asking the manufacturer? Depending who it is, they might give a better service.

The_RedFox

Esqui, No I haven't as yet but it's perhaps something worth looking into. The only thing against me here is the IT Supplier now have the card. However I do have have a fault 'ticket' raised on their system with the serial No. of the card so I might use that tack. Worst case is they can't do anything but, 'nothing ventured nothing gained'.

neilmcl

What is the card and just how much are they offering as a refund?

reuben23

Is it an Nvidia.........? the 8000 series are supposed to be one of the most reliable cards money can buy.

The_RedFox

Neilmcl/Reuben23,

Card was a 512MB XFX 9500 GT, nothing too fantastic but good enough for the sort of work I was doing on the new PC. Purchase value was just under £ 45 as it was on a special offer at the time - Refund value is just under £ 32.
It's not just the fact that the company haven't provided a full refund its tha fact that they don't seem to be worried by offering this sort of refund. My argument was when I asked if they still stocked/sold this product would they have replaced my card the answer was yes. Well then surely they should apply the same standard and give a full refund !
I'm now keeping an eye open for Graphic Card deals and just missed out on one end of last week. I think its just a case of waiting.... In the meantime my new PC sits gathering more dust - Not that we don't clean or anything

neilmcl

Under SOGA I think that refund is fair given that you've had over 6 months use out of it, particularly as it would be down to you to prove that it had an inherent fault. As I mentioned before, this card should have a 12 mths manufacturers warranty so why haven't you tried dealing direct with the XFX.

You say your PC is gathering dust, doesn't your mobo come with onboard VGA graphics to keep you going.

The_RedFox

As mentioned in previous post the supplier has the card as they needed to pass this onto XFX to get them to confirm it was faulty. It did cross my mind that the supplier may try and claim against the 12 month warranty. What do you recon?