After 2 weeks Nvidia won't give me a RMA or return address for faulty product

Jam1e_l0

I brought a £700 computer graphics card directly from the manufacturer Nvidia, when I first used it it didn't work at certain screen resolutions when connected via HDMI. Because it seemed like a software problem, I waited for new software (drivers) to be released and they didn't fix the issue either.

I received the card on the 10th of March and first contacted Nvidia support on the 2nd of April, within 30 days of purchase. Support tried to fix the problem but nothing worked, in fact the problem got worse and now the HDMI doesn't work at all. On the 6th of April Nvidia support escalated the case to "level 2".

After 4 further days waiting, I contacted support again and was told "it been escalated to level 2, and they don't have a ETA". The next day I tried a web chat and was told again "level 2, no eta". It was at this point I decided I don't want this GPU fixing and wanted a refund instead.

After another 48 hours I connected to support live chat and while I waited for a operator, I emailed support and told them I wanted a refund, this seemed to speed things up as the live chat offered a phone number to call, which was an USA international number and I complained that I shouldn't have to incur more cost, so the operator arranged for someone to call me and stayed on live chat till the call was received.

I finally thought I was getting somewhere, just for the person on the phone to tell me I had the wrong department and that they'd arrange for the storefront, who were the right department to contact me, but no ETA. The next day I received an email from storefront linking to returns page, where I could input the specifics of the return, which is fair enough. Till I then received another automated email, asking for the same information, which I replied to, since then I've had the same email 3 times, every time I reply but end up getting the same email back,

So here I am 2 weeks later, faulty card, no RMA (return merchandise authorisation), no return address and no other way to contact them, because support who I was contacting before are now saying wait for storefront.

Is there anything I can do in this situation because I feel I'm just been bounced around departments:rotfl:, I did buy the item on credit card and was thinking of contacting them and see if they could help, but since I still have the graphics card I'm not sure they can.:(

Thanks for any help or advice in advance

wealdroam

Jam1e_l0 wrote: »

I brought a £700 computer graphics card directly from the manufacturer Nvidia, when I first used it it didn't work at certain screen resolutions when connected via HDMI. Because it seemed like a software problem, I waited for new software (drivers) to be released and they didn't fix the issue either.

I received the card on the 10th of March and first contacted Nvidia support on the 2nd of April, within 30 days of purchase. Support tried to fix the problem but nothing worked, in fact the problem got worse and now the HDMI doesn't work at all. On the 6th of April Nvidia support escalated the case to "level 2".

After 4 further days waiting, I contacted support again and was told "it been escalated to level 2, and they don't have a ETA". The next day I tried a web chat and was told again "level 2, no eta". It was at this point I decided I don't want this GPU fixing and wanted a refund instead.

After another 48 hours I connected to support live chat and while I waited for a operator, I emailed support and told them I wanted a refund, this seemed to speed things up as the live chat offered a phone number to call, which was an USA international number and I complained that I shouldn't have to incur more cost, so the operator arranged for someone to call me and stayed on live chat till the call was received.

I finally thought I was getting somewhere, just for the person on the phone to tell me I had the wrong department and that they'd arrange for the storefront, who were the right department to contact me, but no ETA. The next day I received an email from storefront linking to returns page, where I could input the specifics of the return, which is fair enough. Till I then received another automated email, asking for the same information, which I replied to, since then I've had the same email 3 times, every time I reply but end up getting the same email back,

So here I am 2 weeks later, faulty card, no RMA (return merchandise authorisation), no return address and no other way to contact them, because support who I was contacting before are now saying wait for storefront.

Is there anything I can do in this situation because I feel I'm just been bounced around departments:rotfl:, I did buy the item on credit card and was thinking of contacting them and see if they could help, but since I still have the graphics card I'm not sure they can.:(

Thanks for any help or advice in advance

Have a read of MSE's Section 75 article.

forgotmyname

Seems a common issue... https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4ov0rl/has_anyone_dealt_with_buying_direct_from_nvidia/

Fosterdog

How long did it take to arrive and did it have a senders address? The only details I can find shows that Nvidia is a US company registered in California, you may be bound by the consumer laws there rather than UK laws.

unforeseen

Are you sure that you bought it direct from Nvidia? Every product I've tried on the Nvidia.co.uk store always gives you a choice of where to buy and Nvidia isn't one of them

However the US store allows you to buy direct, the prices are then shown in dollars.

It sounds like you have bought a product direct from the American site of the company so UK consumer laws are out of the window. You now need to look at the pertinent US laws. It may well be that even a S75 will fail at the moment because the company may still be working within the legal framework process.

The terms that you will be working under are:

Any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms shall be governed by the internal laws of the State of Minnesota, without regard to or application of its choice of law rules or conflicts-of-laws principles, except that the Arbitration provision of these Terms shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. In the event that the Agreement to Arbitrate above is found not to apply to you or to a particular claim or dispute, you agree that any claim or dispute that has arisen or may arise between you and us must be resolved exclusively by a state or federal court located in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and both you and us agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within Hennepin County, Minnesota for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.

bris

Just start a S75 claim straight away, doesn't matter where they are based the credit card are equally liable.


They may want you to get a report done but that will be easy enough at your local pc repair specialist there are always a few independent repairers kicking about. The cost of this report is also claimed back from the CC.


You have given NVidia long enough, just explain everything you have done to the S75 CS adviser and insist they start the process.

wealdroam

bris wrote: »

Just start a S75 claim straight away, doesn't matter where they are based the credit card are equally liable.

That is true.

To put it another way, if you have a claim against the supplier then you have a similar claim against the credit supplier.

The difficulty comes when there is no claim against the supplier.
For example, if the supplier is US based and is acting within the laws of that country/state, then there is no claim against the supplier and hence no claim against the credit card issuer.

Jam1e_l0

Thanks for all the responses, I did buy the card from the Nvidia.co.uk store, the actual package came from Ireland and the "storefront/digital river" I'm dealing with now has this email address nvidia.uk.cs@digitalriver and I have a Polish contact support phone number +48 223975013. So I'm hoping at least EU law should be applicable but fairly sure the sale was under UK legislation.

I did receive this email today:

Dear Jamie Lodge,

Thank you for contacting the NVIDIA online store.

We are processing your refund for order: ***********. Please allow 5 - 7
days for the credit to be applied to your account. Due to billing
cycles, the refund may not appear on the same statement as the original
charge.

Please note that the refund process will resume once we verified that
the product was returned to our fulfiller.

In an effort to continuously improve the customer experience, we would
like your feedback through a brief survey. It should only take a few
minutes of your time.

Link deleted*

Sincerely,
Elle C.
NVIDIA online store
Customer Service
nvidia.uk.cs@digitalriver (I can't post links but address is .com)

The problem with this is I don't have the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) number for them to identify the package or the address to return it to. I did point this out I my reply.

Jam1e_l0

wealdroam wrote: »

Have a read of
Thanks for the link, I'll be making a section 75 claim with the card company 1st thing Monday.

wealdroam

Jam1e_l0 wrote: »

I'll be making a section 75 claim with the card company 1st thing Monday.

Might be an idea to leave it until Tuesday.

unholyangel

Jam1e_l0 wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses, I did buy the card from the Nvidia.co.uk store, the actual package came from Ireland and the "storefront/digital river" I'm dealing with now has this email address nvidia.uk.cs@digitalriver and I have a Polish contact support phone number +48 223975013. So I'm hoping at least EU law should be applicable but fairly sure the sale was under UK legislation.

I did receive this email today:

Dear Jamie Lodge,

Thank you for contacting the NVIDIA online store.

We are processing your refund for order: ***********. Please allow 5 - 7
days for the credit to be applied to your account. Due to billing
cycles, the refund may not appear on the same statement as the original
charge.

Please note that the refund process will resume once we verified that
the product was returned to our fulfiller.

In an effort to continuously improve the customer experience, we would
like your feedback through a brief survey. It should only take a few
minutes of your time.

Link deleted*

Sincerely,
Elle C.
NVIDIA online store
Customer Service
nvidia.uk.cs@digitalriver (I can't post links but address is .com)

The problem with this is I don't have the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) number for them to identify the package or the address to return it to. I did point this out I my reply.

Your contract of sale is with Digital River Ireland Ltd however, the terms of sale state that the governing law is english law so consumer contract (information, cancellation & additional charges) regulations and also the consumer rights act will apply to the contract.

In other words, the same as if you had purchased from a retailer located here in the UK.