Rant Sick to death of Scan RMA

Pretty much any return I've made over the last 3 or so years with Scan has been an absolute battle. The latest is one with an AMD APU I ordered from them.

It's specified to work with 2133MHz RAM and gets extra performance from it. So I ordered a decent ASRock board from Amazon (Scan didn't have any in stock) as well as decent 2133MHz RAM. No post at all, regardless of timings. I thought maybe the RAM was at fault, but it worked on two other systems fine. I tried another set of RAM (different brand), exact same problem. ASRock support told me the APU was at fault, since the memory controller was part of that.

I thought it could still be the board though, and wanted to be sure. I returned it to Amazon, ordered another brand (Asus), and had the exact same problem. Returned the second board to Amazon and decided to give up with this, it was far too much effort.

I contacted their returns just a couple of days past the DSR period. I returned the APU to Scan, with all of this information clearly explained and the extent of the testing I've done. They managed to get it running on one of their boards with one of their 2133MHz branded memory. Now I'm being told that I'm going to be charged for collection, testing and return.

I could understand if I'd just returned a 6 month old CPU without any adequate testing claiming it was faulty, but this was well under 28 days, and I tested with two entirely different sets of hardware to reproduce the problem.

What's more, I know that if this had been with any other retailer I've ever bought from, I'd have had no issues at all. Suffice to say I'm never ordering from them again - I had huge issues a couple of years ago when they tried to refuse a full refund on memory that they'd sent that didn't even fit in the bundle I'd ordered from them. I really hoped given the complaints I've seen about their RMA process, they'd have improved by now.

 

Bugger.

What AMD APU was it?

 

A10-6800K.

They're saying that because it worked for them they've proved there's no fault and they won't accept it back. But I'm not sure what they expect - if I'd tried 5 boards and 5 sets of memory and still not been able to get it to work, and they had, they'd still be saying that.

 

it wasn't the board in need of a BIOS update was it? Did you manage to test the board with a previous gen A10?

Believe me when I'm saying I'm on your side. They've been hardwork for me before... as in it took a long time, but as we saw in the hardware section a month back or so, there was a user who couldn't update his BIOS until he had the older CPU to run the update... a paradoxical issue!

 

Yeah, the BIOS was one of the first things I thought of. I tried the board as it came originally, then updated to the latest BIOS. I did the same with the second board. Both boards worked ok at 1600MHz with and without the update.

I'd only got the A10-6800K so couldn't test any others. The RAM sets I tried worked fine in two other systems - also I had a third set, 1600MHz rated Samsung Green, that even worked fine at 2400MHz, but wouldn't post at 2133MHz with this APU.

If they're looking to charge me £40 or so, that's going to bring the cost of the CPU to £155, which is ludicrous especially when I've still not been able to run it at its stock spec.

 

Did scan say which board & settings they used? I'd laugh if they changed the memory speed to get it to work...

 

They said they tried Corsair 2133MHz RAM at its stock settings and an ASRock A75 board.

I tried the top ASRock A85X board and an Asus F2A85-M board - both high end FM2 boards. I tried Patriot Viper, Kingston and Samsung memory. I also tried Corsair 1600MHz memory, come to think of it - that would run at 2133MHz with loose timings on my main system, but also wouldn't post at 2133MHz with this.

 

teppic,

Not sure why you felt the need to post on another forum, and also not even in the bit-tech SCAN forum.

Please feel free to read the full thread over on Hexus to see both sides of this story:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-hexus-after-sales-support/289877-problems-return.html

Regards

 

I'm posting here because there is no rant forum on there.

And I have not said anything here that isn't posted there.

 

I ended up using the Visa chargeback scheme and it worked for me, you might try that. That, and never shopping with Scan again. Seriously I can't believe this has happened to you several times over a 3-year period.

 

teppic,

I've checked your RMA history 8 in total dating back to 2011, all of which have been dealt with to your satisfaction either by way of replacement goods or refund.

 

Please don't get me started on this. It took a legal threat to get you to refund me on memory that you supplied in a bundle that didn't even fit properly in the bundle, and didn't fit in my case, despite me asking for your assurance before ordering that it would fit ok (assurance that was given). All my attempts to pursue the matter beforehand both on this forum and via email were ignored. Yes, I got the refund after the threat, and so in that respect I was 'satisfied', but if you think that is satisfactory service, I have no words.

 

The issue from nearly 2 years ago referred to above is here if anybody cares to read it:

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=213251

It was resolved to your satisfaction and you have placed many orders since.

 

I think sadly in this instance, It's a compatibility problem, having read the hexus thread that is at least what I can gather.

I don't think scan have been unreasonable in this instance at all really. I appreciate it sucks for you as you say you have got through multiple mobo's etc to try and cure it, but that isn't scan's fault. and they have tested it to work, which kind of means they are holding up their end of the bargain. I once bought I think it was 8 or 9 sets of DDr2 memory back in the day trying to get a set that would work fine on my board, and this is when 4gb of DDr2 ram was masses and cost a pretty penny!

it's just one of them, if you didn't want to risk paying collection/testing/return etc. then you should have not sent in the item - even though that sounds daft as you did do some exhaustive testing yourself, all the same it is not scans fault that your particular set up, or the variations of set ups you have at home do not work correctly with the apu you have purchased.

One of the pitfalls of computer building!

 

Resolved to my satisfaction? -- my last post there, "Eventually it was mostly resolved (about a week or two ago), but it took a LOT of wasted time and effort and frustration to get there." doesn't quite read that way, does it? I didn't see the point in bringing up the full details of what actually happened since I had eventually received the due refund.

As I said in this thread I'd really hoped Scan's service had improved. It seems I've been proved utterly wrong.

 

Have to admit, the way that hexus thread reads, it looks like Scan have tried multiple tests and offered a professional answer to the problem. The problem with compatibility wasn't their fault, and the acceptance of the RMA seems pretty clear cut on the charges if no fault is found that is the fault of the retailer.

 

Yep, it's so incredibly frustrating when you have one of those "one in a million" hardware conflicts! In this case, if Scan can't find a fault with the chip then I don't think they're being unreasonable in their position; although it's crap that you're ending up out of pocket because of a hardware incompatibility issue, Scan (and Amazon) have supplied goods that aren't faulty, just incompatible with the other stuff you've got.

 

I agree, but given the situation Scan could do themselves a favour and look good if they just returned it free of charge, or simply refunded it

 

I would agree with this if I had only tried one hardware combination. I tried two (more, if you include the further memory testing) without success. At what point do I return? After three, four, or more? ASRock told me additionally the APU was the problem.

I accepted the return of the APU because they tested it successfully on their system, but that doesn't mean that there is no issue. I had a problem with being seriously out of pocket for returning something I adequately tested and when I had reproduced the fault.

 

Thank you for the balanced points of view.

I don't think we are being unreasonable, we would have offered to refund the CPU despite it being used and in our opinion not faulty but unfortunately the return request was made almost a week outside of the 7 day cooling off period.

I am not sure what we are expected to do? if we make exceptions for teppic then we have to do it for everybody else.

Do we just take a hit on the CPU as we can't restock as new and can't return to our supplier for credit/replacement as it is not faulty...