Hi folks, I was wondering what rights I have for the following. A motherboard I bought last October developed a fault at the end of January so I started the RMA process. I sent the motherboard off to the seller and surprise, it tests and works ok. They offer to send it back or RMA to MSI. I say to RMA to MSI as I was wary of receiving the board back and it not working. I've still not had the board back after 7 weeks or so. A bit of backstory: The RMA was only raised after I had done loads of testing just to get the darned thing to even post. It would post one time out of ten and only after moving the graphics card from one slot to another. I tested the card in my portable rig and it tested fine. I tested two other gfx cards with the MSI board and it still exhibited the same issue - basically the post led would stick on VGA and not get past it, but whichever gfx card I tried worked perfectly fine in another rig. I have had to stick a different motherboard in to get the main rig up and running and as soon as I plugged it all back together (literally, just changing the motherboard and nothing else) it posts absolutely fine, every time. But, when I send it in, they test it and it works absolutely fine. I mean, it sounds like good news but I feared when it was returned to me, I'd be in the same boat so agreed for it to be sent to MSI as MSI only deal with suppliers, not the public. The reason for the delay in getting it back is it's stuck in customs, but it's been 7-odd weeks now that I sent it off to the place I bought it from. I have requested initially if I could return it and pay the difference for a different motherboard, or if I could have a refund but they said it's gone past that timeframe. I'm thinking a full refund is in order as it had developed a fault and was unfit for purpose after only 3 months of use. The return of the product has also been very protracted and I'm sure there's a reasonable expectation of time frame to receive the product back. Sorry for the long post and if it sounds a bit ranty, I was wondering if anyone else has battled with something like this and what is best to do, or what are my rights?
The board has a warranty of minimum 12months, if we're talking purchased in Oct '22 then you're still 7months shy or that elapsing. A quick flick through a few MSI motherboards on scan and they all have 36month warranty, some with scan, newer z790 and x670 are direct with MSI. I would chase for updates with the purchaser and ask for the RMA number with MSI to chase direct with them and MSI should be able to tell you it's status. If the board is lost, you win, new board thank you please. You could try asking for a replacement sooner, but with warranty they will only refund in instances where they can't replace that model and a suitable replacement can't be found or agreed upon.I seem to recall tales of MSI rma process being total testicle torture, so the best option is nagging.
