My PSU died mid last week, I contacted Thermaltake UK using their site contact form to ask how to proceed as the PSU is still under warranty. 4 days pass with no reply, so I go back to their site and re-ask using the same form... then I noticed they have a Facebook page so I added a comment on the slow service and this is the reply I got: "Thermaltake UK Please be patient, the person who deals with RMA is on Annual leave, if no reply next week please leave me a contact email address and I'll push to resolve for you." (9 hours ago via mobile) ??mobile?? and 9 hours ago was just after midnight uk time. and this was my response posted 10 minutes ago: Sorry, but I fail to see how the employment infrastructure of a multimillion dollar & pound corporation should affect me. Are you really saying you have just ONE person employed to deal with ALL RMA's for the tens of thousands of your products sold in UK alone each year? A consequence of which is I will have to wait even longer before my PSU problem is even considered let alone sorted, meanwhile my main computer is offline, which is costing me money. Gone are the days when a customer will allow retailers to lead them around by the nose with poor service; this global economic situation has highlighted those companies that give quality for money in both products and aftercare service. Lets see what the forum consensus is on this.....not yours of course, but several you have no authority over. I'm posting this for both the reason of concensus, plus as it comes just after the *cough* "best" *cough* of 2012 awards, I thought it was relevant to highlight how some of these companies view aftercare service as an afterthought...
Firstly, I'm not sure this is the right place to post something like this, but that's not for me to decide. Secondly, if they have only one person dealing with RMA this doesn't necessarily show shoddy infrastructure, turn it around, could it perhaps show a low fail rate, or a hyper efficient person. I do agree that not having someone to fill in the slot isn't great, but a very short term issue - if say the RMA person were going on maternity/paternity leave then I'm sure they'd get someone in. Thirdly, and finally if memory serves (and this is a vague memory) then they have 14 days to issue you with an RMA number, and you have 14 days to return said PSU, they then have 30 days to repair/replace/reject your returned item and claim.
Hi there well here are my thoughts 1. You posted on facebook and someone from the company replied... That's a plus 2. They replied nearly instantly to your post last night looking at facebook time....so you commenting about it being so late is meaningless as they responded very quick. 3. The person who replied obviously isn't from that department and said if no reply this week let them know and the fact this is over a weekend and they gave you a response was quite positive, whether it's what you wanted to hear or not. 4. Annual leave could be 2 days, who knows! So would you look to cover it really? 5. Your initial post wasn't the best to get assistance as it was threatening legal action, and as Asura said companies normally have time before the RMA process kicks in.... Had monitors, gpu and motherboard issues in past and never been instant. Maybe it's not what you wish to hear, but I like Thermaltake and there support for gaming and the community, I think you need to also appreciate Facebook at midnight on Saturday night is not really going to get results and this thread seems childish as its 4 days since you requested RMA and it's the weekend.
You don't necessarily have to deal with the RMA directly with the manufacturer yourself. The retailer you bought it from can usually handle the process if you raise an RMA with them. Depending on their policy they may well send a replacement sooner after the PSU is tested and found to be faulty. Also read my signature thread, lots of useful stuff to read!
OK yes... I may be being more than a little jumpy, I'm already having a serious issue with OCUK (no surprise there) and that is probably clouding my attitude. The PSU is 3.5 years old, so an RMA from Novatech is unlikely even if it is inside Thermaltakes 5 year warranty for my particular model. Yes I got a reply 9 hours after the facebook post, but that still doesn't really cover a 4 day wait, not even an email after my initial contact to the effect of what was said. There's obviously someone still monitoring at Thermaltake, even on a saturday, and call me demanding but if I were running Thermaltake Uk I'd still have someone able to deal with RMA enquiries, get the info etc etc, at least to get the process started. I still say online service is always less satisfactory than in person, if that happened in a shop "wait until next week...maybe" how many would accept that?
