Gigabyte finally gets around to posting RMA portal for explosive PSUs

[Shawn Knight]

Facepalm: It’s been nearly three weeks since Gigabyte publicly addressed issues concerning its GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM power supplies. Only now, however, has the company actually gotten around to putting up an exchange / refund request form. Apparently, the company's recent data breach slowed its plans considerably.

If you recall, the two models in question had been reported by hardware reviewers and buyers alike to have serious quality concerns. Gamers Nexus tested several models and a whopping 50 percent of them failed in an “explosive capacity.” Furthermore, the team blew three load-testing fuses in the process.

Over on Newegg, the 850W model has 40 one-egg ratings while the 750W unit has 169 one-egg ratings as of this writing.

Gigabyte on August 13 adjusted the over power protection (OPP) feature on the PSUs. Per Gigabyte’s release, this feature is “designed to shut down the unit when the power load exceeds the wattage the unit was designed to operate within.” The OPP was set to 120 percent to 150 percent on both units, which works out to 1,020W – 1,300W on the 850W unit and 900W – 1,125W on the 750W model.

Gigabyte lowered the trigger range to 110 percent to 120 percent, or 950W – 1,050W and 825W – 925W on the 850W and 750W models, respectively.

The company also announced a return and exchange program for users with potentially impacted power supplies. For the 850, your serial number must be between SN20343G031011 and SN20513G022635. For the 750, the coverage range is SN20243G001301 to SN20453G025430.

As outlined on the page, you’ll need to contact your vendor or reseller if you bought from an authorized Gigabyte reseller. If you’re dealing with an authorized resellers that isn’t participating in exchanges or refunds directly, you’ll have to go through Gigabyte. Unfortunately, if you purchased from a non-authorized platform like eBay or Amazon marketplace, you’ll only be eligible for a replacement, not a refund.

Full details can be found over on Gigabyte’s website.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/91084-gigabyte-finally-gets-around-posting-rma-portal-explosive.html

 

[winjer]

They sure took their time to get some shame on their faces.

 

[defaultluser]

It's astounding but within a single year, Gigabyte has managed t seat themselves firmly behind Asrock ( IN TERMS OF OVERALL BRAND QUALITY).

Luckily, Asus and MSI are still fairly solid brands.

 

[Edster]

It's astounding but within a single year, Gigabyte has managed t seat themselves firmly behind Asrock ( IN TERMS OF OVERALL BRAND QUALITY).

Luckily, Asus and MSI are still fairly solid brands.

Didn't MSI do something really dodgy last year and also got absolutely blasted by Gamer Nexus as well? There was scalping their own GPU, but there was something else they did as well which completely slipped my mind.

 

[Watzupken]

Didn't MSI do something really dodgy last year and also got absolutely blasted by Gamer Nexus as well? There was scalping their own GPU, but there was something else they did as well which completely slipped my mind.

But that is a totally different matter man. This is a case of Gigabyte trying to dump exploding PSU at consumers desperate to get their hands on a GPU by bundling these crap PSU. You want a GPU? Sure, buy one of these exploding PSU, then I will sell you a GPU that you want so much. How does that sound?
And the worst part is, they are doing it despite knowing or being warned of the danger (potential fire hazard or may kill your computer) of it. They even try and downplay the issue. Consideration for consumers = -100/100. Do I want to do business with Gigabyte going forward, no.

 

[Watzupken]

It's astounding but within a single year, Gigabyte has managed t seat themselves firmly behind Asrock ( IN TERMS OF OVERALL BRAND QUALITY).

Luckily, Asus and MSI are still fairly solid brands.

Build quality aside, what disgusted me is how they handle the issue. QC issues can happen from time to time. But what separates a crap and a good company is the way they handle after sales issue. In recent times, some of the good examples of companies that quickly acknowledge the issue, and try and rectify the situations,
1. Fractal Design
2. EVGA
Do they always make flawless products? Surely not. But they took ownership and quickly try and rectify the issue.
Gigabyte sat on the issue since the first review went out last year, and the reviewer also got a blown PSU. They continue to try to sell the PSU and even went overdrive trying to sell it by mandating a bundle with GPU. And they deny issues with the PSU despite the many negative ratings on Newegg/ Amazon, just shows that they don't care. Some of these reviews may be fake, but with so many negative ratings, I think it is worthwhile investigating further. But of course, they took things so seriously that they did nothing.

 

[ZedRM]

I think people should feel lucky the RMA system is back up this soon. After the ransomware thing it seemed like it might take them much longer to get things function.

 

[Ludak021]

If you got your unit with GPU bundle, you can kiss that refund goodbye.

 

[ZedRM]

If you got your unit with GPU bundle, you can kiss that refund goodbye.

Why is that?

 

[Ludak021]

Why is that?

they went as one purchase, with 3060Ti (or something) from series 3) bundled. You couldn't get (from newegg) the card without getting the PSU.
I guess one could try to return the whole thing but that's not going to happen. We are dealing with desperate people with (daddy's) cache to burn...

 

[Avro Arrow]

They sure took their time to get some shame on their faces.

I don't think that they're all that ashamed. They did initially try to blame the reviewer for having the "audacity" to actually test the PSU at its highest rating. I'm guessing that this is a different section of Gigabyte's business because reviewers have always lauded them for accepting honest criticism on their motherboards and taking the actions that the reviewers often recommended.

Didn't MSI do something really dodgy last year and also got absolutely blasted by Gamer Nexus as well? There was scalping their own GPU, but there was something else they did as well which completely slipped my mind.

I do believe that you're referring to this:

But that is a totally different matter man. This is a case of Gigabyte trying to dump exploding PSU at consumers desperate to get their hands on a GPU by bundling these crap PSU. You want a GPU? Sure, buy one of these exploding PSU, then I will sell you a GPU that you want so much. How does that sound?
And the worst part is, they are doing it despite knowing or being warned of the danger (potential fire hazard or may kill your computer) of it. They even try and downplay the issue. Consideration for consumers = -100/100. Do I want to do business with Gigabyte going forward, no.

I hear you, but at the same time, according to reviewers, they're apparently one of the best to deal with when reviewing their motherboards and video cards (their core competencies). Gigabyte gives the part to be reviewed to the reviewer and basically says "Do with it as you will." which is something that reviewers laud them for. I'm really at a loss to explain this recent behaviour but I do have an idea.

These PSUs aren't made by Gigabyte, they're just branded that way and the OEM may be in partnership with Gigabyte and it's they who are causing the problem. I have a feeling that the "PSU division" is a completely separate entity from the main company itself. That's the only way I can rectify this behaviour that is the polar opposite of how Gigabyte usually conducts itself when it comes to motherboards and video cards. I'd still be open to buying their motherboards, but I wouldn't touch their PSUs unless there were no other PSUs to be had and I needed one.

Build quality aside, what disgusted me is how they handle the issue. QC issues can happen from time to time. But what separates a crap and a good company is the way they handle after sales issue. In recent times, some of the good examples of companies that quickly acknowledge the issue, and try and rectify the situations,
1. Fractal Design
2. EVGA
Do they always make flawless products? Surely not. But they took ownership and quickly try and rectify the issue.

I'm with you on that. I may hate nVidia but I'd never say anything disparaging about EVGA. They have a level of customer service that is nothing short of legendary with products that are always top-notch. I actually have an EVGA 1000 G2 Supernova PSU in my main rig. Gigabyte was always up there with EVGA and I'm really shocked and appalled that they're conducting themselves in this manner.

Gigabyte sat on the issue since the first review went out last year, and the reviewer also got a blown PSU. They continue to try to sell the PSU and even went overdrive trying to sell it by mandating a bundle with GPU. And they deny issues with the PSU despite the many negative ratings on Newegg/ Amazon, just shows that they don't care. Some of these reviews may be fake, but with so many negative ratings, I think it is worthwhile investigating further. But of course, they took things so seriously that they did nothing.

Yeah, that's a common theme these days among corporations. Intel to this day denies any wrongdoing despite being fined US$1,440,000,000 by the European Commission and losing the civil case that AMD brought against them for another billion dollars. The people who run these corporations are complete psychopaths and refuse to admit any wrongdoing even to the point of directly lying about it.

When society becomes dominated by lies, it crumbles because lies lack the strength of the truth and are used by the weak.

 

[ZedRM]

they went as one purchase, with 3060Ti (or something) from series 3) bundled. You couldn't get (from newegg) the card without getting the PSU.
I guess one could try to return the whole thing but that's not going to happen. We are dealing with desperate people with (daddy's) cache to burn...

Oh, that's not the way it works. If one part in a bundle goes defective, only that part needs to be returned for replacement.