BFG Trade-Up

I just finished purchasing my 280 OCX on the BFG web site. I upgraded from a 9800 GX2. The cost of the Trade-Up was $18 for shipping.

I got my 9800 GX2 back in April. A couple of months later NVIDIA released the 280. And a month after that I started my trade up. The trade up price was $140 to go to the 280 OC. Considering the run that NVIDIA had with the 8800, I thought things were going to be pretty stagnant in price for a while. However, I'm glad that processing was delayed because we all watched in awe as the prices bombed when the 48XX was released. By the time the trade-up was processed I got an 280 OCX for shipping only. It all worked out pretty well.

I'm pretty psyched for the following reasons:
Lifetime BFG Warranty
Core Clock 665MHz (vs. 602MHz standard)
Shader Clock 1458MHz (vs. 1296MHz standard)
Processor Cores 240
Video Memory 1GB (1024MB)
Memory Data Rate 2400MHz (vs. 2214MHz standard)

Right on! BFGTech ftw!

How much did you pay for your 9800 GX2 originally? if u don't mind me asking

Started my BFG Trade up in early/mid July, and they haven't even sent instructions on what/where to send. I got a confirmation email after about ~4 weeks after initializing trade-up. Sent an email after and got no reply.

The original price of the 9800 GX2 was $519. That was $549 with $30 mail in rebate. The Trade-Up price of the 280 OCX was $509. They were giving me the full value of the $549, but there was not another model to go up to after the OCX except for the watercooled model. However, that model would have cost me $100+ to go to and would have required me to purchase some watercooling hardware, which I'm not ready to commit to.

I just did a Trade-up with BFGtech, from a 9800gtx to the 280ocx. I got mine in about 11 days from when I sent it in. Sent in on a friday, so 4 of those days were weekends. I sent several emails to the tradeup dept cause they were trying to say my original price was what I paid after my Best Buy rewards/12%discount, all emails never got a reply.

I called twice, first time the customer service rep said it was after hours and they couldn't access the Tradeup/RMA stuff. I called back and spoke with an RMA rep during regular hours, and she went and spoke with the Tradeup guy, Jeremy(i think). She fixed the issue, and said it would reflect the original retail price of the card and not the discounted price. She said Tradeup would email me with the new price. I never got that email either. I finally got the email saying my Tradeup was approved and it did reflect the change, and I ordered it and had it within a couple of days.

So defy, you might need to call them if you haven't tried that yet. The tradeup went smoothly other than those issues. At least it was resolved and didn't delay anything.

Since Thrak mentioned it... I guess I will go into the nitty gritty. I did the trade up back in July. Got the email, but the next day the OC2 came out. So, I so I replied to him in the confirmation email I no longer wanted the OC but the OC2. There was no reply. I sent him a couple of more emails, but still no reply. Then, a few days before my 100 trade up period I started emailing and calling about the coupon. By this time the OCX was out and I wanted to go to that one instead. I emailed and called 2 times. The first guy knew nothing. The second said he would get the supervisor to get the trade up guy to send the coupon. The next day I got the trade up coupon but it was for the OC. So, I called and got another supervisor who said he would mail the trade up guy and I would get the OCX coupon. At the same time, I emailed to the trade up email address saying I needed a new coupon for an OCX. The day after that, no coupon. So, I called again and got another supervisor who again said he would email the trade up guy. Again, I sent an email to trade up for the OCX. The next day, nothing again. So, I called again and someone said, I need to call during the day instead of the evening. So, the next day I went home for lunch and called. I was transferred to the RMA department also known as Customer Support. I explained everything to the nice lady on the phone and she told me trade ups are handled via email, not the phone. I told her I sent lots of emails and there was no response. My coupon was about to expire and I needed the OCX. She asks for my email address and then says hold. About 5 minutes later she picks up the phone and is all out of breath like she ran across the building or something. She says she talked to the trade up guy and that he would send the coupon. The next day, I finally got the OCX coupon. That was a couple of days ago.

Sounds like to the issues I have been having during my trade-up. I have never really understood why people were so positive about BFG's support when I've gotten 2 week replies, and in this case no responses since my Trade-up Request since July 7th, only automated emails.

It looks something like this:

7/07/2008 - I submit a request to BFG for trade-up from 9800GX2 to GTX280OCX

7/07/2008 - Email from me asking about the price drops and if I can apply the new pricing.

7/11/2008 - Email from me asking for mail-in instructions and price drops.

7/25/2008 - Email from me asking for mail-in instructions and price drops.

(no reply on any)

8/04/2008 - Automated email from BFG confirming trade-up with NEW pricing on the OCX, which is in my junkmail folder.

8/20/2008 - Find the email in my junkmail folder, inquire about new pricing and if I can upgrade to the gtx280 h20c. (I paid full price on the GTX, and this is where the severe 280 price drops happened)

8/29/2008 - Again inquire about new pricing and if I can upgrade to the gtx280 h20c. "I would like to switch to the h20c, but if that's not possible I will proceed with the OCX. Originally, I submitted my request in July, and I don't want to miss my trade-up opportunity."

9/05/2008 - Emailed about status of the trade-up since I've gotten no responses for months.

9/08/2008 - Asking about the status of the trade-up or a response to my questions.

9/13/2008 - (Today) Again.

And people ask why I recommend EVGA over BFG... this is the same issue I had with my BFG 7900GTX where BFG was slow in response and didn't seem to want to RMA my faulty card.

Thrak said:

So defy, you might need to call them if you haven't tried that yet. The tradeup went smoothly other than those issues. At least it was resolved and didn't delay anything.

Click to expand...

Thanks Thrak. I work long hours and can't usually find time during their "RMA person hours", but maybe I'll try that...

I called about a week ago and they told me they would send me an email concerning the info for the RMA in 24 hours. Have got nothin so far but I can wait a little longer.