Broken Radeo 9700 Pro - need opinions

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BigDish

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Messages
215
OK, I've got a bit of a situation. I bought a Refurb Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card back in August of last year for $130. Now the card is locking up and getting GPU lockups. I moved the card to another machine and the problem followed the card. When I purchased it, it was advertised with a lifetime warranty. Crucial is now telling me that was wrong and it was only 30 days. Luckily, I made a PDF of the product page and after talking with their legal department, they are honoring it.
The problem is they don't have any more Radeon 9700 Pro cards, and their refurb card pricing is rather insane now. I bought the Refurb 9700 Pro from them for $130 8 months ago. Now their pricing is $160 for a Refurb 9600 XT or $200 for a Refurb 9800 Pro.
Crucial initially offered me a $130 store credit, which I basically said I don't want - as that would only let me pay $30 more for a slower (9600XT) card or $70 more for a 9800 Pro (which can be had new for about $110 total). They then offered me a straight trade to a 9600Pro card, then a 9600XT when I declined the 9600Pro.
I pushed for a straight up trade for a 9800 Pro as it is the cheapest card they have that is as fast as the 9700 Pro I paid for. Of course they don't want to do the trade because they are selling it for $70 more than I paid for the 9700 Pro. So then I pushed for an actual refund - not a store credit. They didn't really want to do that, then indicated they might do it but they would need to research the "fair market value" and get back to me. I did some poking around and I think the "fair market value" of a Radeo 9700 Pro is $110, but I'm wondering what others think.
Should I just take the 9600XT and admit to being screwed? I really don't want the store credit as all their prices are so expensive I will end up paying almost as much for the card with the store credit as I would pay elsewhere for a new card. Not to mention I have to send the card back and be without a graphics card while they process the refund and then wait for them to ship the new one?
Any other thoughts? I guess in my mind, they either owe me a 9700Pro, a 9800 Pro or an actual refund (of at least $110) but I'm wondering what others think - am I asking too much?
 
They should just give you a radeon 9800pro and be done with it. For Christ Sake this guy deserves a 9800pro.
 
If ATI gives ppl 9800Pros for their RMA'ed 9700Pros under warranty so should crucial. The funny part is, crucial is known for their good customer support. At least in Ram...
 
BigDish said:
OK, I've got a bit of a situation. I bought a Refurb Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card back in August of last year for $130. Now the card is locking up and getting GPU lockups. I moved the card to another machine and the problem followed the card. When I purchased it, it was advertised with a lifetime warranty. Crucial is now telling me that was wrong and it was only 30 days. Luckily, I made a PDF of the product page and after talking with their legal department, they are honoring it.
The problem is they don't have any more Radeon 9700 Pro cards, and their refurb card pricing is rather insane now. I bought the Refurb 9700 Pro from them for $130 8 months ago. Now their pricing is $160 for a Refurb 9600 XT or $200 for a Refurb 9800 Pro.
Crucial initially offered me a $130 store credit, which I basically said I don't want - as that would only let me pay $30 more for a slower (9600XT) card or $70 more for a 9800 Pro (which can be had new for about $110 total). They then offered me a straight trade to a 9600Pro card, then a 9600XT when I declined the 9600Pro.
I pushed for a straight up trade for a 9800 Pro as it is the cheapest card they have that is as fast as the 9700 Pro I paid for. Of course they don't want to do the trade because they are selling it for $70 more than I paid for the 9700 Pro. So then I pushed for an actual refund - not a store credit. They didn't really want to do that, then indicated they might do it but they would need to research the "fair market value" and get back to me. I did some poking around and I think the "fair market value" of a Radeo 9700 Pro is $110, but I'm wondering what others think.
Should I just take the 9600XT and admit to being screwed? I really don't want the store credit as all their prices are so expensive I will end up paying almost as much for the card with the store credit as I would pay elsewhere for a new card. Not to mention I have to send the card back and be without a graphics card while they process the refund and then wait for them to ship the new one?
Any other thoughts? I guess in my mind, they either owe me a 9700Pro, a 9800 Pro or an actual refund (of at least $110) but I'm wondering what others think - am I asking too much?
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Hmmm... "lifetime warantee"... sounds like they should:

a) give a full refund
b) replace his card
c) make him happy with a "compairable" product

:)

-Skystalker
 
I would seriously hold out for the refund or the 9800pro. That is the only comperable product seen so far.
 
Well, it makes me feel better that I'm not being unreasonable about this. I will say that after this experience I will at least think twice before buying a Crucial video card in the future.
One hand they are also trying to play with me which I do not like is they made the statement that if they do replace the card, the replacement card will only have a 30 day warranty and not the lifetime guarantee. I don't really like that - I feel like I'm getting robbed of the lifetime warranty I purchased, and 30 days is *AWFUL* short - I honestly am not sure if I would have purchased this product if it only had a 30 day warranty instead of the lifetime one it was advertised with. Can they even legally shorten the warranty like this? I doubt it...
 
BigDish said:
Well, it makes me feel better that I'm not being unreasonable about this. I will say that after this experience I will at least think twice before buying a Crucial video card in the future.
One hand they are also trying to play with me which I do not like is they made the statement that if they do replace the card, the replacement card will only have a 30 day warranty and not the lifetime guarantee. I don't really like that - I feel like I'm getting robbed of the lifetime warranty I purchased, and 30 days is *AWFUL* short - I honestly am not sure if I would have purchased this product if it only had a 30 day warranty instead of the lifetime one it was advertised with. Can they even legally shorten the warranty like this? I doubt it...
Click to expand...


They cover their ass in the fine print, trust me. Something along the line of their terms are liable to change at any time without warning.
 
About warranty, don't you have any law that states the minimum warranty time?
Here in Sweden we have a minimum of one year for all new consumer ware unless the company offers more, but they can never go under one year. :)
 
Unfortunately the US does not have any mandated warranty that I am aware of :-(
 
You ought to get either $130 or the 9800 Pro. Clearly, "fair market value" for your card should be more than the market value of a 9600 XT, ie more than $130 according to Crucial's current pricing. They can't use the term "fair market value" only where it benifits them.

You can't really complain about not having your card while it's being shipped though. Also, if they replace your card, you'll probably have to accept a new 30-day warranty. If they've changed their policy since last year, your new card would conform to their new warranty terms. However, since your old card was purchased before they changed their warranty they'd better replace it or refund you.

Back when I had an original Radeon, it fried and I had to send it back to ATI. It took them nearly a month, but they eventually sent me a higher clocked 64MB VIVO version. That sure fixed my opinion of them.
 
Wolfkin said:
About warranty, don't you have any law that states the minimum warranty time?
Here in Sweden we have a minimum of one year for all new consumer ware unless the company offers more, but they can never go under one year. :)
Click to expand...

his is a REFURBISHED card <- from my perspective it's like a card that has gone through RMA and repaired to be sold again... (that is what it means here in my country anyways)
 
bhw752k said:
You ought to get either $130 or the 9800 Pro. Clearly, "fair market value" for your card should be more than the market value of a 9600 XT, ie more than $130 according to Crucial's current pricing. They can't use the term "fair market value" only where it benifits them.

You can't really complain about not having your card while it's being shipped though. Also, if they replace your card, you'll probably have to accept a new 30-day warranty. If they've changed their policy since last year, your new card would conform to their new warranty terms. However, since your old card was purchased before they changed their warranty they'd better replace it or refund you.
Click to expand...

You know, that's an excellent point that I didn't even think of - if they sell a 9600XT for $160, then the FMV of a 9700 Pro must be more than that.

I wasn't specifically complainting about the waiting while it's being shipped - from what I've read, it sounds like it will be a 1-2 month process to actually get the credit once they receive the card - that's what I'm complaining about.
 
no way in hell i would take a downgrade..

they have to honor it... or else you can report your finding w/ web sites like this one, tomshardware. i bet that comment would get them thinking different.
 
Well, they claim they found another Refurb 9700 Pro to send me. We'll see I guess.
 
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