PNY support - unbelievable yet very true story

[CrimInalA]

In short :

A PNY GTX650ti graphical card was gifted to me by my uncle last Chrismas . He died beginning of April due to cancer , which all went very quick .
In May my PNY GTX650ti starts to show corrupted images upon boot . So I open an RMA ticket with PNY .
Cecile Tom tom correctly sent this Rma request to Eric Bordes . He replied he denied the RMA since I don?t have any invoice . Since he admitted he had no power to deviate from protocol , I asked him to speak his superior . As
there?s nothing more he can do for me .
He denied and ignored this , and redirected me to http://www.pny.eu/sp/p-3-18/Contact/ , which is quite blunt .
At least Cecile forwarded my email to you , but I never got a reply whatsoever .
After a long time finally the manager Christophe Cacheux replied to me , but it looked like he wasn?t really familiar with the case . So I explained him .
He send me an email back asking if I was threatening him (huh?) . But since he is probably no native English speaker I explained again . After that he is simply ignoring me and the case .

If anyone knows someone at PNY who could care or someone who is responsible for our after sales manager Mr. Cacheux , for sure let him/her know how their Managers "manage" things .
I will of course never ever buy any PNY product again and discourage people from buying PNY in Europe .



For everyone to read , most of the communication in PDF format : PDF

I have also made me a nice picture to put on my website






Regards,
Crim

[ZX2Slow]

threatening me to write stories about this so called poor support on the net

This was accurate. They like other manufacturers are quite strict about warranty terms.

[zalbard]

They denied you the RMA because you had no invoice. This is perfectly legal and is stated in their warranty terms.

You were indeed asking for a favour, and were not being nice while doing so. No surprise you weren't granted this favour.

Better luck next time.

[CrimInalA]

It's my experience that I put here , i thought I would not have to reply as there would be nothing to explain .

But since zalbard mentions "better luck next time" , it looks like some people read different things than i was expecting .
It's not about my luck (like zalbard sais) , it's how they treat (potential) customers . I have never spent any money on their product , yet they scare me away for lifetime even before I got a customer . And this for a product that's less than 100€ .
I'm not saying they broke their warranty rules either . I was showing that in my eyes they made a very poor choice by not backing up their own manufactured product as well as by ignoring my mail and questions .
It's the first time out of many RMA cases that I have seen this , and then it had to happen also on such a cheap product and in these conditions .

Next to that , yhey should not be needing an invoice in the first place as this card can never be over 2 years old . It was only on the market for let's say 8 months .

I hope it makes the point somewhat more clear now .

[Buckeye]

Very sorry to hear about your loss

I would have to stand by PNY tho.

So many different ways that this could be abused that they have a hard policy.
Some one picks up a broken card on eBay and tries to RMA it... buys one from a forum member and benches the heck out of it till it breaks... ect ect



I think PNY customer service sums this issue up pretty clear, I did read your emails.

Dear Sir,

First of all, I would like to say I am sorry for your loss.
Then, to summarize, you are asking for a favor (returning the card under an RMA procedure without any invoice), and in the very same email, you stating that you will stay away from PNY for the rest of your life because of poor support if any, threatening me to write stories about this so called poor support on the net, all of this for a 100€ valued product. Do I understand this correctly or do you think there is a chance I do not?

Regards,
Christophe.

[Scubar]

Sorry but PNY have handled this in the correct way.

Your emails weren't worded particularly well and you should certainly not threaten them while asking for a favour.

[rintamarotta]

You were trying to get RMA without invoice. That does not end well, all manufacturers deny warranty if there is no invoice or receip of purchase.

[josh1980]

Yeah, can't say I'm surprised. It used to be an "on your honor" type of thing, but that seems to have ended years ago. Now they want solid paperwork that you are/were the original owner.

Does it suck? Absolutely.

Does it also prevent significant abuse that could cause them to increase prices? Absolutely.

Am I glad that they have a policy like this so they don't have to raise prices to deal with the fraud? Absolutely.

Do I wish we lived in a world where their policy wasn't necessary? Absolutely.

When I buy(or get) any hardware that has any kind of warranty, I always keep the receipt in the box that the item came in. I throw the box in the basement and forget about it until I need it.

You probably didn't help yourself when you threatened him while asking for a favor either.

[Mungri]

I cant understand why people demand RMA service without an invoice. Regardless of your situation, no invoice = no RMA, and no complaining about how bad you found that service to be will change that.

Your story isn't unbelievable at all regarding PNYs support, no receipt = no service, and I would never want that changed as it would reduce the quality of service to customers with invoices.

With the current GPU company I picked, you even have to register your card within 30 days of purchase to be eligible for their 2 year warranty. I did that and went through two lousy clocking GTX 670s that died with mild OCs (overclocking custom cooled versions too), and ended up getting a GTX 680 replacement. I wouldn't want that level of quality service being degraded due to people getting RMAs even if they hadn't followed the simple 2 minute registration process.

[mystic_cobra]

I hope your story spreads like wild fire ! ! ! ...I don't have anything good to say about PNY....have never used any of their products in the past present or never will in the future ! ...have been building PCs for about eight years and my PC guru and best friend shown me a long time ago through research years ago that PNY has more issues than not on about everything they build one time or another and have always looked like a risk to me to even try anything they have ....

#1 PNY's prices are not that great compared to the major players building hot rod PC hardware that works every time ....
#2 , your not the 1st one, in a blog to complain about PNY's arrogant ways of handling customer relations ...

and after reading what happened to you I hope PNY and several other big shot companies, who treat their customers like this go face down some day....I hate bullies and bullies can't live with me !!!!
if it wasn't for serious die hard people like yourself, my guru , and me busting our hearts out, always trying to build respectable rigs that you can be proud of, suppliers could not exist ! ....what happened to the ol' quote " the customer is always write " ?

remember , you DON'T work for them , THEY work for you !

like I fought DELL for a little of two years one time ( AND WON 3 FOLD ) after they screwed the crap out of me over a processor in one of their replacement units after buying several PCs from them in a row years ago, and never again ! and now I guess their up for sale ..,.he he he ! ....not to mention what DELL has done to Alienware over the years !...it's now Alienbeaware cause it's got the DELL smell ! he he ! .........like the other day DELL sent me a big fold out post card with a pic of an airplane pulling a big banner through the sky, that read ..." Charles, we miss you " and my computer buddy, guru and best friend almost lost his lunch laughing so hard ! he he he he he !~

I build my own rigs now and I am hooked on it, just from the adrenaline rush I get from firing up one for the 1st time after piecing them all together! ....just put this rig, I am typing you this comment, together about 5 days ago now, with all kinds of performance just dripping off of it, that we have never even taped into yet ! he he !

I'm an ASUS AMD fan boy, but there are others just as good with NVidia or ATI.... and sometimes, when your building a specialty PC to do a special job for someone else, you wanta look at both worlds to get the most bang for your buck! ..when I comes to NVidia I kinda favor EVGA video cards ...and when it comes to AMD video cards I kinda favor Sapphire !!!...and this is not just coming from me , my pardoner, guru, and best friend agrees !.....but very sadly today my guru and I have almost come to the concussion that ASUS dropped to ball with the ROG Crosshair series with our past experience and the research we have done on them today! ..so like right now this is being brought to you by a new ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2 with a AMD FX-8350....I know I know why didn't I get a new FX-9370. or the ultimate bad ass FX-9590 ????....well I can afford it, but I really hate blowing up mega priced processors till we see what others do like I have with Intel behemoths in the past! it just kinda takes all the fun out of it, when you let all the smoke out ! he he ! and unlike Intel that takes a different socket about every time you turn around ...the ol' AMD AM3+ will let you pop in about anything old or new to hot rod and before this one is over I will probably try one of the newer go fasters , but for right now the FX-8350 ain't nothin' to be shaking a stick at and my pardoner, guru and best friend and i like to build rigs to show off to our customers that you don't have to mortgage the farm to have a heavy weight contender!......best of luck in the future ....and build that dream rig that blows all of us away !!!

[HuffPCair]

PNY sucks, will never buy from them again. I have had the same issues. Refuse to ever buy their stuff. I will stick with the companies I know back their products, while they may cost more I think it is typically worth it.

[mystic_cobra]

and other thing and I can make this short and sweet ! ....you got anything from places like Wal-Mart and you can prove it was a manufactures default ...they hand you another one , no questions ask...you gotta Snap-on tool that is broken , you flag down any Snap-on tool truck and he hands you a new tool ....you go into a cheap deal produced store of about anything today with their broken stuff that was the manufactures fault and your going to get it replaced about every time with no questions ask.....

PNY know they made CrimInalA's video card ...it's got their stupid logo all over it with their serial numbers all in it that can't be faked ....and they know from the serial number on the card when it was made , where I came from and who they 1st sold it to when it left their factory and just how much warranty life is still left on it ! an RMA should be all they ever need to fix the problem ! it's just more BS from bully big corporations sticking us with their crap because of their way of crap quality control ....it's all just plain BS people ...we don't have to take this kind of crap ...if it wasn't for PC builders like us hooked on this crap they wouldn't even have a business.....they got millions have much you got ...if their not going to stand behind their crap 100% they should have to tell you so ....I have been around too many years now and I am sick and tired of listening to crap like this from companies who know better !!!

[mystic_cobra]

you know exactly what happened to a video card when you get in back and test it out ....don't ever try to gives us your crap about electrical component failure ...they tell on themselves at the moment they die of exactly what caused it !...and you know right then if the kid who turned it into you deserves a new replacement or NOT ! ...and it doesn't matter who has possession of the card when it fails ...you know why it failed after you checked it out and if it is the manufactures fault or not .,..and someone has already paid for that video card the day it left the factory with a warranty that runs for long time period !! from your serial numbers and dates on the card ....who do you think you are fooling around with here ...I have had too many years of education and hands on experience in the electrical industry not to know that you are just plain blowing smoke up these poor kids rear ends with all you BS !!!! you know if the card has been tamper with on inspection or if it has been abused so you don't really have any excuses at all NOT to honor your warranty on a legitimate case from anyone , I don't care if it is one of the Martians using it on the moon when it failed ...you made it, it's your crap ...either stand behind it or get out !

[Mungri]

Regardless of whether or not you personally think that PNY sucks, this story is not saying anything bad about them.

Mystic Cobra, there are no VGA companies out there that will give you RMA support without an invoice / proof of purchase, not even EVGA are that generous. Of course they know they made the card, so what? They have no idea when it was purchased, where it was purchased from, or if its even legitimately owned by the person claiming for RMA support.

Most companies would not warrant second hand cards anyway, which is what this one is.

I have had too many years of education and hands on experience in the electrical industry not to know that you are just plain blowing smoke up these poor kids rear ends with all you BS

Do some reading on warranty terms and conditions as well then, and research the legally binding terms and conditions within your countries sales of good act (which might be called something else where you live).

Retail warranties have nothing to do with your technical experience.

[Buckeye]

The reason we have proof of purchase warranty like these is because of the number of people who abused them, even EVGA had to change how they do warrantys years ago.

[Scubar]

You should certainly tone it down mystic_cobra or I can see you being hit with the ban hammer very quickly. You obviously only registered on here to comment specifically on this thread.

Like has been mentioned previously, Go and read up on warranty terms and conditions before posting abusive drivel.

[Mungri]

you don't think PNY knows where a card of theirs came from and who bought it the 1st time it left the factory by the serial number that is on the card

This doesnt matter one bit because the original purchaser might have sold the card on Ebay, and then the second buyer is not eligible for warranty service (unless you buy from a company that allows second hand warenty service, which PNY doesnt).

I was only standing up for the members in this forum, cause it's obvious their getting screwed needlessly ...and yes there are no VGA companies out there that give a crap about you or your warranty issues

I've never been screwed needlessly when I provided my invoice for warranty service, and recieved great support from the retailers and manufacturers I purchased from in the past. If you arent the original purchaser of an item, then you simply arent eligible for support on 99.9999% of things that money can buy.

I have been in the retail warrantee business many times and have denied and validated lots of warrantees one way or the other cause there is no in between

And in the OPs case, his 'warranty' (you worked in retail warranty business but cant even spell the word?) was denied as he lacked proof of purchase. Standard practice for just about every retailer on the planet.

[Buckeye]

Yes no kidding, tone it down a bit here.

This will be taken care of very shortly.

[Sparky]

*edited seeing the other guy's post was removed*

[Buckeye]

*edited seeing the other guy's post was removed*

Thanks Sparky, it has been taken care of

He is clearly a plant to cause trouble, 1-2 day old account and 5 posts doing nothing but flaming in this thread.

[vortex240]

There is NOTHING wrong with PNY. They are the ONLY manufacturer that make Quadra cards. Clearly Nvidia trusts them with quality. And I've used their RMA before with no issues, twice.

Crying about an RMA with no receipt is childish.

[Movieman]

There is an old line that I think all should remember:
"You get more with honey than you do with vinegar"
Also, always at the start take the high road.
One can always go to the gutter but once there you can't climb back onto the sidewalk.