WTF! I just found out that the vendor will not RMA! The vendor was
partspc.com:
Subject: RE: Customer Service RMA Request Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004
07:10:37 +0530
Hello,
I would like to inform you with regret that the DOA intimation time is
within 48 hours and as you have not intimated us within 48 hours thus
there us very little that we can do. Also as you have not selected the
pretest before shipping option thus we have not pre tested the products
and send them to you as we receive from the manufacturer so we never know
that the products were DOA. Although you have to intimate us within 48
hours for DOA products received.
Regards,
Mike
RMA -- PartsPC
Is that retarded or what? Is there anything I can do here? I've kept in
contact w/ASUS but haven't heard back recently... probably should also
contact AMD too now?? I know there must be a bad rating I can give but
I'm not sure how to do that. Also, I was never informed of this "pretest
option".
Was that policy mentioned clearly on the product page, or during the
ordering process?
You are not bound to such a policy if you weren't informed of it prior
to the sale. They cannot dictate further terms of a sale, AFTER the
sale. If they displayed this 48hr. DOA policy, clearly, and you
overlooked it, you may be SOL, but otherwise you need to make your
position clear to them, that their obligation was to deliver working
parts. They have to get working parts to you, it is their obligation
to do so. Before the issue of a manufacturer's warranty ever comes
into play, the product they sent, had to work.
You should also review their "Terms and Conditions" page:
http://www.partspc.com/disclaimer.htm
If you check
http://www.resellerratings.com/ , partspc.com, and their
other site,
http://www.tufshop.com , have some pretty bad reviews, and
those reviews that are good, look suspicious.
I just checked their website... all those add-on charges rasied red
flags in my mind immediately. You appear to be dealing with a
slimeball vendor, it may be a big hassle getting this resolved.
Document your interactions with them and attempts to resolve this,
and don't give in to them.
You are not obligated to pay any extra fees for DOA parts, at most the
return shipping. Contrary to their notion that you MUST get an RMA,
you only need make reasonable attempts to get that RMA, they are still
obligated to take back nonfunctional parts regardless of whether they
"decide" to issue an RMA number, and if they won't issue it, contact
your credit card company... If you didn't use a credit card you may be
out of luck.
On the other hand, since it's quite likely that either the CPU or
motherboard is still working, technically that (working) part may be
subject to a restocking fee. If there's any way you can test the CPU,
you ought to consider doing that... the odds are a lot higher that the
motherboard's the problem rather than the CPU, but again that's no
assurance, since it did have heatsink compound on it from your
account, may not be the new part you were "supposed" to receive.
