Antec RMA nightmare

hero · Post by **hero** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:19 pm

I bought an SLK3700-BQE about a month ago. I love the case...roomy and built well and with good hard drive quieting built in. Problem was that the power supply was emitting a high pitch squeel. I work on my computer several days a week for 10+ hours and it was loud enough that it was distracting and gave me headaches after a few hours. It was too late for a retailer return, so I got an RMA for the power supply. Here's were my affection for Antec began to slip.

I was told by two CSRs and a manager that Antec no longer carries the SL350S. !!!?? Even after explaining that this is what comes in the SLK3700-BQE and the SLK2650 which are both still sold, I was told my only option was the dual fan SL350. I said that I wasn't happy with that solution and they managed to find a spare SLK3700-BQE and said they'd pull the PSU from that one.

So I thought that was cool.

10 days after they had received my RMA, after a call from me, I got my replacement power supply...you guessed it...a SL350. I immediatly called and informed them of the mistake and they had a courier pick it up and promptly shipped me out the SL350S they'd promised.

So I thought that was cool.

A few days later I got the SL350S replacement. Yes! Oh wait...why is the casing half off??!! Sure enough the SL350S was damaged. The packaging was pristine so this was no delivery guy mess up. A corner was bent back so that one half of the PSU casing moves easily and assuredly would rattle incessently once in a case.

Since receiving the power supply I have tried for 2 days, left 4 messages with 2 different extensions across maybe 8 calls ranging from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and cannot get a live body on the phone to rectify this.

I don't know. I guess this is a rant and warning. The amount of money and time inflicted on both myself and them is going to far outweigh the benefits of the initial transaction and it's all due to poor customer service.

-----------Edit------------

Just got a call and they're picking this up and sending me another SL350S. About an hour ago I accidentally dialed an extention for someone in sales and let them know my dilema, so that may have been what got things moving.

Whatever happens, I'll update this post so the whole story gets heard.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:26 pm

heh. could have just replaced the fan yourself? would have been a <1hr job

ChucuSCAD · Post by **ChucuSCAD** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 3:54 pm

chylld wrote:heh. could have just replaced the fan yourself? would have been a <1hr job

not exactly the point he is making here.

Sorry to hear about that. Antec makes a quality product. I hope that yours is just a one in a million fiasco.

A tip from my past RMA trips, always wright down the date, time, person's name, person's ID #, and if at all possible their extension, and of course the solution this person has provided for you.

If one manager does not satisfy you ask to speak to their manager, chances are the first manager you speak to really has no power to do anything, just a new voice for you to hear. And if the next manager is not satisfying you ask for their manager.

Of course this only applies to LEGIT RMA situations.

chucuSCAD

hero · Post by **hero** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:11 pm

chylld wrote:heh. could have just replaced the fan yourself? would have been a <1hr job

The fan wasn't causing the noise...it was coming from the front of the PSU. I suspect the coils or something. In any case, had I known that the RMA would be like this, I'd obviously have tried to fix it myself. That's a part of the reason I posted this, so others could make educated decisions if they have a similar problem.

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 9:41 am

I'd like "Antec Rep" to comment on this

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:00 pm

I'm just going to come right out and say it:

I'd rather have cheaper components than stellar customer service.

In today's high-tech businesses, it's far too expensive to have an elaborate, highly-staffed, highly-trained tech support team. Any manufacturer who does will surely fail because they would have to price their products too high. I've seen this happen with this industry since the early 80's.

And I say, "Who cares?". I've been building and upgrading my own systems for 20 years now and have had to RMA only a single item (I don't even remember what it was).

Having problems with an RMA for an $90 case can NEVER qualify as a "Nightmare".

hero · Post by **hero** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 1:47 pm

Pauli wrote:I'm just going to come right out and say it:

I'd rather have cheaper components than stellar customer service.

Sure. If I wanted cheap components I'd have bought a case and psu for $30 or less. You pay a premium for products from Antec BECAUSE you expect service should you need it. With my busy life that's well worth the money.

In today's high-tech businesses, it's far too expensive to have an elaborate, highly-staffed, highly-trained tech support team. Any manufacturer who does will surely fail because they would have to price their products too high. I've seen this happen with this industry since the early 80's.

You're absolutly wrong there. Companies like Dell and Newegg offer rock bottom prices and stellar customer service and they have far more overhead than a company like Antec.

Having problems with an RMA for an $90 case can NEVER qualify as a "Nightmare".

An unavailable power supply and incomplete system can be a pretty major inconvenience depending on the situation. This certainly isn't a nightmare on the scale of 9/11, so thanks for pointing out the obvious, but as far as our trivial hobby of PC building goes which, last I checked was the topic of this entire site, this is pretty major.

A major kudos for Antec so far is that they've eaten the return shipping twice now, so I suppose they can afford it, but I'm not sure why they don't shift that money to revamping the RMA department...I'm sure the ROI would be greater.

shathal · Post by **shathal** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 1:49 pm

I disagree with Paul's oppinion.

I'd rather (personally) be quite willing to pay a tad (or sometimes more than "a tad") more to get:

- Quality parts
- Quality warranty + duration
- Quality service.

Quality does cost. I am quite OK with that. Cheap components have their place in the market - I just tend to be someone who doesn't want to throw away his "old" gear after 3 years (at the most), but rather keep using it for a long time.

Pendulum goes both ways - theres a want/need on both sides.

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 9:37 pm

Don't get me wrong, I would pay more for quality. I just don't want to have to pay for expensive tech support -- because I rarely need it. Why should a do-it-yourself-er like all of us here have to pay extra for the hordes of average PC folk who need alot of handholding -- that's exactly what companies like Dell are for. Yes, they have cheap prices, but you are stuck with very specific systems that can only be customized a little bit. That's why they are able to cut costs and have manageble tech support. Smaller companies like Antec which produce better, customizable products would have to raise prices a great deal to cover their tech support. I just don't want to see a trend where we have higher prices because a relatively few people demand better tech support. I don't need it, I don't want it, and I don't want to have to pay for it!

hero · Post by **hero** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 6:32 am

Pauli wrote:Don't get me wrong, I would pay more for quality. I just don't want to have to pay for expensive tech support -- because I rarely need it. Why should a do-it-yourself-er like all of us here have to pay extra for the hordes of average PC folk who need alot of handholding -- that's exactly what companies like Dell are for. Yes, they have cheap prices, but you are stuck with very specific systems that can only be customized a little bit. That's why they are able to cut costs and have manageble tech support. Smaller companies like Antec which produce better, customizable products would have to raise prices a great deal to cover their tech support. I just don't want to see a trend where we have higher prices because a relatively few people demand better tech support. I don't need it, I don't want it, and I don't want to have to pay for it!

I agree. But I'm not asking somebody to walk me through screwing on drive rails, I just want to exchange a defective part. That should be a rock-solid and streamlined process for any manufacturer and usually is which is why I'm so surprised at Antec. It can't be hard to have an efficient RMA department, but theirs is obviously a totally neglected facility. I even filled out a web RMA form in the beginning and never got a response.

I still like them and will use and recommend their products, but there will definitly be situations where I'll need to think twice. I've never sent a power supply for RMA before though so maybe this is standard for the industry.

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:34 am

Well, yeah, obviously I agree that RMA'ing a defective part should be handled well in any case. It sounds like Antec is a bit disorganized but they've made some kind of an effort to get your problem solved. That's the world we live in, I guess, when 95% of the manufacturers are located overseas. I still don't believe this qualifies as a nightmare, though. If I had an urgent problem and it required a quick solution, I would just part with another $85 and I probably wouldn't give it a second thought. I'm not rich, but when you're talking about your main computer system, I don't bat an eye if I have to shell out 85 bucks to get things the way I want it. Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but I really don't like when people exaggerate these kind of issues on computer messageboards. I always see statements like "I got ripped off by motherboard manufacturer A -- I'll never buy from them again!" and that kind of garbage. This doesn't do anyone and good.

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:17 pm

PAuli, I share a bit your point of view, however not everyone want's to buy something twice when not need (yes, I do it myself too, but... Im not everyone) and - and that is major thing - not everyone are happy from doing everything for yourself, nor having the skilled to do...

...when same problem with pitching noise happen to my brother PSU, we experiemneted and found the coil and suffesed it by thermal pistole. From this time, problems ever over. Took about 2 hours - first to diagnostic the problem, then to find the coil what doing it, then fix it and then test the fix...

But not everone are villing to do it.

And when some product fail on you certain way - hell, you get strong feeling that things might be the same with the same or similar product from same company, right?

shathal · Post by **shathal** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 4:05 pm

hero wrote:
Pauli wrote:Don't get me wrong, I would pay more for quality. I just don't want to have to pay for expensive tech support -- because I rarely need it. Why should a do-it-yourself-er like all of us here have to pay extra for the hordes of average PC folk who need alot of handholding -- that's exactly what companies like Dell are for. Yes, they have cheap prices, but you are stuck with very specific systems that can only be customized a little bit. That's why they are able to cut costs and have manageble tech support. Smaller companies like Antec which produce better, customizable products would have to raise prices a great deal to cover their tech support. I just don't want to see a trend where we have higher prices because a relatively few people demand better tech support. I don't need it, I don't want it, and I don't want to have to pay for it!
I agree. But I'm not asking somebody to walk me through screwing on drive rails, I just want to exchange a defective part. That should be a rock-solid and streamlined process for any manufacturer and usually is which is why I'm so surprised at Antec. It can't be hard to have an efficient RMA department, but theirs is obviously a totally neglected facility. I even filled out a web RMA form in the beginning and never got a response.

I still like them and will use and recommend their products, but there will definitly be situations where I'll need to think twice. I've never sent a power supply for RMA before though so maybe this is standard for the industry.

... mostly because the vast enormity of people out there wouldn't know a positive from a negative wire, much less what static electricity and such basics mean?

Remember - we're a small group. As such, we tend to have to suffer a little for being a minority.

I doubt any buisness would only sell to "people who know what they do" - because there's not enough of them, even THEY screw up sometimes (let's be honest here, eh?), and so on.

Fact of life.

hero · Post by **hero** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 6:30 am

Update:

6/17, got my third replacement. Same high pitch tone as the original one...maybe a little lower.

I'll be fixing it myself.

trodas · Post by **trodas** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 6:57 am

/me sticking with my Enermax 431W

:HUG: :KISS: ...what a nice PSU

(PSUs need love too

)

PS:hero - good luck on fixing, it should be fairly simple, just locate the coil that cause the noise - PLEASE use non conductive and enought long material (like a wooden - DRY! - stick) to push the coils to find what one it guilty

Be carefull! My 18 year old bro just went to inhumation of his clasmate, what got killed by electricity from compressor when he trying to inflate inflatable couch...

Just take care, working on living thing is far from safe