Bad, SilentMaxx, Bad!!!
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar
Bad, SilentMaxx, Bad!!!
Well, it's been over a month and half since SilentMaxx received my RMA'd ProSilence 350.
I have heard nothing from them, and they are ignoring all of my emails.
I think it's safe to say that I will be staying far away from anything associated with SilentMaxx, unless they do something to make me happy soon.
-Ed
I have heard nothing from them, and they are ignoring all of my emails.
I think it's safe to say that I will be staying far away from anything associated with SilentMaxx, unless they do something to make me happy soon.
-Ed
I too have just had a similar experience with SilentMaxx.
- All calls to all extensions go to voicemail and are never returned.
- All email to the US address goes unanswered.
- All email to the company officers listed on the German site go unanswered.
I suspect they've gone bankrupt, or are on the verge of it.
So I would second the call to avoid buying anything from them. There isn't much need to now - their main product was a fanless PSU and there are plenty of alternatives now.
- All calls to all extensions go to voicemail and are never returned.
- All email to the US address goes unanswered.
- All email to the company officers listed on the German site go unanswered.
I suspect they've gone bankrupt, or are on the verge of it.
So I would second the call to avoid buying anything from them. There isn't much need to now - their main product was a fanless PSU and there are plenty of alternatives now.
I bought it from Siliconacoustics.com originally. And it's too long ago to deal with them, but still within the warranty period for the manufacturer who is not honoring it.
So, in a nutshell, they stole my power supply. I'm pretty mad that they had me pay to hip the damn thing to them, for them to just keep it. @ssholes.
-Ed
So, in a nutshell, they stole my power supply. I'm pretty mad that they had me pay to hip the damn thing to them, for them to just keep it. @ssholes.
-Ed
Might I suggest you have a heart-to-heart talk with Silicon Acoustics, since you purchased from them, they continue to carry SilentMaxx products, are a sponsor here, don't want to get a reputation of selling products from bad companies, etc., etc. I would consider it their responsibility to ensure their suppliers respond to honor warranties, since they (SA) are the ones who took your money (and part of that payment was for the value of the warranty.)
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Don't complain only to the Better Business Bureau. Also file a complaint with the attorney general of the state where SilentMaxx is based in the U.S. And just because it's been a long time since the purchase, don't assume that the dealer doesn't have any obligation -- file a WRITTEN complaint with the credit card company and mail it to the special address for billing problems. Tell them that you bought a product with a warranty but that the warranty isn't being honored, something that you couldn't have known about at the time of purchase.
Do you really want a water cooled PSU from a company that's treated you so badly? And do you want a water cooled PSU that is NOT UL approved?
Do you really want a water cooled PSU from a company that's treated you so badly? And do you want a water cooled PSU that is NOT UL approved?
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silentmaxx
i have one of their 350's still in service and working great, but one has been on the RMA block going on 3 months, ugh.
they did send an email about 6 weeks ago that a new, improved revision would be sent to me soon, but my last two messages have gone unanswered
too bad, their stuff had great potential.
they did send an email about 6 weeks ago that a new, improved revision would be sent to me soon, but my last two messages have gone unanswered
too bad, their stuff had great potential.
I almost forgot about this thread, but just to update, nothing ever got resolved.
Even with SiliconAcoustics looking into it, SilentMaxx never ever contacted me again.
They never returned the proSilence 350 I sent to them.
I will never ever touch a SilentMaxx product ever again.
I currently have an Antec Phantom, and it is still alive and kicking, I've had zero problems with it to date (knock on wood).
And it's powering an Athlon 64 3500+ system to boot.
-Ed
Even with SiliconAcoustics looking into it, SilentMaxx never ever contacted me again.
They never returned the proSilence 350 I sent to them.
I will never ever touch a SilentMaxx product ever again.
I currently have an Antec Phantom, and it is still alive and kicking, I've had zero problems with it to date (knock on wood).
And it's powering an Athlon 64 3500+ system to boot.
-Ed
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Edwood,
I know you are pretty frustrated about this. But try to look at it from a distance. It looks like their old US importer went out of business (for whatever reason). The new importer nor the manufacturer in europe have any reason to honor a warranty from the old US importer. That is simply the law. There is nothing fraudulous about that.
You can of course continue your crusade against this brand, but IMHO it says more about you than about them.
I know you are pretty frustrated about this. But try to look at it from a distance. It looks like their old US importer went out of business (for whatever reason). The new importer nor the manufacturer in europe have any reason to honor a warranty from the old US importer. That is simply the law. There is nothing fraudulous about that.
You can of course continue your crusade against this brand, but IMHO it says more about you than about them.
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so by that measure you should really only by products from distributors that are guaranteed not to go out of business within the warranty period of the product? That requires far more crystalball gazing than I'm capable of. What's to say the next Silentmaxx distributor won't go out of business (etc ad infinitum)? Sure, it's not legally Silentmaxx's problem, but that doesn't engender a great deal of confidence in a company's products. Which gets back to Edwood's issue of warning people not to buy Silentmaxx's products or to do so bearing in mind past warranty issues.
I think your post says more about you than about Edwood - think on that.
I think your post says more about you than about Edwood - think on that.
Nothing fraudulant? I got an RMA from them, shipped it to them, and then they "suddenly" go out of business and I never hear from them? :rolleyes:Tibors wrote:Edwood,
I know you are pretty frustrated about this. But try to look at it from a distance. It looks like their old US importer went out of business (for whatever reason). The new importer nor the manufacturer in europe have any reason to honor a warranty from the old US importer. That is simply the law. There is nothing fraudulous about that.
You can of course continue your crusade against this brand, but IMHO it says more about you than about them.
SilentMax is still a company that does business here. Regardless of whether they try to pass off different importers, they need to still honor their warranties when they still export to the US.
If I sell a defective product to other companies to resell, and they are defective, and fall under a warranty guarantee, I will still be liable if I decide to go with a different company to resell my defective goods. At least that is how it works in the US. And I'm pretty sure there is a similar international trade agreement with Germany.
It's just a tremendous PITA to get results from an uncooperative overseas company.
So, in the end, they lose my business. Period.
SilentMaxx may have saved some money by f#cking me over, but in the end, they lose any potential income from me and others that have been screwed for life.
Nice move, SilentMaxx.
-Ed
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I think you're missing Tibors' point. Yes, they do need to honour their warranties when they export to the US. However, Tibors is pointing out that you didn't RMA under their warranty, you RMA'ed it under the warranty you got from their distributor. Silentmaxx is not the one set up to honour that warranty. Yes, it would have been nice if they had covered the warranty that their old distributor had been offering on their products, but it's not their warrany. Chances are they aren't even equipped to deal with English speaking customers, let alone international RMAs. Their web site is German only, I see nothing to indicate that they have an English customer service department; that is generally left to the distributor.
Neither of us is saying you weren't a victim, but you're blaming the wrong entity here. It's not Silentmaxx' fault that their distributor went belly-up. It's the distributor's fault that you never got your PSU back.
Neither of us is saying you weren't a victim, but you're blaming the wrong entity here. It's not Silentmaxx' fault that their distributor went belly-up. It's the distributor's fault that you never got your PSU back.
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Perhaps they did business in the US in the past, but that is no longer true. If can show me a US web site (or even one in English) for Silentmaxx I will be very impressed. Doing business in the US is not the same as someone importing their products and selling them in the US. Antec does do business in the US. They do their own distribution and have an office in the States. This is not true of Silentmaxx. In fact, the only source for Silentmaxx products that I was able to find in the US was SilentPC USA, which is a branch of an international company.
Well, it's buyer beware then.Devonavar wrote:Perhaps they did business in the US in the past, but that is no longer true. If can show me a US web site (or even one in English) for Silentmaxx I will be very impressed. Doing business in the US is not the same as someone importing their products and selling them in the US. Antec does do business in the US. They do their own distribution and have an office in the States. This is not true of Silentmaxx. In fact, the only source for Silentmaxx products that I was able to find in the US was SilentPC USA, which is a branch of an international company.
Looks like Antec Phantom is not 100% reliable (not by a long shot by the poll), but at least they have a US Headquarters that DOES honor their warranty.
-Ed
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You always run that risk with smaller companies/brands. If you really think that is a problem and you want to minimise the risk, then you should only buy products from large global brands. They usually sell their products through fully owned subsidiaries in stead of small independend importers. The chance that they go out of business is much lower (but still not zero).mattthemuppet wrote:so by that measure you should really only by products from distributors that are guaranteed not to go out of business within the warranty period of the product? That requires far more crystalball gazing than I'm capable of.
Compare Edwoods case to people who bought an extended three year warranty from ARM systems. Then ARM went out of business, so it doesn't honour the warranties anymore. Is that fraud? No.
Now take a fictional ARM customer who had just sent his system back to ARM in the week they went out of business. That's tough luck, because he looses his system. (Yes, that is how a chapter 7 bankruptcy works.) Now try to imagine how much success that fictional customer will have complaining to Evercase (the manufacturer of the cases ARM used), that he wants his system back. At best he will get a polite reply that it is not their problem, but more likely his e-mail will just be deleted.