Advice on an incredibly poor offer on my faulty Graphics card RMA,

[Gamewiz1]

Hello everyone, I'm wanting to put forth an offer that I just received from XFX on a warranty claim.  Basically, I got an R9 295x2 less than a year and a half ago in preparation for the Oculus.  I figured that with the Titan and AMD R9 295x2 both offering similar levels of performance with the AMD card being the cheaper option, I'd get the AMD card. 

Well, a short while back, our home was struck by an extremely powerful lightning strike and had several of the items in my room fried, including my 4k Television and my Pc's card.  Of course, I contacted XFX for a repair.  Only then did I find out that XFX had cancelled it's double lifetime warranty, something that I had been complacent in expecting, as I had never owned another brand of card aside from my original PC's in the year 2000, a Compaq with a VooDoo 3 inside. 

So, having only then discovered the issue with the warranty, I was at least grateful that the experience happened within my warranty.  Well, after having waited now for a week and a half or so, I decided to ask on my RMA if there had been any news on my card.  Well, I got a reply today. 

I was informed that they would be in possession of some more 295x2's in a few weeks, but that the person had acquired authorization for a single R9 Fury X as an alternative replacement.  Now, I refused the offer immediately, not accepting a six hundred dollar Graphics card as a replacement for my 1.5k model.  Also, knowing that the Tflops on the Fury X were well below my own card, there was no way I'd accept the Fury X. 

Now, I know that the Oculus doesn't benefit from multi core GPU's, but I also have to consider that I play games on my 4k television, as it's been my primary display for the past year and a half.  As the Fury X page clearly states that it's a card that's nipping at the heels of 4k, why would I accept a lower performance GPU when I have a card with over 11Tflops of performance that handles 4k easily? 

The entire point in DX12 was that with the new API, multi core cpu's as well as crossfire or SLI cards would be utilized in a far superior way, and that since I had a dual GPU card, I would be able to add whatever third card I'd want down the road knowing that it would work due to the new DX12 features. 

Taking this all into consideration, I wanted to ask this question to see what others thought about the offer.  Myself, I've read the terms of the warranty, where they reserve the right to replace the card with a different model if necessary, "As long as it had equal or greater performance!".  Personally, I felt like they were spitting in my face, as well as hoping I'd know nothing of the performance decrease, as well as the loss of those nice new DX12 api benefits. 

It's just important to me to know how others saw that decision.  Would you have accepted the offer?  Do you think that they were indeed trying to rip me off, in direct contradiction to their own warranty terms?  Do you think that the mention of the "offer" and additional wait time of a few weeks was nothing more than an attempt to strong arm me into accepting an inferior card? 

Add to that issue  that I'd like to make sure everyone is aware of this info, for no other reason than I feel that it's important to know about the warranty change as well as their treatment of their most loyal customers. I'd always purchased XFX, and for my recent computer build, I chose XFX for the case, the power supply, and the Graphics card, all registered within a month of each other so that they knew my brand of choice. I had quite a few older cards registered before, from my 6979 to my 9800, I think it was a HD 9800?

Honestly, had they offered something like an NVidia GTX 1080, I'd have swallowed the cost difference for the new card with zero hesitation.  But a Fury X?  BTW, I forgot, they also included a fresh 2 years on the warranty with the Fury X.  It would have been an extremely expensive 18 months of additional coverage though to my eyes.

[Zandil]

So lighting fried your graphics card and they are covering it under warranty ?
Did I get that right ?

[Anonymous]

Frankly, offering you anything is more than they had to do.  The warranty covers defective materials or workmanship, it's not an insurance policy against external damage.  If the card died because of a faulty component or poor manufacturing, that's a warranty claim, but not a lightning strike.  I'd take whatever you can get as a nice bonus, because all they had to give you was a big fat zero.  The fact they offered you something is very impressive, and speaks to great customer service on their part.  I'd say it's an incredibly generous offer, not a poor one at all.

If anything, a lightning strike is something you'd put a claim against your homeowner's (or renter's) insurance for, assuming the total value of the claim is worth the fact your insurance premiums will probably go up because you made a claim.

[Zandil]

Dose the company know you got hit by lighting or did you happen to forget that part in your warranty claim ? 

[Zentosi]

I also think you are lucky to have warranty cover a power surge. I would be looking to take the Fury.

[TwoHedWlf]

Yup, that's an insurance claim, not a warranty issue.  You're lucky they're offering anything.

[Gamewiz1]

Yeah, I reported the lightning strike. In fact, I gave them so much information, the person I reported it to actually took the time to scold me for all the different details I had given them when making the report.  He said something to the effect of, "In future, including so much information on a failure to Post is a bit excessive".  It was odd to me, because as I explained, I wanted to do everything I could to prevent the waste of their time or resources in case they had any other idea's that could be causing the issue. 

I explained that I was certain it was caused by a lightning strike because of how loud it was when it happened.  The sound was so loud, it nearly gave me a heart attack.  I'm disabled with a bad heart, anything that loud that caused me to jump out of bed was something I wasn't going to forget. I was lucky regardless, because when I purchased the card, I didn't spring for the extended warranty from Amazon.  I had been so used to having a double lifetime warranty on my graphics cards, I didn't think I'd need it.  I recall thinking that it would be a bit stupid to pay that money, because XFX had such great warranties, covering you, as well as the next buyer of the card, if you ever sold it.  I had no clue that they had discontinued offering that warranty only recently, before releasing my type of card. 

I wish I had considered that when I made this post. I was so frustrated that i was going to be waiting so much longer before being able to try the Rift, it never crossed my mind that they had done that, although I have no idea if it mattered, since they always had such a great warranty before.  It must not matter, as they knew all about the strike anyway. 

Maybe it was due to the number of cards and other items I have purchased and registered from them in the past.  I'd had quite a few graphics cards, but on this build, I purchased their first ever PC case, and their 1250 watt Power supply with customizable cable system along with the expensive graphics card.  I had always been a loyal customer, and had never had trouble with any other product I'd bought from them.  If the lightning strike was above the norm for their warranty, perhaps they did it due to how many things I've purchased from them in the past? 

It may have been due to the price of the card alone.  I know in the article I read about them discontinuing their double lifetime warranty, they mentioned that at first, only a few cards would continue to offer a longer warranty, eventually going to only two years at most, depending on the type of card purchased.  Not sure where I saw the info, but I found it when searching for info about the loss of the double lifetime warranty. 

I'm curious, does that influence your own choice on the offer?  Knowing that they offered a two tiered warranty depending on the cost and type of card you buy, versus the thing being an act of nature and not a material issue, would you have taken the Fury X over the 295x2?  Remember, if I took the 295x2, I only have six months of coverage left.  If I had accepted the Fury X, I'd get a new full two year warranty.  Make sure you also take into account that while I don't use the Rift, I use my 55 inch LG 55UB98500 4K 3DTV. I wanted something that would work well for the TV and hoped that if the card was that good, it would still be enough to run the Rift.

I feel less upset at the offer now though, from the inflection of your question.hehe  I was instantly mortified that I had been a jerk;)  But of course, that's why I did the poll in the first place, to know what sounded better, in the remote chance that I still have time to change things if someone owned a Fury X and had access or owned the 295x2 and was certain it would be a far smoother experience on the Rift that taking the loss on the television performance was still preferable, meaning take the Fury X instead.     

[Gamewiz1]

Now that I've read these posts, I feel pretty crappy:(  It hadn't even crossed my mind to take any of that into account.  I was so angry at the loss of the lifetime warranty, and actually talked about how upset I was that I hadn't been aware of it, wishing that there were some email that go out since I had always had their cards in the past, I think I may have been enough of a dick that it affected things. Of course, I also mentioned that I had always trusted XFX, which is why I purchased the three different items from them, to get that coverage on everything.  damn, I guess it could have been my guilt trip sulking 😕  Ok, so it's going to be a long night sleeping on this one.        

[Gamewiz1]

No fault to you guys though, I still thank you for your info.  I'd rather know about it, which again, is why I asked.  I got what I was looking for.  Damn, seriously though, I appreciate the input for sure!

[GoldenRetroGames]

Gamewiz1 said:

In fact, I gave them so much information, the person I reported it to actually took the time to scold me for all the different details I had given them when making the report.  He said something to the effect of, "In future, including so much information on a failure to Post is a bit excessive".  It was odd to me, because as I explained, I wanted to do everything I could to prevent the waste of their time or resources in case they had any other idea's that could be causing the issue.       

If your report to them was as wordy as your posts here, that would explain their response.  Support reps want to get right to the specific details of the issue at hand.  Your case could have been explained in a single sentence, being "My cards no longer post after a lightening strike hit my home".  You could also include a brief explanation of any troubleshooting you performed, to minimize them asking you to do the same steps.

Just keep that in mind when dealing with product support teams in the future.  It will expedite your support.