Sapphire RMA support | Cautionary tale

[Abhishek Shukla]

I have a Sapphire RX 6900XT Toxic EE card. It started having issue with high hotspot temps (very common on this model) but it was still "working" . I just want to share my experience of Sapphire RMA process and the RMAe'd product I got back.

1. It took me 1 and a half month to get the replacement card. This required constant badgering, direct mails to Sapphire staff and a consumer forum complaint. Supertron (which handle RMA for Sapphire in India wouldn't even respond to my questions without the escalations.
2. They sent me a card with damaged sleaves, scratches all over and said it is cosmetic and not an issue for them. This is confirmed by Sapphire HK head staff.
3. Card was not sent in Original box, no accessions very sent with it. I just have an outwardly damaged card with same hotspot issues now.
4. They don't provide promised/advertised warranty. Warranty starts from date of import etc. not from date of purchase.
5. FYI, Sapphire support ticket process also took around 2 weeks before I could start the RMA. They refused to except that temps near 100C are not fine (this is with a 360 MM AIO). This causes downclocking i.e. performance loss.

The card was bought for Rs 118,000 just four months ago. It started having issues just one months after the purchase, was away for 1.5 months and warranty left is just for ~2 years now instead of advertised 2.6 (3 years - ~6 months).
I want to publish this on r/IndianGaming but would like some feedback before that. So please feel free to ask any questions etc.

 

[vishalrao]

India shining in the consumer friendliness space.

 

[ishashank]

Are you sure you are getting 3 year warranty? confirmed? Sapphire is very shady, most card sold with three year warranty (Primabgb will play deliberate dumb) but in actual they had 2 year warranty when you go for warranty. This ****up is in India only.

See here 2 year warranty.. https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-11308-08-20g/p/N82E16814202404

 

[enthusiast29]

In any case warranty should start from date of purchase unless it's outdated very old generation cards which may not have replacement stocks available but then the price of such item shouldn't be retail.

Also I hope you took written communication about the cosmetic damages being not an issue for further RMAs in future if needed, otherwise they'll be the only ones who say "physical damage hai bahiya, warranty voided".

And definitely post the experience publicly on reddit.

 

[Abhishek Shukla]

Are you sure you are getting 3 year warranty? confirmed? Sapphire is very shady, most card sold with three year warranty (Primabgb will play deliberate dumb) but in actual they had 2 year warranty when you go for warranty. This ****up is in India only.

See here 2 year warranty.. https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-11308-08-20g/p/N82E16814202404

Warranty starts from date of import etc. so I got around ~2.6 years of warranty instead of advertised three years. Confirmed with Sapphire (HK headquarters ) on Mail. Some of their models have two years of warranty but again warranty starts from date of import not date of purchase.

In any case warranty should start from date of purchase unless it's outdated very old generation cards which may not have replacement stocks available but then the price of such item shouldn't be retail.

Also I hope you took written communication about the cosmetic damages being not an issue for further RMAs in future if needed, otherwise they'll be the only ones who say "physical damage hai bahiya, warranty voided".

And definitely post the experience publicly on reddit.

Yeah I got a confirmation for that. Only HK staff responded, Supertron would not respond to this point. Had to threaten them with return before I got a response.