My Poor Returns (Ongoing) Experience

HMFC_Riley

Enthusiast
I bought my PC in September last year. The main reason for buying was me wanting a high-end gaming PC for which it was perfectly adequate, my second reason was for a number of modules at University this year involving 3DS Max and the like. This is mainly because the number of high-end PC'S at my University is fairly limited and the labs are only open until a certain time meaning I'd be fairly restricted and always fighting for a PC space with the younger ones. I'm now into week 6 of this 12 week semester and haven't been able to use my PC to help with coursework at all.

I've been without full use of my PC since the 13th of July when the Liquid Cooling burst and leaked severely damaging the graphics card. Since then it's been one thing after another with them and for the most part I think I've been fairly patient. I waited a number of weeks for them to attempt to repair the graphics card. I then waited even longer for them to attempt to claim money back from CoolIT (which, I believe, they've still not even managed to do) up to the point where they finally said they would take it under their wing and sort it themselves. Great I thought, it'll be another week or 2 and everything will be sorted. That was about 4-5 weeks ago. They said they'd be ordering it in from America and (naturally) couldn't give me a ETA. I waited for another couple of weeks and phoned them up. I then learned that they hadn't actually ordered from America but Taiwan, not a huge problem so it may be another week or so. It was at this point they offered me a replacement card. A 6970 instead of a 5970. I done some research and basically found that no matter where I looked, in any games that support crossfire at least, the 5970 is easily the superior of the two. I started getting angry at this point as it felt like a complete cop out on their part... They lump me with a (certainly from my point of view, although I don't know about their suppliers) much cheaper card although the price isn't the issue as far as I'm concerned it's the performance.

And so here we are today. 92 days on with no estimates on when I'll be getting this card or if I'll even be able to use it even once before my courseworks due in around 6 weeks time. PCS's only saving grace being the sending back of my computer with a temporary graphics card (although certainly not good enough to be messing around in 3DS Max with).

I don't think I could ever recommend PCS to anybody ever again after such a debacle which is a shame considering how many people I have already recommended to you guys and I certainly won't be using you myself again.

Another kick in the teeth is the fact I ordered some items from Taiwan myself this time last week. They arrived after 4 working days. If only PCS could entice their suppliers to be even a fraction as efficient.
 

Maestro

Guest
Hello, I can understand your frustration, but the issue here is that your card is no longer manufactured. Our hands are even more tied because you didnt want a new HD 6970, but only a HD 5970. We are sourcing a HD 5970 but it will not be new as there are no HD 5970's left.

The cost of the HD 5970 (not new) is roughly the same now as a new HD 6970.

We havent lumped you with anything. We have given you the choice and explicitly explained every time that if you choose a HD 5970 then we cannot give an eta, again, because the card is no longer manufactured.

Other than making a HD 5970 ourselves, you have left us with no option. Alternatively we can provide you with a credit, which will be a reasonable determination of the current value of the HD 5970 which would be about £300.

Personally, if i could change my graphics card after a year and be guaranteed to get 67% of its value back I would do it every year, without fail. If you wish to use the £300 credit and upgrade to the 6990 then that is also an option. This would cost a further £144. You end up with a card far superior to the 5970. A card that is new and for a fraction of its cost.

If I said to you now that you could come back in a year and swap your 6990 for the current top of the crop gpu for £144 quid, I for one and i suspect most avid gamers at least would bite our hands off.

Finally, we never try to make things difficult. In this situation we have been left with very little room for manouvre despite offering various solutions.

So here are the option.

1. Wait for the used / refurbished HD5970.
2. Accept the new HD 6970 (neutral cost)
3. Accept a credit for £300 to put towards a new top end GPU / hd 6990 / GTX 580.

We cant be fairer than that.
 
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HMFC_Riley

Enthusiast
Hello, I can understand your frustration, but the issue here is that your card is no longer manufactured. Our hands are even more tied because you didnt want a new HD 6970, but only a HD 5970. We are sourcing a HD 5970 but it will not be new as there are no HD 5970's left.

The cost of the HD 5970 (not new) is roughly the same now as a new HD 6970.

We havent lumped you with anything. We have given you the choice and explicitly explained every time that if you choose a HD 5970 then we cannot give an eta, again, because the card is no longer manufactured.

Other than making a HD 5970 ourselves, you have left us with no option. Alternatively we can provide you with a credit, which will be a reasonable determination of the current value of the HD 5970 which would be about £300.

Personally, if i could change my graphics card after a year and be guaranteed to get 67% of its value back I would do it every year, without fail. If you wish to use the £300 credit and upgrade to the 6990 then that is also an option. This would cost a further £144. You end up with a card far superior to the 5970. A card that is new and for a fraction of its cost.

If I said to you now that you could come back in a year and swap your 6990 for the current top of the crop gpu for £144 quid, I for one and i suspect most avid gamers at least would bite our hands off.

Finally, we never try to make things difficult. In this situation we have been left with very little room for manouvre despite offering various solutions.

I was never offered the 6990 over the phone. My issues with the choice of 6970 was the performance and (like I said in the original post) not the price as everything depreciates but seeing as the warranty stated that a replacement would need to be:
with an item of an equal or better performance and equal or better value at the time an RMA (Return Material Authorisation) is generated by the seller.
 

Maestro

Guest
And we still havent offered you a HD 6990. The HD 6990 is more expnsive than your HD 5970 was new. We have offered you a reasonable credit for the current market value of the HD 5970.

There is also no mention in your post wether this is an acceptable solution.
 

HMFC_Riley

Enthusiast
And we still havent offered you a HD 6990. The HD 6990 is more expnsive than your HD 5970 was new. We have offered you a reasonable credit for the current market value of the HD 5970.

There is also no mention in your post wether this is an acceptable solution.

It may be an acceptable solution I will check my bank balance and let you know. I would still like to know why it's the 6970 that's being offered. Is this purely on price or are you really going to try and tell me that it is equal performance to the 5970? An answer of "it's the next model up" isn't quite what I'm looking for as I've heard that far too many times already.
 

Maestro

Guest
No, basically, its the closest card value wise. We can only offer what is available and if there isnt a card that is equal on current cost and performance then its the next on the list. Please also bear in mind that the warranty is not new for old. So bearing in mind that the hd 6970 would be brand new it is by far the closest solution available other than a credit.
 

Maestro

Guest
As ive said I have no issue with that statement other than, you were presented with the option of having the hd 5970, which satisifes the above. However i an attempt to prevent the long wait, we also offered the option of the HD 6970. Cost wise it is about the same as the current price of a used / refurbished HD 5970, performance is probalby slightly less. However it is new.

This is the bit I am thinking your not getting. The offer of the HD 6970 wasnt an attempt to satisfy the terms and conditions of the warranty. The provision of the hd 5970 (eventually) does that. It was an effort to come to some sort of compromise in order to bring this issue to a close. However you remained adamant in your desire to have the HD 5970, so there was little else we could do.
 

NMEBowen

Master Poster
concidering its cool it manufacturing fault and since they have now been taken over by corsair, the fact pcs have offered you anything off their own back is quite incredible from a company. BMW took 3 years to refund anything when they had manufacturing flaws on their 5 series wheels and thats a big company. pcs have given you some amazing choices so other that contacting corsair yourself id do as we have suggested pay the little extra and get a gtx580 which should serve you alot better than the ati card my mate broke in a week of 3d max maya.
 

HMFC_Riley

Enthusiast
Fair enough. That wasn't how it was portrayed over the phone. What's the difference in terms of pricing between my 5970 and the 3GB GTX 580 then?
 

Maestro

Guest
if we assume a credit of £300 for the HD 5970, then for the 1.5 gb version gtx 580 its about £70, and the 3gb version about £120.
 
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