Built by ATI warranty-Beware!

steve58

If you want to get stuffed up with a warranty claim regarding ATI products and their "Hassle free warranty",
Just purchase yourself a new "OEM" version of an ATI 9800 pro 128mb at retail with a fault and see how you get on! I'll tell you how, as I found, NO GOOD.
It seems the "Built by ATI 3 year warranty" has 2 meanings. One for retail products and one for OEM, this may be known by some people out there already, those who don't, check the part number of the card against the the ATI warranty form web page BEFORE you part up with your hard earned cash for that great card.
Just another example of the Slippery Corporate Methods some companies use this Day and Age.
Regards ~ steve58

El Kapitano

Most OEM items have only three months warranty as standard.

Some companies extend this to a year but OEM warranty is a grey area and everyone should check before they buy.

snuffy

steve58....the problem you are having is simple. Built by ATI cards ONLY come in retail FROM ATI for retail sales.

They come with a 5 year warranty. If you purchased that then you would not have any issues.

You need to contact your company that sold you the card.

If the card is OEM then it is one of two things.

1) A board partner card...sold as a Made by ATI product. (Sapphire being the most common)
2) A real Made by ATI OEM card that is "gray market"....it was ment for a OEM like DELL but somehow was sold to you.

BTW A Sapphire OEM card looks identical to a Made by ATI card in most models. Many of the cards are made at the same factory for all the different companies selling ATI products.

Either way the company that sold you the card should help you.

BTW Intel cpus are the same way. An OEM one has no warranty and a retail box has a three year one through Intel.

AMD cpus....OEM is about 30 days through the retailer.....retail is 3 years through AMD

The_Neon_Cowboy

why do you think oem hardware is cheaper?
and your warrentry on the siter acording to serial number, thats bsed from manufacture, thats only if you don't have you recepit proveing the date you bought it.

also just last fall I RMA'd and had tested my radeon 64 mb vivo, 7200 based (old old card) just fine.

steve58

Thanks to you all for your Responses, I do appreciate it, and I love the Forum you provide.
This particular OEM version of the ATI 9800 pro is Built by ATI as confirmed by the ATI part number search of their site, and originally fitted either to a Dell or Compaq computer.

I QUOTE PART OF ATI WARRANTY STATEMENT:
RETAIL Warranty Durations

ATI Technologies Inc. warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware that the product is in good working condition, according to its specifications at the time of shipment, for a period of one to five years from the date of original purchase. The warranty term depends on the product. RADEON 7000 and newer products have a three year warranty. DV Wonder cards have a two year warranty. The Remote Wonder has a one year warranty. All other ATI products have a five year warranty.

Should the product, in ATI Technologies Inc.'s opinion, malfunction within the warranty period, ATI Technologies Inc. will at its discretion repair or replace the product upon receipt with an equivalent. Any replaced parts become the property of ATI Technologies Inc. This warranty does not apply to the software component of a product or a product which has been damaged due to accident, misuse, abuse, improper installation, usage not in accordance with product specifications and instructions, natural or personal disaster, or unauthorized alterations, repairs or modifications.

* The warranty applies only to defects in workmanship.
* The warranty makes no claims regarding suitability of the product for a particular use or environment.
* Only hardware manufactured by ATI is covered by the standard warranty. Additional items such as media and documentation, if defective, may be repaired or replaced at ATI's discretion. Third party products using ATI components will not be covered by warranty. See your vendor or the manufacturer for information about servicing.
* A serial number is required for any warranty service. ATI asks you to record the serial number on the outside of the packaging when shipping the product. This prevents delays in clearing customs.
* Proof of purchase may be required, but only if some doubt exists regarding warranty eligibility. Late model products are assumed to be under warranty. ATI accepts originals, photocopies and faxes as proof of purchase when required.
* ATI products purchased prior to February 15, 1992 were covered by a 2 year warranty, which has now expired. Please see your warranty documentation at the time of purchase for the most up to date information about your warranty term.
* Unauthorized repairs to an ATI board level product will void the warranty offered by ATI Technologies. ATI reserves the right to refuse to service any product which has been altered, modified or repaired by non-ATI service personnel.
* After a warranty has expired, ATI charges a flat rate of $75.00 to repair the product. Other circumstances which violate the terms and conditions of the warranty (abuse, misuse, unauthorized repair, etc.) are not eligible for this "out of warranty" arrangement. The "out of warranty" charge for a Graphics Solution product is $50.00.
* Standard warranty service consists of repair upon receipt.· You are responsible for the cost of shipping the product to ATI. ATI pays the cost of returning a product to you.
* ATI reserves the right to replace the product with a service product at their sole discretion at any time.


The preship warranty option is dependent on product availability.

END QUOTE.

Interesting thing in the warranty statement, specifically "all other products" covered by 5 year warranty are exactly what? Original purchaser, you sell the product 1 day after you buy it and no warranty. Come On!
And, ATI Components in third party vendors are not warrantable by ATI? Does this mean GPU chipsets, Graphic boards complete, other components or what? Very lose statement.
In effect, if you buy a retail version of an ATI graphic card, and fit it to your third party computer, you may have wiped your warranty?
Talk about "Grey Areas", learn what that really means and then we may all be wiser!
Regardless, if the product does not work the way it should, and it was manufactured by the Company, something should be done by that Company to rectify the problem. I even offered to pay for repairs to the 9800 pro (Manufactured 2003) with still no response. And that is exactly my point, very poor Public Relations, and I have been in Business dealing with the Public far longer than ATI or in fact the Internet etc has even existed, and I know first hand how important it is to treat your customers properly, not with contempt.
The whole purpose of my original post, was to let others know of something that may benefit them in their future purchases of any OEM products.
To the Mods- I hope you do not mind me quoting part of the ATI warranty statement, if I have infringed any of your rules, I do apologise, that was not intentional by myself.
And who am I, I may be a Lawer for all you know - Heh!

Regards

The_Neon_Cowboy

What do you expect? a new warrenty each time the card is sold? then people would be selling it to get the warrenty entended and rma the card lol

The GPU is made by ati on 3rd party cards . then 3 party pout the bords togeather useing parts of thier onwn choseing to ati's spec!!!!! they aren't made buy ati ati dosn't get any money other then for the GPU that runs the card the rest is all profit for the 3rd party. Why wold ati warrant another card? made by someone else! I mean you might as well exect theem to warrenty nvidia cards too lol

It depends on how you treat them as well and when you bought that oem card you agreed by a set of terms and condition just like when useing software.

I bought alot of oem stuff myself and even sold tens of thousands of oem products with no problems when I worked at a local computer company.

I don't think there is any rule agesnt that... so your fine withthe mods i'd think
personally I sugest you do more research and take more care in buying products in the future.

You've never mentioned a few things ...

When was the card bought new?
who did you buy the card from?

have you tried getting ahold of the company you bought it from? they will often offer a 1 year warranty on all products sold.

oh also I just read your post again "Dell or Compaq computer." thats a big part of them problem as with any stuff built for thouse guys. most of thier stuff is not standard but custom and or below standard
lst most thier stuff I can't be sure about video cards,


Wish you the best of luck! in getting this resolved

RebelWolf

As has been stated by others in this thread, OEM is cheaper for a reason.

All computer part manufacturer's sell OEM parts, and they were honestly originally intended only for OEM's. Here's the short version of how it was supposed to work... OEM get's the components for far less, and in quantity, with an extremely limited or no warrantly whatsoever, and then THEY warranty the finished computer to whomever they sell it to. The OEM is supposed to handle all warranty/support for the final product, and because of this and thier quantity purchase, they get a fairly massive break on the price. There is also no "end user" packaging for the components they buy, it will ship with a bunch of others in anti static bags, with minimal cabling (sometimes) and that's pretty much all they get, no assurance of even the driver disks.

Then we have the resellers like NewEgg (just to pick one at random) who will also sell you the OEM parts. In this case, you can pretty much expect no support, and your warranty is whatever the reseller decides to give you on it, since the RESELLER is the one who owes you that warranty service. Depending on the deal they are reselling it under, you may be "gaining" a warranty from the original manufacturer (ATI/Sapphire/Whoever) or you may not, any honest reseller will have that information spelled out for you, in the product information and terms of sale on thier website/catalog.

All of this is part of buying "grey market" OEM components, it's up to you to find out in advance what kind of warranty your getting, don't bother going to the original manufacturer's website and find out what the "retail" warranty is, since in your case it may not apply.

RebelWolf

CrossFire

Retail = Gift box and all accessories, purchased at a retail store at retail pricing

OEM = product that is bundled in an Original Manufactured system - i.e. DELL
Those products are warrantied through the OEM and not ATI.

The ATI RMA department will only RMA retail boards that come through the ATI Customer Service department.

If the product you have is defective and your the original owner, you should contacting DELL. Keep in mind that most OEM products carry only 3-12 months warranty terms, dependant on the OEM.

MindlessOath

when i build systems i buy VIDEO CARDS retail so i get the warrantee, because OEM doesnt really give you such options... you might be able to get an extended warrantee from the compainy that sold it to you.. i know newegg.com does extended warrantees but im not sure if thats on OEM products.

its your fault you bought OEM thinking you would be serviced... this is something many people come victom to.

Dyre Straits

I use only B/B ATi cards. I leave all the others alone.