Esquire | OCZ Vector RMA

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JustinB

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Hi all

I wanted to check if I'm being unreasonable here...

I bought a 256gb OCZ Vector from Esquire on 04/04/2013 which is now dead - it doesn't get detected by the BIOS (confirmed by Esquire). It was sold with a 5 year warranty.

When Esquire phone me to tell me this, they say since the Vector is no longer produced, they can offer me a Kingston - to which I responded that there are now OCZ Vector 150s that have replaced the Vector.

I'm then told that there's no stock, and then if I want store credit, i must accept 75% of the purchase price of the faulty OCZ (coincidentally, the Kingston is also about 75% of the price of the OCZ). And this is bacause I've owned the drive for over a year and this is what their suppliers say its now worth.

I told them no, OCZ have a RMA process and should replace the drive with a suitable OCZ replacement. And now I wait for them to tell me what they're going to do.

Thoughts?

Update: Esquire are replacing the drive - thanks Esquire!
 
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A 5 year warranty is a 5 year warranty. Unless the original product's warranty clearly states somewhere, that replacement in case of failure carries a penalty applicable to your situation, they should honour the conditions. This sounds all too shady. I'd love to hear Esquire's version as well.
 
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I'd be happy with a swap out for same or better (from a size, performance and warranty perspective - price should not come into since that will vary)
 
SSD drives are constantly dropping in price, a few years ago a 64GB SSD cost R2k, you can now easily pickup a 256GB SSD for under R2k

If the Kingston has similar specs and performance I would take it and run far far away from Esquire

Just make sure it's not a Kingston V300 drive as there have been some issues with them:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

All suppliers will only credit you what the item is currently selling for and not what you bought it for new.
 
Go direct to OCZ if you need to and make it known that Esquire are doing this. Bet you they never even logged a case with OCZ and they are completely unaware.

You are quite right that there is an RMA process direct with OCZ and it should just be swopped for a new one of the same type.
 
JustinB said:
Hi all

I wanted to check if I'm being unreasonable here...

I bought a 256gb OCZ Vector from Esquire on 04/04/2013 which is now dead - it doesn't get detected by the BIOS (confirmed by Esquire). It was sold with a 5 year warranty.

When Esquire phone me to tell me this, they say since the Vector is no longer produced, they can offer me a Kingston - to which I responded that there are now OCZ Vector 150s that have replaced the Vector.

I'm then told that there's no stock, and then if I want store credit, i must accept 75% of the purchase price of the faulty OCZ (coincidentally, the Kingston is also about 75% of the price of the OCZ). And this is bacause I've owned the drive for over a year and this is what their suppliers say its now worth.

I told them no, OCZ have a RMA process and should replace the drive with a suitable OCZ replacement. And now I wait for them to tell me what they're going to do.

As a conspiracy theory (note this is not based on facts beyond what I've stated above) - it would seem quite sneaky to replace RMA'd drives with lower value items, and once replacement items were received from the manufacturer they could be sold for the higher value again? While I have no reason to believe this is true, it is rather suspicious to me how I'm not able to get full value of my warranty...

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

That excuse would only make sense to me if the drive is a grey import. Esquire should just be able to send them to Toshiba locally to have the drive swapped out with a new Vector. Don't accept their bull**** and don't accept the Kingston.

grim said:
f the Kingston has similar specs and performance I would take it and run far far away from Esquire

All suppliers will only credit you what the item is currently selling for and not what you bought it for new.
Click to expand...

The Kingston won't have the Barefoot controller though, only Marvell stuff. That's a lot less performant especially if Esquire gives him a current-gen V300.

I don't understand why they're offering a credit instead of a plain warranty swapout. SSDs don't just die of their own accord, these things are incredibly robust.
 
I buy from Esquire occasionally because they are in the same office park as me, so its very convenient. I find their Manhattan products quite rubbish, but in general alot of their stuff is pretty cool and well priced. They have friendly staff, and also take cards so for me its quite convenient. I still find I need to go to Frontosa for more specialised items.

I would suggest you speak to the manager to get this resolved, and the drive swapped out.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
The Kingston won't have the Barefoot controller though, only Marvell stuff. That's a lot less performant especially if Esquire gives him a current-gen V300.
Click to expand...

From what I can see the Kingston drives use either Phison or SandForce controllers
 
Just an update

Esquire are offering me the exchange for a Vector 150 - but i'll have to pay in R250ish, as apparently its R250 more. Upon consulting with the pricelist, it is the same price as the original Vector.

I'm beginning to lose my patience though - my sanity is worth more than R250.

Lesson learnt though - its worth paying a little more from a retailer such as Wootware or Takealot who'll fight these fights on your behalf.
 
Do they offer Kingston with the same 5 year warranty (starting from exchange date - of course)?
 
tp3to said:
Well I know OCZ filed for bankruptcy and was bought out by Toshiba, so I don't know it might affect your warranty.

But I did find this on their website.
Click to expand...

While the merger is completed, there are still some parts of OCZ operating outside of Toshiba to fulfill all warranty concerns with what existing spares they have. The reason for this is because Toshiba cannot take over the warranty of older units as that requires a new warranty agreement. Still, a Vector would still be under warranty today.
 
JustinB said:
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Well, you're wrong about the refund.

OCZ Storage Solutions warrants its products to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a specific length of time from date of purchase. Warranty periods vary by product and are defined at the bottom of this document. If the product proves defective during the warranty period, OCZ Storage Solutions, at its option, will either:

replace with a new or refurbished product
provide a refund at current market value
Click to expand...

http://ocz.com/consumer/support/warranty (from earlier post)
 
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Wasn't there a thread a while back about Esquire cancelling MyBB forum members accounts because those members were complaining about them? Esquire rep was very arrogant from what I remember. And yet still people deal with them.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
Still, a Vector would still be under warranty today.
Click to expand...

And it is - OCZ/Toshiba are honouring warranties on Vertex 4s and Vectors. I suspect older models (Agility) may be out of luck. There was an article on it somewhere....

Rudimental said:
Well, you're wrong about the refund.

http://ocz.com/consumer/support/warranty (from earlier post)
Click to expand...

Not sure what I'm wrong about? I assume you're referring to the "market value" clause there, and we could debate what that means - my assumption is that it means replacement value for a suitably comparable model SSD, not a depreciated amount based on time owned.

ambroseg1 said:
Wasn't there a thread a while back about Esquire cancelling MyBB forum members accounts because those members were complaining about them? Esquire rep was very arrogant from what I remember. And yet still people deal with them.
Click to expand...

I read through some of those threads, and yes, some did deteriorate into unpleasantries... be that as it may, I purchased the drive prior to reading those. Also, I thought those were also a little more convoluted than what I thought to be a clear cut warranty swap out.

Some further thoughts from me on the matter...:

I've read through their T&Cs a bit more, and it seems to me that they're applying the 25% restocking fee to credit notes passed for warranty purposes. In my mind, a restocking fee is appropriate where a customer makes an error and returns an item that needs to be tested, re-packaged, etc - and there's effort/admin that goes with it. But in the case of a warranty claim the error does not lie with the customer.
 
JustinB said:
Not sure what I'm wrong about? I assume you're referring to the "market value" clause there, and we could debate what that means - my assumption is that it means replacement value for a suitably comparable model SSD, not a depreciated amount based on time owned.
Click to expand...

Sorry. It wasn't clear in the op that Esquire said the depreciation was because of time owned. The way you worded it made it sound like the 25% reduction was because a year later the market value was lower.
 
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