Hey everyone,
I just found this post and was very happy to read that it worked out nicely for Hellfire!
It's a bit long, but I am writing this down in hope that anyone (like me now) in the future will have this as their reference for taking action.
warning - TL;DR.
My issue is similar, so I hope Novatech has learned from this a little and changed their policies on this in the meantime.
I purchased a Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X OC from Novatech UK end of Feb 2014. The card's been running great for 10.5 months.
Unfortunately, one of the three fans went, really annoying bearing noise, especially during system idle.
So, I contacted Sapphire, who kindly redirected me to Novatech as retailer. Thus, I contacted Novatech on 13 Jan 2015, got an RMA 14 Jan 2015, and also sent it to them right away on the 14th.
I took plenty of pictures and 2 videos showing S/N and videos showing the grinding noise with no other fans running in the case.
Novatech got back to me 21 Jan 2015, saying that they noticed the fault as well, and will send it off to their supplier
(i.e. Sapphire I assumed but they did only mention "supplier" in the email, also I myself mentioned Sapphire on the phone to them, but they then did not correct me on that).
ETA for supplier was given at up to 28 days.
Anyway, so far pretty good for an RMA process, I thought. A bit annoying to send off a card for a broken fan, but hey, that stuff can happen.
Now, yesterday 04 Feb 2015 I get a call in the evening from Novatech. Without explaining much what is happening they just said that repair/replacement was not possible, "they" don't [have] them anymore.
(At that point in time I was still assuming Novatech was referring to Sapphire, so I was a little surprised)....
Before I could say much, he was asking if the card has 2 or 3 years of warranty, and then said that almost half of the warranty was already gone, then something with just over 50%,
...partial refund, ...cash, ... no other 290X like it in Stock (they do, Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X for GBP332) - I was barely listening at that point anymore with upcoming rage....
After that, he said they finish work soon, but i should get in touch with them tomorrow morning. Right.
I don't even know yet if I could get my card back at all... was too verbally run over to ask for it in the 2min phone talk until he had to leave.
more TL;DR.
So, I was worried already about them trying to suggest to me, that my card's pretty much worth some 55% after 11 months out of the 2 years warranty (= useful life in the eyes of Novatech).
I paid GBP 412 for it, so I'd get just around GBP225.
After reading all your comments here, I am pretty confident that I will either get the Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X, OR they give me enough money back for me to buy the same card elsewhere (Scan GBP354 for example), OR I will take them to small claims court.
I was so angry after that phone call. Not even did he let me say anything really. He was immediately trying to get me to agree on the 55% cash partial refund and be done with it.
I also read a bit further into EU/UK consumer rights this evening. Apparently the expected useful life of a item/good can be up to 6 years in the UK.
Basically, if a 'reasonable person' expects a good to 'reasonably' last for 5 years, but the good has only 1 year warranty, the consumer can still claim after that 1 year is passed, if that the good had broken (excluding regular wear and tear), that the good was not fit for purpose and expected useful life from the beginning.
From my point of view, I do think that a R9 290X has a useful life of 3-5 years. Some high(er) end cards from 2010/2011 are surely still run (such as GTX 580, 7950 or as Hellfire's 7970/280X... There is absolutely no reason in assuming that a 2 year old high-end card is useless after it's warranty period of 2 years.
I find it ridiculous that a serious retailer implied that warranty EQUALS useful expected life.
That would imply that ANYTHING with a warranty of 1 year should by default become unusable after 1 year, or worthless.... (although EU is minimum 2yrs anyway no matter what...).
Washing machine 1 year warranty = 1 year life? TV 1 year warranty = 1 year life? Certainly not. Of course stuff like that happens, thus the EU 2yrs regulation, and the Sales of Goods Act 6yrs for the UK.
I read elsewhere that consumers at least got reasonable repair for goods like above after warranty had expired, and when that "reasonable person" could expect the items to last longer than the warranty period.
Sure, we are not talking about some 5GBP item that gives up after 5 years (out of the 6 years possible by Sales of Goods Act) - in that case I would strongly assume 'you' are unreasonable to ask for repair/replacement.
Bottom line, I am quite sure my card has a useful life of 4-5years. My card is still retailing for above GBP300 (GBP350 at Scan for example). Novatech has a Sapphire R9 290X Vapor-X in stock for GBP332, which has the same board and a slightly different but well-comparable cooler.
I will ask them to get that card (or a 980 if they like... haha, and idk about a 3.5GB 970...) and will post back here tomorrow with the result.
I refer also to the post here:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/130-40-year-warranty-rights
and the article here:
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/how-long-should-it-last/#axzz3Qoq8we3M
I rather spend GBP25 on small claims court than getting dealt with by Novatech this way.
Best, k
