My 6600GT is Back...but for How long?

It has been an year since I have been struggling with my 6600GT graphics card that began popping up garbled images around the 1st quarter of 2007. It was around 2 years since I bought this card back in 2005, I enjoyed my fair share of games on it until I left to Chennai on September 2006.

But since then I have been pretty out of touch with my Graphics Card. Once I came back for a short break in Trivandrum nearly 6 months later the nightmares began, the card just gave up processing things. Unplugged it and plugged it back in several times and between systems but the card showed no changes. So it was time to avail my 3 year warranty and I packed things to Logtech, they promptly took the card and send it over to service.

By the time the card was back I was back to Chennai, but the friends who tested it said it was a goner. Another 6 months passed before I came back and again the same procedure repeated back to Logtech and deja vu all over again.

Another 5 months passed before I was able get hold of the card again. This time determined I went over to Logtech and proved the card was faulty. They put it there in 2 systems and both showed errors. That makes it 5 systems on which the same error was shown, and they took it in once again, but I was very arrogant this time, I said I need a guarantee that some action will be taken. The people at Logtech was not ready to take up the responsibility for this they said it all lay at the hands of Rashi Peripherals, I said I will get it done myself if you cant do the job right.
They replied that RP Tech do not service customers directly. Woah !!! How can you say that they do not service customers directly? In that case Are you ready to take up the responsibility for the card? And the obvious reply "No". I was so annoyed but given the choices I left the card at their mercy once again.

This isn't the end of this sad story, one thing I learned from corporate environment is "ESCALATION" and as soon as I came home I put forward a mail to RP Tech Cochin and Trivandrum. Here is the content of the mail.

Sir / Madam

I bought a XFX nVidia 6600GT (AGP) Graphics card from Logtech trivandrum 3 years back (14/07/05) and the card began to display garbled graphics after about 1.5 years of usage.

I had given this card to Logtech on 23/04/2007 since it was under warranty to be repaired and it was given back to me 2 weeks later saying the issue was resolved only to have the same problem again. Since I was out of station I couldn't give the card then so I gave it to them again on 24/09/2007, the same story was continued and the problem repeated.

I had noticed that the dust near the fan of the card was not even cleaned, and I strongly believe that no action was taken since the same problem was cropping up over and over again.

Today (21/02/2008) I had again gone to Logtech and they contacted RP Tech and said that the card will be serviced and given back in a weeks time after which I had submitted my Graphics card to them once again. They said that they are helpless on how the warranty is processed as it lays in the hands of RP Tech to repair the card. They also said that they do not take the products from customer directly and will only take the card from a Dealer like Logtech, which unwillingly forced me to give the graphics card once again to them.

My warranty for this card will expire on 13/07/2008 and I am pretty sure that nobody will be taking up the responsibility of the card then especially when this is the kind of service that I am receiving when the card is under a 3 year warranty period.

Could you kindly look into this issue as this is the 3rd time the card is being send over to you for repair under the warranty period. If not possible could then direct me on how to get the card repaired as the time is running out.

The card serial number is S/N: GDH038043 for you reference.
Thank You

Regards
Fox

*All Names Withheld

I was not expecting much but I got a reply

Dear Name withheld

Please hand over the card to M/s Logtech with a tag mentioning the problem you faced with the card.

Our branch at Trivandrum will check the same and do the needful as early as possible.

Thanks & Regards,

Name withheld

My response

Name withheld

Thank You very much for the response.

I have handed over the card to Logtech this morning with the reason mentioned in their register as "Garbled Graphics" around 11.45 AM. It should be reaching there shortly.

Thank You once again.

Regards

Fox

In a couple of days I got call from Rashi regarding the problem and that they were not able to replicate the problem. I suggested running some heavy duty games etc to stress it out.

Sir / Madam

I got a call from a lady from RP Tech on Saturday. She said that she was not able to replicate the problem I had mentioned about the GeForce 6600GT.

I had asked her to do more stress testing on the GFX Card using games like Half-Life 2 or Doom 3.

The Card failed to render properly in 4 different systems and I also replicated the problem in Logtech, Trivandrum and it was only then they took the card in for repair under the warranty period.

I would like to know the current status of the card and whether the problem was successfully replicated in your testing labs?

Thanks In Advance

Regards

Fox

Finally I was asked to visit their service center on Monday and asked me to bring the necessary softwares. I took the latest drivers and 3dMark 03 , 05 and 06 for the ultimate stress test :).

I entered their service center and I was greeted in a comfortable manner by this lady over there she took me to the testing team where I got to sit down with the people over there and they allowed me complete freedom to do my testing there. It was a wonderful experience, working with open DVD Drivers, Naked Motherboard and exposed SMPS, they plugged my Card into two different systems where they individually stress tested the card under 3D Mark tests. And they proved one thing that the card wasn't faulty :).

They explained the dilemma about the customer service thing and it seems that this rule was created by the computer dealers association in Trivandrum a bunch of assholes who says service centers should not sell things to customers. They told the whole story since RP tech is not only a service center but also a sales center and these dealers association say that they are stealing customers away from them buy selling goods to them instead of doing it through dealers. And hence direct customer service was taken out of their hand to prevent such entertainment. The assholes are not ready to take up the responsibility of the hardware and they wouldn't allow the customers to get it serviced properly by the responsible ones either. This is a very sad story indeed. They should see how Ritche Street Behaves with respect to customer service.

I was given the card since they couldn't find any defects.

They also mentioned it was my mail that stirred up the upper management to actually to look into the issue or else the same story would have repeated once again. I was so happy by the way they treated me as a customer (far better than Logtech). This was the mail I send over to them.

Hi Name Witheld

Yes we were not able to replicate the problem in the labs and I have received the card back.

I would like to thank the people in Trivandrum RP Tech team, they were extremely helpful and cooperative with me regarding this problem.

They were patient enough to listen to my complaints and tested the card for three days. They also allowed me into the testing area and allowed me to sit with them for the graphics card testing with the software I provided them with. Also the card was returned to me under a weeks time this is also great.

Usually this level of service and customer interaction is pretty rare and I enjoyed it.

Thank You once again for your willingness to help me and a BIG thanks to the Trivandrum RP Tech Service Team.

Regards

Fox

Here is a picture (the blue card) sitting on the AGP once again, see the stickers on it each for the service done :P


I stuck it back in my mother board it worked. I even managed to finish Half-Life 2 Episode 2 and Portal on it at medium settings :). The question still stands for How Long ? :(