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BFG Tech Sending Out RMA Denial Letters, 'Winding Down Business'
SKYMTL writes "Once one of NVIDIA's primary board partners, BFG Tech has now officially started denying RMA requests for their supposedly 'lifetime warranty' graphics cards. According to a letter from BFG, they are '...winding down business' and are 'unable to replace' any non-working product. A sad turn of events for the thousands who bought BFG's graphics cards and power supplies."
Here is an interesting thread from HardForum:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=ad39475190e27b7270fad7c8f5202588&t=1539921
It has an image of the letter, gives a plausible reason why BFG is going down (Best Buy wouldn't carry some of their products).
That depends.
If the company has just decided not to do graphics cards any more and close down that part of the business, then hell no! They should be expected to honour it and if they can't repair/replace in house then contract it out or provide another manufacturer's replacement cards.
If they are actually winding up the company, have administrators in and are genuinely (almost) bankrupt and closing up shop, that's a different matter.
Which is why pretty much all "should we go bankrupt, we'll turn off the DRM" promises are worthless. What are you going to do if they don't comply? If your software just calls out for an activation server that is long gone and liquidated? Do you think you'll get that software patched even if you sued, even if you got on the list of creditors? I'd bet not. I'd love to see what would happen if Steam got competed out of the market by another steam-like service and had to "wind down their business". Maybe I'm just a huge cynic but it's so easy to make promises you never have to deal with. So everyone gets mighty pissed, but who cares? They're out of business. Gone. Closed up shop. If you swear to never spend another dime on them, they still don't care. And while despite being utter asshattery, I doubt it pierces the corporate veil so the profits they've taken out of it is theirs.
I know of another case just like this, dealing with resellers and investments. In short, resellers are often short-lived beasts that sell - and sometimes oversell - investments from companies that offer investment opportunities. It takes some time for the investments to mature and while there is a second hand market there's a solid penalty for getting out underways so mostly you're in it for the whole project, it's not liquid like stocks. What happens is that before the investments start delivering results, the resellers declare bankruptcy and start up under a new name and tax id. Then the people who made the actual investment project get to take all the shit for everything that's been said, not legally but as pretty unhappy "customers". Trying to sue a dead copmany where no one picks up the phone because there is no phone just doesn't get you anywhere.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
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If it's in the UK, all products have a lifetime for a minimum of 6 years.
"Goods are of satisfactory quality if they reach the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking into account the price and any description."
Apple honoured a repair I had to my iMac that died when it was three and half years old when I stated the Sales of Goods Act. The machine required a new PSU and logic board. The repair would have been around £800.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/fact-sheets/page38311.html
Also with the UK, in the contract at sale is with the retailer, not the manufacturer. If the retailer can't get your product fixed, for example BFG have gone out of business, then you can claim for damages or a full refund.
I always wondered why you guys paid such high prices for electronics. Now I know. Wow.
This isn't just confined to the computer industry or firms that are having financial troubles.
10 years ago or so we bought $5000 worth of leather furniture (http://legacy-leather.com/v2/bigskytrad.html) from http://www.schneidermans.com/. At the time we purchased a LIFETIME warranty, that included lifetime supply of cleaning solution and care products for the top-grain aniline leather.
About year 2, we had one cushion destroyed by a neighbor's small child and a permanent marker, which was replaced promptly and without any issues.
About 2-3 years later we got a package from Schneidermans saying "oh, sorry, here's your package of care products; we've decided to discontinue the 'lifetime' warranty; we would refund your money for the warranty but you got a replacement part so we consider the warranty used and the contract fulfilled. Sorry."
It was probably my fault for not causing a big stink about it, but RL was pretty complicated at the time and I didn't.
But I've always felt screwed that they sold us a lifetime warranty and then arbitrarily decided they just didn't want to support it later.
-Styopa