Ok... first let me take a deep breath....This is my RMA adventure with my EVGA GTX 1080 FTW.  And things are not going well.
 
Ok, to explain -my card started experiencing artifacts about a month ago.  Small digitized multicolored squares.  It was an intermittent problem, whether gaming or just surfing the net.  I tried everything a normal user should before calling support and initiating an RMA (re-installing drivers, rolling back drivers, trying different driver versions, removing all remnants of drivers with DDU, re-seating card, checking monitor cables, checking power cables, etc...).  All to no avail, so I called tech support and the started the RMA process.  They said no problem.  I did a cross-ship and paid the upfront costs, and they told me I'd have it in 1-3 business days.  I later re-contacted EVGA to make sure that I was getting the thermal pad mod and the BIOS update.  They told me of course.  Absolutely yes.  Then the forums started posting about the VRAM pads as well, so I again called and was assured that my replacement card would be good to go.  Thermal pads on everything including the VRAM, and the updated BIOS.  Cool deal right?  It sounded good to me.
 
So I waited...  and waited...  1-3 business days passed.  And on the tenth business day I called EVGA.  I asked if there was a problem.  I mean I certainly realize they are getting overwhelmed with calls and emails and RMAs about these thermal mods and other issues.  But I RMA'ed because my card was messing up.  Major artifacts on screen.  I paid almost $700 for this card.  I expect it to work right?  The CS person I spoke to was actually very nice and understanding.  I explained that I do not have an extra graphics card to use right now, and I don't want to keep using this glitchy card.  So I was without any system right now, and it was getting to be way past the time when I thought I was getting my replacement card.  It was starting to become a problem for me.
 
So the cust. service rep (again was very nice) told me that he would make a call and fix this, and within an hour I got an email that it was being shipped overnight UPS, and I would have the card today.  Absolutely fantastic.  I was ready to post a glowing review for EVGA's stellar customer service.  That was a great thing he did. 
 
Ok, so I got the card about 11:00 am today, and it appeared to be a brand new card, all factory sealed.  Looking at the backplate compared to my "bad" FTW - I could see the large thermal pad was indeed in place (you can see it through the vented area on the back plate above the "E" and the "V").  Again, everything looking good.  BIOS updated, pads in place.  Sweet!
 
So I installed my new card in my rig.  Removed every scrap of the old cards drivers even though they were the same, and installed brand new fresh drivers from the Nvidia's site.  It worked fine and was looking fantastic.  No coil whine, card was perfect!  Then I tried to game.
 
I opened Precision X OC and set the fans to 60% and launched BF1.  Got into a game quickly and immediately noticed the card seemed warmer than usual.  At a 60% fan speed, my old card would hover in mid 60's (C).  This card was immediately at 70C.  I bumped up the speed to 80% fan speed, but noticed the card's temp was still climbing, 75C, 82C, 90C, 96C, 99C - then BAM - LOCK UP, FREEZE and game crashed.
 
I was floored.  I have never had a BSOD or crash since I built this rig, and I never saw my "old" FTW go over 75C.  EVER.  In fact I always kept it in the high 60's with an aggressive fan curve under the heaviest of loads.  I like things running cool.  In fact I don't think I have ever had a card get that hot - ever.  I did a hard reset and shut down my rig immediately and disconnected everything.  Took off side panel and examined everything very closely.  I saw no issues.  I disconnected card, reseated it, reconnected my platinum SeaSonic 860W PSU (which does have two dedicated 8-pin connectors).
 
So I tried it again.  Booted up.  All seemed ok.  Surfed the net and just let it run with a 30% fan speed.  No stress on the system.  Incidentally, my office is in a basement and has a very cool ambient, and my old FTW stayed about 25-30C with 30% fan with system at idle.  I saw that this new card was already at 45C.  Just idling.  Something was wrong here.  Removed the case's side panel and could see the fans were spinning just fine, and the card was working.  I let it run for about an 30 min. without gaming and the card's temp kept slowly creeping up until it was about 50C.  AT IDLE!  I'm just surfing the net mind you.  So I cranked up the fans to 65% and the temps went down to ~35C.
 
I thought I'd try a less demanding game.  Booted up Borderlands 2.  I set fan speed at 80% just to be sure.  Temps skyrocketed to 80C almost immediately.  Then kept creeping up slowly.  I quit the game when it hit 91C.
 
I powered down and took the card out.  Opened it up and guess what.  NO THERMAL PASTE!!!  EVGA did all the pad modifications, but left off the TIM.  OMG!!!  Now this card has to be heat damaged.  Has to be -it hit almost 100C!!!  On the die there were tiny remnants of the old TIM that looked as if it had been cleaned off.  The heat spreader was cleaned off completely (and actually had a few scratches on it!).  I am absolutely floored.  So I guess what?  I start a new RMA - again?  I am so bummed its beyond words.  I don't get me wrong, I love EVGA.  But this is inexcusable.
 

 

Uh, no....A shame would be if they forgot to include the extra connectors or the poster.  Forgetting to add TIM is way beyond "a shame."  I just fried this card.  
 
And I was well aware that it was prob going to be a refurb.

Probably to expedite you a card after you have been let down and due to excessive back logs they forgot to add the paste. I'm not excusing what happened but something like this would be a honest mistake, but I would be really annoyed too.
I hope they deal with this as a matter of urgency for you.

Just add some thermal goop of your choice and play on!

Thanks Hudson!

hapkiman
Ok, my blood pressure is back to normal again. Sorry for the initial rant. 
And I have to give major props to Hudson at EVGA.  He's going to get another card to me and was very helpful.  Outstanding customer service.  I realize now this is why I buy EVGA.
 
I'm sure this next card will be good to go. 
 

Result

mrtommymxr
You can't blame a whole company for a worker.
Yes they should have tested the card. But when you pay people to do their job, they have to do their job.

Edited: due to being edited by a mod

Big thanks again to rjohnson for getting my RMA through the supply backlog. looking forward to receiving it on Wednesday via ups!
 
Terrified now that EVGA is raiding the parts/RMA bin and just throwing out any old card, in any old, untested condition. Clearly this one wasn't tested, the thermal pads just stuck on and thrown out the door.
 
EVGA may have outstanding customer support, but I can't help but feel, they wouldn't need it if their QC was a little more... controlled!

if you had no coil whining, I would've installed TIM myself instead of getting another RMA risking that perfect fan, or..swap the fan, but then you'd need to apply the TIM again.. so yeah..
hope you'd get situated. playing games on this card is amazing.

relevance
if you had no coil whining, I would've installed TIM myself instead of getting another RMA risking that perfect fan, or..swap the fan, but then you'd need to apply the TIM again.. so yeah..
hope you'd get situated. playing games on this card is amazing.

 
I considered doing this and keeping the card, but the fact that it hit 99C or probably even >100C before it locked-up and I could power down made me worried that the card was now permanently damaged.  And since I started with a brand new card, this wasn't an option once I thought about it for a minute.  I didn't want to take a chance and keep that card.
 

carb1de
Terrified now that EVGA is raiding the parts/RMA bin and just throwing out any old card, in any old, untested condition. Clearly this one wasn't tested, the thermal pads just stuck on and thrown out the door.

I don't think this was the case.  After talking with EVGA I think it was an isolated incident.  A mistake, or an oversight.  Small oversight?  No.  But I could see how it might happened if several hundred cards are coming in for RMAs.  They treated me fairly when I called them, and offered the EAR so all is good.  Still waiting on my "new" card, but I'm not going to be impatient this time.  And I will double check to make sure all is right as soon as I get the replacement.  I did not mean to bash EVGA in my OP.  Not at all.  I was just frustrated.  I still want this card for my rig, and would buy from them again.  I've had ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte cards before, and there is a reason I bought EVGA.  If you have a problem, they will make it right.
 
Just so this thread doesn't keep going on and on, you can now lock it if you would please mods.  My issue is being addressed and I'm satisfied.

Thanks for sharing this.  Even if there are some negatives to your stories, stuff happens. And how they are taking care of you is why I bought EVGA.

Just the thread I was looking for.

I RMAd my card for highly irritating coil whine under load on top of the obvious thermalpadgate.

I received my "new" replacement card today and by new I sure as hell mean refurb. I am furious. $500, 60 days since purchase. If I had a 1080 I would throw it in a fit of rage. They offered to refund a purchase I made through a reseller... But won't give me a real new retail card? This thing is b stock... Probably c stock. I PAYED FOR A+ STOCK.

First, a CS supervisor setup my original RMA and screwed it up. Set it up as standard, not advanced, and ended up costing me 2 extra business days until moving to round two of the approval because my queue position was probably reset.

Second, this same person promised me MULTIPLE times a NEW, RETAIL card. I asked, explicitly 3+ times -- every time it was confirmed it would not be refurb.

My card is like... 60 days old. They didn't even bother to change the backplate. The card they sent me had bent fins, some sort of adhesive on the pcb by the pins, there is dust all in the cracks and narrow grooves, scratches all over the shroud, the LED panel, there is grease from the pads or whatever all over the backplate (looks like a backplate in use for 6 months, BNIB was not like this crap)... I'm not cleaning up their sloppy refurb QA. It's barely even refurb. It's just straight up effin used.

What the hell EVGA? Even the goddamn rubber caps are FILTHY and caked with dust.

I asked three reps independent what was done to these cards. I'll share in case anyone thinks EVGA is actually doing something other than sending you someone else's busted card after they slap some pads on it and flash a new vbios:

1. Flash new VBIOS that increases fan speed/noise and apparently somehow they've managed to raise users temps from what I'm reading. Great work there.
2. Install new thermal pads
3. Send it to you

That's it folks. Don't waste your time. Have them send you the pads or whatever and skip the VBIOS unless you plan on running furmark 24/7 under the biggest load you can throw at it.

If you have an FTW they claim to certify it but lets face it. We wouldn't be here if they didn't cut corners on assembly or QC or wherever on their top tier/binned product. They even offered me a refund which in hindsight I should have just taken and bought a new card, because if this is what EVGA premium cards are in 2016 I'll find a different OEM if EVGA can't even get their act together here.

Every single person with a pending RMA should email the support manager and demand a brand new in box advance replacement.

I'd upload pics of this garbage but I didn't even take it home. It's sitting in my desk at work back in the box and going right back to EVGA tomorrow.

carb1de

bewsh
 
all the pain I'm assuming I'm going to have to go through

As HungryHamster quoted, EVGATech_ChrisB confirmed to me, to us, to the whole internet that the fears I had would not come true - they had new stock 'updating a new inventory' and that the OPs card was just a mistake.
 
My card is due to arrive today. I'm hoping to report back a completely different story to the OP. A brand new, sealed card with all the mods, functioning properly would just about repair the damage done to my current ownership proposition, I think I'm justified to say that.
 
Again, I want to eat my words and post back tomorrow what a great brand EVGA is, but it's the first manufacturer I've ever come across that admits a defective product, agrees to replace it then sends you back someone elses's replacement and assumes that it's ok to do so.
 

I'm blown away. The rep I spoke to today even told me this was not a mistake and it was in fact always set up to be a refurb and not BNIB as promised. He further told me he couldn't even help me beyond offer to like.. swap me another refurb.. and I don't have time to spend hours on hold and being escalated through support tiers until I finally get someone willing to help.

Lol I was planning on stepping up...

Guess the time has just come. Boards have been shades of their former glory for years and it was a matter of time before cards followed suit. Hopefully their mouse and psu and hadron business carries them after their cards get the negative rep like their mobos.

I've convinced dozens of people return their MSI armor or whatever else they got for an EVGA card because no matter what you could not go wrong with EVGA... even if you have the literal worst card on the planet, EVGA has your back. That is the same way I first found EVGA over a decade ago - reputation and word of mouth of *legendary* customer service.

At this point I will probably just take the refund and buy a strix/amp/whatever unless they really do something for me to make things right.

I don't want to be that problem customer... I deal with what they are dealing with every day myself so I feel for them. I really do. Anyone can go on the internet and see how much EVGA reps make hourly and they are clearly slammed with work. Last week I was told they were reviewing/shipping 300+ daily. They were transparent and forthcoming, and up until my case was butchered, the support experience was very good and pleasant, mostly... Supervisor sounded kinda annoyed and condescending but I was probably the 50th person who was like "hey I saw this thread on this forum and want a new card"

With that said, a solution was agreed upon, and an expectation set. It simply wasnt met. I'm insulted they sent me this joke of a replacement but I'll get rid of it and carry on And see where they are at next gen.

Well I am certainly nervous about my pending RMA now.

***UPDATE.  Got the new card via UPS today before noon.  Everything looks very good and I actually think this may have been a new card.  Not just because it was all sealed -but it was extremely clean, and I inspected it ever so closely.  It looks new!  All thermal pads including VRAM in place and BIOS was updated.  I replaced TIM with MX-4 (I had to check after what happened last time, and it did indeed have factory TIM).  Card is very cool running.  I mean it seems 10C cooler than my other working 1080 FTW with same fan profile.  And it doesn't seem to be loud at all.  At 60% fan I can barely hear it.  No coil whine either.  I think I got a keeper here.  Just finished a solid hour of BF1 and temps stayed right around 60-62C with highest temp 64C.  I AM VERY HAPPY.  Thanks EVGA!