I've just been sent an email that EVGA has received my defective 980ti, but will not move forward with the RMA due to discoloration the the gold pins. I sent the unit in because it was not working correctly, I'm not sure how the pins became discolored, but the card was only ever plugged into two motherboards.
I've had the card for a while and it never quite worked correctly, I initially swapped motherboards and PSU's thinking maybe they were the issue. I opted for a cross ship and received my replacement card. I then spent money to ship out my 980ti to be told that the reason my card hasn't been working is not covered under their warranty. So now I either have to ship back the replacement card and be without a GPU or be forced to spend the cross ship collateral. The tech that emailed me did so late Friday and has not answered any of my emails asking to discuss their decision. So far not very happy with the warranty process as a whole.

Sure, there's definitely discoloration. I saw it when I pulled it from my first motherboard and had it in the second, I just assumed it was a manufacturing defect. I wasn't in a position at that point to afford a cross ship nor was I able to go without a gpu.

Hello Arkusx,
 
We have received your email and are awaiting management review, our RMA department is only open Monday through Friday so there may be a delay in response. 

Arkusx
Thanks for the follow-up EVGATech_JeffP!

I forwarded this to EVGA earlier today. Kudos to EVGA for responding.

 
Wonder what happened to this.