This might be a long post and I'm not sure if this is the best place to put this, but I just need somewhere to vent about my experience with EVGA over the last few years and maybe if I tell my story there is a chance someone can help me out, because I'm extremely frustrated right now and I just don't know what to do anymore.
So I have been an EVGA customer since 2012. Had no issues with the first two video cards I bought from them. The trouble started about 2 1/2 years ago when I bought a Supernova 850 GS power supply from them. I ended up posting a thread about it awhile back (forums.evga.com/EVGA-850-GS-PSU-3-RMAs-later-still-having-the-same-issue-m2496454.aspx) Long story short, I ended up returning this thing 5 times because every unit I got would work for about a week and then just stop powering on. In addition to all the troubleshooting I did involving the paperclip test and installing several of these units into different computers to ensure it was a faulty unit, after doing some research I found several reviews on newegg complaining about the same thing, some of them also stated that they had gone through several RMAs. There was also a thread started on overclock.net awhile back about the GS power supply's where several people complained about similar issues. Despite this, EVGA claimed that all of the units that I sent back had passed their internal testing, but they eventually decided to send me a different model, a 850 G2. This model has been working fine since I got it.
Now, after all of that, for some stupid reason a year later I decided to buy a 1080TI FTW3 from EVGA. I guess I have a short memory. Anyways, this thing lasted about 6 months before I started getting severe artifacting in games which was getting worse over time and caused me to have to reduce clockspeeds below default settings to get it stable. I will mention that when I first got this card I tried briefly to overclock it but could barely hold +20 mhz clock speed, so I just left it at default settings since then. It also saw very little usage over those 6 months since between work and school I was lucky if I could get a few hours of gaming a week. Anyway's, I started the very familiar process of putting in support tickets and calmly going through all of their troubleshooting steps, which included sticking this card into two other computers with the exact same results. Then I start the RMA process.
So I get the new card in and send the old one back (which cost me $40 in shipping and insurance) and guess what? The new card just immediately gets a video driver crash within 5 secs of anything that pushes the card near 100%. The only way I can get it to work is if I put it in debug mode which disables gpu boost, then it runs fine. Open up another support ticket, go through all the troubleshooting steps once again (power connections secure with two different cables, wipe and reinstall drivers, no overclocks applied to anything, try in a different computer and get the same exact results) One time they asked for a firestrike score (which I had to downclock the gpu to get it to pass) and suggested that my CPU was the problem because firestrike reported that it ran at 4,398 mhz instead of 4,400 mhz, and that I should try overclocking the cpu slightly. Seriously?
Eventually I get offered another RMA. I ask them if there is any way I can get a shipping label because I can't keep paying shipping if they are just going to keep sending me defective products. Guess what? Apparently the first card I sent in cleared their testing so they won't give me a shipping label. How is this possible? I installed that card on three different computers and got the same artifacting within 5-10 mins of gameplay each time. I don't understand how this could possibly be anything other than a faulty card. So now some poor soul is probably going to end up with the card I sent back and here I am stuck debating whether I should spend more money to ship this thing back and play the lottery again, or just deal with no GPU boost. I suppose I should feel lucky that I got one before all the miners bought them up, but I just feel cheated that I could have bought a founders edition for $100 less and it would have been faster than what I have now.
I think it's safe to say that I'm done with EVGA for real this time and will not be purchasing anymore products from them in the future. I cannot recall ever having to send a product back from any other company, and here I am considering starting my 7th RMA with EVGA. Not sure if whining on the forums is going to get me anywhere, but really I just needed somewhere to vent because I'm so pissed off I can't sleep right now. Has anyone had any similar experiences? Is their QA really this bad or am I just the unluckiest customer in EVGAs history?
post edited by geriaktricks - 2018/01/20 20:54:13