# OCZ RMA is an absolute joke



## Christian Ney (Aug 19, 2011)

Here is a true story that happened to me, so a little bit more than one year ago I bought an OCZ Vertex SSD 30 GB OCZSSD2-1VTX30G (230 MB/s(Read) 135 MB/s (write) and 85 MB/s (Substained write)).
like on the following picture:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3618/oczssd21vtx30g.png

3 months ago the ocz vertex died, so I went to their website and asked for rma. rma approved, I sent my ssd to them.

Here is what they send back to me, a new OCZ Vertex SSD 30 GB OCZSSD2-1VTX30G. What so lovely to find written on the box the following specs:
Read: 210 MB/s
Write: 75 MB/s
Substained Write: 25 MB/s
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/680/img0214qc.jpg

Actually a twice less performing ssd.

Without even opening the package I opened a new support ticket on their website saying that they sent me the wrong drive.
Here is their reply:
''Are those just the numbers on the box, or were those the benchmarking results from running ATTO on the drive? I recommend actually running ATTO on the drive'' Despite the fact that on the opened ticket I clearly wrote ''numbers written on the box''
So here is FAIL #1, so close to FAIL #2: as you can see on the following picture http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/680/img0214qc.jpg numbers on the box are based on ATTO

New reply from OCZ, I quote:
''But did you actually run the ATTO disk benchmark program on the drive to benchmark that particular drive? This is the most accurate way to get the speed of the drive rather than reading the numbers on the box. After running the ATTO program on your drive, what read and write numbers does it give you for your specific drive?''

FAIL #3: Specs and numbers on the box aren't the ones of the product inside !!!!

Okay... let's open the box, take the ssd, plug it to my test system  (Operating System is actually installed on a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB).

I formated the drive, I ran ATTO, here are the values:
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7025/vertexrma.jpg

200 MB/s Read and 140 MB/s write, ok close to the drive I sent to RMA and far away to what is written on the box where this drive comes from.

FAIL #4: The drive doesn't match with the specs on the box.


Ok so finally I got the right drive it seems ?

Now start to install my Operating System on it, first try I got a blue screen after 10 minutes during the installation of windows XP, try 2, after 4 minutes try 3, after 17 minutes. Ok let's try to install windows 7 then. Again blue screen after few minutes during the process.

Hum, time to change memory, processor, motherboard. Same, getting blue screens over and over again.
Change the whole setup again, no way blues screen are here. Try to install Windows XP on a Hard Drive, it works, windows 7 too, from the first try.

Ok, back to OCZ Vertex, fail again, blue screen over and over again.

After 38 tries for windows XP, I finally managed to install it on the OCZ Vertex, and 17 tries for Windows 7.

Drive seems defective isn't it ? FAIL #5

So I back to OCZ support, here is what they said:
''What error message are you receiving during the installation process? At what point does the error occur? Is this a fresh install or are you imaging/cloning to the drive?''
-Not always the same
-Randomly
-Fresh install

OCZ:
''If the drive has been repeatedly benchmarked it will slow down until it has time to clean itself up. The drive will automatically maintain itself when idle. If you want to reset the drive right away you can do a destructive reset here: 
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/staff/ryderocz/misc/sanitary_erase.zip Then from there quick format it with Windows 7 and run ATTO on the drive just one time''

What, I said the drive is defective and that I cannot even install an Operating Sytsem on it and they ask if I have repeatedly benched the drive ? 
and to clear/erase it, what the.... the drive is new you just sent it to me, what's so wrong with you. Read my comments added to the helpdesk!!

FAIL #6 ? They do not read your emails ?

Ok so as this one is defective, I ask for RMA and told them that I am away for 2 weeks in vacation and without internet, rma accepted.

Back from vacation I see that they sent me a courier (fedex) when I was away.... FAIL #6 confirmed.

First good point for ocz though, they sent me an attached pre-paid shipping label, so they take care of the return of they defective part.

But, when I was in vacation (I took the vertex with me as my only ssd and I needed it), things got worse, sometimes the drive wan't reconized at post nor in the bios. So no way to boot my operating system. Sometimes the operating system just freeze or crash and when I reboot the computer it says ''no bootable device'' I had to turn off the computer and turn it on again, benchmarks like PCMark05, PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7 were always failing to compute due to aborted/failed HDD tests.

So as I am back and the support ticket is gone after 7 days, I opened a new one complaining that the drive is getting more and more defective.
I sent them a very long email telling all issues I encountered with their OCZ Vertex and asked that they send them first a new drive so I can move all my operative system and data from drive to drive.

OCZ replied:
''I sincerely apologize for any issues or inconveniences you have been experiencing with your OCZ product. Please provide us with the information requested below as a comment to your Ticket for RMA processing[...]''
then:
''I apologize, please disregard the previous message. Just verify your shipping address for me please''

They moved the status of my support ticket to advanced rma so said ''I set you up for advanced rma, so what’s going to happen is we are going to charge your credit card for the amount of the memory. Then once we get your bad product we will immediately credit your card back. You will be getting further details about the charge in an automated email that will be sent to you from the rma system''

What I understand is that I have to pay something so they can send me the new one, let me move my data and they will pay me back when they got the defective one.
But the defective one is gone for real, no more reconized thru the bios, nor thru the post, windows installer doesn't see it and another computer too.
Drive is 100 % dead.
Time to use the prepaid shipping label, vertex is sent to them and I asked them by email to recover all my operating system and data on the new drive.

FAIL #7: They didn't do it and even better they did not tell me they were not going to do it.

After 5-6 days, according to TNT Express tracking number they received the defective drive 3 days ago, so I asked for some news, here are the three replies I got from OCZ:
''it will be replaced within 48 hours ''
I replied 3 days after: ''any news ?''
OCZ again: ''for some reason it doesn't look like we received it. please contact supporteurope@ocztechnology.com ''
What ? Tracking number stats you got it one week ago !!!
OCZ again: '' that was my mistake what i ment was when we receive it and process it it will be shipped out within 48 hours. its not in our system for some reason''

Okayyy, they just don't care about you and reply randomly to you, FAIL #8

New drive received today, again with the following specs:
Read: 210 MB/s
Write: 75 MB/s
Substain Write: 25 MB/s
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/680/img0214qc.jpg

which is again a twice less performing ssd.

But wait this is just what is written on the box, as from my experience with OCZ products, specs on the box don't match with the product in the box.



Too bad this time it was true, I really received the twice less perfoming OCZ Vertex SSD:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7739/oczssd21vtx30g.jpg

FAIL #9

just for the record, I quote their own Warranty Policy:
''All OCZ Technology, Inc. (''OCZ'') products are warranted and tested to be free from defects in material and workmanship and to conform to the published specifications.[...]OCZ will repair the product or replace it with a comparable or better unit.''

HAHAHAHAHA What a joke


Conlcusion:
OCZ is an absolute joke, you are aware

True story, I got all emails from them, pics of drives, pics of benchs as proof.

*Update 22/08/2011: Ok, after posting on their forum things went really better, the guy know what you are talking about and take care of the situation way much better than using Support Ticket Exdesk.
They offered to send me a Vertex 120GB, I asked them if a Vertex 2 40GB was possible and they replied that they are going to send me a courier as soon as possible to take back the Vertex they sent me and will send me a Vertex 2 60GB as soon as possible.

For my experience through the forum there is no problem for support/rma/help, they replied very quickly and the guy who your are talking with know what to do and what you are talking about.

Conclusion, as from my experience here, OCZ forum is THE place to ask support/rma, by using the ''Exdesk support ticket'' you will just suffer if you ask technical info or want an advanced rma. Seems OCZ is using an third party compagny for support ticket aka exdesk which appeared to be incompetent.*



			
				RyderOCZ said:
			
		

> Just to clarify, we do not use a third party for support. Exdesk is the ticket software/hosting company. The people that answer tickets all work for OCZ in San Jose, CA.


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## Crap Daddy (Aug 19, 2011)

Insane.


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## micropage7 (Aug 19, 2011)

write this on local news paper and they would do it right


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## Feänor (Aug 19, 2011)

Wow what a sad story. 

It did took them 4 months to give me my mail-in rebate, but at least it finally came in!

All i have to say is don't let them win. Continue to argue so you will EVENTUALLY banghead get what you pay for. If you accept the shit they send you, or just say fuck it, then they will win over you...


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## Jaffakeik (Aug 19, 2011)

Unlucky for you. atleast my ocz ssd works perfect for more than year now


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## Christian Ney (Aug 19, 2011)

Feanor said:


> Wow what a sad story.
> 
> It did took them 4 months to give me my mail-in rebate, but at least it finally came in!
> 
> All i have to say is don't let them win. Continue to argue so you will EVENTUALLY banghead get what you pay for. If you accept the shit they send you, or just say fuck it, then they will win over you...



I will never accept what they sent me, but this is way too much so let's make it public so you all can understand and know


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## Feänor (Aug 19, 2011)

Yes, i'll be prepared to get very frustrated if i ever need rma.

I wish you you can get your money back...


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## AsRock (Aug 19, 2011)

Christian Ney said:


> Here is a true story that happened to me, so a little bit more than one year ago I bought an OCZ Vertex SSD 30 GB OCZSSD2-1VTX30G
> (230 MB/s(Read) 135 MB/s (write) and 85 MB/s (Substained write))
> like on the following picture:



Well according to there site it's there 64GB that does those speeds not the 32GB one.

Click the Spec tab
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vertex-series-sata-ii-2-5-ssd.html

Is there any firmware updates for it ?.

In the end i bet some were that specifications can change without notice too lol.

Last time i delt with OCZ i had 0 issue with them..


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## Christian Ney (Aug 19, 2011)

AsRock said:


> Well according to there site it's there 64GB that does those speeds not the 32GB one.
> 
> Click the Spec tab
> http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-vertex-series-sata-ii-2-5-ssd.html
> ...



Please see here:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3618/oczssd21vtx30g.png

They updated their website with the new OCZSSD2-1VTX30G specs, I have the old one, they changed the specs but kept the same part number


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## NdMk2o1o (Aug 19, 2011)

That sucks man, tbh sometimes it's just the luck of the draw, and the subsequent issues being down to a sequence of unfortunate incoincidental incidents rather than the company being a complete waste of space, I would imagine anyway.

A lot of people sh*t on OCZ SSD drives ( I actually think this is more down to the fact that OCZ are one of/the biggest sellers of SSD drives rather than their failure rate being a lot higher than other mfr's)but I am one of the lucky ones who has had one now for 6+ months with 0 issues and infact the speeds now are still as good as the 1st day and are inline with the rated speeds with no slow down whatsoever.


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## Christian Ney (Aug 22, 2011)

*Update 22/08/2011: Ok, after posting on their forum things went really better, the guy know what you are talking about and take care of the situation way much better than using Support Ticket Exdesk.
They offered to send me a Vertex 120GB, I asked them if a Vertex 2 40GB was possible and they replied that they are going to send me a courier as soon as possible to take back the Vertex they sent me and will send me a Vertex 2 60GB as soon as possible.

For my experience through the forum there is no problem for support/rma/help, they replied very quickly and the guy who your are talking with know what to do and what you are talking about.

Conclusion, as from my experience here, OCZ forum is THE place to ask support/rma, by using the ''Exdesk support ticket'' you will just suffer if you ask technical info or want an advanced rma. Seems OCZ is using an third party compagny for support ticket aka exdesk which appeared to be incompetent.*


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## mlee49 (Aug 22, 2011)

Every time you wrote FAIL #  I read it in The Count's voice from Sesame Street. It's what got me through reading your entire post.


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## INSTG8R (Aug 22, 2011)

I guess my only question is why you were trying to install XP on it. It has no support at all for SSD's
Still doesn't matter in the overall for it being a bad drive but you were asking for trouble from the start even trying that.


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## FreedomEclipse (Aug 22, 2011)

some times thats just the way it is. People who work at support just hired to work there and could care less about the companies customer satiusfaction level.

In the forum is where you get all the staff who are all predomininatly enthusiasts too, so they would understand your frustrations more then the poeple who are just paid to handle your complaints.

I wanted to RMA my 6970s at one point as i wasnt 100% satisified with them. I contacted support and tried to get them sent back but i was shot down because the operator told me the box had already been opened and the cards had already been used.

Luckily im registered to a forum where the MANAGER of the returns department is there as a rep for his company. sent a few inbox's his way. and since the cards were less then 2 weeks old. they were still willing to accept them back. but in the end i changed my mind and decided to keep them.

but it shows how bad support can be and how some will stonewall you at the first oppotunity so fast you will literally get knocked off your feet.


Thats why TPU needs more Reps. Guru3d has loads of reps, Bit-tech has a fair few.


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## Christian Ney (Aug 22, 2011)

INSTG8R said:


> I guess my only question is why you were trying to install XP on it. It has no support at all for SSD's
> Still doesn't matter in the overall for it being a bad drive but you were asking for trouble from the start even trying that.



You can install XP where you want, I even installed it on an usb stick time ago. But it's true that there is no Trim or/and XP doesn't automatically disable defragmentation and indexation.


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## Frick (Aug 22, 2011)

Everything up to FAIL #5 is just bad luck and or standard procedures probably for them. And the rest is bad luck.


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## d3fct (Aug 23, 2011)

wow, I actually read that whole wall, and I was seriously thinking about purchasing an ocz ssd. This has clearly opened my eye's, as I have never had to rma thru them ever.Looks like I will not EVER buy anything from them.


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## PaulieG (Aug 23, 2011)

d3fct said:


> wow, I actually read that whole wall, and I was seriously thinking about purchasing an ocz ssd. This has clearly opened my eye's, as I have never had to rma thru them ever.Looks like I will not EVER buy anything from them.



This is a very ignorant statement. Go look at every hardware forum. You WILL find a lousy RMA experience with every single company, including well regarded companies like Corsair and Mushkin. It just happens. You should never determine your purchase solely on one persons experience. Focus on trends of service.


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## m4gicfour (Aug 23, 2011)

Feanor said:


> Wow what a sad story.
> 
> It did took them 4 months to give me my mail-in rebate, but at least it finally came in!
> 
> All i have to say is don't let them win. Continue to argue so you will EVENTUALLY banghead get what you pay for. If you accept the shit they send you, or just say fuck it, then they will win over you...



I have never received an OCZ rebate. Consider yourself lucky.


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## Christian Ney (Aug 23, 2011)

d3fct said:


> wow, I actually read that whole wall, and I was seriously thinking about purchasing an ocz ssd. This has clearly opened my eye's, as I have never had to rma thru them ever.Looks like I will not EVER buy anything from them.



Well, if you ask support/rma directly on their forum and not thru their website/exdesk, there is no problems, I got some feedback that guys using their forum for support/rma aren't having any problems.

I think it's only with exdesk that you are going to do this: 

Seems OCZ is using an third party compagny for support ticket aka exdesk which appeared to be incompetent.


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## RejZoR (Aug 23, 2011)

Most of support are incompetetnt in all companies, be it OCZ, Corsair, ACER, you name it. I had awful experience with all of them. Like they have some mungo's who don't understand english at all and they never bother to read your replies. Things are even worse if you happen to live in Europe and companies treat you as some shitty eastern country.

ACER
When i contacted ACER US, i got a reply in few minutes, but they then kindly asked me to contact ACER EMEA because US support cannot deal with European products issues. ACER EMEA required 2 days just to ask again some dumb question. I replied to it and they needed another day to reply with some completely irrelevant answer and suggestion. And this repeated for a wekk until i was so pissed of i sent them somewhere.

Corsair
I never had a RMA with them but the guys on their forums have no clue about anything at all. It makes you wonder if they support Corsair products or a grocery. And i bet they know more about broccoli than they do about Corsair products. Whatever i asked them, they never gave me a straight answer. They don't know what firmware update even fixes (wtf), they don't know how their drives work, they don't know anything about TRIM support etc etc. Imagine buying a car and the official deal would have no clue how the engine works or where to put oil in. I got that kind of feeling with Corsair forums. Incompetent to the extreme. Or it's just me who apparently expects way too much from some crappy support staff...

Samsung
Support simply doesn't exist for us at all. Apart from a local official Samsung dealer which doesn't seem to know shit about their products as well. When i tried to contact Samsung UK which has a beautiful webpage with support contact forms and all but i got rejected because data and apparently IP didn't look like from someone that lives in the UK.


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## repman244 (Aug 23, 2011)

RejZoR said:


> Imagine buying a car and the official deal would have no clue how the engine works



They don't.


Anyhow, I think every company has it's pros and cons, it's luck I guess.


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## Mussels (Aug 23, 2011)

awkward. i'll see if i can rustle up some help at OCZ for you, i've got contacts there in high places.


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## Christian Ney (Aug 23, 2011)

Mussels said:


> awkward. i'll see if i can rustle up some help at OCZ for you, i've got contacts there in high places.



Thank you, but no need, see post 11: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2374933&postcount=11

Everything is solved now that I left Exdesk(OCZ's helpcenter) and I asked OCZ(OCZ Forum) directly


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## Mussels (Aug 23, 2011)

the people i know, especially BigToe/Tony are very helpful people. Tony knows his stuff from top to bottom, and he takes his support stuff very seriously.


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## Christian Ney (Aug 23, 2011)

Mussels said:


> the people i know, especially BigToe/Tony are very helpful people. Tony knows his stuff from top to bottom, and he takes his support stuff very seriously.



It's Eric Ryder that is taking care of my case atm, and he does a really good job


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## Mussels (Aug 23, 2011)

i've heard of ryder, and good things too.


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## Tatty_One (Aug 23, 2011)

Mussels said:


> the people i know, especially BigToe/Tony are very helpful people. Tony knows his stuff from top to bottom, and he takes his support stuff very seriously.



Good to know   i am just about to buy a pair of Agility 3 240GB @ 525/500ms, they aint cheap so if I need help down the road you will be my first port of call!


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## Mussels (Aug 23, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> Good to know   i am just about to buy a pair of Agility 3 240GB @ 525/500ms, they aint cheap so if I need help down the road you will be my first port of call!



try the OCZ forums first. tony and ryder hang out on them like... well me on TPU, so if they cant help you there, they'll point you to someone who can.


shit, some of the work on the OCZ forums was the first stuff out there to help people tweak their OS to work properly on SSD's, and prevent that infamous stutterbug.


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