Tuesday, August 17th 2010
BFG Tech Almost Defunct, Stops Honoring RMAs
Almost defunct enthusiast PC hardware vendor BFG Technologies may have just hit the final nail in its coffin, after it started sending denials to RMA applicants. The company was best known for its NVIDIA GeForce graphics accelerators, and announced its exit from the graphics industry this May. In rather quick succession, it also stopped shipping other products, while announcing that it will honor its warranties and RMAs.
Much to the disgruntlement of its customers, the company is now reportedly returning products sent for RMA with a covering letter saying that it cannot replace the product since a major supplier stopped doing business with it, apologizing for any inconvenience caused...well, apart from the $100s worth paperweights.
Source:
HardwareCanucks
Much to the disgruntlement of its customers, the company is now reportedly returning products sent for RMA with a covering letter saying that it cannot replace the product since a major supplier stopped doing business with it, apologizing for any inconvenience caused...well, apart from the $100s worth paperweights.
54 Comments on BFG Tech Almost Defunct, Stops Honoring RMAs
They actually have some fermi cards.
If I were turned down for warranty service and could rally up 50 or so people in the same boat as me I'd consider filing a class action suit. BFG either needs to completely drop warranty(while publicly stating so) or honor their warranties.
BFG's warranty policy does not state that the warranty is null and void if they are bankrupt.
If BFG no longer exists then they should pull their site, public warranty, and not send letters out saying they are not repairing their cards.
i got my EMAILs yesterday...
had 2. 295's on RMA... $ 1,000 paper.weights now...
plus, cost me 40.00 bucks to ship... just to get shipped back...
hope they insured it.. and wrote FRAGILE on it.. might be my only chance... fingers crossed... count me in... even though.. lawyers will get most of the money...
and we'll get a 1.00 check... which will cost 2.00 to cash...
edit:
Could be the same thing with vendors. If they wanted fermi, they should take a sh*tload of some low end chips with those.
I would understand if BFG just ignored everyone and up and left, but to return and cancel RMA's while still in business is just plain shady.
Even the thread title states "BFG Tech Almost Defunct, ..." When it reads "BFG Bankrupt, cancels RMA's" then it will sit right with me.
I loved BFG, sad to see them go. I have had good luck with them, even RMA's where quick.
But, apparently they cannot cover their invoices or monies owed.
As far as the lawsuit comment.......
That is why companies are setup as co-ops, and corperations, you can't get money from them if they don't have money.
The glory of bankrupcy and the screw them all attitude. They go home intact with severance plans and the buyer gets screwed.
You would be glad these laws where in place if it was your company.
Not only has Nvidia cut them off, it seems all partners have let them go.
I tried to generate an RMA on a PSU and a 260GTX just to see.
Within a minute I got this responce:
BFG Technologies, Inc. is winding down and liquidating its business. Unfortunately our major supplier would not support our business. As a result we are unable to setup or process any new RMAs for BFG products. If you have an existing RMA, have already sent your product in, and have not received a product back yet, please call our customer service department as soon as possible at 866.234.3499, Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm CST. If you have a technical support issue not involving an RMA, please email support@bfgfixx.com instead. We apologize for the inconvenience
This is a Politicaly Correct way of saying. Tuff shit.
And, I wonder what will jonnyguru do now... He used to work at BFG. Maybe he'll return to PSU testing?
Nvidia designs a gpu and a reference board for the GPU
Nvidia allows the partners to make the reference board or their own after testing(not the GPU)
Nvidia makes a contract with TSMC
TSMC makes the GPU's
Nvidia takes orders on the GPU's depending on how many TSMC believes can be made.
Sends them to EVGA/XFX/Whatever(depending on who has more cash when stock is low)
basically the lack of GTX4XX cores available and not being able to make some profit on those cards was the last knife in the back of BFG who were already in trouble financially.
but the major supplier is definitely Nvidia, Nvidia couldn't supply them cores cause they probably knew they weren't going to meet the quota for them after the big boys got their share. it appears they never sold it, they only listed it on their site
sitting on some BFG Timebomb PSU's, gotta sell em fast before news gets out everywhere
Because spending hundreds of dollars on equipment that is a huge paper-weight is really sad and unfair :(
Also, this situation will become another factor for me to think about when choosing a new graphics card: not only price, bundle, etc... but also the BRAND, and how secure they seem to be on the market.
Zotac, being a subsidiary, should have no issues with the way nVidia does business. If PC Partner doesn't find nVidia cards attractive anymore, they'll just probably drop the brand and that's about it.
EVGA is still strong as they have a big mass of followers who buy only EVGA cards, and that's keeping them going quite nicely. Plus they have motherboards and etc..
The weaker partners like BFG are the ones who suffer from nVidia's lack of competitiveness.
Sad to see them go - I bought my first two GPUs from them - my 8800 GTS (640) and my 8800GT OC2 (which lives on in running SLI in my brother's PC).
not sure though
but they sued LG, XFX, EASTCOM, BFG, SAMSUNG, MITSUBISHI, EVGA, PNY, SONY, and DIAMONDcorp the same day for heatsinks.