Just a few days back, we have seen reports being made about EVGA graphics cards dying from playing a closed beta test of Amazon Game's New World MMORPG game. Multiple users are reporting on their GPUs getting fried from playing the game, and EVGA is already offering a replacement for the GPUs. However, today's situation appears to be slightly different. According to the report coming from Igor's Lab, EVGA is charging premium prices for its advanced GPU RMA service, getting some criticism from the community. For starters, the advanced RMA service is a service designed for EVGA customers to send their faulty GPUs, pay a deposit, receive a replacement GPU from EVGA, and once EVGA receives the old GPU, it returns the deposit to the person who made it. It basically allows less downtime for owners of the GPU, with a replacement quickly on the way.

All of that is working neatly in theory. However, as every person involved in the PC building recently knows, prices for GPUs are at an insane level as demand is much higher than the supply currently available. Igor's Lab has reportedly experienced a similar situation with EVGA as well. As Igor filed for the advanced RMA program, the deposit needed to be made. Instead of the regular 782 Euros (or about 931 Euros with VAT included) for EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra, EVGA asked for as much as a 1,728.20 Euro deposit to be made.While this is certainly a scalping price that EVGA is requesting, the whole deposit is returned to the customer once the broken GPU arrives. It is an attempt to give EVGA a sense of ease that the customer will not scalp the new card and not send the old one to EVGA, so the situation couldn't be seen from the angle of only "bad EVGA". Of course, if the person doesn't have the funds for an advanced RMA program, there is always the standard "slow" method. Most companies are only doing the standard method of replacing the broken parts under warranty, so the advanced RMA program is still seen as a benefit from that perspective.

EVGA has the following statement on their RMA page:

Due to increased fraud and current market conditions, the collateral amount includes an additional RMA service hold attached, which will be fully refunded upon the return of the original item. As a thank you for our customers, we now include a pre-paid UPS return label in the box.