BFG Tech Almost Defunct, Stops Honoring RMAs

[WarEagleAU]

Man that sucks I love their PSUs and their Phobos is pretty bad ass. I would hope they may be able to continue with both.

 

[WarEagleAU]

http://www.bfgtech.com/Product.aspx?Category=Graphics Cards

They actually have some fermi cards.

 

[mlee49]

Doubt it. How can a lifetime warranty be served when the company is out of life?

BFG Tech was a brand I had no hesitation buying products from. I currently have an 8800GT and a 450W PSU that are BFG products and they are great pieces of hardware, so was my 9800GTX I had from them. Sad news, indeed.



FAIK bankruptcy should remove all liability on their part from the warranty.

Bankrupt or not, they still have their warranty policy posted on their website that makes no detail that they are not servicing RMA's.

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.

 

[CarneASADA]

well,
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...

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.

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:

This email has been sent to inform you that BFG RMA number xxxxxxxxx, originally
created on Jul 21st 2010, has been cancelled.

BFG Technologies, Inc. is winding down and liquidating its business. Unfortunately our
major supplier would not support our business. As a result we are cancelling your RMA
without being able to repair your product. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have already sent your product it, it will be returned to you.

BFG Technologies, Inc.
14048 Petronella Drive
Libertyville, Illinois 60048

847.281.3110

 

[Meizuman]

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/03/23/nvidia-forces-garbage-those-wanting-gtx480s/

Could be the same thing with vendors. If they wanted fermi, they should take a sh*tload of some low end chips with those.

 

[JATownes]

This might help:

The first rule is defined by the business or
manufacturer making the offer. If the manufacturer
disappears, so does the lifetime
warranty. Courts have universally agreed that
a bankruptcy, reorganization or insolvency
of the manufacturer ends any warranty obligations
to purchasers. Simply put, if there
is no manufacturer, there is no warranty.

Source

 

[mlee49]

I understand that point, but there is a manufacturer in this case. The manufacturer is sending out letters stating they are canceling RMA's.

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.

 

[JATownes]

I understand that point, but there is a manufacturer in this case. The manufacturer is sending out letters stating they are canceling RMA's.

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.

Agreed.

 

[[Ion]]

It's really a shame to see BFG go down. My first "real" GPU was a BFG Geforce 6800GT OC. That was an incredible card, and their warranty was top-notch. Never used any of their PSUs, but from what I've heard they were OK at best.

 

[burtram]

So I wonder if their PSU's (if they are stop making them) will go on sale soon for liquidation? I'd still grab one now while i could, if the price was right.

 

[kaosII]

I understand that point, but there is a manufacturer in this case. The manufacturer is sending out letters stating they are canceling RMA's.

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.

The web site is up just for tech issues and maybe drivers, they are done.
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.

 

[largon]

It was nV fumbling with G200 that got BFG killed.
And, I wonder what will jonnyguru do now... He used to work at BFG. Maybe he'll return to PSU testing?

 

[KainXS]

so basically what happened is that nvidia only had a limited number of GTX4XX cores to go around and gave them to the highest bidder more than likely

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.

http://www.bfgtech.com/Product.aspx?Category=Graphics Cards

They actually have some fermi cards.

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

 

[kaosII]

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.

But they did make a 480 470 we just never saw them, they are on the site.

 

[I see SPY!]

BFG should at least get its costumers some kind of deal directly with nVidia so that they could get their graphics cards repaired, even if the costumers themselves had to pay some sort of fee.

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.

 

[Kantastic]

But they did make a 480 470 we just never saw them, they are on the site.

Meaning they didn't have enough to ship out to retailers.

 

[jagd]

Zotac is a subsidiary of PC Partner ,Pcpartner owns sapphire and some other brands and produce big part of ati reference boards

How long until XFX and Zotac go the same way. It's nice being a premium player but this is the risk if things go wrong.

 

[AndreiD]

XFX won't go because they expanded their portfolio with ATI cards, and XFX got into PSUs already, which turned out to be quite lucrative for them.
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.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

If they're going out they should have a going out of business sale. Any power supplies and cards they had laying around waiting for an rma should just be sold off quick at massive discounts. At least something nice would come out of this.

 

[laszlo]

don't buy from small companies;lifetime warranty was a good marketing strategy but it contributed also to their fall;big companies like assus giga.etc don't offer lifetime warr. and they're not so exposed like the small ones;soon other small lifetime warr supplier will follow...

 

[gumpty]

And BFG cards were always sold at very competitive prices too - which means they were earning smaller margins, and therefore playing a higher risk game than the others were.

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).

 

[1freedude]

Maybe this is the first bit of fallout from the Rambus patent suit

 

[KainXS]

it might have something to do with this, the last update to this case was April 10, 2010 then in may they announced they were leaving the graphics bussiness.

not sure though

but they sued LG, XFX, EASTCOM, BFG, SAMSUNG, MITSUBISHI, EVGA, PNY, SONY, and DIAMONDcorp the same day for heatsinks.

 

[rangerone766]

good thing my BFG gtx260 was bought used. so i had no hope ever rma'ing it.

 

[jonnyGURU]

it might have something to do with this, the last update to this case was April 10, 2010 then in may they announced they were leaving the graphics bussiness.

http://img.techpowerup.org/100818/Untitled365.jpg

not sure though

but they sued LG, XFX, EASTCOM, BFG, SAMSUNG, MITSUBISHI, EVGA, PNY, SONY, and DIAMONDcorp the same day for heatsinks.

Unfortunately, lawsuits like that happen in the industry on a weekly basis. It's stupid, but it's true. People claiming patents on memory technology, fan design, connector types... it never ends.