PRODUCT WARNING: Sapphire Radeon 9600

I hate to go off topic however this one really warrants it.

A couple of weeks back I purchased a new Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro. These cards are touted to be way up the top of the food chain in graphics cards (well of that price bracket).

After installing the card in my 100% Intel box and running it up for a few hours the graphics resolution dropped to 1024 X 768 and I could not change it back up to what it was running. I spoke to the company I purchased it from (who I have a dealer account with) and they told me to update the drives as there was a problem with earlier drivers. I did so and the problem was resolved for about half an hour.

I then called them back and told them that the issue was continuing and that I would be bringing it back. I had another card on the shelf that I replaced the unit with (another brand) and this has been stable for some time.

When I went in to see the supplier and return the card they asked what the problem is, they then blamed the issue on my monitor not being able to handle the higher resolution. Well my monitor is not exactly a cheap one. 21" LCD and has all the bells and whistles. not to mention that on other cards it runs well on the higher resolutions. (1600 X 1200).

Now the Asian owner of the company informed me that if I wanted to return the item I would incur a 15% restocking fee. I also was left waiting for about 20 minutes while their techs tested the card. both of these issues I were none to happy about.

The other interesting thing was that their techs only tested the card at 1024 X 768 then said that the card was not faulty. when I told them to test it at the higher resolution they said that they could not as they did not have a monitor that would do that range. however they still told me that the card was not faulty.

I suggested that they should not be asking for a 15% restocking fee and after he refused to waiver the fee I took the faulty card back and informed him that I would instead opt to take them to court as the issue in principal really got under my skin.

I will not name the company as yet, however they are apparently the agents for Coolmaster, Thermaltake, Sapphire and a few other brands.
The integrity of the company sure has me a little more concerned and the quality of the Sapphire product has certainly leaves me thinking.

I will keep you appraised as to what action I decide to take and if/when I can release the name of the company, in the mean time my suggestion would be to not purchase any Sapphire product

Regards
Andrew Hooper
http://www.borg.co.nz

Hi Andrew,

I had some shocking experiences with shops lately. I went down a similar path and bought a 9800XT. The first retailer sent it to me and before openning it i could see that it was a returned card as the seals had been openned and the internal box was damaged. After an email or two i was informed that the card was returned but checked out by the supplier and worked fine. So funnily enough when i tried to install the card it didnt even boot the computer. I sent it back asking for my money back. After the usualy crap about we will test it etc and send you a new one i mentioned that under the fair trading act i was due my money back without any restocking fees or store credit bullshit. I got my wish!

The second shop i ordered online with which showed the item in stock, they emailed me when i bought it and said there was a 3 weeks wait for it but they had a returned one that was available - returned by fully working they said.....ummmm how does refund my money sound!!

Finally i turned to tardme and bought a brand new one still in shrink wrap for less than the retailers..... took a while but i finally got 9800XT goodness.

Fruck there are some dodgy shops out there.


Wookie