Poor RMA service rescued by Syabas

[eddy123]

Oct-24. Had my A-110 a bit less than two years when it failed after even a successfull upgrade. Contacting the Popcorn hour support website an RMA was opened and the unit was send back for repair/replacement. Shipping cost about USD50 plus repair cost USD50.

Nov-19. I received a replacement motherboard but without battery and this one had an extra connector for an on/off switch which my case didnt carry. OK the issue was easily solved with a jumper. However the optical output didnt work only the analog outputs. The support group inmediately recognised the issue and opened a new RMA for me to send back. Well that's another USD50 to ship but was promised for a refund.

Dec-07. Bring unit to freight forwarder but due to impossible parking I received a USD50 dollar parking ticket. OK my fault! Motherboard arrived at New York customs but the shipment doesnt move.

Dec-17. Shipment still stuck and it can only be released when paying USD50 customs duties which the Popcorn hour customer service doesnt wants to refund. They believe its my fault.

A long discussion starts with fingerpinting each other. I still believe that PCH customer service should meet me as they send me back a faulty replacement. One of the reason might be that customs couldnt verify the replacement serial number with the one mentioned on the invoice.

Some nice statements by PCH support group:

1)You may print out this support ticket as a proof the item you shipped it is a RMA item. Please understand it is user responsibility to ensure the parcel arrived at Fremont RMA Center. Before shipping did you mention it is for RMA purposes?

2)We didn't recommend Aramex or any courier service to you.

3)Finance can't provide refund for duties payment because we didn't advise consignee to select Aramex or any courier service. Let me know only the shipping cost.

4)I can reimburse your shipping cost because we shipped a faulty main board to you in the first place. I can't reimburse your custom fees.

Dec-28. With a lot of writing up and down and fingerpointing to my mistake they only refund me the initial shipping cost of 49 USD. Via Paypal actually 46.79USD.

The related cost for this repair.
Repair: 50USD
Shipping 1: 50USD
Shipping 2: 50USD
Parking fine: 50USD
Fuel driving to freight forwarder: 10USD
Customs duties: 50USD (not paid)
Refund; 46.75 USD

Paid: 113.25USD!

What do I have ZEROOOOO, well an empty PCH-110 case.

So whatever happens to the PCH A-110 motherboard at customs, it will be trashed, I now have nothing and I really regret I ever bought this unit even recommending many others to buy it. Without a reasonable customer service people from outside the US should not consider to buy it. Im not saying this product is bad it can do a lot but there are very good alternatives as well which I found on the local market and can do almost the same for a lot less cost.

No santa celebration for me this year!


Cheers to all!

[chris57]

So they paid the shipping costs for their error, are you seriously expecting them to pay your costs for petrol and parking

[eddy123]

(12-30-2010 02:21 PM)chris57 Wrote:  So they paid the shipping costs for their error, are you seriously expecting them to pay your costs for petrol and parking

Well than you didn't read what I wrote.

They send me a faulty replacement which I have send back. They should have refund me the shipping cost plus the customs duties as it was their stupidity. Customs do check serial numbers and they didnt matched.

[chris57]

I'm 45 so can read, especially when its in my mother tongue.

Why should PCH pay your customs? If the board required a replacement then it is no longer a repair, nor was it a warranty repair. That has not only cost implications but also customs cost implications as only warranty repairs/replacements are exempt from customs in most countries.
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPorta...e=document

Anyway not going to argue with you as you have very obviously a different set of values than I do to even mention petrol/parking fines.

[zombiehunter]

you forgot add in the electricity costs to send emails and post here

[Pain]

Chris, you really should stop and think before typing in these situations. It's very obvious that the OP feels badly treated, and for good reasons in my opinion.

I also get the idea you didn't actually understand what is the problem here, so I will dumb it down for you:

1. PCH sends faulty replacement mobo to OP in UAE.
2. OP sends back faulty replacement mobo to US, paying $50 out of his own pocket.
3. US Customs seize mobo when it arrives in the US, and will not release it to PCH unless someone pays customs duties of $50.
4. PCH demands that OP should pay this, even though it's their fault for sending a faulty mobo in the first place.
5. OP has no mobo, because PCH is holding his replacement ransom until he pays up.
6. OP doesn't demand that PCH should pay for his petrol or anything else. He only demands that PCH should pay the customs fee, because it's really their fault.


I don't know what values you have, but my values say that when PCH screwed up by sending a faulty mobo they should eat any extra costs incurred.

(12-30-2010 07:07 PM)chris57 Wrote:  I'm 45 so can read, especially when its in my mother tongue.

Why should PCH pay your customs? If the board required a replacement then it is no longer a repair, nor was it a warranty repair. That has not only cost implications but also customs cost implications as only warranty repairs/replacements are exempt from customs in most countries.
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPorta...e=document

Anyway not going to argue with you as you have very obviously a different set of values than I do to even mention petrol/parking fines.

[halfelite]

I agree the second customs fee should be footed by PCH but im a little confused does the OP have an A100 or A110 he said he case does not have a power switch which the A100 did not. But the A110 did.

[awdkoers]

The early a110's don't have a power switch either. I own one.

[halfelite]

(12-30-2010 11:06 PM)awdkoers Wrote:  The early a110 don't have a power switch either. I own one.

Thats right the switch was added later on. Thanks for the clarifying

[eddy123]

(12-30-2010 10:54 PM)Pain Wrote:  Chris, you really should stop and think before typing in these situations. It's very obvious that the OP feels badly treated, and for good reasons in my opinion.

5. OP has no mobo, because PCH is holding his replacement ransom until he pays up.

Thx Pain, you got the point except that customs is holding the motherboard till duties are paid.

I just dont want to spend the extra 50USD on top of all the cost already paid. The "repair" already cost me more than I believe the unit is worth. Beside this, PCH made a big mistake by not sending a proper working replacement the first time.

Chris, you think to much black and white. I asked for a solution. I paid the repair and shipping together 100USD. I believe it was worth to do so. The repair center choose to send me a replacement and didnt repair my unit. I know that repairing sometimes cost more than just replacing.

Customs should accept repair whithout charging a fee as long as its the same unit. I have dealt with repairs on my job and know that you can face problems when the serial numbers dont fit anymore. The freight forwarder will only ship together with a copy of the invoice. Maybe they compared the serial numbers which gave me a mismatch on the second shipment as this was the replacement.

Nevertheless with all what was going wrong, I was hoping that PCH would have send me a new A-110 replacement motherboard. I suggested the Fremont RMA center to give up on the unit stuck at customs and avoid paying the additional 50USD duties. Btw what is their cost of a single motherboard, definetly not more than 50USD., maybe 10USD??? They didnt agree therefore I'm upset.

They were very reckless to send me a unit which was not tested before it left. I have seen many threads about faulty optical output ports after upgrading.

...and you know what.....its absurb that my unit failed after a successful upgrade. How many had unsuccesful upgrades, I know many! This is really a quality issue and PCH should have taken responsibility here.

[eddy123]

Is there any way to talk directly with the repair center bypassing the customer service help desk. (web)

Eddy

[Steve.Young]

Hmm, send me an email with your issue and i'll get you in contact with an RMA support technician.

Thanks,

[eddy123]

(12-31-2010 10:26 PM)Steve.Young Wrote:  Hmm, send me an email with your issue and i'll get you in contact with an RMA support technician.

Thanks,

Thanks for taking action here and for understanding the issue. Looking forward for a solution. Was contacted via the private messages box.

I start to regain confidence in PCH again....

Eddy

[eddy123]

(01-01-2011 08:30 AM)eddy123 Wrote:  Thanks for taking action here and for understanding the issue. Looking forward for a solution. Was contacted via the private messages box.

I start to regain confidence in PCH again....

Eddy

My problem is solved thanks to Edwardchai of Syabas. A new motherboard was send to me from China. I have regained faith again in this product.

[dc11ab]

You might want to consider changing the title of the thread?