Would You Buy a Graphics Card if You Knew The Fans Would Fail?

Lugoogalizer on 14/07/2018 - 18:07
Last edited 15/07/2018 - 08:47 by 1 other user

TLDR:

Quick poll, would you or would you not continue purchasing a high end graphics card if you knew the fans in the card would fail after 2 years and prevent you using it due to heat and noise? Even if the graphics card has a 3 year manufacturer warranty?

Details:

I am in exactly that boat with a Gigabyte GTX 970 I bought two years ago, used in my home PC. In understanding my ACCC rights, the main sticking point around refunds and repairs seems to be whether the issue is "Major" or "Minor".

My issue is waiting for a repair/replacement could take many weeks and I need a replacement asap so I can continue using the PC, so I've been forced to buy a replacement from my own money for the PC to continue working…

According to ACCC:

If you have a minor problem with a product or service, the business can choose to give you a free repair instead of a replacement or refund. When you have a major problem with a product, you have the right to ask for your choice of a replacement or refund.

A product or good has a major problem when:
* it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it
* it is significantly different from the sample or description
* it is substantially unfit for its common purpose and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time
* it doesn’t do what you asked for and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time; or
* it is unsafe.

Poll Options expired

• 5
  Continue purchase even though you know about the issue
• 34
  Stop purchase as you know about the issue

• 

  chinezejew on 14/07/2018 - 18:23

  It could b an issue. But I'd still buy one. Have you overclocked? Only a select few brands warrant overclocked GPUs.

  See what they replace you with.

  • 

    ugoogalizer on 15/07/2018 - 08:50

    No overclock or crypto mining, just too many Steam sales.

• 

  ronnknee on 14/07/2018 - 18:43

  +2

  What's the point of this? Who in the right mind would purchase something knowing that it would fail?

  • 

    Scrooge McDuck on 15/07/2018 - 00:29

    +3

    No one would. I knew exactly what this thread would be about from the title.

    Any fault in a product is a major failure unless it's trivial or there aren't alternatives (such as in the case of a discounted item).

    OP has the right to a refund under ACL, but is at odds with the typical practices of PC hardware retailers.

• 

  OverburdenedWarrior on 14/07/2018 - 18:47

  +5

  Without a crystal ball, how would you know at time of sale that the fans would fail two years down the line?

• 

  kingmw on 14/07/2018 - 18:56

  Hard to prove that this is a widespread or known issue. Sometimes you just get unlucky and if they are already repairing and fix it, then I don't think you have a claim for a full refund.

  Your survey is also biased as most people wouldn't buy a product if they knew a problem would occur. However most products will have a failure rate (<5%, no matter how expensive) so does that mean you will never buy another product again due to the risk of failure? This is what your warranty and ACL is for.

  • 

    ugoogalizer on 15/07/2018 - 08:53

    +1

    I don't believe the survey is biased? That's the way the ACCC phrases the Major vs Minor issue. So by your definition that would make the ACCC consumer rights as biased?
    I think the point is that there are actually some issues that people would still buy a graphics card if they knew about it. Maybe something aesthetic like one of 20 RGB LEDs on a card that was broken, or a misprint on the PCB's label? The question is, which does a failing fan after two years count as?

    • 

      kingmw on 15/07/2018 - 12:14

      +2

      Of course ACCC is there to protect consumer rights.

      This line "* it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it" is basically when a company tries to sell a dodgy product knowing full well that it will fail or is non compliant (i.e. cover up, think VW dieselgate, DSG problems, Holden warranties).

      Gigabyte didn't sell you a graphics card knowing that your fan would fail. You were just unlucky and failures do occur but that's reality and why warranties existed. Conversely, if you bought another brand, that does not ensure that your fan would not fail. So therefore by your logic you shouldn't buy anything just because of the small risk of failure.

    • 

      kingmw on 15/07/2018 - 12:21

      To make ur survey unbiased, the options should be

      Would you buy the Gigabyte GTX 970 if there was a <5% risk of fan failure in 2 years?
      1) Yes
      2) No

      I personally would take that risk, especially if it was a good deal. Also I look at the positives and think that there is a 95+% chance my graphics card would be fine instead of the other way around.

• 

  Godric on 14/07/2018 - 19:02

  +1

  if it was substantially discounted then yeah not a hard fix

• 

  [Deactivated] on 14/07/2018 - 19:55

  I avoided the 970 as I had extreme issues with the 960 and ended up springing for a titan 5 year ago. It was worth it. I would apply my experience of the extra money giving me 5 years fair use and it still being very serviceable as a spare to this case and buy a gpu with a better reputation. (Basically I found a game I couldn't play on ultra settings so upgraded. It was Dead Rising 4)

• 

  sam buster on 14/07/2018 - 20:03

  +4

  I don't think the AAC regulation about "knowing about a problem" applies to a component failing, unless it was a known issue before it was sold, or turned out to be a common issue. I think it's to address someone selling partially-faulty goods without fully disclosing the issue to the buyer, ie an existing, hidden fault at the time of sale.

  Imho, you have a 'minor issue' that, as I interpret those regulations, you are entitled to have fixed in a reasonable period of time.
  Your real issue is what is a reasonable period of time.

• 

  Kurohayabusa on 14/07/2018 - 20:14

  +1

  If it was a widely known fact that the fans would fail in just two years I probably wouldn't buy it even if it would be covered by a three year warranty, just to avoid the hassle. If, however, the product was just recently released (and thus no one has hit the other end of the bathtub failure curve), the failure rate would be unknown and thus I would just assume the build quality is the same as previous models, so I'd probably buy it knowing that if it did suffer an unexpectedly early demise it would either be covered by the manufacturer's warranty or ACL.

• 

  RandomFox on 14/07/2018 - 23:27

  If it were a great deal i'd still buy it as a DIY person.

  I don't see how this would "prevent you using it due to heat and noise" when you can get an aftermarket or DIY fans/cooler.

• 

  Diji1 on 15/07/2018 - 01:00

  Have you looked at googling your card or similar Giga cards to see if there's an easy way to fix it yourself? Fans are only 10-20 bucks.

  Anyhow, I don't think Consumer Affairs or courts would deem what you trying to do "reasonable".

  • 

    ugoogalizer on 15/07/2018 - 08:54

    Yeah I believe I can, but I assume the moment I do that I void my remaining 1 year warranty should something even more serious break.

• 

  HighAndDry on 16/07/2018 - 10:44

  • it has a problem that would have stopped someone from buying it if they’d known about it

  I'm not sure this applies. I would still insist on a refund, but not on that basis - because there's no proof showing the fans stopped working because of a defect that existed at the time of sale.

• 

  wheretobuychocettes on 16/07/2018 - 16:27

  The wording of ACCC is pretty loosely worded and can often be twisted to either party's favour.

  I've heard retailers argue that a major fault is considered as a large batch related issue that may be in the realm of a product recall type of saturation. A minor fault is a more localised issue, such as your failing fan(s). Sure, the fault is major to your graphics card as it renders it near useless, but it's minor in the grand scheme of things. Not sure if this is true, just providing a different take on the wording we have available from ACCC.

  No (good) retailer sells any product expecting or hoping that it will become faulty at any point during a warranty period (and longer if they're really nice), because dealing with warranty is time consuming and doesn't make the business any money. I don't believe there was a fault with any top-tier graphics card brands in the last number of years that you'd be able to say "yup, X feature will fail on this for sure after 2 years of decent use" - that sort of thing just wouldn't fly. What is far more likely is that you are experiencing an unfortunate product fault that has happened after some time. The person who purchased the unit with one serial number lower and higher than you may well have not experienced any issues.

  The exact reason that warranty exists is to provide some peace of mind for consumers that IF the thing they buy was to die within the warranty period from no wrong-doing of their own, they would be able to get: a replacement, a refund. Otherwise, almost nobody would take the gamble of buying a $700+ graphics card.

  Unfortunately warranty processing also takes time, and the vast majority of this time, the graphics card is spent in the hands of the supplier and manufacturer's warranty processing, not the retailer you bought it from. The retailer has to wait on the decision of the supplier and manufacturer, which means waiting the few weeks it can take. A good retailer can put pressure on the supplier/manufacturer if they have an influence for the outcome of their/their customer's preference, be it credit (for a customer refund) or replacement. Unfortunately these wishes are not always fulfilled, and if the retailer was to advance refund you for example, and then are given a replacement GTX 970 from the outcome of warranty processing, they are now down the full retail value of the graphics card they sold you 2 years ago, and stuck with a non-retail packaged GTX 970, which has certainly come down in value a few hundred dollars since then.

  The few weeks wait may be unacceptable or unreasonable to you, but it's pretty much an industry standard for all categories and brands in computer hardware, which may well make it reasonable in the eyes of ACCC.

  Also another thing I have heard is that the ACCC states: "you have the right to ask for your choice of a replacement or refund" - you have the right to ask for $1,000,000 too, doesn't mean you're going to get it. Thought that was a funny way of looking at the we're provided with. =]

  It's definitely unfortunate your graphics card died on you, but hang in there. One of our customers had a fault with a 9xx series card and we were offered a 10xx as replacement by the supplier/manufacturer, the customer was over the moon as it offered a significant performance increase.

  TL;DR: don't be that annoying customer to quote ACCC and threaten legal action, no decent retailer is trying to avoid the law and rip you off, things just take time via the official channels we have available to us. The outcome is going to give you either an equal or BETTER replacement, or refund. We don't want your item to be faulty EVEN MORE than you don't want it. We get no satisfaction from it all. Be nice!

• 

  Strahany on 16/07/2018 - 19:23

  +1

  Fans are a relatively simple fix, and parts are easy to come by due to the Crypto miners burning out the fans on their GPU's since they're often at >60% speed 24/7. Given that the durability of a fan varies depending on usage, it may even be deemed to be a 'consumable' just like the battery in rechargeable devices, and thus may be treated differently under warranty.

  But, even if the fan is not considered a 'consumable', I still wouldn't understand your contention. You have a 2 year old product which, based on your urgency to procure a replacement, has seen quite a bit of usage in the past 24 months. If the fan failed within the first 30 days or so, and you were getting the run around then I would completely understand, but 2 years of use is also 2 years of potential abuse, and a manufacturer/retailer has every right to examine a product before issuing any form of replacement/repair.

  This does not even come close to the category of failure that would denote a 'major problem'. Your insistence on hinging your entire argument on the basis of "I wouldn't have bought this if I had known that a thin part spinning at thousands of RPM to blow heat away from a 60+ degree chunk of metal could possibly fail after 2 years of decent-to-heavy use" is proof enough that you are desperately clutching at straws because you were impatient and had to make a new purchase.