ASRock Support for products purchased overseas

[Tanyac]

I know I should have read the fine print when I bought the board.. But I thought I'd share my experience with people.

First let's get one thing in perspective. Regardless of what the USD to AUD rate is sitting at, Australians are heavily exploited with technology. Australian law states that "A retailer can charge whatever they want". Some prices are just ridiculous, making buying from the US, even with massive shipping charges seem like a worthwhile choice...

It's not.

I purchased an ASRock X99 Fatal1ty Professional Gaming I7 motherboard. Sitting in it was an I7-6900K that I purchased (after the initial price gouging), for a mere $1.536 AUD. That's a lot of money for a CPU. And it was going to be my last for a very long time.

The first board developed a memory slot problem in DDR4-D1 and would not detect any memory plugged into it. RMA'd it. The reseller tried to scam me and sent me a faulty second hard board of the same model as a replacement. After about 10 weeks I finally got a refund. But by this time the board was no longer available in Australia. About the only X99 board left was the MSI X99A Tomahawk. I had to buy one of those as a temporary replacement whilst I waited on the RMA.

Eventually I got my money back. As I couldn't get the board in Australia, I had to go to NewEgg for a replacement. See at the time the board was about the only one with dual LAN, dual M.2, and other features I needed.

What I didn't know was that NewEgg's stock was "refurbished" (but not stated on the product page). That is why the price was attractive. So, after 4 months, that replacement board died too.

Went to NewEgg to RMA the board - Ineligible! No stock, will not accept warranty claims as the board is no longer available.

Went to ASRock, they told me "We do not warrant products purchased outside your country of origin. Sorry about that. Hope you don't mind.. [just throwing $400 out with the rubbish]"

Board not working. No RMA... Lost money.

Needless to say - my replacement board is not an ASRock.

In all, I've had 4 ASRock boards die in around 18 months. All within their warranty period. Typical turn around for support requests is 2 weeks, if at all, and typical RMA process from here has been averaging 8 - 10 weeks.

Add to that the overpricing here in Australia for pretty much all computer products and ASRock seems like a bad choice.

I have 8 other ASRock boards. My new years resolution for 2018... Sell off all ASRock boards

What have your experiences with ASRock been like? I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people in Australia about ASRock support.

 

[toms_hard_where]

I bought an ASRock board last year (Uk though), and had a question for their customer support. I asked it four separate times over the course of two months - not one reply, except for the automated "we got your message" email.

Thankfully, if anything goes wrong with the board we're well-protected over here by consumer rights. I got it off Amazon, and they've been fantastic with replacing anything under warranty. I wouldn't want to have to deal with ASRock directly after their failure to reply to a simple question four times.

 

[Tanyac]

Thankfully, if anything goes wrong with the board we're well-protected over here by consumer rights. I got it off Amazon, and they've been fantastic with replacing anything under warranty. I wouldn't want to have to deal with ASRock directly after their failure to reply to a simple question four times.

Did you buy it off Amazon UK or Amazon US?

What would happen if you bought if from Amazon US, and within the warranty period it fails but amazon can't source a replacement for you?

That's the situation I had. Consumer affairs agreed I was entitled to a remedy, but it couldn't be enforced unless the product was purchased from within Australia.

 

[toms_hard_where]

Thankfully, if anything goes wrong with the board we're well-protected over here by consumer rights. I got it off Amazon, and they've been fantastic with replacing anything under warranty. I wouldn't want to have to deal with ASRock directly after their failure to reply to a simple question four times.

Did you buy it off Amazon UK or Amazon US?

What would happen if you bought if from Amazon US, and within the warranty period it fails but amazon can't source a replacement for you?

That's the situation I had. Consumer affairs agreed I was entitled to a remedy, but it couldn't be enforced unless the product was purchased from within Australia.

Amazon UK. I had a situation with a psu that had a five year warranty. It failed after four, and by that time they no longer stocked it, so they gave me a refund straight away. I suspect even if I'd got it from a foreign Amazon site they'd have refunded me - their returns policy puts everyone else to shame (as long as the seller is Amazon, or it's fulfilled by Amazon...I wouldn't fancy my chances with a 3rd party seller on there).

 

[Tanyac]

Amazon AU pretty much only sold Kindle (until recently). They still don't sell computer stuff. So I had to go to NewEgg. No Australian re seller had one in stock, and couldn't get one. It was the first and last time I'll purchase overseas. Amazon US typically won't sell to Australia.

I'm pretty sure the item I bought said it was sold by NewEgg, not some one else.

Our consumer affairs and ACCC are all hot air. No backbone at all.

Good that you had a positive out come for your PSU.

 

[toms_hard_where]

I'm guessing Aus isn't high on Amazon's priorities - the logistics of distribution there (both importing and domestically) must be a nightmare compared to over here.