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7 October 2006 Tags  

Update #2: Well, I called up CAV, and then later CPL.

Although the CAV “Officer” (I don’t know what they are called?) couldn’t give me 100% certainty, after explaining the situation, she thought I would be entitled to a full refund.

I call CPL, and I was told that it was entirely up to MSI to refund/replace/whatever the card, not them. (The claim was it was a manufactures warranty. While yes, MSI do provide a warrenty, the contract I have is with the retailer in this case. Just because MSI offer a warranty, it does not overwrite the statutory rights I have)
Going on the advice of the CAV officer, I’ll write them a letter today/tomorrow, and request they refund my money within 7 days, else I’ll hand the matter over to CAV, and VTAC if I have to.

Update #1: Well, I called up, they couldn’t give me MSI’s number, and they said nothing could be done other than sending it to MSI.I then went into the store (today – 8/10). And again, I was rejected anything other than sending it to MSI.
I started telling the lady about consumer law and how I actually had more rights than she said, to which the response was ‘I know about consumer law‘.
The best bit was what followed ‘Within 7 days we can do a refund, after that, we cannot‘, which, if you’ve read any consumer law document on refunds, specifically uses ‘7 day refund only‘ as an example of a breach of the Trade Practices Act.

I pointed out this, and various other things, she scurried away to her manager, who said they couldn’t do anything until the ‘Warrenty Manager’ was around – and she doesnt’ work weekends.
So, I’ll be calling back tomorrow. If I don’t get a resolution from them tomorrow, I’ll immediatly call up CAV and ask them to help me out.

Earlier in the year I bought me a shiny new computer.
I was super excited about it.AMD Althon X2 3800+, 1gb (2×512) PC3200 OCZ Value Ram Kit (which is now a 2gb – 2×1gb – Team Xtreeme Kit), MSI 7800GT, Gigabyte K8NF-9.

It was a huge step up from my 512mb (2×256!) PC2100, Althon XP 2600+, 256mb 9600Pro.

My old system was considered a ‘mainstream‘ system – every part was a mainstream/budget part, and not an enthusiast/’hardcore‘ gamer part, while my new system..my new system, well, ever component in it was a gamer/enthusiast bit (although not ‘top of the line‘).
I saw performance that to this day, I still fully appreciate.

There isn’t a game out that I can’t run…and run well at that (okay, excluding Oblivion).Over time I’ve upgraded various other parts of my computer – I replaced my 17″ CRT for a 20″ Widescreen Dell LCD – I replaced my $20 2.1 speakers with Logitech’s Z-5400 Digital 5.1 speakers, a new burner (old one just stopped burning, and I’ve had reports that its now starting to stop reading!), and thats about it.

For the most part, everything has been fantastic – except my video card.

so…pretty…

MSI seem to have shocking quality control issues.

My graphics card originally had a weird problem, that once or twice a month, it’d decide to give a weird graphical glitch, and shut down my computer.

No big deal, I thought, it only happens once in a blue moon – or twice in a purple moon. Thats where I was wrong.
The problem persisted, and slowly got worse - from once a month, to once a week, to once a day.I returned the card to the store (CPL), and it was sent to MSI to ‘repair‘.

In the end, it was replaced.

I was happy again, the XFX 7600GT (which is a fantastic card for the money) could finally be put into my girlfriends computer, and I’d have my 7800GT (sorry, 7600GT’s don’t cut it in 1680×1050) back and functional. I was right, for a week. After which time, I started to develop artifacts, and a similar locking up to the first card.
The artifacts weren’t the same, oh no, they were the ‘common‘ artifacts.

Believe it or not, this is a screenshot from my computer, after 15mins usage

The card is faulty.

Right now? I can boot into Windows for about half an hour, before a) the screen is unreadable from artifacts, or b) the computer locks up.

Games? You’re kidding me, thats an instant lock up.

So where does this leave me?

I’ve posted on Whirlpool about the problem, and I’ve recieved some helpful advice.

I’m going to call up CPL, and (politely) ask for a full refund, which I expect they’ll refuse, so I’ll ask (again, politely) for a partial refund so I can buy an ‘equivalent’ video card (which will probably also be refused), so I’ll ask for MSI’s number.
If I get nowhere from there, I’ll call CPL back up, and start mentioning their obligations to the consumer under the trade practices acts (both Federal and State Consumer Affairs documentation leans to being on my side).
I’ll possibly call up Consumer Affairs Victoria before calling CPL the second time.


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