Just how good is a "Lifetime Warranty"? In the case of VisionTek, not worth the paper it's printed on. I have an Xtasy6564 GeForce3 ti200 that's less than a year old. Did my research and it got consistantly high ratings, so I bought one.
The cooling fan burnt out and smoked the board in 9 months. Oh well, it has a "Lifetime Warranty", no big deal. I call VisionTek tell them the problem and I'm told they no longer manufacture the nVidia chipset boards, but they will "Upgrade" me. I get the Upgrade form and they are generously offering me up to $35 credit on a board of similar performance. I just have to pay the $60 price difference...EXCUSE ME?
Seems they are under new ownership and are not honoring any warranties. What good is a Lifetime Warranty if it does not last a year. Well they say in their press release they are honoring ALL warranties by the previous owners:
They say:
"Hartford is honoring all XTASY retail product warranties to consumers and is working with the trustee-assignee to make sure all outstanding retail consumer rebates are satisfied. They are also providing toll-free technical support on all XTASY retail products purchased from VisionTek’s retailers. "We want consumers to feel good about the VisionTek products they own and we want them to know that there is a major company standing behind them," commented Suzanne Mersch, senior vice president, Hartford Computer Group. "We feel this commitment adds tremendous value for the legions of current XTASY retail product owners and to future VisionTek customers as well."
In reality (from a VisionTek Customer Service e-mail) :
"(HCGI) then purchased the rights to the name VisionTek, but not their debt nor the company itself. HCGI decided to honor the lifetime warranty, under no obligation by law, for a certain undisclosed period of time. That time however has expired and the option that HCGI is providing consumers with the old GeForce-based cards is to upgrade to our Radeon-based cards."
I'm not very picky, but I do prefer a kiss when I get screwed.
