It appears that motherboards.com sold me at least 1 bad peltier
cooler/hs/fan. That, I could have dealt with via Alpha's. Then there is my little voltage problem. My -5 voltage reads -7.70 (mbm4) and lmmon (FreeBSD) reads bad -5 and -12 voltages. The details aren't so important. I called Abit (the mfg) and they suggested I RMA the motherboard, so I called motherboards.com who advanced shipped me a "new" one quickly enough, although I had to pay shipping due to the advanced shipping. I had no problem with that.
The problem arose when I opened my "new" BP6 to find, yep,, you
guessed it: Version 1.1 rev 0.41 with a unisem regulator. I didn't even plug it in. I called motherboards.com back and told them what happened and I was told that unless Abit issues a recall they'll sell them all day long. Evidently, Abit doesn't care or motherboards.com is lying. I suggested that with all the problems the BP6 has been having, that surely they should've known or heard from other suppport calls. They said, nope. Fustrated I asked how to go about returning both mobo's and the CPU's for a full refund. When I was told there would be a 15% restocking fee I came unglued. They want to charge me 15% to return DEFECTIVE merchandise?!?
I asked to speak with the support agent's (Mark, nice enough guy (I thought)...doing his job) supervisor, and I was told he was on the phone and that he'd get back to me. Sure enough 5-10 minutes later Mark called back. He tells me his supervisor is sticking to the 15% restocking policy so I asked to speak with the supervisors supervisor. Then I was told that Marks's supervisor is the OWNER. I demanded to speak with the owner about why they want to charge 15% to return DEFECTIVE equipment and I told he was on the phone again. This time I told him I'd hold. I held for 5-10 minutes when Mark tells me the owner (Greg) is still on the phone and he'll call me back. I insisted on holding and THEY HUNG UP ON ME.
I called back to complain about that, as well, when the receptionist (or another support rep) told me Mark and Greg were both busy and she'd take my name and # and he'd get back to me. She then informed me that I couldn't hold and that she'd have to hang up on me too, so I said I'd just keep calling back. Again, I insisted on holding, looking for a resolution to my problem and this time SHE hung up on me. I called back and they immediately hung up on me...not even a "hello" or "motherboards.com", nothing. After calling and being
hung up on 20 times. They answered, said "Get A LIFE" and then hung up. I could have been another customer or Abit or anyone. A few more calls and they said "Send a note to congress". A few more calls and it's was "You are annoying and harrasing." Later is was "your momma" and "fuckwad." This went on for over an hour. I was told I'd "never" speak to Greg.
So for now I have 2 BP6's (both DEFECTIVE), 2 Celeron 500's, 1 RMA#, 1 BIG CC bill and a headache. I wouldn't recommend doing buisness with a company bent on ripping the public off by charging a 15% restocking fee on DEFECTIVE merchandise, then reselling that same DEFECTIVE part (why else would it be restocked?) to the public and poor customer service. I've had to change my credit card # in order to insure they wouldnt rip me off that way, as well. A company can make a nice, tidy, profit reselling DEFECTIVE merchandise over and over, all the while charging 15% to "restock" it so they can rip off the next guy.
Today (about 12:05 PM PST) I, finally, got Greg on the phone. He
immediately threatened to sue me if I didn't pay his phone bill from trying to get resolution on my problem. Then he added that, one of his employee's had "chest pains" from all the calls I had to make in an attempt to exact my refund. Further, he added, (just before he hung on me personally) if I call again, he'd send his employee home and they'd sue me for his "lost wages" as well. This kind of intimidation is (or should be) ILLEGAL. After he hung up on me I called back, again, because I still need resolution on my DEFECTIVE merchandise and without even checking to see if it was me, or whoever, he said "ok, I'm sending my employee home." I am now calling the Sulphur, La, Police dept.
Now I've spoken with Greg Ricks, Mark and Jessica.