nForce2 6-way Motherboard Roundup - December 2002
by Evan Lieb on December 4, 2002 6:53 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Epox 8RDA+: Tech Support and RMA
The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. If we do eventually receive a response after the review is published, we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.
The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.
Epox's technical support process, form, etc. hasn't changed since the last time we took a look at an Epox motherboard.
Epox's technical support form is quite long, but well rounded nonetheless. Epox asks you to fill out, among other things, your personal info, email address, motherboard model, serial number, vendor from whom you purchased the Epox product from and your system specifications (BIOS version, video card, CPU, etc.). You then have to briefly write out exactly what your issue(s) are and you're done. All in all we like this type of technical support procedure, it's well organized.
Epox's technical support response time was just as good this time around, in fact it was a bit better. We were able to get a reply from Epox tech support within 34 hours instead of 35 hours like the last time around. Epox was also able to answer our "problem" sufficiently enough. Epox's tech support response pattern so far has been very impressive, let's hope they're able to keep it up, as they need to differentiate themselves from top tier motherboard makers as much as they can.
Epox very clearly lists their RMA policy and procedure on their web site. For some odd reason, some of the larger motherboard makers do not feel that it is necessary to clearly and explicitly list exactly what their RMA procedures entail on their web site. Thankfully Epox doesn't follow suit.
For your reference, here is Epox's RMA policy in its entirety:
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This is a fairly straight forward RMA procedure. Compared to
online hardware vendors like Newegg, this RMA process really isn't too different.
All in all, Epox's technical support and RMA policy still seem to be top-notch since the last time we took a look at it, and it's certainly better than even several top-tier motherboard makers.
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c627627 - Monday, July 21, 2003 - link
MSI contradicts your reviewhttp://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1759&am...
You say:
"12/04/02 UPDATE: MSI sends word that the K7N2-L indeed does not have a PCI bus lock at 33MHz."
To this day, that was used as ultimate proof that the original MSI nForce2 mobo does not have a PCI lock.
Today MSI Senior Moderators said:
"they are wrong,and who ever told them it did not from msi"
(!)
Source:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/e_service/forum/thre...
Won't you please settle this for us.