Ram RMA: one month in, asked for a €1,163 deposit on a €248 kit, then offered two downgrades as “replacements”
Bought a Corsair Vengeance RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 kit (CMH64GX5M2B6400C32) from a Portuguese retailer for €247.90. One stick failed. Before opening a ticket I did the full troubleshooting routine: BIOS reset and reflash, JEDEC speeds, each stick in every slot, different CPU and PSU, minimal setup outside the case. The problem follows the module.
Here’s how the ticket has gone so far (opened 9 September):
- Advanced RMA: the deposit was ~€1,163 (charged in USD) for a kit I paid under €250 for. RAM prices have gone up a lot, so I get why the deposit is high, but that’s effectively impossible for a lot of people. I offered a deposit equal to what I paid. Refused.
- Single-stick RMA: I asked to send just the faulty stick so I could keep working. Fine, but the “closest” replacement offered was a 1x32GB 5200 CL40 module.
- Escalated: a Tier 3 supervisor offered a full 5600 CL36 kit instead. Better, but still a downgrade.
Corsair’s own warranty says a product is replaced by the same product if available, and only substituted with something similar if it’s unavailable. My kit isn’t discontinued, and Corsair was ready to ship the identical kit on day one through Advanced RMA. In the EU, the legal guarantee also requires the replacement to bring the product into conformity with what you bought.
I’ve said I’d happily take the identical kit or the 6600 CL32 version. The supervisor is “seeing what he can find”, but it’s now been a month.
Has anyone else had Corsair offer downgrades on DDR5 RMAs lately? Did you get a like-for-like replacement in the end, or did you have to go through the retailer?
PS. I understand the current situation with AI, but this is quite literally ilegal to to/offer to a client
