Not all is lost, I won in court.
I know GN and the industry as a whole has been doom and gloom lately but I have some good news. I won my warranty dispute in court.
TLDR: I'm aussie in queensland. I had a 7800xt with vram/cache/io die issues and attempted warranty, It was denied citing damage from customer misuse. The damage was environmental corrosion on the finstack. After the retailer admitted it was environmental the judge concluded that if it's damaged by the environment it's unsuitable for the aussie market and ordered the retailer to pay the value of the card + fees.
Long version:
I got a sapphire 7800xt Nitro+ back in 2024 and was pretty happy for a while. After maybe 4 to 6 months I started getting ryzen MCEs. I tried the usual steps like stability tests, turning off PBO, memtest, etc. nothing came up.
I RMAed the CPU through AMD (Another story, They were champs) but still nothing, After looking through the MCE logs properly I realise there are 3 errors. MC22, MC5 and data fabric flood event. Garbage data was making it's way into the northbridge causing the CPU to zero out the fabric which in turn would cause which ever core that most recently access it to crash. Over the months I try to replace what I can afford as a form of AB testing. I live in a rural area so there are no shops I can test at. Side note, Apparently the kingston KC3000 has stability issues with ryzen, If you haven't updated the firmware, you should.
I eventually got around to the GPU after a while of denial, Swapped it for my old 2070s and no more MCEs.
I bought the card through Umart, An aussie retailer. I started the RMA process through Umart after attempted it through sapphire directly but apparently they don't support direct warranty in aus. This is where the fun begins.
After the refusal I request they hold onto it as I'm am disputing it along side a detailed reason as to why it was denied and how it wasn't what I thought. I get back 2 images of the heatsink and IO plate with minor corrosion stating damage from customer misuse. One thing to clarify for non aussies, 90% of us live on the coast and salt air is a real thing here. My older 2070s which is 5-ish years old is so corroded the screws no longer work. But it sill OCs to 2100 and sitting at a frosty 65c while missing a fan. Not once did they reference the actual issue I documented or show any evidence as to how and/or why it wasn't what I claimed. It was a classic 'Look there is corrosion, our hands are tied'.
So after ignoring my request, I receive an email stating they have sent it back and to the wrong address. I managed to get it redirected but that was a fun few days.
I continue to escalate the issue, Threatening legal action, Office of Fair Trade and the ACCC. I even threaten to contact the council of steves as this was right around the whole Umart memory warranty fiasco earlier this year. After continued deflection I follow through, Filed with the OFT and ACCC, Emails both GN and HBU and after a month of nothing filed for QCAT.
Another fun little side note and goes to show how mussed up their CS is, The final message I recieved before filing and after the threats was, "1f you would like, we can return the graphics card to you. Please confirm how you would like to proceed.".
After the Umart representative was over an hour late for the hearing, They admitted they never actually tested the GPU for the issues reported citing 'safety issues'. After which the judge concluded that if the device was 'damaged' after environmental exposure to the tropical australian climate, It's not fit for purpose and ordered Umart to pay me the value of the card plus fees.
So not all is lost, Yes I am out a GPU and with prices the way they are I'm gonna be out for a while even with cash in hand. But I still managed to legally tell a retailer to shove it.
