[Resolved]  Intel — Motherboard Repair/Replacement

Hi,

Would like to tell you about the horrific customer service experience I had to go through while unsuccessfully trying to get my motherboard replaced/repaired at the Intel Service Centre. After receiving the warranty replacement email I went to Redington India LTD. At 221, Ansal chambers Part 2, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi – 110065 which is the authorized warranty support centre for Intel in Delhi. Upon presenting a copy of the email and my motherboard, I was told that I need to submit my motherboard today and I will receive a replaced board within the next 15 days.

Since I'm an MBA student and need a working computer for my studies, I got in touch with the main engineer and requested if I can get the motherboard repaired immediately. He checked with the required authorities and suggested if I can wait for a day, he would process the request right now and I can come to collect the motherboard the next day. I couldn't understand why Intel would want to replace a complete motherboard when the problem is only with the audio jack but I agreed to his proposal. I wanted to get an assurance from Intel Customer Care that what the engineer's saying is right. So I called up Intel Customer Care.

That's where the trouble started as I was told by customer care that the motherboard that I would receive would be an old refurbished board. My motherboard is not even a year old and except for the left audio channel everything else works great, not wishing to get a repaired board as a replacement, I requested if the engineer can just repair the audio jack of my own board and give it to me, the customer care simply refused.

Not getting a satisfactory solution from Customer Care I decided to not get my motherboard repaired. I asked the engineer to give me my motherboard back, on which he told me that it has already been put into process and I would only receive a refurbished one from Intel now. I had to go through a struggle to get my unrepaired motherboard back from them.

It was sad to find out that after spending a premium amount to buy an Intel Original motherboard instead of a local one based on Intel chipset, I had to go through this and above that I didn't even get a solution to my problem. Not to forget the sorry state of Intel Customer care, the customer representative (Irfan) I was talking to, couldn't give me a proper explanation and just kept saying one line "as per the policy" over and over again. After doing some online search I came to know that my suspicions were right and the quality of motherboards sent as replacement is not up to the mark Here's an example. https://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/intel-c44108.html

An unhappy Intel Customer,

Hardeep Singh