I bought some RAM from umart last week, which when installed in my computer makes it stop working completely. Now I don't know if there is a problem with the RAM or if it is simply incompatible with my mobo, but basically it's useless to me so I want to give it back or exchange it for a brand that works etc...
So I filled in their return thing to get an RA number, and eventually when I got it there was a threatening message saying that if they test the RAM and it isn't faulty they'll charge me $35. What the f***? That is just there to totally discourage people from returning items... I mean I didn't even say the RAM was broken, I just said it didn't work with my computer. I don't doubt they could jury rig it somehow to make it work.. so it's like they already know they are going to get that $35 if I try to give it back.

Is there some sort of consumer affairs or something I can complain to so I can return this POS ram??

I reckon if you're unable to work out whether the ram is faulty or simply incompatible with your motherboard, you're not qaulified to be buying it. Their position sounds perfectly reasonable to me, although I don't know what you mean by 'threatening'.

Thats what you get shopping at umart.

Idol believe it or not, it costs money to employ tech people in a computer store. If they check your PC and cannot establish that the RAM you bought from them caused the PC to crash then tey will charge you for their time.

Fair 'nough?

Now I don't know if there is a problem with the RAM or if it is simply incompatible with my mobo,

Hence paying $35 to get someone more qualified than you to diagnose the problem. As you say, the fee is not payed if it's a problem with the RAM .. but rather if you didn't do research into the memory compability of your mobo.

but basically it's useless to me so I want to give it back or exchange it for a brand that works etc...

Dude it's not Myer. I understand your frustration but keep in mind that these guys work on a tighter profit margin than many larger retail stores. It's mainly the more tech-oriented people who can fix their own machines that go and buy from Umart/Gamedude/etc. For the rest there's Harvey Norman and Dell.

If you want to complain to consumer affairs, make sure you name all of the other PC stores as well, as they have a similar policy.

last edited by parabol at 14:32:02 20/Feb/06

If there is a problem with the ram then you don't pay. If there isn't a problem with the ram you just wasted their time and why shouldn't you pay for it?

what parabol said and also if its faulty they WILL return it or give you a refund thats all that is required of them by law, things like returns if its not broken like what Kmart/HN do is completly volentary.

i know its not the answer your looking for but the fact is if its not broken then your going to have to pay for the time it took the Tech to test the ram.

last edited by TufNuT at 14:36:46 20/Feb/06

hehe
yeah it's annoying but completely fair. I ran into this a few months ago when I rushed into a bunch of purchases from umart and eventually realised my PSU was choking on a fat dick :(

yeah i hate it when psu's do that.

Probably better to cut your losses and try reselling the ram on sold.ausgamers or Ebay.

I just find it amusing that people make such a fuss over this - but at the end of the day if the ram is faulty (i.e. not your fault) you don't pay a cent.

If you didn't do your homework or f***ed about with it you have to be accountable for that error in judgement.

Why should someone else pay because of your incompetence?

Ram takes less then a minute to test so they shouldn't be so rude to charge you anything even if it wasn't found to be faulty. Don't buy there again.

I've charged a lot more than $35 to tell someone their shiny new ram wouldn't work.

Don't buy there again.

$35 for something that's not their fault seems reasonable, considering:

* Computer Alliance charges $45 minimum.
* Gamedude charges $40 minimum
* MSY seems to charge regardless of fault (!?), though I can't confirm because their written English is terrible.

So tell us, where should he buy from instead?

last edited by parabol at 15:10:03 20/Feb/06

Just because they charge that doesn't mean it's right. Computer retailers have just become too ruthless and show little to no respect for customers. People have to understand the drawbacks or risks of saving a couple of dollars.
If you had bought from my business then we would even look at your mb and tell you what the problem is for free.

People have to understand the drawbacks or risks of saving a couple of dollars.

Exactly.

People have to understand the drawbacks or risks of saving a couple of dollars.

And he was informed of consequences and he is still complaining.

Would he prefer that they didn't tell him about hidden costs and then slug him with a fine?

Christ, these places just can't win with people like you can they?

last edited by Kat at 15:34:37 20/Feb/06

Ok, another plug for CA (I swear they should pay me for this!). Back when I was building my last machine I had no end of troubles with power supplies, graphic cards and of course ram. Having purchased all my parts from them, and discovering faults with some of the items (I went through 3 graphic cards, this is back when PCI-X was new) the techs down there helped me out to no end, testing all the gear, swapping things over etc, all at no charge (I don't know if it was because I was carrying my gun at the time). In the end it comes down to customer service. Because they were willing to go that little bit extra in helping me out, I'm now a loyal customer to them (and I havn't had to wear my gun down there anymore!)

Also, try to get a chicky friend to try to return it.

The geeks at TheDiscShop bent over backwards to help my friend get her DVD drive to work. Turns out she forgot to set the region. No charge at all, despite the huge "Labor Fee" sign :)

(Edit: Corrected spelling of Labor to not refer to pregnancy)

last edited by parabol at 15:43:09 20/Feb/06

lol at kat posting in a computer store thread

why should they care about you if you just forked out a few hundred max for a ram stick, i wouldn't

if you find the ram is faulty you should send THEM an invoice for $35 for their dodgy s*** wasting YOUR time. why is their time more important then yours ?

Labour = Australian
Labor = American

It doesn't have to do with pregnancy or not :)

I had a similar problem lately. I purchased a Maxtor SATA 160GB and I had all sort of problems with a gigabyte nforce 4 motherboard. I looked up on the net and it seems a lot of people were having this problem, so it wasn't my imagination. I purchased all the goods from Umart.

When I figured out it was the HDD, I had two options. RA it, or take it back which costs 15% restocking fee (and use the store credit to purchase another HDD). Knowing the RA system, they would have stuck it in a computer which it didn't have an issue with and I would get the fee and a HDD back. So I took it back, replaced it with an IDE seagate (paying the restocking fee) and everything works like a charm.

When you buy computer parts this is the game you must play. It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure the parts are compatable. I don't have a beef with umart's policy on this, and I will continue to shop there. Although I have found a few places that have cheaper prices, their policies and customer service have a worse reputation.

The issue was pretty random and I'm still not 100% sure about what was causing it. I took a bit of a gamble but it payed off and the machine runs like a dream.

I'm over CA. They never seem to have anything in stock. Why bother having a webpage listing components that they don't stock? If I wanted to wait 4 days -> 2 weeks for parts that have return to manufactorers warrenty, I'd get it direct.

(Edit: Corrected spelling of Labor to not refer to pregnancy)

la·bour
n. & v. & adj. Chiefly British

Variant of labor.

Just ask them if they'd mind swapping over some RAM which seems to be incompatible with your board. They might just help ya out with a different set, especially if it was just generic stuff you bought (where the brand/chips aren't gauranteed).

Ultimately, if you aren't buying a pre-assembled system from a store, or didn't ask them whether the sticks were compatible with your board, it's your fault they don't work and anything the store does for you is a favour. This is assuming they aren't just plain faulty of course.

la·bour
n. & v. & adj. Chiefly British

Variant of labor.

Yup, just what you'd expect from a yank website

Kat - There is a huge difference between being informed and understanding. Not that I would class a page on a website as being informed. There are no signs in the store saying "If you have a problem with our products then we will charge you $35 if you were wrong and that is regardless of whether it takes 1 minute or 10 minutes to test it". Instead they have signs everywhere saying "Excellent Service" and "Quality Assured".

I can understand charging a small fee to test something like an intermittent fault with a mb but $35 to test a stick of ram is just asking to lose business.

The computer market as a whole is just getting worse. People are way too focused on price and retailers are pushing there low prices everywhere you look. Consumers will go and pay $25 for a steak and chips at the local but spend all day hunting on the internet for the cheapest stick of ram when the price difference can be as little as $3 from place to place. Retailers make more money on labour then what they do on markup so this sort of ram testing crap is what they hope for.

No, there is no pleasing me when it comes to these types of businesses. In my books they are immoral, un-Australian (I know people will start up on that one:)) and impersonal. They care about bottom dollar and that is all.

zectbumo: there is only one reason these retailers exist and that is because they have demand from customers.

Really! The big question is how long they can continue to disappoint customers before they are forced to reassess their customer service. Bad reputation is hard to hide. A simple .5% markup on every item they sell should allow them to test ram for free and increase reputation. Anyhow it's not my business.

You can't compare it to steak and chips.

If you're selling something that everyone else sells _exactly_ the same then there are really only a few ways that you can distinguish yourself.. Price, convenience, service are the main ones.

Guess which one attracts the most customers.

Retailers give people what they ask for unless they're selling a distinctive product. As long as people make their choices based on the cheapest price retailers will focus on giving people the lowest price. It's not difficult to understand.

It's even harder for the stores to compete because internet retailers have much lower overheads than the computer stores a lot of the time (and in general probably people return stuff to them a bit less too because it's such a pain). Because consumers make their decisions based on a couple of dollars while browsing online stores, the physical stores have to try even harder to give prices that consumers will go for. As long as they're not deliberately underhanded I don't have a problem with that.

As a consumer you get the right to vote when you buy something. Don't like the way it works? Support the places that give you good service and conditions you like.

Based on the OP's comments, Umart are undeserving of his whinge.

Yup, just what you'd expect from a yank website

Both the Macquarie Dictionary's and the Oxford English Dictionary's search is subscriber only and I don't have access to either from home.

At £195.00 + VAT for a 12 month OED subscription, I'd guess that most people don't. *Athough Maquarie subscription rates is $13 pa for home use.



last edited by typo at 18:33:56 20/Feb/06

What does it matter? Both are used in Australia. Even the Australian Labor party spell it Labor. http://www.alp.org.au/

It seems fair to me

* Gamedude charges $40 minimum

Do those charges include being called a "fat nerd"?

Labour (Compact Oxford)

verb 1 work hard. 2 work at an unskilled manual job. 3 have difficulty despite working hard. 4 move with difficulty. 5 (labour under) be misled by (a mistaken belief).

last edited by shad at 18:52:43 20/Feb/06

Also I think labour is predominately English and labor is US/Aus.

fark me this is a retarded thread

umart are awesome with their returns (asif u wouldnt shop there)

ive returned ram that fails ram testers
ive returned ram that wasnt compatible with the mobo i bought it for

never had any dramas

rofl msy website. Theres an msy 2 mins drive from my house but I am afraid to go there because of that website.
Id rather drive 15mins to milton umart.

Also another vote for umart. Go there s***loads and never had a problem.

last edited by ctd at 19:14:19 20/Feb/06

Only problem I have had with umart was that the eta on my part was always the next day, after a few days I called them up and changed my order to something else that they had in stock. I have never had any problems with computer alliance. Returned a vid card and computer case to them. When I did buy ram from them they made sure that the ram I got was the right one for my computer because they said the return policy on them is a pain.

i'm with umart on this one. tech's cost money and time. and time equals money. so basically you are costing them the tech's time and the time that they could be selling and making money. if it IS faulty, then they don't charge you.

that's a rather cold way to look at it, but you're putting them worse off if it isn't faulty, so why shouldn't u have to reimburse them.

besides, that's just to cover them. places like that don't always charge if it's just quick. if it's really a problem for you, take your box down there, and if it's DDR400, and it won't work in a DDR400 motherboard, then it's faulty. simple.

i've taken stuff back and not had any problems with them.

I dont know where you found your magical < 1 minute memory tester, but in reality to fully test a memory module can take up to 45-60 mins depending on the size of the module and the speed of the system you are testing it in.

Simply having a system that POSTS does not mean your RAM is okay... do you want the customer to come back AGAIN and waste your time saying its throwing all these errors now or he can't load an OS without it bluescreening/crashing?

Also every bit of incompatible RAM to mobo I have seen has not stopped a system from POSTing, it just likes to throw a few million errors in memtest.


Most diagnostics can even be performed by the user if they have half a brain and can operate a PC with basic knowledge.

* If your system wont POST (generally with a long beeeeeeeeeeeeep) or it powers up and nothing happens at all, the most likely cause is memory.

1) Clean the contacts with an eraser, yes a common household eraser that you use with pencils. Over time the contacts become tarnished even if brand new just sitting around. You would not beleive the amount of systems I have fixed in 1 minute by simply doing that.

2) If that fails, try it in another slot or totally different machine. If that still fails then bring it back to attempt a replacement.

* If you are getting bluescreens or errors in windows a lot -

1) Download memtest86 and burn the ISO to CD, put it in your drive, reboot and watch it go. If you see errors RAM = toast... if under warranty take it back! Otherwise you are up for new RAM.

and for the love of God tell the tech you speak to what you have tried, not just "my ram is f***ed give me a new stick"

bring back the days of 2000/2001 when you could rock upto the service counter and say 'I'm a Qgl regular - this ram is rooted' and that's all the input that was needed.


even OCAU doesn't pull that anymore


overall - seasoned computer geeks suck at teh computer now :(

rubba-chicken - If you have a computer that won't boot at all and you can't work out in one minute if the ram is the problem then your not qualified to fix computers.
Even for some silly reason you feel the need to run it through a 1 hour long memory diagnostic program then it still only takes 30 seconds to put the ram in the slot. That would be like a concreter charging for an extra 12 hours because he felt the need to sit and watch the concrete dry. It still boils down to $35 for 1 minute of labour and no amount of rationalization by anyone on this forum can justify that.

The question I have is do companies like Umart actually charge you the money or is it just used as a deterrent and after they test it they say don't worry about the charge?

I'm sorry I fail to see what "homework" I could have potentially done? I needed to buy 512 Meg of DDR ram... Umart had a product called exactly that. I've purchased the exact same product before for the same motherboard. But last time when I picked it up it was a different brand. This time they gave me a cheaper brand I think which doesn't work.

I don't know what the f*** "Jim" expects me to do?? I have no facilities to test the RAM big deal!! How does that make me not qualified to purchase RAM?

The symptoms of my computer WITH the RAM (by itself, or in addition to my working one) are that it gives long beeps several seconds apart.

Now as far as I'm concerned that means the RAM is my problem. It's the right specs of RAM, but I fear it is an inferior quality that will only work on Umart's tech computers...hence me losing $35

I can't believe any of you support umart's obvious scam... I don't even WANT them to test it... they can sell it to someone else... i just want them to give me the same brand they sold me last time I clicked the exact same link on their website....

if its not compatible with your mobo, they will replace it for you

You bought generic branded ram which I can guarantee you is faulty. Try your new ram stick alone by itself and try different slots. If it doesn’t boot up but your old ram boots up then your ram will be faulty. Take it back. Don’t worry about all the crap you read here, there’s nothing technical about it.

Did you even read what I posted?

Sure if you put it into a machine and theres no POST at all, thats a < 1 min test and it would get replaced straight away.

But you are saying if you were a customer who brings in RAM that is supposedly dead, and the shop tests it and it will post in a system and gives it back. You take it home again and get it to work but suddenly windows keeps crashing and popping up errors all the time.

Are you going to be all fine and dandy about having to spend even more of your time to come back to the shop again with another problem that could have been checked for the first time you were there? I know I wouldn't be very impressed if I was the customer.

I'm sorry I fail to see what "homework" I could have potentially done? I needed to buy 512 Meg of DDR ram... Umart had a product called exactly that. I've purchased the exact same product before for the same motherboard. But last time when I picked it up it was a different brand. This time they gave me a cheaper brand I think which doesn't work.

Really the only thing you could do was to check the manufacturers website to see if they have a RAM compatibility list, and obviously avoid buying anything not on that list.

I don't know what the f*** "Jim" expects me to do?? I have no facilities to test the RAM big deal!! How does that make me not qualified to purchase RAM?

If you have a computer and an internet connection/memtest on a cd then you have just as much as the techs would to test a stick of RAM for you. As I said before if it fails to POST at all even after cleaning the contacts theres a pretty damn high chance the stick is dead and won't work in any system.

last edited by rubba-chikin at 09:10:45 21/Feb/06

Mate the computer won't bloody turn on! All the bloody mem tests in the world aren't going to help him!

Where exactly have I said that anyway? If you read my earlier posts I have said clean the contacts and if it still wont POST its most likely f***ed...

The only times you are going to run memtest if the system WILL post... :/

If you have RAM that originally doesn't work, but decides to after a clean I would think its a pretty wise idea to check it out and make sure it is indeed working correctly before you go about destroying your windows install and making even more work for yourself.

Thats basically what Global Computer Group does zbuctemo.
Thats why they're the best PC shop in brisbane
They take the big worry out of RAs. If you bring in a stick of ram and you think it's dead, we'll check it out free of charge, and if it's faulty we'll replace it straight away. Even if we can't find its faulty, we'll prolly replace it.

Now that is the right way to do it! I don't know why all retailers don't operate like that. People don't like to be stuffed around at all. If you try your hardest to keep the customer happy then you are gauranteed return business forever. Charge them $35 for a simple test and you have lost their future business and they will talk badly about you to anyone they can.

I don't know what the f*** "Jim" expects me to do?? I have no facilities to test the RAM big deal!! How does that make me not qualified to purchase RAM?

Try reading your original post, and then my response again - but this time, try to comprehend them in their context - that is, you making a post and providing a limited amount of information, and me making a response based on the information you provided. If you can do that, congratulations - you've successfully participated in the logical flow of an online conversation.


You said:

Now I don't know if there is a problem with the RAM or if it is simply incompatible with my mobo

I said:

I reckon if you're unable to work out whether the ram is faulty or simply incompatible with your motherboard, you're not qaulified to be buying it.

Get it?


But now, _after_ the fact, you provide more information such as:

I needed to buy 512 Meg of DDR ram... Umart had a product called exactly that. I've purchased the exact same product before for the same motherboard. But last time when I picked it up it was a different brand. This time they gave me a cheaper brand I think which doesn't work.

If you had provided that information originally, I wouldn't have thought it fair to make the same comment I did.

Comprehension is your friend.

Now as far as I'm concerned that means the RAM is my problem. It's the right specs of RAM, but I fear it is an inferior quality that will only work on Umart's tech computers...hence me losing $35

In my opinion this isn't a reasonable conclusion to make, in fact it appears completely paranoid. Regardless, the onus is on YOU to prove your theory.

I can't believe any of you support umart's obvious scam...

More paranoia, coupled with complete stupidity. You made the post and decided how much information to provide readers with, and now you're amazed that they don't share your paranoia?

You are a complete and utter waste of _everyone's_ time. The best thing you could possibly do right now, is turn off your computer and never, ever turn it on again.

Whats that got to do with 4wd's jim ?

Let this be a lesson to all you kids out there about good communication.:D Now take the ram back and tell us the verdict.

Take the ram stick to a friends house, put it in mobo - press on button.

Also, I haven't seen a faulty ram stick stop a POST? Usually it will throw out a bios error beep code during POSTing or give a million errors/bluescreen etc. when loading windows.

Problem needs more information.

It will stop a post if there is a short.
Also while those charges are harly ever enforced I might add they bloody well should be. If you paid someone to install nd test the RAM then you have every right to be pissed. You install it yourself then you need to diagnose it yourself.

I think they need to charge more honestly. So many times I used to have to test suspected faulty networking products only to find out "THE CUSTOMER IS A NOOB" and hence 30-60 mins of my time was wasted in doing so.

In the time you've wasted here you could of wacked the RAM in a friends computer and found out HEY IT'S ROOTED!

All of those other posts aside... did you try taking the new ram out, increasing your dimm voltage to 2.7 or 2.75, and putting the new ram back in? Also, tried changing timings and stuff? I scanned through to see if this had been suggested already, if it's there and I missed it, sorry. I've come across quite a few brands of ram that need a little bit of extra voltage to get along with other sticks, or to function properly at all...


last edited by icewyrm at 13:10:11 21/Feb/06

last edited by icewyrm at 13:11:03 21/Feb/06

I'm sorry Jim, I guess I just assumed you'd realise I am perfectly aware what product I require... A product that I have purchased before and therefore trusted that it was the one I needed.

After I lodged my complaint (Which was far more thorough than what I posted here) Umart didn't say apologise for inconvenience or make a genuine invitation to check if they made a mistake, they didn't even really respond to anything I said, they just said that if I was wrong I'd be penalised... and that is bad customer service because it's obvious they've just assumed I don't know how to install RAM or something.

Now as far as I'm concerned that means the RAM is my problem. It's the right specs of RAM, but I fear it is an inferior quality that will only work on Umart's tech computers...hence me losing $35

In my opinion this isn't a reasonable conclusion to make, in fact it appears completely paranoid. Regardless, the onus is on YOU to prove your theory.

What is unreasonable? That the RAM doesn't work? Buddy... I put the RAM in - computer no worky. I take the RAM out - computer worky. Stop wasting your time treating me like a noob because I have an IT degree and I work with computers and I know i've been f***ing screwed with this RAM arghhh

I also am aware that some generic brands have issues, whereas others do not. Since the brand I got this time is different, I'm pretty certain I'm spot on with what is going on here. I do not require any Umart tech to waste their time checking the RAM, they came up with that idea themselves, because they're hoping it will win them $35.

Umart's response to my complaint should have acknowledged the brand issue, but clearly they are not interested in customer satisfaction in this case.

Ahhhh, I love the ignorance of those who have never been on the other side of the counter.

edit: Have you been told the ram issue is your fault and been forced to pay? Or are you just blowing this out of proportion before you have any idea of what you are facing?

last edited by Kat at 15:33:56 21/Feb/06

Dodgymon - can I have your email address so I can come over your house and tinker with the insides of your computer to test my own hardware?? Seriously, my brother won't even let me touch the screws on his box cos he thinks it will void the warranty. I doubt they'll let me take apart the puters at work. Most of my closer friends either don't have a computer or have a laptop.

I can't get comprehensive independant testing on this thing.., clearly I'm tight about buying the RAM in the first place, and I'm tight about gambling for the $35, so obviously I only have the one puter... :(

Kat - I suspect the RAM itself could potentially work in another system, and they will force me to pay then. So therefore returning the item, which I feel I have a right to do since the product does not do what I was led to believe it would do based on my previous purchase of an item with the same name and description, is infact a gamble for additional loss of money.

I think I made that pretty clear in my original complaint to them, and their response ignored that completely.

So what you are saying is that the brand is identicle to the brand you purchased previous (i.e. the working one?)

Or are you saying that you bought generic ram (which have different brands and chips) and just assumed that it would work?

Unless the guy at the store said "Yes, this will work" they haven't led you to believe anything. You assumed

That the RAM doesn't work? Buddy... I put the RAM in - computer no worky. I take the RAM out - computer worky.

- take your dodge ram out of the antistatic bag.
- Put your dodge ram in your computer.
- take your good ram out of your computer
- put your good ram into the antistatic bag
- boot your computer.
- tell us what happens.
- get a box of man sized tissues.




last edited by typo at 17:40:52 21/Feb/06

Or are you saying that you bought generic ram (which have different brands and chips) and just assumed that it would work?

He is probably saying that he clicked on generic ram on the umart website which has no f***ing description about its compatabilities or lack thereof, then ordered it.

Unless the guy at the store said "Yes, this will work" they haven't led you to believe anything. You assumed

hahaha, yeah assuming that something you buy will work, thats pretty damn stupid.

last edited by Bah at 18:23:33 21/Feb/06

heh an IT degree

you can email me for my address, you're welcome to use my hardware to test your ram - jim at qgl

Ram takes less then a minute to test so they shouldn't be so rude to charge you anything even if it wasn't found to be faulty. Don't buy there again.

IM glad u can test a stick of ram in less then a minute. U must be so good. Please if u have a memtest that can fully scan the stick of memory for errors in less then one minute oh mighty one please lend me this program. Would save me so much time

Ram takes less then a minute to test

I'm sure as f*** never going to ask you for hardware advice.

Jesus christ, that is so wrong.

Just to add, I ran a 1GB memtest for exactly 1 minute. I also overclocked the memory to give you an advantage. Only 4% of the memory tested:

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~boldajis/images/ram_memtest.jpg

Listen kids the ram stops the computer from even posting. That takes less than a minute to test.
The advice is to the original poster who will know exactly what I mean so if you don't want to listen to my advice then who cares just ignore it.
Too many little i.t. kiddies here that think there all the s*** because they read a few atomic mags. You have a lot to learn.

Screen shots too! How lame!

last edited by zectbumo at 20:28:19 21/Feb/06

Yeah because Cpu's dont stop the computer from posting . or incorrectly seated Pci / Agp cards dont stop the system from posting. Or mounts in the wrong spot dont stop the system from posting. You dont know what board he has or setup Zectbumbo so how about you shut the f*** up because your tech skills eat serious amount of cock You can not say its the ram when You have not seen the build or have any idea of his tech skills. maybe he should start by maybe flashing his bios and seeing if that makes a difference.

I hope they don't allow you to touch the big computers at work slapper!:D Keep making the coffee and keep out of trouble!

thats not a screenshot, thats a photo!

exactly u have nothing. gg nub gg

So what! It's a photo. Who cares?

its ok to be wrong zectbumo . please tell us all where u work so no one has to go through ur f***ed up tech skills first hand.

I can test the flexibility of stick of ram in less than a minute.

this thread is hilariously retarded

Too many little i.t. kiddies here

You misspelt "Electrical Engineer".

Screen shots too!

Yeah, a photo of actual evidence to back up my claim. Who would have thought!

Listen kids the ram stops the computer from even posting. That takes less than a minute to test

If the technician at the back of the PC store gets told that a stick of memory is bad, I strongly doubt he'll just stick it in, watch it POST, and give it back. More than likely he'll run a full test to give a 100% A-OK. That can take anywhere from 15 mins to an hour or 2 (depending on the size of the stick).

As Slapper said, it's ok to accept you are wrong.

this thread is hilariously retarded

Huh? What? I didn't see any photos of 4WDs :P

I’m not wrong. You’re just trying way too hard without thinking and in the process you’re making yourself look silly slapper.

Idol - Just to prove a point to all the kiddies here, bring your ram to me and I will test it for free. If it is not faulty then I will give you another new stick of Twinmos 512 for free. If it is faulty then you can take it back to Umart without any worry about getting charged.

Parabol you must be thick! THE RAM DOESN'T POST! YOU CAN'T RUN MEMTEST TEST ON IT! Electrical Engineer my ass! You should have taken lessons in basic logic.

THE RAM DOESN'T POST!

You Sir, need to be consistent with your posts. You earlier said:

Ram takes less then a minute to test

The technician's test will stop at 1 minute only if it doesn't POST on his test machine. Otherwise it will take, say, 45 minutes for him to run a further memtest to confirm the stick is 100% OK for use and good to return to the customer.

You're implying it takes 1 minute regardless of the outcome of the technician's initial POST test. That's incorrect.

so they shouldn't be so rude to charge you anything even if it wasn't found to be faulty

So if it happens to POST on the technician's machine and he wastes time confirming the stick is ok (memtest), and it is ok, he shouldn't charge anything? Riiight.

You should have taken lessons in basic logic

That's ironic, coming from you =)

Have fun flip-flopping or changing the emphasis of your argument. I'm officially done with this thread. No, really.

Parabol you must be thick! THE RAM DOESN'T POST! YOU CAN'T RUN MEMTEST TEST ON IT! Electrical Engineer my ass! You should have taken lessons in basic logic.

Looks like you skipped those lessons in basic logic. parabol was referring to the comment you made that the store technician could test the RAM in "less than a minute". Perhaps next time you should think about what you've already posted in the thread before trying to come up with another argument.

If I were going to slug someone with a $35 administration/restocking fee then I sure as hell would run a full test [which, strangely, takes much longer than one minute. Or two even.] so that I had proof that the RAM itself was perfectly fine. This would help to prove that statuatory warranty had not been breached because the item in question was of "merchantable quality" and given that I doubt the OP was told by anyone from UMart that it would work in any machine, they haven't misrepresented the item's capabilities or mislead the OP in any way. Also note that the Trade Practices Act does not protect "careless" purchases or use of equipment.


[Anyone with in-depth knowledge of the TPA is welcome to correct me on my stance here.]

Unless the OP can prove that the RAM is faulty I would agree with what someone said earlier in regards to selling it online. Cut your losses and avoid the stress of fighting with a retailer and costing yourself at least a hell of a lot of time [if not $35].

Parabol - Changing emphasis? I have said the same thing all along.
You’re just one of those people that can't even show enough respect to think before you post. You just blatantly post whatever just to start an argument or to flame someone. That is why you won't post in this topic anymore because you look stupid. At least this may teach you to show some courtesy and respect to fellow posters.
If I thought for one minute that the ram would post in another computer then I would have said it needs to be run through a thorough test. I know I am right and I put my money where my mouth is but what have you done other than post ill-informed thoughtless crap?

Fallen - I think you’re confused. We are not talking about a stick of ram that displays signs of intermittent failure at random intervals. We are talking about a stick of ram that prevents the computer from booting. This problem takes one minute to test.
To suggest that his purchase was thoughtless shows that you didn’t even bother to read his posts. Little tip – before posting read whole thread and think first. He said he bought the same stick of ram that he bought before for the same mb. They just gave him a different brand.
To even think about selling online a stick of ram that won’t even post pretty much sums up what type of person you are.
Also to tell him to cut his losses to save $35 is mind boggling since he would have to spend at least another $60 to get a replacement.

We are really hitting the bottom of the barrel now.

ok, I'll bite...

Parabol you must be thick! THE RAM DOESN'T POST! YOU CAN'T RUN MEMTEST TEST ON IT! Electrical Engineer my ass! You should have taken lessons in basic logic.

But what if it does post in the tech's computer?

If I thought for one minute that the ram would post in another computer then I would have said it needs to be run through a thorough test. I know I am right and I put my money where my mouth is but what have you done other than post ill-informed thoughtless crap?

How do you know it won't post in another computer? I've got a video card here that prevents my computer from booting up alltogether, won't post won't do s***. Oh my goodness it must be faulty and broken. What's that you say? It isn't? It works perfectly in another computer with a different motherboard? Oh looks like there's simply an incompatibility.

For something relavent to this problem, I also have some cheap ram that works in one computer and not the other.

Do we know what kind of motherboard he has? What kind of ram it is? For all we know he might be trying to use that new DDR2 s*** in an old DDR motherboard. Granted I'm sure there's probably measures in place to prevent you even inserting DDR2 ram in a DDR motherboard (I don't know, haven't seen DDR2 ram).


I will say right now, I skipped most of this thread because it's a bunch of fagets having a s***fight (I gave up at the yank vs aus spelling fight) so if I've missed a detail or two I'll gladly admit to being wrong and I'm not trying to "get at" you.

Ram takes less then a minute to test so they shouldn't be so rude to charge you anything even if it wasn't found to be faulty.

I'm sorry to be yet another bandwagoner but the way you worded this does make it sound like you're saying it would take them less than a minute to run their in depth tests on it.

I had no intention of continuing the discussion about the memory, but you initiated an unrelated and more personal issue which I will reply to:

At least this may teach you to show some courtesy and respect to fellow posters

Nice attempt at the moral highground. Shall I adopt your signs of "courtesy and respect"?:

Parabol you must be thick!

...

Too many little i.t. kiddies here

I'm glad I didn't resort to name calling. Nice talking to you.

Idol, I hope you get this sorted out soon and let us know the results please =)

Dodgymon - can I have your email address so I can come over your house and tinker with the insides of your computer to test my own hardware??

You can come test it on mine *Shrugs*

$35 noob fee if it works.

last edited by Loki at 00:30:58 22/Feb/06

zectbumo, you need to turn off your computer too.
also, leave it off - forever

He said he bought the same stick of ram that he bought before for the same mb. They just gave him a different brand.
To even think about selling online a stick of ram that won’t even post pretty much sums up what type of person you are.

You need to learn how to read and comprehend zectbumo:

I'm sorry I fail to see what "homework" I could have potentially done? I needed to buy 512 Meg of DDR ram... Umart had a product called exactly that. I've purchased the exact same product before for the same motherboard. But last time when I picked it up it was a different brand. This time they gave me a cheaper brand I think which doesn't work.

So no it's not THE SAME stick of RAM, it's not even the same f***ing brand. Idol ACCEPTED something that he mightn't originally ordered i.e. they gave him a "cheaper" brand and he just accepted it and claimed that it was the "same stick of RAM only a cheaper brand"? WTF, how is that the "same brand"? Don't know about you but, I'm sure as s*** never just picked up stuff from the shop without having checked it first and make sure it matches what I ordered.

I'm sorry Idol, it's a buyer's beware, if you don't check what you've ordered/picked up before you leave then you are beyond help. Pay the $35 and swap your IT degree for a degree in common sense.

Personally I have zero problem returning stuff to Umart, brought my monitor from Umart, said monitor packed it in, I did my due dilligience in checking, quite satified that it was dead, took it back to Umart - explained the situtation of the faults and what I did to test the said faults, got it back in 2 weeks, am posting now via the fixed monitor 2 years later. Cost me zero $ to return it.

All this over a $35 labour fee, wow :p For the record, I've swapped out plenty of RAM on the spot, without testing, because its not worth the hassle. Just hand out a new stick and the old one can be tested later. It makes me sad when I see QGLers come through work without ever mentioning it, there are still a few of us who work at CA, and if you mentioned it, you'd all get preferential service like I give Tanaka ;p

Who's going to pay me the $35 labor fee for all the time it took to read the thread??

Also, good luck in getting it resolved. . . Umart are all about the $$$, but what company isn't??

Don't know about you but, I'm sure as s*** never just picked up stuff from the shop without having checked it first and make sure it matches what I ordered.

I hope you carry your common-sense with other such things as pizzas and check them at the store.
I used to hate fags who would get home to find out the pizza was wrong, when they could have checked at the store and dealt with the store immediately, instead of wasting 45 minutes with stores calling back etc.

I hope you carry your common-sense with other such things as pizzas and check them at the store.
I used to hate fags who would get home to find out the pizza was wrong, when they could have checked at the store and dealt with the store immediately, instead of wasting 45 minutes with stores calling back etc.

I absolutely hate when people do that in the drive thru. They sit at the window and have a look through all the bags etc, holidng up everybody behind them who as a result get angry at me and then complain.. I know people want to get what they pay for but seriously can't people be quick about it? At least everybody isn't as rude as the one guy who looked directly at me and said "Let's just our s*** right here" obviously expecting me to bite and have a go at him. The only time I think it is alright for a customer to complain at the window is when we have obviously made a mistake. But if they are one of those people who after you repeat their order to them and they say "yes that is what I ordered", move to the next window and are like "This isn't what I ordered" and except us to be all nice about replacing their order. I know this is all really an incentive for us (the business) to get it right the first time and that the customer is always right. But when the customer is really rude about it and obviously was wrong then I think I as the offended employee have a right to be curt about it.

Back on topic...

Having never purchased RAM from Umart or having never had to return anything there (the only problems I've had with them is their store employees aren't the most efficent or curteous of people) I don't really know the process too well. While I want to agree with Idol it seems he's made a bit of a fuss over nothing. I can't remember his original post but maybe he needed to explain himself a bit more when he was at Umart. Still, based on my previous story maybe the employees at Umart are like me and just tired of customers complaining about unsubstaintial things.

last edited by Triamks at 20:31:22 22/Feb/06

I skipped through all this thread to say:

I bought a Kingmax SD card for my Canon camera a few months back from umart. Get it home and my camera says 'Memory Card Error'.

Long story short, after getting stuffed around by umart for a nearly two hours they concluded "Yes it doesn't work in your camera but it works in our card reader so $35 thanks and here's your card back"

So I walked out (without the card, which was useless to me anyway).

I bought a Sandisk card a week later and it works fine.

I no longer shop at U-Mart.

build me an uber game pc thx firefrog :)

At least this may teach you to show some courtesy and respect to fellow posters

Why the f*** would we do that? It is what QGL is founded on after all.

stfu


if the ram was purchased from the southside store it wouldn't surprise me if the manager there has taken a hardline stance with charges to stop the store's closure in a couple of months.


if it's northside - I'd really be surprised to see the dude get charged $35 if it's a compatibility issue. UMart are one of only a few decently competitive it retailers in Qld

Yeah I didn't check the RAM, I didn't even remember what the original brand was called. Guess even if I did know it was a different brand I don't think I would have questioned whether it would work without trying it first.
Specifically my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 nForce3 250gb Chipset Motherboard
The RAM is 512M PC3200 DDR RAM
The first stick I got was marked "Elixir" and the newest stick that I'm having problems with is marked "Legend".

Buying Generic ram is probably not the best idea in the world, hey. Often you get what you pay for.

Then again I don't understand why PC stores sell them. It's similar to how The Disc Shop would sell their el-cheapo noname CD-R spindles that had an 80% failure rate. It just pisses off the customers, regardless of how much money is made in the short-term. Then again I don't know anyone who buys anything from there anymore. They seem to have become irrelevant.

generic ram is fine to use. People need to make sure they know what they are buying is compatible with there current setup. It is not the shops fault u bought something that would not work with what u got. If ur not totally sure what your doing your system should be booked in to have the part installed by them, then you dont have a problem do u

god damn.
i logged in from austria just to leave my two cents:

zectbumo you're a f***ing retard.

that is all.