Words of Warning: Do not buy PNY memory

[C(-)ris]

I had a couple MacBooks that I needed to get ram upgrades for earlier this year. The time table did not allow for ordering anything online, as I would only have the laptops for a day before they needed to go back out. I ended up going to Best Buy and picking up a PNY 8GB kit, 2x4GB as that was all that was in stock close by. All went fine, but about 2 or 3 months later one of the machines wouldn't boot. It was determined to be the new ram and it was swapped out with another I had on hand and the PNY stick set aside. I tested the stick in 3 other machines and none would boot with this ram.

I contacted PNY to get an RMA and things went downhill from there. First they wanted proof of purchase of their ram, which has a lifetime guarantee. Whatever, I dug the receipt out of the expenses folder. Then I realized that what they really wanted was the UPC code! Who keeps that for a stick of ram? I filled in all zeros on their form for the UPC and put in the notes that the packaging was long gone. Put in date of purchase and all the other details they wanted. Waited a day and got a reply back informing me that I had to return the entire kit to them, not just the defective stick. I replied back the other other stick was happily working in a laptop in another state and I cannot inconvenience the user to send a working laptop back to remove perfectly good ram. I also again stated that I just needed the single defective stick replaced, and pointed out that it would be wasteful to send both sticks back. They replied back asking if I bought a kit, which was a question they already knew the answer to. I replied back to them and said, yes, but I need just a single stick replaced. I got a response back yet again asking for the receipt from the store. I sent that a last week and PNY has not responded.

At this point, I can only assume that they have blown me off because I insisted on not returning both sticks of ram. That combined with their requirements for UPC as well as a receipt for something with a lifetime warranty leads me to leave a warning for others. This is unacceptable behavior for a company and I'd suggest avoiding their products at all costs.

[colonel panic]

I had a bad stick of RAM in my Mac Pro that I bought from our wonderful sponsors and they also wanted all sticks back, not just the bad one. I think this common practice.

[cbelt3]

"Proof of Purchase" ... WHAT ? Here's the G*D* RAM.. It has your company name on. It's busted. Replace it !!! Load of Bovine Droppings !

[N-OS X-tasy!]

The request for a receipt was reasonable. The request for a UPC code was not... unless they were prepared to offer a rebate on top of a replacement.

[C(-)ris]

colonel panic wrote:
I had a bad stick of RAM in my Mac Pro that I bought from our wonderful sponsors and they also wanted all sticks back, not just the bad one. I think this common practice.

I hope not, that is a horrible way to do it. Ram doesn't always stay in the same computer, kits get split up, and I don't want to pay extra postage for the perfectly fine ram. Plus, if you send all the ram back you are left with a computer with either no ram or minimal ram. It isn't the way Apple does it with their ram replacements under warranty.

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
The request for a receipt was reasonable. The request for a UPC code was not... unless they were prepared to offer a rebate on top of a replacement.

Why would you need a receipt for something with a lifetime warranty? I don't keep receipts for all my Craftsman tools. It says PNY all over the stick on every chip. There is no doubt it is theirs. If in fact their warranty is only Lifetime for the original purchaser then that needs to be clearly described in the same space as "LIFETIME WARRANTY" on the outside of the box.

[The Grim Ninja]

You might consider complaining on Facebook and Twitter and pointing them to this thread. It seems companies start paying attention once they see you letting other people know you're not happy.

[C(-)ris]

The Grim Ninja wrote:
You might consider complaining on Facebook and Twitter and pointing them to this thread. It seems companies start paying attention once they see you letting other people know you're not happy.

Coincidentally I just got an email from them saying they hadn't received the receipt scan.

[hal]

All memory makers require returning the whole set for an RMA and increasingly, they are wanting the proof of purchase too. There isn't a single SSD maker that allows RMAs without proof of purchase.

[OWC Larry]

FWIW - yes - we prefer to replace entire sets as just a good practice. That said - we do advance replacement so in the event an issue has arisen, you can get the replacement set before sending the existing back. All of our modules have OWC serialized labels to make that identification easy. The intent is to make the warranty process painless as possible as it's already a pain we know if it must be used at all.

[sekker]

I ran into related problems at big institutions. Sometimes, it's literally impossible to get the receipt for something purchased in my institution.

We factor that into our purchasing plan - if we know the vendor has high hurdles for replacement, we assume there is no functional warranty.

I've been known to make a purchase at home and get reimbursed as that meant I knew I'd have all of the paperwork for warranty replacements.