EVGA replaces customer's destroyed hard drives after power supply RMA blunder

EVGA 1000 GQ
EVGA 1000 GQ (Image credit: EVGA)

EVGA has confirmed to Gamers Nexus that the company will replace a customer's damaged hard drives due to an internal RMA processing error. The slip-up involved sending an EVGA 1000 GQ replacement unit that killed 22TB of the owner's storage because the revised unit had a different pinout and was incompatible with the owner's power cables from a previous version.

"We had set up an internal procedure for RMAs for these model numbers based on a serial range to make sure the customer would get the right version for their cables. Typically, the customer just sends the brick back to us and they leave the cables in there. The procedure was in place and also stated that, if for some reason EVGA did not have the correct models, customer service would send the customer a full G5 power supply with a note to let them know that they would need to upgrade their power supply so everything matches.

But where we fell short is that, while this policy had been enforced for the year since [the change] happened, due to some internal operation error, the wrong power supply brick was sent to the customer," EVGA told Gamers Nexus.

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a standards organization responsible for safety requirements for electrical devices, issued a safety regulation running change, prompting power supply manufacturers to update the pin layout. This happens often as new regulations and specifications arrive and vendors must make the necessary product changes. As you know, EVGA doesn't produce power supplies because it relies on different OEMs. EVGA was aware of the modification to the pin layout and had put in place a specific procedure for G5 power supply RMAs.

The incident could have been avoided, but you can't expect every user to have the technical knowledge to test a power supply's pins with a multimeter or, worse yet, have a reason to do so since the pin layout change wasn't public information or something communicated to every customer.

We can only attribute the unfortunate incident to a human error in not correctly verifying the serial number or production year of the RMAed unit. If the RMA department had done so, it would have sent the user the new cables along with the revised unit. Sadly, EVGA is a shadow of its former self. The once venerable Nvidia partner decided to exit the graphics card business in 2022, and the motherboard team eventually left, too. When a company is short-staffed, oversights are bound to happen.

In any event, EVGA will reimburse the affected user for replacing the two dead hard drives. Luckily, the person had cloud data backups, so he didn't lose everything. However, he and his wife lost their entire day's work because the last backup was in the early morning of the mishap. 

The moral of the story is that you should always keep data backups. Hard drives can be replaced, and companies can even refund you for the cost of the drives. Your data, however, is priceless. A widely accepted approach is the 3-2-1 method, which essentially consists of keeping three copies in two different media and with one copy offsite. By the way, World Backup Day (March 31) is coming soon. Have you backed up your data lately?

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • helper800
    Admin said:
    Sadly, EVGA is a shadow of its former self. The once venerable Nvidia partner decided to exit the graphics card business in 2022, and the motherboard team eventually left, too. When a company is short-staffed, oversights are bound to happen.
    The above is incorrect nonsense. EVGA is still the same great company with a focus on customer service. The company decided to part with Nvidia purely because of the way Nvidia handles themselves. The graphics card and motherboard departments were axed, but none of those people would be working in customer service or the PSU department. To imply they are short staffed and therefore, "oversights are bound to happen," in their customer service or PSU departments is at minimum an unsubstantiated claim, and at worst a random utterance painting the company as irresponsible. Do we really thing all of those graphics card and motherboard folks were going to transition to customer service and PSU engineering roles? Complete hogwash.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    I ran into a similar issue with a Seasonic PSU, lucky in my case the MB just won't power on and no operational damage was done, but was shocked that swapping the cable on an exact model replacement PSU was the answer.
    Reply
  • LabRat 891
    I'd have been livid if this happened to me.
    (The worst part was when EVGA asked the user to commit returns fraud upon the manufacturers of their drives)

    Glad things (eventually) were corrected...
    Hopefully, the data was non-vital or backed up elsewhere.
    Reply
  • atomicWAR
    LabRat 891 said:
    I'd have been livid if this happened to me.
    (The worst part was when EVGA asked the user to commit returns fraud upon the manufacturers of their drives)

    Glad things (eventually) were corrected...
    Hopefully, the data was non-vital or backed up elsewhere.
    100% I am running 120TB worth of drives. Incorrect cabling frying all those would be a seriously expensive endeavor for something that would not have been my fault, had I been him. Regardless it is good to see EVGA step-up and do the right thing here.
    Reply
  • Sluggotg
    EVGA used to be one of my all time favorite companies. After seeing them Screw over the customer in this case and even suggest he should Lie and try to Defraud the Drive Manufacturers.. they are no longer trustworthy. I know now that if they do that to me, they will not make it right unless the incident goes viral.

    I have purchased dozens of Video Cards, Power Supplies etc from them over the years. (and video capture devices, Keyboards, Mice, one mother board, a really cool case and 3 AIO coolers).
    Heart Breaking!
    Reply
  • thestryker
    helper800 said:
    The above is incorrect nonsense. EVGA is still the same great company with a focus on customer service. The company decided to part with Nvidia purely because of the way Nvidia handles themselves. The graphics card and motherboard departments were axed, but none of those people would be working in customer service or the PSU department. To imply they are short staffed and therefore, "oversights are bound to happen," in their customer service or PSU departments is at minimum an unsubstantiated claim, and at worst a random utterance painting the company as irresponsible. Do we really thing all of those graphics card and motherboard folks were going to transition to customer service and PSU engineering roles? Complete hogwash.
    Those weren't the only two departments to go which is what the video was talking about. The RMA department doesn't exist as it did anymore and the likelihood of the PSU engineers still being around is low. Keep in mind the last PSUs EVGA released all came with a 3 year warranty and weren't sampled to reviewers (these were not low end PSUs either). The company definitely still has the same mindset and the culture hasn't changed, but the reality of losing people and departments can't be ignored.
    Reply
  • FoxTread3
    LabRat 891 said:
    I'd have been livid if this happened to me.
    (The worst part was when EVGA asked the user to commit returns fraud upon the manufacturers of their drives)

    Glad things (eventually) were corrected...
    Hopefully, the data was non-vital or backed up elsewhere.
    Please note that the article states that the people did have backups to their data, and only possibly lost work they were doing at the time of the failure.
    Reply
  • FoxTread3
    March 31, 2024 - It broke my heart when EVGA stopped selling GPUs, and finding out from this article and comments in the forum. That they have stopped selling motherboards makes me feel even worst. I have been an extremely happy customer of EVGA for decades, because their products have been excellent, and their customer service equally so. Over the years I have had a number of occasions where I had to reach out for assistance to EVGA, because I build my own desktop computers. Regardless of the problem, if it involved their products, they always were able to give me kind, quick and professional assistance. I'll still purchase their PSUs in the future.
    Reply
  • ferris1000
    EVGA = Expect Vital Gigabytes Annulled
    Reply