AmigaKit seemingly won't honor their warranty

Cooljerk · 26 September 2018, 19:59

I'm extremely frustrated with AmigaKit and want to warn other posters to avoid doing business with them after my latest experience. I've spent literally thousands of dollars over the years with their website and this is the very first time I've tried to resolve a problem with them, and they have responded so poorly that I will never do business with them again.

This began in december 2017, when I purchased a bunch of stuff to upgrade an Amiga 1200, including an ACA-1233n among other things (real time clock, CF kit, etc). These items were a sort of christmas gift to myself, but shortly after they arrived, I got pulled into an engineering project that took up my free time, and thus never had any real chance to test out these products. They sat in their shipping box in my closet until a couple of weekends ago, when I finally had some time to test them out.

Now, I have 2 Amiga 1200 motherboards, different revisions. On both motherboards, the ACA-1233n doesn't function. When attached to either of them, the Amigas will not boot and instead stay on a black screen after post. Remove the ACA-1233n and both machines boot fine to both floppy disk and the CF card (which has workbench installed). Run a variety of tests on the card, and my best determination is that it's simply defective from manufacturer.

No worries, I though, because the Amiga Kit website clearly states that new items have a 12-month warranty, meaning I should be able to replace my $250 ACA-1233n without problem until December 2018. I contacted them about a week ago via their technical support email address and I've been getting the run around since.

Firstly, they asked me to take a picture of the card pinout, presumably to make sure there was no user error. I did so and provided them the following pics:

Some guy named Chris wrote back telling me that 2 of my pins looked suspect (???) and that I should try pulling the card out a couple of mm's when booting to see if it works. That "advice" is of course literally the very first attempt at diagnosing the card I took, which I relayed in my reply. Since then, which was a week ago, Chris has gone silent and won't return my emails.

I have written since then asking again for a mailing address so that I could exercise my warranty and they outright won't reply. I know Chris reads these boards, so I'm hoping maybe a public post about this will get them in gear, but at the moment I'm extremely disappointed and will never be doing business with them again. Why even offer a warranty if you won't stand by it? Thanks for wasting several hundreds of my dollars, guys.

lilalurl · 26 September 2018, 20:46

I believe they are having some busy times currently, at least that was the case earlier this month:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=94092

I guess it must be frustrating for you, but you will probably get an answer sooner or later.

Cooljerk · 26 September 2018, 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilalurl

I believe they are having some busy times currently, at least that was the case earlier this month:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=94092

I guess it must be frustrating for you, but you will probably get an answer sooner or later.

That's what's actually so frustrating -- we were having a back and forth already, several emails, then about 6 days ago they just stopped. From the get-go I explained my situation and how I had tried to diagnose the problem, all I wrote for was a request to honor their warranty and an address to ship to in order to send the defective merchandise. This honestly shouldn't require more than a couple of emails back and forth. In one of their previous emails, they should have provided me what I've been asking for since the very beginning.

To ignore my request, insinuate that it is user error, and then go silent after multiple back and forth emails is just extremely aggravating.

DH · 26 September 2018, 21:00

Similar scenarios like this have happened before and most, if not all, have been sorted out and rectified. They're a small team so when they're busy, they're busy and have to meet demands just like any other company, unfortunately when someone has an issue, they're not at their best and often customer relations can become dangerously stretched. Saying that though, they will sort your problems out, you just have to be patient and give them a bit of slack.

Cooljerk · 26 September 2018, 21:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by DH

Similar scenarios like this have happened before and most, if not all, have been sorted out and rectified. They're a small team so when they're busy, they're busy and have to meet demands just like any other company, unfortunately when someone has an issue, they're not at their best and often customer relations can become dangerously stretched. Saying that though, they will sort your problems out, you just have to be patient and give them a bit of slack.

In the end, I just want a working product I paid for, I'm honestly not out to destroy their company or anything. Hence why I decided to make a topic on EAB -- I know they frequent this board and also care about being a front facing company (it's actually EAB that lead me to them originally and has assuaged me to spend money there in the past, I tend to trust EAB's opinion on all things amiga) so I'm hoping perhaps someone else in the company will stumble upon this topic and help get it resolved.

Like I said, I've spent a lot of money at AmigaKit over several years, and this is the first time I've had a problem. Their continued good rep and history of problem-free transactions is precisely why I'm so disappointed this time, as it belies their reputation.

E-Penguin · 26 September 2018, 21:36

Goods sold in the EU have a mandatory 2 year warranty, although I'm not sure if this applies to overseas sales.

I suspect it's a case of being too busy rather than avoiding a warranty claim. The profit on an aca1233n isn't worth the time spent quibbling it.

utri007 · 26 September 2018, 21:49

IF I have undestand correctly ALL Icomp accelerators needs a timing fixes for A1200 computers? Let me ques, you have 1D4 and 2b motherboards?

Am I right?

Cooljerk · 26 September 2018, 21:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by utri007

IF I have undestand correctly ALL Icomp accelerators needs a timing fixes for A1200 computers? Let me ques, you have 1D4 and 2b motherboards?

Am I right?

One is a 1D4, yes, but the other is a 1D1. I actually got the 1D1 with the ACA1233n with the intent of towerizing that mobo.

FOL · 27 September 2018, 12:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by utri007

IF I have undestand correctly ALL Icomp accelerators needs a timing fixes for A1200 computers? Let me ques, you have 1D4 and 2b motherboards?

Am I right?

Not true, every single board is different. Even same rev boards.

DH, is mostly correct. We can get busy at times and have hundreds of emails daily.

Im not sure people realise exactly how much we put into doing Amiga full time. Over 30+ parcels are packed and shipped daily. I make around 150+ products a week, thats not including Capacitor replacements / repairs (or A-EON related work).

We even end up doing work at home. So it creeps alot into our personal lives. I think the most memorable, was a EAB user. He contacted me at 1am in the morning, while I was playing command and conquer. So I ended up spending two hours resolving his issue.

Anyway,

@Cooljerk
You should have an email.

Glen M · 28 September 2018, 10:39

Would be worth looking at the below and seeing if your motherboards have these CAPs fitted. My A1200 did and she would not boot with the ACA1233N fitted. After removing them she boots perfectly and is rock solid and has been for well over a year now. My board is revision 2B (I think its been a while since I've opened her).

http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/File:A1200...be_removed.JPG

Cooljerk · 15 January 2019, 16:43

Just an update that this still is not resolved. I held onto the board for a while to try Glen M's recommendation, but it sadly made no difference. Around December, it was determined that I needed to send the board back to AmigaKit for them to inspect it, which I did. Our last communication was December 20th, which was when an AmigaKit tech named Chris confirmed they had received the parcel. Since his message confirming they had received the package, there has been zero communication from AmigaKit on my board. I have absolutely no idea what they are doing in all this time. Are they repairing the board? Are they checking to see what's wrong? Are they sending me a new one? Are they going to refund my money -- an option I DON'T want? Who knows? They won't reply to any emails since, and I've sent out several. I've asked for any sort of update -- just to know what's going on -- and my emails are being ignored.

I can understand a small business operating on their own time, but nearly a month without any time to send even an email to customer to let them know what is going on with their return? Absolutely unacceptable. Since it looks like FOL is connected with AmigaKit, I return to this site to ask: What's the deal? Am I going to get a working ACA1233n or what?

Cooljerk · 16 January 2019, 14:47

Been sending daily emails now, still no replies. Example:

"Hi Chris,
Still haven't heard back regarding my item. Please give me an update.
Best,
Gabe"

rcman · 16 January 2019, 14:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cooljerk

Been sending daily emails now, still no replies. Example:

"Hi Chris,
Still haven't heard back regarding my item. Please give me an update.
Best,
Gabe"

Yes I have similar problems. I went to twitter and complained about them. That seems to get them moving.

RC

Cooljerk · 16 January 2019, 17:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcman

Yes I have similar problems. I went to twitter and complained about them. That seems to get them moving.

RC

Thanks, I'll start poking them there. Just to reiterate, all i want is a working product. The aca1233n isnt cheap, and i dont want a refund. I expected when they said they had received the old board that they would just turn around and mail me a new one. Im stumped as to what the hold up is, and the ignored emails on their part is getting extremely frustrating. How hard is it to send a single email to assuage your customer's fears?

sneckburger · 16 January 2019, 17:18

My coms with AmigaKit (Chris) have been really good.
Have you been emailing the correct address?
technical@amigakit.co.uk

Cooljerk · 16 January 2019, 17:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneckburger

My coms with AmigaKit (Chris) have been really good.
Have you been emailing the correct address?
technical@amigakit.co.uk

Its been one long email chain since back in september. Chris has replied in the chain several times, he just has seemingly chosen to not respond in the last month. As o said, his last response was December 20th to say he had received the board. Since then, absolutely no communication and all my emails in reply have been ignored.

Cooljerk · 16 January 2019, 18:11

Evidence of correspondence:

As you can see, Chris is actually the one who initiated the email chain, so every reply has been to the address he himself originally contacted me with. His last correspondence:

Chris has not replied to any emails sent after that one. So, to recap, they have my $200 Amiga card, confirmed they have it, and have gone completely silent since about what's to happen next. As I said, I have no idea what they are doing. Are they fixing the card? Sending me a new one? Initiating a refund? Who knows, they flat out won't answer any emails. Several sent, including one every day now, and no response at all.

I notice just now that the ACA 1233n has been removed from the Amigakit website. This is all super disheartening, as someone who has spent thousands of dollars over the years at AmigaKit. Somebody tell me what's going on!

demon-knight · 16 January 2019, 19:33

I have had a similar issue with AmigaKit with my Indivision mk2cr, whilst I appreciate they are a small company, but they have had the hardware for 11 months and 2 weeks and despite a million calls and emails to them all I get is some lame excuse that its been sent back to get fixed and that they will get back to me which they never do.

I dont hold out much hope of ever seeing it again, stuff like this just leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Cooljerk · 16 January 2019, 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by demon-knight

I have had a similar issue with AmigaKit with my Indivision mk2cr, whilst I appreciate they are a small company, but they have had the hardware for 11 months and 2 weeks and despite a million calls and emails to them all I get is some lame excuse that its been sent back to get fixed and that they will get back to me which they never do.

I dont hold out much hope of ever seeing it again, stuff like this just leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Thats particularly disheartening considering shipping back to the uk cost me $50. So if they indeed stiff me, they wound up wasting even more money of mine.

Cooljerk · 22 January 2019, 19:57

Chris replied to me a few days ago, but unfortunately they went into my spam folder and thus I didn't see them. However, the gist of the emails were that the manufacturer behind the board no longer makes them, and thus they have sent the boards back to indivision (I think?) to repair the board. Apparently they were on vacation a while back, hence the lack of communication. Just posting here to keep a running log of the situation as well as to give Amigakit the benefit of the doubt and not just post the "bad stuff."

26 September 2018, 19:59	#1
Cooljerk Registered User Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Houston, USA Posts: 95	AmigaKit seemingly won't honor their warranty I'm extremely frustrated with AmigaKit and want to warn other posters to avoid doing business with them after my latest experience. I've spent literally thousands of dollars over the years with their website and this is the very first time I've tried to resolve a problem with them, and they have responded so poorly that I will never do business with them again. This began in december 2017, when I purchased a bunch of stuff to upgrade an Amiga 1200, including an ACA-1233n among other things (real time clock, CF kit, etc). These items were a sort of christmas gift to myself, but shortly after they arrived, I got pulled into an engineering project that took up my free time, and thus never had any real chance to test out these products. They sat in their shipping box in my closet until a couple of weekends ago, when I finally had some time to test them out. Now, I have 2 Amiga 1200 motherboards, different revisions. On both motherboards, the ACA-1233n doesn't function. When attached to either of them, the Amigas will not boot and instead stay on a black screen after post. Remove the ACA-1233n and both machines boot fine to both floppy disk and the CF card (which has workbench installed). Run a variety of tests on the card, and my best determination is that it's simply defective from manufacturer. No worries, I though, because the Amiga Kit website clearly states that new items have a 12-month warranty, meaning I should be able to replace my $250 ACA-1233n without problem until December 2018. I contacted them about a week ago via their technical support email address and I've been getting the run around since. Firstly, they asked me to take a picture of the card pinout, presumably to make sure there was no user error. I did so and provided them the following pics: Some guy named Chris wrote back telling me that 2 of my pins looked suspect (???) and that I should try pulling the card out a couple of mm's when booting to see if it works. That "advice" is of course literally the very first attempt at diagnosing the card I took, which I relayed in my reply. Since then, which was a week ago, Chris has gone silent and won't return my emails. I have written since then asking again for a mailing address so that I could exercise my warranty and they outright won't reply. I know Chris reads these boards, so I'm hoping maybe a public post about this will get them in gear, but at the moment I'm extremely disappointed and will never be doing business with them again. Why even offer a warranty if you won't stand by it? Thanks for wasting several hundreds of my dollars, guys.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Seemingly random performance issues	SLC	support.WinUAE	17	02 February 2018 00:39
Codetapper's Action site seemingly gone.	MethodGit	project.WHDLoad	4	18 May 2009 08:25
A500plus - warranty seals intact...	chiark	support.Hardware	39	28 November 2008 18:23
Seemingly not stereo output in Winuae 1.3.3	amiga	support.WinUAE	2	07 November 2006 02:26
Authorized warranty repair locations.	ToTalXS	support.Hardware	1	18 July 2002 07:40

26 September 2018, 20:46	#2
lilalurl Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: France Posts: 3,289	I believe they are having some busy times currently, at least that was the case earlier this month: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=94092 I guess it must be frustrating for you, but you will probably get an answer sooner or later.

26 September 2018, 21:00	#4
DH Global Moderator Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Might as well be WORK :( Age: 56 Posts: 4,110	Similar scenarios like this have happened before and most, if not all, have been sorted out and rectified. They're a small team so when they're busy, they're busy and have to meet demands just like any other company, unfortunately when someone has an issue, they're not at their best and often customer relations can become dangerously stretched. Saying that though, they will sort your problems out, you just have to be patient and give them a bit of slack.

26 September 2018, 21:36	#6
E-Penguin Banana Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Darmstadt Posts: 1,213	Goods sold in the EU have a mandatory 2 year warranty, although I'm not sure if this applies to overseas sales. I suspect it's a case of being too busy rather than avoiding a warranty claim. The profit on an aca1233n isn't worth the time spent quibbling it.

26 September 2018, 21:49	#7
utri007 mä vaan Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Finland Posts: 1,653	IF I have undestand correctly ALL Icomp accelerators needs a timing fixes for A1200 computers? Let me ques, you have 1D4 and 2b motherboards? Am I right?

28 September 2018, 10:39	#10
Glen M Registered User Join Date: May 2017 Location: Belfast Posts: 750	Would be worth looking at the below and seeing if your motherboards have these CAPs fitted. My A1200 did and she would not boot with the ACA1233N fitted. After removing them she boots perfectly and is rock solid and has been for well over a year now. My board is revision 2B (I think its been a while since I've opened her). http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/File:A1200...be_removed.JPG

15 January 2019, 16:43	#11
Cooljerk Registered User Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Houston, USA Posts: 95	Just an update that this still is not resolved. I held onto the board for a while to try Glen M's recommendation, but it sadly made no difference. Around December, it was determined that I needed to send the board back to AmigaKit for them to inspect it, which I did. Our last communication was December 20th, which was when an AmigaKit tech named Chris confirmed they had received the parcel. Since his message confirming they had received the package, there has been zero communication from AmigaKit on my board. I have absolutely no idea what they are doing in all this time. Are they repairing the board? Are they checking to see what's wrong? Are they sending me a new one? Are they going to refund my money -- an option I DON'T want? Who knows? They won't reply to any emails since, and I've sent out several. I've asked for any sort of update -- just to know what's going on -- and my emails are being ignored. I can understand a small business operating on their own time, but nearly a month without any time to send even an email to customer to let them know what is going on with their return? Absolutely unacceptable. Since it looks like FOL is connected with AmigaKit, I return to this site to ask: What's the deal? Am I going to get a working ACA1233n or what?

16 January 2019, 14:47	#12
Cooljerk Registered User Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Houston, USA Posts: 95	Been sending daily emails now, still no replies. Example: "Hi Chris, Still haven't heard back regarding my item. Please give me an update. Best, Gabe"

16 January 2019, 17:18	#15
sneckburger Registered User Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: Wakefield Posts: 203	My coms with AmigaKit (Chris) have been really good. Have you been emailing the correct address? technical@amigakit.co.uk

16 January 2019, 18:11	#17
Cooljerk Registered User Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Houston, USA Posts: 95	Evidence of correspondence: As you can see, Chris is actually the one who initiated the email chain, so every reply has been to the address he himself originally contacted me with. His last correspondence: Chris has not replied to any emails sent after that one. So, to recap, they have my $200 Amiga card, confirmed they have it, and have gone completely silent since about what's to happen next. As I said, I have no idea what they are doing. Are they fixing the card? Sending me a new one? Initiating a refund? Who knows, they flat out won't answer any emails. Several sent, including one every day now, and no response at all. I notice just now that the ACA 1233n has been removed from the Amigakit website. This is all super disheartening, as someone who has spent thousands of dollars over the years at AmigaKit. Somebody tell me what's going on!

16 January 2019, 19:33	#18
demon-knight Blitter Join Date: Aug 2017 Location: England Posts: 50	I have had a similar issue with AmigaKit with my Indivision mk2cr, whilst I appreciate they are a small company, but they have had the hardware for 11 months and 2 weeks and despite a million calls and emails to them all I get is some lame excuse that its been sent back to get fixed and that they will get back to me which they never do. I dont hold out much hope of ever seeing it again, stuff like this just leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

22 January 2019, 19:57	#20
Cooljerk Registered User Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Houston, USA Posts: 95	Chris replied to me a few days ago, but unfortunately they went into my spam folder and thus I didn't see them. However, the gist of the emails were that the manufacturer behind the board no longer makes them, and thus they have sent the boards back to indivision (I think?) to repair the board. Apparently they were on vacation a while back, hence the lack of communication. Just posting here to keep a running log of the situation as well as to give Amigakit the benefit of the doubt and not just post the "bad stuff."

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)