This is not the first time Zotac has faced criticism over hair-splitting a warranty claim. Back in December 2025, an RTX 5070 Ti owner’s RMA was denied after Zotac said it had found an “irreversible” crack in the PCB near the PCIe connector. The company attributed the damage to external mechanical stress and suggested that the customer file a claim with the shipping carrier. Zotac later offered to dispose of the graphics card at its facility if the customer did not want it returned.
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Kunal Khullar Social Links Navigation News Contributor Kunal Khullar is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. He is a long time technology journalist and reviewer specializing in PC components and peripherals, and welcomes any and every question around building a PC.
Roland Of Gilead That's kinda sickening if I'm honest. The warranty should really only kick in once the item is sold to consumer. I mean it's not like the GPU was in use or had been used, it was boxed and new. Including the time that the GPU is in it's original packing and not being used, is a bit of a joke. Reply
BillyBuerger I've seen this myself in some sense when buying laptops from MicroCenter. It's all been Lenovo laptops and ones that are usually a bit on the older side as they are more reasonably priced. It's not unusual that after purchasing and registering the laptop with Lenovo to extend the warranty from 1 year basic to a 3 year on-site, it will indicate that the warranty is already a few months in. So in these cases, it seems the warranty started from when MicroCenter imported the laptops and not when I purchased from them. That said, I've never had one where the original warranty was already expired. And when registering it, it would show that. The fact that Zotac did not indicate to this customer that it was already expired was shady. But it's also on the seller as they should be aware and make sure their customers know if a product they are selling is already out of warranty. Reply
artk2219 Roland Of Gilead said: That's kinda sickening if I'm honest. The warranty should really only kick in once the item is sold to consumer. I mean it's not like the GPU was in use or had been used, it was boxed and new. Including the time that the GPU is in it's original packing and not being used, is a bit of a joke. Unfortunately Zotac is not alone in doing this, Asus has pulled this crap with me on multiple occasions on things that i bought direct from microcenter. It sucks, and its a fight that you shouldn't have to have to get the warranty service that comes with the product. I know it definitely bodes well for the warranty service on this PC that they are offering. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/case-mods/usd14-000-gaming-pc-features-70-handcrafted-titanium-cherry-blossoms-which-unfurl-as-temperatures-rise-zotac-designed-rtx-5080-system-features-impressive-sculpture-and-an-eye-watering-price-tag-to-match Reply
SkyBill40 Vendors don't want to be bothered with having to replace cards that now cost an elevated (and some quite absurdly) amount due to shortages and a move to newer hardware despite what their terms stipulate. And some of the language used is purposely misleading or difficult to decipher so that they can duck situations precisely like this one. I'd say this is less about Zotac, although it's a pretty crappy look for them, and more the industry standard at this point. Reply
derekullo As the company motto goes … Nobody RMA's The Zotac! https://i0.wp.com/midwestfilmjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/You-Dont-Mess-with-the-Zohan.jpg?fit=1400%2C700&ssl=1 Reply
PEnns So, by this crooked logic, it is possible then that one could buy a brand new GPU that's already out of warranty! Should one sue the retailer (for selling an item that's already out of warranty)? Or Zotac for having this carpy sneaky loophole to get out of honoring the full warranty period? Or both miscreants?? I'd would haul both into a small claims court if this happened to me (in the US)!! Reply
emike09 Just remember, WWED? What Would EVGA Do? Reply
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