Corsair is cutting corners
I have been building computer systems professionally since 1990. Before that it was merely a hobby. Through the years I came to trust certain vendors for parts more so than others. EVGA for their video cards, Antec Cases, Corsair RAM and Power supplies, Kingston RAM…. others come to mind but I am digressing. The point of this post is to explain what occurred that convinced me that continuing business with Corsair after 15 years and 1000s of reliable parts purchases is not in my best interest.
Corsair has begun to build and manufacture their own line of pre-built computers. This is a serious point of contention for their clients that purchase parts to build computers with professionally. They can of course exceed the buying power of any modest level builder or team of builders. I am not pleased about this but it was not quite enough to force my hand. You do not make money from your clients business to put further your own business when it is convenient for you to do so, by becoming their direct competitor. Very very bush league.
The final straw
The issue that ended it for me was a rather silly one. I have a power supply I purchased and use for one of my own personal computers, from Corsair. It is a very expensive high end AX860 power supply with a 10 year warranty covering parts and labor. I applied for an RMA for one of the cables for the unit. Five years of use had made the cable inflexible and brittle. I intended to transplant the power supply from the dated computer into a new build. I took a photo of the cable attaching it to the RMA request. I was informed that Corsair does not warranty items for usual wear and tear of standard use. Think about this for a moment. If they do not warranty any items for usual wear and tear of standard use, just what exactly do they warranty? If I put the item on a shelf in a storage locker for 7 years and then use it and it fails perhaps? After a time a higher level member of Corsair contacted me about the cable and offered to replace it free. I refused the offer. I do not want to be given special favor for having been a customer for years on a builder level. I want Corsair to reconsider their policy on warranty. The current one leaves considerable room for improvement.
Conclusion
If Corsair can not replace $5 worth of cables after five years of use, what if I have a client’s system that the PSU entirely fails on, what then? This totally undermines the validity of any warranty corsair might offer in my view. It also puts any future warranty or policies they MIGHT try to offer to counter the negatives of the current policies and procedures. Luckily I have only needed to RMA about 5 items to Corsair in 15 years and tens of thousands of parts ordered. Now they have lost my brand loyalty. I buy power supplies from EVGA and RAM from G.Skill instead. I trust those companies to make good on their warranties when asked to do so. I sincerely hope that your experiences with Corsair are better than my results were in this instance.