Latest Raptor Lake RMA story

[igor_kavinski]

https://www.overclock.net/threads/warning-intel-support-offered-refund-i-bought-new-cpu-then-they-revoked-it-and-ghosted-me-13900k-rma.1818382/

Spoiler: Reproduced here in case the story disappears for some reason

Hi everyone,
I’m posting this here because I know this community understands the technical side of things and I want to warn other 13th/14th gen owners about what’s happening with Intel RMA right now.
The Short Version:
My 13900K degraded (2nd unit). Intel Support offered and approved a full Refund in writing. Based on that official confirmation, I bought a new 14900K to minimize downtime.
Two days later, they revoked the refund without explanation, forced a standard replacement, and then ghosted me when I provided proof of their errors. Today, they silently CLOSED the ticket without resolving anything.

The Full Story:
1. The Failure
This was my second i9-13900K dying due to the known degradation issues (Vmin shift/instability). My system is a custom water loop, and I used exactly the settings suggested by them (Intel Default Settings) with the latest BIOS microcode.
Let's be clear: if you buy a top-tier CPU like this, it is unacceptable that you have to downclock it or live in fear of it breaking. I never abused the chip, I followed their guidelines, yet it failed again.
2. The "Refund" Trap
Since this was a repeat failure, Intel support themselves suggested the Refund option.

• I sent the invoice (from Alternate, a major authorized EU retailer).
• The Communication: I had explicitly told support that if they approved the refund, I would immediately purchase a 14900K. They knew my plan.
• I received the official email: "Your refund case has been created" (Case #06743940).
• My Action: Trusting this written confirmation—and needing a working PC for my job—I immediately purchased a brand new i9-14900K from another retailer (Caseking).
• Why I did it: I bought the 14900K to have a stable system waiting for the new CPU generations to launch, specifically to avoid being taken for a ride again by accepting another 13900K replacement that would risk degrading again. I wanted to break the loop of failures.

3. The U-Turn
Almost 48 hours later, I received a notification: "Refund denied. Proof of Purchase failed validation."

• They refused to explain why an official invoice from Alternate was suddenly invalid (after they accepted it to open the case!).
• They forcibly closed the refund case and opened a "Standard Replacement" case against my will.

4. The Lies & Ghosting
When I protested (because I had already spent money on the new CPU!), the "Escalation Team" (Agent Sonali R.) took over:

• The Lie: They claimed they "tried to call me" but I didn't answer. My call logs show ZERO calls received.
• The Ghosting: I sent them proof of their lies (call logs) and proof that my return package was delivered (tracking showed "Delivered" while they claimed it was "in transit").
• Result: They stopped replying. Complete radio silence.

5. THE END (Today's Update)
Just now, I logged into the support portal to check for an answer.
They have CLOSED the ticket silently.

• No reply to my urgent emails.
• No resolution for the money I lost relying on their approval.
• Just a silent "Case Closed".

They shipped me a replacement 13900K which I do not want and do not need, leaving me with a financial loss caused entirely by their handling of the case.
Conclusion:
This is how a multi-billion dollar company treats a loyal customer with a recurring failure on their flagship product. They promise a solution, let you spend money based on that promise, and then pull the rug out from under you.
Be careful if they offer you a refund. Until the money is in your bank, do not trust them.

 

[Grimlakin]

Wow thats shady as eff..

 

[igor_kavinski]

The funny thing is that since it's Italy, Intel will probably be successful in bribing the government officials. The victim is determined to take them to court, no matter the cost.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hope Intel enjoyed the money they saved. Doesn't seem like it's worth the PR hit.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Yeah. A measly $400 or so. I don't know the sales ratio of Intel vs. AMD in Italy but I guess they could've made an informed decision to screw Italians if most of them are already buying AMD. If I had the money, I would offer that guy $1000 for his CPU. Could very well be the rarest of golden samples. I frequent a guy's typewriter build thread. His 13900KS is a golden sample and he's never had issues with it.

 

[Denpepe]

A lot of entiteled whining about nothing, the CPU he bought will most likely die even faster then the 13 th gen he had, at least now he has a replacement for when that happens.

Otherwise sell the replacement one, it's new so should not be that big of a deal.

If he got nothing that would be another matter. Granted it's not great that they want back on their word and maybe he should have asked for a 285k which supposedly does not have the same defects.

Also what he should have done was go 12th gen if he wnated to stay on the same platform or change platform, not get another CPU that has the same issues or worse

 

[DrMrLordX]

A lot of entiteled whining about nothing, the CPU he bought will most likely die even faster then the 13 th gen he had, at least now he has a replacement for when that happens.

Seems like Intel suggested the refund in the first place, why can't they just stick with their own plan? It makes no sense. And now he has to sell a ticking time bomb to someone else.

If he got nothing that would be another matter. Granted it's not great that they want back on their word and maybe he should have asked for a 285k which supposedly does not have the same defects.

He would need a new board for a 285k.

Also what he should have done was go 12th gen if he wnated to stay on the same platform or change platform, not get another CPU that has the same issues or worse

Yeah but then he would be losing performance.

 

[LazyGamer]

Yeah but then he would be losing performance.

Anything other than 13th/14th-gen would be losing performance for gaming, unfortunately.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hope Intel enjoyed the money they saved

Did they though?

Since the story blew up last year, AMD has come to completely dominate retail. How many lost sales due to it? How many future lost sales? The reputation damage has permeated everywhere.
OEM/ODM ramped up AMD lines. How many sales did it, and more importantly, will it cost?
Prime example: Dell made a historic deal with AMD. AMD has already credited Dell for the appreciable increase in commercial sales, only months later.
Epic switched entirely to AMD. So have other businesses and educational institutions.
Intel had to set up a remediation service for OEM/ODM. It took a number of months and incurred considerable expense.
Who knows how many replacement CPUs they have already shipped at their expense? One OEM was failing as high as 30% of some SKUs during internal stress testing. Estimated as many as 10s of millions of CPUs in their inventory were potentially affected. How many more will there be? How much have they already lost, and will they still lose, issuing refunds.
Who knows how many loyal customers like the one in the OP, have sworn not to buy from Intel again, because they did them dirty? Hulk on Anandtech switching to AMD is a prime example of the canary in the coalmine. He was a true blue blood since day one.
The class action lawsuits are still ongoing. Also, I think several governments are still investigating. No one knows what all of it will potentially cost before it is over.

Doing the right thing from the start, may prove to have been far, far, cheaper.

 

[LazyGamer]

Doing the right thing from the start, may prove to have been far, far, cheaper.

I don't think they could have. Having core voltage fry the ring bus was a pretty unique failure mode - how is anyone supposed to track that down without a lot of samples? Especially since, without knowing it was the ring bus, the cores were absolutely fine to tank even more voltage. They were built for it. And we're still talking a sampling of CPUs, not every unit shipped - even if it hit some users harder, they have to correlate batches and so on.

Further I'd bet that management likely wasn't taking this seriously (tuners frying CPUs? is rain wet? etc.) until vendors got involved and brought hard failure data. I know I was dismissive of the first reports, since they also came from the OC community and you just cannot verify what someone has done to a CPU - and you really can't trust them to know themselves either. Monitoring voltages in real-time is very difficult and requires external equipment that is properly set up that most people just don't have.

So it took time, from what I can see, for them to figure out first what was causing the failures, and then, how to address the failure mode given how fundamental it is to the CPUs.

Imagine that this took Intel ~6 months, and here we are at ~9 months and we still don't know why AMD 9000 CPUs are popping. We just have an active ASRock sub with lots of claims and no data, and no statement from AMD or ASRock that the problem has been identified and rectified.

---

And that's not to throw shade on AMD, or away from Intel, it's just the nature of how complicated CPUs are and how difficult something that makes it past their rigorous qualification testing can be to track down.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

AMD did make a statement, so did ASRock. AMD blamed board makers for aggressive settings. ASRock said the issue was on their end and that AMD was not at fault.

On Raptor: 13th VIA oxidation. The big wig in charge of it, resigned around the time the story broke. Huge red flag. Those CPUs were never recalled. They were still on the shelves in 2024. Inexcusable. When Intel did know there was a major problem with all raptors, even if not precisely what, they should have done what MS did with the 360. I.E. issue a recall and take the L. FUBAR happens, it's part of the industry. How you handle it, defines the fallout or avoidance of it. To quote Indy Jones 3 - They chose...poorly.

 

[LazyGamer]

AMD did make a statement, so did ASRock. AMD blamed board makers for aggressive settings. ASRock said the issue was on their end and that AMD was not at fault.

Yeah, but it seems to still be happening.

AMD did make a statement, so did ASRock. AMD blamed board makers for aggressive settings. ASRock said the issue was on their end and that AMD was not at fault.

On Raptor: 13th VIA oxidation. The big wig in charge of it, resigned around the time the story broke. Huge red flag. Those CPUs were never recalled. They were still on the shelves in 2024. Inexcusable. When Intel did know there was a major problem with all raptors, even if not precisely what, they should have done what MS did with the 360. I.E. issue a recall and take the L. FUBAR happens, it's part of the industry. How you handle it, defines the fallout or avoidance of it. To quote Indy Jones 3 - They chose...poorly.

The oxidation thing was restricted to specific batches - yeah that one is indefensible. I was thinking that you were talking about the degradation issue that to my knowledge was never addressed in hardware and all batches are susceptible to if remedial action isn't taken.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yeah, but it seems to still be happening.

To far less than 1% of CPUs sold. And it is almost entirely an ASRock problem. AMD is replacing CPUs, ASRock is replacing boards. Consequently, there will be no fallout.

Going back to yet another Intel user having a bad time due to failing Raptor. It goes back to mid last year, in that customer experiences differ greatly depending on region and country. Most here in the U.S. have no issues with the RMA or refund process. Some other countries are a crapshoot.

 

[LazyGamer]

To far less than 1% of CPUs sold. And it is almost entirely an ASRock problem. AMD is replacing CPUs, ASRock is replacing boards. Consequently, there will be no fallout.

We have no way of verifying that. We have sampling from people that use Reddit that have been vocal about it, but that's basically the opposite of scientific. Hell we don't even really know that it's happening as much as reported - much of the noise could be targeted media manipulation. We just don't know.

Going back to yet another Intel user having a bad time due to failing Raptor. It goes back to mid last year, in that customer experiences differ greatly depending on region and country. Most here in the U.S. have no issues with the RMA or refund process. Some other countries are a crapshoot.

RMA is always going to be region-specific, unfortunately. Don't have that fabled One World Government to enforce a standard set of laws globally yet, do we!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

We have no way of verifying that. We have sampling from people that use Reddit that have been vocal about it, but that's basically the opposite of scientific. Hell we don't even really know that it's happening as much as reported - much of the noise could be targeted media manipulation. We just don't know.

Just as with the melting connectors; it is not happening to enough users statistically to raise any eyebrows. Likely never will. Zen 2 failures are much more prevalent than AM5. The 3600 in particular. They may have been lax with binning to meet demand. AM4 boards are aggressive with settings OOB, and the weaker silicon succumbs after years of use. That's my hypothesis anyways. I think the only reason the mob didn't grab their pitchforks or torches is that it usually takes so long to fail. They are out of warranty, and so there is no butthurt over a recently purchased CPU dying, or rejected RMAs and refunds. The other factor quenching the flames is probably that you can grab a 5500 for much less than you paid for that Zen 2 and drop it in your board.

Don't have that fabled One World Government to enforce a standard set of laws globally yet, do we!

Everyone knows Lizard people run the planet, duh!

 

[Denpepe]

Seems like Intel suggested the refund in the first place, why can't they just stick with their own plan? It makes no sense. And now he has to sell a ticking time bomb to someone else.

I find the refund strange since intel did not sell him the part and would also have to reimburse all other parties cut also, the shop he bought it should do that, not intel.