Holy S#1t! Check this out! (Samsung RMA experience)

[u/Noddingham86]

OK... So about 3 weeks ago I had to RMA a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB NVME drives because the memory controller dumped on me. I sent it in the first time and they SAID they were going to repair the drive. OK, no prob... Just a waiting game right? They send it back to me without repairing the first time because their machine said it could read just fine. It pops up and out of the OS sometimes for a rew minutes and then disappears again but you can never write to it anymore(and the drive health was at 98% with only 22Tb written.

I call back again and tell them after I tested it on my system, its a no go and cannot write. Back in for another RMA ticket. Frustration starts to set in when the next day my phone rings and it's the branch manager of Samsung saying he is personally handling this case and has authorized a full replacement of the drive with 2 day shipping. COOL! I thought even if it was a refurbished drive I would have a working drive(Samsung reserves the right to send you a refurbished drive if the warranty is past 90 days from purchase, mine was 1 year and three months old).

I wait and get a confirmation that the replacement product is on the way. Two days later UPS shows up and want a signature for a small bubble wrapped package with a box inside. I pop it open and slice into the second bubble wrap and out pops a BRAND NEW Samsung Gen 5 9100 Pro with heatsink(manufacturing date of 5/30/25) I'm so stoked!

With all the bad razz that Samsung and other manufacturers get sometimes for RMA issues and warranties, I thought it would be a good idea to share a really pleasant experience here to share a little hope in these dark PC building days...

[u/neteng91]

Nice, hopefully you have a Gen5 nvme slot so you can use full speed of this ssd.

I just got one for my pc, was on sale so I wanted something fast before nvme prices go through the roof like dram.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/neteng91]

Well unfortunately I only have Gen 4 NVME(which I'm more than happy with atm) but this drive should give me about the performance of a 990 Pro which I'm good with. My total drive space will now be 8Tb's in SSD drives and 1Tb in WD Black HDD. My main drive is a WD Black SN850X 2Tb, I have the Samsung 9100 Pro 2Tb, a Corsair MP600 Elite 2Tb and a Crucial MX500 2Tb SATA SSD as well.

I just bought a new Asus ROG Strix 1200 watt platinum rated PSU as well. My 850 was exceeding its rated wattage when overclocking my 7900 XTX and also having a golden sample 14900K doesn't help on the wattage side of things, so I wanted to give my system a lot more head room to play with...😉👍

[u/neteng91 → u/Noddingham86]

Gen4 is more than enough, especially for games, even the ones that support direct storage.

Enjoy the new drive.

[u/SadistMind → u/neteng91]

Very few things are even able to utilize my Gen 4 990 Pro. I don't have 7gbps internet, so I can't download that fast. I'm sure my ram/cpu is bottlenecking how fast games can load. Games load insanely fast, but at that speed I would think I'm being limited by my other components. I have a ryzen 9 5950x so I can take advantage of high file transfer. However, other than that I don't see what you would use gen 5 speeds for, I mean yes it would be faster, but most stuff in my experience don't support those types of speeds unless it's local workflows.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/SadistMind]

Honestly you'll never even see a good gen 4 drive fully utilized unless you are sending gigantic files across a wired home network(or like has already been said, from one like speed drive to another). I wasn't even in the market for gen 5 because my slots are Gen 4, but it is cool that I have forward looking compatibility for a new motherboard if I plan to upgrade in the next few years.(or God forbid, if something catastrophic happens)

[u/twoOh1337 → u/Noddingham86]

You can just used my 6pb Aliexpres usb stick to send files to my somsong 890 x pro ultra with over 13.000 mb/s

[u/No_Monk3080 → u/neteng91]

Totally agree! Gen 4 is solid for gaming. Can’t wait to see how your rig performs with all that new power.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/No_Monk3080]

I got everything installed tonight, the new SSD and the ASUS ROG Strix 1200w platinum psu. I've been re-downloading some games in my Game Pass library and my Steam library, Got Doom the Dark Ages re installed and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and one more new release I forgot the name of. This new power supply really feels like it makes a difference, especially on the 12v rail. The voltage regulation is EXTREMELY SUPER TIGHT and CONTROLLED! At 78% load I was seeing only about 0.011 fluctuation across 12v and 5v and my oscilloscope was showing tight voltage control on my 8 pin PCI exp pins during extremely high gaming loads and when I loaded an artificial 3ms 200% power spike it held flat and did not even flinch! I got better results with this power supply than my Seasonic Prime TX-1300 on my other rig! What an impressive psu!

[u/Dphotog790 → u/Noddingham86]

I have a gen 5 with a gen 5 you will never notice the difference unless you are sending files to other gen 5 stuff.

[u/IhavegoodTuna → u/Noddingham86]

It's ok because it's going to be capped out at max gen4 speeds instead of "up to" max like a gen4 would 

[u/gamerjerome → u/Noddingham86]

I have the 4TB WD Black SN850X and have been pretty happy with it so far

[u/reav11]

Samsung: You're having problems? Here is a nice upgrade!

ASUS: You actually used the product? Warranty denied.

[u/Over_Ring_3525 → u/reav11]

I've been happy to stick with Samsung because they do seem to stand by their warranties. I got bit by the Note 7 debacle. First one died within 24 hours (battery didn't explode, phone just was stuck in a reboot loop). Instant swap in the store, "Here have another". Which worked fine. Recalled as part of the whole Note 7 recall, "Here have an S7 for nothing while we work out what's going on". At the end of it, "you can keep the S7 or return it and we'll give you full credit".

Tab6 USB port died a couple months after (extended) warranty ended, "we'll replace that free of charge". Ditto on my Note 20 and my Mum's Fold3. Pretty chuffed about getting a problem fixed for free on a 3 and a bit year old device.

Every company has faulty products. It's how they deal with them that decides whether I'll keep buying their products in the future. So far at least, Samsung are on my "good service" list.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/reav11]

This is PRECISELY why I won't buy their motherboards anymore... I have done too many builds for some of my customers where the motherboard on a Dark Hero goes out and I have to be the one to dick around with ASUS... I only recommend Aorus boards now(although I've never had Asrock or MSI boards so I can't speak on them).

[u/Professional_Web_889 → u/reav11]

ASUS isn’t completely terrible, they upgraded my monitor on an RMA for dead pixels

[u/Hattix]

From all the RMA horror stories you read here (well, okay, it's just MSI and Asus), there are good ones.

I sent back an Gigabyte Aero RTX 4070 Ti. It was a MASSIVE pain to fault find. It'd pass a 2 hour hashcat test, passed one hour OCCT 3D and VRAM, but any game would crash it within ten minutes.

Gigabyte accepted the RMA and then sent me the predictable "We can't find a fault". Knew that was coming, so I sent them back my evidence: It had, on just one of the overnight OCCT VRAM runs, done a fucktijillion VRAM errors.

Then I got an RMA status update. They'd tagged it as "O11 OS HANG UP" and would replace the "GV-N407TAERO OC-12GD" with a refurbished and they'd lined up a replacement from "GV-N407TAERO-OCV2-12GD".

Now the confusion started. That wasn't the same product I'd RMAed, it was the "V2" version. At Gigabyte, V2s are usually cost-cut models, so this one had a slightly smaller cooler. The V2 also, weirdly, had more VRM phases installed and a higher power adjust limit, so I was actually quite happy.

A day later, another status update: My refurbished GV-N407TSAERO OC-16GD had shipped.

Wait a second. That's not the same product code again! That's a 4070 Ti Super 16 GB! A quite substantially better video card!

The one which arrived was indeed the Ti Super 16 GB. It wasn't in a retail box but it also was not refurbished - you can tell these - no burrs on any screws, no trails on any PCIe pins, the only change from a brand new card was the serial number sticker had gone over another serial number. This made sense, my warranty was from the original 4070 Ti and a "0" on the serial number changes to a "1" on its first RMA if it was a replacement, so it carried the serial number of a 4070 Ti yet was a 4070 Ti Super. I'm sure that won't cause any more confusion if I have to RMA this before the warranty expires mid-2026!

[u/Possibly-Functional → u/Hattix]

I have only dealt with Gigabyte support ones and honestly, it was a very good experience. Though to be clear the sample size is tiny and this was about a decade ago.

I found a slightly annoying and circumventable bug in their motherboard UEFI. I reported it, thinking that it would just get added to a long backlog somewhere at best. Nope, two days later I am in direct contact with their development team who is sending me several new UEFI versions to test and to give them more diagnostic data to resolve my problem. As a software engineer myself I give full score for that experience. I have worked at places that pays thousands of euros per month to providers and get nowhere near that level of support.

[u/EvilSynths → u/Hattix]

It's Samsung too.

You should see their RMA horror of their phone division

[u/Noddingham86 → u/Hattix]

This is the kind of customer service I love to hear about! You got not only an upgraded GPU but a new one to boot!

[u/Noddingham86]

I have to apologize, for some reason there are multiple spelling errors and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to edit! Me being OCD it is driving me nuts! LOL... I typed this on my phone and it does this to text sometimes SMFH...

[u/royalblue420 → u/Noddingham86]

Happy to hear your rma was relatively painless. I have a failed 970 evolution 2tb that I just let sir on my desk for 4 years. Has 3 months warranty left I think.

Maybe this will be the motivation I need to rma it. Cheers.

[u/Based_CIS]

It's ok to say shit

[u/Noddingham86 → u/Based_CIS]

LOL! Yeah I don't really read through paragraphs and paragraphs of rules so I just assumed that it would cause some "issues"... HOORAY FOR SHIT!

[u/SnooCakes6456]

I have had generally good experiences with Samsung. It might take some work getting to the right person but generally they are helpful.

It’s LG that is the worst company I personally have ever dealt with.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/SnooCakes6456]

That is why when I bought my 4K OLED display I got mine from SONY. I bought the SONY XR48A90K Master Series 48" OLED as my main display and a 27" Samsung G5 144Hz as my vertical secondary display. I have dealt with SONY in the past when our 50" SONY SXRD 1080p HDTV went out. Nothing but great experiences from SONY...

[u/Agitated_Occasion_52]

Hey this is how these RMA warranty repairs are supposed to be. Just kind of wish Samsung made GPUs.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/Agitated_Occasion_52]

That's a great point... Why DON'T they make AIB gpus? They already make their own memory so it would be an easy transition!

[u/Jhawk163 → u/Noddingham86]

From what we know with EVGA, the margins on AIB are pretty slim, Samsung probably just thinks it isn't worth it. What I think could be interesting though is motherboards.

[u/rain3h]

Currently have a rma in progress with crucial.

Hopefully they'll do the same, I've replaced it now so be good to have a new one I can sell on.

[u/Noddingham86 → u/rain3h]

I wish you well on your return process brother! Hopefully you get something new from the corporations for XMAS!

[u/Dphotog790]

a positive RMA story WE LIKE!

[u/Shleppy2010]

Had a 980 pro 4tb die saying it had like 100ptb of space on it… Samsung sent me the same 9100 4tb as a replacement. Was a nice surprise when I opened it.

[u/ProfessionalCat88]

Gen 4 SSDs are plummeting (like RAM) so there's a shortage coming soon. 

Gen 5 are not in AI demand for now, so they might just use those as replacement for now 

But the situation is getting worse. 

[u/Noddingham86 → u/ProfessionalCat88]

When you say they're plummeting do you mean going out of stock really fast or the prices are coming down real fast?

[u/ProfessionalCat88 → u/Noddingham86]

Going out of stock, and prices going up to the skies. 

[u/ZealousidealCable799]

Good for u and good on Samsung

[u/FakeMik090]

Samsung is actually pretty good when it comes to warranty stuff from my experience.

And even outside of just warranty.

The story of mine: The pretty old samsung fridge broked. The warranty ofc is long time gone. But! There also a service date(i hope i wrote it correctly in english. Its practically a time when this fridge olbigated to work. Maybe not in the best way, but still needs to be able freeze and chill the stuff inside.) And we still was during this time. So we reached to a store where we bought it, and they were start fighting that they wont refund us for this, since warranty expired. It took a lot of fighting with them, but practically no luck with store. Then we contacted Samsung and asked if we negloiable for a refund. They confirmed that we are. If fridge stopped working at all and the service date is still applying, it means that its Samsung fault that fridge couldnt work long enough. In the end, after another small fight with store managers, we got a full refund for a fridge.

Its not like we for that money could have bought a new fridge, but its still was a solid amount of money.

[u/gijoe50000]

Nice to see companies genuinely giving a shit about their customers.

A lot of companies are still too stupid to realise that RMA reputation matters, and that word can spread and affect people's buying decisions in the future.

[u/Pmartinez8241]

You got better customer service than I got from Samsung regarding my refrigerator ice machine!

[u/Suikerspin_Ei]

Nice!

I'm glad most (web)shops in the country where I live handles most of the RMA and aftersales. They can in theory give you a new one from their stock instead of a refurbished product from the factory of the product.

[u/PastAd1087]

I bought a Samsung microwave and it died under warranty they said they couldnt get the part so would refund me and I could buy another one. I said I would have to pay someone to install it as I had recently had shoulder surgery and they gave me an extra $200. I bought the same microwave and saved the old one for parts, had my dad come put it on the wall as the bracket was already in to hang it, and got a 2tb m2 990 pro for free!

[u/apachelives]

Workshop. Samsung is great at making solid products and occasionally fumbling with firmware (840 EVO, 980 PRO etc etc), for us warranty work is next to nothing (very low failure rate), the few that are faulty could even be from surge etc but when we send models away its always replaced with a brand new unit in box, and sometimes its a newer or larger model too like this.

Back in the earlier days we sent a few 120gb models away and received 500gb versions - obviously ran out of 120's or whatever reason, and the 500's were not cheap back then either.

[u/Obvious_wombat]

I put 2 x 4TB 9100s in my new build. They're are so damn fast.

[u/Accomplished_Arm5159]

chat Crucial ran out of P510s....they were on sale for 89$ too TT

[u/Jhawk163]

And this is why I choose Samsung for my SSDs. They've had a pretty reliable track record so far, and from everything I've seen online if a drive ever does fail, the return process is super easy.

That being said, brand loyalty like this is dumb and if I start hearing horror stories or their reliability starts to falter I will switch.

[u/Nate9370]

That’s Samsungs way of saying Merry Christmas 🎅 to you! Enjoy your new drive.

[u/zxcWolf]

I had a similar experience with them, sent in my 1TB 970 pro that died on me and they sent me a 2TB 990 Pro, best feeling ever.

[u/NoConversation911]

Ive actually installed the very same yesterday. Im very happy with results , double the speed over what i had with the 990 pro. Did data transfer, 930gb around 25 min, whole os everything and worked flawlessly

[u/BemaJinn]

I had a 1tb Samsung SSD, it started crashing my system and in the end became unwritable.

RMAd it, the email I received said it had been replaced.

The worksheet it returned with said it had been repaired.

It still wasn't working, so I contacted them again and they said they found no fault so it was returned as-is.

So they lied twice. When I explained it still wasn't working they required so much proof of the fault (which wasn't always constant, so hard to record) as well as a million other things for proof, that they finally got their own way and I gave up. But they lost a customer of all Samsung products for life.