Intel Customer Story

When customers call us, one of the questions we standardly ask is, "Are you calling for home or company use?" The customer that I'm writing about told me company use, then let me know he was "self-employed" as an attorney.

After I ask Gary what I can help him with today, he starts telling me a story of how Intel has ruined his life. He said that he had a N440BX Intel serverboard that never worked and he has replaced hard drive after hard drive since he purchased it in 1998. Gary told me that he replaced the board and even the second one failed, therefore proving that all Intel boards have problems. He even said that the board was discontinued abruptly, so Intel obviously knew about the problem.

He complained that the product never worked and the law firm he opened closed down because of the problems with his Intel product. Because of this, he demanded that Intel provide a new computer to him or else he will file a class-action lawsuit against Intel.

Here's the thing: Intel is extremely good at providing RMA's (or returns of defective product). Even if your motherboard or processor isn't broken but you think it is, Intel will send you a new one. However, you must do this within your warranty period (which is 3 years for retail products). Gary, my lovely customer, was calling me 2 years after we ended all support for the product. While I did ask him why he was calling now, he never answered my question. (By the way, the product was a Pentium 3 board supporting a 600mHz processor...basically old technology).

When I told Gary I couldn't do anything for him, he again threatened a lawsuit, even a class action one(which I don't understand how he'll do that since he's the only one with the problem) and again reminded me he was an attorney. I said, "That's great!" He said that he was giving Intel ample warning and he hung up. Bets are now on for the high-priced Intel lawyers or this Georgia unemployed lawyer.