[MinnowBoard] Not too happy

[Lionel, Steve]

Eric Owens wrote:

> I paid $160 (board/shipping) for a new MinnowBoard Max, from NetGate, on
> March 27th.  I received it close to 3 weeks later.   The board was
> defective, it wouldn't boot.  After trying different suggestions, with no
luck, 
> there was nothing else to try, so I went through the RMA process.  I
shipped the 
> board to CircuitCo on 4/21, another $10, they received it on 4/24.
Yesterday, I 
> received an email from them telling me they received my board and would
start 
> running tests.  Today, I received another email, saying they re-flashed
the board, 
>ran tests and the board checks out.  The following is a quote from the
e-mail that
>riled me up.    "There is no charge for the repair. However there is a $9
shipping fee. 
> We will send a PayPal request to your email. Would you like to proceed?"  

Been there, done that. I bought five boards from Mouser, one of them was
defective. Got the same demand for a $9 shipping fee, which had not been
disclosed at the outset of the process. I managed to convince CircuitCo to
waive the fee in my case, but I think it was inappropriate to charge it in
the first place. The defective board even was missing the CPU heatsink, so
the QA on these things must be minimal.

I understand CircuitCo is a small operation, but I have dealt with even
smaller manufacturers who will replace initially defective products for
free. I did not feel good about the process, but at least I got a board back
that worked (and now had a heatsink).

Steve
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