MSI K8N Neo Platinum: First nForce3-250Gb

Tech Support and RMA: MSI K8N Neo Platinum

Our support evaluation procedure tries to determine the responsiveness of manufacturers to Technical Support problems. Our procedure is as follows:

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first, we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We allow the manufacturer up to 72 (business) hours to respond, and then we will report whether or not they responded within the time allotted, and if they were successful in fixing our problems. In case we don't receive a response before the review is published, any future responses will be added to the review, including the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria upon which to base your motherboard purchasing decisions. As motherboards become more similar everyday, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews, so please do email us with your comments.

MSI's RMA policy lists some steps for you to take before filling out their RMA form, which you can access by clicking on the "contact us" link on their web site. Once you've done that, click on one of the U.S. locations, where you will find their U.S. RMA policy. For other countries, follow the same procedure.

Here are some of the things that MSI asks of you in order to make your RMA experience easier:

1. First contact the retailer from which you purchased the motherboard before contacting MSI.
2. Contact information is required: name, address, telephone, city, state, zip code, etc.
3. Provide item and serial number, and e-mail your RMA form to msirma@msicomputer.com.
4. You must mark the RMA number outside of the shipping box or MSI will decline your request.
5. RMA number will be valid for only 30 days.

There is little point in trying to measure Technical Support response time on a board that is not yet shipping. Clearly, it is all too easy to be very responsive to requests on pre-release boards, no matter how veiled the request, since the manufacturer would be aware that only reviewers would have the board. Therefore, we reserve our tests of response time to boards that are actually available in the market. MSI's tech support response has improved in recent reviews, and we have seen similar improvements where we have needed technical help form MSI. We will test the response time of MSI with a production board in the near future and let you know if the Tech Support has continued at those improved levels.

MSI's office hours are Monday through Thursday, from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM (Pacific Time); Friday's hours are from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. You can reach their tech support line by calling (626) 581-3001 or faxing them your questions at (626) 581-7221. Due to their busy schedule and the high volume of questions received, MSI strongly suggests that you start the process by filling out their "technical support request form".

MSI also provides tech support to countries in addition to the U.S. and Taiwan, such as Australia, Brazil, China, Czech, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, and others. MSI has improved their RMA and tech support in recent months, which we have been happy to see. Far too many motherboard manufacturers still lack quality service in the RMA and tech support department, and unfortunately, it often appears that the larger the company, the worse the service you will normally receive. MSI is a top 5 manufacturer, so we are particularly happy to see MSI improving in the area of Technical Support and the handling of Customer returns.