Soltek SL-PT880Pro-FGR: VIA Dual-Channel for the Pentium 4

Tech Support and RMA: Soltek SL-PT880Pro-FGR

Our support evaluation procedure tries to determine the reponsiveness 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.

We still cannot find Soltek's RMA policy on their U.S. website. Soltek lists sales/support operations in Taiwan, Europe, and South America, but there are no listings for offices in the USA. Soltek tells us that RMA requests should be directed toward the dealer who sold you the board. In the event of problems there, requests can be addressed to support@soltek.com.tw. The lack of an identifiable US office for Soltek is of concern, but we should also point out that our requests to their Taiwan headquarters were all answered promptly, and the Soltek staff was very helpful. FAQ's, downloads, and product information are available at the main site - you will be linked to this main site if you visit www.soltekusa.com.

Technical Support is also available by email, which is listed under "Contacts" at the main site. Soltek's tech support response time was not quite as good as we have seen in the past, but it was still excellent. Soltek Taiwan's response came in just 30 hours after our original email. The reply from the technical support representative was helpful and the advice given was useful and appropriate to the problem. The Technical Support Representative also came across as sincerely interested in solving our problem - something that is hard to measure, but always appropriate. In 3 recent Soltek reviews, the last 2 replies showed good technical grasp of our question, so it looks like Soltek Technical Support is improving in quality. The fast response times by Soltek in all 3 requests left a very positive impression of Soltek's commitment to customer satisfaction. We almost passed on even sending a request on this go-around because this board has not yet reached the US market. The danger in sending requests on pre-release products is that you will almost always get great response, since a request from the US on a pre-release board has to be from a reviewer. We did wait until the board showed up as a production model on the Soltek website to try to minimize this type of concern.

We reiterate our past advice regarding Soltek. With no US office, those who cannot find a local Soltek resource should send their Tech Support inquiries to the main site in Taiwan. If our experience is any indication, you will be pleased at the responsiveness that you will find in your contacts with Soltek.