A merchant rejects a RAM exchange owing to a fourfold hike in DDR5 costs, asserting that the value surge constitutes an 'enhancement' for the consumer — an Australian seller withholds a replacement for a malfunctioning Corsair package.
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The persisting RAM chip crisis is crushing everything in its wake, and both merchants and memory kit producers are experiencing the impact each time they must substitute a kit covered by warranty. But some stores can be particularly vicious about this, as an Australian buyer says they discovered Goran when they returned a faulty Corsair 32 GB DDR5-5600 kit to Umart — one of the nation's largest specialist PC Equipment vendors — regarding a guarantee request.
According to a report covered closely from the Hardware Unboxed channel, the retailer accepted his defective DIMMs (purchased in 2024) and verified the malfunction using a PassMark assessment, yet subsequently informed Goran that he would not be getting a substitute set. Instead, it offered a refund for the original price of 155 AUD — a mere pittance, considering comparable kits now command between 500 and 600 AUD, or a 3.5x to 4x increase.
Although currently having numerous equivalent kits were available, the retailer informed Goran that a substitute would be an "upgrade." Had Goran accepted the proposal, he'd have needed to pay an additional 400 AUD or more for a matching set.
Understandably, he turned down the deal and referenced Australian consumer law, which is very comparable to the European regulations for these situations. In a simplified form, retailers are responsible for warranty claims and must replace or refund the defective item; then they take the issue to the manufacturer. When confronted by Goran, Umart went to the trouble of quoting the Australian Consumer Law but made a seemingly byzantine and twisted interpretation of it, reiterating that a refund at the original price was the proper remedy.
Savvy PC builders are probably thinking right now that at this point Goran could just save himself the trouble and head straight to Corsair's RMA page, as his set carries the usual manufacturer's limited lifetime warranty. That's when this story gets really interesting, as Umart displayed some serious chutzpa by effectively taking the DIMMs hostage.
The retailer stated it was unable to return the RAM since it was "forwarded to the authorized supplier," who "issued a credit in place of replacement stock." Consequently, Goran was no longer able to request a direct RMA from Corsair, but Umart may have gotten a refund at today's pricing and pocketed the difference. Even still, Goran soldiered on and sent all the information to Corsair support, which promptly went on radio silence for three weeks. At that point, Hardware Unboxed got involved to help clarify the issue, and even suggested providing Goran with one of their memory sets during the interim.
Corsair did end up replying to the channel stating that it was handling Goran's case — though the host naturally raised the question of whether the company had done because of the well-known influencer privilege. For its part, Umart essentially reiterated its existing position with a noncommittal statement posted as a comment to the Hardware Unboxed video. This did not resonate well with the public, and the channel responded by stating it has now gathered more comparable accounts regarding Umart's warranty services — it's fair to assume this narrative likely is not finished.
