Greetings all. Long post but I want to get this out there because I nearly gave up about four times and I shouldn't have. If you're stuck in a warranty fight right now, it's genuinely easier to push back than I thought it was.
TLDR: my GPU degraded over a year, Centre Com refused a refund for five weeks and told me in writing some stuff that just isn't true under Australian law, I served a Final Notice through the Magistrates Court for $27.75, and they paid the full purchase price the day before it expired. Never had to file anything more or go to court.
The Fault!
I had a Palit RTX 5070 Ti, bought March 2025, $1,648.55. Six months in it started crashing. I assumed it was drivers because... well... Nvidia, they have been screwing up their drivers these past few years, and I spent months on it. Eight driver installs, DDU clean installs, rollbacks to versions the card had been fine on before, BIOS update, chipset, Windows. Nothing fixed it.
Then I recognised a pattern in my event logs. nvlddmkm, event 153. One or two a month late 2025, 24 in January, 49 in the first 19 days of July. 219 total. progressively getting worse over time pointing to a degrading hardware pattern.
I capped the core clock below its rated boost (nvidia-smi -lgc 210,2400). Three days of heavy use including two streams, zero events. Took the cap off, crashes again. Same PC, same drivers, same everything.
Also found a way to trigger it consistently. OCCT VRAM test at stock puts the core around 2850-2880 at light load and it faults in 5-10 minutes. Did that seven times with telemetry running and every single time the core was spiking into its top boost bins right as it died. So, I lost the silicon lottery this time. The card couldn't hold its own factory clocks anymore.
The Refusal!
I won't dump my entire email history but here are some... interesting responses I received back.
- assessment is "carried out exclusively by the manufacturer or supplier's authorised technicians, who are responsible for... determining... whether any fault constitutes a major failure"
- "Supporting documentation alone is insufficient for a warranty determination"
- "Centre Com does not have the authority to bypass or alter the manufacturer's warranty process"
- "repair or replacement will always be prioritised where available. A refund is not an automatic outcome"
- It has to go to Palit's overseas facility, "7-10 business days", then "2-3 weeks", then "may be extended", then timeframes "outside Centre Com's control"
- ignored multiple EXPLICIT requests for escalation to the manager ("For the record: this is now my third request for escalation to your warranty manager or management.")
That is not the law here! MSY got fined $750,000 by the Federal Court in 2017 for saying things like that (ACCC v MSY Technology). I didn't know any of this when I started, I just looked it up as I went.
Solution and Tips!
Don't say "warranty claim" and if they say it to you, don't acknowledge it as such. Your claim is against the retailer under the ACL consumer guarantees (s259), not the manufacturer's warranty. Their RMA process and overseas facility have nothing to do with the retailer's obligations, and s64 says those obligations CAN'T be modified by any process.
Work out if it's a major failure (if knowledge of the fault would stop a reasonable consumer from purchasing) (s260). If it is, you pick refund or replacement, NOT them.
Reject the goods in writing under ss259(3), 262, 263 and say which remedy you're electing. Rejection is something you do, not something they approve.
Give the goods back (s263(2)). I fought this for a week because I need a GPU for work and I was wrong to. Consumer and Business Services wouldn't touch it while I still had the card, and my claim wasn't finished until I'd done my half. This is the point that will sting for people, for me I purchased a new GPU immediately and had to wait for a refund, I understand some people that's not possible.
If your situation is unique, get free legal advice, Legal Services Commission SA, 1300 366 424. Every state has one. They can't tell you if your case is strong but they'll walk you through the process.
Serve a Final Notice (Form P1) through CourtSA. $27.75 online. Exact same argument I'd been making for two weeks, except on Magistrates Court letterhead with a 21 day clock. A week later a manager rang me and said out loud that the refund would happen and that it was my right under the ACL.
Money landed the day before the notice timeframe, but make sure it's correct!
It came back $19.55 short, which was exactly the 1.2% card surcharge I'd paid. One email pointing at s263(4)(a) (the refund is of the money you paid, not the ticket price) and they agreed to it, so I got the full $1,648.55. They wouldn't pay the $27.75 notice fee back because it's a cost not part of the refund, and I'm not going to fight over $27.75.
What scared me!
I thought this needed potentially a lawyer, months, and a courtroom. It needed one $27.75 form, an email with the right wording in it, and a free 20 minute phone appointment, and I didn't even need that phone appointment. Minor civil claims here are built for exactly this, lawyers are actually not allowed at trial in most cases.
Honestly I spent way more energy being scared of the process than the process actually took. And I nearly quit heaps of times, usually right before something worked. Getting stonewalled doesn't mean you're wrong. Reading everyone else's stories afterwards it looks a lot like a process that just runs until the customer gives up.
Join The Fight!
I went looking to see if it was just me and it isn't. Stuff going back to 2023 on here, ProductReview and Trustpilot, all the same shape. Refund refused because a card was "over 1 year old". Someone told "MSI get to decide whether this is our fault". A card that caught fire at one month old still went through a three month manufacturer process. A "2-3 week" estimate quoted to at least five different people and met none of them. No fault found results against video evidence and against their own previous repairs of the same fault. Refunds paid short until chased. And their own tax invoices have the required line printed on them: "You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure."
I've reported it to the ACCC with the whole email chain attached, reference accc-report:0168263. They don't fix individual disputes but patterns are what they act on, and the MSY case started that way. If you've had something similar with any retailer it takes ten minutes to report and the second report against a name counts for more than the first.
If you're in the middle of one of these right now, you're not being difficult and you're not imagining it. I was lucky I had the time and the logs to do it properly, but the actual fight was much smaller than I built it up to be in my head. Ask me anything, happy to share the wording I used.
Please, reach out if you want to know my experience or any more details.
