Re: ANTMINER S3 Discussion and Support Thread.

I just got back from UPS to send my faulty board back to Bitmain. The guy at the counter was amazed that the label was for Express service, and he said that costs over $1000 to do that! If Bitmain would set up an advance replacement system (with a small BTC deposit for security against receiving the faulty unit), they could save that excessive cost in one direction of the warranty process.

I just sent them an email to that effect. It's a win/win - Bitmain could save a lot of money by only having to ship the replacement part on the expensive service, and use a regular (cheap) service to receive the faulty. The customer benefits by getting the replacement part first and won't have to shut down their mining hardware while waiting for the replacement (at least in cases unlike mine where they at least have a partially operable unit).

BITMAIN - PLEASE CONSIDER THIS! Not only is it pretty much standard practice for a lot of manufacturers, in this case it actually will SAVE YOU A SHIPLOAD OF MONEY. Add to that the side-effect of happy customers, I don't see how you can't implement this!

Can you give me a single example of an electronics manufacturer agreeing to send out a replacement part before they receive the defective part?!?! Certainly not standard practice.

Also, companies that ship large amounts negotiate rates with the carriers directly, NO WAY that costs bitmain anything close to $1000!

For me HP and DELL sends replacement parts in advance.
They even sends new non-refurbished part in advance and takes the faulty parts in return.
They never asked me for any security deposit or credit card.

If you're doing that through the company you work for, HP (don't know about Dell) does that more than likely because your company has a maintenance contract with HP. For those without maintenance contracts, HP will send the replacement first if they can charge your credit card / your company's credit card, and then upon return of the defective unit they'll credit your charge card with whatever credit amount is stated for return cores. Been there, done that, many many times (with HP).

No maintenance contract exists or any Credit card validations. It was only covered under warranty. I got like this many time.
Once the courier guy forgot to collect the return from us and left the return slip to us.
Later after 2 weeks I got a letter from Dell asking to return the product or pay the product cost.
Also got call from Dell to remind me about it. I then returned it the faulty product back to them.

Under warranty explains it. Try getting replacement parts from HP outside of the warranty period and without a maintenance contract. They won't be sending you anything without you paying for it first, then they'll reimburse you the credit for the core return value.