I'm getting confused here about warranty.
If I buy an X9 motherboard from an authorized reseller, not from a shop, e.g. x9srl-f-0, even if its EOL/discontinued, Supermicro should provide warranty, and eventually any RMA, from the date of my purchase till 3 years later. Is it still right even for X9 EOL new mobo ?
You put forth an interesting question. They way you phrase it, and analyzing the warranty verbiage literally, I would think you would be covered. However, as a practical matter I strongly suspsect that would not be the case.
I think the warranty verbiage that applies here is:
This limited warranty applies only to the original purchasers of Supermicro's products who are direct customers or distributors of Supermicro ("Customer").
So, let's assume that you do purchase a new, old stock X9 motherboard (you have to be the original purchaser for the warranty terms to apply, right?), it certainly would not be from SMCI, so it would have to be from a distributor. My supposition is that any "distributor" who is still carrying X9 new, old stock has to be a grey market operator, and their purchase of the board from an "authorized reseller" would "count" as the original purchase. If that holds, the warranty would be void due to such.
Manufacturers intend warranties to be time bound, right? Perhaps as a bad analogy, what if the product at hand was a 1964.5 Ford Mustang that was never titled. Is Ford going to still honor the original warranty?
Reverting to a strict, literal interpretation of the warranty verbiage, I would posit that SMCI was doing us all a favor by allowing RMAs for the v2 ECO rework, as I suspect 99% of the individuals requesting this out of warranty service were not the original purchasers. Of course, SMCI was doing us a bit of disservice by advertising v2 compatibility for the board, without caveat as to PCB revision, as well, but that is another discussion.
Separately, I think we could all agree that SMCI's product documentation to be lacking in certain areas, but I would expect that a publically traded company would have much better authored warranty terms then are stated on their website. Certainly, you do point out an area where the warranty should be better authored, to reduce SMCI's risk exposure. Regardless of whether it could be argued that coverage should apply, SMCI can apply warranty terms (in this case) as they like, leaving only one of two avenues of recourse to obtain your RMA:
- File a civil suit in Magistrate Court of Santa Clara County. Not worth the expense, time, and effort; you may win but wouldn't you have been better off buying an X11 even at current DDR4 prices?
- File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I have no idea how that would play out, but it isn't something I would want to bank on.
That being said, there is a definitive way to answer your question, and that would be by asking your authorized reseller or SMCI.
And I'm actually curious - what authorized reseller is still carrying X9 boards?
[the above are just my thoughts on the matter and I may be entirely incorrect]
thanks (i realize yours are x9dri vs my x9dr3 but they are very similar)