HDX card not recognised - repair fee?

[jacko]

It took AVID around 3 months to actually look at the card after I sent it to the appointed dealer back in November 2018. And I used paid ULTIMATE support plan to get in touch with Avid regarding this. By far it is the slowest customer support I have ever experienced in my life. During 3 months when the card has been held by either Avid or the dealer I have been given contradicting quotes for the repair ranging from free to over $1300. When I finally agreed to get the card fixed for $850 plus VAT at the beginning of January, I received the information at the end of February that the card would not be fixed by Avid. Here is their statement:
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"After the first inspection by our repair team it appears that the HDX card with serial number BLDJL33600208D has signs of having been heavily intervened by the previous owners (the face plate, shroud and fan are missing, it also looks like some components were desoldered and removed from the PCB). These modifications seem to have been performed in order to convert the card into an E3 Engine compatible HDX card which is a non-reversible transformation, and the signs of usage show that it was used inside of an E3 Engine. In other words, the card had been modified to change it’s functionality as a Pro Tools HDX Card into an E3 Engine HDX Card for Live Sound which is a process we can no longer reverse. In addition to all this, the card is no longer repairable due to the level of damage."
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In the past few years I have been becoming more and more disappointed with Avid and the way they handle relations with their customers. I almost purchased an S3L for live shows, but the support was dropped only a few years after they announced it. So I went with Allen&Heath dLive instead (fantastic decision by the way). Regarding Pro Tools I have had a very successful studio career with 3 different HD Accel and 1 HD Native systems that I owned for past 13 years. I've been hang up on HD Accel because I liked low latency with the external analogue outboard. But recently I decided I would learn Reaper, thinking that it would be nice to have another inexpensive DAW for quick work. It turned out that with high quality Thunderbolt interfaces it works superior to Pro Tools HD Native regarding latency compensation (for example automation touch moves are compensated in Reaper!). But I was about to give Avid another chance with an HDX system. I made a stupid mistake purchasing an HDX for spare parts or repair on eBay, but I have never suspected the card would be refused to be repaired by AVID. Adding to the fact it took them 3 months to actually look at the card, I decided that I need to distance myself from a company that doesn't care at all about little clients like me. Everything Avid makes is too expensive compared to the competition and the gap between modern solutions and outdated Avid gear has increased over past few years. What really surprised me in all of this was the inexpensive Reaper DAW. I thought I really needed Pro Tools for my workflow and I believed Pro Tools almost flows in my veins. I've worked in Pro Tools HD every day since 2006. I built a house and a studio with money earned using Pro Tools. But the past month when I did an experiment with Reaper, this turned out to be the biggest revolution and revelation in my workflow. Moving settings between sessions, advanced automation - everything is there. And there's plenty of features in Reaper that PT doesn't have. I can be more productive and I can earn more money with my skills now. The situation with slow and poor support from Avid only made this easier and freed me from any regrets I could have had.

[DetroitT]

Used for repair not working. 1st clue

So did Avid charge you for this unique DOA diagnosis?

I m glad to hear the resolve thank you.
I feel for you that the seller didnt describe the failed-hack they sold you.

Did Avid offer a refurb trade in?

Thanks for sharing the whole process.

[jacko]

Originally Posted by DetroitT

Used for repair not working. 1st clue

So did Avid charge you for this unique DOA diagnosis?

I m glad to hear the resolve thank you.
I feel for you that the seller didnt describe the failed-hack they sold you.

Did Avid offer a refurb trade in?

Thanks for sharing the whole process.

Avid refused to repair the card presenting the included picture with missing PCB components. They said they have a policy of not repairing cards that were modified by third party. They didn't offer any replacement. They sent me a quote in January and I was getting ready to pay $850 + 23% VAT for the repair but this was later refused by Avid when they have finally got a look at the card at the end of February.

The only thing that I am sorry for is lost 1k EUR for purchasing the damn card "for repair". Of course I advice anyone not to ever go for such a purchase, as Avid will not fix cards like these.

HDX cards are becoming more an more obsolete and I could have been more patient - I have seen some good ones going for as low as 1200 EUR. Also, the length of this attempted repair is suggesting in my opinion that some seriously bad things are happening inside the company. $850 is most likely still a lot more than what these cards cost to manufacture and to import from China. It puzzles me why wouldn't they offer a refurbished card, even after they caused a major 3 month delay before they even looked at the card.

Saying farewell to Avid products is a big relief. I have only started working in Reaper (4 weeks in) but I am already much faster and I'm earning better money. In fact I have already recouped the loss of 1k EUR. Think people, you may be more productive if you look elsewhere.

[BScout]

Went to the junkyard and bought a crushed Toyota because it was cheap.
Called the Toyota dealer and asked them to fix my “broken” car.
They offered to do so for a price I thought was expensive but I sent it in anyway.
Dealer called and said they wouldn’t do it for any price because the “car” isn’t even a car anymore but junk metal. They wouldn’t even do it for the price they suggested which I thought was too high.

Can’t believe the dealer didn’t offer me a used car. Or wouldn’t honor the price they suggested. It’s definitely Toyota’s fault for my decisions.
I’m so much happier with this other car I found. Toyota will never see any of my money (that I never spent with them anyway because I gave it to the junkyard dealer.) Toyota is the worst.

[jacko]

Originally Posted by BScout

Went to the junkyard and bought a crushed Toyota because it was cheap.
Called the Toyota dealer and asked them to fix my “broken” car.
They offered to do so for a price I thought was expensive but I sent it in anyway.
Dealer called and said they wouldn’t do it for any price because the “car” isn’t even a car anymore but junk metal. They wouldn’t even do it for the price they suggested which I thought was too high.

Can’t believe the dealer didn’t offer me a used car. Or wouldn’t honor the price they suggested. It’s definitely Toyota’s fault for my decisions.
I’m so much happier with this other car I found. Toyota will never see any of my money (that I never spent with them anyway because I gave it to the junkyard dealer.) Toyota is the worst.

I own two Toyotas. Anything breaks, I go to the dealer and they repair it for a price. They don't offer me destroying the car on site after keeping it for 3 months, only because it's missing a few parts. They put the missing parts back on the car, they name their price which is around 1% of the car's price. They don't offer repair flat fee which is 30-40% of the new car's price. They don't force me to buy a new car. They happily, quickly fix my 20 years old Toyota for a fair price.

Toyota will see my money for many more years to come.

[BScout]

It didn't "break"
You bought destroyed hardware to save a buck. You should be mad at the guy you bought it from. You should be seeking restitution from that guy. But I'm sure they sold it to you "as is" and you thought you were being clever. Pretty clear how that turned out.

When the price of repair is more than the cost of the hardware, it's considered "totalled". If you take a car in with a missing engine and transmission or the previous owner drilled holes through the engine block, your dealer isn't going to give you a 1% price to fix. If you still don't get that it didn't break but was modified and destroyed by the previous owner, then you will never realize that this isn't a tale of "woe" but a story just showing how naive you are.

There are genuine people who have complaints with Avid (and HDX repairs are far too expensive and the warranty too short but they were as well when they were TDM cards) but this is just ridiculous. Avid isn't forcing you to buy a new card. You sent them scrap/junk and now want something working. Cost is the same as if you didn't just send them obvious junk.
Maybe I'll send them a used coffee filter and ask for an HDX card back.

(To be clear, I was on your side until all the obvious details came out through this thread. Then it became clear it is all on you.)

[Southsidemusic]

OK then my friends!

Let’s leave this thread ”as is” now please as everything that needed to be said has been covered and will only result in bad blood continuing the road this has turned into so .... Please leave it and use this as a warning to others not to buy stuff that is too good to be true as that never turned out good for most.

Edit: except for YYR123 (Daniel) and BarryJohns who both purchased their D-Command main units for around $1K and were in great shape and worked great. This was a few years ago when those still commanded atleast $3000 or there about so yes you CAN get a serious deal off Ebay but don’t take an unnecessary chance if you can’t afford to risk loosing the money.

Peace out

[jacko]

Originally Posted by BScout

It didn't "break"
You bought destroyed hardware to save a buck. You should be mad at the guy you bought it from. You should be seeking restitution from that guy. But I'm sure they sold it to you "as is" and you thought you were being clever. Pretty clear how that turned out.

When the price of repair is more than the cost of the hardware, it's considered "totalled". If you take a car in with a missing engine and transmission or the previous owner drilled holes through the engine block, your dealer isn't going to give you a 1% price to fix. If you still don't get that it didn't break but was modified and destroyed by the previous owner, then you will never realize that this isn't a tale of "woe" but a story just showing how naive you are.

There are genuine people who have complaints with Avid (and HDX repairs are far too expensive and the warranty too short but they were as well when they were TDM cards) but this is just ridiculous. Avid isn't forcing you to buy a new card. You sent them scrap/junk and now want something working. Cost is the same as if you didn't just send them obvious junk.
Maybe I'll send them a used coffee filter and ask for an HDX card back.

(To be clear, I was on your side until all the obvious details came out through this thread. Then it became clear it is all on you.)

I wasn't naive because this isn't the first time I'm buying things on eBay. I have saved 10s of thousands before loosing 1k now. You're reading too much into the situation, missing the whole point, using childish comparisons. A PCIe card which runs in a computer, shows up in the system profile, is not even close to a totalled car from a junkyard. Suggesting that I might be not a genuine person proves only one thing, and it is related to you as a person, not me. Please think what it might prove about you, when you say such things.

The biggest issue and actually a very serious one with Avid as a company in this case is that the card was inspected after 3 months of waiting. That's a horrible service. Also the card is missing a few components worth probably $5, maybe $50. I have seen worse cards replaced by Avid (completely dead ones) in the past. You're mentioning old TDM cards - they had a much lower repair fee than $850 - something close to $300 if I remember correctly.

In the past people were buying MIX TDM "as is" cards to trade them in for a discounted price for HD Native systems. Maybe this card will serve that purpose one day - who knows?

And of course my advice to everyone is that never buy HDX cards "for repair". Avid will not fix them.

[LDS]

It's a highly predictable outcome, Jacko. So much so, that if you had have mentioned that your card was highly modified and sold 'for parts' on eBay when you started this thread back in November, that most people would have probably told you to throw it in the bin and saved you 3 months!

I don't think any manufacturer will repair a device that was damaged after someone intentionally tried to modify it to save a buck. Doing repairs like that just encourage more people to pull out the soldering iron and have a crack! It sounds like Avid partly rolled out the red carpet for you, then slowly started retracting it when they began figuring out that the repair had been misrepresented and the damage entirely self-inflicted. Who knows, the card may have even been sent back to the mothership for inspection from fear of intellectual property and reverse engineering concerns.

We've all been there. Some gambles pay off. Some don't. You live and learn. As my mother-in-law says "steer clear of the $h!t, and things won't stink!"