A dude sent his ZOTAC RTX 5070 Ti back because the fans were making weird sounds, and the company hit him with a denial after finding scratches near the PCIe slot. The card was working fine aside from the busted fans, but ZOTAC said they had limited repair tools and claimed the scratch damage was beyond fixing. They gave him two options: take the card back without any fan repair or let them trash it for free.
The whole thing feels sketchy because the user dropped $40 on shipping for a fan issue, and ZOTAC went full CSI mode on the PCB instead of just swapping the fans. The card still functions perfectly according to the owner, and he is sending it to Gamers Nexus for a deeper look. This mirrors the ASUS drama where they denied an RMA for an RTX 5090 over similar nitpicking about cosmetic damage that had nothing to do with the actual problem.
The whole thing feels sketchy because the user dropped $40 on shipping for a fan issue, and ZOTAC went full CSI mode on the PCB instead of just swapping the fans. The card still functions perfectly according to the owner, and he is sending it to Gamers Nexus for a deeper look. This mirrors the ASUS drama where they denied an RMA for an RTX 5090 over similar nitpicking about cosmetic damage that had nothing to do with the actual problem.
