This is exactly why I hate it when brands don’t let us RMA directly with them or their authorized distributors.

Before I buy anything, I always check whether the brand allows direct RMA. From my experience, it’s usually the retailers that cause delays—some take forever to process returns. Meanwhile, when dealing directly with the brand or their distributor, I’ve never had an RMA take longer than 3 weeks, and most are much faster.

Here are a few examples from my own experience:

ASUS – RMA’d a couple of GPUs directly with them. Replacement usually arrives within 1 week; the fastest was just 3 days.

PowerColor – Went through their distributor for a GPU RMA. Got a replacement in 5 days.

ASRock – RMA’d a motherboard via their distributor. Got a replacement in only 2 days.

Zotac & Team Group – RMA’d directly with their distributor. If they had stock, I got a replacement on the spot.

There are a few other brands I’ve dealt with too, but I can’t remember all the details. Still, direct RMA has always been far smoother and faster for me.