1. PURPOSE

Avalue is to establish the following guidelines to provide customers with the best support and service.

2. WARRANTY STATEMENT

For those defective products which were purchased directly from Avalue HQ, Customer shall ship the defective product to Avalue HQ directly; for those defective products which were purchase from local distributor, Customer shall contact the local distributor to proceed the RMA process.

3. WARRANTY

3.1 Warranty period

Warranty periodAvalue warrants the product(s) to be free from manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship starting from the date of delivery, two (2) years for board-level products and one (1) year for system-level products.

3.2 Exclusions from warranty

A product will be excluded from warranty if：

• The product has been found defective after the warranty period has expired.
• The product is subject to misuse, abuse, or unauthorized repair, whether by accident or other cause. Such conditions will be determined by Avalue at its sole and unfettered discretion.
• The product is an outsourcing part or accessory not carrying Avalue brand name, including but not limited to power adaptors, LCD panel, touch panel, DRAM module, HDD, CF module, cables, etc. In this case, warranties are limited to the warranty provided by the original manufacturer of the part or accessory.
• The product has been reworked by the customer, or by a third party at the request of the customer.
• The product is damaged beyond repair due to natural disasters, such as by lightning, flood, earthquake, etc.
• The product in question is either software, or an expendable item, such as a fuse, battery, etc.

4. REPAIR PROCESS

Customer may obtain an RMA number through (A) eRMA system online on www.Avalue.com.tw , or (B) Avalue Distributors in the event that Customer intends to process the defective products by and through Avalue Distributor.

When requesting an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number, first contact an Avalue RMA service specialist, and describe in detail the problems encountered on the “RMA Request Form.” Error descriptions such as “does not work” and “failure” are not acceptable. Avalue will not start the repair process without detailed and meaningful problem description information.

In order to shorten the processing time, download the RMA Request Form from HERE; fill it out and forward it to your corresponding Avalue Representative. This form is also available from your Avalue Representative.

If the cause of the problem is uncertain, please contact Avalue Application Engineer (AE). The engineer may be able to find a solution to the problem and omit the process of sending the product in for repair.

4.2 Returning the product for repair

Please refer to the following procedure of processing RMA products.

4.2.1 Send board/system only, without accessories (manuals, cables, etc.). Remove any add-on components from the board/system, such as cables or wiring. If you include these parts because you believe they may be part of the problem, note clearly that they are included for this reason. Otherwise, Avalue cannot guarantee that such accessories will be returned to you with the repaired product. Please make sure that the "RMA Request Form" is enclosed with the product.

4.2.2 Please ship the products by express delivery: The customer must cover shipping charges for returning products to Avalue, Avalue will cover the cost of returning repaired products to the customer, provided said products were found to be in need of repair, and the products were still under warranty. Customer agrees to insure the Product or assume the risk of loss or damage during transit, to prepay shipping charges, and to use the original shipping container or equivalent. Customers may either seek assistance from the original dealer, or Avalue RMA service center.

4.2.3 Attach an invoice to the carton.

4.2.4 To reduce handling time, the customer should address the package directly to the Service Department by writing “Attn. RMA Service Department” on the outside of the package. Avalue will adopt the same shipping manner as Customer to ship the product back to the customer (e.g., if the customer uses express delivery to ship the product to us, we will use express delivery to ship the product back to the customer).

4.2.5 It is strongly suggested that you write “Goods with no commercial value being returned for repair” on the shipment invoice. Otherwise, additional charges will be levied by customs (which will be borne by the sender).

Please ship to Avalue Headquarters if you have purchased our products directly from us. Contact your local distributor if you have obtained our products from them.

Shipping address and contact person for Avalue HQ:

RMA Specialist
RMA Specialist
Avalue Technology Inc.
7F, 228, Lian-cheng Road, Chung-ho City, Taipei, Taiwan 235

Please refer to this operation flow for more information about RMA Process.

4.3 Service charges

Avalue will charge for repairing products if:

• The product is repaired after the warranty period has expired.
• The product is tested or calibrated after the warranty period has expired, and a “NPF” (No Problem Found) result is obtained.
• The product, though repaired within the warranty period, has been subjected to misuse, abuse, or unauthorized repair.
• Product was updated, reworked, or tests were done, at the request of customer, by a service technician not authorized by Avalue.

For out-of-warranty items and items which are defected by improper use or mishandling, a repairing fee will be charged. Repairing fee will be based on components expense (if any) and involved labor effort cost, provided that a minimum fee of USD $40 per unit will be charged regardless of the actual expense.

This warranty is limited to the repair and/or replacement, at Avalue’s sole discretion, of the defective product during its warranty period. Repaired or Replaced products are warranted for ninety (90) days from the date of repair or replacement, or for the remainder of the original product’s warranty period, whichever is longer.

We will return each unit with a Repair Report, which shows the problem description, repair solution, and repair test environment.

Calculation of service charge for standard warranty

Charge for service without warranty

Repair service charge = Repair Charge USD 40 + Material Charge

A “Debit Memo” will been sent that lists repair charges if any charges were incurred, after receiving your confirmation, proceed promptly to effect repairs. When you remit the funds, please refer to the P/I number listed under "Our Ref."

4.4 Repair Turn-around Time (TAT)

TAT definition:

For products manufactured in-house by Avalue, the TAT is as below:

(1)One shipment of less than 30 pieces; the TAT is usually 10 working days..
(2)One shipment of more than 30 pieces; the TAT will be scheduled and reported by RMA specialist.

Outsourcing parts or components will be sent to the original manufacturer for repair. This usually takes an additional 7 to 14 working days.

The TAT may be longer than usual if the customer:

• Does not sign and return the Debit Memo within 48 hours.
• Gives an insufficient error description, such as “does not work,” “failure,” etc.
• Has modified the original design of the Avalue product.
• Delays a reply or fails to reply to an Avalue request for further information (such as application environment and configuration).

4.5 Repair service for phased-out products

Avalue offers continuous repair service for products that have been phased out before the warranty period has expired.

Avalue returns product with a “Repair Report” that shows details of what was done to repair the product.

4.6 Repair report

4.7 Custody of products submitted for repair

Avalue will maintain possession for three months of products returned for repair while waiting for the return of a signed Debit Memo. If the customer fails to respond within the three month time period, Avalue will close the case automatically.

4.8 Shipping repaired products back to customer

Avalue normally ships RMA returns by express delivery. Upon customer’s request, Avalue will use a different service, such as UPS, DHL, etc., to ship products. However, the customer must bear any additional cost accrued by using an alternative shipping company. If you require any special shipping arrangements, please so indicate when shipping the product to us.

5. DOA (Defective on Arrival) PROCEDURE

Avalue normally ships RMA returns by express delivery. Upon customer’s request, Avalue will use a different service, such as UPS, DHL, etc., to ship products. However, the customer must bear any additional cost accrued by using an alternative shipping company. If you require any special shipping arrangements, please so indicate when shipping the product to us.

5.1 If the customer encounters any product malfunction or defect, please first contact an Avalue RMA service specialist. The specialist will make a preliminary determination as to whether the customer’s product deserves to be classified as DOA. If the product is classified as DOA, the specialist will arrange for a new replacement product to be shipped to the customer free of charge. Please note that Avalue will only replace product which is found defective within the first thirty days from shipment date provided said product was properly installed and used.

5.2 For products claimed DOA, the customer is required to ship the defective product back to Avalue HQ within five (5) days after being notified that the product has been classified as DOA. After receiving the defective product, Avalue will make a final determination as to the cause of the defect. Avalue retains sole discretionary power to determine if damage resulted from external forces, such as power line disturbances, boards being plugged in without powering off, or incorrect wiring, misuse, abuse, or unauthorized alteration or repair. If deemed necessary, Avalue will charge the customer for the cost of the replacement product.

6. Avalue Product Analysis Report Application Guidelin

6.1 A RMA report will be sent to customer along with the repaired RMA product.

The contents of RMA reports are as follows:

6.1.1 Customer’s Problem Description

6.1.2 Stauts of Confirmed Problem

6.1.3 Malfunctioned Components and Locations List

6.1.4 Malfunction Cause Analysis

6.1.5 Repair Testing Process and Instruments

6.1.6 Suggestions on the Preventive Corrections

6.2 In the event that the client has special request of QA analysis, QA will base on the following standards to decide whether to accept.

6.2.1 Defective rate exceeds 3% of the individual shipment or 2% of the total shipment. (The definition of “total shipment” means the entire shipment quantity counted retrospective for a year from the date of shipment of such NG product serial number.)

6.2.2 In case the same abnormal has more than three incidents confirmed by RMA analyst, the events shall be transferred to internal relevant unit and shall inform the customer.

6.2.3 It shall take 5-6 weeks to generate a QA analysis report because a further research and analysis is required by supplier/factory.

6.2.4 In the event that the customer requests to engage a deeper IC components analysis, the Failure Rate must be above 1% and shall also depends on the management principles and timelines of IC supplier to decide whether to accept the case.

6.2.5 The returned analysis sample from customer will not be shipped back until the analysis report is completed, therefore the TAT will be longer, in case the customer has an emergency request of use, it may contact Sales or RMA specialist to arrange a replacement.

6.3 After preliminary analysis, in case the RMA Specialist suspects that the BGA chipset is damaged, the BGA components will not be replaced instantly, instead the whole board will be sent to IC supplier to conduct analysis and provide analysis report.