SP2200 Crackling Left Speaker

I bought a set of the Corsair SP2200 2.1 "Gaming" speakers from US.NCIX.COM on 5/6/12. I waited about 3 weeks before setting them up (a mistake on my part since I knew they would potentially come with the manufacturing defect), and shortly after (a few days ago), my parents complained of constant noise coming from the left speaker. My worst fear was realized. I normally take risks with known-defective products since I've been lucky thus far, but this time I lost the bet and received a set with the infamous left speaker defect that so many low-rated reviews speak of.

 

I filed for RMA (twice actually) and was told I would be getting a response within 24 hours. I actually didn't mean to file the RMA twice, but I found it odd that I didn't get an email confirmation or an RMA # for the initial RMA, so I thought someone went wrong. I filed a 2nd RMA and got the same thing, a message saying I'd get a response within 24 hours and nothing else. It's been a few days and I still haven't heard a thing from Corsair. I would've assumed there would be faster replies for a product that is both known to be defective and also comes with a flier explicitly stating not to RMA with the retailer should anything be defective.

 

I've been waiting patiently, and would wait longer, but tomorrow is the last day I'm able to RMA the speakers with NCIX. So what happens then if I'm still without contact from Corsair? My RMA deadline is up, and I've no acknowledgement by Corsair. Shipping these speakers back to NCIX's California warehouse would cost as much as the speakers, which would double the price I paid, essentially meaning they'd cost a price I would've never bought them at.

 

This is actually a secondary account I made, my original one (username Kantastic, as on TechPowerUp!, AnandTech, HardForum, XTremeSystems, Overclock.net, ArsTechnica, TomsHardware, etc) can't seem to post or PM. That account used to work fine as seen in this thread I made here. Am I being barred from posting on the forums to prevent negative publicity?

 

tl;dr: Received defective SP2200 speakers, 2 warranty requests go unnoticed, my previous account deactivated, retailer RMA deadline coming up.

Corsair's RMA process has nothing to do with NCIX's, so if you want to RMA through them I'd suggest you contact them ASAP tomorrow. You could also call Corsair tomorrow instead. Either way I'd suggest checking your spam folder as you should have gotten an automated email from the help desk system.

 

Your other account doesn't work currently because on October 16, 2011 you changed the email address associated with the account but never confirmed it. I've re-sent the activation link to the email address you changed it to.

Corsair's RMA process has nothing to do with NCIX's, so if you want to RMA through them I'd suggest you contact them ASAP tomorrow. You could also call Corsair tomorrow instead. Either way I'd suggest checking your spam folder as you should have gotten an automated email from the help desk system.

 

Your other account doesn't work currently because on October 16, 2011 you changed the email address associated with the account but never confirmed it. I've re-sent the activation link to the email address you changed it to.

 

I'm not going to argue about the activation link/email address fiasco. Maybe I was too damn lazy to open the email and click the link, or maybe it didn't come like the automated RMA emails didn't come. Searching my email history shows no emails from Corsair for activation.

 

I'm doing exactly as the included pamphlet suggests, to troubleshoot through Corsair and not NCIX. I have no trouble receiving an email from "Tech Support Express noreply@ CM" regarding my latest case # (RMA#1: 4714769, RMA#2: 4718531). I also had no problem receiving both activation links from " The Corsair Support Forums webmaster@ HoH", so I don't think the problem lies with me. My Gmail account has no filters or blacklists, so there is nothing preventing me from receiving automated emails from Corsair. I have nothing in my inbox or spam folder from Corsair aside from the manually generated emails containing my case IDs (both of which yield no results via the RMA Status section of the Corsair website).

 

I'll ring up Corsair tomorrow and ask these questions live. Thanks for the activation link.

/sidenote: accounts merged into Kantastic.

I finally received the confirmation email from Corsair saying my RMA request was approved. Unfortunately Corsair did not cover the return shipping, which would have been $25 minimum via UPS, almost $40 via USPS. Fortunately NCIX was willing to send me a courtesy label AND overlook the fact that the deadline was actually June 5th and not June 6th (31 days in May... *facepalm). I will be RMAing through NCIX and will be updating this thread on the condition of the replacement set of speakers.

New speakers arrived and were setup yesterday. They seem to function properly, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions. The original pair worked for a few days and started crackling, so I'll monitor this second set for a few days.

Was away for 2 weeks, but the speakers have held up fine in the 3~ weeks they've been used. Very satisfied with the replacement set, so this case is closed. Thanks for all the help.