Albatron PX865PE Pro II (865PE): It's Springdale Time

Albatron PX865PE Pro II: Tech Support and RMA

For your reference, we will repost our support evaluation procedure here:

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. If we do eventually receive a response after the review is published, we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.

Albatron is barely a year old, formed by ex-Gigabyte and AOpen personal, but impressively enough this little company has really stepped up big despite its relatively young life. One of these areas is Albatron's tech support, which is simply a thing of beauty. We received a response from Albatron's tech support in just 25 hours and 13 minutes, an excellent time that easily beats out all the top tier desktop motherboard manufacturers. We've experienced similar results with Albatron's tech support before. In fact we once sent three different emails to Albatron that all ended up being answered within 14 hours. This may not come as a surprise to some, given that smaller motherboard manufacturers such as Albatron are usually more meticulous with tech support; they have to be to differentiate themselves from the bigger motherboard makers. It's still good to know that Albatron's top notch customer service is still going strong.

You can email Albatron's U.S. tech support at support@albatronusa.com or contact them directly by dialing (714)-893-8113 ext. 128. Albatron also lists their international contact information on their "Service and Support" site and by clicking their "contact us" hyperlink, which is located on the right-hand side of their home page.

Albatron's RMA is equally as impressive as their tech support. They clearly and explicitly state their RMA policy (and an RMA form) on their website (which was just redesigned today). We are delighted to see such a well formatted RMA form, which includes asterisks highlighting which information is required to fill out a proper RMA. If you'd like to visit Albatron's RMA form click here. It will you ask you to provide the following information:

1. Purchase date and invoice number.
2. Contact information.
3. Problems or symptoms.
4. Concise explanation why you're filling out an RMA.
5. Operating System.
6. Product Model.
7. Serial Number(s)

Albatron also leaves a very clearly marked RMA email address at the bottom of the page, rma@albatronusa.com, in addition to a U.S. tech support phone number, which is conveniently listed for a second time. Overall it was a joy to go over Albatron's tech support and RMA information on their new web site, as it is usually very difficult and laborious to locate such information on other motherboard manufacturer's web sites. By providing quick and easy to find and use RMA and tech support, Albatron easily ranks up there with the best motherboard makers in customer service and support.