Arinzé Hutchison

Over the last year, I have purchased dozens of cards across most brands in the US, new and used, from different retailers.

I've never had a problem obtaining an RMA for a defective card from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, or Nvidia, whether it was purchased new or used from an authorized retailer or third-party site.

Recently, I had to request an RMA for a card purchased used direct from Amazon. My RMA was denied, with the representative citing that I was not the original owner and that the card was not sold to Amazon in the first place.

I was confused since any other brand would have easily granted me an RMA. My assumption that Zotac would have at least a similar policy was wrong.

I looked at Zotac’s warranty policy and other brands with cards in the US and was extremely surprised to see just how lacking Zotac’s was. I actually thought it was just this bad on paper to discourage malicious RMAs.

Let's take a look at how Zotac’s warranty policy compares to other brands. Please note that some policies and procedures are not explicitly stated in their warranty policies but are gathered through chats with customer service and first-hand experience.

Zotac

A 2-year warranty with an additional year with registration within a month. Warranty is non-transferable. Original proof of purchase is required. Products purchased used from an authorized retailer or from a third-party carry no warranty. Additionally, any card purchased has its serial number linked to the retailer it was purchased from. Zotac knows whether a card was sold to Amazon or from their direct store. Also, if you purchased your card from their direct store, your email is associated with the serial number. That specific email/invoice can only be used to obtain an RMA.

Zotac sells refurbished cards to Newegg that have special serial numbers that carry no warranty from Zotac. Only Newegg's 30-day return policy is provided.

Any card that originates from another region can only be granted an RMA from that region. If you have purchased a card from Europe, you can only send that card to their European facility.

If you purchase a brand-new card that is dead on arrival, you will still have to pay for your own shipping label.

EVGA

A 3-year transferable warranty with no invoice is required. If your card is defective within one month of purchase, EVGA will provide a free shipping label.

The fastest RMA turnaround times I have experience with. A replacement card will be sent within 1-3 business days of your card's arrival to their facility.

MSI

A 3-year transferable warranty that either originates from the purchase date with invoice or the manufacture date if there is no invoice. No invoice is required for an RMA.

If your card originates from another region, you can contact their customer support and they will grant an RMA.

ASUS

A 3-year transferable warranty with proof of purchase. The RMA process is automated and is granted within 20 minutes of providing the relevant information. Additionally, if your card is damaged in a way that is not covered by the warranty, ASUS will ship it back to you for free, or you can pay to have it repaired.

ASUS sells refurbished cards to Newegg that carry a full warranty. ASUS also sells refurbished cards on eBay that carry a 90-day warranty.

Gigabyte

A 3-year warranty with an additional year with registration. Proof of purchase from an authorized retailer is required for an RMA.

Gigabyte sells refurbished cards to Newegg that carry a full warranty.

I have never had to RMA a Gigabyte graphics card that wasn't purchased new directly from an authorized retailer. Let me know if you have experience when attempting to RMA a Gigabyte card without one.

Nvidia

I do not have any experience with needing an RMA with Nvidia. Here is what I do know. Let me know of your experiences.

A 3-year warranty with shipping labels is provided. A non-transferable warranty with proof of purchase is required from an authorized retailer.

Conclusion

Most brands have warranty policies that either exceed or at least match the warranty policies of Nvidia, with the exception of Zotac.

Zotac has the shortest warranty of any brand. Their 1-year extension policy is anti-consumer and was clearly come up with in order to provide a shorter warranty. If I am purchasing multiple cards, am I supposed to sit down and spend an hour tracking the invoices and registering them?

Zotac also thoroughly tracks their cards to provide reasons to deny RMA claims. The fact that each card is tracked to each retailer, with even tighter tracking when purchasing from their own site, shows their stinginess in providing RMAs.

Zotac is currently regarded as the lowest-tier brand when it comes to purchasing graphics cards, and that is without taking their warranty policy into consideration. And this isn't without justification. Their RTX 3070 Twin Edge White OC still has an unaddressed issue of fan yellowing (every single card of this model has this issue with extended use). And Zotac will deny any RMA claim that relates to cosmetic damage.

They were also one of two (the other being PNY) brands that did not attempt to try to price their cards at MSRP at the height of the shortage. Other brands tried to keep their card prices as close to MSRP as possible. Zotac raised their prices quickly to absurd levels compared to other brands. Zotac would charge nearly 30% more for their retail RTX cards than any other brand. Some examples of this would be that their RTX 3090s would be priced at $2899 while other brands had a cap of $2399. They would price their RTX 3080s at $1399 while other brands maxed out at around $1199. Their LHR cards would also be cheaper than their non-LHR counterparts.

27 May 2021, 13:04

Here's what Chupapi Munyayo/Muñañyo means and where it originally started on TikTok.

Social media has long been a place where completely made up words and phrases can change the entire game and go viral within a second. Remember the Twitter era when Sco Pa Tu Manaa and Bomboclaat were all over the timeline? Or more recently, when Cheugy became a thing on TikTok?

Now there's a new phrase picking up steam on TikTok: Chupapi Muñañyo.

The phrase is pretty common in prank videos where someone sneaks up behind a stranger and says it out loud in their ear. But what does it mean? Where did it come from? And who started it?

There's an Urban Dictionary definition from January 2021 that says it translates to "suck my dick papa, oh! come on!". The entry breaks down the words within the phrase, saying that 'chupa' derives from a Spanish word that means 'to suck a dick', while 'papi' means 'father or papa' and 'munyayo' apparently means 'come on'.

However, there's a lot of debate over whether that's actually the definition. KnowYourMeme points out that 'Munyayo' and 'Muñañyo' "don't appear to have any direct translations from Spanish or any other language, suggesting it is gibberish".

The apparent creator of the word, @jaykindafunny8, even posted a video explaining how to spell it, in which he basically just combined the two popular spellings on TikTok to create 'muñañyo'.

Essentially, Chupapi Munyayo or Chupapi Muñañyo doesn't mean anything. It's just made up.

READ MORE: TikTok slang: A complete guide to the meanings behind each phrase

The earliest known use of the phase on TikTok was way back in July 2020. TikToker @jaykindafunny8 shared a video of himself going through a drive-thru, ordering an ice cream and smacking it on his forehead before driving away. In one of those clips, he says the word 'muñañyo'.

A few months later, he posted a prank TikTok where he sneaks up behind random people on the street and scares them by shouting "muñañyo" and then repeating the full phrase when they turn around to ask what's going on.

His entire TikTok account is now full of videos of the same prank.

Jay now has over 16 million followers on the app, and his #muñañyo videos get millions of views each time he shares them. The #muñañyo hashtag has now also garnered over 3.7 billion views as of May 2021 – although, most of those are Jay's videos.

READ MORE: What is the Hey Lol trend on TikTok? The meaning explained

If you’re not an Amazon shopping fanatic like myself, your customers likely are. There are 300 million Amazon users, and it’s estimated that 80 million Americans are Amazon Prime members! 80 MILLION! In fact, more American households have Amazon Prime accounts than attend church regularly or have a landline phone!

With so many users making purchases on Amazon, they know a whole lot about us…

“Google has search data, and Facebook knows interest levels, but Amazon has real power because it knows what people are buying and how they’re doing it,” says Shareen Pathak in Digiday.

So, why aren’t you advertising on Amazon to get more eyes on your products? If you’re all over Google Shopping, the Display Network, Facebook, and Instagram, well, there’s no better time to break into one of the largest remaining online ad networks. For e-commerce businesses, Amazon ads should be a no-brainer.

I’ve created this guide to walk you through the basics of getting started with Amazon ads to get more eyes on your products, and ultimately higher returns!

A multi-channel ecommerce strategy is an effective ecommerce strategy. Download our free guide to Google Shopping and start spreading your brand today!

Similar to how Google search works, when you type in a keyword in the Amazon search box and results appear, some of the top results will be sponsored posts – these are considered Amazon ads. They are denoted with subtle “sponsored” or “ad” text like in the image below.

Advertisers who want to gain more visibility to their products on Amazon can pay for these positions by bidding on specific keywords, which will lead to higher visibility in the Amazon SERPs. The advertiser will then be charged when a shopper clicks on their ad. You can essentially see Amazon’s advertising platform as the Amazon version of AdWords.

Amazon ads can also appear on individual product pages. For example, when looking at the water bottle below I can see an add for sunglasses on the far right hand side of the page.

As I scroll down the page, I’ll find even more ads!

However, there are many types of Amazon ad options beyond these sponsored search posts, some of which we’ll explore in this guide.

Are you selling a tangible product that consumers can purchase online? If the answer is yes, then the answer is yes, you should be advertising on Amazon! Amazon will just supply you with another way to get more eyes on your products and likely more buyers.

If you’re hesitant, then start small with a product that you already know sells well online. For instance, if you sell sports gear and tennis rackets have always been your top-selling online product, start with an ad for your top-selling racket. Once you start to see an ROI with this ad, incorporate more brands and types of rackets to expand your campaign.

Another compelling reason to advertise on Amazon is that if you’re doing Amazon PPC, your organic Amazon rankings will likely improve as well. “We’ve repeatedly seen that organic ranking has been considerably improved for those keywords that were used successfully in Amazon PPC ads,” says Sellics. “This is in part due to extra sales that have been generated by ‘Amazon AdWords’ enhancing the sales history of the product. Sales history is a very strong ranking factor. If a product sells better, then Amazon will place it higher up in the ranking of search results.”

So not only is it possible to boost your product sales by investing in Amazon ads, but it could also boost the organic rankings of your products. Could life get much better?

So how much do ads on Amazon run?

According to Rob Sieracki at Practical Ecommerce, the average cost per click on Amazon is rarely more than $0.35, making it more cost-effective on a CPC basis than search ads on AdWords or Bing Ads and comparable to some of the lowest CPC’s on Facebook ads or Google display. Considering that Amazon searches show a lot of commercial intent, those are promising numbers! (Later in this guide, we’ll share some tips to help lower your Amazon advertising costs.)

When you begin exploring Amazon’s public advertising information pages you might be a bit confused on the difference between self-serve and premium ads in the two sidebars shown below:

The simplest way to explain the difference is that self-service ads function like Google search ads displaying on the search result pages (like the screenshots I included above), where premium ads function more like display ads. While premium ads can still be found on Amazon, they show up as more visual banner and side bar ads like the one below. They can also appear on other websites, similar to how Google’s Display Network works.

To start advertising on Amazon you’ll first need to sign into your seller or vendor account.

If you don’t have either of these accounts you can check out their various pricing and plans to fit your needs here. If you’re a first-party seller then you’ll want to sign-up as a vendor, which is unfortunately by invitation only. If you’re selling via Amazon Seller Central you’re considered a third-party seller. Seller Central has pricing options for pay-as-you go for independent sellers vs. a pro option for those with higher sale volume. Pro merchant sellers also have the option of letting Amazon manage shipping, returns, and customer service, which is not a bad perk! Lastly, Amazon has a Vendor Express option that might be worth exploring if you’re interested in going the vendor route, but are lacking an invitation.

Once you’re logged into you’re signed up for the correct plan, you can log in to your Amazon account you start setting up your ad campaigns!

So you have some nice banner ads for branding purposes from your creative team that you’d love to promote, but you’re also looking to simply drive more e-commerce sales with Google Shopping like ads. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place because Amazon provides options! There are three main types of ads you can configure through Amazon including sponsored products ads, headline search ads, and product display ads.

Sponsored product ads operate similar to ads run through the Google Shopping Network. These are the ads that drive Amazon searchers directly to a specific product you’re selling on Amazon.

When shoppers click on your sponsored product ad, they’ll be directed to the ads product detail page. Sponsored product ads are typically displayed above or below the search results page, as well as on other product detail pages. These ads are keyword-targeted, and advertisers have the option of choosing from exact, phrase, or broad match types. Advertisers also have the control of setting a daily budget, as well as the campaign duration. While the campaign can be paused at any time it must run for at least 1 day.

Headline search ads display in the search result pages as headline banner ads always above the result listing, like the example below. These ads are cost-per-click, and lead searchers to any specified page on Amazon.

This landing page is typically a customized branded page like the one below that Casper Sleep directed me to when I clicked on their headline ad.

These ads are also keyword targeted, and can be used to promote 3 or more products together. Headline search ads also use a cost-per-click method where the minimum bid per keyword is $0.10. There are also only two keyword match-types supported for headline search ads – exact and phrase match. Lastly, the minimum campaign budget for these ads is $100, with a limit of $1 spent per day. Campaigns can be scheduled to run up to four months in advance.

Lastly, we have product display ads that work a bit differently then the two ad formats above. These ads are not keyword targeted, but rather interest or product targeted display ads. They drive shoppers to the products detail page and are also priced by a cost-per-click method.

Advertisers can select from a long list of products (for example, similar products to what you’re selling) or interests (for example, if the shopper is interested in running) to target these ads to relevant shoppers. It’s important to note that each campaign is limited to one target type. These ads can appear to the right or at the bottom of the search results, on the customer reviews page, at the top of the offer listings page, as well as in Amazon marketing emails.

Among all of the products on Amazon, you might be doubting that the platform could yield your business a return. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to stand out from the competition in the massive Amazon marketplace. It just requires going into it with an informed Amazon advertising strategy.

Here are six tips to get you started on the right foot.

If you’re an experienced AdWords advertiser this is something you’ve likely already mastered. You can use your AdWords organizational skills to structure your campaigns and ad groups with Amazon’s ad platform. The best strategy here is to have a separate campaign of each of your main product categories, and then under each campaign create ad groups that are more specific. For example, let’s say you sell women’s athletic wear; you might decide to start with three of your top-selling products:

1) Women’s workout pants

2) Women’s workout shirts

3) Women’s sports bras

Under each campaign you should create ad groups around more specific categories. For example, in campaign #1 you might have three ad groups – women’s yoga pants, women’s running pants, and women’s lounge pants. Then you’ll want to create a list of relevant keywords for each ad group (I’d recommend staying between 15-30 keywords per ad group). Finally, you’ll craft relevant ads for each keyword grouping.

A solid account structure will ensure your ads are relevant, which will in turn save you money and increase your ROI. This tip is an extremely critical one to reap the benefits of advertising on Amazon.

Check out this guide on AdWords account structure if you’re new to the game.

Ensure your ad text is not only accurate in terms of what you’re selling, but try and insert some creativity and humor into your ads if possible. Standing out is more important then ever amongst the cluttered search results of Amazon. Instilling a sense of urgency can also be helpful. For instance, if you’re running a sale or promotion make sure to highlight this in your ad like the one below.

Your ad copy should also be very specific in terms of what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling a water bottle I want to know how many ounces/cups of water it holds, if it’s BPA free, if it keeps my water cold for up to a certain number of hours etc. While it might be hard to expose all of this information in the ad text, it’s important to jam the most important information in there. The ad below is a great example of one that does this well because I know the weight, height, and what this product comes with from reading the headline.

When brainstorming keywords to bid on, don’t forget about your well-known competitors. For instance, if you sell backpacks you should be bidding on terms like “L.L. Bean backpacks” and “Northface backpacks” because these are well-known brands that are commonly searched for and purchased. This will allow you to gain exposure and pursue someone to buy your much cooler, less well-known brand name backpack.

To find your top competitors, do a generic search on Amazon for products in your vertical – say, “backpacks” – and see which brands come up the most in your search results.

While sponsored product ads might appear to yield the fastest and most visible ROI, headline search ads might lead to more loyal, repeat buyers. It’s worth experimenting with all three ad types to see which yields the highest returns, and then once your statistics can paint a clear picture you can re-allocate your budget based of the results of your campaign.

A regular expression (regex or regexp for short) is a special text string for describing a search pattern. You can think of regular expressions as wildcards on steroids. You are probably familiar with wildcard notations such as *.txt to find all text files in a file manager. The regex equivalent is ^.*\.txt$.

But you can do much more with regular expressions. In a text editor like EditPad Pro or a specialized text processing tool like PowerGREP, you could use the regular expression \b[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,}\b to search for an email address. Any email address, to be exact. A very similar regular expression (replace the first \b with ^ and the last one with $) can be used by a programmer to check whether the user entered a properly formatted email address. In just one line of code, whether that code is written in Perl, PHP, Java, a .NET language, or a multitude of other languages.

If you just want to get your feet wet with regular expressions, take a look at the one-page regular expressions quick start. While you can’t learn to efficiently use regular expressions from this brief overview, it’s enough to be able to throw together a bunch of simple regular expressions. Each section in the quick start links directly to detailed information in the tutorial.

Do not worry if the above example or the quick start make little sense to you. Any non-trivial regex looks daunting to anybody not familiar with them. But with just a bit of experience, you will soon be able to craft your own regular expressions like you have never done anything else. The free Regular-Expressions.info Tutorial explains everything bit by bit.

This tutorial is quite unique because it not only explains the regex syntax, but also describes in detail how the regex engine actually goes about its work. You will learn quite a lot, even if you have already been using regular expressions for some time. This will help you to understand quickly why a particular regex does not do what you initially expected, saving you lots of guesswork and head scratching when writing more complex regexes.

A replacement string, also known as the replacement text, is the text that each regular expression match is replaced with during a search-and-replace. In most applications, the replacement text supports special syntax that allows you to reuse the text matched by the regular expression or parts thereof in the replacement. This website also includes a complete replacement strings tutorial that explains this syntax. While replacement strings are fairly simple compared with regular expressions, there is still great variety between the syntax used by various applications and their actual behavior.

There are many software applications and programming languages that support regular expressions. If you are a programmer, you can save yourself lots of time and effort. You can often accomplish with a single regular expression in one or a few lines of code what would otherwise take dozens or hundreds.

Many applications and programming languages have their own implementation of regular expressions, often with slight and sometimes with significant differences from other implementations. When two applications use a different implementation of regular expressions, we say that they use different “regular expression flavors”. Unlike most other regex tutorials, the tutorial on this website covers all the popular regular expression flavors, and indicates the differences that you should watch out for.

If you are not a programmer, you can use regular expressions in many situations just as well. They make finding information a lot easier. You can use them in powerful search and replace operations to quickly make changes across large numbers of files. A simple example is gr[ae]y which finds both spellings of the word gray in one operation, instead of two. There are many text editors and search and replace tools with decent regex support.

If you’re hungry for more information on regular expressions after reading this website, there are a variety of books on the subject.

Treatment Options for Healing Paintball Welts · 1 Wash the bruised area with soap and water · 2 Apply ice to the affected area to reduce

Source: www.paintballusa.org