Ram crisis: shoppers left high and dry as memory prices skyrocket

A global memory RAM shortage is causing chaos, with consumers facing unexpected losses and allegations of shady practices by retailers. The situation highlights a breakdown in consumer protection laws and raises questions about market ethics.

Goran's $155 ram purchase turns into a nightmare

Australian PC enthusiast Goran recently purchased 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM from Umart, a major hardware retailer, for $155 AUD (approximately $95 USD). A year later, the RAM started failing. Under Australian law, retailers are obligated to offer a replacement or refund if a product fails within the warranty period due to a manufacturing defect – the customer gets to choose.

Goran took the faulty RAM back to Umart. Despite having the RAM in stock, and after confirming the issue with PassMark software, Umart refused a replacement. Instead, they offered a refund of the original purchase price. The problem? The same RAM now costs between $500-$600 AUD – nearly four times the original price.

“I’d lose the RAM entirely unless I paid four times more,” Goran explains. He sent the defective RAM back to Corsair, the manufacturer. To his surprise, Umart claimed they had shipped the RAM to their supplier and issued a credit instead of a replacement. When asked about the value of this credit, Umart was evasive.

The situation escalated when Goran’s story caught the attention of Hardware Unboxed, a popular YouTube channel. The channel began investigating and uncovered similar complaints from other customers regarding Umart. The pattern? Instead of replacing faulty RAM, the retailer refunds the original price, keeps the working RAM, and resells the defective units as