Scan UK’s new 48-hour hardware replacement program is genius

(Image credit: Scan UK)

Returning faulty hardware purchased from Scan Computers UK just got potentially easier and faster. The UK retailer announced a new 48-hour return policy, dubbed R48, that promises to ship out product replacements of qualifying items that are still under warranty within two days of receiving the busted part.

This is basically an in-house RMA program. For example, let's say you purchased an Asus GeForce RTX 2060 Super Dual Evo graphics card and it gives up the ghost six months later. Rather than initiate a return with Asus, you can process an RMA with Scan and receive a replacement within 48 hours of the retailer receiving the faulty card.

"Here at Scan we understand how frustrating it can be to have a faulty part. Be it your GPU, motherboard, mouse or monitor, R48 has you covered. We have developed R48, our 48hr replacement policy alongside our key partners to give you the best returns/replacement experience.," Scan UK says. "Every partner has its own replacement policy for faulty components, resulting in an inconsistent turnaround time. R48 means we will dispatch a replacement to you within two working days of receiving the product back at Scan."

Scan UK is working with several popular PC hardware brands, including AMD, Asus, Cooler Master, Corsair, EVGA, Intel, NZXT, Razer, Samsung, Zotac, and others. That said, not every product qualifies—the ones that do are easily identifiable by a "48-hour replacement" badge.

At a glance, it appears there is a big selection of products that qualify, at least among the participating brands. Unfortunately, there is also a large selection of products that do not, including every Gigabyte and MSI item. Scan UK said it's working to add more manufacturers, so it's worth checking out from time to time when shopping for a new part.

As expected, there are some caveats. Products returned and found to be in working order are not covered by the program. And if Scan UK does not have the same item to replace it with, it will "need to offer an alternative or the option of a repair." The program itself is free, though, which is nice.

Check out the R48 page for more details.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).