After Micron withdrew from the consumer market, some Crucial customers are now having trouble getting their defective RAM modules or SSDs replaced.
Micron had, however, promised to continue providing after-sales service for Crucial products despite its withdrawal from the consumer market. Announced in December 2025, this withdrawal was intended to allow the company to focus its resources on data center-related activities, which are driven by demand for memory and storage for artificial intelligence and are far more lucrative than retail sales. Micron stated at the time that warranties and support for Crucial products already sold would continue.
In reality, the situation now appears significantly less favorable for some customers. Several reports indicate that requests for replacements are now met with a simple response: Crucial reportedly no longer has any stock available. In some cases, the manufacturer is therefore offering to refund the original purchase price rather than providing an equivalent product. This solution may seem logical when the product is no longer in production, but it becomes significantly more problematic in a market where the price of RAM and storage has risen sharply. Complaints thus describe cases in which customers were offered refunds significantly lower than the current cost of an equivalent product.
The issue is all the more sensitive given that some customers claim they initiated the RMA process expecting to receive a replacement, only to learn—after shipping their equipment—that the replacement was ultimately no longer available. Several recent accounts mention prolonged delays, replacement orders that were created and then canceled, and, in some cases, the inability to recover the defective product once it had been processed by customer service. Crucial, for its part, explains that since it has ceased its consumer business and its replacement inventory is depleted, only a refund of the purchase price is now possible in certain situations. However, with an original price of $241 for a DDR5 kit purchased two years ago, the refund offer is laughable: the kits now cost over $650!
The contrast is therefore particularly striking for products covered by extended or even lifetime warranties. On paper, Micron does continue to honor Crucial’s warranties; in practice, the lack of available products seriously complicates the promise of replacement. And with the skyrocketing prices of certain memory components, getting back the amount paid several months or years ago doesn’t necessarily allow you to buy an equivalent replacement. So while the warranty isn’t necessarily being eliminated, its practical value may be significantly reduced for the affected consumers.
