Asus RMA experience and my rights

Yeah, those things are a PIA to deal with, but since it worked out that Asus replaced the laptop in the end - gave you the compensation that they were able to deliver and you asked for, maybe be a bit more appreciative than condemning of Asus.

There a plenty of reports from other makes of this never happening, so it could have gone a lot worse with another brand.

Running up the return count until you get a replacement can take a long time. 6 returns is pretty much unheard of, at least I haven't heard of it.

Maybe expensive laptops aren't a good fit for you?

I know I run into people all the time that complain about things I'd never complain about, and they are unhappy with the smallest imperfections and blemishes in their laptop, when it's running great - OC'ing great, and cooling fine when tuned.

I've seen such people go from laptop to laptop, brand to brand, never happy or able to be happy with what they get over the years I see them complaining.

Just a thought to consider before laying out big $ for another laptop, from any brand. Maybe there are more enjoyable and rewarding things for you to spend big $ on?

 

@PredatoR_TR
I think you mistaking me for somebody else.
My laptop was purchased in US (where I live) i MicroCenter store.
Actually store was willing to help, but Asus refused extend my warranty (which run out while laptop was in Repair Center for 3rd RMA)

@hmscott
I've been using laptops since 2001, many models from different brands (altogether about 15 laptops).
This was my fifth Asus and was happy with brand, until I've meet their Customer Service/Repair Center.
Never in my entire life I've experience so much incompetence.
Just for example: after first RMA laptop return with overheating problem (was running fine before) and missing G-Sync.
So, was send right back for second RMA and you know what they was trying to fix in Repair Center - AMD FreeSync.
Yes, in laptop with Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU, they were looking for AMD FreeSync ! (I got paperwork from them to proof).
Laptop was for five repair RMA's (sixth was for replacement) overheating issue never was fixed, not only this always returned with something else broken.
Replacement Asus send me is not brand new, is refurbished, not only this, they first trying to replace my laptop with lower tier/specification than mine.
Only after I've told them that I'm taking them to Court finally I got decent offer for replacement.
After seven months without laptop (first RMA started on March 7th) I should be grateful - seriously?
For me Asus is DEAD BRAND, I'll never buy or recommend anything with their logo.

 

Wow, in the USA this happened? Hard to believe Asus customer service in the US has degraded that badly, sad to hear, sorry again this happened to you and I can understand why you'd not want to get involved with that process again.

Good luck with your next laptop.

 

Yes, Asus Murica and their "famous" Repair Center in Texas, but whole experience (sadly) felt more like third world country.

 

The Asus repair depot used to be near Silicon Valley in Fremont CA, last time I used them, and they were aok back then.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience with your RMA with ASUS. I believe the one in Texas is possibly a contracted repair center (outsourced), therefore repair quality can be spotty sometimes but it shouldn't be this bad.
Fremont one was also contracted but the repair center is a notebook company anyway so they were specialized.

 

I'm actually saddened that many so-called 'first world countries' (as people in those countries would see them) don't actually fit into that category at all.
UK is supposed to be a 'first world country', and yet it seems on par with the third world in many aspects.
People love deluding themselves basing their responses on 'high GDP' or 'economic growth' (which mean very little), all the while, the countries infrastructures, social and consumer services are in a state of decay or falling apart... not to mention other dreadful things that happen to services that most people are supposed to rely on.

Here in UK, Asus doesn't even have an official repair centre. They simply delegate the RMA to third party companies, and there is 0 possibility of actually speaking to someone on the higher up who might be able to resolve the problem.
Actually, I got in touch with maybe 1 individual from Asus who genuinely tried helping me, but the laptop never went to that repair centre I'm afraid... if it had, things might have been different.
But the idea that you even need to speak to someone on the 'higher up' who is more 'competent' is not my idea of 'good customer service'.
The reps/agents you speak to should be able to help out with these things anyway and go out of their way to help you as much as possible.

 

How many of you guys returning are ocing your laptop? I just find it hard to believe I’ve had four asus laptops and never had to rma one. Maybe it’s because I don’t overclock?

 

I highly doubt overclocking was the issue...

I for one didn’t overclock infact I had to bios mod my at the time brand new Asus X550LNV’s GPU to disable boost clocks because it caused massive stutters because the GPU kept hitting power limits and Asus refused to fix it, all they had to do was either up the power limit or reduce clocks in a new bios update or OEM modded GPU driver. I highly doubt just because people had issues it was due to overclocking. Shoddy construction and quality control issues were the main issue for me. Key caps falling off despite great care and internal build on mine was just lazy with a plastic sheet seperating the keyboard’s bottom metallic part from the motherboard on a $700 laptop. I’ve seen cheap Chrome books built better than my X550. They said a bulging keyboard deck was within normal quality limits. As of 3 years since purchase it no longer charges.


Dell on the other hand, I buy a $700 7567 refurbished base model with 1050TI, 1080P display and no SSD and I complained of uneven core temps and after two attempts at a repair guess what they give me a $1,400 7577 with 4K display, 512GB SSD and a 1TB HDD and double the Ram with 2 day shipping. Dell even for minor issues in my experience has done a much better job of customer service even for refurbished units.

Asus in my experience their customer service is almost non existent. It doesn’t mean every model sucks there are some good ones like the ZenBooks but if you run into trouble it’s not a great experience with customer care or servicing. Even before the FTC recently enforced its rules Dell allowed people to change parts (ie WiFi card, HDD, RAM) without voiding warranty unlike Asus who said even changing ram would void it lol.

Latest shipment numbers show Asus having dropped further sales wise while Dell and Lenovo are still up there.

They do make good motherboards and routers though.

 

Yes, I have purchased a Dell myself, so far dealing with tech support has been a plus

 

Well, I've had 8 Asus laptops now, with only one needing RMA (many years ago now), all the rest have been "flawless", but then again I've rejected 3 or 4 at the retailer before buying them over the years for various reasons.

A couple for screen reasons, one for "cleanliness" - it was a floor model, one because I changed my mind after initially setting it up - got the next model up.

I overclocked all of them, didn't re-paste any of them as they all undervolted enough to run without thermal throttling, and I OC'd the CPU and GPU as part of the initial testing - most of the time I ran just off the top OC for their entire lives, without any problems during my ownership and the ownership beyond that I was involved with. So no, undervolting and OC didn't cause any issues.

My RMA experience consisted of a couple of phone calls setting up a Will Call RMA, getting the call that the parts were in and I could drop it off, then getting there early that morning and asking if I could please wait for it to be done, they did it in a couple of hours, and I walked away happy.

But, I've helped a lot of people in the intervening years with their RMA's gone bad, and sometimes Asus RMA locations around the world can be "disappointing".

I quickly learned to recommend people be ready with benchmarking tests, gaming tests, inspections that cover functionality of all ports and features, and to do all of that within the first few days of ownership.

The buyer can decide quickly whether they want to keep the laptop or not - so they can return it within the 72 hours to 30 days sellers return period, so they don't incur restocking fees or be stuck with it and have to go through RMA to fix problems.

Doing the acceptance testing quickly but thoroughly really helps avoid RMA after purchase.

As far as RMA down the road, just be careful with your laptop and don't go mucking about inside on your own.

If it's running hotter than you like return it within the return period and get another unit of the same make / model, or do more research and find another laptop to purchase.

At most, do software tuning, undervolting and fan curve tuning to get rid of any top end thermal issues, and if software tuning doesn't work, return it within the return period, don't get all "Home Improvement" on it, return it and let the original maker fix it and sell it "refurbished" to someone else, let them deal with the "RMA" times.

These simple things to do when buying a new laptop, and resisting the urge to "disassemble" your perfectly good working laptop to "improve it" really help avoid a lot of disappointment and long drawn out pain.

Happy to hear you have had untarnished good experiences with Asus like I have. It can happen, and I've met many with the same experience.

 

I also want to write that after RMA of my G701VIK, I insisted on Asus and I bought G703VI. One of the best laptops I have ever used. No issue at all. I love it.

Sometimes you just get unlucky or, you read the reviews, watch videos (like me) and still make a bad choice by buying a low star or % laptop and then you have headaches.

 

Thank goodness the DELL support seems Ok based on some of the posts here. I am hoping my first ever gaming laptop would come from them. And it appears ASUS is out of my radar now.

However, it is still a bit concerning that this sort of thing could happen in the US of all places. I am planning to buy my laptop from the US And have it bundled with an international warranty to hopefully get enough security with my product. In my nation... Lets just say most of the retailers would refuse to honor your warranty even if you are still well within the warranty period, stating that it is working as intended or the customer must have done something to the product. Most of the time, those retailers who do accept your unit for repairs while under warranty would still charge you for the parts and shipping of said parts (they say only the labor is free) because the replacement parts would come from the original manafacturer and not from them and their warranty does not cover international shipping. You could also forget about getting a replacement product.. It is very rare for that to happen in my nation as far as I am concerned.. There are retailers that would repair the laptop for free under "their warranty" only if the laptop was bought directly from their store and their warranty essentially means they would be the ones to open up the laptop and repair the parts themselves without having full authority from the original manafacturer...most of the time, they do not even replace the parts, just trying to essentially band aid the original parts in the unit to make it "functional". And if it does not get fixed.. Well.. Too bad. You would have to have it shipped back to the original manafacturer and you would have to pay for it all. If you are lucky or if you have a good contact within the retailer, you might get a replacement but it is highly unlikely cause most of these retailers only have a 7 day return or replacement policy. Warranties here suck and the government usually does not want to go after big companies who have lots of money.