Disaster G56JR Asus experience: They want to see the laptop break down 4x!

I purchased the G56JR Republic of Gamers gaming notebook in Switzerland for 1200 CHF , which is about 1250 USD right now. It has the following specification:

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Intel I7-4700HQ 2.4 GHz

12 GB Ram

Nvidia Geforce GTX 760M

Hitachi 5400RPM 450 GB

Windows 8.1

Two years pickup & return warranty
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Basically the first G56 laptop the electronics store Interdiscount handed over to me already had problem. The hard drive made coil whine/ grinding sounds. So they took mine in and told me to pickup an other one several days later. Then this machine had performance problems. It was just sluggish. Programs opened with delay and updates took over 20 hours to install while it's brand new. So I sent it in for repair this time into a Swiss repair center. One and a half week later I get the laptop back. They replaced the hard drive.
Couple weeks after, the system started to experience annoying 'hiccups' now and then during any task whether browsing or gaming, which intensified with the weeks passing. So it went into the repair center again. Two weeks gone and I receive my computer back with a new motherboard installed. The same day I see that the Windows Updates do not install properly when I try to. So I call the repair center again. I send in the laptop and they acknowledge their mistake of installing the wrong initial drivers for the pre-installation of Windows 8.1. Ten days of waiting and I get the G56 back. Couple months later the 'hiccups' return. So I decided to contact the call center of Asus headquarters in my region ( seperate from the repair center ) . And the man on the line just kept interrupting me and telling me it's normal for a gaming laptop to be on the slow side and that he knows of a 2000 CHF ( 2060 USD ) notebook that responds slow. He also told me that it doesn't matter whether you have a 5400 RPM HDD or an SSD in terms of performance in Windows 8.1...

Just a few days after that call my system stopped being able to restart or going back to it's factory settings. When I try to restart the system just keeps loading forever. And the factory settings option just gives me a black screen. This time I wrote Asus helpdesk an email, asking whether I could get a refund since the laptop is going into it's 3rd repair now. They told me that they want to see the laptop having been repaired for 3 external faults ( their own repair mistakes don't count ) AND it has to break down again. Only THEN will they refund the product...

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I purchased the computer 4 months ago and it has been out for repair for at least 1 month. And during the period that I had the notebook in my physical possession, at least half of this time the system was performing unstable and/or glitchy. On top of that I spend a minimal of 80 hours of my own time reinstalling and trying to find solutions my self to this mess online.


What I am doing now?

I am sending it out to the repair center for the 4th time.

 

An SSD vs 5400rpm drive will make a big difference. Hiccups type symptoms can be due to a few issues, too much ram usage, lots of HDD IO, errant programs sending out lots of requests and IQ conflicts.

You could try some basic troubleshooting yourself if it happens again.

It may also help to read up on your country's consumer rights and see if it covers you for anything,

 

The issue is, Interdiscount is your customer contact. If you had gone 3 times through them, then you could ask them for a refund or replacement. But as you've directly contacted the support center, they don't know about this.
So yeah, I recommend you to go to Interdiscount, take the repair forms from the previous ones with you and tell it them. Maybe they agree to replace it for you.

 

UPDATE

'' We don't know how to fix it... ''


I told my story at the InterDiscount shop where I purchased the laptop. They said that they can't do anything about it because ''it's Asus' issue and not ours''. I explained my story in writing to the Asus repair center. They didn't even reply. And I also wrote to Asus main center in Germany. They said that they MIGHT make a special case for me, if a hardware failure would be detected in the device...


Fast forward to now : 8 days have passed since I sent in the laptop for repair. The Asus repair center managed to forget my laptop for a couple days at their old office, because they were moving elsewhere within the same town. I decided to check the history status on my RMA. And it seemed that they have been in the 'analyze' phase for over 24 hours now. Usually the 'analyzing' takes no more than two hours. So I called the repair center to find out more. Turns out there is ''definitely a software problem, but we don't know how to fix it.'' And that's it... they literally don't know what to do...

Finally, I spoke to the Asus main headquarters in Germany via email, and they declined on being able to give me a refund despite that there is an obvious problem, detected by the Asus repair center, which does not allow me to use the machine in the first place.

...

 

You could try extracting the key and rather than relying on the restore you could get an ISO yourself and do a clean install to the HDD. Drivers can be found from the ASUS website. Try and run it clean and install any programs one at a time (to check if they are causing issues).

 

FINAL UPDATE

Hard work and justice prevailed


The notebook was sent back to me after the unsuccessful repair (see previous update). I took the laptop to the shop it was purchased at. Here I confronted one of the shop assistants with the obvious problem and out of nowhere they offered to 'repair it at our own center'. Strangely how they couldn't tell me this before. But any way, the laptop went out for another 1,5 week. They 'couldn't find any problem' and replaced the thermal paste, which didn't solve the software problems. Not sure why they did that. I brought the machine back to the store the same day after they gave it back to me 'repaired'. And about a week later I was offered a check to spend at the store (here it comes!) ... within 7 days or else I would lose all my money they said.
After this I started looking for legal advice online. And managed to find a government website which had the information I needed. It stipulated that ''any shop located in Switzerland that is unable to repair a product within a reasonable time frame must offer a full refund to the customer''. I brought this document to InterDiscount physically, and the supervisor, looking defeated ( after having spoken to him many times over the course of the last 5 months ) gave me money back. He even tried to give me 100 CHF less, telling me that I bought the computer on a discount which I didn't. Strange since he has the receipt with the 1200 CHF amount printed on it...

But any way I have the 1200 Swiss Francs now. Big relief...

On a final note, after receiving my money, according to the supervisor he couldn't give me a refund earlier because ''you know Asus, they don't want to give in. But since you brought these legal papers. Then we can make something work''

 

In Europe you usually deal with the shop itself as that is who sold you the machine, especially in the first year.