ASUS - Be warned - After sales very poor

I have an ASUS V6V, and it is truly a beautiful thing. It is fast, has a great screen, everything works beautifully. The fan does start up quite quickly after use and can be very hot - this can be an issue if you use your laptop on your lap a lot. The chassis is a lovely brushed metal and it has a great shape, but it is not very robust if dropped...

The biggest issue is their repair centre and if I had known then what I know now I definitely wouldn't have bought this laptop. Here's my story and you can choose for yourself.

I dropped my laptop about 3 months ago and it broke the hinge. Definitely my fault and I needed to get it repaired because the wires were exposed. The ASUS repair centre is an outsourced repair company who are apparently not allowed to keep any parts on site. I sent in my laptop (had to write my own label and find own box and packing - Sony supply this for you) and sent it off. The repair centre takes 7-10 days to look at the laptop. And they found that I have a broken hinge (hmm, I think I told them this).

It was an out of warranty repair, so I made immediate payment on May 11. 2 months and many phone calls later I still do not have my laptop. Apparently the part has to be shipped from Taiwan. Even though it was ordered on June 5 (what happened between May 11 and June 5 is anybodies guess) it was not shipped until June 23. It has still not arrived at the repair centre, but I am told it will be there tomorrow and I should receive my laptop by next wednesday. This will be exactly 11 weeks after the laptop left me to be sent in for a minor physical repair.

If I had been aware that the parts were kept on another continent I would have definitely thought very hard about buying this laptop and would probably have decided against it (my laptop is my livlihood as a web designer). I have had to purchase a cheap second hand laptop to keep me going while I continue to wait for the return of my V6V.

It is often the case that it's only when something goes wrong that you will think about service and support and I just wish that someone had warned me on the reviews I read for mine, so here you are. It is a beautiful machine, but can you afford it if things go wrong?

So, my advice, buy a different brand!

Julie

 

That stinks. I thought that you go through resellers for repairs? I wondered about the possibility of Asus' customer service because no one ever talks about it. I always assumed that it was based more on the reseller, sounds like maybe even a good reseller could not have helped here.

Hope your laptop gets here soon!

 

I hear mixed things about asus's customer support.

When I had a bad motherboard from them, I sent mine in, and around 1-2 weeks later I got a refurb, no questions asked.

Only problem I encountered was that they did not speak english well, and once I got someone who understood, all my problems were taken care of.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, I hope it doesnt happen to anyone else.

 

Ah, that's a pity, also, which country is this?

Another thing is that, you *did* drop it, some places may not even look at it twice...

Moving it to ASUS forum...

 

Yeah, you didn't try going through a reseller?

 

What does it matter if he dropped it? He was not trying to get it fixed for free. He just wanted them to repair the damage he did, and was more than willing to pay for it. I would hope this is an isolated incident.

I know with from experience with Apple and Dell, they are very quick, send you boxes and labels.

With the number of Asus folk here you would think there would be more complaints if this was a big issue. However, there may not be a lot of people who have experience with Asus directly.

 

OK a few things that should be noted. ALL asus ensemble repairs in the USA are handled by asus directly in fremont CA. NO outsourcing. You must be in another country. You cant conpare asus from another country to asus inthe USA. completely different. In fact that are all separate companys. so this would not happen here in the usa. The only time they will have to get a part and it will take a while is if you bring an asus laptop to the usa that is not sold here. Then they have to get part shipped. or if you bring a Usa model to another country that is not sold there.

Resellers only handle warranty on built to order systems not ensembles. asus warranty service is very good in the usa though.

 

Thanks SRD.....I was getting kinda worried

 

Thanks for the comments. Firstly I want to say that I am based in the UK and NOT the US, so cannot speak for the US Service.

It didn't even occur to me to go through the reseller as I bought it online, but also because it is an out of warranty repair. The only problem with the laptop is a broken hinge and nothing else, but it seems to have stumped the UK repair team

I'm just hoping that they do eventually figure out how to repair it.

Julie

 

I think "he" is actually a "she". At least based on a name like "Julie"

 

INEEDMONEY, where are you planning on purchasing your 96J? Are you going the barebones route?

 

Ah...being in the UK would explain it. From reading many forums and threads about Asus... I've come to the conclusion that the UK has the worst Asus support. I don't know why it does, but it just seems that way.

 

That's good that you mentioned you're not in the US, because that certainly doesn't seem like a Asus USA issue. They actually take longer to get thigns back to their dealers than they do their end-users and I know that they're really quick for us. I've heard truly mixed feeling about the UK Asus, but they have zero to do with the US as they're completely different companies. However, the Taiwanese office is the parent company and you could try to contact them for some recourse...... I'm very sorry to hear of this issue, and it certainly is extremely weird. In the US things are turned around in an average of 48-72 hours, when only a few instances that last longer than that. Usually, that's because of a special order for parts that might not be in stock.

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say they needed to order in a lid for you, but that's still a long time. At the very least they should keep you updated. You should certainly report this to the highest person you can find in the UK office.

 

Well lucky me that I live in Toronto. The ASUS repair center is a 20 minute drive my house and I can just drop it off and they fix it within 2-3 hours! That's truly the best service

 

SRD, You said the Asus repair located in Fremont, CA. Is that the Fremont in the LA area or the Sacramento area or the Bay Area? I live in Moraga during the school year, and Fremont is really close. It could sway me to buy an ensemble unit if the repair is close. And I assume they will have nothing to do with a barebones or custom unit?

On another note, I love that cashmonee had to come to the Asus board to take shots at asus' customer service.

 

I believe that BOA models are handled by the store you purchased from.

As amusing as it sounds, this thread was initially in the what notebook forum... Cashmonee isn't slumming.

 

I did find this in the what notebook section. Plus I do look at several manufacture forums, and really like Asus' notebooks. I did not intend to take a shot at their support either. Sorry if it came off that way. I reccomend Asus to many people on this forum and wanted to be sure their support was not in question. I don't really see much on it, probably a testament to their reliability.

**EDIT** Oh and sorry to Julie for calling her a him. I just start typing and since I figure this place is probably 10-1 guys I type "he" usually. Man I am just diggin a big hole over here! LOL! I even got negative rep for this thread! Did I really say anything that bad?

 

remember, Asus built your apple laptop.

 

Well, almost. Asus builds the MacBooks. The MacBook Pros are built by Quanta. But, I almost did buy an Asus. In the end it came down to the OS, not the manufacturer.

 

Quanta got the contract for the macbook pros!?!?!?!?!?

I thought Asus got the contract for those as well!!!!

Crapiola.

How you liking the mackbook pro?

 

I love it. Of course it took 3 returns before I finally got one with no problems. Oddly enough, none were returned for the issues you hear a lot about, guess I was unlucky. But I have to have OS X! Sometimes though, when I am playing WoW, I wonder if I should have gone with the S/Z96J I was looking at. But then I use OS X some more and the feeling goes away! LOL!

I will say this, Asus is a great company, I think they should do more to promote their Ensemble line here in the states. Most people don't even know they make their own notebooks. I didn't until I found this forum.

 

Asus Nederland:

In-warranty repair, requiring battery and mainboard change, took 3 weeks. Reasonable, given they had (of course) to order the stuff from Taiwan. Problem is, notebook returned with the same problem (and additionally with the dummy Express Card falling out every time in the carry bag). Oh well, will send it in again pretty soon and get more service experience

Out-of-warranty repair for another notebook: rather slowly going, to say the least. Sent laptop in on June 5th (delayed from June 2nd due to a fault of the shipping company), and right now it's still waiting for parts from Taiwan. It took 14 days for me to receive the chargelist, 3 more days to receive the invoice after I signed that I agree with the charges. I made the bank transfer immediately, but it was only acknowledged by ASUS 5 days later, and I had to send in a printout of the transfer confirmation by my bank for them to acknowledge it.

Since then, my laptop just missed a Taiwan shipment because the parts were ordered only one day before the shipment arrived... so now, after a month, I'm still looking at two more weeks, at least... unless it's later and then I'm going on holiday, so in total it would be 2 months and a half

The "good" part is that they are really optimistic when you call them, without much ground... as in 'sure, it'll be repaired soon, you'll have it in a few days' when in fact the parts still need to be ordered from Taiwan...

So, this is my current experience with the ASUS repair service. Will come back with any updates.

 

cashmonee, I totally agree.

Asus is working on it though. Here in Toronto they have posters up in the Subway and have a couple entry models in big stores like bestbuy, futureshop, but it is true that not many people know about Asus laptops.

People just see Asus and say, "Hey don't they make motherboards??" and totally dismiss their laptops.

After I show people a few of their ensemble models and my own Z70Va their jaws drop and ask me to order them one right away.

That always brings a smile to my face.

Funny thing is the past 4 customers that were interested in Asus laptops that came into my store asked for MY laptop, but I had to let them know it isn't available anymore. M6 chassis still has the sex appeal.

Haha,

 

It certainly does... my out-of-warranty repair is a cracked M6 that I repair more because I like it than that I need it

 

Anyway back to the rapair.... couldnt ASUS UK have called her and let her know that it will take 11 weeks ! ! ! and ship it back to her untill the part was sourced. She told them what was wrong so maybe she didnt even have to send it there first at all, thoy could have ordered what was needed and save her from waiting

Just sounds like the right step to take....


Insane

 

One and a half weeks later, their next shipment from Taiwan comes only on Friday. That means end of next week to receive laptop at the earliest.

When I called them on Monday, they "had" two shipments coming in this week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. Funny thing, when I called today, they both merged into one, Friday. Don't you just love their optimism? :-&

I'm getting sick and tired of this entire business...

 

Its Fremont, CA in the bay area. I believe the resellers deal with barebones/cusom unit repairs and the Asus repair center handles ensembles. I happen to live in Fremont, ordered my laptop from agearnotebooks also in Fremont so when I had a problem with my laptop my reseller actually picked my laptop up at my house in person and dropped it back off when repairs were done.

 

The support from ASUS and even from their support on their website, is poor to say the least. It's a shame, but it's nice that you got this out in the publics view for those considering ASUS as a purchase. Be warned.

 

Well just to start some more discussion, I'll put my foot in it.

But why should ANY company bend over backwards and make a non waranty repair a priority. If you break something, you're at their mercy to fix it and therefore should be gratefull that it can be fixed at all.

If the problem is a manufacturing fault then sure, they should do their very best to get the issue sorted ASAP, but I can understand from any companies point of view that repairs made because of consumers stupid mistakes shouldn't be made priority when there are also warranty claims to deal with.

Its a notebook, its delicate, and should be treated well....

I think people should be happy that it can be fixed that that they dont need to bu a new notebook

comments?


Insane

 

Insane, comments:

I disagree. Once an out-of-warranty repair is paid for, I don't see why is should be any less entitled to an efficient resolution than an in-warranty repair.

Maybe I should let myself be a little biased and say: even more efficient & quick, the customer is actually paying for it and the company should feel "lucky" that he did a stupid mistake, and thus made himself liable for further payment!

Moreover, not all out-of-warranty repairs are due to stupid mistakes. The notebook might be older than the warranty period. Or it might have been damaged in an accident (as was my case: car crash)

And even more, that notebook might not be the extent of that customer's relationship with the company. As is my case: I've bought a second notebook, also an Asus. Because I felt the first one was a great machine (which is why I am repairing instead of ebay-ing its components). So, their delay in the out-of-warranty repair is damaging the opinion of a, let's call myself in this stance, a 'legitimate' customer with a newer machine.

And makes him express his dissatisfaction in public, such as on the notebookreview forums, which are more than an unimportant outlet for opinions of this sort, and might affect the decision of other potential customers.

All in all, I don't find careless servicing of any kind a smart move by Asus.

 

I have read the entire thread, EBE your above post is pretty much Exactly was i was going to say.

I definately agree on the point that ASUS should take care of all their customers whether they have warranty or not, as long as they are going to pay for the repairs.

Also damage can be caused by "stupid" users, but i highly doubt anyone would purposely neglect their notebook.

As the original poster said, he dropped his notebook, i really doubt it was purposely dropped to see how well all that brushed alum casing could handle it lol!.

Things can happen to a notebook. If a person is willing to pay for the fixes, it definately doesn't havta take 8-11 weeks to get fixed.

I had one problem with one of my desktop hard drives, i went on vacation and then got my HD back, 2 months later! [Western Digital]

When dealing with Customer service in general, everyone will have different experiences...no doubt!

We hear many times how bad the customer service is from Dell, and other companies.

Here's how i see things.

ASUS Ok to good service
Dell Ok to good service
Alienware Bad to Ok service

The list goes on...you'll most likely not see a company with 100% perfect service all the time.

Cashmonee i'll give you a rep for that bad one you got, i think your post were fine and good, not bad in any way.

Also i find that people that have either BOA or Ensemble units should go through their Reseller and ask for guidance and they should point you in the right direction to get the best service. (possible use the phone for those e-only stores)

Customer service is customer service, no matter what you want the best treatment, but you may not always get it.

Good Luck to all of you.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

How is the Asus support in Canada?

 

I've no information to add here, I only have experience with Asus...

I'm quite sure of that. I'm aware that all the standard procedures they have take a lot of time. I think that my 3 weeks time for my in-warranty repair was quite good actually.

What is p__ing me off, however, is their false optimism and their stock replies of the kind "everything's allright, we received your money, you'll get your NB by the end of the week", or "we'll get a shipment Tuesday". They implicitly assume I can't connect two pieces of information and find out that I've been "tricked" the next time I call them and find out that there actually was no shipment on Tuesday.

If they came straight and said "it's going to take between 3 and 4 weeks to get your NB fixed after we've received the money", I wouldn't have a problem with that. It's the insulting intelligence part that I resent.

Plus, of course, the fact that their standard procedures are lacking to some extent, which meant e.g. that I had to send a payment confirmation to them, and further delayed the entire business by another week.

 

Whatever you do - don't say that Dell has good service. Their service is the shoddiest and worst service I have ever experienced. Give me Dell's highest end computer for a gift and I'll give you a bat to the head.

They've wiped out my HD and done nohting about it. Their components failed on me over ten times. Their customer service reps can't speak a word of English and their wait times are unbearable. Of all my friends and associates, only one of them still orders anything from dell. The rest of us got smarter and moved to brands like Asus and Apple.