ASUS inept and unconcerned service and support

05/08/2014

This is a true story about what is probably the most hapless and uncaring company in the computer industry: ASUS.

Brief background: I’ve been involved in the microcomputer business since 1979. In the last year I’ve purchased 4 ASUS micros. My tech guy (up until 6 months ago a big ASUS supporter) has said that ASUS had outgrown its usefulness. I can now verify that.

As mad, frustrated, and insulted as I now feel about my last month’s experience, I will try to clearly and rationally outline my recent ASUS involvement. (Prior to this episode we’d had to send 2 new computers back to ASUS for broken keyboards …their responses had been somewhat leisurely but acceptable.)

04/10/2014: Received my eagerly awaited ASUS Smart MemoPad. The power cord/supply doesn't work. I call ASUS: together we analyze the problem and they agree that the power supply is no good; they give me an RMA to return it.

04/11: Spend (waste) $15 to FedEx it ... for quick (!) turn-around.

04/14: FedEx notification of delivery at 10:30 A.M.

04/24: After (foolishly) holding off for 10 days, anxiously awaiting my replacement part, I call ASUS support. 1/2 hour on the phone, after they force me to verify my situation by providing RMA and FedEx tracking #, the ASUS people say they will get back to me within 24 hours.

04/25: No response ... I repeat call and info sharing ... they say they will respond.

04/28: ditto 04/25

04/29: ditto 04/25

N.B.: Every other call or so throughout this fiasco their rep. doubts me and asks me to prove my question by re-supplying my RMA # and, especially, my FedEX proof of delivery, which I happily do.

04/30: ditto 04/25 -- This "service" rep says he'll send an internal memo to check -- I've already heard that story on a couple of previous calls.

It's now 3 WEEKS and 20+ hours on the phone with ASUS, and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. It is with irony that I continue to use the terms ASUS “support” and ASUS “service”.

I am now sending daily e-mails to ASUS Corporate and Support executives outlining what is (not) happening. To this day I have NEVER RECEIVED A RESPONSE FROM ANYONE.

05/02: I gave them yesterday off, since they said they had sent an internal e-mail to those responsible to try and clarify my status, and it might take up to 48 hours to get a response.

Now, after 20 minutes of repeated background checking and long phone holds, comes their answer: 'Gee, we have no response'.

(Not only did I throw away my money on this ASUS purchase ... I had to increase the minutes on my telephone plan to cover the hours I've spent
–wasted- on the phone with ASUS’ ‘service’ and 'support'!)


05/05: Called 3 times today; the first 2 times they cut off the call when they heard my RMA #. The 3rd time a nice young man put me on hold for 10 minutes (after spending 5 minutes verifying my bona fides) and came back with this:

'Check back in 2 days; I'm following up with our people'!


05/07: I call back, as requested after 2 days.

SAME ANSWERS ... NOTHING

I ask to speak to a supervisor; after a significant wait he answers and then runs me through the SAME cycle as the last 3 weeks; then says exactly what all the other poor drones have been saying forever: 'We'll have to check with that dep't.'

I ask that I speak to someone higher up. He says they will call me. (Ha! ... how many times have I heard that?!)


05/08 (Today): The final insult from the inept, incompetent, and dishonest ASUS “support” group. …

I’ve waited 24+ hours today for the response I was supposed to get from the support supervisor, and then his supervisor.

Of course they never responded.

I just spent about 33 minutes more on the phone with Support and then the Support ‘Supervisor'. After holding a while I was told by the supervisor that maybe my case had a new RMA # (!?) He said he would check it out; I should hold (for the 5th time this call); then (mysteriously) the call was ended.

I give up. (I’m keeping the ASUS “Smart”! MemoPad as one of the world’s most expensive paper weights.)

ASUS THANK YOU FOR YOUR TOTAL INATTENTION TO YOUR CUSTOMER'S DESIRES AND NEEDS.


[personal details removed by moderator]

 

Unfortunately very common that support departments are set up in such a way that anyone responsible for the products will never hear of actual problems. Even the kind of problems that could affect how attractive the product is from a marketing point of view, if it was more frequent. Or problems that go to specific faults in the production and assembly part of the company, that could go directly on efficiency, etc.

Simply because management doesn't want low-level grunts to have too much power, in case they start to get too friendly with their customers, which is akin to stealing, and so on. The trick, one division manager in a completely different company told me (right to my face), was to rear the customer, so that they will do the work for you. This wasn't in retail, it was in a company living off competent customer service.

On top of that every manager knows that as long as you don't acknowledge the existence of a problem, no matter how serious, that is going to receive less negative attention than if you apologized. That's just how the world works now, apparently.

So if you sent something in, and it wasn't registered as arrived or delivered. Then low-level guys aren't able to simply say flargle it and send you a replacement anyway. While if they sit there and send a request for a resolution by someone higher up, they will deflect it and leave the grunt with the angry customer if it's not an easy thing to fix (and exceptions are dangerous, and have to be explained to the next level of management). So even if they wanted to help you - if the department isn't set up in such a way that it can handle the exceptions (that always happen) - then of course they're going to blame you as a customer for their faulty product.

And you're of course right - ASUS has started to make itself known as one of the many companies in computers and technology that have a very solid barrier between the company and their customers. While what they're really interested in is having a good tone with retailers and the partners that control the distribution channels..

And, frankly, I don't think this would have been much of a problem for Asus if it wasn't for the fact that Asus used to be a little bit different. So like your friend said - they've outlived their usefulness. They're turning into Apple. Or any other of the companies we're familiar with.

 

Err.. apple has store fronts you can walk in and get instant service. It would be amazing of companies had more customer service like apple.

 

Yea Apple is actually pretty awesome.

 

Oh, sure. Go ahead and try this one. You've bought a macbook air without Apple insurance (aka. "I will pay for what consumer laws actually require the company to provide"). Then take your broken power-cord with you into one of the apple stores, and say: "Isn't it supposed to be like this, that you should give me another one for free?". And see how many seconds it takes before they laugh you out of the store. Or, try getting a worn down keyboard repaired without paying out of the nose?

Apple also will design their computers on purpose so they can't be modified, so they can sell you a new mac whenever you need a new stick of ram or a new hdd/ssd. They will hide serious manufacturing faults with huge lineups, like they did with one of the iPhones and several of the Macbooks. Because they know that there's always a horde of Macists out there who will cover for them.

Apple is a company like any other that wants to earn money. They used to be a company that did so with serious and useful solutions. And they've morphed into a different company.

Nothing inherently bad with earning money, certainly. But that they're somehow uniquely on top when it comes to providing customers with great customisable hardware and fantastic customer service? Not the case.

Just as Asus used to be about giving the user all the opportunities to customise the hardware. And they too have changed significantly since.

 

Nipsen, what were you complaining about? If the power supply is no longer under warranty, why would you expect it to be replaced free? And yes, apple products are generaly designed to not be upgrade able. This was more so in the past before they went intel. This is one of many reasons why apple products suck, but idiots keep feeding them money. So really I don't have pitty for people who have any complaints about apple computers.

 

Couple things because this issue seems like it could have been easily solved if it's just a measly power supply.

Did they test the power supply when they got it? Or is the dispute that they did not receive the defective power supply?

How come you didn't just return the product back to the original retailer? Most retailers have a 30 day return policy. Which retailer did you buy it from?

Have you returned a lot of things back to Asus? Maybe you have a long list of RMAs and it threw up a red flag?

Hope you get this resolved. I have found Asus products in general to always be of high quality, and their service to be excellent. So I'm shocked to hear of your experience.

 

It seems that there are some differences of opinion regarding Asus' service and support levels.

It is probably worth differentiating between Asus Head Office and various in-country primary distribution & support. If Asus are following a global trend in IT manufacturers' strategies, then the larger markets may well have their in-country primary distribution & support handled by an Asus-owned "subsidiary", with the smaller markets having to make do with franchised local companies acting as local in-country distribution & support channels.

This dual representation strategy can - and often does - result in very variable customer satisfaction.

The gross profit margins achievable in this market are not huge and a number of sub-strategies are employed to reduce the cost aspects of profit (while little is done to grow the revenue). This can lead to improved efficiency but usually at the cost of eroded effectiveness. A good example of this lies in the company's strategy for sourcing by function, where - for example - the call centre function gets hived off to a third party service provider in an outsource engagement. This approach is always going to be dangerous as a call centre is one of the key dialogue channels between a company and its customers - particularly that section of the customer-base that are dissatisfied with some aspect of product.

The danger arises from call centre personnel who: one, lack any real in-depth product knowledge; two, have no stake in improving customer satisfaction metrics; and three, have no loyalty to the manufacturer. The examples quoted in this thread to date illustrate the resultant behaviour on the part of call centre personnel, BUT ALSO ILLUSTRATE THE CONSEQUENTIAL IMPACT ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.

Some manufacturers have woken up to this and begun to shift back to in-sourced call centre support once they recognised that a call centre is indeed a primary channel for customer dialogue that is, in effect, self-segmenting - inasmuch as most of the inbound calls result from product problems, thereby offering these "enlightened" manufacturers the opportunity to focus on shortening the "time-to-fix" in an effort to retain their customer base.

This focus on customer-retention is nothing new - its just become a casualty of other strategies. The underpinning logic behind any focus on customer-retention lies in the difference in costs associated with first-time buys and subsequent add-on buys - with the first-time buy demanding more attention (i.e. higher cost) and add-on buys demanding little or no attention (i.e. lower cost). If profit levels are to maintained, then it's essential to grow revenues through increased sales and to grow the add-on business at the same (or faster) rate as growing first-time business. Sound something like Marketing 101?

In those markets where primary distribution is handled by Asus subsidiaries, Asus DOES have the influence and control to enforce policies regarding customer retention and customer service levels. Unfortunately, the same is not always true in smaller markets where primary distribution is performed on behalf of Asus by local companies holding a franchise.

So, its probably unfair to shovel the blame for poor in-country service onto Asus Global and maybe each post needs to specify in which market the problem occurred and - if known - whether the in-country Asus representation is via a subsidiary or via a franchise. This would add context to any gripes and - if anyone from Asus Global monitors threads such as this one - provides more objective feedback with clearly identified "culprits" to enable some positive action on the part of Asus Global.

My $0.02 worth...

Dave

 

Dave...you made me cry.


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