Asus Extended Warranties...Worth It?

Since this is going to be my first Asus (buying an V6J), I don't have a point of reference to go by. Do you suggest extending my warranty for 2 more years (total of 3) for approximately $150-170?

It's not so much the money that I'm concerned about, rather the cost benefit of whether the warranty is actually worthwhile given what is actually covered. Also for those who have owned Asus in the past, have most of your problems occured during the first year?

Here's the listing on the Asus website:

A Limited Warranty is offered on Asus branded hardware products. This Limited Warranty does not cover any software applications or programs; non-Asus products or non-Asus branded peripherals.

Asus guarantees that the Asus Notebook that you have purchased are free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use during the Limited Warranty Period. The Limited Warranty Period starts from the date of purchase. Your sales receipt, showing the date of purchase , is your purchase date proof . You may be required by our Service Centers or Authorized Service Providers to present a proof of purchase as a condition of receiving warranty service. You are entitled to a hardware warranty service if a repair is required within the Limited Warranty Period.

During the Limited Warranty Period, Asus will, at its sole discretion, repair or replace any defective component. All spare-parts or module removed under this Limited Warranty become the property of Asus .


A. Exclusions from this Limited Warranty Service

Asus does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation of this product. Any technical or other support provided for the product under warranty, such as assistance via telephone with “how-to” questions and those regarding product setup and information, will be provided without warranties of any kind. The warranty only covers failures or malfunctions occurred during the warranty period and in normal use conditions, as well as for any material or workmanship defect. The warranty will not apply if:

(a) the product has been tampered, repaired and/or modified by non-authorized personnel;

(b) the serial number of the notebook, components or accessories has been altered, cancelled or removed;

(c) the warranty seals have been broken or altered;

(d) there is damage caused by accident, natural disaster, intentional or accidental misuse, abuse, neglect or improper maintenance, or use under abnormal conditions;

(e) there is damage caused by improper installation or improper connection to a peripheral device (printer, optical drive, etc);

(f) there is damage caused by an external electrical fault or any accident;

(g) there is damage from use outside of the operation or storage parameters or environment detailed in the User's Manual;

(h) there is damage from use of parts not manufactured or sold by ASUSTeK;

(i) there is damage to or loss of any program, data or removable storage media, or if there is costs from recovering any program or data;

(j) there is damage from third party software or from virus(es); or

(k) there is software loss or data loss that may occur during repair or replacement.

Returning a notebook to an Asus Notebook Service Centre or an Asus Authorized Service Provider during the warranty period does not automatically mean that it will be repaired free of charge. Upon receiving your product, the Service Centre reserves the right to check the validity of your warranty and your request for warranty service.

 

Well
Judging by the fact that we have a hand full of out of warranty repairs weekly for built on asus laptops and seeing how the average repair costs 150$ i would say its worth it. Its not a huge investment for a 2000$ product. I bought a sharper image ijoy massage chair for which they wanted 190$ for 5 year warranty. The chair was only $600. I think the chances of your lappy breaking is much greater then the chair so its really not an expensive investment. If your lappy breaks 1 year and 1 day after warranty expired you will kick your self. They are expensive to fix. Then again a motherboard replacment is about 300$ out of warranty. i belive this is the same for asus. Keep in mind that the drives in those lapies the cpus the ram are also 1 year. You are not getting 3 year warranty parts like you do with build on asus models.

 

^ You wouldn't get the 3 years unless you get the extended w/ the Ensemble right?

I just figure it's typical that something would happen that's out of the terms of the warranty.

 

Well i was reffering to built on models and going on the built on experience. I would say its the same argument for ensemble. Keep in mind the extended warranty is NOT global.

 

What are the common things that seem to go wrong - any trends?

 

Optical drives are #1 in temrs of rma i would asume the same for ensemble
We get lots of physical screen damage which is no covered under the standard warranty but we do offer accidental coverage now. Lots of bad batteries in the first year which is normal. You cant extend battery warranty over one year nor can you extend optical drive warranty past one year. I belive its the same for asus warranty though you may want to check with their written warranty. Hard drive rma ofcourse gets #3 spot. With asus the hd is under warranty for 1 year with built on asus they are actually 3 year. We cover them for 3 years as well no extension required. Ac adapters, video cards (mostly from overclockers probably), motherboards mostly after one year. As you can see anything and everything tends to break down its the normal course of the notebooks. All depends on how much you use it. obviously a person who uses it 1 hour a day will most likely see his notebook survive longer then one who uses it 12 hours a day.

 

to Geared2play.com,

why is "..the extended warranty is NOT global"? i thought that it is...

from the ASUS Warranty Extension Package Service Policy:

7. This Warranty Extension Package also extends your standard international warranty from 2 years to 3 years

i hoped for US it should be from 1 year standard international warranty to 3 years since the standart international warranty has changed from 2 years to 1 year and extended one in US is - 2 years.

i am lost..help...please....explain...

thank you....

 

I ll have top look into to that. That was a statement directly from my sales rep at asus. Perhaps he was wrong but i know i asked him twice about the same thing. I ll ask the manager on monday. Justin have you heard the same? Strange i would imagine their written warranty would reflect the verbal statements

 

So what if someone would purchase a notebook with the three year warranty, and change out their wireless card to something else. Would that void the entire warranty on the notebook?

 

so built-on asus and ensemble gets different treatment say if you get ensemble, everything inside is warranted?

 

Ensemble laptops have a unified asus warranty for all of them. Dealers do not warranty or support ensembles unless they are modified by the dealer. Built on asus customized laptops (models start with letter "z") have a dealer warranty. Every dealer has a different warranty. Some dealers warranty are not worth the sub page they are written on some are very good some exceptional but all are very different. Read the stated dealer warranty of you are buiying a z series.

 

Anyone w/ an Ensemble and the extended -warranty have to get work done - was it covered (and what was the problem)?

 

As long as its within the warranty guidelines its always covered. Read my posrt above i pretty much described the most common problems.

 

Thanks for the list of problems. Seems like the list is "typical" of any laptop and first year issues that arise.

 

Extremely typical. Though there is an exception. Newer harddrives tend to be more reliable. #1 hardware cause for locals to bring their pc or lappie in are harddrives. Its not the same for our internet customers. Which leads me to deduce
1. dell uses sub par hard drives like toshi which have an exceptionally hi rma
2. most of the hd drives we replace for locals with machines we did not make are toshi and deathstars prior to 2003.
Dunno what this tells you but it tells me not to buy toshi. Which is exactly why we removed every trace of them from our site over a year ago and thats why almost every single toshi we ever sold over a 3 month period came back within one year now nearing close to 100 returned drives. This is probably a fact that buyers seeking toshiba laptops may be interested in. That and the fact that it takes them months to replace drives we send for warranty. Also toshiba-samsung optical drives are very unreliable the rma rate on the is probably 1 in 10 over one year which is just too much. Then again i dunno whats an acceptable rma rate for optical drives but i have not seen as many problems with uj drives made by panasonic. maybee its just me who knows these things anyways.

 

Gotcha - asked b/c we'd normally send these in to Asus I believe - I wasn't sure if there more stringent...etc. with what's considered "in warranty".

 

this was really insightful..

one girl told me abt her 'branded' laptop (not asus, but wun say what) that she paid for with arm and leg, including an extended warranty. and then, within a few mths her screen showed one gigantic vertical line near the right corner. i suspect it's a crack, or a liquid crystal leakage. she sent it in for repair, and one week after she got it back.. her hinge crack. the 'brand' company refused to change it for her saying she probably dropped it cause two major problems happen too close to each other. and they voided her warranty. that was **** cr*ppy of them to do that. it was only 3 mths after she bought the lappie.

i tot it's always no question ask when you send in your lappy? well.. im not sure. dun have a notebook..

 

I think the Warranties are a good value, their pretty cheap too.

 

i would indefinitely purchase it along with the w3j, take no risks heh

 

I asked this same question in a post about 2 weeks ago regarding the extended warranty and peoples views on it...shouldn't be hard to find in a search. I also asked if the extention was global and Justin and one other said it was. At the time I thought I got a difinitive answer, so I hope they weren't wrong, or that things have changed???

I'm definitely going to be adding the warranty extension to my W3J whenever it gets here!!!

 

I would say if you can afford it and you're also not too computer hardware knowledgeable then sure why not, it's good insurance.

If you're not going to keep your laptop for too long and since Asus' laptops are of great build quality and you are familiar with laptops and computer hardware, forget it.

Get yourself some toys for your baby instead, but it isn't a bad idea at all.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Laptops are basicly the only device i buy extended waranties for. Portable use can really put som fantastic stresses on the internals like you'd never imagine, and you neve know when some 5 cent capacitor made it through QA by the skinn of it's teeth and is just waiting to **** out on you taking the whole machine with it.