Asus RMA Dept. lost my Laptop...

Hi, i live in Canada and apparently Asus has lost my G51J-A1 laptop;its been well over a month and this is what happened:

March 8, 2010:My laptop's sound card busted on me, again. (it kept thinking that headphones were plugged in when they were not; seems like a fairly common thing in G51's) so i went and got a RMA.

March 9th: FedEx picked it up.

March 11th: Was received and signed by ASUS

Around 2 weeks later: Made a phone call to ASUS; they told me to keep waiting while they investigated; i even gave the FedEx tracking number to prove it. when asked, "how long" they kept saying around 24-48 hours. so for the next 2 weeks, i called them every every 2 days but they would just keep asking for more time.

March 30th, 2010: Finally they called back with some information. They told me that Canadian call center (18886783688) was actually in the US. . and they gave me the actual number to the RMA dept. I told them the tracking number and they told me they would call back in 48 hours while they investigated .

April 2nd: They finally did call back. The man said that the person who signed for my laptop did not work for ASUS and they had no idea who it was . Great. they said they would converse with FedEx about it and call me back, again.

April 5th: They finally admitted that they could not find the laptop and told me they would send a "refurbished laptop" within 48 hours. i wasn't happy that i would get a used one, but they said that was the best they could do.

April 14th: its been almost 10 days since they told me they would send me the laptop, and still no sign. I've been bombarding them with calls but they have no idea. Every time i talk with them, i get, "We will look into this and call you back within 48 hours." I sense Deja vu...

Im out of ideas about what to do... any help?

 

Do you have written confirmation? Next time you call and when they say they will send you another laptop, make sure to have them email you this information.
- Get that person's name and phone extension.

I would call and try and talk to a manager or something. Keep calling, if have to call BB and file a complaint.

 

Did Asus send you a tracking number for the refurb laptop? Also, request to speak to the manager and explain your situation.

 

@Ziddy: no written confirmation. he told me they would e-mail me but no dice. I think the person's name was Neo. I've spoken with the manager, Tess, but she pretty much said the same thing.

@David: they were supposed to but they haven't.

 

According to the ASUS site:

Canada
Asus Service Center Canada
+1-888-678-3688 (09:00-18:00 Mon.~Fri.)

Markham
802 COCHRANE DR, UNIT 2, MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANANDA L3R 8C9

Additional phone numbers:
# Tel: (905) 370-2787
# Fax: (905) 489-2718

Well, it depends on how far you are willing to go. If this happened to me I would contact the Alameda County District Attorney Office since the US Headquarters is in the 510 area code, Fremont California to be precise.

 

Well, if they actually don't do something soon i think i might have to take action.

 

Sorry, but whats "BB"?

 

I think ziddy123 means BBB (Better Business Bureau)

Do you mind me asking where you purchased your Asus laptop? In some cases, resellers can help you follow up on your RMA status and expedite the process.

 

Oh, alright thx.

I got it at memory express.

 

I totally sympathize with you. I am fighting since 93 days to get my own G51J-A1 replaced after 2 RMA. The worst customer service service I ever had in my life is with Asus and this notebook. When they say they will call you back, it will rarely happen. With Canadian RMA, they seem to always have problems finding any information about your case and you are not able to use the online RMA tracking. They also do not respect any delay. I have been referred to a direct contact with an agent in California but I do not receive any answer from him too. At it's 3rd RMA, my notebook is now in California for the replacement process and I really hope that this is the last time I need to deal with them. In my opinion, they simply do not respect the customers that are buying their products. I am so pissed off .

The only advice that I can give to you is to ask the ASUS Customer Care agent in this forum. This is the only person that really helped me since the beginning. When he says something, it will really happen. And the most important thing, do net let them discourage you and win. This is your right to have what you paid for. Good luck with your case !

 

Take it to the Attorney General in your city or state, write to your Congressman in your district, Senator tell them you will get their vote etc.. scracth your back etc.. thing, and deff get the BB on it, demand nothing else but your money back or an upgrade to a G73JH hehehe dell does it all the time for people, make examples, be a lawyer and write everything down, document it all, try to talk to a manager and be nice and understand only escalate things if need to do so, never curse! lol What i don't like about the customer service is that they sound like freaking Computers!!

 

Thanks. This is actually the third time for the same problem; the first time it was under store warrenty and i got it exchanged. second time i RMA'ed it and got it back in 2 weeks. Who is the Asus Agent?

Would the senators/congressmen actually care about your case? I tried demanding my money back or an upgrade but they refused. they told me the only way to get a new laptop is if they couldn't get me a refurbished one. I've already complained to the BBB and according to their records ASUS has a "F" rating on a scale of A+ to F

 

Use the link I provided and give the Alameda County District Attorney office a call. Unlike the BBB, the DA has teeth and can prosecute cases. Companies can and often do thumb their nose at the BBB since they can only arbitrate. That won't happen with the DA involved. Be prepared to FAX them all relevant information so they can look over the situation and decide whether there is a case here or not. The more proof you can provide, the better.

Having said that, I don't want to and I'm not trying to, give you false hope. You live in Canada and there may be issues that I'm not aware of which may present difficulties in a case such as this. Closer to home you may have options I'm also not aware of at your disposal. The BBB may be a better starting point and the results may turn out to be positive. Good luck.

 

Well, I called them today, and ASUS told me they were waiting for the refurb to be shipped. I wasn't sure what why they were waiting, and when asked, they had no idea. The tech said he would try to get a response from the service center about why and would call me back about it. Such an unorganized company.

 

Hmm I am trying to understand who is really at fault here .. Asus bad customer service aside. The Fedex person gave the laptop to someone who was not authorized to sign. I would not accept a refurbished notebook. You paid a full prize for it that's it.
You are at no fault either Fedex or Asus is but I tend to Fedex. Otherwise they could give that laptop to anyone and have it sign. Lawer in my opinion if you have one or at least try to find out what the legal position here is. If you accept the refurbished one the case is over.

 

Here is a link with people having similar problems:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=385218

I victim said:

 

You can find him in my post at the end of page 3. Here is the link. There is multiple agents that are using this account so I do not have precise name. Click on this name and send him a private message. Hope this can help .

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456301&page=3

 

Totally agree with you concerning refurbished notebook. You paid for a NEW product that you didn't enjoyed so they must return you a brand new one. This is simply unacceptable. Their brand new notebooks aren't reliable so I would not imagine refurbished ones. Nobody wants used things in replacement when you first bought it new.

 

I complete agree with you guys. I Pm'ed the agent, and hopefully he/she will give me a clear answer about this mess. I tried getting a new one from ASUS already and they refused it, saying they would only give a new one if they cant get me a reefurb one.

 

For some reason this story does not suprise me. I also think a refurb is unacceptable. They can't even get their new units right. I'd hate to get a refurb.

 

Dear OP,

I have received your pm, please read my reply so I can have the agent assisting Haeson contact you as well. Please do give him sometime to review the details, as he is the part of a small group assigned to handle critical cases. Thank you.

 

Even though I'm embarrased/dissapointed by Asus customer service, I applaud you for expediting this case
Is it possible for Asus customer service to be more active in the forums with it's customers? It is very difficult to work with Mentor Media Corp to obtain REAL customer service. Everytime I've personally called for RMA service I was told that they(agent) has very little authority to rectify the lack of service provided by Asus.


Because I truly like Asus(Design) I'am going to provide you with info on my personal experience with Asus RMA so that other customers don't have to go through what I have.

If it is at all possible can this be elevated to someone that cares about Asus brand image?

Here is the link
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=476273


Lets start at the beginning:

G71GX
1. I noticed that my left click button had no tactile response upon press. What is strange is that I never use it. I always use my Razer Mamba.

2. Recently my G71GX started to BSOD after it ran for a good hour. After a memory dump and a restart I would get the "your POS has recovered from a critical error" message. Upon further investigation/troubleshooting here in the forums through the Event Veiwer and at Bestbuy I was told that my G71GX had a GPU that was failing.

3. I contacted Asus about the defective left click button and I explained in GREAT detail that my G71GX is most likely suffering from a failing GPU.

4. Asus said that I would receive a UPS shipping label through email. It was never sent. I then called again and it was sent immediately....lame.

5. I typed a very detailed letter explaining that the GPU fails just after an hour and that I have already reinstalled the OS with Asus Vista64, Asus W764 and retail W7 Pro 64 and that the problem still remains. I also explained that they should look in the event viewer to see the history log of the critical hardware failure errors. And last but not least I explained the defective left click button.

6. I then went to Fed-Ex and purchased a 10.00 shipping box to send my G71 in for RMA. I was NOT risking sending my G71 in the original box and either loosing it or it taking on damage in the process.

7. I then was informed that Asus was paying for 7-15 day Fed-Ex ground and not the 2nd day air that the agent had told me would be the method of shipping for Asus RMA....lame.

8.After about almost 3 weeks of not having my lappy I get it back and the left clicker still doesn't work properly, it now has Vista on it when I had Windows 7 HP 64bit supplied by Asus installed. Immediately after I logged into Windows Vista my RMAed G71 BSOD on me. Unacceptable.

9. The letter accompanying the lappy looked like it was typed up by a 5 year old full of grammatical errors. It was pathetic and embarrassing. I can't believe my G71GX is affiliated with these idiots!!! The only thing the tech did was reinstall Vista when I had Windows 7 to fix a failing GPU....lame.

10. I then called Asus and explained the situation. I asked to speak to a supervisor many times only to be told that one was NOT available.

11. The only thing Asus would do is another retarded RMA.
Nothing more. I even asked them if I could take my lappy to Bestbuy for repair and if they could call up ahead of me and setup direct billing. They said no.

12. I then took my G71 to Bestbuy and explained how lame my experience is with Asus RMA to be told that they are sorry about my experience with Asus and that I can switch out my G71 for 1299.99 in store credit. I chose a G73 and 100.00 store credit.

 

With your help and the help of the agent I am feeling that some employees of Asus are really trying to resolve the issue. This is a really good idea from Asus to be present on this forum. Keep on the good work.

 

Thanks for your help everyone, and I have good news; ASUS finally did contact me and shipped a laptop for me, with an extra battery and extended warranty as compensation! Here's the message they sent to me:

"Hello Mr. ****

On behalf of ASUS, I apologize your inconvenience that you have experienced.

Despite this poor customer experience on our product, I trust you will enjoy this ASUS product for years to come and I have added extra 3 months warranty to ensure that we will manage this process so your device is covered appropriately in the event of repair.

We have sent the replacement unit with an extra battery to you through Purolator, tracking number is #****

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

****"

Also, to Haeson, I wish you the best of luck on your case.

 

So your now getting another g51j?

 

...and is it new?

 

Thank you! I should receive a beautiful message like this one soon .

 

Most likely.

I doubt it. we'll see when it arrives

 

Both of you, keep US posted.

 

Well, i got my laptop today; it came in a pretty beat up box but the insides were unharmed; however it was really dusty, most likely because it had been sitting around for a while. It also came with a 9-cell which was really nice, and the standard backpack and mouse. As soon as booted it up though, it said windows was not genuine and had to spend 2 hours on a phone trying to get it fixed. now im just downloading all my stuff again

 

Even though there were some hiccups with the end result...I'd have to say that you made out like a bandit

 

huh. now it shows that i have a 4th partition that has 0 byte max space, and is inaccessible, unformatable, and you cant do anything to it. any ideas why?

 

For the Windows genuine thing... have you tried putting the correct date and time zone? 3 friends of mine got refurbished and an RMA G51vx back, and all had that windows not genuine thing, which got fixed as soon as they put the correct time zone and date.

 

Have you tried deleting the partition(s) and repartitioning the drive through Disk Management?

 

I am happy for you that you received your unit . You got a refurbished/used one? Did you find a single scratch on the notebook or dead pixel? I hope that when they send a refurbished notebook they send it like it is brand new without any imperfection. If I receive a notebook with a single scratch after over 3 months of wait, I will be very angry.

 

In my experience, refurbished items are never in pristine condition. More often than not, the replacement you receive back is in slightly worse condition.

A refurbished replacement is unacceptable if your are talking about an item that is a year or less old and still under warranty. To me, it's just a company trying to maintain their profit margin at the customer's expense.

Hey Amaranthus, you may have to nuke all of your partitions using a Linux app such as DBAN. It doesn't sound like you'll be able to get rid of the partition while in Windows.

 

Time zone and stuff were correct. I called microsoft and its all good now.

Well, the weird one (Q: ) doesnt show up, and i would do a total system recovery except i dont want to call microsoft again.

Not a single scratch nor dead pixel, although it was really dusty. dont accept anything thats less than perfect. Hows your case coming along?

Thats very true; but if asus actually wanted to save money, they would put more effort into making sure that the customer wouldn't have to send it in for repairs, ever.
This is actually my third G51J; the first 2 had the same problem. First time, within a month of purchase, the audio jack stuck, and i got it replaced. for my second one, i had to RMA it to get it fixed, and it came back. same prob a month later and RMA'ed again. this time it didnt come back, and i got this one.

Predicted cost (Im guessing, feel free to correct me):
$1200 for 2nd laptop.
$100 per delivery X 4
$700 for Third laptop
$100 for parts and repair for 1st RMA
$150 for the 9 cell battery

-$400 for profit
-$100 if they manage to sell my 1st one.
-------------------
$2050 in losses for ASUS.

On a side note, does anyone know a solution to the stuck audio jack issue? Im scared to plug a pair of headphones in this one, cuz i fear it will happen again.

 

If you have used the same headphones on each attempt, then I would say the problem is the headphones. Over the years I've noticed that some 1/8 inch plugs are not all made the same. Some are a little fatter and/or some have the contacts slightly shifted on the barrel.

 

That could be it. I was using iPod headphones and my friend who had the same problem did too. I would try it, but I REALLY don't want to risk another RMA.

 

I just got my G51VX-A1 back from RMA and the motherboard was replaced; just as I suspected it was dead. Got my laptop back one week later, almost the same way I sent it (aside from the fact that it runs like a champ again) the wifi switch doesnt move (I could fix it, but the damn thing never worked right in the first place anyway - due to the drivers sucking) They even fixed a few kinks such as a loose screw in the lcd.

Maybe I'm just one of the lucky ones, but my RMA experience went pretty smooth, never had to go on hold while with customer service and they were nice and intelligent, and best of all my laptop is back unharmed.

 

The last news is that the issue can be duplicated and they are now verifying to know if this problem is isolated or not. They want to be sure that the replacement models do not have the same issue and will function according my needs. This is a good news but I find that the process is very long and I now need a notebook ASAP because I am starting a course that will need a notebook that is reliable and have a lot of horse powers. So if they send me a new notebook that is in flawless condition and works perfectly, I will be able to forget a little about this horror story and say that the story ended in a good way at least. I hope that it will be a G73-A1 that will compensate for all this waste of time and money.

 

I'm kinda worried about sending my laptop to the RMA dept because 1) of these stories and 2) I didn't put a freakin tracking number on it, goddamnit. I hope USPS doesn't make the same mistake Fedex did by sending it to an abandoned warehouse.

Quick question though, did you send your laptop for an RMA to Indiana?

 

Did you not receive a Fedex shipping label from Asus? They are suppose to provide them for free.

Asus has 2 repair facilities. One in Indiana and the main one in California. I've always requested my RMAs to be processed at the CA facility so I'm not sure how good the IN one is.

 

Yeah, I don't blame you for not wanting to risk it. However, if someday you do decide you want to take the risk, I would use a difference set of headphones and take a good look at the size and layout of both shafts before attempting.

 

I guess they wouldn't provide a free one since my warranty expired.

 

I don't think you're one of the lucky ones, but rather, I and some others are the unlucky ones. I always heard at school and online that Asus was a good, reliable brand with good customer service and I think many people still think that.

 

They didn't tell you what model it was?

I'm in Canada, so i got mine shipped to Markham, Ontario. They should give you an RMA # and u just stick that on ur box and its all good to go.

 

Not at this moment, they will send me 2-3 choices that are suitable or equal to the current unit. I will see when I will receive the email. This will also be the time to see if the models are really interesting me and to verify that this is not a refurbished. I really don't know what they can offer that is equal or better. On the xoticpc website I only found the ASUS G51JX-A1 that is "equal" and the G73JH-A2 & G73JH-A1 that are better. You can be sure that it was my last G51...

 

I'd like to see how this all ends............I'm exhausted by just following this story. This better end nicely

 

I'm dealing with a similar problem, although ASUS isn't ready to say the laptop is "lost" yet. My RMA was delivered a week ago....called today and they said the repair facility had not yet received it.

I was hoping to come to this forum to see a bunch of stuff about how ASUS is awesome and I have nothing to worry about, and then I saw this thread