Asus fixed my notebook outside warranty without charging...

Hello all,


I sent in my Asus G50VT to Asus after obtaining an RMA for a repair last Friday afternoon. Notebook was having major screen problems. I was told by the CSR that because my notebook was out of warranty, I'd have to pay for repairs. I was perfectly fine with that as I'd bought the notebook refurbished.


Got my notebook back today afternoon and found a sheet of paper enclosed with it showing that the monitor cable AND the LCD screen had both been replaced. Looked everywhere inside the box but couldn't find an invoice showing how much they were charging. I don't recall giving them my credit card information over the phone, but I do explicitly remember the CSR telling me they'd contact me about charges while I was obtaining an RMA number.


Is this common, or was notebook problem so common that they decided to fix it anyway? I'm not complaining, I'm just baffled.

 

Probably they forgot to charge you.


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Perhaps they wanted to avoid litigation? Didn't the g50s come with Nvidia cards?

 

Mine came with the ATI 9800M GS and the problem was more so display-related.

I'm not a litigious person. If it costs $150 to repair something that'll last me at least another 2 years, no biggie.

 

These companies will usually forget to call you or explain the bill. They'll charge your card once the higher ups do their rounds of the accounts. I doubt you'll get out scott free. HP sent me a laptop once and only decided to hit my bank account 45 days later. For 45 days I thought I had hit jackpot.

 

But according to the OP on this very page, such an exchange of financial information never took place so a similar outcome is not possible. For goodness' sake, please pay attention before posting .

Asus has been known in the past to perform warranty work on systems that are near to their warranty expiry and not charge the owners.

 

Oh well. I won't bother to call them. Even if I had the moral urging to compensate them, I'm in finals schedule and I'm in no mood for another 30-45 minute wait on the phone. Besides, my notebook's screen and cable shouldn't have been acting funky after less than one year of use. I took good care of that baby!

 

Asus is on their third try to fix my notebook within the warranty period. And I get to pay shipping again.

 

Really sorry to hear that.

That's why I'm hesitant to buy another PC laptop in the future. Apple just seems to do it right with their B&M support.

Love my HP Envy 14 to death with its radiance display. Keyboard's excellent, touchpad's pretty good, build construction is among the best, and above all, the display is just gorgeous.

But the tech support is awful.

 

... Yes, and you pay out the nose for it. I'd rather get a good PC from a good reseller, and let them do the legwork.

 

I would say $1,000 for a Mac and $170 for legal Applecare is a bargain for a notebook that's ensured for 3 years with access to B&M stores staffed by employees who take the extra step to look out for you. Plus let's not forget that they often do repairs free outside of the warranty.

Tradeoffs. I'm probably just getting old.

 

@Zeth: Don't worry, no one is going to take your Mac away. But of all the terrible stories of apple not-caring about putting out bad monitors, GPUs, restrictive DRM and lack of power-user support ... well, I'm scared to buy apple. And that's just in the last 2 years.

More examples: The iphone daylight savings time "bug" where they didn't advance the clock for their european audience ... apology? nope.

I'm not going to say apple products suck. They don't. I'm just saying that I can buy a comparable system to a MBP for ~200 less, with a 2 year warranty and let my reseller do all the RMA-ing (if any is required) without having to pay an additional $200 on top of the price of the notebook.

If you like apple, good! If they've taken care of you, GOOD! But I've had more bad experiences with apple computers than I have with any computer brand other than dell ... and I've owned way fewer apple computers. (and ipods built to die!)

I'm glad you're willing to spend all that extra money. I'm not. But someone has to!

 

Your saying you had bad experiences with more than one Apple?

Which ones?

Three RMAs, $25 bucks shipping, 2 hours of calls over 3 months and I end up with one used drive with 250 hours on it from Asus..for new warranty exchange! Apple is worse?

How's your luck with Asus?

 

My two worst apple experiences : Powermac g4 which constantly made noise and overheated. Since it was under warranty and they had stickers on it everywhere, I had to continually take it in to be "fixed", when it was just cleaning. Eventually I got fed up with it, and cleaned it myself. About 6 months later, the mobo died (unrelated). No replacement, no repair, why? Because I'd opened it to clean the fans on my own.

Second terrible problem: My MBP videocard died. Apple replaced it. It died AGAIN, same problem, within about a month. Apple replaced it. Rather than continually have it die and replace it, I sold it (at a hefty loss). Three weeks later, it comes out that the underfill was not properly applied to the GPU. I guess it wasn't a "bad" experience, but it was a costly one.

Let's not even discuss the number of ipods that my wife has gone through. The batteries die, they look like they've been to a war zone weeks after purchase, the screen cracks...

As for RMAs with asus, buying an -A or -B model gets you free 2 way shipping. Phone times can be harsh if you call in the evening. If the nearest apple store is ~30 minutes away, isn't your time worth at LEAST $20/hour? I'd rather have a reliable PC I can fix without voiding my warranty (and one that doesn't get up to ~100 degrees BY DESIGN) ... and won't die if I don't handle it with kid gloves, than a pretty piece of aluminum.

As for asus, I had a hell of a time with my g73. But every other asus laptop has been great, and I've NEVER had a faulty asus desktop component.

 

At least we can agree that our Dell warranty support sucked .

I'm not saying Apple's perfect. But having real B&M stores IMO increases accountability

 

FWIW, best service, and worst, of any laptop I owned? Dell! If you get Dell "at home". It's been fantastic for me; for the pesky DOA laptop (1705e) or my wife's business desktop(Vostro) that quit after 3 weeks. You call, they come to house in 3 to 4 days, poof, all better.

This "at home" is a service that Asus needs to offer, no? We can badmouth Apple all we want, but, they must be doing something right if you compare stock prices between any of the PC makers Some would say it's the apple kool aid