Best Buy's Asus warranty kinda sucks

I recently ogt a G50VT-X1. I considered the X2 on Newegg, but I had to move faster than shipping would have allowed.

I contacted both Asus and BestBuy about warranty and learned this:

Asus' agreement with BestBuy prohibits you from buyng an actual Asus extended warranty.

You get a 1 year Asus warranty, but it's not global.

You don't get accidental damage cover.

You are only eligible to get the generic best buy service plan as past 1 year coverage.

That sucks, I would totally have bought 2 more years of Asus coverage, but I can't.

 

Yeah that does suck and there was no documentation probably stating that.

 

There is documentation stating that it doesn't qualify for the accidental plan, but according to the Asus site you buy a warranty card and activate the code online to get longer support. But I phoned Best Buy and they told me that the only warranty they offer was the generic product service plan. I might call and see if I can talk to someone higher up the chain. cos it's all quite confusing.

 

That's reason because I don't want buy notebooks from Best Buy or any other stores.

 

I dont get it, by buying a laptop at Best Buy, you got this http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=167633

.... right ?

 

Nope!

"These retailers are currently among the companies that do NOT participate in the ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty: Best Buy, MicroCenter, and The Source by CircuitCity in Canada."

 

They have special pricing, and therefore does not cover those extras.

 

Right, which I agree with. The only thing I really am mad about is the fact that Asus is not allowed to provide an extended manufacturer's warranty. I have to get the crappy Best Buy warranty.

 

You've got it backwards -- Asus provides BB with exclusive product and access to a specific product at a lower invoice price to BB retail purchasing dept, and as a consequence one of the parts of the deal is that (for the lower price Asus is paid by BB for those models) Asus does not have to provide extended direct warranty options, nor will they compete with BB's in-house GeekSquad warranty packages.

This is part of the deal that BB worked out with Asus to get their product into their stores for sale, and is the way things are; those warranty issues are the terms that BB agreed to in order to be able to offer Asus products for sale. For the (relative) price difference the extended warranty and ADP - as well as the increased specs - of the regular G50 and other systems by Asus are generally worth the differential if you ask around here.

 

Please refer to the Asus Info Booth regarding Asus notebooks purchased from Best Buy

 

When I was ready to buy my ASUS, I checked out BestBuy and discovered that the ASUS extended and accidental coverage would not be available. BB lost a sale!

I bought from an authorized online ASUS dealer and got my accidental and extended ASUS warranties.

Jim

 

another reason why i shop online...

 

It's a good business decision from BB's viewpoint, because not only do they get increased sales from with an exclusive cheaper model, they also get money from any warranty upgrades that are purchased. Not so good for the consumer, imo, but my guess is that most of the people who are buying BB exclusive models aren't really the enthusiast type who frequent NBR.

 

+1

agreed

 

it doesn't kinda suck it does suck

 

Here's my summary: I didn't have time to get one from anywhere but Best Buy, thus I got one from Best Buy. I don't mind the one year warranty and accidental coverage.

My real complaint is that I cannot pay extra money to get a a warranty extension through Asus, that I have to go through Best Buy, as my experience with Big Box store extended warranties has not been great.

 

I'm new and just picked up the BB deal before Christmas.

SO I paid $1000.00 for the G50VT-X1 then got the BB 2 yr warranty for 250...my total was 1250 plus tax! That's still cheaper then similar models online (of course this model's not available anywhere but BB) and I can go into my local BB and drop it off with the GeekSquad and get my laptop fixed...the BB warranty includes damage protection. I honestly believe it was a good deal.

 

Yeah, the BB model isn't really a good deal at all as if you compare it to the newegg G50VT-X6 which is only about $200 more, and it has the 1680x1050 res screen plus a fastre CPU IIRC, yet has the Asus 1+2y warranty. OTOH IIRC it's about $250 to get a similar w'arranty from BB, which makes it MORE expensive for a LESSER product, but BB makes out like a bandit, but that's only good for them and their shareholders.

 

Hmm. A slightly better deal! Mine was a Christmas present from wife and only the second notebook we've owned, the last being a Toshiba Satellite (wouldn't recommend it) and the XPS 1710 is from my work. So how much of a difference in the processors and the screen resolutions? It's not that big of a difference to me.

 

I thought that everyone knew that you were saving money at Best Buy but getting less warranty coverage. Any educated consumer would be able to figure this out.

 

shhh....not so loud the uneducated consumers area listening


it really ticks me off though when people try to argue and make a statement that buying from Best Buy will always get you the best deal....yeah right heh

 

Yes, yes, we all know the warranty is worse from Best Buy, but my biggest complaint, as I said before, is that unlike with other Asus retailers you cannot buy an upgrade warranty through Asus, it must be the Best Buy PSP. All I wanted was to give extra money to Asus, instead of Best Buy, and I can't.

 

The reason why they do not have the same warranty, is because Best Buy wants to sell it's own warranty and people will not buy BB warranty when Asus's coverage is better.

 

Wow. I guess I should feel privileged to be among members of the elite "Notebook Deals" crew...Sheesh!

 

Well, if you have an American Express card and you don't mind not having the accidental damage warranty, then BB warranty is one year, and American Express extends it by another year for free if you purchase the laptop with your card. I can't post links yet, but if you want to see for yourself, google: "american express extended warranty"
I bought g50-x1 from BB for 999, and so far I am very happy with. I used to have G1s, and honestly to run any game at 1680x1050 you need a really powerfull GFX card, but at 1366x768 I can max out about any game I want.
The only downside is the desktop space when you are not gaming, but hey you can get used to that as well. Overall I am a happy camper.

 

What makes me mad is that I bought the X1 in the beginning as well, and I asked the sales rep. and the manager if I get the warranty that Asus gives out. He said "Any warranty that Asus gives out to their laptops we do not take away, however we do offer our warranty which is not required." After verifying 2/3 times with different people everyone swore up and down to me that I would have Asus' full coverage. Come to find out this was not the case, and I gladly returned it to get the X2

 

Hmmmmm, I wonder if this was on purpose? :confused2:

 

you get what you pay for. as usual...

 

theres a good reason for asus not offered extended warranty. best buy has their own warranty system that they make money off of. why would they give that over to asus? then their geek squad would go out of business. PLUS i believe the best buy version is cheaper than etailers. so you get a watered down version of the g50.

 

Well if best buys geek squad was actually worth something then I might be cool with handing over money for an extra warranty.

Friend of mine had a laptop with a busted mobo. HP had a recall on the mobo because it had a defective designed mobo. BB told me that it was the wireless card and that the mobo was fine even after I showed them that HP had a recall for this exact problem. My friend (Who is in college and uses her laptop everyday for class) was out of a laptop for a month while they were repairing it. When she got it back it did the exact same thing as before because they didn't repair what was fixed.


In short, I refuse to give BB's Geek Squad any money, as they pretty much have no idea what they are doing. A+ Cert's don't really mean as much as they used to :-/

 

Best buy geek squad told a few customers they had broken hard drives. These customers had a raid controller with striping enabled. Obviously a raid driver is required if it is not present on the os disk. They charged the guys to replace 2 working good drives and killed the raid controllers. Once they simply added a sata pci card because they dont know what a raid controller is. Once a twice is one thing but this has happen to our customers more then a few times. Geek squad is a rip off though i am sure they have some good knowledgeble techs which are like a needle in a haystack