Disappointed with warranty repair in US

I had the misfortune of some kind of hardware failure in my G1S-a1 a week ago. I tried to turn it on and nothing happened AT ALL. Having heard that support in the US is top-notch I didn't worry one bit about it.

I called them up and he told me to put a pin in the pinhole on the back for 30 seconds and wait 15 minutes to try to turn it on and to call bnack if it didn't work. I did this, it didn't work. Alright, great, I call them back and am told that it most definitely is some sort of hardware failure and that I will have to send it in for repair. They say they will send me a shipping label and to get it sent out as soon as I could. Alright, no problem.

Here's where the trouble starts. I ask him how long these things usually take since I NEED my computer for school (Programming classes) and I need it fixed as fast as possible and am willing to drive the 2 hours to the Asus repair center in Milwaukee, WI.

He tells me that I need not worry as these things have a very fast repair time and it should be out of repair in 24 hours. Great!

So here it is, a week later (they received it on the 16th of March) and I called them to see the status. They say that it HAS JUST reached the repair center; it was in receiving for a freaking week! Not even that, but they have a shortage of motherboards for the G1 series. This is just great... They say call back Thursday and they will have more info then and have a better estimate as to how long it will take to fix.

So this went from me getting it back today ("at the latest") to me getting it next week at the earliest (14 days to fix a laptop...).

Worst part is that I don't have a stable computer to do any programming or papers on so I am buying a netbook. It will not be an eee, I'll try my luck with Acer.

 

Quality of ASUS support in the US seems to be falling steadily.

As to the problem itself, are you perhaps suffering from the dreaded 8600 GPU failure, due to the nVidia "bad bumps" problem (if unfamiliar about the problem, google around)? There have been MANY instances of failing G1S-es due to this issue.

If so you should perhaps try to get them to install the G1S n mobo+GPU instead of another G1S mobo+GPU, which will only fail again in 1-1.5 years or so.

 

its not the first time they run out of motherboards for the G1s, and i'm not one bit surprised, especially at this point of their life.

 

So, because the motherboards for this particular system are low in stock, and they didn't call you for a week, when you most assuredly could've called them, you're going to choose an entirely different laptop company? How was the laptop's condition before it died?

You're using the guillotine to kill a fly, if you ask me.

 

I just don't get how you can run out of a part for this laptop if this is one of the main reasons it gets sent there. Doesn't make one bit of sense.

I've called them every day since the 16th and all I'd ever get is "I don't see it in repair, it must still be in receiving". Every time I called there no one knew what in the hell was going on. Then I call and they say "oh yeah, someone should have called you to tell you that".

As for the condition. I took extremely good care of it. I had the overheating prblem since 2 months after I got it (thought it was normal), but other than that I didn't have any problems that were hardware related. This kind of just fell on me.

 

they run out of stock because of the sheer amount of defective G1s they get in every month. it seems to grow as the GPUs age more and more.

imagine everyone that bought a G1s with a 8600m and actually puts the GPU to some use to have to send it in at some point. that point keeps accelerating as the GPUs age

thats a LOT of motherboard replacements on top of their normal capacity

 

Unfortunately, spare parts do go out of stock sometimes. This isn't limited to just Asus, but other companies as well. If you check the Dell forum, you'll see that Dell's service centers in the US do not have the keyboard for the Latitude E6400 in stock either.

 

I can understand being irritated about a phone call run around, but don't discount an entire company for the fact that they happen to be out of stock of a highly demanded product.

 

And further, the G1 is EOL and no longer in production. Try to get spare parts for older systems and they just aren't there at all.

Sometimes production/availability problems happen, it's the nature of the business. I'm not minimizing your anxiety or stress (which I would certainly have in your situation), but saying that tech support/service is bad over a parts shortage is a bit more than may be warranted.

I agree with EBE's note, however, we do seem to be seeing occasional issues with Asus NA over the past few months - where in the past their reputation was stellar.... no info around as to why/what might be the origins for this, unfortunately, but they still are substantially better than some overseas units (i.e. Europe).

 

I think that the G1's freak-of-nature nature is the cause behind this.. never had too much trouble with other laptop rmas.

 

Dell and Lenovo run out of stock parts easily so it shouldn't be a surprise the same happened with Asus.

 

Ok I admit I might be expecting too much, but still the communication between receiving, repair, and me (no one knew what was going on with my computer for a week) was a bit ridiculous.

The other things just added to my stress. Maybe if I complain enough to them they'll just give me the G1Sn mobo/gpu so I don't have to send it in two more times for my gpu overheating.

 

^^ That sounds like a plan.

Yes, to clarify, I only assessed negatively the phone call runarounds and the delays in getting the notebook into repair -- not the fact that they ran out of G1S components. At the rate at which the G1S GPUs are failing, it's no wonder they did.

 

Lol just tell them you are there best customer and have like 10 asus notebooks then they'll fix it Hopefully they dont ask for serial numbers though.