Just got my W7J, but box was not sealed!

Here I am, delighted that my W7J has finally arrived...so I drive down to the local post office to pick up the package...then I returned home to somewhat of a disappointment because the outer laptop box with the blue Asus packing tape has already been sliced open (including the red 'seal' labels too). Should I be worried? I paid good money to get a NEW laptop but now I have to live with knowing that fact that someone else has "played around" with it or possibly swapped something hardware related....everything else in the box appears new (even XP registration and user ID)...what should I do? How many of the new W7J owners have had their boxes pre-opened?

 

Did you order from a company outside of the country that you live in? It might have been opened by customs officers just checking to see whats inside.

 

Welcome to the forum.. since you're new and haven't seen posts I've made on the topic, let me try to give you a crash course.

First - Asus has these systems sealed straight from Taiwan with their blue tape.

Second - Sometimes customs agents open a set amount every shipment, but they're opened and resealed in the pressense of someone from Asus.

Third - Asus in Fremont often does checks themselves and if they reseal it, it's either with a green QC tape or another layer of clear, white or blue Asus tape

Fourth - I'm not sure about distribution because we don't deal with them a lot, but that's the only place I'd really be concerned with it being opened because I don't trust those people. If your system is drop shipped, your reseller honestly can't tell you if customs, asus or the distributor opened it or even maybe the shipping company... but they are still responsible

Fifth - I'm not sure why more places don't do this, but I do know it's impossible if they don't physically stock them, but what we do is simply rewrap the entire box with our own security tape... whether it was never opened before or the instances when we need to add an accessory to the box for a customers order. Then, when it's shipped, our QC was done last and since we're the only responsible party, there shouldn't be anything on top of that and that tape shouldn't be messed with.

Shipping companies have done very weird things to us and I hate when Asus shipps big shipments to us through UPS because if they damage a box, they'll take the insides out and repackage it like nothing happened. The problem is when the box doesn't match the other 50 on the truck, we know something happened and reject it. Since you picked it up and left the place, just look everything over and make sure everything is good. Most likely there is an explaination, especially if everything is fine and nothing is opened...... You just have to understand there are checks along the way (mainly by Asus) and although it would be best to completely repack it at it's last stop, it's not environmentally friendly or practicle. At least if something like this happened say on top of the tape we use, we can say hands down that it was the shipping companies fault and straight up on the tape tell the customer to reject the package because it's been tampered with. After the fact, there is very little you can do, especially if you had it shipped through the post office because they're just about the worse in the world when it comes to shipping expensive items.... Yes you can insure it, but it'll take months to get payment if they lost somthing and just as long and maybe even harder if they damaged something. Feel lucky you got it and it's all good. If someone wanted to open it and take anything - they'd take the computer itself before anything else and if that's there and looking new..... I'd say you're all good.

But thanks for bringing this to the attention of the forum and hopefully it'll put your mind to ease.

 

Thanks very much for the prompt reply. Everything appears to be OK with the laptop + accessories so for now I'll just leave it. I ordered my laptop from a retailer within my own country, so I don't think customs would be too interested. But you mentioned the initial shipping from Taiwan, and that indeed could/should be of interest to them, though mine has just regular packing tape over the blue Asus tape.

 

I work at ups and sometimes things open, its just the nature of 100,000 moving per hour. If it opens and nothing comes out, we'll just put some tape on it and send it on its way...

 

.... That is the nature of things and UPS and FedEx deliver things with boxes which have dings and dents and scraps and although they know those things won't fly with a regular consumer, when they deliver like that to us everyday, we've got to judge what's happened. The notebooks are packed well and although we've seen a forklift blade go all the way through the box, the carrying case and even the bottom chassis of a W3v last year.... within a hair of the motherboard.... that's odd. Like I said, if the retailer had it shipped to you and didn't physically ship it themselves, they're still responsible but have no way of telling you how it went out without just taking a guess because they're speaking for someone else. Tape comes loose and things happen, that's why after years of seeing what could happen, we had some nice 3" security tape made up to wrap the entire box with, even ones already sealed..... and then seal over that with a big invoice envelope (just one more thing to prevent people from entering or at least to make it obvious that they did).

Now, we've had things stolen from shippers before...... someone cutting open the bottom of the box and slipping the computer out and leaving the top which is where the customer sees, perfectly sealed and looking great....... That's one of the biggest reasons we wrap over the entire box. There are so many claims that people can make and the shipping company only cares about their own butt...... so whatever they can do to get your signature and get on their way, they will.

The post office is another animal altogether.. and like I said, getting it in one piece through the post office is a huge acomplishment.

 

Alright, so I just got an email back from the retailer stating that they open all boxes before shipment to check if everything is OK and that there are no dead pixels. My question is then, is this normal procedure?

 

6th
When you find a screwdriver and business card inside the box labeled "geared2play" "dont get screwed buy from g2p" its natural to believe that we didnt beam those items into the box...am i right?

 

I know danny from milestonepc told me he'll check for dead pixels and stuff for me. But that's cuz I'm upgrading ram/HDD so he has to open it anyway. so im not sure if thats standard procedure for ppl who ordered it without modifications.

 

Well, normal.. I don't think so. We used to check all ensembles for dead pixels until Asus said it's not going to matter if you check them or not, because we don't replace them for you or the end user unless they meet the requirements to replace the screen. In other words, dead pixels or not, Asus isn't going to replace the screen unless it meets their dead pixel policy and the reseller has to sell it. Unless of course they sell you some "no bad pixel warranty" of their own......

Here's the bottom line though.... that sort of thing is something you should know ahead of time so you can expect it and not sit on this forum wondering what to do and stressing out about it. With that, finding out where the product shipped from and if it actually shipped from their address.... you could start to believe them.

 

We are his vendor, we check notebooks before ship out, because we have "Zero Bright Dot guarranty when you buy", if we find any bright dot, we will pull out another one and keep the one with bright dot, right now I have couple of W3J and A8Jm with bright dot on hand already, we will sell them at lower price for this issue as clearance.

 

You really should sell those screwdriver on its own, they rock

And really?

The box I had didn't seem like it was touched, I thought you ninja'd the screwdriver and cards in there!

 

Thanks for the info Justin, that is good to know. Now I know what to look for before I sign for the package when my W3J arrives tomorrow. Do you have a picture of what a typical laptop shipment looks like before it's shipped from Proportable?

 

Since the recipient of all of our packages needs to sign for, I really think you'll have hard time figuring it out when you get it. I don't have a picture handy, but since you're getting one tomorrow, if you'd like to take a shot and post it..... they're all typical... so it wouldn't hurt for someone else to see what to expect. Otherwise, I'm sure I could take a shot tomorrow.

 

I'll take a shot of it and see if I can post it up after I get it.

 

Heh didnt even know you ordered something. What did you order?

 

Uhhhh, nothing really.

 

Maybe you're refering to one of the "Prizes" G2P gave away way back when...the cases or the external hard drive enclosures. That's how I got my cool little screw driver!!! I use it ALL the time now, It's the best, I love the fact that It has that magnetic ability built right into the tip...makes things so much easier when you're dealing with tiny laptop screws in tight spaces