OEM Etiquette

A while ago I posted a thread called W3J virgin. For those of you who read it, I'm saddened to say that my cherry is stil yet to be plucked. Yes, I received an e-mail today from ITC regarding my laptop. It stated:

"Just a quick update on your notebook. We have built it up and I am currently in the testing phase. You purchased this notebook with the new Core 2 Duo CPU. The latest BIOS reveision was just released on the weekend so we have loaded it on. We are finding that the unit is not running very stable so we are a bit hesitant to send it out to you in this state. I am working on finding the solution to this problem which I hope to overcome by tomorrow, so aim to send out your unit to you in the next couple of days."

I was wondering, is it bad etiquette, or atleast bad for the warranty, if I was to e-mail them asking about the W3J graininess issue, and whether they could install the new BIOS for me if I give them the URL?

Thanks in advance to all...

 

You can ask, though I'm not sure what they'll do, if you ask nicely, etc. theres no reason they wouldn't do it, since you're paying them and all.

 

Yeah I figured that. I'm just not too sure considering it is only a BETA fix. Anyways, thanks but, I guess it can't hurt to ask.

 

I wouldn't have our guys "suggest" or install a beta bios, although they may tell a customer that there's a beta bios that could be tested - if the customer knows there are probably going to be problems and knows how to downgrade back to what they had.

... however, at the same time I wouldn't put a Core 2 Duo in a system who's beta bios just came out either..... You as about bad OEM etiquette, and I'm not sure if I'm reading you right, but I would consider it bad for a company like us to suggest anything that's not in it's final stages and hasn't passsed our own testing. Afterall, if we're going to warranty the unit, we're going to be responsible for the problems.... and it doens't look good if it's doesn't work. There really isn't a benefit in the long run to offering that type of service and in the end it just shows immaturity.... just because it could be done, doesn't mean it should and certainly doesn't mean it should have been presented and sold to a customer like that. I'm sure when you purchased it, you had no idea that the bios needed to run the cpu was still a beta..

 

Justin,

I'm still not aware that the BIOS needed to run the CPU is a beta. The beta i've been talking about is the one which fixes the W3J graininess issue. Are you telling me that the only BIOS out which will run the CORE 2 Duo in the W3J is a beta? If so, then I'd agree in saying that I had no idea that this was the case, and I may have held off purchasing the notebook.

 

I believe so, but will double check. Asus hasn't officially released the merom bios for the W3 yet.

 

You've got to be joking! Oh man...

No i was not aware of that. Had i known i definitely wouldn't have purchased that notebook at this time. Well now I'm in a bit of a pickle arent I?

I guess if it all goes pear shaped i can always sue them under the Fair Trade Practices Act for misrepresentation of goods...lol.

 

Assuming that they aren't using an official BIOS...it raises an issue for a few companies actually. I've found the core 2 duo for the W3J on:

www.p4laptops.com.au (purchased it from here)
www.affordablelaptops.com.au
www.laptopchoice.com.au

However, it is more likely that all three may have been mislead by another company, considering that all of them are resellers for that company.

 

Can't help you there. I do know that I haven't heard much of Asus down under of late, however many years ago we had a lot of AU clients and all of them complained about very shady dealers and information from the few places down there. I don't know how it is today and I couldn't tell you what is official or not. Physically Asus has been able to make and has made merom W3's, North America hasn't gotten them and bios' haven't been released. Whether or not yours is legitimate or not is yet to been seen........ I mean you could tell us your bios revision and we could look it up, but it hasn't been released yet in another other than beta form..... Many places in the US have been offering these for a while now and they're using beta bios' as well... Not my cup of tea, but it's the responsibility of the place selling it.....

... last thing... I hope consumers haven't gotten sick to the point of accepting less than perfect service from a company and accept their failures and faults are all ok if they were mislead by someone else. If that in fact is the case, they all are to blame because they're not doing enough to know what's going on.... make sense?

 

Yes it makes sense...

Uh, I feel a little sheepish, but what exactly is a beta bios? I've looked on the net to try and find the answer. But i've been assuming it's something like a pre-official test version or something of that nature.

However, on a slightly more positive note, I asked about the graininess fix beta bios, and I was told that the bios he was referring to, was the one used to fix the X1600. So that's one less thing I'll have to fix. And I guess it also means that if i had somehow damaged it, i may have voided my warranty. But now, this new bios is also under warranty.

 

it's a bios that still have flaws... sometimes Asus makes them available to the public - usually not on the notebooks though (motherboards, barebones maybe) - but using them is not under warranty and they're only put out because a select group of Asus techs testing it aren't enough to find every possible issue.... so they put it out in a close to done form and let those with enough knowledge and guts, to try it and see how it works and report the flaws. Apparently sometime found some flaws in something they used on yours - it just shouldn't be after you bought it.

Here's the thing... I doubt they could have seriously screwed something up and ruined your laptop.. so don't worry about that... However, Asus has no official connection with anyone who sells their products... they are insane and simply don't back anyone and yet will suggest everyone..... so if a dealer screws something up, it's basically your problem. That alone is one reason you should trust your dealer. Just make sure everything is good when you get it back and when the official bios is up, update it and I'm sure everything will be fine.

 

Thanks Justin for your concern and advice, even to someone who is not your own customer.

Thankfully, in terms of trusting your reseller, I'm not too worried as the reseller is not only an Australian registered Business (which anyone can apply to become), they are are also an Australian Registered Company, which is more stringent. So atleast I can be confident that I haven't been had by a shady internet scam.

Once again, kindest regards for all you help.

 

Well, like I said, I'd try to look on the bright side regardless.... but things aren't easy in the US, but we have "trusted resellers" who sell out of their dorm rooms and might even have more certificates of business or what have you than us or maybe even best buy... who knows.... but all I do know is that a reputation and how you do business is about all a company should have going for it.

Good luck.