REALLY Bad experience with ASUS repair USA

I sent in my z70va for a last repair while it was still under warranty.

All I wanted was the headset jack repaired and the video card and DVD player checked out. The screen went wonky on me once and the tech person said they might as well check it out while they had it. I had been hearing a rumble on my DVD player when I was playing DVDs though the DVDs played fine.

The tech person said to remove my hard drive when I sent it in, which I did.

I got back the notebook sometime later with a note that they fixed the headset jack but they could not check out my video card and DVD player without my hard drive.

I called to get a new RMA and when I opened my laptop to get it ready I discovered that the keyboard in there wasn't mine but a really old one. A key was broken, and the left hand side had been so used that the black keys were turning white from wear. My own keyboard was relatively new as it was replaced by Proportable a few months earlier before they went completely out of business.

I raised the question first if this was even my laptop. The tech had me turn over the laptop to check the serial number and it had been completely rubbed off.

I put in the hard drive and the laptop wouldn't turn on. The tech person asked me to check out the IDE (I don't know quite what I am talking about here) and there was nothing there. He said he believed that the tech had probably rushed sent my laptop out without finishing it and and had accidentally put in the wrong key board or it was the keyboard he used when working on laptops and didn't install whatever else he was supposed to install.

So I was given an RMA to send it back in. By this point my official warranty had run out -- but the laptop was sent in under warranty and I was told the warranty would be extended 90 days while under repair. But the tech said I might have to pay for the repairs and a new keyboard.

I called the customer service person whom I've dealt with ever since Proportable went out of business and she assured me that I would not have to pay for these repairs and sent an email to the tech people to make sure to pass everything through her.

Nevertheless, I got an email back from a different service rep saying that I have to pay for a new keyboard and a DVD Player. I called the service rep who I had been dealing with -- she said she had already taken care of it and I wouldn't be charged.

Well, I got back my laptop -- the DVD player barely works, it doesn't on 3 out of 4 DVDs and they put in such a cheap flimsy keyboard that not only can you see right through the keys because the are so transparently thin but one of the keys just popped off and broke within a week.

I tried to contact the CS rep and ASUS revised their phone system so I couldn't get to her. I could not get to any one I had dealt with.

I had also been promised a new AC adapter and power cord and now I was receiving a ton of phone calls telling me that there was not record of it being promised to me.

Since I can't reach the service rep I have always worked with -- I sent back an email to the other service rep who contacted me explaining all this to her.

As of now, I have not heard back from her.

 

Time for a new laptop...

Z70Va has already been 4 years old and it may not be easy to repair it due to the lack of spare parts. Sorry for you..

--

 

Actually this laptop is barely 3 years old and was less than 3 years old when it went into repairs-- I bought one of the last ones-- deliberately so to avoid Vista.

Maybe the tech person who put in the bad keyboard instead of putting mine back in wanted it for himself?

Yes, I know it is time for a new laptop -- but with Win 7 coming out -- I wanted to wait until after the new year when the new laptops designed for Win 7 are out rather than by one now with Vista and upgrade later.

 

You'd be fine with a window's laptop. Windows 7 takes less of a toll on your system than vista so most comps should be able to handle it. It can run on less than a gig of ram supposedly

 

Im sorry to hear about your experience. There really are things you can do about this. Try BBB. Try calling every day for two weeks. It usually works. I wouldnt let this go.
Its easy for big faceless corporations to play around with us customers. Let yourself be heard over and over again and eventually they will do something about it. Explain your frustration to them, talk to managers, be annoying. It helped me

 

BBB= Bureau for Better Business

http://www.bbb.org/us/Contact-BBB/

 

Thanks for the suggestion and the explanation as to what BBB is and a link.

I am an attorney -- I know how to bug people -- I just try to use the attorney chip as a last resort.

I like the BBB suggestion -- I will try that....

 

I suspect you didn't even get your laptop back, if the serial number of the one returned was rubbed off, and as you have seen already it could have problems that your old one didn't. I'd raise heck, personally!

 

I love Asus repair.

They're how I got my G50 upgraded to a G51 for free

 

Not a particularly apt comment Rezigrene! The OP was clearly messed around by asus and has every right to feel angry.

 

I'm just sayin'.

They're not all bad.

 

I will be placing a call tomorrow ... let the badgering begin...

But I must say -- I was planning to buy 3 ASUS laptops when Windows 7 was out (small medium and large) and the new laptops designed specifically for Windows 7 were out. I have also recommended and others have purchased at least a dozen ASUS's b/c of me over the last 3 years and who knows how many they influenced.

My intentions to buy again were despite the crappy reseller service I experienced and the defective screen I got from the start (which was finally replaced with a red-ghosting screen only to have ASUS replace it again.)

But if ASUS doesn't make good on my laptop now... not only will my purchase decision be reversed -- I will be quite sure to broadcast this across the national professional community I am part of. It may not make a big dent -- but it will make some dent in their sales.

 

Just as an update... with repeated calls and repeated promises of call backs with resolutions -- none of which were kept -- I finally got an RMA tonight with a promise by a customer service rep that she will follow up.

I must say, each of the customer service reps were pretty genuinely shocked at how I've been treated and each promised to make sure a resolution would be forthcoming and that made me feel better.

But the fact that there was not a single instance of follow through is pretty appalling. One rep actually escalated the matter to higher level management. That was verified by several subsequent reps.

They also stated that upper level management hasn't deigned to address the issue in nearly a month.

I hope this is an isolated incidence with ASUS -- but if this is the future of ASUS's practices --- it won't be in the laptop business for long.