My name is Wilfred Humphreys XI, and I am a college student from Michigan, USA. I’m writing today because I’m extremely disappointed in both the quality of the Asus laptop that I purchased and the service that I’ve received from Asus.
In late August of last year I purchased an Asus K53-TA-BBR6 laptop for a total price of around $500 at a local Best Buy retail store. I purchased this model because it offered good performance for the price and seemed to have a good design. Specifically, I liked that the keyboard had solid, tactile feedback, and that the touchpad’s buttons were very “clicky”, with a lot of tactile feedback, and responded easily with every click. The keyboard also featured a full “number pad” design which other similar laptops within my budget did not offer. Because I’m studying computer networking in school, and because I’m a heavy computer user in general, a quality keyboard and touchpad (as well as touchpad buttons) are very important to me.
Over the course of a few months of ownership, I noticed that the laptop’s DC jack, which accepts the power cord connector, was progressively loosening. The connector went from being very sturdy with no movement in the jack to having quite a bit of “wiggle”, or play, in every direction. Finally, after about seven months of ownership, the DC jack stopped working entirely and the laptop would no longer charge. This was under normal use with no abuse of any kind, and this is the first time that I’ve ever had such a problem with a laptop.
I contacted Asus tech support for the first time in order to start the warranty repair process. My call was answered by a tech support agent from another country. Because the person I spoke with had broken English and seemed to read from a script, I had a difficult time communicating with him. Although he did his job well, I was not satisfied with the type of support that he was able to provide, and I feel that using this sort of service as a “first line” of tech support prevents customers from receiving adequate help in a lot of situations (such as mine, which I explain below). Eventually, the support agent told me that I could simply bring the laptop to Best Buy, who would then ship the computer to Asus for warranty repairs.
Shortly after my tech support call, I left the laptop with Best Buy for the DC jack repair. I received the laptop about one week later, and was pleased with the fast turnaround. I was told that the DC jack was repaired, and it did indeed work. However, the plastic near the DC jack had a small crack in it. Because the crack was only a superficial problem which did not affect the function of the laptop, I decided that it wasn’t an issue for me. However, over the next few weeks, the DC jack began to loosen up again, and I was concerned that it would eventually break, just as it had the time before. I also noticed that the Ethernet port didn’t work anymore. Because I’m studying computer network administration, a nonworking Ethernet port is extremely inconvenient. In addition to those two concerns, a few keyboard keys had become completely unresponsive (most notably the ‘+’ key and the ‘enter’ key on the ‘number pad’ area of the keyboard).
A few weeks after the first repair, I left the computer with Best Buy for the second time in order to address problems with the Ethernet port, the loosening DC jack, and the nonfunctional keyboard keys. After the laptop returned from Asus, I was told that the entire motherboard and keyboard had been replaced. I immediately noticed that the keyboard was replaced with one that did not come standard on the K53-TA-BBR6, which was extremely disappointing. The keyboard that was installed had chicklet-style keys which are much smaller than the keys on the original keyboard. In addition to being much smaller, the keys also have very little tactile feedback, and are very “mushy” to type on. Some of the keys “squeak” if pressed in a certain manner. I would not have purchased this laptop if it had originally come with this keyboard. In addition to the low-quality keyboard, I noticed that the touchpad’s buttons were damaged. They seemed to have a much lower travel distance before a button-press would register—especially the left click button, which seemed almost “bottomed out”. The touchpad buttons had also lost most of their tactile feedback and no longer “clicked” properly when pressed. This seemed to have affected not just the “feel” of the buttons but also their function—especially the left click button, which would only register a click when pressed with quite a bit more force than was originally required. The left click button would also register clicks sporadically if held down without relatively excessive amounts of force, resulting in a frustrating experience. Before the buttons were broken (that is, before the most recent “repair”
, as long as enough force was applied to push the buttons past their actuation point, the clicks registered perfectly and behaved as expected.
The following day, I took the computer to Best Buy for the third time to address problems with the keyboard and the touchpad buttons. The laptop arrived from Asus in exactly the same state some time later. The Best Buy employee told me that the keyboard had been replaced, yet the laptop still had the same low-quality keyboard that I was not satisfied with. In addition to that, the touchpad buttons were still broken and seemed to be exactly as they were before the laptop was “repaired”. Functionally, nothing had changed.
Today, 10 April 2012, the laptop was sent out for the fourth time to address problems with the keyboard and touchpad buttons. I am extremely frustrated with Asus’s inability to return my laptop to a proper, functional state, and, based on my experience so far, I expect to receive the laptop back in unsatisfactory condition. As someone who is studying computer networking, being without a laptop for such a long time is a massive inconvenience. I feel that I’ve been sold a “lemon”, and because of the way that Asus’s support system is arranged, I feel that I’m effectively cut off from getting adequate help.
To make matters worse, my girlfriend purchased the K53-TA-BBR6 model only a few weeks after me (but before the trouble began) and is also experiencing trouble with hers. The bottom portion of the screen—especially in the corners—has washed-out, fading colors. Some areas fade to completely white intermittently. This differs from typical “backlight bleed” that I’ve seen on other monitors. In addition to the screen issues, strange, almost gritty “electronic whining” noises are coming from under the keyboard somewhere. (These sounds are not similar to the way a hard drive sounds when data is being written to it—I’m worried that some components of the motherboard are failing or have failed.) Because of my terrible experience so far, we don’t want to send it in for warranty repair for fear of it returning in worse condition.
Repeatedly going to Best Buy and shipping the laptop out only to receive it in worse condition each time is extremely disappointing. At this point, it seems as if my only option is to sell the laptop at a loss and spend even more money on another manufacturer, which, frankly, I can’t afford. I’m not the kind of person who purchases new computer equipment every six months, so to have this laptop become functionally useless to me so soon after purchase, and to be without it for so long (well over a month), has been a horrible experience. I hope that with this letter I can reach someone who can actually help me, and who will understand my frustration. I’ve kept all of the relevant paperwork and can provide dates and other reference information upon request. If you can help, or if you can get in touch with anyone who can, I’d really appreciate your assistance.
Thanks for your time
Wilfred Humphreys XI
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
