Warning: Asus Notebooks

Got an ASUS notebook (Z71) less than two years ago from proportable.com. The battery died almost immediately. Factory defect. Okay. So, proportable replaced it for free. Then, the second one died shortly thereafter. So, I tried for a third knowing that I may have to pay for this one. Guess what?!? The model has been discontinued and there are no more batteries!! So, when I voice my displeasure about this proportable starts covering their butts and telling me how it's "a result of my own actions" and, they consistently tried to make me out to be a liar. I couldn't believe it!!!! I wasn't trying to blame them for anything!!! I was merely trying to secure another battery and I'd already offered to pay for it! But, they kept insulting me saying that "I should have done this and, I didn't do this right, blah, blah, blah". Worst customer service EVER!!!! So, after being insulted I decided I no longer would deal with proportable or, ASUS 'cuz I felt neither company cared at all about the customer. Once they have your money then it's over. After that, all you get are excuses and arrogant customer service reps (not to mention an owner who cares more about being right (his ego) then he does about his customers and, company bottom line). So, the owner of proportable had a hard time accepting this so he called and left me an insulting voice mail where he called me "immature"!!! Can you believe that?!? The owner of the company called to pick a fight with me and I did NOTHING to them!!! I never held them at fault for anything other than insulting me and, trying to make me out to be a liar!! Then, I come to find out that another associate of mine (whom I directed to proportable when I was still delusional and thought they were a good company) bought a similar (but smaller ASUS) model from proportable.com about 15 months ago. Guess what?!? He's on his third battery and, they discontinued HIS model as well!!! No more batteries for him either. Both of us run our own businesses and we do a lot of work when we travel (airports, etc.). So, we're basically stuck with laptops that do us no good. WARNING: STAY AWAY FROM Proportable.com and ASUS. HORRIBLE experience. I've NEVER been treated that way by a vendor in my life!!!! Consider yourself warned.

 

Dear Sir,
Have you tried to contact ASUS directly, if a laptop is discontinued, the supplies like it's battery will not be discontinued, try to contact them, I have heard that ASUS has a superb support in North US.If there is a problem it's between you and proportable I saw ASUS nowhere to be dragged in this problem, There are many DELL laptops that are discontonued, but they all have their batteries supplied...

 

So exactly what were you doing with your battery that you weren't supposed to?

 

Yup. Contacted ASUS. Heard nothing back from them. Scoured the internet for a battery. NOTHING! Nobody has a battery. Either way, why should I have to go through all of this?!? I have an old HP laptop and can still get batteries for that! This is just rediculous.

Very funny ZaZ. Yeah, BOTH my associate and myself abused the batteries by actually expecting the laptop to perform when UNPLUGGED!!! That's why he's on his THIRD (dead) battery and, I'm on my second. Yes, that is sarcasm in case you're wondering.

And, I appreciate the help. However, I'm DONE with this notebook and will eventually get a new one. I'm not really looking for answers at this point. The whole purpose of this posting was to tell everybody about my horrible experience with the product AND the company that sold it to me.

 

I have to say...this post isn't exactly a favorable indication of your own "maturity" in dealing with this matter.

In fact, does this post even have any point? If you're having issues and you can't figure them out then ask people, if you feel wronged you can say so without the whiny tone, and posting something like this isn't exactly going to make people feel more enthusiastic about helping you.

 

Again, I'm not looking for help. Never asked for help. I just wanted those out there to hear about my experience with the product and the vendor. It was totally unprofessional and I feel people should know about it before purchasing from said vendor. I feel terrible for recommending the product and the vendor to several people and now, I'm finding that they are having issues as well. Now, I want to make sure others know about this. That's all there is to this. If I'm not mistaken this site is called notebookreview.com. Isn't that what I posted?!? Knowledge is power.

 

****...best stick with HP....

 

I am airman. Going to check into a new one next week. Thanks!

 

Sorry about your terrible experience, but many users on this forum have had great luck with Asus. If you look around on this forum, you will notice that just about every company has been bashed by a user at one time or another... No company is perfect. I have seen users bash dell and hp. I would say that Asus in general (at least there newer notebooks) are of a higher quality then most Dells and HP notebooks out there. They are usually built better and also have a better warranty. Asus now has a 2 year global warranty on basically all Core 2 Duo ensemble notebooks.

Another thing to keep in mind, is Asus most likely did not make your battery. It was probably Sony or Panasonic. Both Dell and HP (i think) have had battery recalls in the past due to exploding laptops and faulty batteries.

 

I think reviews usually take the form of a well thought-out and in-depth commentary on the product and it's pros and cons not:

Without sufficient explanation of the problem other than "The battery died and I couldn't find another one" and some indications that you might have done something wrong, at least in ProPortable's eyes.

It's just a pointless emotional flame that doesn't actually say anything but "I'm annoyed and I'm going to vent".

 

That is not an answer to my question which was why did Asus/ProPortable say you were at fault?

 

On the contrary Sliced Bread. As stated, I used the batteries as intended as did my associate. Both experienced problems and, ASUS confirmed the defect. I did NOTHING to the battery. They were defective as stated by the manufacturer.

Plus, I certainly think it's noteworthy to point out when a company/vendor is completely unprofessional. People have a right to know when things go bad. It's called a "review". If you don't like the review then please move on. You will not change my opinion nor, my experience.

Again, this is notebookreview.com. I posted a review stating my unfortunate experience with the product and, the vendor. I never said anything about all ASUS products being junk or anything like that. I merely noted my experience which is 100 percent true. Take it or leave it. I don't really care because my job is done. I wasn't aware that you could ONLY post favorable experiences. If you do not like to hear about my bad experience then I suggest you visit another posting and ignore mine. Not sure why you feel the need to try and change everybody's opinion when I'm only stating fact.

 

Because a troll is a troll is a troll... I've only been here a week, maybe, but I have plenty of experience with forums and some random guy spending his free time signing onto a forum just to ***** and moan sets off my 'troll alarm'. For all we know you could be an employee of a company that competes with Asus or ProPortable.

And your "explanation" of the problem leaves a lot to be desired. I wouldn't take "I swear, we did everything 100% as we should have, trust me, I'm not lying, this is all true..etc" in real life so why should I accept it from someone I have never even met?

 

ZaZ, the whole "fault" part was that if I had notified them immediately after the second defective battery died then they claimed that they would have replaced it. Fair enough. That was never desputed. However, it took me a while to notify them about the dead battery. Then, when I did contact them they said they had no contact from me from the time I received the second battery (which was 100% false). They spent more time trying to prove that I never contacted them than they did trying to solve my problem. I wasn't looking for a free handout. But, they insisted that it was my own fault (and, threw in a few insults for good measure).

All I wanted was a new battery and, I ended up taking lumps for it. Not to mention that is was very disheartening to find out that there weren't any batteries for my model anymore. It's not even two years old yet. I'm sure you could understand how one would get bummed out about this. Same thing with my associates ASUS model which he's only had for 15 months!!!

 

Sliced Bread, I'm sorry you feel that way. I honestly do not care if you believe me or not. My audience is vast and if you don't want to believe me then fine. Move on. Of course it's impossible to please everybody. I have all the voice-mails and e-mails to back up everything I've said. I'm self-employed as noted earlier. I work for noone.

Again, I felt it was my duty to report my experience as I feel terrible for recommending the product/company to others only to find out that they are having (or had) similar problems. I feel personally repsonsible for thier problems and I thought that it would be good for everybody to hear about my experience. Take it or leave it.

 

Hard lines dude.

I can understand you having an issue with Proportable, but Asus make really good laptops. We all get done over sometimes by the manufacturer (bad workmanship or components) but Asus are generally very good.

I have been put off Packard Bell cos of a laptop i had from them and like me, you probably wont buy another laptop from a company that you have had a bad experience from but still check out their new lines. They are improving all the time. But HP is good also.

Have you tried Ebay for your battery?

 

Thanks radditz! You make some good points. Actually, I did try ebay. Nothing. But, thanks for the tip! And, yes you are correct. I never said that the ASUS laptop performed badly. In fact, if they would just continue to make the battery for my unit I'd continue to use it! It's the fact that they've decided not to make a battery for my laptop that is such a bummer. I could still get a couple of years out of it!! Like I said before, I have an old HP laptop and that is still working just fine. However, the mother board blew and, after a couple of years the battery was starting to show it's age. I had the extended warranty and HP replaced everything for free (mother board and battery!) This was after two years! They were good to me so, I speak highly of them. See, I'm actually very easy to please. That's why this experience has gotten me to this point. I'm not out to "flame" anybody. I'm out to tell everybody about what happened to me so that they can be informed. I paid over $2000 for my ASUS less then two years ago and now I may be forced to get another laptop unless I can somehow find a battery. Bummer.

Now, the vendor that sold me the laptop. That's another story. That was just bad all the way around.

 

All you had to do was post this and I wouldn't have had a problem. It's not like you have an isolated problem with the z71 (unless you are very persistent and have multiple personality syndrome). Obviously I don't have an answer but creating a thread like this doesn't get you any closer to solving your problem.

 

Sorry for your experience with proportable. Asus does make good laptops but if its true that they dont make batteries anymore then a quality laptop means nothing.

Proportable has had customer service problems. Justin has been known to be very rude to customers. I remember a thread posted a little while back in which he was not only rude to a customer, he swore and insulted them. I would stay away from proportable.

Tahoe is simply stating his experience with Asus/proportable. Its not a good experience but people need to be notified so future customers can make a better buying decision. This is a notebook review forum, all reviews, whether good or bad, are welcome.

I also dont think its appropriate to imply that he might have multiple personalitys or might be working for a competitor. For all we know you could be working for asus or proportable. This goes both ways here.

 

Toga - you are corrrect. Glad to see somebody can understand where I'm coming from. I've never been insulted by a vendor before!!! And, yes it does bum me out that I will forever have to plug in my laptop. Oh well. Thanks for the reply.

Sliced Bread - I'm not sure if you can be more insulting. You've been rude to me from the onset when all I've done is speak the truth and, have documentation to support EVERYTHING I've said. You owe me an apology however, I don't expect one from somebody of your character. If you are of the mentality that you feel it's okay to insult your customers then you will just never get it. So please, let's just agree to disagree and move on. Once again, if you'd read my posts carefully you will see that I'm NOT seeking a solution to my "problem". I'm simply informing people. I don't understand what more I can do to get you to understand that?!? Please go bother somebody else with your insulting demeanor. If you don't like me or my posts then why do you dignify it with a response?!? Unbelievable.

 

You can get as uppity as you want, Tahoe, but no one is under any obligation to take your word for anything you post. It would have been easy enough to provide support (which I actually found and posted) to make your complaint believable. The whole demeanor of your original post is "I'm annoyed, hear me vent" and any other day I would have ignored you but I'm sick and bored.

I'm not going to apologize but you can walk away with one thing, I don't think you're employed by another vendor or crazy (though the MPS thing was a joke, hello, I wasn't actually implying you were crazy).

 

Well, if you're "sick and bored" then go bother somebody else. And, why is it that if I'm "annoyed" and "venting" it's not acceptable to create a thread saying so. However, if you're "sick and bored" then it's perfectly acceptable for you? Smells of hypocrisy.

Funny how you say you can't believe anything I say because you don't know me however, I'm supposed to know when you are "joking" even though I don't know you.

I think your words speak for themselves (plus your posts just validated some of the things I've been saying). There's really not much more I could add to lessen your credibility.

I've made my points (HORRIBLE/INSULTING customer service and, my displeasure in finding out there are no more batteries available for my now "obsolete" laptop that isn't even two years old). However, you've turned this personal. I'm done with this. If you want to continue to insult me then please let's do this offline. I'd me more than happy to entertain your ramblings elsewhere.

 

Maybe u should have posted the email u sent them or anything as a proof along. When i started to see this thread, i feel like ur just screaming here and there making a lot of nonsense.. but maybe ur rite bout some of the stuff. Some proof would change how ppl think that ur not insulting or defaming others. All of us should calm down on this a bit.

 

gusto5 motions for screenshots of battery statistics.
gusto5 motions that everyone also try to remain objective. It's just a company.

We're starting to be like blind guys finding out about a characteristic about an elephant and insisting we have the whole picture. : )

 

I agree with it... Lets have a look...

 

I thought about that lunateck but, what good would an exerpt from an e-mail do at this point? You'd all just say that I made it up. The fact is that this whole "review" and "forum" thing is subjective in nature. If people don't want to believe me then fine. I've done my duty by informing others. However, I certainly don't want to hear anybody complaining when they get a "raw" deal by any of the aformentioned companies I've written about. With Toga's post ("I remember a thread posted a little while back in which he was not only rude to a customer, he swore and insulted them. I would stay away from proportable.") and, the link Sliced Bread provided proving a defective battery I'm not sure what else I have to do to get people to believe me?!? I give up.

Like I said, I think this thing has run it's course now, it's just up to the reader to believe it or not. Doesn't matter to me 'cuz it's not MY money that will be wasted. Again, I've done what I set out to do so I think we're beating a dead horse here.

 

Tahoe, I realize you are not looking for a solution but here’s one anyway. Take your dead battery to a specialty brick and mortar store such as Batteries Plus. They can rebuild your old battery with new cells.

With a rebuilt battery you may even be able to sell it rather than trash it.

 

I will take that into consideration. Thank you Boneyard!

 

i think btotech.com has spare batteries....

http://btotech.com/store/products/laptops/asus/z71v/z71v.htm

 

Micheal (Tahoe),

I don't normally call customers out, but when it's done to us, you're fair game. So, please repute any of the following numbered statements:

1. Your system purchase date: April 2005

2. You requested an RMA for a dead battery: September 2005

3. You finally returned your battery to us: end of November 2005 (For someone whose battery died and they needed a replacement, you could have walked it back to us sooner)

4. We replaced had a new battery in your hands: start of December 2005 (2Day shipping the day after we recieved it)

5. Your battery warranty ran out: April 2006 (1 year warranty on batteries, hasn't changed for us in 6 years, and is normal for the industry... it's a consumable item)

6. Never recieved, but you claim to have tried to email me through sales in August 2006 (You should have emailed support, but if you didn't get a response perhaps a call or even a follow email would have been appropriate)

7. Never got a response, so you contact support yesterday: January 2007

8. Asus has no stock of Z71v batteries, nor do we, we've had a backorder in for them for five months and Asus says we may never get them.

Your battery has been out of warranty now for more than 10 months. We have zero reason not to get back to any email, but even if you did email in August, that's 5 months out of warranty, and even at that time we didn't have batteries left for the model. You had an emotional back and forth with our head tech yesterday which you got me involved in by claiming you sent me email. With that, I got to read through everything that went on and as I discussed wtih you, you simply need to get a grasp on reality and realize your lazy behavior, which started with a 3 month wait on our side to get your original battery back, and ended with you sinking to the level of creating a new NBR account simply to bash us. I'm glad you did, because all you're doing is showing to everyone else how much of an immature person you are. Your battery is out of warranty, we don't have any more nor can we get any... but there's no law that even says we need to sell accessories (many places don't). So in the end you're just upset and looking for someone to take it out on.... and you wonder why I told you to grow up? You have 13 posts this morning that explain why. I even tried to help you last night after you were a jackass to our support staff and myself over an issue which is 110% your own fault - sloth is a deadly sin.

 

Wow! Here he is folks!!! This is what I'm talking about!!! He can't let it go. Turning it personal once again!!! Insulting his customer!!! I NEVER tried to get a free battery from him. I tried to pay for one but, there aren't any. I already stated ALL of that. Never ONCE did I blame him for the battery situation!!! Not ONCE!!! But yet, that's all he can talk about. It's about HORRIBLE customer service and insults. Which he's just proven to EVERYBODY on this forum.

Yes, I've spent a long time informing people about this today because it's IMPORTANT. Spending $2000 is VERY important in most people's eyes and they need to be informed before spending thier money.

See. Now maybe you people will believe me!!!! This is how you will get treated if you deal with PROPortable!!!!

 

I personally would stay away from vendors on this forum. Why? Because I simply think they're here just to benefit them. Judging from Proportable post, it seems like he always think he's right. No matter how rude the customer is, you shouldn't tell them to "grow up" and I don't see the reason not to respond even if it's out of warranty. That's my two cents, take it or leave it.

 

That's what I'm talking about Mikez! Thank you! I'm glad Justin (ProPortable) chimed in so you could all see how rude he is. And, you are correct; he must ALWAYS be right. You now can all see how frustrating this has all been for me and why this post has been so emotional. It's because it was a personal attack from the beginning and, I don't want any of you out there to have to experience the same thing.

He called me a friggin' "jackass". HA!! Can you people believe this stuff?!? Hilarious!

Hey Sliced Bread! Need anymore proof my friend?

 

As entertaining a read as this thread has been, I don't see that these facts as laid out are being called into dispute. After nearly 4 full pages of a flame-fest, perhaps the mods could consider closing this to further posts?

 

A customer is not always right, especially when they have no concept of time. I won't let this go? That was yesterday and apparently neither can you since you started an account and made all of your posts starting this morning. I'm not going to sit back and absorb the BS for another day. All this goes to prove is that customers who don't have any sense of reality will get their hand held until it's obvious they don't get it.

Your battery warranty run out 10 months ago. We're not under any obligation to have a replacement for you. We would have them if it wasn't for Asus having a shortage. On top of that, we gave you other options including links to possible sources of left over stock and/or aftermarket batteries.

We went above and beyond, and yet you are specifically knocking us as if we kicked your puppy and spit in your face. I'm a member of this forum and not only are your posts an inaccurate attack on the company I run, but they are also personal.

mikez - I think you took a comment out of context, or simply didn't understand it.... Michael (Tahoe) - claims to have emails our sales staff in August of this year, with a note to me. Those always get forwarded over to me, and anyone that has ever emailed me or the company knows how fast we are to respond. However, we have no record of the incoming email, and I have no record of it being forward over to me which it would. That doesn't need to be the point though. He should have emailed or called support, because that's where our customers get support. All I'm saying is that part of his claim is that he sent an email that we never got back to - 5 months later he just emailed support to bring up the subject of his battery - and the "missing email" didn't come up for a few emails into the back and forth conversation.

The point is, even at that point his battery was out of warranty, so it's not like he called us a week before his warranty was up and asked for an RMA and he was told someone would get back to him. No one ever did and then the warranty lapsed and then he gets back to us and we deny his warranty claim because the warranty is over. We've proved we're efficient in our support and rma process... he's proved he has no concept of time.....

 

Ha ha. This is nuts. I hope you all are enjoying this. He's just proven my point. I NEVER wanted a free battery. JUSTIN - THIS IS NOT (and NEVER HAS BEEN) ABOUT A STUPID WARRANTY!!!! It's about being treated like crap by you and your company which, you've just proven for me here in front of everybody. My issue with ASUS is that I'm "BUMMED" that they don't make my battery anymore. Where did I blame you for that?!? You should really go back and reread everything I've posted.

Like ClearSkies says, the points were never desputed however, Justin of proportables continues to insult me. This is GREAT! Keep going Justin! This is validity at it's best!

I'm outta here. Gotta catch a plane. My work is done (for now). Man, I sure am glad you are showing your true colors in front of everybody Justin. That helps out greatly!!!! Thank you!!!

 

Just out of the blue, I had to go through 2 Z71V main batteries before getting a decent one (got my 'decent' one in November). My modular bay battery is experiencing extreme battery wear right now - I've had it for 1.5 months and its at 20%.

 

You're calling us a horrible company because we won't sell you a battery that we don't have. I understand that.

However you first post directly mentions me and if you are simpy "bummed" by not being able to get a battery, the words you used certainly make it seem as though we did something wrong. Even if your replacement battery did fail, Asus had a free replacement program for the Z71 batteries up until the end of the battery warranty. If the battery we replaced for you at the end of November did in fact stop working within 2 months, you another at least another 2 months to get it replaced for free. I know you don't care, or claim to.... but if you hadn't be so lazy, you not only would have another battery at this point, but it would have been for free. Now, not only isn't it free, but it's not even available.

Not our fault......... even though you spent the better part of yesterday and today tell us and the world that it was. When someone acts mature, they get treated as such. When they put on a display like you have, you'll get treated accordingly.

 

Mikez, I disagree with you.

I'm not going to enter this flamed thread to debate in either side, but I can tell you that the vendors that post in this forum are fantastic. MilestonePC.com, BTOTech.com, PROPortable are all great resellers (There's a few more, but I'm not too familiar with them). They help members here that never even spoke to them, let alone bought a product from them. They bring us information and photographs of upcoming products that all of us are interested in.

Justin is very professional. PROPortable's 99% approval is proof of that, and I've experienced and witnessed the help, and information he gives to the members of these forums.

Of course the vendors are here to benefit themselves. Running a business, obviously marketing is important. But it isn't true that all they do here is post threads saying "BUY FROM US!". They actually help us out!

My purpose of this post is, you're actually telling people to "stay away" from these resellers, because they're just benefiting themselves. By saying that, you're benefiting the other resellers that don't come to this forum.

Again, I'm not taking Justin OR tahoe's side on this thread.

 

tsidneku - That's because there was a defect in the battery and the batteries that Asus offered for replacement (some of them), turned out to be from that same process.... They didn't think it was, but they later found out in December that some of the batteries were simply going to stop working. They set up an 800 number for dealers to give to any z71 customer that called with a battery that wasn't charging, even those that already had theirs replaced once. It was a voluntary recall of sorts, anyone that noticed a problem got two way shipping paid for and Asus handled the entire thing. The issue was only in regards to the main batteries..... I've only seen 1 modular bay battery fail on any of the models that use them over the last 5-6 years... so that one is more of a fluke.

 

And I'm going to let smartsam close this out. He sums it up well, we appreciate it when vendors of Asus and other models participate here because they give insight that can't come from anywhere else. At times it can be problematic, but overall they're a significant asset.