Why Asus does not sell their laptop directly (at least online) ?

Hi Friends

I surprised, Why Asus does not sell their laptops directly of their own like Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc ??? This forces me to step-back before banking upon Asus or Am I missing something ?

They must sell (at least online) fully customizable laptops at their site.

 

It's their business model - they've always done it this way. Their notebooks are manufactured in the same factories, by the same companies, that build the pre-made HP, Toshiba, etc. They do not, and have never had a direct-to-consumer sales option.

If you want a customized unit, you have to go to a reseller that will offer that (i.e. XoticPC).

The Asus website lists the various configurations of a given model that are available around the world, but the specific internals are dictated by the regional Asus offices (i.e. Asus Europe, Asus North America) that import them for resale through their distribution network.

 

Why MUST they?

Surely a company has every right to make a choice no?

Asus' method allows them to save on the cost of individual customization. They work around it, to some degree, by offering far more pre-made configurations and product lines compared to most companies.

 

um what? Asus is an ODM.

 

Yes and no. Asus has restructured in 2007 and Asus now is only responsible for Asus branded systems. Pegatron will handle the OEM market.

 

OK. How come the distributors offer the customized models ? That means the distributors assembled the laptop of their own and sell it without getting a passed test from Asus ???

Then if something goes wrong to whom you will approach ? The distributor or Asus ? Again one more important doubt, How you will rate and rank the distributors in terms of reliability/transparency ?

 

I put gentech at the top for reliability. I'm never giving xoticpc any money after their hypocritical approach to the launch of the G51JX. and if something goes wrong- Asus is the one providing the warranty. but if I was you I'd buy from Gentech, the guys there can solve most of your issues without ever needing to send it in.

 

For a definite answer, you can always PM Gentech.

Most of the Asus forum users would probably go with Gentech.

 

It depends on the distributor/reseller. Some distributors such as Newegg will not provide any technical support for the laptops that sell while other resellers will. Those whom doesn't provide much/any customization are usually the ones that don't have a technical support team.

The quality of service will also depend on each reseller, and some may even brush you off by telling you to go to Asus yourself, so make sure you do your due diligence before purchasing an Asus laptop.

 

Still, One doubt remain unanswered .....

Frankly speaking I have a Asus motherboard in my PC and I had a nightmare support from Asus

 

Yes, once you customize an Asus through a reseller, Asus will not test it again. All testing will be done by the reseller, which is why it's important to choose a good reseller to begin with.

 

Understood
In other words,

Asus laptop cost = h(s)/w cost + profit by Asus + profit by reseller + tax

And if something goes wrong, then you will be redirected to other by them Asus will say go to reseller and reseller will say go to Asus.

Its better to got for other brands where you can directly buy from the original company and you can pull their pant if something goes wrong

 

Well, from my numerous past experience with Asus, they have never asked me to go back to my reseller (Gentechpc) for technical support. Likewise, if I go through Gentechpc for technical support, they have always been there to help.

 

Asus ships out laptops that are complete and tested. The laptops that are customized are customized by the reseller and not Asus. It is not Asus's responsibility if a customized unit fails but only if a non-customized unit fails.

It is important to choose a good reseller with good warranty if you do choose a customized unit.

 

You're making a few assumptions here.

1) That Asus is making a profit. It is possible and quite likely that some Asus products are sold at loss-leader pricing.

2) laptop selling price = h(s)w cost + profit + tax, like every other company. Resellers are not a significant section of the cost, and you might wish to read this document. The resellers who become partners get a rebate for each unit sold, and if you notice the amounts, that rebate is not particularly high per unit. Note that the lowest advertised price the resellers can sell a unit for is 3% below MSRP. Hence why you get those "add to cart" to get prices companies.

The Asus guide actually answers a number of your questions. Perhaps you should actually read it.

 

Dhoom

@dtwn

Is it ? I think Asus is a company to make profit not for social service Also even ever any middle man enters into any distribution n/w, the price of the product/good increases.

Thank you very much. I'll definitely go through it.

Now you people might have thinking why I'm so worried.
Because I had a very bad time with my Asus motherboard.
And also I had a AGP graphics card of MSI make with nVidia (GeForce 5200) chipset. When my graphics card start malfunctioning (still the problem is there) I tried to approach first MSI. But MSI ppl said goto nVidia and when I approached nVidia they said go to MSI !!!

I doubt same will not happen with Asus laptop too

 

Do you know what loss-leader pricing is?

If not, google it. Loss-leader pricing is not a social service.

This is perfectly true, the cost does increase, but there is one problem with this. Since you are comparing Asus with its competitors, you must also realize this point. Just because there is a middle man in the distribution, does not mean that the costs (to the customer) are any higher than a company that sells directly online. Have you seen the customized prices for HP business notebooks? There is a reason why most of the companies that sell directly have quick ship models.

 

I know it very well, hence commented like that.

 

And since when was loss leader pricing considered social service?

Ask Sony and their PS3s.

Considering the prices you are getting for hardware in American models of Asus laptops, would you think that you are paying substantially for resellers?

Resellers have advantages dealing with distributors simply on the economies of scale. This is why the Sager resellers are also more effective when dealing with issues than Sager itself.

 

Hope you did not get what I tried to mention. I said about Social service because why a company will sell his products with marginal loss ? Anyway lets put a dot(.) here. But for me its safer to buy directly from the manufacturer rather than any distribution n/w as I'm already a victim of that. Thank you.

 

If you're asking this question, then you do not know what loss leader pricing is. Trust me. I got what you mean, unfortunately you're not getting my point.

If you wish to buy directly from the manufacturer, stay away from Asus. Leave it at that.

 

I just remembered one point.

As for your assumption about resellers always being more expensive, consider this little fact, it is often cheaper to go with a Sager reseller than it is to go with Sager itself.

 

As a reseller, I'll chime in here. Our own policy is that we won't turn one of our customers away if they come to us for support instead of calling ASUS, but the "official" policy is that a "straight" (i.e., unmodified) system is meant to be supported directly by ASUS (and ASUS offers full support for all "resold" systems. They also do warranty work on all ASUS components).

Since you seem to be concerned about ASUS not supporting any system sold by a reseller, ASUS has set up their business model so that resellers do the brunt of their sales and marketing work, and they handle the support side of things. For an unmodified system, ASUS offers full support, no questions asked, and ASUS will offer at least some level of technical support even for a modified system (the only thing they won't support at all is a different operating system), but of course they will not repair or replace components that are not theirs.

If any upgrades we do at the request of the customer fail or appear to be failing (e.g., larger/faster HDD, optical drive, memory, or upgraded processor), we WANT our customers to contact us first, because ASUS would not repair or replace those components, anyway.


I'll also mention, having worked with both, that ASUS's notebook support department is quite a bit more customer friendly than their hardware support department .

 

@Eleison

Thank you for your reply. What you are saying may be fine with USA customers, but unfortunately the story is different in India. As I said earlier, I'm also a victim of this kind of business model (though from MSI and nVidia). Both were kicking me to other like a ball. And neither of them solved the problem

 

It's going to sound a bit callous to say it this way, and I apologize if I come off that way, but in your case, your best bet would likely be to buy a completely unmodified ASUS notebook if you buy one from ASUS. They have service centers around the world, and if you buy the notebook unmodified, you will only have to deal with ASUS to support your hardware, and they won't have any way to "kick you" to anyone else.

My own experience has been that ASUS tries to offer the same level of support to customers no matter where in the world they are, but buying completely unmodified would be the best way to guarantee that they have no way of shrugging you off to someone else. No matter what hardware is in the notebook, if it's the hardware configuration that ASUS designed, they don't have any way to tell you to call ATi, nVIDIA, Intel, or any other manufacturer, since it's all their own hardware.

Quite honestly, you are as safe or safer buying from ASUS as you are buying from one of the "famous" brands like Dell or HP, and you'll have a better built system out of the deal.

Good luck, whatever route you take

 

As a side note, if you buy the ASUS system unmodified, you can still add in your own HDD, RAM, or OS that you purchase elsewhere (you can even try upgrading the processor, though you run a greater risk of damaging something). As long as you rule out the HDD and RAM before calling ASUS for support trouble, they'll still support you just fine.

 

Thank you Eleison for your tips.