Customer Motherboard Replacement Asus - Customer Scammed Me, Help?

Like the title says, I did a motherboard replacement on an Asus laptop in January at my business on a customers computer and I've been scammed by my customer and his mom. I need some help so I can get my money back and prove these idiots wrong. Please help me?

Backstory;

January of this year a customer and her son brought her sons computer in that he used for school, and according to them he's a computer science major. According to their story he and his class tried to repair it before bringing it in to me, but could never get it fully functional.

Upon disagnosing and dissasembling the computer, I found out the motherboard had water damage, which the customer "forgot" to tell me before I started the job. I instructed them that the motherboard had shorts in several places and that the only way to fix this would be to replace the motherboard, as I don't do motherboard repair's at my shop, just replacement.

Upon doing a little research online I found that this laptop had issues with motherboard replacements due to the fact it required the initalization cd's and drivers for it. I told the customer that besides the motherboard, I would need to order the initialization cd's for the computer if they did have them still or couldn't locate them. When I called Asus and asked them what these ran, they said that since I was a business, I would be charged several hundred dollars, but that the customer may be able to get them for a free or reduced cost since it was their laptop. I called the customer after I found this out and told them that if I purchased the cd it would cost me several hundred dollars, which I in turn would have to charge them, if they didn't have their cd's or could not locate them, but that they could call and likely get them for free or at a reduced cost.

The customer told me they would try to find the CD's or they would call and order them themselves. I said okay and took payment for the motherboard and my labor on the repair. The first "refurbished/used" motherboard I got in ended up being defective. I called the customer after I attempted to install it and realized this and apologized, even though it's not my fault I got a defective part. The mom started freaking out, cussing me out, and telling me I needed to do the whole repair for free including giving them the new part for free or they would leave me bad reviews online and tell everyone how bad my shop was. I told them that as we discussed when first considering this job, I recommend using factory order parts on all repairs when we first started the process, but they opted to go for the cheaper refurbished/used non-factory option. Even though it wasn't my fault, I felt bad and agreed to give them some off on my normal labor charges on this job or fully refund them. They chose for me to just give them some off on the job, and the son requested I let them take the HDD home with one of my HDD to USB adapters so he could pull his data off of it that he needed for school. I let them take the HDD home with one of my USB adapters.

Upon getting the next, correctly working motherboard in the mail and installing it, I asked the son to bring the HDD back so I could put it back into the laptop. He told me he didn't have the HDD and that he'd given it back to me, which he didn't, along with my adapter. I told him I definitely didn't have it and told him that I had a signed document, from him, stating that he took it home, but that he never brought it back to me, so apparently he'd lost it somewhere. I agreed to use a drive that I had in the store in the laptop since he'd lost his, and he even agreed to pay for it. I then mentioned that it was now working, but was stuck at the lowest video resoluton possible due to not having the initialization drivers/cd. The son, whom was apparently the computer science student, said that was okay and they would get the driver CD's or figure something out and they took the laptop home.

Two weeks later the mom showed up in my store when other customers were in the store, screaming and cussing at me stating that she wanted a full refund, labor and part included because the computer was not working. I explained to her that it was working, but that it just needed the initialization CD's as I had stated to them multiple times, they confirmed multiple times, and said they would handle, multiple times. I explained to them I could not give them a refund on the labor, because I did my job correctly, but that if they wanted a refund for the part, I would need to remove it so I could either sell it, or use it myself at some point. I also mentioned that her son would need to bring my HDD I loaned him back as well as my USB to HDD adapter. She didn't agree with my partial refund, or the fact I wanted the part's back, and stormed out of my store cussing and screaming, never having given me the USB to HDD adapter, or my loaned out HDD.

About two months later, I was going over my bank statements, and noticed much to my surprise, that my payment processing had initated a chargeback on my account for the transaction, without even notifying me. I called my payment processing and they told me it was only temporary while they researched the charge and this particular case. I asked them if I needed to provide any information, and they said I didn't except the original job order and part order receipts I had from the customer that were signed and dated. Upon sending this to them, they said I would have my money back within 60 days. I never ended up getting my money back.

Today, I called my payment processing and asked what I needed to do to get my money back for the job I successfully completed, and the parts I put into this customers computer as well as the parts I loaned them. They said I would need to call their credit card company and speak with them regarding it. I called them and spoke with them and after speaking to 4 reps was finally put into touch with a supervisor whom I explained the whole situation to, and they got the customer on the phone for this after having explained to them what they called them for. The lady started freaking out again, cussing me out over the phone, and the whole floor show. The rep and I remained calm, and the rep now had an understanding of what I was having to suffer through with this lady and told the customer she needed to put her and I on hold to speak with an assosiate. She didn't put me on hold immedietely and spoke with me for a few minutes stating she now understood what I was having to suffer through and said she would speak with another of her assosiates and they would figure out how to get this taken care of for me the best they could.

The rep came back on the line, and got both of us off hold again. She stated that they would be re-depositing the money into my account within seven days if the lady did not bring the computer into my shop and allow me to remove the parts I put in so that I could re-coup the money I spent on it. The lady of course freaked out, but said she would be in on Monday with the computer. So my question to you all is this, how would I go about getting this video card to initialize without the initialization CD's, or is this even possible? I figure it I can get it to initialize I can take it by one of my partners in the city's repair shops and get them to confirm the computer is working and then get all of my money back on this, not just the money I'm out on parts, but the money I'm out on labor, and the money I'm out on my adapter and the HDD I let them borrow.

My question to you all is this, is there anyway to get the video card on this laptop to initialize properly without the initialization cd/s so I can #1 prove these idiots wrong, and #2 get my money back that I'm owed. I don't want to be out another several hundred for a driver CD just to prove them wrong since I've already lost over $400 between parts and labor on this deal.

I dont know what the hell you are talking about with an "initialization" cd. Why cant you install the drivers? If it is really that crucial then I would be willing to bet you can find what you need online in order to get it working... maybe even over torrents.

I use to run my own business and dealt with idiots like this at least once a month. After living in Japan for a year and a half I have come to the conclusion that Americans are just plain garbage human beings. In my experience the credit card company wouldve told me to shove it... I never had a good experience fighting charge backs.

I've done a few of their laptops and the only "initialization" cd I'm aware of is either a full recovery set or the ones you are supposed to make when you buy the machine.

Small Claims Court time if she doesn't pay up, you will need ALL your documentation and with luck she will blow up in court and piss off the judge. At that point you might get paid.

Asus support site

recently did a repair on a refurbished Dell machine with a pretty random motherboard in it. Looked up the numbers on the board and found the drivers from the asusTEK site--major pain in the ass to track them down. Didn't the video drivers come with the motherboard drivers? Or did those just get auto downloaded?

If it's a separate video card it should be cake, if not, it will come with the motherboard drivers and you should be able to find them.

I repaired PCs and laptops for a few years. I never once encountered a driver that was only available on a manufacturer's CD. What model of laptop is it?

Also stop doing repairs with shit parts and giving things back to customers incomplete. Sure the customer may have asked for a cheaper motherboard, but it's ultimately your responsibility to return a working system to the customer. If you can't do that, don't do the work. It just makes you look bad even if it's not your fault.

Hell, we didn't even charge customers until they picked up the finished work either. I don't know why you are taking money for work you didn't even finish in a professional manner.

Umm..You should be able to download the initializion CD and burn it.

Agreed you just need drivers. I have a hard time believing you own a shop of your own but are struggling with a "initialization CD". It should be simple.

Maybe the correct term isn't initilization CD, initilization drivers may be the more correct term.

Upon installing the new motheboard and attempting to use drivers found online for the motherboard model, it would not take any of them for the GPU. It took every driver the motherboard needed, but that one. I literally downloaded and attempted installing around 20 or 30 different drivers for the motherboard and GPU model many of which I got from the Asus website directly or their affiliates websites, and NONE of them would work.

I'm sure I was using the correct drivers, for the correct onboard GPU, however, none of them would take properly. I called Asus and they said the only way to get past the issue with this laptop is using the initilization drivers that originally came with the laptop. They would not provide and/or said I could not download them anywhere online, unless I became a member of their authorized repair shops, which unsurprisingly, costs money also.

I'm not using shit parts in customers computers, I'm using professionally refurbished parts when I do use used parts, at the customers request. It is my responsibility to give the customer back a working computer, which I did in this case as it was not working at all when brought in, and was functional when it left my shop minus the video being stuck in the lowest possible resolution, but it isn't my responsibility to be out cash for the better choice in parts just because the customer wants to be cheap and attempt to save as much cash as possible.

Some of your guys responses, are complete ass and do nothing to help. Thanks for being rude.

OEM manufacturers have their own 'special' version of video drivers. I've ran into that problem with Dell and HP laptops too. You should be able to download them from website, or "pretend" you're the laptop owner and request the manufacturer to provide them to you. Are you 100% sure the replacement board is the exact same as original part number? Even within a model series, there are slight variation skus.

Looks like you learned a hard lesson. Don't loan out equipment to customers. Don't start work until all components/software are in-hand. Long lead times to acquire items can screw up many project timelines, and often times you get blamed for something unfinished/takes too long. There's always going to be some $hitbag customers, so try to reduce your exposure to blame.

jctusmc03 said:

Maybe the correct term isn't initilization CD, initilization drivers may be the more correct term.

Upon installing the new motheboard and attempting to use drivers found online for the motherboard model, it would not take any of them for the GPU. It took every driver the motherboard needed, but that one. I literally downloaded and attempted installing around 20 or 30 different drivers for the motherboard and GPU model many of which I got from the Asus website directly or their affiliates websites, and NONE of them would work.

I'm sure I was using the correct drivers, for the correct onboard GPU, however, none of them would take properly. I called Asus and they said the only way to get past the issue with this laptop is using the initilization drivers that originally came with the laptop. They would not provide and/or said I could not download them anywhere online, unless I became a member of their authorized repair shops, which unsurprisingly, costs money also.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've heard about this proprietary stuff that goes on with laptop repairs... I wouldn't even know how to open one up really and I'd never agree to work on one so I wasn't trying to throw any stones at you. I just would have thought it could be done for free by lying or something like that

I guess the suggestion above that you verify the motherboard being an exact replacement is valid but considering your response here you do sound more like you know what you are doing than you did in the original post you wrote. But people are so often completely unforgiving of others' frustration. Writing concisely and without passion is almost impossible when your jimmies are rustled, and if this had happened to me my jimmies would be very very rustled. It also could have easily happened to me. I would have assumed I could "work it out" and said OK give me the damn thing I'll fix it--half out of pride.

One word of friendly advice (or 1000)--don't overshare on the internet--I'm learning this slowly; sometimes I just do it to be that weird guy but whenever I do it out of frustration and righteous indignation people just start to snicker, whether my wrath is justified or not.

Literally people will troll you, right to your face even, up until you go postal. Which is why kids are shooting up schools left and right these days. It's directly related to this "occupation" of being an internet troll that has been invented. I credit Youtube with this mostly, and they have sort of come around and started to sensor people that are disgusting and out to shock others. The trolling that goes on here isn't so much intended to cause people to commit suicide as just to make them feel inferior or stupid, whatever. Don't fall for it. If you want advice about how to get initialization CDs, leave it at that, no one deserves to get to take digs at you because you made an innocent and well-intended mistake of loaning out personal gear or allowed a customer to take unfinished work home with them because they were impatient. These are probably pitfalls pretty much every repair shop has to make a call on early and catch a lot of people out once, maybe twice. You already learned your lesson on this, no one needs to know the nitty-gritty details--"yeah, she was psycho but she was gorgeous and so I said OK to the repair job".

Like I said, I'm learning this lesson, too. Up to a certain point, shame on the trolls, but some people are seriously out to get trolled, or just dumb. The OP is not either of these things. He's just pissed off and out some money. It's understandable and it's a useful free lesson to anyone who thinks it might be fun and easy to open up a PC repair shop in their garage or *god forbid* throw a buncha money down and rent a shop to work out of without a lot of experience and tenacity and capital to fall back on.

What Brand and model computer is it?

Did you put the exact same motherboard back in or was it a different kind?

Having run my own computer repair business and transitioned to on-site consulting, I understand your frustration. I especially understand your frustration when it comes to customers choosing crappy replacement parts, but sadly that is just the environment we live in now. An advantage to transitioning out of the repair shop was that I was able to be more selective with my clientele. That is a very big deal in the computer business.

As for the problem with the motherboard/drivers, it definitely wouldn't be the first time I ordered the recovery media from the OEM online as though I were the owner. Then you can just pass the $20 or whatever they charge to ship you the discs on to the customer. I have made sure to always tell them up front if I was in a situation where I would have to order the recovery media and there have been several, mostly with propriety hardware implementations like you are dealing with, though also occasionally because the damn Windows COA wore off...