How does Asus survive with such terrible RMA service?

cjoeu

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Apr 6, 2012
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I shipped my board back to ASUS for RMA for a dead ethernet port and a dead sound port. Asus received my board on 5/25 and has been in Repairing status since. I have called in a couple of times and have been shocked by the level of service. I mean shocked. Everytime I speak to someone I get a new story. Like your board will ship on Fri, a couple of days later, "Your board has shipped I'll send an email to get the tracking number", couple of days later "we have no status on the board except it's Reparing, what is the tracking number you used to ship it" etc.. I feel like when i call they make something up to get me offf the phone. This is a motherboard not a sound/video card where you can pop in another. The wait is just unexceptable. I purchase a lot of computer products and I have never seen anything close to this level of service or lack of it.

Just beware. I would have just kept the Mobo if I had known it would play out like this.

Update: June 29th

I decided for the cross-ship. I shipped my MB back on Fri. Received the replacement today. I opened up the box and to my surprise one of the heat sinks was partially off. Quality control at its best. I could replace it myself, but what confidence should I have in a board that arrives in that condition? Incensed that the cross-ship took so long, I bought another board. I'll continue to RMA it again and again and again until I'm satisfied

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Update: July 5th
I spoke to Dwayne at Tier 3 tech support on June 29th. Today is July 5th and I had yet to receive an RMA number to return the 2nd defective board they sent. I called the tech support and was transferred. I'm not sure to what department. The women I spoke to Andrea told me the new board was reserved on July 2nd and is unsure why I didn't receive an email with the prepaid label. She said she would set one up and send it off to me. I emailed Dwayne as well, just as a backup.
 
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and have been shocked by the level of service

This implies some level of service. I think many would argue that Asus, in fact, does not provide RMA service. What they do provide is some sort of item exchange program where they will eventually ship you a borked piece of crap in exchange for your borked piece of crap.
 
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Because they were great in the past, and that's what people remember. It takes time for people's opinions to change, especially if they don't experience it directly. The most highly recommended boards on most forums is still Asus, but that's slowly changing.
 
I sent in a board to them a year ago with a dead lan after a bios update. They sent me back a board in a plain cardboard box with no packing materials. The board was severely damaged on arrival. Then of course this board was RMAd as well. ASUS tried denying the 2nd RMA. Eventually, they sent back a replacement, which was a dusty board with crooked heatsink screws that worked for a few months then died just outside of warranty. This was a P5E deluxe. NO MORE ASUS.
 
Try RMAing a laptop with ASUS. Just as bad as the mobo. Bought an Asus laptop for the wife to play WoW on. We picked up a decent model (like 1400 bucks 3-4 years ago) that had a 9800 mobile card in it. Had nothing but overheating issues, cooling fans died in it every 3 months. During the warranty period we went thru a bad LCD & video card two times. Each time this happened it took them a month to 1.5 months to repair it. Now the video card is going bad once again so its just a large paper weight. I haven't picked up another Asus product since and never will.

I've been buying Gigabyte mobos and an occasional MSI for years now. No problems with Gigabyte as of yet and one of the MSI's i had to RMA. Took two weeks but got it back and works fine now.
 
Because they were great in the past, and that's what people remember. It takes time for people's opinions to change, especially if they don't experience it directly. The most highly recommended boards on most forums is still Asus, but that's slowly changing.

Fully Agreed.
 
Great info. I thought about bying a mobo that supports ECC RAM, with the new C216 chipet. ASUS has such a mobo called P8C WS, but reading this, I am glad that I am not choosing ASUS. SuperMicro is doing server mobos, so I will go for the new X9AES.

Thanks wroobel and mradebel! :)
 
I don't understand why they don't try to change things. I guess they're making pant loads of cash with their OEM stuff and couldn't give a shit a out the retail end and us enthusiasts. I prefer Asus boards because they review so well and survive [H]'s torture tests but they scare the crap out of me because I have yet to read a positive customer service experience with them. So far nothing I've bought from them has needed to be RMA'd but I'm sure my luck will eventually run out.

The only reason I do keep buying their stuff is that Raja dude that checks in here occasionally. He seems like he gives a shit and tries to help.
 
Because people like me that have owned Asus boards for 10 years and are happy don't make a fuss about it. I did have a Asus go bad recently...an Athlon X2 board thats probably 5 years old, the IDE port went out.

My X58 Sabretooth is still running fine day in day out 24/7.

My Intel DX58SO only lasted 6 months before the LAN went out, then the board started BSOD'ing. So who knows.

The problem is people want to spend as little as possible, but will only buy the parts with the most features. Everyone has to make stuff cheap now, not because they want to, but because they have to.
 
I've been buying Asus boards forever and have never had to deal with cs since I've never had to RMA. Guess not everyone is so lucky. I also only buy budget boards (I'm cheap) so I probably wouldn't feel as bad if it did happen. :D
 
I've had the exact same experience. My board was received on 5/25 and has been "repairing" ever since. I had a different board I could use, but if I were waiting on the replacement, I'd be fuming.
 
Wow, I always thought ASUS was a great board. My fear is getting a dead board back and having to deal with this again. I'm even more annoyed that I actually debated whether I should have just kept the defective board, reasoning that at least most of it worked. I'll call them today and if I don't get satisfaction, I'll make it a mission to let everyone know, I might even go to small claims court. I just hate being lied to. And their lying seems to be the culture at the service department.
 
Great info. I thought about bying a mobo that supports ECC RAM, with the new C216 chipet. ASUS has such a mobo called P8C WS, but reading this, I am glad that I am not choosing ASUS. SuperMicro is doing server mobos, so I will go for the new X9AES.

Thanks wroobel and mradebel! :)

Yup, a whole world of difference in quality mobo's going from Asus to Supermicro.
 
Every board except one in my house is an ASUS. Several ROGs, and a P35.....my son uses an EVGA and I've personally had two EVGA boards go south.

I'm afraid of buying ASUS boards, but keep doing it anyway....I just hold my breath the first time I POST them.:eek: after reading all the bad stories here.
 
This isn't an issue with Asus quality. I think Asus boards are built better than the rest but everybody can have a lemon or two sneak thru the QA lines. The problem seems to be with customer service and the RMA process when you do have a problem. This is what i always read nightmare stories about.
 
This isn't an issue with Asus quality. I think Asus boards are built better than the rest but everybody can have a lemon or two sneak thru the QA lines. The problem seems to be with customer service and the RMA process when you do have a problem. This is what i always read nightmare stories about.

Its just how today is now trying to squeeze out as much money out of little people as possible. I think that's what causes the terrible service and turn around time.
 
List of Asus products I have had fail on me in the past five years: One EEE PC 701, a laptop, four motherboards, a videocard, and a TF101. Considering that they also provided me with just about the worst customer support I have ever experienced in each case, I can confidently say I am never buying something from Asus again. They make Asrock look reliable.
 
Ive never understood the fascination with ASUS besides a few greatly marketed but entirely pointless products. like those tripple slot GPUs that just seem to point out the pros of water cooling more than provide any positives for air coling.
 
My only experience with Asus RMA was years ago when I had an Asus A8N SLI (S939 mobo). The first time, that annoying fan that sounded like a rocket ship died. I was like, "why is my tower quiet all of a sudden?" This resulted in random reboots due to heat, so I called them, and they shipped me a new fan. I swapped them out and everything was fine.

Then, it happened again. This time, the motherboard died. So, I called them up and was told two different things. First I was told that by swapping out the fan I had voided the warranty. Sure, I mean...I only did what they told me to do! So, I called again and got a different agent. She told me that "we only honor our warranty as a courtesy." What!? So, I launched a BBB complaint which had the net affect of having Asus honor their damn warranty. When I got the new board in, I removed the damn fan and swapped it out with a reputable heatsink. Never had problems again until I tried to install Win7 on it. Mobo wasn't compatible.

Haven't bought an Asus product since (except the monitor last week, which was promptly returned).
 
Whatever mobo brand I purchase I just hope I never have to RMA it back to the manufacturer. Never had a good experience.
 
I continue to use ASUS boards because I've never needed RMA service. I've never had any real problems with any of them. I've had well more than 20 ASUS boards which I've paid for out of my own pocket over the years and all served me very well.

EDIT: There is one exception to the rule, which is the ASUS Striker Extreme. I had one of those and it went tits up on me. However I blame the chipset and not the motherboard manufacturer. Sadly it was the most reliable 680i SLI board I ever used.
 
It is? Ive always owned cheap stuff earlier. Is there really a difference you think?

When they stopped making consumer grade mobos and focused on workstation/server motherboards and entire solutions it got much better.
 
I shipped my board back to ASUS for RMA for a dead ethernet port and a dead sound port. Asus received my board on 5/25 and has been in Repairing status since. I have called in a couple of times and have been shocked by the level of service. I mean shocked. Everytime I speak to someone I get a new story. Like your board will ship on Fri, a couple of days later, "Your board has shipped I'll send an email to get the tracking number", couple of days later "we have no status on the board except it's Reparing, what is the tracking number you used to ship it" etc.. I feel like when i call they make something up to get me offf the phone. This is a motherboard not a sound/video card where you can pop in another. The wait is just unexceptable. I purchase a lot of computer products and I have never seen anything close to this level of service or lack of it.

Just beware. I would have just kept the Mobo if I had known it would play out like this.

I sent in a board to them a year ago with a dead lan after a bios update. They sent me back a board in a plain cardboard box with no packing materials. The board was severely damaged on arrival. Then of course this board was RMAd as well. ASUS tried denying the 2nd RMA. Eventually, they sent back a replacement, which was a dusty board with crooked heatsink screws that worked for a few months then died just outside of warranty. This was a P5E deluxe. NO MORE ASUS.
Jeffersonville Indiana RMA center? There have been numerous horror stories on this board bout that plant. I asked ASUS about it in the ASUS Q&A Kyle was putting together several months ago. We never got an answer from ASUS or acknowledgement from [H] on the status of this.
 
I've been buying Asus boards forever and have never had to deal with cs since I've never had to RMA. Guess not everyone is so lucky. I also only buy budget boards (I'm cheap) so I probably wouldn't feel as bad if it did happen. :D

I'm one of these. I seriously considered Gigabyte and MSI for Z77 this go around because of all the recent Asus support horror stories, but Asus won me on features yet again (Fan Xpert 2, PCI slot, Intel LAN, no Etron crap controllers). So far so good.
 
not this thread again

can the admins roll these all up in a "ASUS RMA SUCKS" megathread?

or perhaps there is enough content by now to branch a new subforum on the subject
 
Asus is garbage now a days... MSI, Gigabyte or EVGA Only for me.
 
Just did a RMA through Asus. My sound stopped working on my motherboard. I used the support on their site and sent them a highly discriptive email of all the the diagnostics I have tried including ones recommended on thier webiste. They sent me a email back with a address and rma number with no finagling involved. I included a copy of the email in the box I sent them as well too insure no confusion. It took exactly two weeks from when I shipped and was able too check the status of the repairs on their website. Problem was fixed and had zero issues.
 
Just did a RMA through Asus. My sound stopped working on my motherboard. I used the support on their site and sent them a highly discriptive email of all the the diagnostics I have tried including ones recommended on thier webiste. They sent me a email back with a address and rma number with no finagling involved. I included a copy of the email in the box I sent them as well too insure no confusion. It took exactly two weeks from when I shipped and was able too check the status of the repairs on their website. Problem was fixed and had zero issues.

Well, you are one of the first positives I have heard. I shipped them my motherboard 2 day shoping on May 22nd. Still no mobo and still says "repairing" n the status screen.
 
I'm one of these. I seriously considered Gigabyte and MSI for Z77 this go around because of all the recent Asus support horror stories, but Asus won me on features yet again (Fan Xpert 2, PCI slot, Intel LAN, no Etron crap controllers). So far so good.

Same here.

I buy asus boards because they are built like tanks. Any and all RMA experiences I've had to do with Asus boards occured in the first 30 days and thus were handled by the retailer. Any machine I've built with an Asus board is still running...7+ years later.
 
Dan,

I was a bona fide ASUS fanboi. The products themselves are still quite good, the problem arises when you have a warranty issue, not terribly uncommon in any modern electronics of this density and complexity.

The drumbeat of unhappy to outright shocking RMA experiences just continues and is confirmed by my personal experience. Z06 may be overstating the case but the fact remains that ASUS has a serious RMA processing problem.

I was a solid ASUS customer since socket 370...I am not currently buying their products.
 
Dan,

I was a bona fide ASUS fanboi. The products themselves are still quite good, the problem arises when you have a warranty issue, not terribly uncommon in any modern electronics of this density and complexity.

The drumbeat of unhappy to outright shocking RMA experiences just continues and is confirmed by my personal experience. Z06 may be overstating the case but the fact remains that ASUS has a serious RMA processing problem.

I was a solid ASUS customer since socket 370...I am not currently buying their products.

I've been using ASUS boards since the socket 5 days. I've never had a problem with any of their boards. I know one person who had an issue with the P5N32-SLI Deluxe in which the BIOS flash failed and all they did was send him a new BIOS chip and I replaced it for him since it was socketed.

That's my only experience with their customer service and it didn't really involve me. That being said, I've heard horror stories dozens of times over, but I figure it's probably the exception rather than the rule. Though the forums would have you believe each experience is nothing short of a nightmare.
 
Yeah, I was dubious too, until it took 6 weeks to get my R3F back and they gave me somebody's board with bent heatsink fins and crud all over it. I also experienced the clearly made up responses from the call center noted above.

I want to be clear, I still think the hardware itself is quite good; feature packed and high quality. All manufacturers will have some percentage of problems. I am just shy of dropping this kind of cash to be jerked around and lied to if I have an issue.

Again, personally my only problem is with North American customer service, not with manufacturing or design.
 
Jeffersonville Indiana RMA center? There have been numerous horror stories on this board bout that plant. I asked ASUS about it in the ASUS Q&A Kyle was putting together several months ago. We never got an answer from ASUS or acknowledgement from [H] on the status of this.

For me, it was one of the Canadian RMA centers. Perhaps Markham ? I can't remember. I did the RMA through a friend's computer store who takes care of RMA's for a fixed fee. They told me that ASUS RMA has gotten horrible and its literally luck that gets you the one remaining good RMA center out of the bunch. Anyways, no more ASUS after about assembled ~20 computers with only ASUS.
 
I've never had to use Asus RMA before, and I would echo your sentiments about Asus boards in general as the only board I ever had issues with was an A8N32-SLI. The one time I did have to use it is a joke. I've been waiting for 3 weeks while their status is "repairing." I have a hard time believing I'm the exception in this case. I'm 0-1 in Asus RMA experiences.

I had to send my board to the Indiana facility. Maybe the problem is that service center.
 
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Tech support is non existent, they know less than you
(Tho depends on what location you are shuffled off to during initial call)
Takes 20 min to get thru then 20 min to get someome - and no toll free number
Always mark mobo edge with felt tip so you can see if they send you back same mobo
Also take a high res picture of your CPU socket and mark it "undamaged" with date and initials on CD, and place in box.
ASUS sells 20.6 million mobo (2010) and 58 million products of all types
A few angry folks shouldnt matter much.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...d=1&model=P9X79+DELUXE&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Which means you have to buy from Amazon and take ASUS out of the equation completely, at least you always can get 2 fresh new boxed mobo to try for a good boot.

Edit: Added ASUS link
 
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Like I said earlier, one good thing is that Raja dude that I've seen pop in on almost all the threads complaining of a problem with an Asus board telling the OP to PM him and he'll get to the bottom of it for them. Gotta give them credit for that. I don't know of any other mobo brand with am active rep here. Corsair and Galaxy also have reps here which is a big part of why I buy their stuff.
 
These threads scare the shit out of me.

I just sent my z68 Deluxe to Indiana ;0
 
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