Asus and their USELESS warranty. (they are at least trying now)

Rauelius

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This is a long one. I wrote an article regarding mine and other's experience with Asus LACK of an actual RMA department. It seems they just stockpile defective graphics cards and motherboards and send those to customers having issues.

This is a big ask, but this needs attention. The abuse that us customers are going through is ridiculous and has to be brought to light. Asus has now turned to ignoring me, my only recourse is to advise the community of their horrible practices. Please share this on the front page, I know [H]ardOCP is winding down, but, Kyle if you can, this needs attention.

Thank you;

- Rauel Crespo

http://cresponia.com/asus-and-thier-useless-warranty/

This story starts out in December of 2017. I finally saved up enough money to upgrade from my Zotac GTX 980-Ti AMP Edition to a card that provided a substantial upgrade in performance, one based on the recently released GTX 1080-Ti. I had two brands in mind, Asus and Gigabyte. Historically, I’ve had great experiences with both and it really came down to aesthetics and extras that the Asus GTX 1080-Ti Strix Gaming OC provided. It had a very nice shroud and heatsink that made the Gigabyte GTX 1080-Ti look ugly. The Fan and RGB headers didn’t hurt either. This WAS a great card, and Asus WAS a company I at once recommended.

A little background on me. I’m a computer hardware enthusiast and I head the IT department in one of the nation’s largest hospitals. I also do Reviews for NewEgg as an “EggXpert”. I upgrade my main machine about every year or so and have plenty of hardware to test with. My two main machines are an i7 6700k and a Ryzen 7 2700x. I have plenty of hardware to test and before I even consider RMAing an Item or returning it I ensure that the issue isn’t on my end.

I don’t have either my i7 or Ryzen 7 machine overclocked (the boost/turbo already on both CPUs takes car of any performance issues in my mind) and I NEVER overclock my graphics cards, which is why I bought a pre-overclocked GTX-1080-Ti and a pre-overclocked GTX 980-Ti before that.

The long-short of the story is that Asus does NOT honor the warranty on their products. I have reached out to Asus on multiple occasions with my requests falling on deaf ears. I first started noticing issues with the card in December of 2018. Games of Overwatch and PUBG would just freeze up. I reached out to Asus’ RMA department, and that proved clunky and unproductive.

I reached out to Asus on Twitter, and they were quick to respond, respectful and helped me with an RMA right away. I went through the RMA process and sent them my card, and less than a week later I received an RMA card from Asus.

I installed the card they sent me and I remember the same issues that I had on the defective card coming up. It would crash in Overwatch and PUBG, and stutter like crazy in Rocket League. True to my IT background, I tested the card in my wife’s 1600x machine as well as my 6700k machine, and in both computers the card would crash and fail.

I reached out the ASUS on Twitter again, and they were again polite and responded quickly. They accelerated the RMA process and within a week I received a completely defective non-working card. Yes you read that right, my computers wouldn’t even boot with the card they sent me.

I did some research on this and reached out to the community, and this doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident. From the stories I received, Asus does NOT honor RMAs. Asus send out defective cards as an RMA, in hopes of wearing down the user to the point they give up.

-----------------------------------------------------

There's more info and other horror stories in my article. Please share.

Thank you
 
I've had a similar experience with Asus which is why I hesitated for almost 10 years before purchasing another Asus motherboard. I've only purchased a single motherboard from them since then and will never consider a graphics card, monitor, or laptop. I even weighed the amount I spent on the motherboard with them because I consider any breakdown under their warranty to be a total loss. I wish I was kidding.
 
Yep, I had an awful time with their support department last year. I don't buy Asus products for that reason.
 
Ah thread # 5492 about how bad ASUS CS/RMA's are. I'm not surprised in the least, learned this about 10yrs ago.
 
The wild thing is that even though I've had a couple major issues with their RMA department, I still buy their motherboards. I haven't really had any issues with motherboards, but wont buy monitors or video cards from them anymore.
 
Hmmm... I've never encountered issues with their RMA process in the past. I turned away from them as their products I've purchased for myself and friends/family began to have issues and their support was garbage. It seems they've become too big and too diversified for their own good. I turned to Gigabyte but had a horrible RMA experience with them. It took nearly two weeks for them to respond to a support ticket. Then they made up for it by offering a cross-ship RMA. That however, required a credit check instead of just the typical take my credit card info just in case that most vendors do. The new board fixed the issue but then I received a response that the old board was defect free and they could not recreate my no POST issue. I don't buy that for a second, I tried everything short of a new CPU. I've been considering MSI for my next build, anyone have something to share about them? I had a really bad experience with a friend's MSI board once. That was almost 20 years ago, it seems like they've got their crap together now...
 
Honestly, I love their gear, but I do my best to stay away from it, when it comes to GPU's EVGA's rma is so good and painless I can't bring myself to buy anything else. I still buy Asus mobo's but really with the notion that theres not much warranty if something goes wrong.
 
Main reason why I try to go EVGA now when it comes to NVidia Graphics cards, if Intel has something interesting in the future, an EVGA motherboard maybe in order. Have a 1600w EVGA power supply which will be replacing my 950w power supply when I move from one case to the next. Too bad EVGA does not have AMD stuff, I would be all over that. A good company that always tries to do the right thing will get my money in other words. Even with EVGA, I would probably toss the item if failed unless it happen rather quick.

As for ASUS motherboards, I've had nothing but very good experience with them, except for one open box motherboard from NewEgg which I returned for refund and had no issue getting my money back. Been hearing about ASUS rma horror stories for awhile. It is catching up to them fast, Gigabyte it has caught up to them and they are not fairing too well.

In most cases, unless a product failed quickly - I just toss it in the trash and not look back. The aggravation, time wasted with unknown results is just not worth it to me. Time on phone, emails, shipping, arguing, forums makes the failure seems trivial in most cases and just moving on more prudent. I don't know how many items I had items failed under warranty, I just tossed them in the trash and found something better. I might try RMAing my Seasonic 850w power supply but it works, just not as good as it should - I think I would be utterly wasting my time unless it totally fails which then a remote possibility it might take out something else. At this time not worth it in the least bit, don't really think about it either other than now.
 
In most cases, unless a product failed quickly - I just toss it in the trash and not look back. The aggravation, time wasted with unknown results is just not worth it to me. Time on phone, emails, shipping, arguing, forums makes the failure seems trivial in most cases and just moving on more prudent. I don't know how many items I had items failed under warranty, I just tossed them in the trash and found something better. I might try RMAing my Seasonic 850w power supply but it works, just not as good as it should - I think I would be utterly wasting my time unless it totally fails which then a remote possibility it might take out something else. At this time not worth it in the least bit, don't really think about it either other than now.

I get that for a comparably cheap PSU (well, compared to a close to $1000 graphics card, your PSU is objectively cheap, hence toss-able). But with Asus ignoring me at this point it may now time to look for a Radeon 7.
 
I get that for a comparably cheap PSU (well, compared to a close to $1000 graphics card, your PSU is objectively cheap, hence toss-able). But with ASUS ignoring me at this point it may now time to look for a Radeon 7.
I mostly give away my graphics cards for free to friends and even to a forum member in another forum. Remember just me. I am talking about many thousands of dollars if looking at initial buying cost. Tossing one in the trash, like a Vega FE if it exploded I would not even blink. The 1080 Ti I would try EVGA since they do support OCing card, mining card etc - except give it a year or two they too would be tossed or given away as well. Everyone is different and just giving my prospective is all, the waste of time is not worth it for me when I would be miles down the road with something better I hope.

As for AMD, I do like their QA a lot better, seems their products are well tested and will work as expected. Maybe not perform as well as others but for most folks it will work as designed. I give AMD high praises for that, just good to great performance/$ long term. I've never had an AMD GPU failed, I've had several NVidia GPUs failed or failed after I gave them away to someone else.
 
Main reason why I try to go EVGA now when it comes to NVidia Graphics cards, if Intel has something interesting in the future, an EVGA motherboard maybe in order. Have a 1600w EVGA power supply which will be replacing my 950w power supply when I move from one case to the next. Too bad EVGA does not have AMD stuff, I would be all over that. A good company that always tries to do the right thing will get my money in other words. Even with EVGA, I would probably toss the item if failed unless it happen rather quick.

As for ASUS motherboards, I've had nothing but very good experience with them, except for one open box motherboard from NewEgg which I returned for refund and had no issue getting my money back. Been hearing about ASUS rma horror stories for awhile. It is catching up to them fast, Gigabyte it has caught up to them and they are not fairing too well.

In most cases, unless a product failed quickly - I just toss it in the trash and not look back. The aggravation, time wasted with unknown results is just not worth it to me. Time on phone, emails, shipping, arguing, forums makes the failure seems trivial in most cases and just moving on more prudent. I don't know how many items I had items failed under warranty, I just tossed them in the trash and found something better. I might try RMAing my Seasonic 850w power supply but it works, just not as good as it should - I think I would be utterly wasting my time unless it totally fails which then a remote possibility it might take out something else. At this time not worth it in the least bit, don't really think about it either other than now.

1600W? Going from triple to quad SLI/CF?
 
1600W? Going from triple to quad SLI/CF?
Most likely Thread Ripper 7nm and initially the Vega FEs but maybe two Vega VII's or all four :cool: if Pro Render can benefit with that many. For what ever reason, if their is a slot open, I will eventually fill it it seems. More slots - more stuff will end up in them. No hurry - looking at long term here for the next 5 years or so of usage which 1600w seems about right - I also use 240v and not 120v so outlet limitations are not a concern at this time.
 
Most likely Thread Ripper 7nm and initially the Vega FEs but maybe two Vega VII's or all four :cool: if Pro Render can benefit with that many. For what ever reason, if their is a slot open, I will eventually fill it it seems. More slots - more stuff will end up in them. No hurry - looking at long term here for the next 5 years or so of usage which 1600w seems about right - I also use 240v and not 120v so outlet limitations are not a concern at this time.

I see. Glad I don't have to pay your power bill! :p
 
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i only ever like asus mobos only because they never needed RMAed except for one instance where a new case and PSU caused a short and sparks flew out of the asus mobo the repair department fixed it for free ( i think flashed it) despite saying it would cost and it still works today. their laptops were one of the first designed for anti repair and limited parts just like apple's mac books. they are also boopy trapped on some models if you havne't done a ton of them are designed to be easily broken. like super short cables so taking of fthe top lid/keyboard/palm rest cause the connectors on the mobo to be ripped off unless you use the worlds longest tweezers to release them first with 12mm of space.

asus mobos have had them struck by lightning and run while on fire with no issue, had a display for years at the store, always suggest asus mobos but, never the laptops. seems like asrock is the go to for desktop boards now. good features for the price no much negative publicity or reviews
 
I reached out to Asus on Twitter, and they were quick to respond, respectful and helped me with an RMA right away. I went through the RMA process and sent them my card, and less than a week later I received an RMA card from Asus.

I installed the card they sent me and I remember the same issues that I had on the defective card coming up. It would crash in Overwatch and PUBG, and stutter like crazy in Rocket League. True to my IT background, I tested the card in my wife’s 1600x machine as well as my 6700k machine, and in both computers the card would crash and fail.

I reached out the ASUS on Twitter again, and they were again polite and responded quickly. They accelerated the RMA process and within a week I received a completely defective non-working card. Yes you read that right, my computers wouldn’t even boot with the card they sent me.

I did some research on this and reached out to the community, and this doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident. From the stories I received, Asus does NOT honor RMAs. Asus send out defective cards as an RMA, in hopes of wearing down the user to the point they give up.

I am confused, according to your story here (sorry can't access your site), they sent out RMA replacements twice. So I don't understand how you can say they are not honoring RMAs, it sounds like they honored the RMA twice and did so fairly quickly and politely once you reached out to them on Twitter. Now, it really sounds like the problem is two-fold, part of which you touch on here. It sounds like 1) Their support is not up to par to help better diagnose the exact issue, and 2) They don't have a proper QA department in place to properly check the RMA replacement card.

I have to be honest though, there are a lot of companies that do the same thing, they just stockpile cards to use for RMAs and some of those cards are re-purposed cards from returns. Some companies will test the product before sending it out as an RMA replacement, but that doesn't happen as often as you may think. I have always specifically requested this step as part of almost all my RMAs (oddly enough due to issues I had with an ASUS MB a long time ago).

EDIT:

Just to note here, my most haggard experience with RMAs was actually with EVGA, back when they had an excellent CS department. I had to return an 8800GTX twice and their Nvidia motherboard 4 times, including an upgrade after the third time.

Turns out the MB could not support the higher clocked RAM on quad channel it claimed to be able to do.
 
My only good experience with asus RMA was the p67 B3 recall. Every other time has been a hassle and 99% of the time requires multiple RMAs. Receiving the exact same GPU back, untouched, with no notes, or a different GPU that is defective in an entirely new way, are the most common results.

This won't go front page tho. It's an ongoing issue and there are dozens of threads about it. No new news here, keep trying OP, after a couple hundred in shipping fees and months without a GPU you will get a working one or an "equivalent" replacement.

The issue gets worse when you try to RMA and out of production item like the 1080. Essentially they run out of stock of new units and send out "fixed" cards other people RMA'd. If they are also out of repaired cards they will offer you an equivalent replacement which is normally in their favor, but if you push you can occasionally negotiate for one card up. (ie. they would probably offer you a 2070 but you could haggle for a 2080)

Edit: Given the RTX series price hike I don't know that the new card haggle would work like that anymore. I wouldn't be shocked if they went off value instead of performance.
 
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I am confused, according to your story here (sorry can't access your site), they sent out RMA replacements twice. So I don't understand how you can say they are not honoring RMAs, it sounds like they honored the RMA twice and did so fairly quickly and politely once you reached out to them on Twitter. Now, it really sounds like the problem is two-fold, part of which you touch on here. It sounds like 1) Their support is not up to par to help better diagnose the exact issue, and 2) They don't have a proper QA department in place to properly check the RMA replacement card.

I'm guessing you missed this part.

" From the stories I received, Asus does NOT honor RMAs. Asus send out defective cards as an RMA, in hopes of wearing down the user to the point they give up."

And in my article, I had several other users who had the same experience. I guess the best way to put it, imagine buying a car, say a Hyundai. You start having a failing transmission after a year or so of ownership, and bring it in for warranty repair. The replace it with a transmission that lasts 2 weeks, then the same problem. You bring it back, and do another warranty repair, and the put in another defective transmission, this time the transmission gives up before even leaving the dealership. They do another warranty repair, and this one lasts 3 months, but fails again. You bring the car in and they replace the transmission, again with a broken transmission that gives up after a week. You have to do this for the remainder of the ownership of your car, and Hyundai refuses to provide a new transmission and only offers broken transmissions from other cars. That's not a warranty, that's customer abuse.
 
I think in that case that car would be long gone after the first fiasco, repeating the same process and expecting a different result is more like spinning wheels and getting no where.

Actual warranty investigation, reviews where real cards or items sent to the manufacturer (could be real issues that someone donates for the investigation) and the manufacturer gets a rating. That would be one hell of an interesting and probably very funny report but very useful to users to weigh if the warranty should be part of their consideration for buying. The issue is repercussions for reviewers when not toting the party line. With the large number of them around now days, thanks to YouTube, they seem to flock together and abstain from actual concerns at times. Where as in the old days :)LOL:), the manufacturers would be shacking if the reviewer was blunt honest and the report did not look good for them. What pisses me off is the 2080Ti has known problems yet I cannot find anything with current reviewers on the status if that have been resolved or not - internet quality of information for this is pure crap, this goes for other things as well. You see current 2080Ti reviews with zero information on failures, as if that is not a problem or never was a problem.

ASUS Cross Hair 6 Hero when first launch was failing left and right (worst then the 2080Ti's), for the most part ASUS did address the returns and RMAs and fixed the issue (allowed too much SOC voltage). They can when they want to, fix an issue. NVidia with 2080 Ti FE seem to be doing the same from their store - not sure of the rest.
 
Most of the motherboards and video cards I buy/have bought are ASUS. Fortunately I've never had to RMA something to them but I am hopeful I will never have to.
 
I gave up on Asus products several years ago mostly due to price, but their support reputation was also a factor. I've dealt with support from the "big four" just a handful of times each, and while I never had an especially great experience with any one of them, I also never got frustrated with the others the way I did with Asus.

Of course if you ask around you'll hear the same thing about Gigabyte, ASRock and MSI. I'm not even sure who's considered good for support these days - if a part fails, I'm probably going to have to buy a replacement anyways while I wait 3-17 weeks for the RMA process, so if everyone's support is slow, I guess that makes it normal. :(
 
It is hard to get an idea if one brand is better than another because if you look on Newegg for practically any PC part, you will see people claiming they got a DOA unit or some support issue. I don't think any brand is safe, it's always a gamble.
 
Oh so OP had the same experience as I did 10 years ago with an ASUS RMA.

They did eventually after the third or maybe fourth time send me a brand new replacement though so try again.

Nothing new here folks, that's why you buy EVGA. ASUS RMA department for graphics card is utter trash.
 
Oh so OP had the same experience as I did 10 years ago with an ASUS RMA.

They did eventually after the third or maybe fourth time send me a brand new replacement though so try again.

Nothing new here folks, that's why you buy EVGA. ASUS RMA department for graphics card is utter trash.

I sent them my article on Twitter, and got an immediate response, and apology. They are swapping it with a "Card of equivalent performance and aesthetics". The RMA department is hot trash, but the Social media side seems much better.
 
After having to deal with asus rma 2 or 3 times around 2012 or 2013 I have never bought an asus product since. GARBAGE company I don't care how good their products are. What they do is illegal.
 
I tried to RMA a workstation class x99 board ($500 new) last year after a power stage died and they sent me back a board with a couple of bent pins and no socket cover. Asus refused to replace it, saying it arrived to their warehouse that way. I had timestamped photos from when I packed the board (including the socket and cover) and my case was escalated to a regional manner who told me “too bad” and to file a claim with UPS.
 
I'm guessing you missed this part.

" From the stories I received, Asus does NOT honor RMAs. Asus send out defective cards as an RMA, in hopes of wearing down the user to the point they give up."

And in my article, I had several other users who had the same experience. I guess the best way to put it, imagine buying a car, say a Hyundai. You start having a failing transmission after a year or so of ownership, and bring it in for warranty repair. The replace it with a transmission that lasts 2 weeks, then the same problem. You bring it back, and do another warranty repair, and the put in another defective transmission, this time the transmission gives up before even leaving the dealership. They do another warranty repair, and this one lasts 3 months, but fails again. You bring the car in and they replace the transmission, again with a broken transmission that gives up after a week. You have to do this for the remainder of the ownership of your car, and Hyundai refuses to provide a new transmission and only offers broken transmissions from other cars. That's not a warranty, that's customer abuse.

No, I definitely saw that part. That doesn't mean they are not honoring the RMA, and it is just supposition and rumor that they are trying to "wear down the user". Honoring the RMA is sending out a replacement, which they definitely did. The rest of it I answered in my post, perhaps you should read my full post.
 
No, I definitely saw that part. That doesn't mean they are not honoring the RMA, and it is just supposition and rumor that they are trying to "wear down the user". Honoring the RMA is sending out a replacement, which they definitely did. The rest of it I answered in my post, perhaps you should read my full post.

Wow, so I personally experience 3 defective cards in a row, and show other people with similar experiences (and others posting here after my post), and you wouldn't get the impression that they are trying to "wear down the customer" ? When MY customers have to call back a SECOND time, with defective hardware, I provide them a New-In-Box product as a replacement...not yet another refurbished computer.
 
Wow, so I personally experience 3 defective cards in a row, and show other people with similar experiences (and others posting here after my post), and you wouldn't get the impression that they are trying to "wear down the customer" ? When MY customers have to call back a SECOND time, with defective hardware, I provide them a New-In-Box product as a replacement...not yet another refurbished computer.

No, I don't. It is anecdotal evidence gathered in an echo chamber. You said it yourself, you are gathering information from people with similar experiences. This isn't a defense of ASUS, you seem to be completely discounting everything else I said. There is a huge difference between "not honoring RMA" and being a full quality support shop. Honoring an RMA is simply the process of accepting the broken card back and sending out a replacement under warranty. There are companies that sometimes actually don't honor RMAs, as in they won't even accept the card and replace it. So what you are referring to is actually having poor quality control and not true testing process to ensure they send a quality product out as a replacement. But in reality many places I have dealt with use returned cards (not for malfunction) or off the shelf cards for RMAs and don't do any further testing on them.

As for saying you send someone a new-in-box replacement, that isn't much better than what you are accusing ASUS of. Have you tested that new-in-box product? Are you absolutely sure it works 100%?
 
As for saying you send someone a new-in-box replacement, that isn't much better than what you are accusing ASUS of. Have you tested that new-in-box product? Are you absolutely sure it works 100%?

Chances are higher that a refurbished card is defective, than a brand new card is defective. Your example/argument is invalid. Though to be fair, ASUS has reached out to me and admitted to their substandard RMA-Support, and agreed to swap out for a new-in-box card of comparable performance and aesthetics.

I can't be a mindless consumer, the way I am perceiving you as, 3-4 RMAs in a row with multiple people is just not a good business practice. They should re-evaluate their RMA centers if we don't speak out against it, who will?

That said, Asus has been in contact with me, admitted they were wrong with how they handle RMAs, and made arrangements that I found agreeable. I will conceade that my original statement "they don't honor warranties" is no longer valid, as they have been in contact and very apologetic due to their practices.

I thank Asus for keeping in touch, but wish that they would revamp their RMA services and run their business like I do mine. When a customer calls in with a defective item, by all means replace it with a refurbished item, but if that Item fails the user, do the honorable thing and replace it with a brand new-in-box item.
 
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OMG I get it...My definition of HONOR is that the Business does whatever possible to help satisfy the customer, especially when as a service or product provider the business screws up. Your definition of "HONOR" is satisfying the letter of the agreement, but not the spirit of the agreement. I understand why you would be OKAY with getting a constant stream of broken products as RMA replacements, because "technically" they are "honoring" the warranty. It doesn't matter if they keep sending you defective products...In your mind, as long as they send you SOMETHING you'd be satisfied, since they are (technically) "honoring" the warranty by replacing your product, even if the replacement is non-functional, in your mind they honored the warranty. It's a bit of a psychopathic mind-set, and one that dooms personal relationships and businesses, but I get what you're saying.

You're wrong, (even Asus agrees with me) but hey, that's your prerogative buddy.
 
Rauelius, we appreciate your feedback and glad to hear you're happy with our resolution to this case. We're working diligently to have the replacement sent your way as quickly as possible. If you need any further updates on your RMA, you can reach out to us here via DM or email our Social Media Support team at [email protected]. Please do let us know how things go once you receive your unit. (y)
 
Yep.... ASUS warranty RMA is the biggest suckage of all.

I've had to send in stuff a few times over the years and it is always the same exact story.
1. They try to deny your claim for whatever reason
2. They send you multiple faulty or physically damaged or completely DOA replacements hoping you will give up getting a good replacement. Only after escalating your case enough times high enough do you ever have a chance of finally getting a working replacement. Good luck getting a working replacement in under 3-4 months.

And don't even think about asking them to do a repair at your expense on a damaged product. My last experience was sending them an x99 WS-E USB/3.1 motherboard that had some bent and broken socket pins. I had talked to them on the phone about it beforehand and they said I would have to send it in to get a quote.

They came back with a quote of almost $900 to replace a CPU socket.... over 2x the cost that I could get a brand new board for, much less a good used board.

I complained about it and they dropped the quote to about $360... HAHAHAHA.

So I had them send me the board back. Lesson learned. ASUS after-sales service sucks all around.. not just their warranty RMA service.

I am now pretty much never buying ANY ASUS branded product ever again.
 
I don't understand how they get away with it and people keep promoting their products when we know they rip people off. Horrible Horrible company.
 
I don't understand how they get away with it and people keep promoting their products when we know they rip people off. Horrible Horrible company.

Because absolutely NONE of the hardware review sites will EVER post it as front page news. Even [H] never did this. It only ever gets buried in forum posts that end up popping up every few weeks/months.

No real coverage = absolutely no change in business practice.
 
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