ASUS Xonar_Xense: RMA Issues

Fire488

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2007
Messages
438
This is the product that i purchased back in Jan of 2011: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132018

I am trying very hard not to make this a rant and hope that it does not generate trolling. That is not my intent here. I am a very loyal ASUS customer and own more of their products than I have toes and fingers. For the most part their products have been good and RMA not much of an issue. Until now that it.

This headset and sound-card combo rendered the best sound that i have ever heard on a PC.
I absolutely loved it. Well here is what happened recently. The mic stopped working at the end of November 2012 and I called ASUS and had it RMA'd. The RMA was set up on Dec 12th and the headset was shipped on that same day. It was received according to my delivery confirmation receipt on Dec 13th 2012. I waited for a reply and the ASUS RMA staus check on the web site said "awaiting customers product". (And still does btw)

It was now Jan 2nd , 2013 and still not hearing a thing from ASUS about my headset i decided to call and check the status by phone. An RMA ASUS technician confirmed that the product was received by ASUS on Dec 13th, 2012 and has no idea what is going on since there are no notes on it. He then told me to give him some time to sort this out.

I waited until today, Jan 8th, 2013 and called again since i received absolutely no correspondence once again. After being on hold for 15 minutes a technician finally came on and i gave him all the info. He came back and told me that an email was generated to my on Jan 4th stating that the headset was out of warranty (I knew that) and that it was also no longer available. That I did NOT know and was shocked. This setup is only 2 years old! I paid almost $300 for it.
I never did receive that email on the 4th either.

The headset from Sennheiser was customized to work with the Xonar_Xense sound card. It also has the larger input/output jacks on the sound card and headset. It seems there is no other headset that will work and the card is now useless.
If this setup cost me $50 dollars i would not be as upset, but for $300 I am very upset and disappointed in ASUS. This product should have lasted more that 2 years for that money.

I will no longer purchase anything with the ASUS logo on it.

Note- Please don't troll this post. this could happen to anyone and companies should know how we feel. I know the product is 2 years old, but considering the price there should have been replacement headsets available to purchase. An expensive product like this being obsolete in 2 years is just unconscionable to me.I don't have $300 dollars to just throw away...
 
I have had similar issues with ASUS myself (as mentioned before) and have also moved away from them for all parts of my PC builds.

In the past when stuff like this has occurred I would insist that they replace my equipment with a comparable product. Mind you, this was while under warranty but no available stock. Out of curiosity, what did they end up doing for you? If I had to take a stab at the old crystal ball here I would say they are going to ask that you pay to have your broken sound card be mailed back to you - in worse condition than it arrived in.

You could always try doing what I did with my last bunk ASUS product (BD-RW drive) and contact Raja or Gary Keys and see if he can help you in any way.
 
I have had similar issues with ASUS myself (as mentioned before) and have also moved away from them for all parts of my PC builds.

In the past when stuff like this has occurred I would insist that they replace my equipment with a comparable product. Mind you, this was while under warranty but no available stock. Out of curiosity, what did they end up doing for you? If I had to take a stab at the old crystal ball here I would say they are going to ask that you pay to have your broken sound card be mailed back to you - in worse condition than it arrived in.

You could always try doing what I did with my last bunk ASUS product (BD-RW drive) and contact Raja or Gary Keys and see if he can help you in any way.

Thanks for the reply man. So far they did nothing at all for me except tell me I'm out of luck and warranty. I knew it would be out of warranty though i just wanted to replace the defective headset. The sound card is fine though and I still have that.

I just got off the phone with Sennheiser and explained what had happened. The technician was very concerned and said he will look into this further for me. He also said that the standard PC350 gaming headset will work and i will need 3.5 adapters to convert the 1/4 inch inputs of the sound cards.
 
This is the product that i purchased back in Jan of 2011: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132018

I am trying very hard not to make this a rant and hope that it does not generate trolling. That is not my intent here.

What is your intent then? To get something working again?

The headset from Sennheiser was customized to work with the Xonar_Xense sound card. It also has the larger input/output jacks on the sound card and headset. It seems there is no other headset that will work and the card is now useless.

Customized ... yeah ... not really. The headset had different covers and different set of plugs on the end of the cable. The only other "customization" was a particular configuration option to set a specific gain value which is just a driver setting for the card.

Any other analog headset that had separate microphone and headphone jacks will work fine with $5 worth of 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapters. You'll just want to pick the appropriate gain setting for the impedance of the headset you choose (the ranges are quite broad and its not really that critical). Even that doesn't matter a great deal here ... it'll really only effect how far you have to turn up the volume.

If it's the actual headset that's the problem, you can simply buy another PC 350 and spend $5 on adapters for the standard 3.5mm plugs to fit the 6.3mm sockets on the card and you'll be back in business.
 
What is your intent then? To get something working again?



Customized ... yeah ... not really. The headset had different covers and different set of plugs on the end of the cable. The only other "customization" was a particular configuration option to set a specific gain value which is just a driver setting for the card.

Any other analog headset that had separate microphone and headphone jacks will work fine with $5 worth of 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapters. You'll just want to pick the appropriate gain setting for the impedance of the headset you choose (the ranges are quite broad and its not really that critical). Even that doesn't matter a great deal here ... it'll really only effect how far you have to turn up the volume.

If it's the actual headset that's the problem, you can simply buy another PC 350 and spend $5 on adapters for the standard 3.5mm plugs to fit the 6.3mm sockets on the card and you'll be back in business.

Thanks for the reply. I did not want to rant I did however want to express my disappointment in ASUS. I hope that I conveyed that message.

Sennheiser said exactly what you said as well and the new headsets are ordered.
Thanks.
 
Turns out that when you go to product details on the Newegg link it says that the product is supposed to be covered for 3 years. I am looking into this further.

[H] will not allow a link to Newegg so you can add the product name to the search and see too.
 
What RMA center was the card sent to? If it was sent to Jeffersonville, IN then welcome to hell..

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1699092

After working for the company the only Asus thing ill own is the Xonar STX because of its prestige in the audio world. My rule of thumb with Asus is: "Never ever buy used, refurb, or anything like that. NEW ONLY. If it does fail or break its better to just buy a new one."
 
This was a new Xonar_Xense set up. The card itself is ok its just the headset mic that failed. According to Newegg it should be covered for 3 years which still gives me another year.
 
My mic on my sennheiser pc350 went out to

I sent an email as requested to Scott Billings from ASUS as he responded to my post on another site like this one. He said he would look into the matter, but he is now on vacation.

I also just received my headset returned to me in the EXACT state i shipped it in. They never even opened the box or checked the papers inside. The determination was made to return it site unseen and that is wrong. I will keep pushing on this one until I get satisfaction.
The headset and sound card are covered for 3 years as stated by Newegg.

What happened to you ASUS? I thought you were better than that.
 
I sent an email as requested to Scott Billings from ASUS as he responded to my post on another site like this one. He said he would look into the matter, but he is now on vacation.

I also just received my headset returned to me in the EXACT state i shipped it in. They never even opened the box or checked the papers inside. The determination was made to return it site unseen and that is wrong. I will keep pushing on this one until I get satisfaction.
The headset and sound card are covered for 3 years as stated by Newegg.

What happened to you ASUS? I thought you were better than that.

Have you tried to reach out to Sennheiser on the subject?


What happened at Asus was a long story. I refused to make things work long enough to pass final inspection and would only fix stuff properly. They eventually pulled me off the line and made me do other work then after a month of that they fired me for not meeting quota during that period.
 
Have you tried to reach out to Sennheiser on the subject?


What happened at Asus was a long story. I refused to make things work long enough to pass final inspection and would only fix stuff properly. They eventually pulled me off the line and made me do other work then after a month of that they fired me for not meeting quota during that period.

Yesterday I called Newegg since I have not received a reply from ASUS's Scott Billings. Newegg checked out my product and said that according to their information the Xonar_Xense should be covered for 3 years. They will get back to me either today or tomorrow.
This moring I received a call back from ASUS and it was Robbie. He told me that the product was out of warranty and that I was misinformed by Newegg and that there is nothing that ASUS could do and that the headsets that were modified by Sennheiser for ASUS are no longer available anywhere. They are a modified version of the Sennheiser PC350's. I am extremely upset about this and hope to hear something positive from Newegg on it.
I called Sennheiser and asked if a standard PC350 headset would suffice with adapters to connect to the card and they said that stock PC350's use different spec's out equipment. Basically they are not as good as what I had. I'm glad I got that confirmed at least.
I have my Sennheisers back now from ASUS and I may try to see if i can locate the problem myself after i hear from Newegg.

You know what makes me so angry about this? This set up cost near $300 and to not have replacement parts after 2 years is completely unacceptable. I purchased almost $9,000.00 worth of PC equipment from Newegg in the last 5 years and much of that is parts from ASUS. I told the rep that and he could care less. Sad.
 
If you see that NG has it listed for 3 years and ASUS says that it false, I would hold NG accountable* - not by talking to someone over chat. No sir! I would call and request to speak to a manager.



*(unless of course ASUS does provide 2 more years of coverage provided you register your product and you didn't. I think the site is vip.asus.com)
 
I did register it with ASUS and I also did get Newegg involved. The ASUS rep I spoke to today could care less and when i asked to speak to a manager he flatly told me NO. He claimed that management already made their decision and I am on my own...his words.
I'll check out the vip site though as I did not know about that.

Thanks
 
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