Is the ASUS RMA Process Legit?

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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"Naughty" Nathan Kirsch of Legit Reviews fame tells us all out this ASUS RMA experience when his RX480 he had purchased went South on him. While almost a month of turnaround time may not seem great, certainly having them upgrade you to a GTX 1080 along the way was probably worth the wait.



We certainly wouldn’t call it quick as your gaming PC could be down for around a month if you don’t happen to have a backup card laying around. That said, the RMA process with ASUS went pretty smooth.
 
Only reason he got anything was probably working for a review site, Asus graphics card warranty is a joke. Been refusing to buy their video cards since the TNT days. Had issues with many others for customers and workplace and they are just terrible to deal with. And the majority of the returns ive sent it they try the physical damage game.

..funny enough I click the link and that it the first line of their letter...so nothing has changed in 15 years. lol
 
Asus are very hit or miss with RMA, seen an absolute shitload of horror stories them them sending out replacement products that looks like they've been chucked in a tumble dryer prior to being sent out. But they seem to scrutinize any items they get int their rma dept in great detail and seem to look for any reason to deny a replacement.
 
Asus are very hit or miss with RMA, seen an absolute shitload of horror stories them them sending out replacement products that looks like they've been chucked in a tumble dryer prior to being sent out. But they seem to scrutinize any items they get int their rma dept in great detail and seem to look for any reason to deny a replacement.

bingo
 
When my piece of shit 7990 was going mental with temps (which by the way id like to mention the retail cards seemed to run a shit ton hotter than the review samples) i sent it back to ocuk, they sent it to asus, 30 days later got a refund. But the refund actually came from the retailer. Uk stores have an oddball policy where in the first 30 days if your product goes wonky the store can deal with it, anything over 30 days it has to go back to the manufacturer for some reason. Not sure if the same thing applies in America or not.
 
That is the reason why I buy EVGA only when buying Nvidia cards. I had to return 2 cards with them and the process was very smooth. They will even cross ship in some cases. For ATI/AMD, well I haven't had to worry about which company to buy from for a while.
 
My Asus video card experience was such a nightmare that I refuse to ever buy a card from them again(still can't believe I bought a xonar phoebus as well).

Bought a gtx 570 from asus, later on bought a 570 from evga. The asus card crapped out a week after I got the 2nd card for SLI so at least I had something. At any rate, if you stressed the card thermally for more than 60 seconds it was just artifact garbage all over the screen, explained that during the initial discussion with asus support, sent the card off, 2 weeks later...

Got the same card back failing the same way, claiming it passed their test. Irritated as hell, contacted them again, explained the issue again, this time they said if they send the card back they'd include a printout of the results of the diagnostic test. More waiting, except this time I get an email stating they're shipping my card back having passed with a test report saying they had tested the card for 10+ minutes. Ok... get the card back open the box see the sheet... test duration: 45s.

But wait, there's more! When shipping the card to them twice, I used anti static bags, anti static packing peanuts, you could have had an NFL kicker take a shot at this box and it might have stood a chance at surviving. Yet this time when they sent my card back... not only was the box 4x the size it needed to be, the card was loose. Well not only was the card loose, but the interior of the box had no marks on it, the bottom portion of the pci bracket was bent 90 degrees toward the slot connector on the card yet there were no marks inside or outside of the package indicating it was hit like that during shipping.

So now I've got a busted videocard because they can't ship worth a damn, wasted almost a month of my time, contact their support department again now livid with a scan of their stupid document showing it passed after 45s with the initial conversation that it took at least a minute to even show the issue and their promise it would be tested for at least 10 minutes. Their "solution"? Upgrade me to a 580 because they were out of stock of 570 cards. Wait... I had already bought another 570 for SLI over a month prior that was now past the timeframe I could return it, so I'd have to sell that used at a loss and then have a 580 instead of a pair of 570s. So they shipped me a 590 instead, I sold the extra 570 that acted wonderfully as a spare, and all was right with the world. Except for the fact that this took over a month and a half, and if I hadn't just bought another card right before this happened I'd have been SOL.

So yeah, I'm not surprised that he got an upgrade, but it doesn't change the fact that a month long turn around time is still garbage, and their RMA department sucks in general.
 
My Asus video card experience was such a nightmare that I refuse to ever buy a card from them again(still can't believe I bought a xonar phoebus as well).

Bought a gtx 570 from asus, later on bought a 570 from evga. The asus card crapped out a week after I got the 2nd card for SLI so at least I had something. At any rate, if you stressed the card thermally for more than 60 seconds it was just artifact garbage all over the screen, explained that during the initial discussion with asus support, sent the card off, 2 weeks later...

Got the same card back failing the same way, claiming it passed their test. Irritated as hell, contacted them again, explained the issue again, this time they said if they send the card back they'd include a printout of the results of the diagnostic test. More waiting, except this time I get an email stating they're shipping my card back having passed with a test report saying they had tested the card for 10+ minutes. Ok... get the card back open the box see the sheet... test duration: 45s.

But wait, there's more! When shipping the card to them twice, I used anti static bags, anti static packing peanuts, you could have had an NFL kicker take a shot at this box and it might have stood a chance at surviving. Yet this time when they sent my card back... not only was the box 4x the size it needed to be, the card was loose. Well not only was the card loose, but the interior of the box had no marks on it, the bottom portion of the pci bracket was bent 90 degrees toward the slot connector on the card yet there were no marks inside or outside of the package indicating it was hit like that during shipping.

So now I've got a busted videocard because they can't ship worth a damn, wasted almost a month of my time, contact their support department again now livid with a scan of their stupid document showing it passed after 45s with the initial conversation that it took at least a minute to even show the issue and their promise it would be tested for at least 10 minutes. Their "solution"? Upgrade me to a 580 because they were out of stock of 570 cards. Wait... I had already bought another 570 for SLI over a month prior that was now past the timeframe I could return it, so I'd have to sell that used at a loss and then have a 580 instead of a pair of 570s. So they shipped me a 590 instead, I sold the extra 570 that acted wonderfully as a spare, and all was right with the world. Except for the fact that this took over a month and a half, and if I hadn't just bought another card right before this happened I'd have been SOL.

So yeah, I'm not surprised that he got an upgrade, but it doesn't change the fact that a month long turn around time is still garbage, and their RMA department sucks in general.

Unfortunately THIS is the usual outcome for the average user. A review site had no issues AND got an upgrade? You don't say.
 
That is the reason why I buy EVGA only when buying Nvidia cards. I had to return 2 cards with them and the process was very smooth. They will even cross ship in some cases. For ATI/AMD, well I haven't had to worry about which company to buy from for a while.

I bought a 1080 Ti Hybrid when they first appeared on Neweggs site. It was DOA, pump wouldn't spin, card thermaled as soon as the windows screen popped up. Newegg said "Check with the Manufacturer" before I RMA'ed it, I contacted EVGA via phone and was talking with someone who knew their shit within about 5 minutes, we talked about
the problem (I was running a 980 Ti Hybrid so power delivery was not the issue) and he agreed it needed replacement, then he offered to handle it directly with EVGA....but I opted to just get it replaced as Newegg gave me that option. When my card arrived the replacement was OOS. So they just refunded me, sans shipping.

So my 1080 Ti experience was the loss of $14 bucks in return S&H :)

Still never bothered to re-order it, but when I do I'll go with EVGA again as well.
 
I remember I had a really high-end laptop from them at the time. The Asus W90...18.4 inches of ATI 4780 Crossfire goodness. Very nice.

One of the GPU's was going bad...I contacted them about RMA and really had no issue through their process. The problem was with how they shipped it back.

Not only did they simply reuse the packaging I sent it to them in but they literally just set the laptop on TOP of all the packing materials, closed the box, sealed it, and shipped it.

Yes, it came to me fine and worked but there was literally NO protection around the laptop and only a single layer of cardboard between it and the outside world. I'd LOVE to know who thought that was OK for a $2,000 laptop.

Yeah, Asus may not be the worse but I've heard enough horror stories and have had my few experiences with them to know to be wary of what I buy from them, that's for sure.
 
Thankfully, I've only had to deal with them once back in the i7 920 days, and that experience was fine. Still, no denying the horror stories that are prevalent surrounding Asus.
 
I was doing some looking a while back and the company that sells ASUS products in the USA is not actually the same company that designs/manufactures the products. They are just a reseller who also handles the RMAs.

After finding this out, it made a little bit more sense as to how horrible their RMA support is in the USA. I just don't really understand how ASUStek continues to allow the seller in the USA to keep handling stuff like this. It is hurting their brand name. You would think that they would put the smackdown on them and make them change.

Until they change how things are done in the USA I am never buying any of their products ever again.
 
RMA'ed a ROG Maximus motherboard because of a faulty DIMM slot.

Took them about a month total. No issues getting the RMA and getting it out to them. Some repair shop in Ohio I think was the mailing address.

They mailed my exact same motherboard back, said it was "fixed". Nope, still a bad DIMM slot (still running it today, can only have 2/4 populated). I suspect they just popped it on a tester, didn't actually check for the problem I had reported, said "It boots to BIOS with some junk CPU and one DIMM" and mailed it right back. They even reused the box and packaging I had mailed it to them in.
 
When my piece of shit 7990 was going mental with temps (which by the way id like to mention the retail cards seemed to run a shit ton hotter than the review samples) i sent it back to ocuk, they sent it to asus, 30 days later got a refund. But the refund actually came from the retailer. Uk stores have an oddball policy where in the first 30 days if your product goes wonky the store can deal with it, anything over 30 days it has to go back to the manufacturer for some reason. Not sure if the same thing applies in America or not.

The UK's version actually makes sense because the retail store is the primary point of contact for the consumer and facilitates consumer returns. In the US it's just an immediate fight with whomever the consumer thinks can be cajoled/shamed/guilted/forced into making things right.
 
When my piece of shit 7990 was going mental with temps (which by the way id like to mention the retail cards seemed to run a shit ton hotter than the review samples) i sent it back to ocuk, they sent it to asus, 30 days later got a refund. But the refund actually came from the retailer. Uk stores have an oddball policy where in the first 30 days if your product goes wonky the store can deal with it, anything over 30 days it has to go back to the manufacturer for some reason. Not sure if the same thing applies in America or not.

Depends on the retailer and the product, but in general it's the same thing, except there's no law that requires it. Some items only have a 15 day return window. Some retailers may have a 60 day return window.

Past the return window, and your stuck with manufacturer RMA.

In general, returns/exchanges with the retailer are fairly quick, usually a 7-10 day process, sometimes faster if you expedite shipping. RMA claims with manufacturer typically involve a bit more paperwork and phone calls, and usually take anywhere from 3-6 weeks. Some manufacturers are better than others, but just as many are worse.
 
I buy EVGA because it's American based support. I can call someone here in the states and they will pick up the phone.

Been really pleased with their RMA system, and their support is why I buy their cards.
 
My experience was a "Fun" one which I was hoping it got better over time, but sadly it looks like it hadn't.

I sent my old G1 Laptop in for warranty repair since they wouldn't send or sell me a CPU Cooling fan...

45 days after I get confirmation from the shipping company saying they got it, Asus told me they never rec'd it. -- Got that straightened out
15 days later I get communication with someone who actually knows what's going on, and apparently they couldn't get the fan/cooling assembly anymore so they're upgrading me
2-3 weeks later I get the paperwork on what they're going to send me & confirm it
30-45 days later I got an upgraded laptop that appeared to be a refurbished unit within the Gaming laptop line

3 months later had to RMA it due to a dead graphics card
followed by sometime later the repaired unit the motherboard in it died.

Yeah fun fun times...

Almost as bad as when I RMA'd a Linksys NSS7000 NAS that was bricked by a "Critical" firmware which wound up taking about 7 months to get back.
 
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My experience so far with RMA of GPU are with MSI & Gigabyte...

Gigabyte agreed to ship me a few fans so I could replace them myself (I couldn't believe it... I was happy)
MSI... sent in 2x 270X 2GB that were accumulating dust... and when installed had noisy fans... they ended up returning me 2x 380 4GB instead after 3~4 weeks... VERY happy there !

Seems like they do not repair defective units so if your 2.7 years old card can be RMA'ed you might end up with newer gen upgrade (Probably refurb)
 
Asus are very hit or miss with RMA, seen an absolute shitload of horror stories them them sending out replacement products that looks like they've been chucked in a tumble dryer prior to being sent out. But they seem to scrutinize any items they get int their rma dept in great detail and seem to look for any reason to deny a replacement.
That is so wrong. They make good products, they must be real shady business people to think that is an OK way to conduct themselves. I guess the golden rule means "he who has the gold wins" to them. Also, what is up with all the "I am like a second grader, I get to treat you bad and you will treat me good and like it" attitudes these days?
 
I buy EVGA because it's American based support. I can call someone here in the states and they will pick up the phone.

Been really pleased with their RMA system, and their support is why I buy their cards.
Yup, same experience here. The last video card I had to RMA to them was great, they cross shipped the replacement so it took under a week.
 
Built a new rig for my daughter back in May using Asus mobo, vid card and monitor off of Newegg. The vid card and monitor offered $20 rebates.

Cut the UPC code off the box and sent all of the required paperwork in. Got a verification via email.

Still haven't received rebates.

Fuck those scammers. Will never use their shit again.
 
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RMA'ed a ROG Maximus motherboard because of a faulty DIMM slot.

Took them about a month total. No issues getting the RMA and getting it out to them. Some repair shop in Ohio I think was the mailing address.

They mailed my exact same motherboard back, said it was "fixed". Nope, still a bad DIMM slot (still running it today, can only have 2/4 populated). I suspect they just popped it on a tester, didn't actually check for the problem I had reported, said "It boots to BIOS with some junk CPU and one DIMM" and mailed it right back. They even reused the box and packaging I had mailed it to them in.
Same problem for me with an R9 290 DirectCU II. took about 13 days for them to send the GPU back saying it had no errors. Card wouldn't even boot once driver was installed in windows. They created another RMA, had the card for about 10 weeks. Finally sent me another card, same model, that had an incorrect fan profile in the vbios. Fans wouldn't spin past 25% even if the car got 95C.

Anyway cost them a sale when I got a z97 motherboard. Will not buy Asus again.
 
Huh.
I just had to send the board back in my sig, as I got a Qcode 00 after it being powered down overnight.
Received back same model, but different serial number with the notation of CPU pin skew.
Still 00, so now I wait for my CPU replacement from Intel, which I should have first of next week.
Little nervous about his platform though...
 
When my piece of shit 7990 was going mental with temps (which by the way id like to mention the retail cards seemed to run a shit ton hotter than the review samples) i sent it back to ocuk, they sent it to asus, 30 days later got a refund. But the refund actually came from the retailer. Uk stores have an oddball policy where in the first 30 days if your product goes wonky the store can deal with it, anything over 30 days it has to go back to the manufacturer for some reason. Not sure if the same thing applies in America or not.
You're damn lucky then. Here only in the first three days can the seller deal with it, anything beyond that it goes up the chain. And there is not even a time limit on how long the RMA process can take, only a recommended time frame they should "strive" to not exceed. And you know what good is a law that's only a recommendation not a requirement. It's completely anti-consumer.
 
Another vote for EVGA. I've had a few of their cards and even used their step up program once. Everything went without a hitch and quite promptly. I don't overclock anything (I'm just gunning for bulletproof reliability and stability) and the cards haven't disappointed me yet.
 
Are people assuming Asus knew this was from a review site before processing the RMA?

Sounds like Legit went through the same rma process as the rest of us, and didn't receive VIP treatment.

I recently dealt with Asus RMA for a laptop, and it was terrible.
I think Asus just uses incompetent repair centers and doesn't know how to deal with them.

Getting an RMA exchange is very fast. They ship fast, turn around time just 2 weeks with slow ground shipping.
But anything more complicated, they are sure to fuck up.
So you get the item back with the same problem, either because they were incompetent, or they didn't order the updated part number, etc.
Long story short, I had to twist their arm to finally get a new laptop replacement/upgrade.
 
Yikes. I have that same model Asus ROG RX 480. Hope mine doesn't go bad as I hate to deal with RMA's.

I would have bought EVGA except they don't make Radeons.
 
Are people assuming Asus knew this was from a review site before processing the RMA?

Sounds like Legit went through the same rma process as the rest of us, and didn't receive VIP treatment.

I recently dealt with Asus RMA for a laptop, and it was terrible.
I think Asus just uses incompetent repair centers and doesn't know how to deal with them.

Getting an RMA exchange is very fast. They ship fast, turn around time just 2 weeks with slow ground shipping.
But anything more complicated, they are sure to fuck up.
So you get the item back with the same problem, either because they were incompetent, or they didn't order the updated part number, etc.
Long story short, I had to twist their arm to finally get a new laptop replacement/upgrade.

Ok, even if Asus didn't know it was from a reviewer(and it's possible it could have been either way since he may very well be flagged in their system as that sort of customer)...

Yay, they did their damned job? Because that'd be newsworthy. Not that he got an upgrade, but because they attempted some form of actual customer service during the RMA process.
 
My father had a UX302LA (top of the line ultrabook) repaired ~6 months out of warranty for free as it was covered by consumer protection laws and goodwill of ASUS. Our family and friends I have referred or built for have been ASUS customers for over a decade, our excellent local computer store (Computer Lounge) really helped us out with this too. ASUS has redeemed themselves in my books.

I think it depends on how you deal with them and by which means.
 
I've had a few things that are Asus and they have luckily been problem free except for the firmware of the 4950(I think) in my G73-x2 laptop I bought in 2010. I downloaded the firmware and installed per directions and haven't had an issue since. The laptop needs a new battery since still use the one that came with it, but the thing still runs.
 
ASUS RMA is a joke. Last time I sent a motherboard in for RMA I got a replacement that had a dead dimm slot and USB header. The dimm slot was overlookable as I really didn't need to use it but the USB header was for their wireless card and negated the whole point of my mobo being a "wireless" model. When I called to complain about being sent a half fubar board their whole reply amounted to "tough shit". It's a shame too because I love their stuff but if anything from them fails I just write it off and get a replacement out of pocket rather than deal with their shitacular CS.
 
My recent experience with Asus RMA. I sent them a motherboard for warranty replacement. Not only did they not repair or replace it, they refused warranty because a button on the back(plastic button) was slightly on an angle. Unbelievable.

Then when the motherboard gets back to me they broke the button right off, and there were other signs of man handling. I paid for shipping to their repair Center, and received a motherboard that was worst off then when I sent it.

asus are a bunch of crooks, and their warranty is a scam because through all this they offered to fix a small plastic button for 150 plus tax. No coincidence this is the cost of a new refurbished motherboard. How people aren’t sueing asus into the ground is beyond me.
 
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When my piece of shit 7990 was going mental with temps (which by the way id like to mention the retail cards seemed to run a shit ton hotter than the review samples) i sent it back to ocuk, they sent it to asus, 30 days later got a refund. But the refund actually came from the retailer. Uk stores have an oddball policy where in the first 30 days if your product goes wonky the store can deal with it, anything over 30 days it has to go back to the manufacturer for some reason. Not sure if the same thing applies in America or not.

Depends on the state. Hawaii has a mandatory 21 day return policy for -any- item for instance. Used this a few times on cell phones that turned out to be pieces of shit.
 
Having worked a bit in the resell side Asus is the stuff of nightmares, they are disproportionately popular due to the branding and many seem to just ask for ROG/Strix without actually knowing that there are top competitors products that are as good if not better. As for quality I think Asus is very overrated and was more trouble than not, the amount of RMA's and the difficulty of dealing with ASUS RMA was nothing I miss. Generally the outcome was good but to wait 3 days for a motherboard RMA is just utterly poor especially when you spend 3-4 hours in there office with them doing live test beds and admitting fault. My worst experience was with a Maximus Gene that failed and the person had to pay in money for them to change due to stock to the P8-Z68 Pro V, lets say it was hard to convince a person to accept that. I have had issues with Gigabyte aswell, MSI has been fine some hair pulling incidents but they have been rather easy to deal with.
 
Last time I RMA'd an Asus product it was a $500 ROG X79 board, onboard audio died. I sent it to them after taking pictures of the extensive packing I did for it with the days newspaper for date proof. It took over 6 months to get it back and it was shipped inside of a motherboard box with zero packing, a blank sheet of paper, and a socket that looked like someone took a jackhammer to the pins. No explanation of anything was included, just a blank sheet of printer paper. I threw the board out and never bought an Asus product again that I couldn't afford to just toss if it went belly up.
 
Last time I RMA'd an Asus product it was a $500 ROG X79 board, onboard audio died. I sent it to them after taking pictures of the extensive packing I did for it with the days newspaper for date proof. It took over 6 months to get it back and it was shipped inside of a motherboard box with zero packing, a blank sheet of paper, and a socket that looked like someone took a jackhammer to the pins. No explanation of anything was included, just a blank sheet of printer paper. I threw the board out and never bought an Asus product again that I couldn't afford to just toss if it went belly up.

They treat clients like it is a privilege for the client to use them when it is the client that is a privilege to them. Asus and EVGA are my least favorite to deal with.
 
They treat clients like it is a privilege for the client to use them when it is the client that is a privilege to them. Asus and EVGA are my least favorite to deal with.

I really like dealing with ASRock and Zotac, to be honest.

ASRock I've only done a few RMA's with but they were super nice, I got emails from an actual person and one of them I even got a little bag of Swedish Fish in when their board burned up and killed y Xeon CPU.

I try to buy Zotac cards when I can now because they RMA'd a card for me out of warranty and they didn't have to, even got an upgrade on it. All I did was explain what happened and they said sure send it in, and I got a GTX 660 instead of the 560 I sent to them.

MSI is really easy as well, its all serial number based so you just send it away and in a few days you have a new one.
 
I have not had any fails to deal with on ASRock products, they tend to not be bought as much as mindshare makes people oblivious to ASRock, but the products are fantastic.
 
Last 3 GPU and motherboards were all Gigabyte, no issues as to date thus no need to RMA and put up with any drama.
Latest build is with a Asus board, it was free and so far after two years it has been problem free, hope that continues,
 
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