My Positive Experience with ASUS' RMA Service, timeline for my Rampage 4 Extreme RMA

[eengineerlife]

TLDR for the start: My cross-ship RMA took 9 days from submitting a request to receiving a replace board for my Rampage IV Extreme. Received an excellent replacement board in full working condition. My experience with Asus' RMA was entirely positive in terms of communication from Asus and product delivered.

Hi all,

I am creating this thread to keep a log to share with you all of my experience with RMAing my dead Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. The purpose of this thread is to enlighten fellow Asus enthusiasts/customers on how this experience progresses for me and what you can expect from Asus if you need to pursue an RMA with them at some point. My inspiration for making this thread is based around my past experience with RMAing a P8P67+ to Asus and how that RMA process worked (or didn't) for me, which I won't delve into here.

I find Asus products to be innovative and generally of excellent quality, but their customer service and RMA in my experience has been a far cry from my feelings on their products. Having only had a singular experience with their RMA service, the rest being anecdotal from friends and forum posts - which was not positive, I am hoping this time out with my RIVE RMA things will have improved and this will be a net positive.

I am going to keep a chronological timeline of the process and how it flows.


January 7th / 2014 :

RMA case submitted online followed up by a phone call to Asus to request the RMA and informing them I wish to proceed with an advanced RMA as the ROG line of motherboards as stated by Asus qualify for advanced exchange being that they are a premium product line.

Customer service rep informs me that he will need to check with stock levels at their Markham, Ontario warehouse and if there is stock available for advanced RMA I will receive an email in no more than 2 business days with information on how to provide my credit card information and proceed from there. He goes on to say if there is no stock I will have to do a normal RMA, something that goes against the promise of advanced RMA on the ROG line of motherboards.

My support ticket is below, and as you can see I exhausted all avenues of troubleshooting before resorting to having to RMA with Asus, although my suspicion from the start was that it was indeed a motherboard failure. I will note what is not included in the ticket is that I also have tried using a different power supply, but I did share this with the customer service rep on the phone.

Dear xxxxxxxx xxxx,

Service (Case) Number NA3315584
Thank you for using the ASUS online eSupport Case Submittal form.
This is to confirm we have received your request. Your online request Service Number is located above.
Please contact the appropriate support team for assistance and reference your Service (Case) Number when speaking with a representative.

Notebook / Eee Family - (888) 678-3688
Desktop (Essentio) - (877) 339-2787
All other products - (812) 282-2787

Best Regards,
ASUS North America Customer Service Team

[Subject]
RMA


[Product Information]
Product Type : Motherboard
*Product Model : Rampage IV Extreme
*Product S/N : BBM0AC17xxxx

[ Problem Description]
Parts Info :
*Operating System : Windows 8.1 64bit

[*Problem Description]
Hi there,

My motherboard has failed. This manifested with the system shutting down and upon bootup displaying the 00 post code and the motherboard not posting. I initially thought it was CPU failure and had my CPU replaced, this did not correct the problem. I have also tried using different memory modules, as well as trying to post the system with a single module. This also failed to work.

I've tried clearing the CMOS as well as flashing the CMOS offline via the ROG connect feature. This also has not corrected the issue.

I'd like to process an advanced RMA to have the board replaced as this system is critical for work and I need an immediate replacement with minimal downtime. I will be contacted you via phone in regards to this support case once created here.

Regards

xxxxxxxx xxxx

January 9th / 2014 :

Received my email response from Asus with RMA #, approval for the advanced RMA, instructions on how to proceed and the forms I needed to complete to provide billing, shipping and CC information to process the RMA.

So far, so good. I have submitted the forms via email, and the instructions stated it will take one business day to process the advanced RMA once they receive the forms on their end.



January 10th / 2014 :

Asus advanced RMA replied to my email, informing me it is now being processed.



January 15th / 2014 :

My replacement board was shipped to me today and should arrive tomorrow. I'll update the thread on the status of the replacement board once I have time to test it.


January 16th / 2014 :

Received the board and it was packed well and came out of the box in pristine condition. To my eyes I could detect no repair work and it came in like new condition.


January 18th / 2014 :

Have my system setup with the new board and it is running flawlessly. Definitely a positive and timely experience with Asus' RMA procedure.



I dispatched my defective board back to Asus after receiving the replacement and I'll do a final update when it is received on their end and the RMA closed out.

Cheers

[HiVizMan]

Cheers for this mate, I like the idea of a living blog kind of thing.

[BOLTS4BREKFAST]

Not to hijack your post... But I did an Advance RMA on my RIVE... and nothing EVER happened... no calls, no emails... nothing.

I ended up just buying a new RIVE... I got tired of waiting.

I love Asus products.. but in my opinion, their customer service lacks... I guess that when buying enthusiast/top-of-the-line products, you expect that kind of support to go along with it.. But no, you're just the same as the person that bought an $80 board at Micro Center..

Maybe ROG product line should have their own customized (and by customized I mean you actually get a support staff that knows what their talking about) support...

Sorry for the rant. Good luck with your RMA!

[eengineerlife]

BOLTS4BREKFAST wrote:
Not to hijack your post... But I did an Advance RMA on my RIVE... and nothing EVER happened... no calls, no emails... nothing.

I ended up just buying a new RIVE... I got tired of waiting.

I love Asus products.. but in my opinion, their customer service lacks... I guess that when buying enthusiast/top-of-the-line products, you expect that kind of support to go along with it.. But no, you're just the same as the person that bought an $80 board at Micro Center..

Maybe ROG product line should have their own customized (and by customized I mean you actually get a support staff that knows what their talking about) support...

Sorry for the rant. Good luck with your RMA!

Sorry to hear about your experience. I couldn't see myself buying another when I am covered by warranty, no matter how much I'd like to upgrade to the Rampage IV Black 😄

Updated my OP with the progress on my RMA. I did indeed receive the email response within 2 business days with approval for the advanced RMA and I have submitted the necessary forms. So far, so good!

[HalloweenWeed]

BOLTS4BREKFAST wrote:
Not to hijack your post... But I did an Advance RMA on my RIVE... and nothing EVER happened... no calls, no emails... nothing.

In the country of Georgia I believe you have to return it to your retailer to RMA.

[BOLTS4BREKFAST]

HalloweenWeed wrote:
In the country of Georgia I believe you have to return it to your retailer to RMA.

I'm in the USA.. State of Georgia.

[Techotic]

BOLTS4BREKFAST wrote:
Not to hijack your post... But I did an Advance RMA on my RIVE... and nothing EVER happened... no calls, no emails... nothing.

How many times have you tried calling them, to check up on the status of the Advance RMA?

[BOLTS4BREKFAST]

Techotic wrote:
How many times have you tried calling them, to check up on the status of the Advance RMA?

I made 6 different calls... I finally got tired of no response... and since I was having problems with the board - I went ahead and bought a new one. problem solved.

[Techotic]

BOLTS4BREKFAST wrote:
I made 6 different calls... I finally got tired of no response... and since I was having problems with the board - I went ahead and bought a new one. problem solved.

Interesting. 6 calls and no reply. If that's the case, then you can definitely say the service you received was total crap. Did you ask to speak to a supervisor? I would of done that after the 3rd call, and chewed him out. That should of gotten the ball rolling on your replacement.

The reason I ask is that some will just make 1 or 2 calls, or even send just a single email, and when they don't hear back, they give up. Not knowing that sometimes their request can get lost under a pile of hundreds of requests.

I suppose what you could also do is purchase a new board, swap in the defective board and return it for a refund.

[Ace123]

I sent my Rampage IV Extreme in asus had it for a week and I had a new board...