Asus Denied Warranty Since Laptop was sent in without HDD, now out of warranty

[outofthebox]

Hey guys,
Does anyone know if this is even legal for them to do?
I sent in a laptop that wouldn't power on for warranty and when they received it they sent me an outrageous invoice for a few hundred bucks since the hard drive wasn't included and that without payment the warranty would be denied.
I messaged them saying I didn't want to send my hard drive with personal info and passwords in and since the laptop wasn't working I couldn't back it up and wipe it.
They claimed the techs need it to test but this is non sense as we all know they have drives they use for testing purposes.

Heres the kicker, Now my warranty is expired and they won't provide a new rma number without me being charged a diagnostic fee and then paying for the repair.
I was not asking for a new hard drive and I don't see anywhere in their policy that states it needs to be returned, in fact the rma sheet even has a question asking if the HDD was included or not.

I have tried talking to support but that's a brick wall. They said I should have taken it to a computer service center like best buy and had them transfer my data to an external drive.

Thank you for any insight on this. I'm kinda at a loss here.
Drew-

[xeromist]

I've not heard of that being an issue in the past. It certainly doesn't sound like the way things should work to me.

I recommend posting in the Service Inquiry section. Make sure to read the sticky thread at the top of the section.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?295-Service-Related-Inquiries

If you'd prefer to just transfer this thread to there, let me know.

[erixx11]

you could have removed the hdd, copied it externally, reinstalled it and send it. But you were clever... per human standards, not business.

corporations are stupid, they can't be any different. consumer rights are constantly broken. I have had 3 dead asus rog boards, lost all my money, because they invent reasons to ignore your right to warrany. There are better ways to deal with customers. I'd say, keep all their stoopid boxes and included items, and return their products at the slightest issue first day. Make them pay for it.

[strixguy1]

This is entirely dependant on the fault of your machine and the service centers requirement for testing purposes.

If the fault of your machine could be directly linked to your storage device, then yes asus ABSOLUTELY require it for testing purposes. Simply putting in their own HDD or NVME ( which by the way they dont just have loads of spares for ) doesnt resolve the issue.

Youre asking them to use a HDD or NVME thats meant for an actual repair in the future from their repair stock, re-image it using a base image layer meant specifically for your unit thus wasting that drive and the engineers time just to see if your unit works ok with it when you could have just sent yours in after copying your data? What happens if the unit has absolutely no issue with a test device so they send it back and you put yours in and the problem re-occurs? Ive seen many units fail to turn on because of faulty storage devices. You dont know if the storage device is ok, as you cant power the unit on!!

It literally states in your warranty to back your data up, and that if you cant they arent responsible for its loss. thats what you agree to.

Read your warranty, if you'd sent that HDD in and they found that to be the cause of the issue, then it would be replaced and you automatically transfer ownership of any faulty part back to ASUS. meaning that unless you pay an out of warranty charge, you arent allowed that HDD back because any faulty components become property of ASUS.

If youve chosen to not back up your data, and have instead just removed components that could be necessary for testing then youve given them an incomplete unit and one that is not suitable for repair under warranty conditions.

[outofthebox]

Thank you everyone for the comments, I have sent in laptops before without the hdd and even ram (if I upgraded it and didn't have the originals) with no issues but lately they have gotten strict so I highly recommend sending everything in.
@strixguy1they are a service center and I'm 99% positive they have test drives for each model laptop they make. In the past, as I mentioned, when I didn't send in a HDD one of the laptops was fixed and they accidentally left a post it not on the laptop saying "remove test drive". I know they have the ability to test these without a drive. They are a multi billion dollar company, having a few hundred Hdds for testing isn't going to effect them.
You are correct regarding "It literally states in your warranty to back your data up, and that if you cant they arent responsible for its loss. thats what you agree to." but then it also gives you a check mark box on the rma sheet for if you included it or not. Plus I didn't see anything in the warranty terms stating it had to be included.
However thank you for your point of view and its been taken into consideration.

I have been able to get a hold of a customer service rep here in the states who works for corporate and she has helped me out. Looks like ill have to pay the shipping since the Asus 360 coverage has expired but it should all work out. Ill just make sure to put in new hdds.

Hopefully this will help someone out in the future before they waste time and money sending in their laptop.