Asus RMA is a complete joke

[Bonemane]

So 3 months ago my Crosshair V Formula Z motherboard started giving me issues before it just died on me and wouldn't come back on. 3 months later I am still trying to get the same (now even more issues fixed.) Initially I emailed in and requested an advanced RMA explaining my issues (motherboard randomly powering off, but power supply is still going strong, slow usb transfer even when nothing attached, lots of feedback from the supposed HD audio ports when a device is plugged in.) The agent replies with basically "no problem" and sets up the RMA. Keep in mind I use this PC for work so I need it badly and constantly stated this during all communication.

Here's where things get bad:
1. I had 2 service requests in for different parts on different machines. I initially was talking to 2 different people and midway through one ticket one guy takes them both and gets confused which resulting in some hilarious WTF responses and wrong RMA numbers
2. He initially kept misspelling my email address (even though its on-file) and I had to ask him to resend things 6-7 times before I looked at my email in his responses and it was spelled wrong which delayed the process even further
3. The agent ONLY responds when I email him back, after about a week of nothing I send him one, he takes a day or two to get back to me then its another week wait before I have to email him again
4. 30 days out I still have no confirmation on what's going on with the ADVANCED RMA, even though I've asked multiple times the status
5. After 30 days I ended up just calling in to check the status (to which they didn't know of course) so I just shipped it to the service center myself and send off an email
6. The agent's reply is to yell at me for shipping it out via regular RMA while there was an ADVANCED RMA in process...after 30 days of waiting on this ADVANCED RMA! He also chastised me for sending it in using the initial regular RMA number which I was not told was deleted upon creating the advanced RMA

1 week after they receive my motherboard I still do not know the status (its already 1.5 months into this) even though I've been calling in every couple days. Someone finally tells me that it shipped out...and they did nothing to it because...I suck (thanks for making me waste $15 on shipping ASUS.) I get it back, install (my schedule is hectic so it took about a week to find the time) it along with a brand new better Power Supply, CPU, RAM, added a few new fans, diamond thermal paste, etc. and within the first hour it randomly shuts off again.

I also notice that the transfer rate on the USB 2.0 ports are weird, they start off way too fast (It shows it transferred 4/8GB file in about 10 seconds?) then start hiccupping and rapidly slowing down before just freezing my computer. I get around to testing the USB 3.0 ports when I start moving application setup files and troubleshooting tools over to my new external drive only to discover NONE of the USB 3.0 ports work on the board (I plug in a usb 3.0 card and it works though.) I re-install the drivers, try a whole new OS, the motherboard is on the latest BIOS, still the same problems.

I call again to set up an RMA and this time to make sure its a damn ADVANCED one (this is now about 3 months in) and I'm told (after about 30 minutes in queue for the next rep) that because the motherboard is near end of service (I bought it maybe 2 years ago) they can't do an advanced RMA. WTF?!?!?!? I just had a horrible "advanced" RMA setup 2 months ago?!?!?!? They seriously want me to list all the issues, note that I want a replacement as well, all of which I did the first time yet nothing happened. They wouldn't even offer to pay for shipping at first! I had to speak to a supervisor to get that done and he was just as emotionless as the agent.

EVGA and AMD are way better with their customer service. With AMD when my processor crapped out not only did they send me a prepaid label, but they sent me one of the newer models and I received it by the end of the week! No trouble whatsoever.

Total joke and waste of time. I already was disappointed that the motherboard in question didn't fully support their own ASUS products when it initially came out and even now its still the same with no updates being pushed through for years it seems like.

This process is slow, they actually expect you to fill out in ink and fax over forms in this day and age? I had to inform the supervisor and agent that this is the latest motherboard for these processors (something which they did not know, they just assumed it was some 6 year POS.) Now, I have to disassemble and pack up everything, which is going to take me at least a couple days. Also have to buy more thermal paste (another $20, thank you very much Asus) then reassemble everything once more. Assuming they actually do something and not just send it back again.

Why do you even have the archaic mailbox system in the first place? I feel sorry for the people that have to deal with them. I thought they were better than this, but this is the worst I've ever had to deal with (and you're talking about a guy who has to call Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc. on an almost daily basis.) Asus doesn't even acknowledge their faults or even TRY to make the effort to please.

Update:
Posted this on 5/31/15. After sending email after email finally got an advanced RMA sent out on 6/9/15...and its the wrong model after time and time again I've said "Crosshair V Formula-Z" on everything. Hopefully, when it gets here it has a "Z" in marker on it at least.

[sk2play]

*EVGA and AMD are way better with their customer service*

Chit :eek:
I hate to see this . . .

[Bonemane]

It seems that way to me with the experiences I've had. Asus at this point seems like Microsoft back when IE was the king of the web browser, just lollygagging from their Ivory tower, not bothering to bring anything new to the table.

Even with Lenovo, I remember when I placed a service call for a defective LCD on a T520. Placing the call was easy enough. The Lenovo contractor came out and subsequently destroyed the laptop beyond repair over the next week or so (it had to go to the depot and because of his attitude it contributed to me banning him from our building.) After 3 months of "waiting for the parts to come in to repair it even though the model came out 8 months ago" you know what Lenovo did? They escalated it to an account manager who looked into what they had in stock in various places in Asia.

She then had them pull a brand new Lenovo T430 (newest model) from a warehouse that was spec'd out to be a more high-end business laptop (Intel i7 3.2GHz quad core processor, the newest Nvidia GPU (NVS 5400M), illuminated keys, 16GB RAM, 512GB 7200RPM HDD, etc. which was way better than my employer even provided and had it shipped express (next day air which means at least 3) internationally directly from China to Chicago, IL via Fedex which was probably $300 in shipping alone...all for FREE!!! I might not have gotten a 15.1" screen back, but for the most part it was good enough to be a decent gaming laptop at the time and a damn fine work laptop.

[sk2play]

IBM is the WORST ever by my 30yrs experience points. :rolleyes:

[Bonemane]

Haha they're not the greatest I give you that (a 10 minute call for a simple fix ended in a laptop being DESTROYED, my company without a replacement laptop for 3+ months, and a shout match with a crappy "technician" that resulted in him being put on the 'wall of shame'. ) They're actually the ones that instilled in me my initial rule of thumb when dealing with tech support (if the call lasts more than 10 minutes or they put you on hold for something simple like a hardware replacement, hang up and try someone else.) There's more details to the original story, but overall its a good example of how you resolve an issue.

Asus won't even tell me why it was taking so long to process the advanced RMA, if you don't have the parts JUST SAY SO!!! Really it doesn't make sense since as far as 8-core processors go this is the latest and greatest gaming board for them and I haven't heard anything about a new board coming down the pipeline to replace it.