G53 3 time RMA

[Acdrewalex]

The first week of July 2012 my G53 went in for repair of a broken power plug port. 2 weeks later the computer was returned to me without "my original box" I sent with it, computer housing was cracked with part of the plastic broke off, white paint ( or white material ) all over the screen an speaker area, and small surface scratches. I immediately called the Support center and was told to send in pictures and then someone would call me in 24-48 hours. I immediately sent in the pictures and never received a call. 5 days later I called backed was asked to send in the computer for repair. I then sent in the computer and 2 weeks later received the computer back not fixed and with a new problem the fans making a whineing noise at shutoff. I immediately called Asus support again and was told to send in pictures and I would receive a call from a manager in 24-48 hours. 3 days later and no call from Asus so I called again. I was then told to send in more pictures and someone would call me in 24-48 hours. The next day Asus called me and I was asked to send in the computer. The rep that called me said I would be sending it to the corporate office to him and he assured me that it would be returned to me the next day after receipt and he would also contact me when he received it. I noticed the address that i was sending it to was the same place that had damaged the computer the first time. Last Friday I tracked the computer and it showed that the repair center had received it on Wednesday. I called Asus support and was told that I would receive the laptop on Monday. I called back today and was told that I am waiting on parts and there is no expected time of return. No phone calls or emails again from Asus.
This problem Has now been almost 8 weeks, I use my laptop for work and have not had it for 8 weeks. I spent $1400 on it in January and had to sell my Alienware to be able to afford it. I am 40 years old and have had Dell's all my life. I bought an Asus because you get more bang for your buck. Out of the 9 Dell computers I have owned and still own I have had only 1 motherboard repair that took 1 day, because they come to my home. Asus has lied to me and treated me like I do not matter. Unfortunately I am at the mercy of your company because I cannot afford $1400 for a new Alienware ( I am an engineer and require certain power and graphical needs). All I have is this iPad that I am using to type this message that would have taken half the time if I had a computer.
I need an immediate resolution, please or at least my money back so I can create my own resolution?

[cl-scott]

dstrakele wrote:
I think it would be a good idea for @cl-scott to check out the Milpitas Service Center. It could help ASUS by getting a fresh view of what's actually happening there. It sounds like there is definitely some sort of problem.

Looking at the other (repair tech) side, it could be possible the techs are being extremely overworked. If you had to repair more laptops per day than humanly possible, and you find out the motherboard you just replaced on one turned out to be defective, and it's the second defective motherboard you installed today, and now you're out of that specific motherboard and will fall further behind, and new defective laptops are coming in boatloads every day, it could explain the poor customer service. It'd be hard to love a job like that....

That was my life as a repair tech. I can tell you from experience it is not fun. It also leads to units falling through the cracks. You might set a unit aside for any number of perfectly valid reasons, and then get swamped with new units. By the time you get your head back above water, a couple of weeks to a month may have passed.

So while I suggested it largely tongue-in-cheek, I do actually have experience as a repair tech, and even working in a depot setting. So if someone from the other side of the building wants to come over to Ice Station Zebra (the AC is on all day until 6PM) to give me a promotion, I'll drive on down to Montague and get cracking.

[cl-scott]

chrsplmr wrote:
~~ cheers ~~ The cl-Scott Plan .. shouldn't have to babysit 'pros'.
Sign the work .. those not meeting standards consistantly .. pink slip.

UnEmployment is around 11% in California. Somebody would love that job and do it.c.

Were it that simple, but it's expensive and time consuming to both fire someone and then hire someone new. There's unemployment you have to pay for the fired employee, then all the various fees associated with hiring someone, and the time you have to spend sifting through applications, conducting interviews, training... That can take the better part of a month, if not longer, meanwhile you're down one (or more) repair techs. Not to mention, if that person (or persons) goes to work for one of your competitors, now your competitor is effectively getting someone with some skills that were developed on your dime. If you can at all salvage the situation, it's considerably cheaper to do so.

So it's generally a far preferable solution, for all involved, to try and figure out what is the source of the problem, then go from there. Maybe it is there's one or two people who just aren't hacking it, but there may be plenty of other reasons. Where I worked before, the management gave a whole new meaning to cheap. One of the parts room people had a second job as the night manager at a hotel, and she'd pilfer pens because we couldn't even get simple office supplies like that without the company CEO signing off on it. Pens were worth their weight in gold, and I went out of my way to create a system where I could fill out all the paperwork on my workstation and then print it off rather than constantly be stealing other people's pens, and having them steal them back. I know times are tough, and you can't just go buying whatever people want, but equipment was literally falling apart and the CEO refused to replace it, we couldn't get basic office supplies needed to do our jobs, and what needed to happen was for the top management to loosen the purse strings a little.

Whether or not that's what's needed at the repair center mentioned in this thread I don't know, but if someone in Asus management wants to task me with going in there and knocking a few heads around to get things going in the right direction again, I'd relish the opportunity.

[Gorman]

> Blaming this on "it's just 1 center slipping 1 laptop through the cracks"

We get tons of reports of repair centers acting like this, all over the globe... We get tons of reports of this exact issue, all over the globe...

It's more than just a single localized problem guys, stop fixating on the center.

[cl-scott]

Gorman wrote:
> Blaming this on "it's just 1 center slipping 1 laptop through the cracks"

We get tons of reports of repair centers acting like this, all over the globe... We get tons of reports of this exact issue, all over the globe...

It's more than just a single localized problem guys, stop fixating on the center.

While a vast and inaccurate oversimplification of the discussion, at the same time... Let's assume everything is exactly as you say, for the sake of argument. Would it not be a step in the right direction to turn things around at even a single repair center?

But really, we were just kind of goofing around. In no way am I seriously expecting to be tasked with going in and implementing sweeping changes at that location.

[Gorman]

cl-scott wrote:
While a vast and inaccurate oversimplification of the discussion, at the same time... Let's assume everything is exactly as you say, for the sake of argument. Would it not be a step in the right direction to turn things around at even a single repair center?

Fixing things at a single repair center helps maybe at best 0.01% of people. It's an insultingly small step towards a solution. As usual ASUS works so slowly doing the minimum they can, in order to make us run out of warranty before they form a solution.

cl-scott wrote:
But really, we were just kind of goofing around. In no way am I seriously expecting to be tasked with going in and implementing sweeping changes at that location.

> Just joking, we won't help
wut.

[cl-scott]

Gorman wrote:
Fixing things at a single repair center helps maybe at best 0.01% of people. It's an insultingly small step towards a solution. As usual ASUS works so slowly doing the minimum they can, in order to make us run out of warranty before they form a solution.

So you would rather nothing be done? I have a funny feeling that if the repair center in question were the one you clearly had a bad experience with, you would have a very different view on the matter.

I can't do anything to change the fact that you had a bad experience getting your system repaired, and being a negative and disruptive presence in discussions like this will not change what has happened either. What it will do is make people far less empathetic to your situation. All I can do is try and make sure that no one else has an experience like yours, and if you ever set down that chip you're carrying on your shoulder, I think you would agree it is a positive change.

Gorman wrote:

> Just joking, we won't help
wut.

More like that's not my responsibility. If someone in the Asus management wanted to put me in charge of handling that sort of thing, I would enjoy the challenge. Granted, that's probably a level of naivete speaking, because there are a number of differences between a person's intentions and certain realities. It being election time here in the states, and my having more than my fill of political ads, stump speeches, and the like... It's really easy for someone to say that if they are elected President they will do this, that, and the other thing... But there are a number of realities of any political office really, at any level, which will make a number of those promises impossible to keep. Just as one example in the US, there's all kinds of talk about how Mitt Romney will tackle the national debt. Well, the way our government is set up, it's Congress that holds the purse strings of the nation, all the President can do is propose changes and hope Congress goes along with it. The same as the Australian PM can't just unilaterally ram legislation through Parliament. His/Her party has to wheel and deal with minority parties to form a coalition if they don't win enough seats, and those parties may very well oppose a lot of the things the PM campaigned on. So if the PM tries to make good on campaign promises, it might mean that parties pull out of the coalition, and things grind to a halt.

A lot of times the realities of the job are very much at odds with the best of intentions and the noblest of ideals.

[Gorman]

cl-scott wrote:
So you would rather nothing be done? I have a funny feeling that if the repair center in question were the one you clearly had a bad experience with, you would have a very different view on the matter.

I have read many threads about people's machines getting damaged by ASUS repair centers. Coming back dusty, scratched, damaged with water, badly repaired, having internal brackets sheered so it rattles, having a hole drilled through a mobo, all kinds of crap. Anyone who has read >50 threads on ASUS abuse would be silly to think that fixing 1 center would do anything. ASUS QA is non-existent across the board.

This is just as insulting a solution as when an ASUS rep offered to give away a single washer. It does nothing to fix the problem, and it is just so they can say "hey we are doing something, that's better than nothing", just like you are saying now.

cl-scott wrote:
I can't do anything to change the fact that you had a bad experience getting your system repaired, and being a negative and disruptive presence in discussions like this will not change what has happened either. What it will do is make people far less empathetic to your situation. All I can do is try and make sure that no one else has an experience like yours, and if you ever set down that chip you're carrying on your shoulder, I think you would agree it is a positive change.

> negative and disruptive presence
Oh ****, sorry that I don't worship ASUS's horrible support system, sorry about being a realist. No one in their right mind would think that fixing up 1 center would fix the problem. I said before that your solution is insulting, do you really think that ASUS customers are so feeble that they would be happy at the tiniest step in the right direction? If ASUS doesn't move in leaps and bounds, then they are not committed to fixing the problem.

The guy is asking for a refund, and you are offering to talk to the repair center. How is this equivalent? Maybe stop with the confirmation bias that "anyone who disagrees with me is just a negative nancy", and read the thread and think a bit.

cl-scott wrote:
More like that's not my responsibility. If someone in the Asus management wanted to put me in charge of handling that sort of thing, I would enjoy the challenge. Granted, that's probably a level of naivete speaking, because there are a number of differences between a person's intentions and certain realities. It being election time here in the states, blah blah.

A lot of times the realities of the job are very much at odds with the best of intentions and the noblest of ideals.

So I take it you have already escalated the problem to your superiors? Since you care about "making sure that no one else has an experience like yours", I'm sure you already raised the issue with your superiors years ago, and have since then been continually updating them and pressuring them. Perhaps inform them that some people consider class action suits as a viable solution, and point out that they have already been taken to court and lost once because of their bad support.

I'm sure you aren't as helpless as you pretend to be.

cl-scott wrote:
And for anyone who thinks that is bad, never go to work for any place that repairs Apple computers. They will let orders just sit for several days, then cancel them on you. If you're lucky they will send you a form letter with a generic reason selected for why your order is being canceled. But they won't do anything logical like send it to the person who created the repair, they'll send it to one of the account admins. I developed a good working relationship with a lot of the people in one of Apple's administrative centers, so they'd tell me what was going on off the record, but officially you were lucky to get one of those generic form letters with a non-descript and completely useless reason for why the order was canceled. Even better, was that the way Apple scores their sliding scale for labor payouts, the repair shop gets penalized when Apple doesn't have any parts in stock. You would have to go and beg the administrative people for an exemption on that repair, and of course Apple keeps track of every time you ask for one of those exemptions, and it factors into whether or not they'll grant one next time around. So they screw up, and it's the repair shop that gets to not only deal with the customer screaming about how long it's taking, but then you get shafted on your labor reimbursements for the following month.

I could replace "Apple" in this paragraph with "ASUS", and a lot of people would think it is true.

[Zygomorphic]

Hello all, I have been reading this thread, and while @cl-scott's joke about throwing things at @Mason is funny, I think this has gone off topic. Unless the OP can update us on the results of PM'ing @Mason, I don't see how this is relevant to his issue.

With regards to quality of support, I know that their e-mail reps are generally decent - e-mailed with one to figure out how to fix an nVidia driver problem. I wasn't all that clear, but the rep tried to help as much as ?he?/?she? (Sunshine) could. I know that there are alway bad experiences floating around, but I would be quite surprised if the repair centers really do drill holes in the mobo.

[chrsplmr]

cl.. it is that easy. Some of the things we have seen here. What justifies them having a job.
There is no unemployment for those that do not do their jobs.

and would have cost far less... by now.
All the Marketing and Proven Top Products will Never overcome the damage of returning
a RMA .. to be kind .. Not complete.

cl- a few more like yourself and Mason sweat'n them .. until there are no more cracks.

[cl-scott]

chrsplmr wrote:
cl.. it is that easy. Some of the things we have seen here. What justifies them having a job.
There is no unemployment for those that do not do their jobs.

and would have cost far less... by now.
All the Marketing and Proven Top Products will Never overcome the damage of returning
a RMA .. to be kind .. Not complete.

cl- a few more like yourself and Mason sweat'n them .. until there are no more cracks.

I'm not sure you could really make that case, since you're talking theoreticals. It's kind of like how the MPAA/RIAA/UbiSoft equate one illegally downloaded copy of something as one lost sale. The mental leap needed to get from here to there is deceptively large.