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What is the Secret to getting someone not completely F***Ing retarded on the support

Mirage
Level 7
Lines, because after 3 total RMA's (The first one actually did something but that was back for a dead GPU, but who knows maybe the cause is something on the GPU again) I am getting fed up enough to wish I was in california to go beat the support techs with my still failing laptop.

Seriously, is there ANY official ASUS people on this forum that are even remotely useful?
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Mirage
Level 7
In my experience so far with ASUS support a bit of anger in the text seems to get the point through the retarded wall of 'have you done ___ already' questions.

To clarify, my first attempt at their support email I explicitly stated that I had already tried several things, and 4 days later their response was, well have you tried.. and it was one of the things I said I had already tried, it seems as if they don't actually read your emails.

cl-scott
Level 12
I am going to take off my Asus Customer Loyalty hat for a minute and just say that I have been on the other end of things a lot more than the average person. I worked as a professional hardware tech for about three years doing Dell and Apple repairs, and I was a busy little tech. Over the calendar year of 2011 I did probably something on the order of 1,000 repairs, not to mention all the other little odd jobs I was given by the rather ruthless exploitation I was under by my former employer.

For those of you who have never had the experience of dealing with Apple on the business side of things, count yourself lucky. They are great to deal with if you're a consumer, but an absolute terror on the business side. I could go on for several hours about that, but this isn't the time or place, so let's just leave it at they are a difficult company to deal with, and my job was to deal with them on a regular basis. I learned a few useful things during my time.

It's important to remember a couple of things. The first is that you are the one asking for help, so it is in your interest to make nice with the company CSR, at least until you get what you want. Once you hang up the phone you can launch into a tirade of obscenities as long as you want, but while you're on the phone, you have to remain disciplined. The reason is really pretty simple. Imagine you are working a customer service job, and someone comes in copping all kinds of attitude. You are probably going to do the absolute bare minimum to help that person that your job requires, forget about going out of your way. Now, if someone comes in and is very reasonable, understands that you personally aren't responsible for whatever it is that went wrong, you are far more likely to be willing to help them out, right?

The old saying that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar is really pretty true. When I started out as a repair tech, I got kind of annoyed by Apple's support staff asking for certain info when all I really wanted was a quick answer to a question. Eventually it dawned on me that I probably spend more time arguing with them about it than I "save" by not providing it in the first place. They have to ask me for it every time, that's their job. I would complain about stores (I worked for a nameless to protect the guilty retail chain) not providing certain info, and so I was being a hypocrite. So I changed tact, and made a couple of friends at Apple's Austin campus, which in turn helped me get a little off the record help from time to time when I needed it. There were a couple of times a rep bent the rules for me because I was rather well liked there.

There's a fine line between airing a legitimate grievance and being a jerk. That line is that you don't need to be rude to air a grievance.

cl-scott wrote:

There's a fine line between airing a legitimate grievance and being a jerk. That line is that you don't need to be rude to air a grievance.


Agreed. When you are rude, you drive people away. When you are rude while asking for help, people would rather not help you.
G75VW-BBK5
i7
8 GB
660m

dstrakele
Level 14
+1 It's good to take off the ASUS Customer Loyalty hat once in a while... Interesting story and good rules to live by, Mr.Scott.

I think the wording of the subject of this thread went over that line and I'd probably edit it if I was the OP.
G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

chrsplmr
Level 18
cl- Can you help these fine ROG'r's or point them in the right direction ? .. MASON !!!

We understand your frustrations .. been there .. did that ..
Everyone here starts the day 'wanting' to help .. let them ..
the bottom of the pile is a lonely place .. keep it rare.c.

cl-scott
Level 12
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't actually see a problem being described except that the OP was frustrated with an experience we're all far too familiar with for virtually any large company you care to name. I know I've had similar thoughts in the past, but I usually see that as a sign that it's time to take a break and go do something else for a while.

In any case, our time is somewhat limited, so we can't really do a lot of special case testing for people as much as we might like to. Honestly, that'd be along the lines of my idea of a good job. So I try and facilitate better communication between you guys the customers, and the repair techs, so that everyone is happy.

There was someone a week or two back who sent a unit in because the GPU was being problematic. It came back unrepaired, and after looking at the notes in the ticket, the way the person described the issue initially made it sound like it was an issue with the display, not the GPU. I suggested the person send in photos of the issue, along with try and find some way to reliably trigger the issue on command for the repair tech. They took my advice, and the unit was in and out of the repair depot in record time. Some might argue that the owner of the unit shouldn't have to diagnose the problem for the technician, and I can't really disagree, but from a purely pragmatic standpoint it does tend to increase the odds of a successful repair the first time. So like the sage advice from one of the Car Talk guys on marriage/relationships: You can choose to be right, or you can choose to be happy.

I have about three years and thousands of repairs under my belt as a hardware tech, and I'm happy to use that experience making sure the RMA process is as boring and uneventful as possible. Anyone's who wants tips on how to describe a particular issue is free to send me an email (in my sig) or PM. I may not be able to test everyone's particular laptop/motherboard/whatever personally, but I can help make sure that the repair tech knows exactly what you're talking about from the problem description, can quickly duplicate the issue, and get your system repaired with minimal fuss.

TheGongshow
Level 7
Mirage wrote:
Lines, because after 3 total RMA's (The first one actually did something but that was back for a dead GPU, but who knows maybe the cause is something on the GPU again) I am getting fed up enough to wish I was in california to go beat the support techs with my still failing laptop.

Seriously, is there ANY official ASUS people on this forum that are even remotely useful?


Don't buy an Asus?

Sorry to Marshall and the other Asus folks on here who have to try and keep things civil but honestly, their support is horrid.
I've heard that they have ONE tech working on all of these laptops in California. That is insane.

TheGongshow wrote:
Don't buy an Asus?

Sorry to Marshall and the other Asus folks on here who have to try and keep things civil but honestly, their support is horrid.
I've heard that they have ONE tech working on all of these laptops in California. That is insane.


One good tech can honestly do a surprising amount. I will again keep the name to myself to protect the guilty, but I was more or less the lone Apple tech for about half of a national retail chain for about 2 years, and I managed it pretty well if I do say so myself. I had an average of around 20 units/week, which may not sound like a lot, but those repairs could be anything from a simple HDD replacement to a top case replacement. The former taking 5-10 minutes including loading the OS off of my NetRestore server (which I had to set up myself), the latter taking 30-45 minutes because I basically had to rebuild the entire laptop. It also included my having to do cosmetic checks which went above and beyond Apple's guidelines, diagnosing problems on new units, ordering parts, and plenty of misc administrative tasks, not even counting the special tasks my former supervisors had me doing or I took on myself (like setting up a NetRestore server). There were literally conversations between my former employer's management and Apple's management about whether or not I was actually the one doing all the repairs.

So even if it were true that there was only one tech here in California, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Bigger is not always better. One really good tech can be worth several mediocre techs. Plus, they have me as a reserve second tech if they need me for that.

cl-scott wrote:
One good tech can honestly do a surprising amount. I will again keep the name to myself to protect the guilty, but I was more or less the lone Apple tech for about half of a national retail chain for about 2 years, and I managed it pretty well if I do say so myself. I had an average of around 20 units/week, which may not sound like a lot, but those repairs could be anything from a simple HDD replacement to a top case replacement. The former taking 5-10 minutes including loading the OS off of my NetRestore server (which I had to set up myself), the latter taking 30-45 minutes because I basically had to rebuild the entire laptop. It also included my having to do cosmetic checks which went above and beyond Apple's guidelines, diagnosing problems on new units, ordering parts, and plenty of misc administrative tasks, not even counting the special tasks my former supervisors had me doing or I took on myself (like setting up a NetRestore server). There were literally conversations between my former employer's management and Apple's management about whether or not I was actually the one doing all the repairs.

So even if it were true that there was only one tech here in California, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Bigger is not always better. One really good tech can be worth several mediocre techs. Plus, they have me as a reserve second tech if they need me for that.


Well i can tell you one thing, Scott.

Customer loyalty isn't going to be high when they buy a new 1500 dollar laptop that has a bad fan, sound that comes out of the speakers when headphones are plugged in, and a squeaky keyboard. Only to call Asus thinking everything will be ok and to be told they will have to pay more of their money to send their laptop away for weeks at a time with a chance that it may not even be repaired when they receive it back (read some of the horrifying stories on these forums about people's experience with RMAs).

While i love my laptop, i've been pretty let down by the number of small things that were overlooked and from what i've read, i have it easy. Some people opened laptops that weren't even fully assembled. I didn't have the option to return it or exchange it or else i would have.

This isn't just me, read these forums. I realize the population selection here is poor because most people come on these forums to complain but even if that's the case, this is a lot of laptops with the same problems. I consider my self an early adopter of the G55 and i've already been punished by not getting the thunderbolt option that was announced 18 days after i bought the computer.

Anyway, i doubt anything will or can be done for me now. I will suck it up and just enjoy the computer i do have in front of me. I am not fully satisfied though and i will be very very wary of ever buying an Asus again.

TheGongshow wrote:
Well i can tell you one thing, Scott.

Customer loyalty isn't going to be high when they buy a new 1500 dollar laptop that has a bad fan, sound that comes out of the speakers when headphones are plugged in, and a squeaky keyboard. Only to call Asus thinking everything will be ok and to be told they will have to pay more of their money to send their laptop away for weeks at a time with a chance that it may not even be repaired when they receive it back (read some of the horrifying stories on these forums about people's experience with RMAs).

While i love my laptop, i've been pretty let down by the number of small things that were overlooked and from what i've read, i have it easy. Some people opened laptops that weren't even fully assembled. I didn't have the option to return it or exchange it or else i would have.

This isn't just me, read these forums. I realize the population selection here is poor because most people come on these forums to complain but even if that's the case, this is a lot of laptops with the same problems. I consider my self an early adopter of the G55 and i've already been punished by not getting the thunderbolt option that was announced 18 days after i bought the computer.

Anyway, i doubt anything will or can be done for me now. I will suck it up and just enjoy the computer i do have in front of me. I am not fully satisfied though and i will be very very wary of ever buying an Asus again.


A couple years before I came to work here at Asus I bought a Dell Studio 17 laptop. Great laptop on the whole, still have it and take it with me when I go to visit family half-way across the country. Sure the speakers have literally no bass at all, and it's a bit heavy, bulky, and I had to buy a special backpack because the average 17" compatible backpack wouldn't work. It also had a squeaky spacebar, and I think I had to get 2 replacements out of Dell before finding one that didn't squeak. That was after I had to have the initial unit replaced because the HDMI output was flaky. I would have obviously preferred these not to be issues, but Dell was willing to stand by the warranty on the unit. When the initial annoyance had passed, and I was able to consider the issue with a clearer head, I was at a loss when I tried coming up with what else I could reasonably expect a company to do.

So if at any point Asus has declined to stand by its warranty in your case, please do let me know, and I will do everything I can to make sure you are made whole.