Horrid ASUS headache/problems
Heya everybody!
So, I figured I would share my story of extreme problems with an ASUS laptop and the RMA system. Here goes...
Last May I bought an ASUS G53-XR1 from XoticPC for college/work/gaming. This laptop ran me about $1600, and was meant to last me throughout my four years of undergrad.
Last Winter, around January, the laptop developed a wierd issue: every 5-10 seconds it would "hang" or "lag" for abour 3-5 seconds. No matter what it was being used for--games, music, typing, browsing explorer or the internet, etc-- it would lag like this. This made it very difficult to use for anything other than typing (and even then, my typed words would sporatically jump across the screen at the end of each lagging interval). Being that I use this computer for work (controlling machinery and recording data in a Biochemical research lab) it was IMPERATIVE that I have it work smoothly and reliably. So now comes the first time I sent it out for repair...
I wrote to ASUS for an RMA number. Their "expected" e-mail turn around time of 48 hours was actually 6 days, a nusiance when, as a student, my time is important and packed. I recieved an e-mail written in poor, hard to understand english with confusing instructions as to what to include in my RMA package. Soon, I got my laptop shipped out to California to be repaired. About two weeks later, it arrived back to my house! :D I opened up the package to find my laptop absolutely covered in smudgey fingerprints and dust. The repair slip inside stated that the motherboard had been replaced, and the system was thoroughly tested at thier facilities. I booted my laptop up to find!.......... it was still laggy :mad: I was fairly angered by this, so after twice re-formatting Windows (to ensure it was not a software based issue), I called up ASUS to speak to a service team member. And now comes my second repair...
On my call to ASUS, I was connected to a standard agent. The fellow was decently friendly, and understood my level of dissapointment. I asked to speak to his manager and was shortly thereafter connected. The manager which I speaked to seemed to be very annoyed with my questions as to how I could be helped to recieve a successful repair. He stated that ASUS "makes no exceptions to the warranty and repair policies, and that "I understood that there was a risk of bad repair when I sent the computer to them". He told me that the next time I sent it in, that "the service personell will test it for a longer time than they have before". I called him out on that comment and asked if that means that my laptop was not repaired to the best ASUS's abilities the first time, and he consistantly doged around the question. Eventually, he made a "special" service case number for me to complete my RMA with, instruction the repair team to "work extra hard" my system. So, I sent the laptop back to California, and spent another few weeks at college and work without a computer. About two weeks later, it arrived at my house again!! I opened the package to once again find my computer covered in dust, grime, and prints. The repair slip stated that the VGA was replaced. I booted up my laptop to find!......... it was STILL laggy :mad: :mad: I contacted the ASUS service department to negotiate a replacement system. And now comes my third repair...
Once again, I sent in the computer. My service e-mail "48 reply time" took about a week again. ASUS created my RMA with the fact that I've had the same laptop there recently twice before in mind. I sent in my computer, waited for about two weeks, and just received it back today! I opened the package to, yet again, find my laptop looking like it was dropped into a Shop-Vac. And, behold, the laptop still had the lagging issue. The repair slip stated that the fan had been cleaned. Wait, what?? You cleaned a fan in attempt to repair and issue that I have with lagging and hanging? :mad::doh::mad:
So here I sit everybody, with a still barely-functional $1500 piece of plastic. This has been about 6 months now that I've been dealing with incredibly poor service. I've been fortunated to borrow old computers from friends to use while at school. Frankly, I don't know what to do anymore. I start school in 9 days, so I do not have time to send it in for another repair.
I write this to spread word about the horrible service ASUS has given me. I invested a decent amount of money into a product of thier's only to go through a horrid half year of struggles and headaches. As I'm sure everybody on these forums understands, it is a very important thing to have a functioning computer during school and work.
If anybody has any suggestion or comments as to what I should do, please let me hear them. I'm sure you can be more helpful than ASUS has been.
Peace -
elykrab17 :rolleyes:
