Originally Posted by JSLTIGER
I've been purchasing ASUS products for a while now, my last three motherboards have been from them and then I've now purchased three laptops from them (an F3S (nicknamed "Nomad") for my middle brother, an M50vm ("Sojourner") for myself and an N51vn ("Hermes") for my youngest brother). All were purchased because they were the best price/performance machines out there. Build quality is generally fantastic, and I have no complaints with anything. I've had several problems with their support services, but they've always managed to work out in the end.
Nomad suffered a dead HDD about a year ago. I knew what the failure was immediately, so called up ASUS for an RMA. They wanted me to run through all of these tests, but when I explained the symptoms and the fact that I had diagnosed it as a busted HDD, they said no problem and sent me all of the RMA information. I pulled out an extra stick of RAM I had put in the machine to bring it up to 2GB from its default 1GB configuration and sent it on its merry way. They fixed the HDD no problem, but when I went to re-install the RAM, I discovered that they had messed with the RAM bay cover and stripped most of the screws, meaning that I was unable to install the RAM. I called them up and asked to re-RMA it to fix the now messed-up screws. I RMA'd it again, and after about a week, I got it back...only to find that they had done NOTHING. The had replaced maybe one screw. So I called them up and screamed my head off at them, and re-RMA'd the thing for a third time, asking them this time to just remove the screws and attach the RAM bay with a single screw and send the rest in a baggie. Finally, this time they did as requested, and life was good after the frustration. I unscrewed the one good screw from the bay door, popped it off, popped in the RAM and then re-screwed in everything. I will never remove excess RAM again though.
My brother is a freshman in college, so I picked out Hermes for him this summer (the rest of my family knows nothing about computers, so they generally turn to me). When we got it, I opened it up to set it up for him (you know, like installing Office and the like). I noticed immediately that one of the rubber pads was missing, leaving a Phillips-head screw exposed. All right, no biggie. Then, after careful inspection of the screen, I noticed that it had a dark (dead) pixel. I called up ASUS and told them that I wanted to RMA it. They started arguing with me about how dark pixels are not covered under their Zero Bright Dot policy and that three or more dark pixels were required to RMA the machine. I argued back that the dark pixel is the same problem as the bright pixel (instead of the transistor being stuck in the "on" position, it's stuck in the "off" position). Besides, I told them, if I "accidentally" dropped the laptop down the stairs and the screen cracked, they would repair it under their accidental damage warranty anyway. They finally relented and I sent it in for an RMA, only to find that yet again, nothing had been done to the machine the first time. I called them up again, yelled a bit, told them my argument, which they eventually agreed with, and finally they re-accepted the machine and when I got it back, it had been properly repaired.
It's a frustrating process sometimes with them, but generally, after some prodding they will do the right thing and that's why I keep on (and will keep on) going back to them.
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