Yesterday Taiwanese PC Company Asus rolled out a new pricey Snapdragon X Elite Vivobook S 15 in Sydney, packed with intrusive Windows AI technology, but what they failed to talk about was the furore surrounding the Companies poor support operation or the quality of their products,, with social media awash with complaints and global media Companies questioning why they should even review Asu’s products, the local PC launch follows the launch last week of an Asus smartphone into the Australian market.
The Company that rarely rates in the PC or consumer notebook market with Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and Acer outperforming Asus has been slammed for their attitude and poor response to customers complaints about their notebooks, and gaming PC’s.
The complaints about Asu’s product are so bad tin some countries that in India Online Legal India, has set up an entire web page, to help customers who want to take legal action against Asus.
They claim that customers often approach the legal firm, with issues about ASUS products, they have warned owners of faulty Asus products that they need to be aware of the legal procesess when filing a complaint against ASUS India.
‘Common’ issues that their clients have faced after buying an ASUS Electronics product are cameras not working in Asu’s smartphones with the business recently releasing an expensive smartphone in Australia in an effort to compete with Samsung.
Other complaints about include:
IMEI numbers are not showing up.
Online orders contain defective phones.
phones and their notebooks lagging in performance and not working correctly.
Some orders not delivered.
Complaints about the ASUS service centre
Now questions are being raised as to why retailers such as JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman are even selling products from a Company that is seen by consumers and several media Companies, who have had their own problems with Asus who based on the level of complaints have shocking support and who appear to be turning repairs of faulty products into a profit centre.
Recently Gamers Nexus revealed a video that exposed what has been described as a terrible RMA experience that they experience when they sent an Asus PC back for a warranty claim.
They were not alone with several other owners of Ausus product experiencing issues when dealing with the Taiwanese Company.
A visit to forum site Reddit reveals a torrent of complaints about the Company and their replacements parts policy.
At Asus RMA stands for (Return Materials Authorisation) for warranty repair services.
One owner of an ASUS PC wrote “A few months ago my pc started crashing quite often and couldn’t handle a game for more than 10 minutes. After some rigorous testing and swapping parts I found out it was the graphics card (ASUS ROG STRIX 3070 V2) that was the root of the problem.
I contacted ASUS RMA, and they confirmed the graphics card was defective and about a week later I was provided with a replacement card after Asus stated the card couldn’t be repaired. Keep in mind the card I sent them was nearly brand new.
I received the replacement card and right off the bat you could tell this thing had taken a beating, even the warranty sticker was removed. Worked fine for a few days, then the crashes started again”.
He concluded that it was down to another questionable Asus component.
Some gaming reviewers claim that Asus management is” tone deaf” in their response to complaints about the Companies support policies.
Their support drama at the Asian Company, accelerated following the publishing of a scathing video titled: “ASUS Scammed Us.”
Now the Company that is engaging in selective communication with journalists according to their Australian PR Company is being slammed by the gaming community.
Forums and media following the ASUS support drama claim that the Company is being swamped by “multiple hundreds of emails” from people who have experienced problems across a multitude of Asus products, which the Taiwanese Company has been accused of totally ignoring, some insiders claim it’s because of the high cost of replacing parts.
Leading web site PC Gamer claims that, The channel anonymously sent in its own Asus ROG Ally device, which had a bust thumb stick, which they detailed as part of the RMA, and a broken SD slot, which many of these devices have and is the subject of a historical ROG Ally issue.
It documented the state of the device with high-resolution images, inside and out, and packaged it as per the Asus RMA shipping guidelines.
Their problems began when the response from the ASUS repair centre came back, and the Company claimed that it was not an in-warranty problem fix.
Asus claimed that the PC needed a near $200 fix for “customer induced damage” which wasn’t covered under warranty.
Asus claimed it also required a complete replacement of the LCD screen.
Apparently, the damage in question was a tiny ding in the plastic after GN opened the device to remove the SSD prior to shipping it back.
The time pressure the end user was put under to respond to the repair quote, which still made no reference to the original problem, was what they described as “pretty off”.
There was also an inferred threat that if the repair ASUS technical staff had identified and tried to charge for was refused, the device could be shipped back “completely disassembled”.
Well known global PC hardware Tom’s Hardware reported another Asus user’s experience relating to the shipping back an RTX 4090 that needed its 16-pin power connector replaced because the clip was chipped.
The owner had paid around $2,000 for the card and was now being asked to cough up nearly $2,750 to have the PC repaired.
The media Company claim that they have spoken to Asus directly about their poor policies and above all attitude to consumer complaints along with their charging methods for support and repairs.
YouTube tech channel Gamers Nexus asked the question how can we, as a publication, continue to recommend Asu’s hardware in light of all the issues around customer support?