ASUS RMA nightmare - Buyer Beware

[zambien1]

I realize that I have posted in a few threads about this but I haven't provided the details of my experience. I thought it would be wise to post this since I would hate for anyone else to have to go through this.

RMA #1
June 21
I submit an RMA for my ASUS Z97-AR which would no longer power on. This happened suddenly and after verifying that the issue was not the PSU I decided to send for an RMA.
Jul 3
I receive an email with a link to a payment site stating it would cost $150 to have the CPU socket on my mobo replaced because of bent pins. I went back and forth with support for a while but they would not budge. They even sent me pics with bent pins, so I said... well I guess it isn't impossible that I bent the pins prior to putting the mobo in the box (I did put on the cpu protector but who knows). So I told ASUS they should send the mobo back to me because I wasn't going to pay retail price for a repair.... boy am I glad I made that decision.
On July 27th the board was shipped back to me. To my surprise, when I opened the box there were no bent pins. Checked the SN.. same, checked the socket... didn't look new. Weird.

RMA #2
July 28
I call in to report that my motherboard with "bent pins" did not have any bent pins. Took lots of high-res pictures and video of the socket, mobo, and serial number to prove it. Was told my warranty was invalid and they couldn't do anything for me. So I escalate, then I escalate again. Finally someone tells me that they will allow me to ship the mobo in again. So I do. ASUS also agrees to advance (cross) ship a mobo to me if I provide my CC info.

At this point I have ordered an AsRock Z97 Killer because I'm thinking this is going to take awhile. Hey, I'll sell the ASUS on Ebay once i get it, right?

RMA #3
Aug 11
I receive the motherboard replacement. Test it... seems to work. But the HDMI port is blown. Did lots of testing, multiple cables, displays, and using graphics cards (2 different ones). Yep, the HDMI port on the mobo is bad. Too bad because this is for a HTPC and I don't really want to purchase a separate graphics card for it.

RMA #4
I won't go into detail about the back and forth. On Aug 21 another board arrives. This one won't power up at all and there are bent CPU pins.

RMA #5
Separate process.. for some reason this time this had to go through the shipping department who I had to call and it was a whole separate process. I was told that it was likely that the board would be good "because they have access to better stock"... WTH?!
So I get the final board last week. Lo and behold, it powers up! And HDMI and everything else seems to be working! So I plug in a USB stick with memtest on it and it runs for about a minute.. then it turns off...

After further testing I found that any slight nudge or pressure will cause the board to lose power.

Again, tested multiple PSUs, two CPUs (G3258 and a 4690k), 3 different dimms, and lord knows what else. To make matters worse if the board is properly mounted with screws it mostly just won't turn on.

RMA #6
I escalated to what I understand is the highest point and requested a refund. They will not provide a refund or a new board. Only an RMA. I chose to quit because a mobo purchased for $87 is just not worth this trouble.


So now I have a non-working ASUS board sitting here. ASUS will gladly play the RMA carousel game with me more but I'm done. Every time I get another board from them I have to take apart one of my 2 PCs to test the board... it just isn't worth the trouble.

One more thing.. for each of these a new RMA form was required... ridiculous.

tl;dr;
Don't buy ASUS motherboards.

 

[motsm]

Went through the same thing with a GPU, and documented it here as well, so I understand just how frustrating they are to deal with. I would hope that their lousy support would eventually get buyers attention, but ASUS seems to be doing just fine, unfortunately.

 

[zambien1]

Went through the same thing with a GPU, and documented it here as well, so I understand just how frustrating they are to deal with. I would hope that their lousy support would eventually get buyers attention, but ASUS seems to be doing just fine, unfortunately.

Thanks for replying. Posting this and hearing I'm not the only one is cathartic.

 

[DigDog]

same here with an asus GPU. never again.

they do make nice stuff though so if you buy from amazon, etc.. you can RMA through them.

still, i'd rather stick with Gigabyte.

 

[zambien1]

same here with an asus GPU. never again.

they do make nice stuff though so if you buy from amazon, etc.. you can RMA through them.

still, i'd rather stick with Gigabyte.

I didn't realize you could RMA through Amazon for the entire product warranty period. This is a huge selling point for Amazon. I bought it through my local MicroCenter so maybe I should have tried going through them first. Hmm, maybe I still could? Edit: nope, 15 day returns.

Yep, my last board was a GA-965P-DS3. It was still going strong 9 years later but I got the upgrade itch. Going forward I'll be probably be purchasing from Gigabyte or ASRock depending on how long the two ASRock boards I have now last.

 

[JeffMD]

I have seen some unhappy people on their laptop side as well. I do use alot of asus products but I try and stick with evga when I can.

 

[bigboxes]

same here with an asus GPU. never again.

they do make nice stuff though so if you buy from amazon, etc.. you can RMA through them.

still, i'd rather stick with Gigabyte.

I was lucky my first time with Asus, as my P6T Deluxe v2 mobo was without issues.

I got really lucky with my next Asus purchase with the mobo in my sig. I had bad ram slots and luckily (notice the theme here) I purchased through Amazon and it was an easy return. They even cross shipped.

Third time I recently purchased an Asus RT-AC87U router. Lucky once again as I purchased through Amazon. Tech support was really poor. I hate knowing more than the CSR when it comes to this stuff. They are just reading a script for $9/hr. But you have to go through the motions just to show you did your due diligence. Thankfully Amazon came through again and the replacement has been rock solid.

I appreciate the heads up on your experiences. I will think twice before giving Asus any more of my money. I can at least recommend going through Amazon. They are the shiz!

 

[StrangerGuy]

Asus support in U.S is terrible to the point of legendary for at least a decade already, yet people are still buying their stuff and when Asrock has beaten them to the ground in mobos in terms of features/price. I don't get it.

 

[bigboxes]

Asus support in U.S is terrible to the point of legendary for at least a decade already, yet people are still buying their stuff and when Asrock has beaten them to the ground in mobos in terms of features/price. I don't get it.

Just an observation. There's an Asus mobo in your sig. :\

 

[nsafreak]

Asus support in U.S is terrible to the point of legendary for at least a decade already, yet people are still buying their stuff and when Asrock has beaten them to the ground in mobos in terms of features/price. I don't get it.

Brand recognition, it's a thing unfortunately.

I too had issues with a GPU RMA through them, I've stopped recommending them for builds for the most part (GPU or motherboard) and I've stopped recommending them to friends. Don't know if their bad RMA rep will ever catch up to them but I agree, I don't understand how they are still competing when ASRock has beat them to a bloody pulp when it comes to bang for your buck.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

@OP,
The only common denominator is you!





Insults are not allowed in the tech forum.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[maddogchen]

I've heard these issues with ASUS. Anybody with issues with Gigabyte or Asrock boards?

 

[DigDog]

I didn't realize you could RMA through Amazon for the entire product warranty period. This is a huge selling point for Amazon. I bought it through my local MicroCenter so maybe I should have tried going through them first. Hmm, maybe I still could? Edit: nope, 15 day returns.

Yep, my last board was a GA-965P-DS3. It was still going strong 9 years later but I got the upgrade itch. Going forward I'll be probably be purchasing from Gigabyte or ASRock depending on how long the two ASRock boards I have now last.

yep, i had the DS3 as well. 400 fsb without breaking a sweat. one of the best (and cheap too) mobo of the 775 age.

 

[Justinus]

Very interesting to read about these horrific experiences. I had to RMA two video cards through ASUS, and the experience was perfectly fine. The first one they repaired and it works great and the second one was replaced with a newer, better model since they couldn't repair it and had no replacements of the same model in stock.

I keep eyeballing newer ASUS motherboards, but some of the stuff MSI has put out recently looks really cool, too.

 

[vailr]

Don't know if it would make a difference, but maybe calling the Asus home office in Taiwan would give better results? Of course: whoever picks up the phone would need to speak English.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Just an observation. There's an Asus mobo in your sig. :\

I don't live in U.S, and Asus was the only cheap Haswell mITX choice without the CPU socket located retardedly close to the PCIE slot.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not trying to contradict the OP or anything, but if you want to know why people buy Asus products in large quantities, it often has to do with the combination of features and product quantity. Asus boards often have very good overclocking options (depending on what you get), and sometimes support functions that you just can't get on other brands. For example, if you want to boot from an NVMe SSD, you can do so from several Asus boards (including at least one FM2+ board). Asus currently has the best UEFI support for Broadwell-C. Etc.

It doesn't mean their customer service dept. in the US is good, though. If you get a bad piece of hardware - it WILL happen no matter how good is the product - then you may be stuck like chuck.

 

[zambien1]

Not trying to contradict the OP or anything, but if you want to know why people buy Asus products in large quantities, it often has to do with the combination of features and product quantity. Asus boards often have very good overclocking options (depending on what you get), and sometimes support functions that you just can't get on other brands. For example, if you want to boot from an NVMe SSD, you can do so from several Asus boards (including at least one FM2+ board). Asus currently has the best UEFI support for Broadwell-C. Etc.

It doesn't mean their customer service dept. in the US is good, though. If you get a bad piece of hardware - it WILL happen no matter how good is the product - then you may be stuck like chuck.

Yep, agreed. ASUS makes good hardware. I wasn't arguing that point... have bought ASUS in the past for lots of different hardware. This was my first RMA experience with them.

 

[zambien1]

Brand recognition, it's a thing unfortunately.
.

It definitely is. I bought a Microcenter bundle and had settled on an ASUS Z97-AR or ASRock Extreme4. The ASUS at the time was more expensive. Went with the ASUS because it seemed they had a better track record of new boards working (based on newegg and other reviews). Also, IIRC they had a better warranty.

Live and learn I guess.

 

[larryccf]

Asus support in U.S is terrible to the point of legendary for at least a decade already, yet people are still buying their stuff and when Asrock has beaten them to the ground in mobos in terms of features/price. I don't get it.

I'm new to DIY computer building, at the age of 66 but 9 months back when i built this computer with an Asus Z97M-Plus mobo, i had a couple of issues, driver related - honestly, the US support center was a surprisingly good experience - both times i called in the issue was resolved within 30-40 minutes. I say surprisingly, as i only found negative comments re their support or service after i'd purchased the mobo.

knock on wood, hoping my experience stays the same

 

[Kwincy]

I had problems with two different ASUS laptops in the past, and it was always a pain to RMA them. On the first one, I had to tell them that they already received it and there was way too much back and forth with them about that. They also said that they "fixed" the problem only to ship me back the laptop with the same issue. With the second laptop, it took almost a month for them to fix my laptop. When I finally got it back, it was a different laptop with better specs, but they didn't tell me about it. I'll never buy another laptop from ASUS again, no matter how awesome they seem.

 

[bradly1101]

After having two Asus boards die prematurely on me, I've relied on Gigabyte and MSI with no more issues.

 

[Jimzz]

Yep had to RMA a video card to Asus, that was the last time I ever bought a asus product ever after that mess.

 

[Squeetard]

I've seen too many of these Asus RMA nightmare posts in the last few years. Won't touch them

 

[GrumpyMan]

Doesn't Asus own Asrock?