This turned out to be sort of long, but it's probably worth the read for some people. 
I had a P6T Deluxe V2 that went bad some time go.. It just stopped posting. I finally got around to filing for warranty service on April 2, ignorant at the time of the horrible experience, and complete waste of time, which lay in wait for me at the hands of Asus.
They received my board quickly, and interestingly marked a receipt date of 3 business days after it was actually delivered. About a week after the "receipt date", they shipped me a replacement.. When i got it, and opened the box, I was quite surprised to find that the replacement motherboard was dirty.. not just dusty from use, but filthy.. and had a serial ATA port completely broken off the board (with the connector/traces sticking up). This hadn't happened in shipping, as the anti-static bag was sealed and there was no sign of the connector in the bag or even in the box.. which, to me, suggests either serious negligence, if someone had actually inspected and tested the board, which they claim they do, or complete disregard for me as a customer and my right to an undamaged, functional board, if someone had actually inspected it, noticed it, and made a conscious decision to send it anyway.
So.. back on the phone with the Asus service department. They (of course) approved a replacement, after I had emailed them with a picture of the shoddy board that I had just received. The customer service rep. actually authorized cross shipping to me, which was nice, and applied for upgraded shipping. They contacted me after they had "secured" a replacement for me about a day later. I sent them the board I had, and... heard nothing of being cross-shipped a replacement. Contacting them again, after a couple days, I was told that the reason I hadn't been sent a board is that someone "probably messed up" and gave the board which had been secured for me to another customer. So, I think it was 7 or 8 business days after they received that board back that they finally did send another replacement, and they had ignored or denied the formal request for upgraded shipping even after I had spoken with 3 primary reps and 2 supervisors about my experience. On a side note, the primary reps were all nice, very polite, and understanding about the situation, and none of them was surprised that I had received a bad board back from RMA. One of them actually got into it with me (in a positive way), complaining about the lack of professionalism in their RMA department, at length, in part because he'd had to hear about it from so many dissatisfied customers. One of the supervisors was rude, the other I would describe as unsympathetic, and both dismissed my experience in an offhand way and refused to support the request for upgraded shipping, even after they had failed to cross ship (Their cross-shipping includes upgraded shipping service).
Finally, the day came!.. I had my second replacement board. This was obviously a different board, as it appeared to be in perfect shape, so I swallowed my discontent over the prior experience, and put my computer back together, assuming all would be well. Powered up, the fans whirred to life, but that was it.. no post, tested with 4 different brands of memory, 3 different video cards, two different power supplies, and no memory error beep when the slots were empty. I then went and tested all of my other primary hardware with an x58 Gigabyte board, as I could hardly believe that they would send another broken board, but it all checked out fine: It was another bad board (which had supposedly been tested for functionality prior to being sent, which I don't believe).
So.. back on the phone with the Asus service department. This time, I was to be "taken care of" by their 3rd RMA department. I spoke to one of their 3rd level support people, and while he understood the situation and projected a friendly demeanor with respect to resolving my issue, and basically confirmed my suspicion about a lack of competence and integrity in the first tier of RMA service during our conversation, he refused to authorize cross shipping or upgraded shipping. This time, the second bad replacement board would be going to a different place.. this one in California (My original, and the first bad replacement, had gone to Indiana).
The board was delivered to them on June 12, and I've been waiting patiently to finally receive a working motherboard. Finally, last Wednesday, June 20, 6 business days after the board had been delivered to them, I got an email from their RMA department: They claim that the board had gotten a dinged corner during shipping (They sent me a picture of it), and are refusing to honor the warranty on the board on that basis, stating that it makes the board irreparable, and offering to send me a working board for $213.50, and giving me a whole 2-day window in which to pay them before they send the damaged/nonfunctional board back to me.
Firstly, I think they should have noticed what they claim to be shipping damage before that much time had elapsed. Secondly, if the damage did occur during shipping as they claim, I would understand refusing warranty service... had this not been my third time sending a board to them to get a working one, and were the damage actually significant enough to prevent repair, which it does not appear to be; The corner is dinged, not even to an extent which would impede a mounting screw, and there isn't any damage to electronic components or traces.
I'm going to try to talk to their 3rd tier service again on Monday, if it isn't too late.. If that doesn't pay off, my tale is off to the BBB, whom I have never before contacted, and whatever relevant corporate mailing address(es) I can find.
I would like to say that the first-tier support people (I have probably spoken with 6-8 of them), while they weren't really able to do anything to help the situation, were all considerate, polite, and competent.. and no, I wasn't rude to anyone, but I did get steely with the two supervisors after they communicated a lack of interest in remedying the failures of their RMA department.
I am a computer technician/consultant, for a living, and I won't be recommending Asus hardware purchases, for the time being, since I consider viability of warranty service to be a factor when recommending expensive hardware. I now regret endorsing Asus, to my clients, as a preferred brand for component and system (laptop) purchases.
I had a P6T Deluxe V2 that went bad some time go.. It just stopped posting. I finally got around to filing for warranty service on April 2, ignorant at the time of the horrible experience, and complete waste of time, which lay in wait for me at the hands of Asus.
They received my board quickly, and interestingly marked a receipt date of 3 business days after it was actually delivered. About a week after the "receipt date", they shipped me a replacement.. When i got it, and opened the box, I was quite surprised to find that the replacement motherboard was dirty.. not just dusty from use, but filthy.. and had a serial ATA port completely broken off the board (with the connector/traces sticking up). This hadn't happened in shipping, as the anti-static bag was sealed and there was no sign of the connector in the bag or even in the box.. which, to me, suggests either serious negligence, if someone had actually inspected and tested the board, which they claim they do, or complete disregard for me as a customer and my right to an undamaged, functional board, if someone had actually inspected it, noticed it, and made a conscious decision to send it anyway.
So.. back on the phone with the Asus service department. They (of course) approved a replacement, after I had emailed them with a picture of the shoddy board that I had just received. The customer service rep. actually authorized cross shipping to me, which was nice, and applied for upgraded shipping. They contacted me after they had "secured" a replacement for me about a day later. I sent them the board I had, and... heard nothing of being cross-shipped a replacement. Contacting them again, after a couple days, I was told that the reason I hadn't been sent a board is that someone "probably messed up" and gave the board which had been secured for me to another customer. So, I think it was 7 or 8 business days after they received that board back that they finally did send another replacement, and they had ignored or denied the formal request for upgraded shipping even after I had spoken with 3 primary reps and 2 supervisors about my experience. On a side note, the primary reps were all nice, very polite, and understanding about the situation, and none of them was surprised that I had received a bad board back from RMA. One of them actually got into it with me (in a positive way), complaining about the lack of professionalism in their RMA department, at length, in part because he'd had to hear about it from so many dissatisfied customers. One of the supervisors was rude, the other I would describe as unsympathetic, and both dismissed my experience in an offhand way and refused to support the request for upgraded shipping, even after they had failed to cross ship (Their cross-shipping includes upgraded shipping service).
Finally, the day came!.. I had my second replacement board. This was obviously a different board, as it appeared to be in perfect shape, so I swallowed my discontent over the prior experience, and put my computer back together, assuming all would be well. Powered up, the fans whirred to life, but that was it.. no post, tested with 4 different brands of memory, 3 different video cards, two different power supplies, and no memory error beep when the slots were empty. I then went and tested all of my other primary hardware with an x58 Gigabyte board, as I could hardly believe that they would send another broken board, but it all checked out fine: It was another bad board (which had supposedly been tested for functionality prior to being sent, which I don't believe).
So.. back on the phone with the Asus service department. This time, I was to be "taken care of" by their 3rd RMA department. I spoke to one of their 3rd level support people, and while he understood the situation and projected a friendly demeanor with respect to resolving my issue, and basically confirmed my suspicion about a lack of competence and integrity in the first tier of RMA service during our conversation, he refused to authorize cross shipping or upgraded shipping. This time, the second bad replacement board would be going to a different place.. this one in California (My original, and the first bad replacement, had gone to Indiana).
The board was delivered to them on June 12, and I've been waiting patiently to finally receive a working motherboard. Finally, last Wednesday, June 20, 6 business days after the board had been delivered to them, I got an email from their RMA department: They claim that the board had gotten a dinged corner during shipping (They sent me a picture of it), and are refusing to honor the warranty on the board on that basis, stating that it makes the board irreparable, and offering to send me a working board for $213.50, and giving me a whole 2-day window in which to pay them before they send the damaged/nonfunctional board back to me.
Firstly, I think they should have noticed what they claim to be shipping damage before that much time had elapsed. Secondly, if the damage did occur during shipping as they claim, I would understand refusing warranty service... had this not been my third time sending a board to them to get a working one, and were the damage actually significant enough to prevent repair, which it does not appear to be; The corner is dinged, not even to an extent which would impede a mounting screw, and there isn't any damage to electronic components or traces.
I'm going to try to talk to their 3rd tier service again on Monday, if it isn't too late.. If that doesn't pay off, my tale is off to the BBB, whom I have never before contacted, and whatever relevant corporate mailing address(es) I can find.
I would like to say that the first-tier support people (I have probably spoken with 6-8 of them), while they weren't really able to do anything to help the situation, were all considerate, polite, and competent.. and no, I wasn't rude to anyone, but I did get steely with the two supervisors after they communicated a lack of interest in remedying the failures of their RMA department.
I am a computer technician/consultant, for a living, and I won't be recommending Asus hardware purchases, for the time being, since I consider viability of warranty service to be a factor when recommending expensive hardware. I now regret endorsing Asus, to my clients, as a preferred brand for component and system (laptop) purchases.
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