Has ASUS quality and support plummeted?

brottman

Junior Member
Jan 26, 2011
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I've been a fan of Asus motherboards and laptops for over 20 years, and this is not the company that I remember. My last Asus laptop had barely been out of warranty when it fried it's motherboard. At the time, Asus was quoting me too high of a figure that made sense, so I reluctantly bought another Asus laptop because I was still a fan of the company, and I also bought one for my wife. We bought two ROG GL551-DS74 laptops because I needed one for work/travel, she needed one for architecture.

Her GL551-DS74 laptop began having issues starting with the Windows 10 1803 update. It refused to boot. We understand things happen, so we send it in for diagnostics. That was more than a month ago. Here is the timeline so far.

5/24/18 - Asus receives laptop for repair
5/30/18 - Asus sends invoice for over $600 dollars (motherboard), wife pays it immediately with credit card
2nd week of June - Wife calls support for status update and is told they will return her phone call within 24-48 hours. They never call back.
6/15/18 - Wife calls again for status. Again she is told they will call back in 24-48 hours. They never call back.
6/18/18 - Wife calls AGAIN. Told they will look into again, escalate it and call back 24-48 hours. They never call back.
6/20/18 - I call Asus, angrily, because they're giving my wife the run around. Finally I'm told its a parts issue, and that it should be sent out by the end of this week.
6/25/18 - I called Asus at again at my wife's request. I was basically told again that they had no interest in making this right by shipping something equivalent. It has now been 1 month.
6/27/18 - Asus called my wife, to tell her that they had no update. Each time, they promise they are reaching out to magical repair facility to request an expedite. They are using it as a scapegoat.

A few things are bothering me here. First is the price. It's a laptop board, so it's going to be more expensive, but $600 seems excessive. Be prepared for that if you buy a Asus laptop. Second, we still don't have a working laptop back, and it will undoubtedly be over a month in Asus's hands before we finally get it. Last, and most annoying, is the lack of customer service my wife experienced. She placed at least 3 phone calls to Asus over the course of the month trying to find out where the laptop is, only to be endlessly transferred, "escalated", and then falsely told they would call her back.

This is no longer the company that I remember when I was young and using their motherboards to build computers with.
 
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LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
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$600 bucks to purchase and install a new laptop mobo in a relatively old laptop is probably not excessive.
I can buy a modern new laptop for $600 though.
 

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
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Laptops are certainly more expensive and time-consuming to repair and get parts for; that's kind of what you sign up for when you buy them honestly. I am not a laptop advocate and I am not intending to defend ASUS in this instance either but it's not like they can promise anything or dedicate staff just for your individual end-user needs specifically. Not saying that's right, but that's how it is.

Also, when a company (or really anyone for that matter) tells you that they will call back you can basically void that statement. That's just kind of the world we live in. It's a bummer that if you don't hound and complain that nothing gets done but yea, we've all been there.
 
Feb 25, 2011
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The people doing the work are probably a subcontractor and not actually ASUS employees.

ASUS has the same cost pressures as anybody else, and is hiring from the same pool as everybody else. So there's no reason to expect better service from one company than another. You just get lucky sometimes.

Price doesn't seem outrageous.
 
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JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
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It Not a general issue with Asus per-ce

In the laptop world Very rarely pays to do a Medium and above repair for unit that is out of warranty.

Any repair or and Upgrade of part that are not part of the Upgrade design (Like memory, or Wireless card) is so expensive that in most cases it is better to buy a new Laptop.

It is No a matter of good or bad service, it is a matter of how the general Model work.

As a general example to the current model, when you buy a new laptop the price difference between one that comes with 128GB SSD to one that comes with 256GB is few hundred $$$.

In the real world when you buy SSD by itself from places like Amazon and new egg that difference can $30-$50.


:cool:
 
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XavierMace

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2013
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Price seems normal for motherboard replacement. I don't personally remember Asus's support ever being good, but maybe my memory is just failing me.
 
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Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,034
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Meh, I gave up on asus since their 101 android tablet. What a POS that was!
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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ASUS CSR quality has plummeted.

This is one of the reasons why i avoid them now.
Id rather honestly take things with Gigabyte which id say is marginally better, but they still get stuff done in RMA's vs ASUS which can pull you though a lot of doors before you even get noticed.

Also ive seen cases where ASUS has damaged people's RMA returns and then rejected it.
Like messing up pins, and then saying the board had pin damage, when the customer had pictures taken before send out.

This is why i always tell people when you do an RMA, ALWAYS take a picture of your PINS, and then of the board, and then print out the pictures and put them in the BOX saying return conditions.

I put ASUS maybe a tad bit higher then squaretrade which is also horrendous.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
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ASUS CSR quality has plummeted.

This is one of the reasons why i avoid them now.
Id rather honestly take things with Gigabyte which id say is marginally better, but they still get stuff done in RMA's vs ASUS which can pull you though a lot of doors before you even get noticed.

Also ive seen cases where ASUS has damaged people's RMA returns and then rejected it.
Like messing up pins, and then saying the board had pin damage, when the customer had pictures taken before send out.

This is why i always tell people when you do an RMA, ALWAYS take a picture of your PINS, and then of the board, and then print out the pictures and put them in the BOX saying return conditions.

I put ASUS maybe a tad bit higher then squaretrade which is also horrendous.

Exactly this, their support is a shattered shell of what it once was.
 

Cozarkian

Golden Member
Feb 2, 2012
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Price is about right for a laptop motherboard replacement. I had quotes for $568 ($540 part, warranty labor, $28 shipping) and $557 ($430 part $127 labor + shipping) on two separate occasions within the past 3 years (i7 cpu).

Don't forget your credit card typically provides an extended 1 year warranty that covers the cost of the material.

Oh, and the second time I went to a local repair shop and the guy said he couldnt even get the motherboard.

As for customer service - about 5-6 years ago iBuyPower was a nightmare that sounds a lot like ASUS, XoticPc service was great (although that is the laptop that broke twice within 2.5 years).
 

brottman

Junior Member
Jan 26, 2011
10
1
71
Several more phone calls have since been placed to Asus. They called my wife back today to say that they have no idea of the status of our laptop, or when it will be fixed. They have left us in limbo now for over a month. This is truly the worst customer service experience I have ever had with Asus. I don't see how I can ever buy another of their products again.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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i think for a laptop hp business (elitebook) and dell business (lattitude) has the best rma's.

you call them up, if you got the inhouse, a tech comes over, if not, they mail you a box to mail your laptop in with a label.

usually now if its a laptop, i will only go with those if its important.

If not, laptops for me usually last just beyond the RMA period before they break, so i usually service them myself.

Its not hard to service a laptop now.
Youtube has made things really convient with tear down video's, so you can tear the laptop down, and replace what needs to be replaced.

Unfortunate, its either going to be really small, like replacing the SSD / Li battery pack, or really big, like the entire motherboard.
But i have done serveral motherboard replacements on my brothers laptop who can not seem to take care of his to last.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,558
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Asus - worst support in the business but best quality you can buy. Was that way when I bought a laptop two years ago and a motherboard ten years ago. They will never change.
 
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