I've had it up to here with Asus...never again

[Lash444]

I cannot believe what I have gone through with the alleged "best" motherboard manufacturer on the planet....Asus. Purchased the A7v333 on 8/29/02. Installed it, read all documentation, talked to tech support, and still received system failed cpu test. Sent the board in as RMA after reading countless articles, including placing on cardboard box. Received the new one, hooked it all up, same damn problem. Send it to them again but make the mistake of sending it first class instead of priority like the first time. Called 5 days later...they have not received it yet....called 7 days later...have not received it yet...finally after 13 days I said to myself I would buy a new one if it doesnt arrive on Monday. Wish I knew what day it actually arrived at the dock. They finally call and say its in, and agree that they will ship it out 2nd day UPS as they do with all people who RMA it twice. Call today to find out what my tracking # is....go online... and sure enough they sent it UPS ground and it wont be here for another 5 days. Called to see what they could do...nothing!
During all of this I have been told I would receive a call back from tech support numerous times and never actually did. They have 2 guys working there all day and how many people probably have questions??? That is absolutely ludicrous. My only warning to you guys is to never buy an A7v333 and watch out when buying an Asus board...there tech support sucks.
I am a lab technician for a major auto parts manufacturer in their software labs. I have never in all my life had as big of a hassle as I have had with this company. I honestly will never buy Asus again for as long as I live. Almost 2 months will go by before I get this board up and running... I know I will have plenty of oppurtunities in the future to vindicate myself by warning others of my experience... Any company I am a part of will hear about my experience....start thinking about your customers you corporate big wigs...

 

[geekender]

Don't rebuke one manufacturer because of anecdotal evidence. Asus is by far one of the best out there. However, if you are dead set against them, go with another manufacturer like MSI, ABIT, or Epox.

 

[Soulkeeper]

maybe your cpu is "failed"
heh

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: geekender
Don't rebuke one manufacturer because of anecdotal evidence.

Uh. This isn't anecdotal. This was first hand. A bad experience is enough to warrant saying you'll never buy from a company again. That's why customer service is so important.

 

[Tab]

I am a lab technician for a major auto parts manufacturer in their software labs.

This is dealing with hardware, not software.

maybe your cpu is "failed"

Thats it problely

 

[Lash444]

Last I checked software labs still required computers to run on... As for the cpu's being damaged...they wouldnt cross-ship a new board until they diagnosed my boards as having problems...and they diagnosed both of mine as clinically being dead. Besides, I tried 2 different processors...2 different power supplies, both times. I went through every forum I could find about this...and believe me I tried a lot of things including setting jumpers (yes I did that properly...I can read), and taking the product out of the case. Their customer support gave me advice on what to try, but I had no luck.

Don't rebuke one manufacturer because of anecdotal evidence.

Its not like the product was bad...if the quality of service had been A+ then I could not complain. I gave them more than enough leeway throughout this whole matter. Ive had parts go bad before, and some people are more than willing to help out. However, there service was one of the worst that I have ever experienced. I did not receive call backs, and I was promised one thing and then given another. People knock Abit, but they were a lot faster at return times on RMA's and their products worked everytime the first time. I am especially sickened by their promise of 2nd day UPS. I am thinking of just selling the thing for 70 dollars and losing half my investment + shipping so I dont have to worry about RMA'ing it again to these guys.

 

[RanDum72]

However, there service was one of the worst that I have ever experienced. I did not receive call backs, and I was promised one thing and then given another. People knock Abit, but they were a lot faster at return times on RMA's and their products worked everytime the first time

Abit boards worked everytime the first time? The only Abit board I had that worked the 'first' time was the KG7 and some people here would say that theirs didn't work in their first outing. And how many mobo makers would actually give you a call back? ECS won't even answer e-mails, MSI would have you go through with the retailer rather than them, Intel even says wait up to a month for replacement, etc...I know you are frustrated but this is becoming norm rather than the exception with the present state of tech companies. I have dealt with tech companies from Linksys, MSI, Belkin, Asus, Maxtor, IBM, etc...and each one has taught me to be patient. Even if you buy another brand mobo, one year from now its going to be out of warranty but Asus will still be (they have three-year warranties, Intel also has three-year warranties).
BTW, what else did you test besides the CPU and PSU? Memory?

 

[jlee]

I had an Abit BF6 a while back..might still have it somewhere. It died after eight months, and Abit wanted a $25 "shipping and handling" fee for an RMA..I bought an Asus board..that was a little over a year ago. Since then I've used Iwill and Shuttle..had two Shuttle boards die (used AK31 - ran for a while..brand new AK32L, just got a RMA# from newegg). I have gone back to Asus..

 

[mechBgon]

If there is a company that truly is supportive of the end user, I'd like to know which one. My gut feeling is that none of them are really what I'd call fantastic. I've RMA'ed two Asus boards in the past year (bad BIOS flashes on both) and both times it did take a couple weeks for them to get the replacements to me. But if I were counting on them being back any sooner, then I should just have "FOOL!" tatooed on my forehead... that's not the type of thing that should be counted on happening in a particular timeframe, and I have a "service-loaner" computer for those situations.

Presently my work fleet has 17 Asus-based systems (edit: actually, 17 added this year; we also have a fair number of CUV4X's), partly because they offer a three-year warranty and partly because they make exactly what I happen to want.

 

[KF]

Thanks for the details Lash444. Your RMA experience is probably representative. Although ASUS has a great reputation for mobos, I don't know that they have anything special about their RMAs. From reading these things over the years, it seems this is about what to expect for a mobo manufacturer that is "good". They screw up a frequently. It just shows you frustrating normal can be. That fast shipping on the second RMA is a good policy to improve customer relations. It was turned negative by somebody screwing up. Having people fail on promises is unfortunately common. The guy that does the promising is not the same guy who does the job.

To cut prices on the front end, manufacturers cut cost where it doesn't show. One of them is RMAs. Most people don't have to return their mobos.

 

[Jazwana]

hello everyone first time posting at anandtech...
Lash, I tried last night to put together an A7v333 and got exactly the same symptoms you had...
Currently RMA'ing it back to newegg.com and we'll see how the second one works.
a7v333 w/RAID
1600+ xp (oem)
400 watt ps
gf4 ti4200 (works great in my old rig!)
256mb ram
80gb HD
etc etc.

 

[Lash444]

You did go through all the steps right? First and foremost is putting it on a cardboard box outside of the case. If it still gives you that error...you should call

 

[mmesker]

Hmm, my A7V333 works great.

*shrugs*

 

[Looney1a]

My sister, my friend and myself all have gigabyte boards, not a problem

Gigabyte tech all the way for me!

Looney

 

[Jazwana]

Yeah, I called up ASUS tech and ran through all their tests..actually, it got worse, heh. Originally I got no video and the vocalPOST message 'System failed CPU test.' When I took it out of the box and just plugged in the video and sound, I still got no video, and no sound each time i tried. The only thing I didn't try, because they didn't ask me to and I didn't think of it at the time was reset the CMOS.

Oh well, i'm not going to lose sleep over it, it's already in the mail.