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G75VW-TH71 - RMAed in 24 hours, and the nightmare continues.

MattRidge
Level 7
I don't know if I am a fluke, or anyone else has had any issues as of yet with their laptop, but I have had a nightmare scenario attempting to get my laptop repaired.

On the 14th I received my G75VW-TH71.
On the 15th I found out the video card isn't working correctly, it won't play 1080 DPI videos because it's not supported. I call tech support up, and it turns out that my video card isn't working correctly.

I then get an RMA. USG92C4672, and then am told to ship it to Asus in CA via Fed Ex.

On the 19th I notice the laptop still hasn't been delivered, and the delivery date is "N/A" I call FedEx, long story short it was "lost" and then "found" out of box. More like stolen then when found out that there was no battery, or cord with it they returned it. They apologized and reimbursed Asus for S&H charges, and on the 21st the product is starting to be repaired.

On the 22nd I type in my RMA number and the RMA and my laptop serial, as well as my phone number, and all combinations in-between, and itseem not to be in the system any more. I call for tech support to find out what is going on, and this seems to be my second mistake.

For a US based company, I have never talked to anyone in the US as of yet for technical support. This and the fact that they refuse to help me actually find the status of the laptop is rather irksome, telling me it is in for repairs is like telling someone who has been shot in the head they have a hole there. I want to know what is being repaired, but I am continuously being told that they won't know nor will I till the repairs are done, which may take 10 to 14 days.

I just want my laptop back, hell now I just want a laptop.

Has anyone else had this issue? I'd love to talk to someone in the US, or hell Customer Relations, but it seems neither customer service, or Customer Relations exists, nor can the people named Chuck, Charlie, James, or Jeff from India seem to be able to move my phone call back to the states.

I know I am ranting, but I am sorry, this laptop was meant to be an early Christmas gift, now it looks like I won't be seeing this laptop till next year, I am really wondering if this is the kind of support that I should be expecting from Asus, or is this a fluke? Because for as much as I spent on this laptop I would of gotten a better turnaround time from Apple or Dell...

Apple is a max of 4 days, Dell is three to five if they have a tech go to your house, or a week if they have to take it... why is Asus 10 to 14 days? Is there something we don't know about? This may just be my last Asus product if I don't get a resolution soon.
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32 REPLIES 32

dstrakele
Level 14
PM cl-scott, the Customer Loyalty rep, on this forum (or email cl-scott@asus.com) with your RMA information and have him check it out for you.
G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

cl-scott
Level 12
I can give you some additional details via PM or email, and I know this isn't going to do you any good right now, but maybe someone else will see it. If you're still within the return period of the retailer the unit was bought from, you can take the unit back to them for an exchange. That would have been considerably faster.

And I'll just say Apple can do that sort of thing because the way they regularly and routinely abuse its business partners. For every smile and "how may I help you?" at an Apple retail store, there's probably 5 corresponding threats, unreasonable demands, and anti-competitive actions being taken on the back end customers never see. Before coming to Asus I worked as an Apple repair tech, so I have a lot of first hand experience with their antics. They have the entire system rigged to feed back into their retail stores at the expense of the small repair shops. I've also worked as a Dell repair tech, and have little negative to say about them. Just the usual that it's easy to fall into a bureaucratic black hole while trying to get an answer to a very simple question if you ask the wrong person. Not that different from any company of sufficient size.

dstrakele
Level 14
Scott still carries physical and mental scars from Apple abuse...He often awakes from nightmares screaming "Don't beat me, Steve! I didn't mean it when I said I prefer Samsung!"
G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

dstrakele wrote:
Scott still carries physical and mental scars from Apple abuse...


I probably do still have a couple of small physical scars from Apple units that cut me. I remember one rather nasty deep cut came from this EMI shielding they put on the 06 iMacs (the white plastic ones). It's glued to part of the case, and you have to pull it up to get at pretty much anything. It rips incredibly easily, and one time I went to go take out one of the screws holding in the LCD panel, and the EMI shield (also glued to the LCD panel) gave me a nasty deep paper cut.

As for mental... Let's just say I am VERY unhappy with Apple, and the rather arrogant holier-than-thou attitude of its management. They have some brilliant engineers, and the SPS/TSPS lot in their Austin, TX campus are a great bunch... When you get to management level however, it's a whole other story. This is just the tip of the ice berg really. If you run a small AASP, and you might in some way present even a modicum of competition to an Apple retail store, you will have your Apple minder land on you. They will harass you to no end about one specific thing, and expect you to turn your business completely upside down to address it. As soon as you upend things to please your Apple overlords, they will lose interest in that, and become absolutely fascinated with something else. AASPs also have to play by much more stringent rules if they want to get the full labor reimbursement for the repairs they manage to do in spite of the best efforts of their Apple minder. And so it will go until basically the customer gets so frustrated they go to an Apple store. Where quite probably someone working there has no idea how Apple treats smaller operations, and so says something to the effect of, "I don't know what their problem is, but we'll take care of you!"

The interview process for an Apple store is also interesting. It more closely resembles a cult initiation than a job interview, and I'm saying that in a purely clinical sense. There are plenty of accounts found with a simple Google search, so either there's a very massive and well coordinated campaign of misinformation going on, or the sheer number of nearly identical accounts are true.

But I digress. Don't mean to derail the OP's thread, so as soon as I get a PM or email from them, I'll be happy to work with them on this.

dstrakele
Level 14
I think you hit the nail on the head and that Apple's "arrogant holier-than-thou attitude of its management" will be its downfall. They currently appear to be milking the customer for only small improvements that barely keep pace with their competitor's technology.

I think you can stick a fork in 'em, they're done. Their customer's dependence on the Apple "ecosystem" will carry them for awhile, but they reached their Zenith this year. You may hear future news reports of some 65+ year olds passing away in line at the Apple Store, waiting for the iPhone 10, but the customers will grow weary and move on, with Apple becoming like Microsoft, a large retailer of technology products paying a small dividend. Not a bad place to be for a company, but far short of most folk's current expectations.
G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT

dstrakele wrote:
I think you hit the nail on the head and that Apple's "arrogant holier-than-thou attitude of its management" will be its downfall. They currently appear to be milking the customer for only small improvements that barely keep pace with their competitor's technology.

I think you can stick a fork in 'em, they're done. Their customer's dependence on the Apple "ecosystem" will carry them for awhile, but they reached their Zenith this year. You may hear future news reports of some 65+ year olds passing away in line at the Apple Store, waiting for the iPhone 10, but the customers will grow weary and move on, with Apple becoming like Microsoft, a large retailer of technology products paying a small dividend. Not a bad place to be for a company, but far short of most folk's current expectations.


I give Apple until 2020 to become not even a pale shadow of their former glory. For me, Tim Cook is the new Steve Ballmer. Jobs was a technology guy, he understood computers and associated products much the same way Bill Gates understood software having a programming background. Steve Ballmer was always the business guy, he was never the technology guy, and look at what has happened to Microsoft in the last decade. Tim Cook's big contribution to Apple was setting up their China manufacturing operations. When it comes to exploiting Chinese workers so we can have cheap electronics, Tim Cook may be a true genius, but he doesn't have the unique talents of Steve Jobs in recognizing potential markets and that obsessive nature. The whole Apple Maps incident is probably just going to be the first of many.

As you say, while Apple has been largely sitting on its laurels, the competition has been steadily improving their products to where I'd say something like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 are largely equivalent. The S4 or S5 will likely surpass even the iPhone 6. Apple always has been a company that has 1-2 absolutely brilliant ideas that are unquestionably years ahead of the competition. They then always try and milk those ideas for everything they can while they wait for the next flash of brilliance. I think a lot of those people will likely be jumping ship either on their own or forced out.

cl-scott wrote:
I give Apple until 2020 to become not even a pale shadow of their former glory. For me, Tim Cook is the new Steve Ballmer. Jobs was a technology guy, he understood computers and associated products much the same way Bill Gates understood software having a programming background. Steve Ballmer was always the business guy, he was never the technology guy, and look at what has happened to Microsoft in the last decade. Tim Cook's big contribution to Apple was setting up their China manufacturing operations. When it comes to exploiting Chinese workers so we can have cheap electronics, Tim Cook may be a true genius, but he doesn't have the unique talents of Steve Jobs in recognizing potential markets and that obsessive nature. The whole Apple Maps incident is probably just going to be the first of many.


Yeah I remember an interview from Bill Gates in the late 90s where he said he was looking for those technology guys who understood business models, that they're few and far between. Sadly it's the business guys who ascended the thrones... and sadly they're probably the ones who bring downfall.

Sorry to hear that OP, hopefully they'll be able to repair it quickly. I remember buying a laptop from BBY like 10 years ago with their warranty, after I sent it in for repair, took almost 2 months before I finally heard back about what they were doing with it.

Like Scott, I also worked for Apple. I worked as a Mac Genius, in the Burlington Mall, in Burlington, MA, so I know the turn around times, the dirty little secrets of Apple, and the way they run their empire. I never said that what they do to their suppliers is correct, but they do have a quick turn around time, and that although I was the ass end of it myself multiple times I do have to respect. We were trained to be the iPod Swap monkeys, the Abuse Boys of Apple, and the Bitches of the tech world, because of our name, and thus expected ego.

I can say though I did meet Steve Jobs when I was in Cupertino. He was as intimidating as everyone made him out to be. That being said, lets get back to the reality of the situation.

The general situation here is though that I bought the laptop through TigerDirect, and they themselves say when you purchase the warrantee through them that you should go through the company that the laptop is from first before going through them. I agree that next time I will go through TigerDirect to keep from going through the hell I am going through now, but should I really have to?

Asus was an amazing company at one time, I wouldn't buy a motherboard unless it was an Asus or Intel, but if you go through the BBB, you will find another story...

BBB - Asus

There is an alert there as well:

We have identified a pattern of complaints concerning customer service and service issues. Complaints processed by the BBB claim that 1) products sent to the company for repairs are still not working properly when returned to the consumer.
2) Customers calling the company are asked to call back or told they will receive a call back and in many cases don't.

On June 29, 2012 ASUS responded to the first issue by stating: We continuously enhance our repair service levels across the board, but in specific response to the repair quality concerns addressed in this letter we have strengthened core processes which may have been at the root of the matter and ASUS valued customers, with non-component systems products will benefit from the enhanced RMA process and instructions. To the second issue they state: Communication is paramount and at the core of ASUS service values. As a result we have reinforced our internal escalation path and closely monitor such situations. We are confident that we have thoroughly remedied the communication gap.


With that last bit, I have to strongly disagree...What I am running into here is a failure to communicate.

Let me give you a bit of my tech history...

I'm a Geek, a Nerd, and a tech Genius, I've been doing IT for Macs, PCs and Linux for over 20 years. Computers are my blood, software is my food, and geek talk is my amusement.

I've worked on every OS in the Mac and PC world, beta tested over 20 different OS's and teethed on the latest and greatest tech. I don't own a blog yet, I don't offer my services for free unless it's a challenge, and I love troubleshooting and repair.

I have worked for MIT, WIT, BC, BU, Mass Medical Society, Harvard Uni., I have worked for Apple, I have worked for CompUSA, Computer City, Circuit City, Computer Town, I have worked as a sub contractor for Geeks on Call, I have stumped the lead hiring Mac Genius (Colin Clover) with questions at my interview process.

So I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about tech wise, yet when I call Asus tech support I feel like I am talking to someone who shouldn't be allowed to talk on a phone for tech support. They are going by a script and get flustered every time you question them or deviate from their script.

I understand Asus may be fixing things, but throwing bodies at a situation and hoping it fixes things isn't the way things work any more. This type of attitude died during WWII, I would expect the same mentality for IT would of been upgraded as well when things were recorded as going bad even on the BBB website. So far I have to say, it doesn't seem to of phased Asus at all.

chrsplmr
Level 18
Scott .. how can he return it if doesnt have it and the repair center has no clue where it is or what happened to it ?? yikes !!!

Matt ... do you have the fedEx tracking number .. can you see when and who signed for it ..
tracking should be on the reciept ...
I have seen where 'someone' is issued a shipping label .. glues it on .. off it goes .. without
any tracking or verification from fedEx that they shipped it ...

stay calm .. if this can be sorted ... cl-will hook it up.c.