I bought my G73JW on Sept 13, and the motherboard failed spectacularly on Oct 19. I shipped it to Asus for RMA and they checked it into their system on Nov 1. Here it is Dec 21 now, and I'm still waiting for a replacement mobo and GPU from Taiwan. It took me an entire month just to get confirmation that it was waiting for parts in the first place. The situation is frustrating, to say the least. They've had my laptop longer than I did. And Tony Kilburn makes a good point, which I posed to the Asus reps myself during a call:
"What if this was the only system I owned and needed it to do business? I shouldn't be forced to purchase another replacement system with money I don't have because of your terrible turnaround time."
Sure, they can't control how long it takes parts to arrive by boat from Taiwan. But they also need to take that into account when they advertise their 14-business-day turnaround time. Users need to know up front that they could be inconvenienced for months depending on their problem. It'd be great if Asus was up front about just long long it could take, but that wouldn't be good business sense on their part. If I knew if advance I might need to wait over 2 months to receive a repair back from a vendor, I'd very likely never buy their products. When people get their card serviced, at least they get loaners. Heck, even iPhone users get a temp phone if they need a battery replacement. Asus needs to do something like offer some kind of refund/credit option after a certain amount of time has gone by (if in warranty) or send out a loaner system at the least. Sure, it won't appease everyone or be the best option, but it's better than what we have now - just plain waiting.
1) Asus G73JW-A1 🙂
2) Samsung Series 7 Ultra
2) Toshiba Satellite T235D-S1360