How bad is the Asus RMA? My personal review

[Watsyurdeal]

So in March I ended up frying my motherboard's voltage regulator, visibly there was no damage to it, but the board itself could not power on at all. So, I had to contact Asus fora replacement board, then begins the journey through Asus' dreaded RMA service. Are they really as bad as people think? Or do we only hear the bad stories, and never any of the good ones? Let's find out


So we start off with calling Asus Customer Service, I won't lie, the wait times were long, took me about 5 mins to get on the phone with someone. When I finally got through, I talked to representative, who we'll just call Richard, I'd rather not give the full name. He walked me through the board, made sure everything was plugged in and that there was no error on my end. When we came to the conclusion that the board simply will not power on, he told me I had two options, send it in for repair, or the advanced shipment option, where they send you a board and send them your old one. I was broke at the time so I opted to wait and try the advanced shipment when I had the money.

Fast forward a month and I'm ready to do the rma, so I had to make a new request, which the website is really buggy btw. Sometimes it'll give the rma #, sometimes it doesn't at all, and I even had issues getting ANY emails from Asus. The first time I did this with Richard, I had no problems, but the second time seemed awfully difficult. My only shot was to get a hold of them over the phone. When I finally did, I explained that we already tested the board before, and I wanted to do an advance shipment. 

It took me calling them three times of getting a rep on the phone, and explaining I never got my instructions for the advance shipment. Finally got the email from them, which sent me to a form that I had to fill out for the shipment, and gave me instructions of how to send back my motherboard. 

How this process works is simple, you fill out the form, and then it is charged to your credit card as collateral, then they send you the board. Once you get it, you send back your old one, and they'll refund your money, in my case it was 260. I actually got lucky, and got my money back before I even got the board, I imagine it was because it was my second attempt at an RMA. But I still got the board either way, expecting it to be refurbished or used. Nope, it was a brand spanking new board, the kind of new where you open and the scent is undeniable, like it's never been opened once. I sent back my old board, cause I'm a nice guy, and I came to the simple conclusion and the summary of my whole story.


Asus' RMA problems are not the people, but rather the system they use. It's chaos, and the reps, even as composed as they are, I could tell were stressed out because it's out of their control. Sometimes I get emails, sometimes I don't, half the time the website does not produce an RMA, so people will fill out more than once just to get a response. The whole thing needs work, it shouldn't be this hard from both ends. 

But overall, I still got the board in the end, which was nice since it was new and saved me 260 bucks. So the moral of the story here, be patient with Asus, DO NOT EMAIL THEM, CALL THEM. Get someone on the phone with you, particularly in the mornings where they are the least busy. It may take some time but eventually they will deliver. The real thing to keep in mind here is that the people and the service they provide is fine, but the system they use to communicate between you and them is borked. 


So, overall, if I had to rate them, definitely at least a B, or 4/5. Better than I expected, but still could be better. If I were you I'd get Micro Center's Warranty....just in case, because like I said, the system is borked.

[TheGamingBarrel]

@Darkman this has had the best experience with ASUS Support...

[CydiaDash]

-snip-

Thank you for finally revealing the truth I guess. Good review BTW!

[Guest]

One of the thing that bugs me the most is when people make one attempt, fail, and put the blame entirely on the company. If you've gone through all the contact options, and still got nowhere, then fair enough. But when people just email them and get no response and call the company every name under the sun, nah thanks. 

 

Calling is always the best option, although some companies have great online RMA services. 

[LancerBG]

I have had ok experiences however I have had way to many experiences, that's the issue. quality control with Asus seem to have taken a shit. 

[Altecice]

In the UK with the ASUS VIP support response is under 24 hours I have RMA'd two things to them in under a week turnaround. I guess ASUS support is dependent on where you live.

[79 Potatoes]

Huh? I never had to pay shipping in RMA

[Watsyurdeal]

Huh? I never had to pay shipping in RMA

 I only paid on my end, because they refunded me early on accident.

Basically I got a new maximus VII hero for 20 bucks  

[thekeemo]

Try out gigabytes heh heh

[Nomy]

It was a nice read, thank you for sharing.

I hope I never have to go through something like that though(knocks on the desk).

 

Some RMA stories are just horrible, can't imagine how it must be to be in such a situation.