LMG Sponsor Complaints

[Sveeno]

2 hours ago, Modred189 said:

Mine, and similar services like PrivacyBee and PrivacyHawk are scams, and LTT should consider dropping them as a sponsor and here’s why:

 

Since the passing of certain recent laws (thinking CCPA, CPRA in California plus laws in Colorado, Virginia, Utah, Iowa and Connecticut, plus GDPR in the EU), consumers have been provided certain privacy rights. These include the rights to ask that their data be deleted, that they get a copy of their data, that their data be corrected, among others. 
 

This is good. The dolphins would agree.

 

However, receiving, processing and responding to these requests was a new thing for many companies. While early on, many companies did use email, essentially no company of any size does anymore. Why? In addition to the rights, these new laws imposed significant records keeping requirements related to these requests. And for that, e-mail sucks.  So dose using email for getting these requests to the right teams for processing.

 

As a result, more modern solutions have been implemented that allow for automated processing, workflow management, and better records keeping. No company of any meaningful size uses email. I’m the primary privacy attorney for a $25b US company, and we have not used email since late 2019. And we are NOT a tech company (we average about 250 requests a year).

 

However, these privacy companies are a scam. They KNOW no one uses email. But they charge their customers a LOT of money to do VERY little. Essentially, you provide them with access to your email account (!!!) and they blast every commercial domain they see with automated requests containing your email address. No information that is REQUIRED BY LAW to verify that the person making the request is actually who they say they are. WORSE, these companies are not the “agents” modern privacy law allows to submit requests on others’ behalf.

 

This means that if my team receives a request from, say, PrivacyBee, for Johnsmith@vroogle.com, my team will have no context for where in our business this person’s data may reside if it does, whether we HAVE to retain their data under some other law, what the user’s name is or if they are actually the ones submitting the request (again, a determination required BY LAW for each request) AND even if all that were provided, we are not permitted to process those requests because of how the law was written.

 

these companies use scare tactics to lure gullible people into spending a lot of money (PrivacyBee is $200/year, PrivacyHawk is $80) and all of these companies have corporate facing applications that they promise will help your team process requests from consumers using their products (and of course, not their competition). It’s extortion and is a clear conflict.

 

As a consumer it is worse. While you pay all that money, the majority of company interactions are not automated. Instead, you will get a bunch of emails from these companies directing you to resubmityour request using their online portals OR asking for additional information sufficient to process the request. You could have done that yourself!

 

So, please reconsider this sponsorship. It’s slimy and gross from multiple perspectives.

 

Hey there!

 

Thanks for bringing this up. While I can't speak for PrivacyBee or PrivacyHawk, Mine does not charge anything for their service, which you can read here in their TOS. If Mine ends up going the paid route, then I will have a discussion with our team and theirs on what the future of sponsoring LTT or other channels look like.

 

Mine is also very transparent in how they connect to your email accounts and outlines what they do on their transparency page. At the end of the day, it is up to the individual on whether or not they want to use services like these.

 

I do appreciate your concerns and thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

 

Cheers,

[Modred189]

2 hours ago, Sveeno said:

Hey there!

 

Thanks for bringing this up. While I can't speak for PrivacyBee or PrivacyHawk, Mine does not charge anything for their service, which you can read here in their TOS. If Mine ends up going the paid route, then I will have a discussion with our team and theirs on what the future of sponsoring LTT or other channels look like.

 

Mine is also very transparent in how they connect to your email accounts and outlines what they do on their transparency page. At the end of the day, it is up to the individual on whether or not they want to use services like these.

 

I do appreciate your concerns and thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

 

Cheers,

Thanks, and happy to help. I lurk enough, but still love the community. I'm just sensitive to companies like Mine because they may claim to help individuals (they can't under the law) but extort companies like mine.

 

But I respect your position. Your house, your rules!

[Rufus The Doofus]

On 1/23/2023 at 2:17 PM, Tyler_Hardware said:

Any updates on this?

Back in late November it was reported that Tony Norman was stepping down as CEO of IFI and a replacement would be announced by the end of the year, but that's not happened yet.  In addition, there have been allegations of even worse behavior in the past few days.  IFI's approach to the controversy seems to be to not say anything and think that will make it go away, so I'm not surprised that they aren't responding to your inquiries.

Hey ltt staff, I hate to beat a dead horse, but I thought it was important to check in on this. IFI has yet to instate a new CEO, and seems to be business as usual (not a good thing). There is more information around page 8-9 if I recall correctly, but to make the situation more obvious, I'll provide the basics. Here are two older documents that provide time-lines to what has happened. These were both created by members of the Ed robotics community. The first one is not as updated, but cites the specific ChiefDelphi posts. 

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hwZCwTsgHmlYKkfpz2QKe7XarvMkv0xfsSJnxSVxsHc/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

2. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-DAAklOhLv8wm_0i78bllMFh_bfUkLAd9SZAX1efsVY/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Oh, and to clarify what this is about, rack solutions is a subsidiary of IFI.

 

Thank you for reading, Rufus

[MichaelDR]

SeanLMG said LTT would stop working with Volta a while ago...  But now LTT is accepting sponsorships from them again?

 

I guess consider this a continuation of the previous thread.

So do their cables now work?  Do they REALLY work?  Do they actually deliver the products you order?  Am I getting my $20 back that they still owe me?

[Shahrad]

12 hours ago, MichaelDR said:

SeanLMG said LTT would stop working with Volta a while ago...  But now LTT is accepting sponsorships from them again?

 

I guess consider this a continuation of the previous thread.

So do their cables now work?  Do they REALLY work?  Do they actually deliver the products you order?  Am I getting my $20 back that they still owe me?

Hi Michael!

Thanks for your comment. I know that in the past we stopped working with Volta because of the fulfillment issues they were having. When they reached out to us earlier this year regarding sponsorships, they seemed to have taken care of the past issues with fulfillment. I have reached out to them for more comments on these issues.

 

I've also reached out to them with your specific case of the cables not working and the experience you had dealing with their support team

For now I've put their upcoming spots on hold until we clear up these concerns. I'll keep you posted when I hear back from them!

[MichaelDR]

21 hours ago, Shahrad said:

Hi Michael!

Thanks for your comment. I know that in the past we stopped working with Volta because of the fulfillment issues they were having. When they reached out to us earlier this year regarding sponsorships, they seemed to have taken care of the past issues with fulfillment. I have reached out to them for more comments on these issues.

 

I've also reached out to them with your specific case of the cables not working and the experience you had dealing with their support team

For now I've put their upcoming spots on hold until we clear up these concerns. I'll keep you posted when I hear back from them!

Their CEO reached out to me and reimbursed me the $18.25 I paid in shipping the defective cables back, which their warranty said I didn't have to do (Returning the products was only required if the customer just changed their mind; defects just required a photo/video).

500+ days is a long time to wait for a refund...  But better late than never.

I'm never buying from Volta again, but at least they finally made it right.

Honestly Volta aside, I don't think LTT should be sponsoring magnetic cables, as they're a serious threat to consumer electronics, from what I've read recently.

But GAN chargers are fine.  If they're just sponsoring GAN chargers, that's not a risky product.

 

It was really awesome of you, Shahrad, to reach out to them for me; I had mostly given up ever getting reimbursed at this point.

Thank you.

 

[Shahrad]

 

On 4/5/2023 at 10:08 PM, MichaelDR said:

SeanLMG said LTT would stop working with Volta a while ago...  But now LTT is accepting sponsorships from them again?

 

I guess consider this a continuation of the previous thread.

So do their cables now work?  Do they REALLY work?  Do they actually deliver the products you order?  Am I getting my $20 back that they still owe me?

2 hours ago, MichaelDR said:

Their CEO reached out to me and reimbursed me the $18.25 I paid in shipping the defective cables back, which their warranty said I didn't have to do (Returning the products was only required if the customer just changed their mind; defects just required a photo/video).

500+ days is a long time to wait for a refund...  But better late than never.

I'm never buying from Volta again, but at least they finally made it right.

Honestly Volta aside, I don't think LTT should be sponsoring magnetic cables, as they're a serious threat to consumer electronics, from what I've read recently.

But GAN chargers are fine.  If they're just sponsoring GAN chargers, that's not a risky product.

 

It was really awesome of you, Shahrad, to reach out to them for me; I had mostly given up ever getting reimbursed at this point.

Thank you.

 

Hey!

 

I'm glad my contact reached out and took care of your issue.

 

They have also acknowledged the issues they were having with the Giga charger launch and how they have worked to resolve them moving forward. They laid out their solutions to all of the points that were brought up as follows. This is a direct quote from our contact:

 

Quote

 

Our Solutions: 
1)We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, which we will extend to 60 days soon to give our customers a rest of mind when purchasing our product. 

 

I (personally) do not see why anyone should sell any product that their customers cannot use confidently for six months. We believe in the quality of our products; hence we offer a lifetime warranty and 30 days money-back guarantee. 

2) With the cable he received, debris must have caused the cable not to charge. A small piece of dirt must have covered one of the pins in the cable. That was why the cable lit up but didn't charge. We have put a lot of things in place to help our customers navigate these issues in the future. Educational videos will be posted regularly, showing how customers can troubleshoot problems with our products. Below is an example of one of the videos: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Din63X6WDBo

 

3) Our new website was developed with our customers in mind. Our new website features a sleek and modern design that showcases our products in a clean and easy-to-understand manner. 

We have also updated our product descriptions to provide our customers with more detailed information about our cables' features and benefits, making it easier for them to make an informed decision.

 

In addition to our improved product pages, we have also introduced a new pop up comparison tool that allows you to compare our cables side-by-side, giving you a better idea of the differences between our products and helping you make the best choice for your needs.

 

4) We have partnered with Borderless360 to speed up the timeline of our fulfilment. With B360, we now have fulfilment hubs across the USA, UK, and Australia, and we will have access to their Europe, HK, Canada and Singapore warehouses in June. With this partnership will be able to offer same or next-day delivery. 

 

5) We have also updated our product packaging from round fiber containers to eco-friendly paper packaging to provide our customers with adequate information about our products. This will also improve our logistics significantly because all products will be repacked and shipped directly to fulfilment warehouses from our manufacturers.

 

 

They asked us to put their sponsor spots on hold until June so they have time to implement all of the solutions mentioned above.

 

Please feel free to reach out to us with any issues moving forward. They said that they will do their best to address all concerns and they would prefer to spend their time and resources to make their existing customers happy than to put resources towards getting new customers.

[MichaelDR]

2 hours ago, Shahrad said:

 

2) With the cable he received, debris must have caused the cable not to charge.

 

Oh man, the dreaded Invisble Dust!

• It strikes without warning.
• It is immune to alcohol wipes or compressed air.
• It attacks RIGHT AFTER YOU OPEN THE PRODUCT!
• No matter how clean the connector is, or how many tips you try, they're all covered in unremoveable...

INVISIBLE DUST

 

Rest assured, our heavily marked up drop-shipped generic AliExpress magnetic non-standard cables are never defective.

The only thing defective.

Is your own eyes.

[Rufus The Doofus]

On 4/5/2023 at 9:24 PM, Rufus The Doofus said:

Hey ltt staff, I hate to beat a dead horse, but I thought it was important to check in on this. IFI has yet to instate a new CEO, and seems to be business as usual (not a good thing). There is more information around page 8-9 if I recall correctly, but to make the situation more obvious, I'll provide the basics. Here are two older documents that provide time-lines to what has happened. These were both created by members of the Ed robotics community. The first one is not as updated, but cites the specific ChiefDelphi posts. 

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hwZCwTsgHmlYKkfpz2QKe7XarvMkv0xfsSJnxSVxsHc/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

2. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-DAAklOhLv8wm_0i78bllMFh_bfUkLAd9SZAX1efsVY/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Oh, and to clarify what this is about, rack solutions is a subsidiary of IFI.

 

Thank you for reading, Rufus

Maybe I wasn't clear enough that I was asking a question. Any update on communication with RackSolutions? I know that Sveeno said it was being looked into around 2 months ago I think, but there's seemingly no change. If you would like further information on why a majority of the informed members of the educational/competition robotics community is boycotting RackSolutions' parent company (IFI) I've cited some of that in the message that I'm quoting.

(again, LTT branding is still being used on the front page of the RackSolutions website, hence the complaint)

 

It would be greatly appreciated it if you guys would look into this, Rufus

[Sveeno]

13 hours ago, Rufus The Doofus said:

Maybe I wasn't clear enough that I was asking a question. Any update on communication with RackSolutions? I know that Sveeno said it was being looked into around 2 months ago I think, but there's seemingly no change. If you would like further information on why a majority of the informed members of the educational/competition robotics community is boycotting RackSolutions' parent company (IFI) I've cited some of that in the message that I'm quoting.

(again, LTT branding is still being used on the front page of the RackSolutions website, hence the complaint)

 

It would be greatly appreciated it if you guys would look into this, Rufus

Hey Rufus,

 

Thanks for commenting again about this. Unfortunately, the company never got back to us. Every email we send we do not get a response. In this scenario, there isn't much we can do if the company in question is ignoring our emails.

 

Thanks,

[Nex Carter]

Hey LMG Staff,
as Keychron was featured in last WAN show i wanted to put some more light on this:

 

As it is also your supplier i would be interested in your thoughts.

If this is not the right thread for a complaint about them please just ignore this or simply delete it (i don't mind. Maybe a small message that i was not in the right thread).

 

i Just noticed this thread here after i already wrote down the whole story in the other section of the forum.

Thanks for having me. Keep up the good work.

[Genzong]

The Ballad Of Asus

 

An In Depth Look At The Failure of, Total Lack of Care About Employee Security & Safety, Attempt to Scam Me, Attempts at ripping me off, & Overall Lack of Customer Service

 

This all started when I began an RMA process for an Asus ProArt Z690 CREATOR motherboard. On February 27th my computer began doing some funky stuff. On Feb. 28th the motherboard died. I tried multiple combinations of RAM, CPU, SSDs, NVMes, GPUs, etc. etc. etc. Took my hardware to a local shop and they used my hardware on their test bench, Booted right to bios and then after that it booted right into windows. Cool. They tried another test bench they have which has their own hardware with my motherboard. Same issue. Failure to boot. Gets to DRAM check and reboot loop. 

My Components: 
4 P41 Platinum NVMes
Asus TUF 3090 Ti
128GB Kingston Fury DDR5 6000MT/s

Nvidia A100 80GB

80+ Platinum 1600W EVGA PSU

 

I called Asus and started an RMA procedure. After my motherboard arrived in their warehouse it took approximately 4 days to even get an update saying that they had received it and when I called within those 4 days they tried telling me on the phone,
"Regardless of what the tracking number says all packages are individually taken off the truck and scanned before entering our warehouse. The mail carrier, FedEx, just marks it as delivered by the truck load so it's possible that even though it was marked as delivered we never received it and thus you need to open a claim with FedEx. As outlined in the shipping instructions Asus is not responsible for any lost or stolen packages." 

Eventually, they found the package alleging it had "fallen between the conveyer belt and a wall." Cool! no worries they got it. I'm told that now they found it they will need up to 10 business days excluding weekends and holidays to repair it, test it, and have it sent back to me. Cool. No Problem. Two days later I get an email stating something along the lines of "blah blah blah. Covid. Blah Blah Blah. Lockdowns and shipping restrictions around the globe are affecting out supply chain. Blah Blah Please allow up to 5 additional weeks excluding weekends and holidays so we can get parts and fix your motherboard."  

1. There was no lockdowns affecting anything anymore. 
2. Shipping has returned to normal. 
3. Prices for PC Components started going up insanely overnight and continue to get more and more expensive even to this day. When I bought the motherboard brand new it was $409.99US as of writing this if you can even find it in stock the average price for NIB(New In Box) is around $530.99US.

4. I had already been told by a "tier 2 customer support expert" that it would quote "take no longer than 10 business days to fix and have it shipped back to me as since due to what happened and the failure on their part it would be rushed and "given priority." 
 

So I do what any irate customer would do. I call them up and raise hell about being told one thing and then another and knowing what the market was doing I was offered a "buyout" where Asus pays me what I paid for the motherboard including tax and shipping & handling. I refused this and instead quoted local and federal laws(Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act & Virginia Consumer Act) and how a time frame was provided and thus needs to be met. 

The following day I get another email, "You're m,o0therboard has been fixed, tested, and shipped back out to you. Here's the tracker # thanks for choosing asus blah blah blah"

Motherboard arrives. I open it up and go to start tossing components on it and I notice Asus has ripped off the thermal pads for the NVMes. Okay.. No problem the repair tech probably though it was something I added rather than something that comes with the motherboard. Plus, in all fairness they do very clearly state any user things attached can and will be thrown away in bright red letters in the PDF they email for the RMA process to get started. No problem, just give em a call and have them overnight ship me replacements. While on hold waiting for an agent to pick up the phone I open the CPU latch and see there are bent pins. Now I'm pissed. There was no bent pins before I sent the motherboard in. Now there is. Not only that but thermal pads for the NVMes have been removed. 

While waiting on hold I think about it. I quoted state and federal law that holds them liable for things their agents say whether they mean to or not. 100,000,000% this is intentional damage by the RMA Facility. They stated they didn't have parts to fix my motherboard. Why was it sent back to me the day after I get an email saying they need 5 weeks to get a new shipment of parts. FINALLY, the agent answers the phone. 

I explain what has happened and ask to speak to a manager and/or senior support agent. I get transferred to a "Tier 3 Senior Customer Support Agent." I then explain the situation thus far, voice my concerns over how this seems very intentionally done. They request photos of the shipping box, motherboard, and anything wrong with it which I email them over and the agent sees them while still on the phone. After getting the photos the agent grumbles and makes a comment under their breath which I was only able to make out " Unintelligible this is the 3rd one Unintelligibe Same pins are bent as the others." I then am asked if I could be put on hold and that "Regardless of what happened or who damaged it, Asus is willing to cover the shipping cost and repair cost to fix the motherboard again. I reject this offer because for one Asus is legally required to cover shipping cost for in warranty claims by law and that Asus just basically admitted that someone in the warehouse is purposely damaging stuff. Also informing her that I heard the agent saying that something about 3rd one and same bent pins and that because of this I want a NIB replacement. The agent becomes flustered thinking that she had put me on hold but did not. She then says that she needs to talk to her supervisor. She comes back from hold and says that her supervisor is busy at the moment and will call me within the next 48 business hours.

On the 3rd day I call Asus again. I am told that my case has been transferred to "Tier 4 Senior Management Customer Support and Relations" and as such no Asus agent is allowed to transfer me, discuss the status of my case, nor are they at liberty to even add notes to my case number as it could put their jobs at risk. I'm told that someone is supposed to be contacting me within 48 buisiness hours of the case being elevated and that "each non holiday week day is treated as an 8 business hour period. This was a Tuesday at this point. Okay, whatever I get it. Senior management can be a nightmare and no one under them dares to try and go over their heads. Whatever I'll just wait to full "48 Business Hours."

Day 16. A Friday. No call. No email. Nothing. At this point I'm furious. Support Agents say that my case says someone is supposed to be contacting me. They claim they cannot discuss my case with me at all. Furious, I go to BingChat and ask it for some stuff so I can bitch, whine, and complain on every social media Asus is part of, which leads me down a rabbit hole where now I find stuff that list employee personal information. Being that no one will contact me I decide send out a massive multi text text message to 100 Asus senior level employees. Within minutes I am called by the person handling my case. They demand to know how I was able to contact employees directly and they then threaten to cancel my warranty for the motherboard and warranties for all other Asus products registered to my Asus account if I don't comply. Taken aback b this threat and demand, I quote the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act and The Virginia Consumer Protection Act which makes that outright illegal to even consider canceling my warranties like that and inform Asus that if they want to try that is be prepared to take them to court.

I explain everything that has happened thus far. I also give the person a bit of info on how I did that and inform them that from the data set I found for sale without telling them the website what all the data has or anything. On this matter I make clear that I want to speak with Asus' Data Protection Team and/or Asus' Legal team because the data leads to irate customewrs being able to find employees' children and where they go to school. As I'm explaining that since Asus' purposely and had admitted that someone  in the warehouse damaged my motherboard the only acceptable recourse now is a NIB Replacement. I explain that I use a NVidia A100 in the machine and since they showed their hand already and they cannot 100% promise NIB advertised speeds under applicable laws a NIB or Buyout must be offered and the customer has the legal right for any reason to refuse one for any reason and if they do then the company is required to honor the other option since two instead of one option was offered.

The agent says they need to talk with their boss and the legal team to see if these laws apply to Asus or not and that within 24 hours not business hours I'll be getting back in touch with you on this case." The following morning, like 14 hours later, I get an email followed by a phone call. They claim that California state laws allows them to choose themselves which solution of the offered ones is followed through with and that because of this they are only willing to offer a buyout and a "$25 coupon code good on New Egg for Asus Products." I once again quote the Virginia Consumer Protection Act and inform them that I am well enough aware of the law and that due to my work I can literally hit a button my PC and just walk away for days and have it work for me if need be and that under VA state law the Company is required to come to the customer and defend themselves their using VA laws, not California laws and that I will gladly represent myself and draw out this legal battle as long as I need to especially since an agent admitted that the damage was done purposely. That infact Asus would end up spending thousands of dollars to defend this and at the end of the day under state and federal law I could claim up to 2.5M USD in damages and emotional Distress and planned on going for the full amount. 

Agent stays quiet for about 15 seconds and says she needs to contact her superior and ask to place me on hold. After being on hold for approximately 45 minutes she comes back and says Asus is "considering their options and will contact me via email from now on and that any agent who gets this case number has been instructed to just hang up the phone immediately without saying anything more after pulling up the case file" and that "you should receive an email within the next 48 hours with an adequate resolution." I say that's cool and request to be put in touch with Data Security and/or Legal over how I was able to get all these employees cellphone numbers like this because while I just want my RMA to be completed and to not be screwed over which Asus has clearly shown they want to do and that I am thankfully a sane person, that this information potentially poses extreme risk to employees' their families and friends. I mention that just the day before how some psycho committed the Nashville School Shootings. The agent says "That's not important. What is important is resolving this case." After the typical Corpo-Spiel she says "Well that's everything I'm at liberty to discuss. Please remember any and all future communication for this case numbr MUST BE done through email." and she hangs up before I can do anything. 

Within minutes I get an  additional email explaining that "If you have any further comments, questions, and/or concerns to please reply this email thread as any and all communication MUST go through this channel. I once again voice concerns over the data now in my possession. Not once through the remainder of this does Asus acknowlege nor care that some random is claiming they were able to get the records of just over 3,000 Asus employees.

2 days later I get an email saying that Asus does not have a ProArt Z690 CREATOR available and instead would like to offer me "a complimentary upgrade our STRIX line of motherboard" to a "ROG STRIX Z690-A Gaming WiFi" motherboard but that in order to move forward with the "NIB Replacement and Upgrade" I would need to sign a NDA that says Asus is not responsible nor liable for anything after I receive it and I would not be allowed to talk about the fact I was able to so easily access employee information and that if I did then Asus would have the legal right to sue me i9n California dn that I agree that any court proceeding resulting would have to be in California through Arbitration." I laugh. Inform them that this NDA is not legal under the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act and/or the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. After looking at the motherboard in question they offered I see that NIB it is $199.99, has none of the feature that comes on the ProArt line of motherboards, and is very clearly another attempt at Asus banking on me being an uninformed customer who doesn't know anything about computers so they can rip me off and make it go away. They even resorted to trying and bully me with a NDA. I've already told them what my specs are and the initial agent that asked me for this evewn commented on and spent about 10 minutes discussing AI and large-scale machine learning done on the A100. So Asus knows that even for extreme homework stations that I am in the 0.01% of extreme high end consumer work station and that I know specs.

At this point I am beyond furious. I again express my concern over the data I came across. Expressing my concerns that it could easily fall into the hands of an irate customer who is not all there in the head can use it to do serious harm. They never acknowledge this. Still to this day. I express concerns over Asus blatantly trying to offer me downgrade and daring to try and call it a "a complimentary upgrade our STRIX line of motherboard."

 

The agent responds after a day and quote "apologizes that I feel that Asus is trying to rip me off" and that quote "in fact the ROG STRIX line, even the entry models, are better than any other motherboard they offer including the ProArt Z690 CREATOR" which is demonstrable false and easily provable to be false. They apologize for trying to force me to sign an NDA and once again offer me a full refund sayiung that this will be the only other option available to me. 

I reply to the email informing them they already offered a NIB ProArt Z690 CREATOR and that since it was offered they legally are bound to provide that NIB replacement and/or something of equal or greater value due to applicable state laws. Understanding that the Z790 chipset is now full swing and last gen motherboards are not being produced like talking about I inform them that if they are unable to get a ProArt Z690 CREATOR then they can actually do a "complimentary upgrade" and send me a NIB Z790 ProArt CREATOR. If not then I guess we can do the refund however I also want to be refunded the loss of Adobe subscription that needs to be proRated for every day I'm missing out until either the subscription runs out and/or until the day that a full refund check comes in and  I mention that Asus for some reason advertises that subscription of being valued at "A $238.47 VALUE" and do the math figuring out how much "value" the remaining subscription(47 days) would be starting on Feb 28th when the PC first died until the subscription ended would also need to be refunded and sent the applicable .gov websites outlining these laws and regulations. 

5 days pass. I get an email saying that Asus no longer needs me to sign an NDA and that they quote "found a ProArt Z690 CREATOR in the warehouse that was NIB" and told me that I need to pay for a shipping label to send the damaged one I still have in and that then they will cross ship the replacement. I push back on this mentioning that in my state the company is responsible for shipping cost not the consumer.

2 days later I get another email with a shipping label. An apology that they had "forgotten that the company was responsible for shipping cost." Meaning they tried ripping me off AGAIN. As well as a tracking number because they went ahead and shipped the NIB Z690 CREATOR replacement as well as upgraded me to Overnight Before Noon Next Day Delivery which came and worked amazing since then.

I again express concerns over the data I came across and at this point I respond to the agent assigned to my case with her @Asus.com email account. Her Personal email account. Both work and personal cell phone number, spouses name, bother her and her spouses parents names, and her home address explaining that all this is available online and since first bringing it up with Asus i had contacted multiple tech industry companies because after an even deeper look into the data I found out that this affects a lot of the tech industry companies and not just Asus.

I include screenshots where companies have reached out to me with follow-up emails thanking me for adamantly demanding that Legal and/or Data Protection contact me directly and that I would only talk about the details with them after those departments contacted me and I provided them with the full rundown of what I came across, how I came across it, the ease of which the data is gotten, where it may of came from, how it could of been made to be so accurate and they agreed with literally everything including how the data wwas obtained, why it was probably so accurate, & agreed that this presented an insanely high risk legally, financially, and morally to their employees and family. Those very same emails with personal identifying bits are linked with this post.
 

Sor far I have either talked with or emailed back and forth with
AMD, Intel, EVGA, MSI, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, HP, Apple, Nvidia, LG, Samsung, & More. Asus was the first ones I told. They have consistently ignored my concerns over this matter. I went as far to tell an employee basically everything needed to know everything about them that was in this data. I've called multiple times to request someone contact me from a proper department so I can discuss this with them. Asus is the only one that has not cared whatsoever. 


None of the data will be shared, transferred, nor disseminated in any shape way nor form publicly nor privately except with either a companies Data Protection and/or someone from their Legal Team being present and/or CC'd into the email chain. LMG is also affected in this as well as other Youtubers who have effectively a company and teams of people. Again, if someone from LMG that's either Yvonne, Luke, Linus, and/or Legal/Data protection team wants to contact me privately about this, I will gladly share details but I will not be sharing the data and you can get it yourself and it's claimed to be updated weekly.



Below is EVGA's response to my concerns after talking with their proper departments I was willing to disclose this too and their responses after looking over it with some information redacted showing they too take extreme concerns over what I found and outright say they are determining future actions or actively investigating it at the highest of levels yet Asus knowing this just does not care. If you don't acknowledge it does it exist? Nope. Not until someone who is mentally unstable and just wants to harm people comes across it and then uses it to cause serious harm to innocent people. But nope Asus tried to scam me, rip me off, admitted to an employee purposely damaging my motherboard, and when presented with a security threat and evidence of other major tech companies taking my concern highly serious they just close their eyes and pretend everything is alright rather than having someone from their departments I requested reach out. 

To sum it up, I've always loved Asus and honestly nevedr had a problem with them before but this time.. They have completely disgusted me with how they handled this process and the total lack of care about the concern I mentioned meanwhile everyone else I talk to seems to be of similar mindset as me on how bad this is...
 

   

 

Q: Well if you know personal and professional emails like @Asus.com why not contact those departments directly?

A: There needs to be a means for reporting these things. EVGA has dataprotection@evga.com for example. Other companies that don't have an email setup to report these kinds of things and/or bugs I called customer support and/or their HQ phone number if they publicize it. Briefly explained my concerns without giving details. Told them I would only discuss this with the prior mentioned departments and in every instance. My concern had worked it's way to those departments and then they had someone contact me by the provided email and phone number I provided to customer support who said they'd pass along my concerns and request to be contacted. I shouldn't have to use a data breach to find an email  or cellphone number to contact someone about this. By this logic, I should call Linus, Yvonne, Luke, and other LMG Employees directly since I have I found a scarily accurate dataset online. Not like some random person contacting you personally and being like "I have data all about you and know of a data breach that completely PWNs you and leaves you open to easy social engineering and targeted attacks" is horrifying AF probably.
 

 

Q: If you don't think contacting employees directly is okay and that instead you should try and go through proper channels first then why did you admit to texting 100 Asus Employees?

 

A: I fully admit I probably shouldn't of done that but I also ask you to put yourself in my shoes. At this point I was pissed off and I just wanted a working motherboard. Having an A100 down for the entirety of March until April 4th was a nightmare. So much lost profits and the reduction in work flow capabilities. 

Q: Wait. You said you have LMG Employee personal data too?! 

A: Yes. Please have Linus, Yvonne, Luke, LMG's Legal Team, and/or Data Protection Team Equivalent contact me. If needed DM me and request a good email address and/or my phone number so they can contact me to discuss this since as stated if forum DMs is not proffered method.

Regardless, I'd like to report this to the LMG folks since you guys actually have the industry contacts to put this directly on peoples desk rather than me contacting Customer Support/Tech Support.

 

PS, Staff check edit history for additional screenshots

 

[Genzong]

Apologies for the damn novel. But it needed to be shared and as I started typing I just added more and more

[mynameGeoff]

18 hours ago, Genzong said:

The Ballad Of Asus

 

An In Depth Look At The Failure of, Total Lack of Care About Employee Security & Safety, Attempt to Scam Me, Attempts at ripping me off, & Overall Lack of Customer Service

 

This all started when I began an RMA process for an Asus ProArt Z690 CREATOR motherboard. On February 27th my computer began doing some funky stuff. On Feb. 28th the motherboard died. I tried multiple combinations of RAM, CPU, SSDs, NVMes, GPUs, etc. etc. etc. Took my hardware to a local shop and they used my hardware on their test bench, Booted right to bios and then after that it booted right into windows. Cool. They tried another test bench they have which has their own hardware with my motherboard. Same issue. Failure to boot. Gets to DRAM check and reboot loop. 

My Components: 
4 P41 Platinum NVMes
Asus TUF 3090 Ti
128GB Kingston Fury DDR5 6000MT/s

Nvidia A100 80GB

80+ Platinum 1600W EVGA PSU

 

I called Asus and started an RMA procedure. After my motherboard arrived in their warehouse it took approximately 4 days to even get an update saying that they had received it and when I called within those 4 days they tried telling me on the phone,
"Regardless of what the tracking number says all packages are individually taken off the truck and scanned before entering our warehouse. The mail carrier, FedEx, just marks it as delivered by the truck load so it's possible that even though it was marked as delivered we never received it and thus you need to open a claim with FedEx. As outlined in the shipping instructions Asus is not responsible for any lost or stolen packages." 

Eventually, they found the package alleging it had "fallen between the conveyer belt and a wall." Cool! no worries they got it. I'm told that now they found it they will need up to 10 business days excluding weekends and holidays to repair it, test it, and have it sent back to me. Cool. No Problem. Two days later I get an email stating something along the lines of "blah blah blah. Covid. Blah Blah Blah. Lockdowns and shipping restrictions around the globe are affecting out supply chain. Blah Blah Please allow up to 5 additional weeks excluding weekends and holidays so we can get parts and fix your motherboard."  

1. There was no lockdowns affecting anything anymore. 
2. Shipping has returned to normal. 
3. Prices for PC Components started going up insanely overnight and continue to get more and more expensive even to this day. When I bought the motherboard brand new it was $409.99US as of writing this if you can even find it in stock the average price for NIB(New In Box) is around $530.99US.

4. I had already been told by a "tier 2 customer support expert" that it would quote "take no longer than 10 business days to fix and have it shipped back to me as since due to what happened and the failure on their part it would be rushed and "given priority." 
 

So I do what any irate customer would do. I call them up and raise hell about being told one thing and then another and knowing what the market was doing I was offered a "buyout" where Asus pays me what I paid for the motherboard including tax and shipping & handling. I refused this and instead quoted local and federal laws(Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act & Virginia Consumer Act) and how a time frame was provided and thus needs to be met. 

The following day I get another email, "You're m,o0therboard has been fixed, tested, and shipped back out to you. Here's the tracker # thanks for choosing asus blah blah blah"

Motherboard arrives. I open it up and go to start tossing components on it and I notice Asus has ripped off the thermal pads for the NVMes. Okay.. No problem the repair tech probably though it was something I added rather than something that comes with the motherboard. Plus, in all fairness they do very clearly state any user things attached can and will be thrown away in bright red letters in the PDF they email for the RMA process to get started. No problem, just give em a call and have them overnight ship me replacements. While on hold waiting for an agent to pick up the phone I open the CPU latch and see there are bent pins. Now I'm pissed. There was no bent pins before I sent the motherboard in. Now there is. Not only that but thermal pads for the NVMes have been removed. 

While waiting on hold I think about it. I quoted state and federal law that holds them liable for things their agents say whether they mean to or not. 100,000,000% this is intentional damage by the RMA Facility. They stated they didn't have parts to fix my motherboard. Why was it sent back to me the day after I get an email saying they need 5 weeks to get a new shipment of parts. FINALLY, the agent answers the phone. 

I explain what has happened and ask to speak to a manager and/or senior support agent. I get transferred to a "Tier 3 Senior Customer Support Agent." I then explain the situation thus far, voice my concerns over how this seems very intentionally done. They request photos of the shipping box, motherboard, and anything wrong with it which I email them over and the agent sees them while still on the phone. After getting the photos the agent grumbles and makes a comment under their breath which I was only able to make out " Unintelligible this is the 3rd one Unintelligibe Same pins are bent as the others." I then am asked if I could be put on hold and that "Regardless of what happened or who damaged it, Asus is willing to cover the shipping cost and repair cost to fix the motherboard again. I reject this offer because for one Asus is legally required to cover shipping cost for in warranty claims by law and that Asus just basically admitted that someone in the warehouse is purposely damaging stuff. Also informing her that I heard the agent saying that something about 3rd one and same bent pins and that because of this I want a NIB replacement. The agent becomes flustered thinking that she had put me on hold but did not. She then says that she needs to talk to her supervisor. She comes back from hold and says that her supervisor is busy at the moment and will call me within the next 48 business hours.

On the 3rd day I call Asus again. I am told that my case has been transferred to "Tier 4 Senior Management Customer Support and Relations" and as such no Asus agent is allowed to transfer me, discuss the status of my case, nor are they at liberty to even add notes to my case number as it could put their jobs at risk. I'm told that someone is supposed to be contacting me within 48 buisiness hours of the case being elevated and that "each non holiday week day is treated as an 8 business hour period. This was a Tuesday at this point. Okay, whatever I get it. Senior management can be a nightmare and no one under them dares to try and go over their heads. Whatever I'll just wait to full "48 Business Hours."

Day 16. A Friday. No call. No email. Nothing. At this point I'm furious. Support Agents say that my case says someone is supposed to be contacting me. They claim they cannot discuss my case with me at all. Furious, I go to BingChat and ask it for some stuff so I can bitch, whine, and complain on every social media Asus is part of, which leads me down a rabbit hole where now I find stuff that list employee personal information. Being that no one will contact me I decide send out a massive multi text text message to 100 Asus senior level employees. Within minutes I am called by the person handling my case. They demand to know how I was able to contact employees directly and they then threaten to cancel my warranty for the motherboard and warranties for all other Asus products registered to my Asus account if I don't comply. Taken aback b this threat and demand, I quote the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act and The Virginia Consumer Protection Act which makes that outright illegal to even consider canceling my warranties like that and inform Asus that if they want to try that is be prepared to take them to court.

I explain everything that has happened thus far. I also give the person a bit of info on how I did that and inform them that from the data set I found for sale without telling them the website what all the data has or anything. On this matter I make clear that I want to speak with Asus' Data Protection Team and/or Asus' Legal team because the data leads to irate customewrs being able to find employees' children and where they go to school. As I'm explaining that since Asus' purposely and had admitted that someone  in the warehouse damaged my motherboard the only acceptable recourse now is a NIB Replacement. I explain that I use a NVidia A100 in the machine and since they showed their hand already and they cannot 100% promise NIB advertised speeds under applicable laws a NIB or Buyout must be offered and the customer has the legal right for any reason to refuse one for any reason and if they do then the company is required to honor the other option since two instead of one option was offered.

The agent says they need to talk with their boss and the legal team to see if these laws apply to Asus or not and that within 24 hours not business hours I'll be getting back in touch with you on this case." The following morning, like 14 hours later, I get an email followed by a phone call. They claim that California state laws allows them to choose themselves which solution of the offered ones is followed through with and that because of this they are only willing to offer a buyout and a "$25 coupon code good on New Egg for Asus Products." I once again quote the Virginia Consumer Protection Act and inform them that I am well enough aware of the law and that due to my work I can literally hit a button my PC and just walk away for days and have it work for me if need be and that under VA state law the Company is required to come to the customer and defend themselves their using VA laws, not California laws and that I will gladly represent myself and draw out this legal battle as long as I need to especially since an agent admitted that the damage was done purposely. That infact Asus would end up spending thousands of dollars to defend this and at the end of the day under state and federal law I could claim up to 2.5M USD in damages and emotional Distress and planned on going for the full amount. 

Agent stays quiet for about 15 seconds and says she needs to contact her superior and ask to place me on hold. After being on hold for approximately 45 minutes she comes back and says Asus is "considering their options and will contact me via email from now on and that any agent who gets this case number has been instructed to just hang up the phone immediately without saying anything more after pulling up the case file" and that "you should receive an email within the next 48 hours with an adequate resolution." I say that's cool and request to be put in touch with Data Security and/or Legal over how I was able to get all these employees cellphone numbers like this because while I just want my RMA to be completed and to not be screwed over which Asus has clearly shown they want to do and that I am thankfully a sane person, that this information potentially poses extreme risk to employees' their families and friends. I mention that just the day before how some psycho committed the Nashville School Shootings. The agent says "That's not important. What is important is resolving this case." After the typical Corpo-Spiel she says "Well that's everything I'm at liberty to discuss. Please remember any and all future communication for this case numbr MUST BE done through email." and she hangs up before I can do anything. 

Within minutes I get an  additional email explaining that "If you have any further comments, questions, and/or concerns to please reply this email thread as any and all communication MUST go through this channel. I once again voice concerns over the data now in my possession. Not once through the remainder of this does Asus acknowlege nor care that some random is claiming they were able to get the records of just over 3,000 Asus employees.

2 days later I get an email saying that Asus does not have a ProArt Z690 CREATOR available and instead would like to offer me "a complimentary upgrade our STRIX line of motherboard" to a "ROG STRIX Z690-A Gaming WiFi" motherboard but that in order to move forward with the "NIB Replacement and Upgrade" I would need to sign a NDA that says Asus is not responsible nor liable for anything after I receive it and I would not be allowed to talk about the fact I was able to so easily access employee information and that if I did then Asus would have the legal right to sue me i9n California dn that I agree that any court proceeding resulting would have to be in California through Arbitration." I laugh. Inform them that this NDA is not legal under the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act and/or the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. After looking at the motherboard in question they offered I see that NIB it is $199.99, has none of the feature that comes on the ProArt line of motherboards, and is very clearly another attempt at Asus banking on me being an uninformed customer who doesn't know anything about computers so they can rip me off and make it go away. They even resorted to trying and bully me with a NDA. I've already told them what my specs are and the initial agent that asked me for this evewn commented on and spent about 10 minutes discussing AI and large-scale machine learning done on the A100. So Asus knows that even for extreme homework stations that I am in the 0.01% of extreme high end consumer work station and that I know specs.

At this point I am beyond furious. I again express my concern over the data I came across. Expressing my concerns that it could easily fall into the hands of an irate customer who is not all there in the head can use it to do serious harm. They never acknowledge this. Still to this day. I express concerns over Asus blatantly trying to offer me downgrade and daring to try and call it a "a complimentary upgrade our STRIX line of motherboard."

 

The agent responds after a day and quote "apologizes that I feel that Asus is trying to rip me off" and that quote "in fact the ROG STRIX line, even the entry models, are better than any other motherboard they offer including the ProArt Z690 CREATOR" which is demonstrable false and easily provable to be false. They apologize for trying to force me to sign an NDA and once again offer me a full refund sayiung that this will be the only other option available to me. 

I reply to the email informing them they already offered a NIB ProArt Z690 CREATOR and that since it was offered they legally are bound to provide that NIB replacement and/or something of equal or greater value due to applicable state laws. Understanding that the Z790 chipset is now full swing and last gen motherboards are not being produced like talking about I inform them that if they are unable to get a ProArt Z690 CREATOR then they can actually do a "complimentary upgrade" and send me a NIB Z790 ProArt CREATOR. If not then I guess we can do the refund however I also want to be refunded the loss of Adobe subscription that needs to be proRated for every day I'm missing out until either the subscription runs out and/or until the day that a full refund check comes in and  I mention that Asus for some reason advertises that subscription of being valued at "A $238.47 VALUE" and do the math figuring out how much "value" the remaining subscription(47 days) would be starting on Feb 28th when the PC first died until the subscription ended would also need to be refunded and sent the applicable .gov websites outlining these laws and regulations. 

5 days pass. I get an email saying that Asus no longer needs me to sign an NDA and that they quote "found a ProArt Z690 CREATOR in the warehouse that was NIB" and told me that I need to pay for a shipping label to send the damaged one I still have in and that then they will cross ship the replacement. I push back on this mentioning that in my state the company is responsible for shipping cost not the consumer.

2 days later I get another email with a shipping label. An apology that they had "forgotten that the company was responsible for shipping cost." Meaning they tried ripping me off AGAIN. As well as a tracking number because they went ahead and shipped the NIB Z690 CREATOR replacement as well as upgraded me to Overnight Before Noon Next Day Delivery which came and worked amazing since then.

I again express concerns over the data I came across and at this point I respond to the agent assigned to my case with her @Asus.com email account. Her Personal email account. Both work and personal cell phone number, spouses name, bother her and her spouses parents names, and her home address explaining that all this is available online and since first bringing it up with Asus i had contacted multiple tech industry companies because after an even deeper look into the data I found out that this affects a lot of the tech industry companies and not just Asus.

I include screenshots where companies have reached out to me with follow-up emails thanking me for adamantly demanding that Legal and/or Data Protection contact me directly and that I would only talk about the details with them after those departments contacted me and I provided them with the full rundown of what I came across, how I came across it, the ease of which the data is gotten, where it may of came from, how it could of been made to be so accurate and they agreed with literally everything including how the data wwas obtained, why it was probably so accurate, & agreed that this presented an insanely high risk legally, financially, and morally to their employees and family. Those very same emails with personal identifying bits are linked with this post.
 

Sor far I have either talked with or emailed back and forth with
AMD, Intel, EVGA, MSI, Dell, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, HP, Apple, Nvidia, LG, Samsung, & More. Asus was the first ones I told. They have consistently ignored my concerns over this matter. I went as far to tell an employee basically everything needed to know everything about them that was in this data. I've called multiple times to request someone contact me from a proper department so I can discuss this with them. Asus is the only one that has not cared whatsoever. 


None of the data will be shared, transferred, nor disseminated in any shape way nor form publicly nor privately except with either a companies Data Protection and/or someone from their Legal Team being present and/or CC'd into the email chain. LMG is also affected in this as well as other Youtubers who have effectively a company and teams of people. Again, if someone from LMG that's either Yvonne, Luke, Linus, and/or Legal/Data protection team wants to contact me privately about this, I will gladly share details but I will not be sharing the data and you can get it yourself and it's claimed to be updated weekly.



Below is EVGA's response to my concerns after talking with their proper departments I was willing to disclose this too and their responses after looking over it with some information redacted showing they too take extreme concerns over what I found and outright say they are determining future actions or actively investigating it at the highest of levels yet Asus knowing this just does not care. If you don't acknowledge it does it exist? Nope. Not until someone who is mentally unstable and just wants to harm people comes across it and then uses it to cause serious harm to innocent people. But nope Asus tried to scam me, rip me off, admitted to an employee purposely damaging my motherboard, and when presented with a security threat and evidence of other major tech companies taking my concern highly serious they just close their eyes and pretend everything is alright rather than having someone from their departments I requested reach out. 

To sum it up, I've always loved Asus and honestly nevedr had a problem with them before but this time.. They have completely disgusted me with how they handled this process and the total lack of care about the concern I mentioned meanwhile everyone else I talk to seems to be of similar mindset as me on how bad this is...
 

   

 

Q: Well if you know personal and professional emails like @Asus.com why not contact those departments directly?

A: There needs to be a means for reporting these things. EVGA has dataprotection@evga.com for example. Other companies that don't have an email setup to report these kinds of things and/or bugs I called customer support and/or their HQ phone number if they publicize it. Briefly explained my concerns without giving details. Told them I would only discuss this with the prior mentioned departments and in every instance. My concern had worked it's way to those departments and then they had someone contact me by the provided email and phone number I provided to customer support who said they'd pass along my concerns and request to be contacted. I shouldn't have to use a data breach to find an email  or cellphone number to contact someone about this. By this logic, I should call Linus, Yvonne, Luke, and other LMG Employees directly since I have I found a scarily accurate dataset online. Not like some random person contacting you personally and being like "I have data all about you and know of a data breach that completely PWNs you and leaves you open to easy social engineering and targeted attacks" is horrifying AF probably.
 

 

Q: If you don't think contacting employees directly is okay and that instead you should try and go through proper channels first then why did you admit to texting 100 Asus Employees?

 

A: I fully admit I probably shouldn't of done that but I also ask you to put yourself in my shoes. At this point I was pissed off and I just wanted a working motherboard. Having an A100 down for the entirety of March until April 4th was a nightmare. So much lost profits and the reduction in work flow capabilities. 

Q: Wait. You said you have LMG Employee personal data too?! 

A: Yes. Please have Linus, Yvonne, Luke, LMG's Legal Team, and/or Data Protection Team Equivalent contact me. If needed DM me and request a good email address and/or my phone number so they can contact me to discuss this since as stated if forum DMs is not proffered method.

Regardless, I'd like to report this to the LMG folks since you guys actually have the industry contacts to put this directly on peoples desk rather than me contacting Customer Support/Tech Support.

 

PS, Staff check edit history for additional screenshots

 

Hey! Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I've reached out to our ASUS contacts to get more info from the situation and will respond back once we have a better grasp on what happened.

[Genzong]

48 minutes ago, mynameGeoff said:

Hey! Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I've reached out to our ASUS contacts to get more info from the situation and will respond back once we have a better grasp on what happened.

No worries. If you want I'll gladly send you folks the complete screenshot set of email correspondence if wanted. I didn;t feel like blurring out a lot of screeenshots for privacy though so did not post them.

Also, as stated I was also able to determine that multiple LMG employees have their information as part of this data set for sale online. 
 
Finally, to help Asus and so they can't jsut claim it never happened because I have receipts, 
 

Case #: ASUS Corporate Customer Care No=N2302043793

Also, please tell Asus to have someone in the requested departments to please contact me if you are able too. 

[Genzong]

40 minutes ago, mynameGeoff said:

Hey! Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I've reached out to our ASUS contacts to get more info from the situation and will respond back once we have a better grasp on what happened.

Also, I sent a DM with additional screenshot that I felt was not appropriate to put on the forums in reference to this. 

[97hummer]

Hi. I unfortunately have a complaint towards ASUS because of a 9 almost 10 month RMA. I’m asking that maybe you would reconsider having ASUS as a sponsor until their RMA process has been fixed (or at least their portable gaming monitors). I understand you need the sponsors but with the situation maybe you would reconsider it. 

 

I'm going to keep details as light as I can, but it's still been a long and very ugly process. I have tried my best and been very nice with them. But things have just hit a point I feel I need to speak out.

 

I have an XG17AHP portable gaming monitor that has turned into a nightmare. I opened an RMA on June 31st 2022 on the website after not having it that long  because of a very loud buzzing/humming noise (like old electronics) from the headphone jack on the monitor. That was all that was wrong with it at the time and I didn't even have it very long and been very little time with it since that first RMA.

 

1#. The first time sending it in was simple, I followed the instructions (including writing on the paper they provide to put in the box saying what is wrong) and shipped it using the using the provided shipping label. Once they received my monitor they emailed me saying they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I contacted chat support explaining what was wrong, so they looked at it again and found the issue, and replaced the main board.

When I got the monitor back the headphone jack didn't work at all anymore and now there was backlight bleed from the LCD. I did try troubleshooting the headphone jack as much as I could but the monitor didn't even recognize anything being plugged into it.  

 

2#. I contacted the chat support and explained the problem (I believe I mentioned the backlight bleed on the LCD, but it's been too long) so the agent opened another RMA. After they received it they again couldn't find anything wrong with it even though the headphone jack was dead. So again contacted them to explain what the issue is and have them look again, and again they found it and replaced the main board.

When I got the monitor back I couldn't believe what I found. Immediately I could see that they had damaged my monitor. The bezel was bent out away from the screen, there were scratches, some things were dented from them fixing it, and even some metal was bent.

Then once I turned on the monitor I found it had really bad backlight bleed (did not have prior to the first RMA) along the bottom where the bezel was bent out and the headphone jack worked but had the buzzing sound again (just not quite as bad).

 

This is when it starts getting more ugly.

 

3#. Again I contacted the chat support and explained the issues and the damage. Because of the damage they immediately pushed it as “Shipping damage” and wanted to open a claim with FedEx. I kept saying this was not shipping damage because it was impossible with the type of damage and the box was in perfect condition. 

They ask me to send pictures of the damage in an email. At first they don't see any damage and made me send it again. So I sent them again with everything highlighted and numbered with will explanations of the damage.

 

At this point, they tell me something terrifying. They say they won't fix my monitor unless fedex approves “my” claim for the damages even though it's so obviously not shipping damages. Days later I found out I got lucky FedEx did approve the claim so they would fix my monitor. 

 

Because of the previous problems I asked them before sending it in if everything would be fixed and they said that it would be. So I shipped it to them.

Once they received it the only thing they found wrong and fixed was a shiny trim piece that was dented. I argued to have the rest fixed but they said they didn't find anything else and sent it back. 

When I got it back the headphone jack still had buzzing and the lightbleed was even worse than it was before. 

 

4#. At this point, it's now the beginning of October, and my monitor is damaged and still has the original problem. I contacted them day I got it back since it's not fixed and they responded with an email telling me that there wasn't any other problems found and gave me a link to a YouTube video showing my monitor being tested. 

Problem is they test audio problems by connecting it to a sound bar in a loud warehouse. So it would be near impossible to even find the problem.

 

I kept pushing on them how it's not fixed so they aggred to a replacement this time because it's had so many RMAs. Then they tell me that I will receive a shipping label once the replacement is allocated. Days later I get the shipping label so I send it in thinking a replacement is ready.

Once they receive my monitor they tell me that the XG17AHP (the model I got) isn't available and will offer me a different model.  They offered me an “upgrade” XG27AQ a full size 27” monitor that was worth $3xx at the time compared to my $569 portable monitor, that I didn't have for very long.

After emails back to them complaining how that wasn't an upgrade and half a month goes by they offered me the XG27AQM-G. While it was actually worth more money than mine it's not even close to what I bought and has a color theme (purple and green) that I honestly can't stand to look at.

 

After I think another month goes by going back and forth in emails they offered the XG17AHPE. It's basically the same as mine without the stand and I was going to take it, but then I asked about the warranty covering the stand (impossible to find a replacement stand and $100 upgrade so warranty mattered) on mine since that replacement doesn't have one, but they never could answer that question. So I put my foot down and said I would only take the XG17AHP and accepted it would take time till it was back in stock. 

In the meantime, I tried getting a refund but they wouldn't give me one either and I even offered it as an easy out so this could be done. 

 

It's now the end of December and I'm incredibly sick with covid and I see that the monitor is finally in stock so I contact them to tell them how it's in stock so send me a replacement. They respond that they were looking into it, but more than a week goes by without anything from them before it sold out without a replacement being sent. At that moment I'm still really sick and now upset since it feels like I'll never get a replacement. 

 

Now this part is the worst of all. 

 

Fast forward to mid to late Jan, they tell me they “found” a monitor and will be sending it out after their facility “tests it”. 

After 2 weeks it's shipped out and I check to see when it will be delivered. Come the day it's be delivered I check tracking and see it's in California and out for delivery but problem is I live in Pennsylvania. Immediately I contacted ASUS who told me to contact FedEx because it's FedEx that's messed up and ASUS wouldn't help me since it's my package. While I'm trying to get ahold of FedEx the package gets delivered but once I talk to them it gets weird. 

To keep it simple after talking to FedEx several times I found out the monitor was sent to someone with a different name and address because ASUS put the wrong shipping information on the box. 

I told all that to ASUS but they refused to admit any fault and blamed FedEx. Knowing that ASUS then filed a claim with FedEx and then sent me this email

 

“Your FedEx claim has been filed and process time can be up to 14 business days. If the claim is approved then we will send a replacement to you, however if the claim is denied by fedex a replacement unit will not be shipped.

You can contact us after several days and we will contact FedEx team to provide the status of your claim. Thanks for your understanding.”

 

I'm not the only one this exact thing has happened to, on Reddit there are others ASUS has done this exact thing to. And they did the same thing by making a FedEx claim. 

I ended up getting lucky compared to the others because talking to FedEx later I found out they did approve the claim after just a couple of days but could not tell me what the claim was by ASUS. I had very little I could do because to FedEx it wasn't my package and I wasn't the shipper. 
(Edit: I wanted to clarify something here. Asus had my monitor for months when this happened. So if that Fedex claim was denied I wouldn’t have my original monitor or the new monitor and speaking to an Asus supervisor it doesn’t seem like they would have done anything after that for me.)

It then took ASUS about 2 weeks to tell me the claim was approved and that they would send me another one. 

But that's twice now I've gotten lucky with FedEx approving a claim but neither one was the fault of FedEx and both times I told many different people at ASUS but they all wanted to blame FedEx. Neither one was a misunderstanding as I made it very clear what happened to several people at ASUS but the response was the same by ASUS and a clear policy they have. 

After another 2 weeks they finally sent me a replacement monitor and it finally came! I was so happy thinking it was finally over but I turned it on to discover the worse backlight bleed I have ever seen. The headphone jack worked perfectly but the backlight bleed was so bad there was a doughnut on my screen of light and it was nearly to the center of the screen. 

 

5#. Did the usually chat support who opened an RMA. After about 2 weeks it was ready so I sent mine in and they sent the replacement. It was rather uneventful for the first time. 

When I got the replacement tho it again had really bad backlight bleed and the headphone jack was buzzing again. A $90 LG monitor I got several years ago has far less backlight need than this does. 

So now on monitor 3 with still no monitor that is free of problems. 

 

6#. Talking with support they couldn't just open another RMA because of all the previous ones and had to send it to the office of the CEO to see what they could do. 

Several days later I received an email saying they approved another replacement as a courtesy to me. But after thinking because of all the problems I decided to ask about maybe changing models. I spoke to a supervisor on the phone who was very nice and let me explain everything that has happened and he agreed the model change made sense and was going to request it from the CEO's office. 

 

I didn't hear anything for a while but then I get an email that my same model replacement is ready. It also was wanting to do a hold on my bank account for the $569+tax till I sent back mine, I had been doing the mail in and mail out process so I didn't have to do that hold because I send mine in first. 

I contacted support but they didn't understand what was going on because on their end it didn't show anything about that so they had me send screenshots to verify it was their email and it was their email. While on support they had me respond to the email denying the replacement so they could put in the computer the reason why. 

But they also told me that in the system it showed they were already allocating a different model replacement and dont understand why I got an email for the same model replacement. That was April 7th and was already supposed to be getting allocated and only take 7-10 total.

 

This is now getting to current time. Things have turned into a mess. It's now been several weeks since I've been told that they started allocating me a different model replacement (I don't know the model and can only decide if I like it after it's ready) but it's only supposed to be 7-10 days. I keep having to send emails explaining I'm supposed to get a different model but it's not going anywhere. One email was just explaining how that's my same model replacement even though they were supposed tell me why I got that email, not what it was about. Then last Thursday I got an email they're looking into it, then today an email comes asking if I still need help with my XG17AHP.

 

 

At this time it's been 9 almost 10 months and I don't see an end in sight and now have lost hope of even getting a different model replacement since it shouldn't take this long and they can't even figure it out. I'm getting emails asking if I need still help when I need a replacement and have many emails just previously about it and been waiting to find out from them about the replacement. I wish I never bought it and wish I could just get a refund, this has been an incredibly stressful and painfull process that I wish would end. I even know the names of some of the supervisors and chat agents.

 

I did summarize a lot of this. If I left all the details it would be 3-4 times as long or more.

I'm not even sure if anything can be done to help me at this point but I don't want to see anyone else in this situation but many are if you read the ASUS Reddit. So this is why I'm asking for you to reconsider them as a sponsor. 

 

There is also something that really bothering me. I found out the Fedex claim was only for $100 because ASUS doesn't add extra insurance. So ASUS wasn't going to send me another $569 monitor over a $100 claim. The others that this happened to didn't get as lucky as me with the claim and got denied. But was for a 1-2k$+ laptop and speaking to one of them ASUS told them to go to the house of who they sent it to by mistake (ASUS messed up address by a few streets over from them) and ask for it, that person did go and they did actually get the laptop back, but it's crazy for ASUS to even suggest such a thing.

 

I have pictures and over 100+ emails from ASUS to back this up. If anything doesn't make sense ill be happy to clarify it. 

Thank you for your time reading this. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by 97hummer
To clarify something about the second FedEx claim.

[Genzong]

12 hours ago, 97hummer said:

Hi. I unfortunately have a complaint towards ASUS because of a 9 almost 10 month RMA. I’m asking that maybe you would reconsider having ASUS as a sponsor until their RMA process has been fixed (or at least their portable gaming monitors). I understand you need the sponsors but with the situation maybe you would reconsider it. 

 

I'm going to keep details as light as I can, but it's still been a long and very ugly process. I have tried my best and been very nice with them. But things have just hit a point I feel I need to speak out.

 

I have an XG17AHP portable gaming monitor that has turned into a nightmare. I opened an RMA on June 31st 2022 on the website after not having it that long  because of a very loud buzzing/humming noise (like old electronics) from the headphone jack on the monitor. That was all that was wrong with it at the time and I didn't even have it very long and been very little time with it since that first RMA.

 

1#. The first time sending it in was simple, I followed the instructions (including writing on the paper they provide to put in the box saying what is wrong) and shipped it using the using the provided shipping label. Once they received my monitor they emailed me saying they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I contacted chat support explaining what was wrong, so they looked at it again and found the issue, and replaced the main board.

When I got the monitor back the headphone jack didn't work at all anymore and now there was backlight bleed from the LCD. I did try troubleshooting the headphone jack as much as I could but the monitor didn't even recognize anything being plugged into it.  

 

2#. I contacted the chat support and explained the problem (I believe I mentioned the backlight bleed on the LCD, but it's been too long) so the agent opened another RMA. After they received it they again couldn't find anything wrong with it even though the headphone jack was dead. So again contacted them to explain what the issue is and have them look again, and again they found it and replaced the main board.

When I got the monitor back I couldn't believe what I found. Immediately I could see that they had damaged my monitor. The bezel was bent out away from the screen, there were scratches, some things were dented from them fixing it, and even some metal was bent.

Then once I turned on the monitor I found it had really bad backlight bleed (did not have prior to the first RMA) along the bottom where the bezel was bent out and the headphone jack worked but had the buzzing sound again (just not quite as bad).

 

This is when it starts getting more ugly.

 

3#. Again I contacted the chat support and explained the issues and the damage. Because of the damage they immediately pushed it as “Shipping damage” and wanted to open a claim with FedEx. I kept saying this was not shipping damage because it was impossible with the type of damage and the box was in perfect condition. 

They ask me to send pictures of the damage in an email. At first they don't see any damage and made me send it again. So I sent them again with everything highlighted and numbered with will explanations of the damage.

 

At this point, they tell me something terrifying. They say they won't fix my monitor unless fedex approves “my” claim for the damages even though it's so obviously not shipping damages. Days later I found out I got lucky FedEx did approve the claim so they would fix my monitor. 

 

Because of the previous problems I asked them before sending it in if everything would be fixed and they said that it would be. So I shipped it to them.

Once they received it the only thing they found wrong and fixed was a shiny trim piece that was dented. I argued to have the rest fixed but they said they didn't find anything else and sent it back. 

When I got it back the headphone jack still had buzzing and the lightbleed was even worse than it was before. 

 

4#. At this point, it's now the beginning of October, and my monitor is damaged and still has the original problem. I contacted them day I got it back since it's not fixed and they responded with an email telling me that there wasn't any other problems found and gave me a link to a YouTube video showing my monitor being tested. 

Problem is they test audio problems by connecting it to a sound bar in a loud warehouse. So it would be near impossible to even find the problem.

 

I kept pushing on them how it's not fixed so they aggred to a replacement this time because it's had so many RMAs. Then they tell me that I will receive a shipping label once the replacement is allocated. Days later I get the shipping label so I send it in thinking a replacement is ready.

Once they receive my monitor they tell me that the XG17AHP (the model I got) isn't available and will offer me a different model.  They offered me an “upgrade” XG27AQ a full size 27” monitor that was worth $3xx at the time compared to my $569 portable monitor, that I didn't have for very long.

After emails back to them complaining how that wasn't an upgrade and half a month goes by they offered me the XG27AQM-G. While it was actually worth more money than mine it's not even close to what I bought and has a color theme (purple and green) that I honestly can't stand to look at.

 

After I think another month goes by going back and forth in emails they offered the XG17AHPE. It's basically the same as mine without the stand and I was going to take it, but then I asked about the warranty covering the stand (impossible to find a replacement stand and $100 upgrade so warranty mattered) on mine since that replacement doesn't have one, but they never could answer that question. So I put my foot down and said I would only take the XG17AHP and accepted it would take time till it was back in stock. 

In the meantime, I tried getting a refund but they wouldn't give me one either and I even offered it as an easy out so this could be done. 

 

It's now the end of December and I'm incredibly sick with covid and I see that the monitor is finally in stock so I contact them to tell them how it's in stock so send me a replacement. They respond that they were looking into it, but more than a week goes by without anything from them before it sold out without a replacement being sent. At that moment I'm still really sick and now upset since it feels like I'll never get a replacement. 

 

Now this part is the worst of all. 

 

Fast forward to mid to late Jan, they tell me they “found” a monitor and will be sending it out after their facility “tests it”. 

After 2 weeks it's shipped out and I check to see when it will be delivered. Come the day it's be delivered I check tracking and see it's in California and out for delivery but problem is I live in Pennsylvania. Immediately I contacted ASUS who told me to contact FedEx because it's FedEx that's messed up and ASUS wouldn't help me since it's my package. While I'm trying to get ahold of FedEx the package gets delivered but once I talk to them it gets weird. 

To keep it simple after talking to FedEx several times I found out the monitor was sent to someone with a different name and address because ASUS put the wrong shipping information on the box. 

I told all that to ASUS but they refused to admit any fault and blamed FedEx. Knowing that ASUS then filed a claim with FedEx and then sent me this email

 

“Your FedEx claim has been filed and process time can be up to 14 business days. If the claim is approved then we will send a replacement to you, however if the claim is denied by fedex a replacement unit will not be shipped.

You can contact us after several days and we will contact FedEx team to provide the status of your claim. Thanks for your understanding.”

 

I'm not the only one this exact thing has happened to, on Reddit there are others ASUS has done this exact thing to. And they did the same thing by making a FedEx claim. 

I ended up getting lucky compared to the others because talking to FedEx later I found out they did approve the claim after just a couple of days but could not tell me what the claim was by ASUS. I had very little I could do because to FedEx it wasn't my package and I wasn't the shipper. 

It then took ASUS about 2 weeks to tell me the claim was approved and that they would send me another one. 

But that's twice now I've gotten lucky with FedEx approving a claim but neither one was the fault of FedEx and both times I told many different people at ASUS but they all wanted to blame FedEx. Neither one was a misunderstanding as I made it very clear what happened to several people at ASUS but the response was the same by ASUS and a clear policy they have. 

After another 2 weeks they finally sent me a replacement monitor and it finally came! I was so happy thinking it was finally over but I turned it on to discover the worse backlight bleed I have ever seen. The headphone jack worked perfectly but the backlight bleed was so bad there was a doughnut on my screen of light and it was nearly to the center of the screen. 

 

5#. Did the usually chat support who opened an RMA. After about 2 weeks it was ready so I sent mine in and they sent the replacement. It was rather uneventful for the first time. 

When I got the replacement tho it again had really bad backlight bleed and the headphone jack was buzzing again. A $90 LG monitor I got several years ago has far less backlight need than this does. 

So now on monitor 3 with still no monitor that is free of problems. 

 

6#. Talking with support they couldn't just open another RMA because of all the previous ones and had to send it to the office of the CEO to see what they could do. 

Several days later I received an email saying they approved another replacement as a courtesy to me. But after thinking because of all the problems I decided to ask about maybe changing models. I spoke to a supervisor on the phone who was very nice and let me explain everything that has happened and he agreed the model change made sense and was going to request it from the CEO's office. 

 

I didn't hear anything for a while but then I get an email that my same model replacement is ready. It also was wanting to do a hold on my bank account for the $569+tax till I sent back mine, I had been doing the mail in and mail out process so I didn't have to do that hold because I send mine in first. 

I contacted support but they didn't understand what was going on because on their end it didn't show anything about that so they had me send screenshots to verify it was their email and it was their email. While on support they had me respond to the email denying the replacement so they could put in the computer the reason why. 

But they also told me that in the system it showed they were already allocating a different model replacement and dont understand why I got an email for the same model replacement. That was April 7th and was already supposed to be getting allocated and only take 7-10 total.

 

This is now getting to current time. Things have turned into a mess. It's now been several weeks since I've been told that they started allocating me a different model replacement (I don't know the model and can only decide if I like it after it's ready) but it's only supposed to be 7-10 days. I keep having to send emails explaining I'm supposed to get a different model but it's not going anywhere. One email was just explaining how that's my same model replacement even though they were supposed tell me why I got that email, not what it was about. Then last Thursday I got an email they're looking into it, then today an email comes asking if I still need help with my XG17AHP.

 

 

At this time it's been 9 almost 10 months and I don't see an end in sight and now have lost hope of even getting a different model replacement since it shouldn't take this long and they can't even figure it out. I'm getting emails asking if I need still help when I need a replacement and have many emails just previously about it and been waiting to find out from them about the replacement. I wish I never bought it and wish I could just get a refund, this has been an incredibly stressful and painfull process that I wish would end. I even know the names of some of the supervisors and chat agents.

 

I did summarize a lot of this. If I left all the details it would be 3-4 times as long or more.

I'm not even sure if anything can be done to help me at this point but I don't want to see anyone else in this situation but many are if you read the ASUS Reddit. So this is why I'm asking for you to reconsider them as a sponsor. 

 

There is also something that really bothering me. I found out the Fedex claim was only for $100 because ASUS doesn't add extra insurance. So ASUS wasn't going to send me another $569 monitor over a $100 claim. The others that this happened to didn't get as lucky as me with the claim and got denied. But was for a 1-2k$+ laptop and speaking to one of them ASUS told them to go to the house of who they sent it to by mistake (ASUS messed up address by a few streets over from them) and ask for it, that person did go and they did actually get the laptop back, but it's crazy for ASUS to even suggest such a thing.

 

I have pictures and over 100+ emails from ASUS to back this up. If anything doesn't make sense ill be happy to clarify it. 

Thank you for your time reading this. 

Look into the following things then call them after a day or 2 of studying the legalese found within them and rip their butts apart. 
1. Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law
2. Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act
3. I hope Asus was covering the cost of shipping. It's required by PA law for the manufacturer to cover in warranty and out of warranty manufacturer defective shipping cost both ways as is Virginia, Kentucky, & Massachusetts. No cost shipping only applies to these 4 "states" that are not a "The State Of" but instead a "Commonwealth Of." Conversely we have more protections that the 46 other states and federal territories combined.

Asus mentioned to me they did not have stock with the ProArt Z690 CREATOR and had to transfer one from "Asus Online Store" to "Asus RMA Services." Asus claimed that their website is a totally separate entity than Asus' RMA process(Think how Samsung Display & Samsung Samsung Electronics are both owned by Samsung group but all 3 are technically their own separate competing in house company). Unfortunately for Asus this is not the case. Both the e-shop AND Asus RMA Services are under Asus Tek. This means they 100% can transfer things between departments it just means that they have to do actual work and then contact multiple departments to have the item transferred, to have the website updated with availability, to update internal available quantities, etc.etc.etc.

As for the shipping warranty. It's illegal for them to do that however no one has the money to challenge a company over that. They did not get $100 of insurance. That comes standard with shipping cost. However you sue over it and all of a sudden Dell, HP, MSI, Samsung, Apple, and everyone else would come out the woodwork to "1support Asus in their time of need." Thankfully being as you are in a Commonwealth State you can compel Asus legally to pick up the financial burden if you wanted to take it to court. However again. Legal fees add up FAST. I found knowing the law so well you can go "well according toi Title 15 Chapter 50 §2304 Part B the only duties required by law for the consumer are blah blah blah." Someone higher up than the agent you talked to will listen in on those calls and then look into those legal quotes. try and steer the conversation in those directions to the specific thing you want to try and dangle over their heads. 


PS, for everyone else. Don't be a male rooster right off the bat. Only resort to the highly specific and detailed legalese when they consistently fail you. 

PSS, I'd almost be willing to bet if we compared email correspondence and phone chat experiences there would be so many similarities. 

[LordPizzaCat]

I was listening to a recent WAN show and Linus mentioned that they stop working with sponsors that have unethical practices and cited Drop as an example. 

I was thinking about buying a keyboard from them but want to know what they did. 

Thanks!

[NF-A12x25]

1 hour ago, LordPizzaCat said:

I was thinking about buying a keyboard from them but want to know what they did. 

they make bad keyboards and don’t really follow through on their customer service. Not sure what exactly they did but it may be related to their shitty overpriced CTRL and ALT series keyboards that have been known to fry usb ports due to drawing too much power. Their keycaps are amazing (particularly the MT3 ones) but they have awful awful self-brand keyboards.

 

If you’re looking at some keyboards I recommend the Zoom TKL/Zoom75, second choice and maybe better for a beginner would be a Keychron Q series board, V series if you want a very cheap but nice board

[Genzong]

On 4/17/2023 at 12:34 PM, mynameGeoff said:

Hey! Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I've reached out to our ASUS contacts to get more info from the situation and will respond back once we have a better grasp on what happened.

Any update or response from Asus as well as any update on someone reaching out to me so i can go in depths about the massive inavion f data rpivacy I can discuss with a team member to give them the details since LMG is part of this privacy breach? As it stands I'm pretty sure  Ihave personal information for about 17 LMG employees that I found for sale online and from what I can tell the information is highly accurate just I'm not trying to call peoples cellphones cause that mess is weird

[mynameGeoff]

On 4/17/2023 at 10:41 PM, 97hummer said:

Hi. I unfortunately have a complaint towards ASUS because of a 9 almost 10 month RMA. I’m asking that maybe you would reconsider having ASUS as a sponsor until their RMA process has been fixed (or at least their portable gaming monitors). I understand you need the sponsors but with the situation maybe you would reconsider it. 

 

I'm going to keep details as light as I can, but it's still been a long and very ugly process. I have tried my best and been very nice with them. But things have just hit a point I feel I need to speak out.

 

I have an XG17AHP portable gaming monitor that has turned into a nightmare. I opened an RMA on June 31st 2022 on the website after not having it that long  because of a very loud buzzing/humming noise (like old electronics) from the headphone jack on the monitor. That was all that was wrong with it at the time and I didn't even have it very long and been very little time with it since that first RMA.

 

1#. The first time sending it in was simple, I followed the instructions (including writing on the paper they provide to put in the box saying what is wrong) and shipped it using the using the provided shipping label. Once they received my monitor they emailed me saying they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I contacted chat support explaining what was wrong, so they looked at it again and found the issue, and replaced the main board.

When I got the monitor back the headphone jack didn't work at all anymore and now there was backlight bleed from the LCD. I did try troubleshooting the headphone jack as much as I could but the monitor didn't even recognize anything being plugged into it.  

 

2#. I contacted the chat support and explained the problem (I believe I mentioned the backlight bleed on the LCD, but it's been too long) so the agent opened another RMA. After they received it they again couldn't find anything wrong with it even though the headphone jack was dead. So again contacted them to explain what the issue is and have them look again, and again they found it and replaced the main board.

When I got the monitor back I couldn't believe what I found. Immediately I could see that they had damaged my monitor. The bezel was bent out away from the screen, there were scratches, some things were dented from them fixing it, and even some metal was bent.

Then once I turned on the monitor I found it had really bad backlight bleed (did not have prior to the first RMA) along the bottom where the bezel was bent out and the headphone jack worked but had the buzzing sound again (just not quite as bad).

 

This is when it starts getting more ugly.

 

3#. Again I contacted the chat support and explained the issues and the damage. Because of the damage they immediately pushed it as “Shipping damage” and wanted to open a claim with FedEx. I kept saying this was not shipping damage because it was impossible with the type of damage and the box was in perfect condition. 

They ask me to send pictures of the damage in an email. At first they don't see any damage and made me send it again. So I sent them again with everything highlighted and numbered with will explanations of the damage.

 

At this point, they tell me something terrifying. They say they won't fix my monitor unless fedex approves “my” claim for the damages even though it's so obviously not shipping damages. Days later I found out I got lucky FedEx did approve the claim so they would fix my monitor. 

 

Because of the previous problems I asked them before sending it in if everything would be fixed and they said that it would be. So I shipped it to them.

Once they received it the only thing they found wrong and fixed was a shiny trim piece that was dented. I argued to have the rest fixed but they said they didn't find anything else and sent it back. 

When I got it back the headphone jack still had buzzing and the lightbleed was even worse than it was before. 

 

4#. At this point, it's now the beginning of October, and my monitor is damaged and still has the original problem. I contacted them day I got it back since it's not fixed and they responded with an email telling me that there wasn't any other problems found and gave me a link to a YouTube video showing my monitor being tested. 

Problem is they test audio problems by connecting it to a sound bar in a loud warehouse. So it would be near impossible to even find the problem.

 

I kept pushing on them how it's not fixed so they aggred to a replacement this time because it's had so many RMAs. Then they tell me that I will receive a shipping label once the replacement is allocated. Days later I get the shipping label so I send it in thinking a replacement is ready.

Once they receive my monitor they tell me that the XG17AHP (the model I got) isn't available and will offer me a different model.  They offered me an “upgrade” XG27AQ a full size 27” monitor that was worth $3xx at the time compared to my $569 portable monitor, that I didn't have for very long.

After emails back to them complaining how that wasn't an upgrade and half a month goes by they offered me the XG27AQM-G. While it was actually worth more money than mine it's not even close to what I bought and has a color theme (purple and green) that I honestly can't stand to look at.

 

After I think another month goes by going back and forth in emails they offered the XG17AHPE. It's basically the same as mine without the stand and I was going to take it, but then I asked about the warranty covering the stand (impossible to find a replacement stand and $100 upgrade so warranty mattered) on mine since that replacement doesn't have one, but they never could answer that question. So I put my foot down and said I would only take the XG17AHP and accepted it would take time till it was back in stock. 

In the meantime, I tried getting a refund but they wouldn't give me one either and I even offered it as an easy out so this could be done. 

 

It's now the end of December and I'm incredibly sick with covid and I see that the monitor is finally in stock so I contact them to tell them how it's in stock so send me a replacement. They respond that they were looking into it, but more than a week goes by without anything from them before it sold out without a replacement being sent. At that moment I'm still really sick and now upset since it feels like I'll never get a replacement. 

 

Now this part is the worst of all. 

 

Fast forward to mid to late Jan, they tell me they “found” a monitor and will be sending it out after their facility “tests it”. 

After 2 weeks it's shipped out and I check to see when it will be delivered. Come the day it's be delivered I check tracking and see it's in California and out for delivery but problem is I live in Pennsylvania. Immediately I contacted ASUS who told me to contact FedEx because it's FedEx that's messed up and ASUS wouldn't help me since it's my package. While I'm trying to get ahold of FedEx the package gets delivered but once I talk to them it gets weird. 

To keep it simple after talking to FedEx several times I found out the monitor was sent to someone with a different name and address because ASUS put the wrong shipping information on the box. 

I told all that to ASUS but they refused to admit any fault and blamed FedEx. Knowing that ASUS then filed a claim with FedEx and then sent me this email

 

“Your FedEx claim has been filed and process time can be up to 14 business days. If the claim is approved then we will send a replacement to you, however if the claim is denied by fedex a replacement unit will not be shipped.

You can contact us after several days and we will contact FedEx team to provide the status of your claim. Thanks for your understanding.”

 

I'm not the only one this exact thing has happened to, on Reddit there are others ASUS has done this exact thing to. And they did the same thing by making a FedEx claim. 

I ended up getting lucky compared to the others because talking to FedEx later I found out they did approve the claim after just a couple of days but could not tell me what the claim was by ASUS. I had very little I could do because to FedEx it wasn't my package and I wasn't the shipper. 

It then took ASUS about 2 weeks to tell me the claim was approved and that they would send me another one. 

But that's twice now I've gotten lucky with FedEx approving a claim but neither one was the fault of FedEx and both times I told many different people at ASUS but they all wanted to blame FedEx. Neither one was a misunderstanding as I made it very clear what happened to several people at ASUS but the response was the same by ASUS and a clear policy they have. 

After another 2 weeks they finally sent me a replacement monitor and it finally came! I was so happy thinking it was finally over but I turned it on to discover the worse backlight bleed I have ever seen. The headphone jack worked perfectly but the backlight bleed was so bad there was a doughnut on my screen of light and it was nearly to the center of the screen. 

 

5#. Did the usually chat support who opened an RMA. After about 2 weeks it was ready so I sent mine in and they sent the replacement. It was rather uneventful for the first time. 

When I got the replacement tho it again had really bad backlight bleed and the headphone jack was buzzing again. A $90 LG monitor I got several years ago has far less backlight need than this does. 

So now on monitor 3 with still no monitor that is free of problems. 

 

6#. Talking with support they couldn't just open another RMA because of all the previous ones and had to send it to the office of the CEO to see what they could do. 

Several days later I received an email saying they approved another replacement as a courtesy to me. But after thinking because of all the problems I decided to ask about maybe changing models. I spoke to a supervisor on the phone who was very nice and let me explain everything that has happened and he agreed the model change made sense and was going to request it from the CEO's office. 

 

I didn't hear anything for a while but then I get an email that my same model replacement is ready. It also was wanting to do a hold on my bank account for the $569+tax till I sent back mine, I had been doing the mail in and mail out process so I didn't have to do that hold because I send mine in first. 

I contacted support but they didn't understand what was going on because on their end it didn't show anything about that so they had me send screenshots to verify it was their email and it was their email. While on support they had me respond to the email denying the replacement so they could put in the computer the reason why. 

But they also told me that in the system it showed they were already allocating a different model replacement and dont understand why I got an email for the same model replacement. That was April 7th and was already supposed to be getting allocated and only take 7-10 total.

 

This is now getting to current time. Things have turned into a mess. It's now been several weeks since I've been told that they started allocating me a different model replacement (I don't know the model and can only decide if I like it after it's ready) but it's only supposed to be 7-10 days. I keep having to send emails explaining I'm supposed to get a different model but it's not going anywhere. One email was just explaining how that's my same model replacement even though they were supposed tell me why I got that email, not what it was about. Then last Thursday I got an email they're looking into it, then today an email comes asking if I still need help with my XG17AHP.

 

 

At this time it's been 9 almost 10 months and I don't see an end in sight and now have lost hope of even getting a different model replacement since it shouldn't take this long and they can't even figure it out. I'm getting emails asking if I need still help when I need a replacement and have many emails just previously about it and been waiting to find out from them about the replacement. I wish I never bought it and wish I could just get a refund, this has been an incredibly stressful and painfull process that I wish would end. I even know the names of some of the supervisors and chat agents.

 

I did summarize a lot of this. If I left all the details it would be 3-4 times as long or more.

I'm not even sure if anything can be done to help me at this point but I don't want to see anyone else in this situation but many are if you read the ASUS Reddit. So this is why I'm asking for you to reconsider them as a sponsor. 

 

There is also something that really bothering me. I found out the Fedex claim was only for $100 because ASUS doesn't add extra insurance. So ASUS wasn't going to send me another $569 monitor over a $100 claim. The others that this happened to didn't get as lucky as me with the claim and got denied. But was for a 1-2k$+ laptop and speaking to one of them ASUS told them to go to the house of who they sent it to by mistake (ASUS messed up address by a few streets over from them) and ask for it, that person did go and they did actually get the laptop back, but it's crazy for ASUS to even suggest such a thing.

 

I have pictures and over 100+ emails from ASUS to back this up. If anything doesn't make sense ill be happy to clarify it. 

Thank you for your time reading this. 

Thanks for your response, I'll work to get this investigated as well!
 

4 hours ago, Genzong said:

Any update or response from Asus as well as any update on someone reaching out to me so i can go in depths about the massive inavion f data rpivacy I can discuss with a team member to give them the details since LMG is part of this privacy breach? As it stands I'm pretty sure  Ihave personal information for about 17 LMG employees that I found for sale online and from what I can tell the information is highly accurate just I'm not trying to call peoples cellphones cause that mess is weird

Nothing yet, still working on it! Send me a DM re: the breach and I can get the details forwarded over to the relevant people.

[QwertyChouskie]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:50 AM, Genzong said:

Any update or response from Asus as well as any update on someone reaching out to me so i can go in depths about the massive inavion f data rpivacy I can discuss with a team member to give them the details since LMG is part of this privacy breach? As it stands I'm pretty sure  Ihave personal information for about 17 LMG employees that I found for sale online and from what I can tell the information is highly accurate just I'm not trying to call peoples cellphones cause that mess is weird

I'd also suggest talking to Troy Hunt, creator of Have I Been Pwned https://haveibeenpwned.com/About

[Genzong]

On 4/17/2023 at 12:34 PM, mynameGeoff said:

Hey! Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

I've reached out to our ASUS contacts to get more info from the situation and will respond back once we have a better grasp on what happened.

Second Bump asking if there has been any update? If not I'll just go through the emails, black out personal information and post them all here along with the stupid NDA they tried making me sign that stated Asus wasn't responsible for anything and that I was not allowed to talk about my customer experience or else I'd be sued. Also, I DM'd you the extra information about the security concern I had Geoff. Please send it to whoever handles that stuff at LMG, thank you. 

[LMGcommunity]

13 minutes ago, Genzong said:

Second Bump asking if there has been any update? If not I'll just go through the emails, black out personal information and post them all here along with the stupid NDA they tried making me sign that stated Asus wasn't responsible for anything and that I was not allowed to talk about my customer experience or else I'd be sued. Also, I DM'd you the extra information about the security concern I had Geoff. Please send it to whoever handles that stuff at LMG, thank you. 

We're still working on it! We will follow-up when we have more info.