Asus didn't changed

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

If you are one of the others here on the forum that Asus reached out to please feel free to report who the interaction went.

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LMG announced that it will resume sponsorship with Asus they determined the situation has improved.

Here is a data point that shows the polar opposite:

 

On june 4th @Asus_NAsupport reached out in a PM asking what the issue is:

Spoiler

Hello there,

This is ASUS North America Support team reaching out regarding complaint posts that were posted on LTT Forum. We are currently in the process of doing a full analysis on the issues that were experienced on LTT Sponsor Complaint thread, and we were informed you were a user that may have had some troubles in the past with ASUS product/service.

If you would allow, please provide us with one of the additional pieces of information below so we can analyze and assess your case. The issues encountered are important to us and we’d like to implement the actions we find and incorporate any improvements to our Products and Support going forward. We appreciate your time and we’re looking forward to hearing from you regarding the details below.

·       ASUS Case Number

·       ASUS Serial Number

·       ASUS RMA Number

 

I took my time and wrote a lengthily reply the same day:

 

Spoiler

Hello there,

I am in Germany (Europe). The not so great experiences go back quite far and are consistent (every time I had an issue):

1. Asus NC1 headphones -> interference issues with smartphones/cell phones (EMI issue) -> resolved by the seller in a process that took months (probably why I still remember this one) as Asus didn't feel responsible (2012-2013 ish).

2. Asus PG347Q monitor -> 2018 -> can't do 100Hz. The support at that time could not solve the problem that I get horizontal artefacts when the display is running at 100Hz. A couple of years later, I found out for myself that it's a 60Hz panel and can't do the advertised 100Hz. Fair enough, the fine print says it is up to 100Hz. Not great when every review list it as 100Hz and 100Hz is big on the packaging.

There's a lot more wrong with this monitor, for example I can't connect my ThinkPad Yoga 12 via HDMI and a few other devices (the only monitor I know of that has incompatibilities with a lot of devices).  For my current R7 5700G desktop system, it works most of the time with the current driver release, but I wouldn't call it reliable or trouble-free. At least I no longer have to physically unplug the DisplayPort multiple times a day to wake it up from "sleep", which is great and a very low bar for a display to jump over.

This is also the only/last Asus product I still own. This isn't because it's great, but rather because the local store doesn't have 21:9 on display and I bought two displays online that had a not-so-eye-friendly coating. So I have given up on replacing it for now and being reminded of all the problems on a regular basis.

 

One of the support tickets related to this monitor is [redacted, support ticket ID/number]  from 2019. There are more, but I can't find them in my email archive.

 

 

3. Some BIOS/firmware bugs on an Asus mainboard -> support was unable to help. To be frank, it always felt like there wasn't any technical support and the only job of support was to handle RMAs. From an external perspective, it felt like the engineering was completely disconnected from customer feedback/support tickets, with no way for support to escalate a ticket. 
In the end I had to scrap it and switch to a mainboard from another manufacturer (can't remember exactly. Probably around 2019 with 9th gen Intel). From that point on, Asus mainboards were a big no. Nowadays my first choice is Asrock, followed by MSI.

4. The final nail in the coffin was in late 2021 when I bought a new Asus Xonar DSX 7.1 from the asus-eshop on ebay, which is described as the "official ebay store of Asus". It came in an unmarked envelope (just a shipping bag and no product packaging), without any accessories, without any paperwork (manual, warranty information, ...) and with a bend PCIE bracket.

First party/manufacturer direct is the best option in my opinion, as counterfeits and other problems are rare. So this was a shocking event and I checked to see if this shop was really Asus, but there was no public list of authorised partners, which is unusual. Normally companies have this public so that customers can check that a company is actually authorised and not just pretending to be. 

So I asked Asus support in chat a simple question: is Asus-eshop on ebay really Asus? The answer was: we don't know. In other words, Asus support says that they, Asus, don't know if Asus is Asus. I followed this up with an explanation as to why this question was being asked, but the answer remained a we don't know.

Due to this experience I stopped buying new products with the Asus brand on it. After running into a software problem with a GPU, I stopped considering anything Asus, whether new, used or dirt cheap: A product without support is bad as every issue potential means scraping it.

 

 

5. Another bad situation I just noticed: In 2021  I decided to delete an Asus account (can't remember why as the sound card debacle happened months later around  2021-11-29. Might be another wave of Asus PG348Q issues that caused this reaction). Going by the text of this email it wasn't possible or I unaware of how I could do it myself (not the point/issue):

Quote

To Whom It May Concern

I know that this is probably the wrong address but the contact form only allows product inquiries.

Since I don't use this account I would like to delete it ([readacted email adress]).

               

Kind regards

 [redacted real name]

This was send to LegalCompliance@Asus.com on 2021-02-27. Why this email-address? No idea. Might have been the only one I could find that was slightly related to the topic.

Now. Three years later I tried login in and the account still exists. It wasn't deleted.

 

 

 

These 5 events is all I remember. There might have been more issues but hopefully it paints a clear picture why Asus is blacklisted and it is near impossible to change it: I don't consider it at all anymore -> no new product/experience to change my mind -> stays blacklisted and advise heavily against buying anything Asus related due to past experiences.

The problem with Asus runs so deep that it affects everything with Asus in the name. Asus IOT? No idea if it is better or separate form consumer Asus. It has Asus in the name, so the lesson learned is to avoid it and not give it a chance.

 

Warm regards

[redacted, real name]

 

Reaction?

None.

Pinged the account after a while as this might have slipped through: Still nothing.

Not even a polite we forwarded it internally (aka. nothing will change). Just ghosted and once more time wasted on Asus.

 

If you don't want to read the whole thing (TL;DR):

- read point 5. The issue of an account deletion request not being executed is an issue that definitely should have been followed up on as it a.) a current issue b.) easy to fix.

- As a support ticket was asked for I searched my mail archive to find one.

 

The Asus product itself keeps giving issues you just don't know existed in this product even years later. Bought explicitly an NVidia GPU as there are is the highest probability of it working with this monitor just to be greeted with this:

WARNING: flashing lights!

 

To add one more issue to counter the argument but Asus has improved the communication for new issues/tickets: No. Not at all.

As Asus never followed up here on the forum (weeks later) I wrote an email and this time it at least was followed up on with a we cant do it. In order to delete the account go to the website and the setting can be found under ....

To my surprise the account finally got deleted without me doing these steps. So what? Support is still sending out "confusing" messages to (ex)customers instead of properly communicating the truth.

Even if there was there some internal communication between legal compliance and customer support (email was cc to both) it is sill is bad. In this instance it is more than reasonable to expect a short message notifying me about this "change" to a prior send message.

 

[KnoT]

After my last Asus monitor I learned to newer buy Asus monitor again

 Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN had 5 of them all of them were defective.

[IkeaGnome]

2 minutes ago, FlyingPotato_is_taken said:

- read point 5. The issue of an account deletion request not being executed is an issue that definitely should have been followed up on as it a.) a current issue b.) easy to fix.

In the time since you posted this I found the link. Google is hard...

ASUS Privacy - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Official Support | ASUS Global

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

@IkeaGnomeThis was 2021. GDPR rules likely doesn't require these steps (not a lawyer).

 

Of far higher interest in this context this was a very easy topic to show good intent/starting a conversation and normalize a relationship after screw ups:

Follow up on it, verify identify/change communication channel, delete account. Done.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

@Shloopingle I can assure you it isn't a cable issue. another one with this GPU is that you can't get into BIOS (no display output) meaning it is always getting a different monitor when I need to change something there (e.g. like today clearing a CPU swap message).

[Alex Atkin UK]

@FlyingPotato_is_taken

Was any of this more recent than June as they only announced what they were going to do to improve customer services in July, and a company that size its likely to take time to roll out across the many different countries they have regional contractors in.

 

Personally I'm very pro ASUS motherboards as they seem to be the only company that lets you fully update the BIOS without Windows.

 

Having an MSI in my home server has left me completely stuck with a 14700K I cannot update to the latest microcode because they require Windows to update the ME and the new BIOS requires the latest ME.

 

Fortunately I've never had to deal with ASUS support but will be more careful to buy from a retailer that I know will support me if ASUS do not.

[thewelshbrummie]

Lots to unpack here. Not necessarily your fault @FlyingPotato_is_taken but something you need to keep in mind going forward.

 

First, from the hidden parts of your post:

Quote

Hello there,

This is ASUS North America Support team

You replied with:

Quote

Hello there,

I am in Germany (Europe).

 

That's your first clue - Asus NA won't be able to deal with European based support requests.

 

Most global tech companies commonly have regional subsidiaries, usually split on a continental basis (NA, EMEA for Europe Middle East and Africa). Sending a support request to the wrong one means that they can't help you. Admittedly the lack of a response stating that isn't great when a quick reply directing you in the correct direction would be better but that's still an error on your part, assuming that Asus support on a forum is actually the correct point of contact and not reading the smallprint correctly.

 

We had similar at a former employer who repaired TVs where we had a service contract with Samsung for access to order spare parts on demand. All of them shipped from the Netherlands as that's where Samsung Europe support was based at the time. Toshiba were in Germany. The point is that most OEMs had a single support centre in continental Europe, regardless of where you were based. I doubt that's changed in the 12 years since I last dealt with those OEMs (admittedly ordering spares from Toshiba Europe, while I was in Milwaukee really made life a lot easier for my employer as he couldn't work the Toshiba support website).

 

On 9/2/2024 at 7:09 PM, IkeaGnome said:

In the time since you posted this I found the link. Google is hard...

ASUS Privacy - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Official Support | ASUS Global

This does appear to work - I created an account 2 years ago during the GPU shortage and have never used the account for anything else. This thread reminded me of that and, one logged in, used this link to get an immediate account data download and erase option. @IkeaGnome my thanks. I also have email confirmation of the request - I guess we'll see how it shakes out but it's a good start tbh.

 

On 9/2/2024 at 7:57 PM, FlyingPotato_is_taken said:

This was 2021. GDPR rules likely doesn't require these steps (not a lawyer).

That's fair for GDPR in Europe but again, you were contacting Asus NA where GDPR doesn't apply (and I've also recently experienced this with closing accounts I created when I lived in the UK, where despite Brexit GDPR remains in full force and continues to apply). Consider yourself lucky that you don't have to deal with some of the account deletion problems that those of us living in NA do, where this type of setup is unfortunately common. Take SiriusXM - where you can signup for satelite radio via the website but can only cancel by talking to a human on the phone, no exceptions as I found out to my literal cost. At least the FTC is trying to change that, though cable companies are trying to block that.

[starsmine]

I never understand these types of posts.
your complaint is they didnt handle something in 2021 and that they havent changed?

 

Quote

Bought explicitly an NVidia GPU as there are is the highest probability of it working with this monitor just to be greeted with this:

???????

The display issue is most likely a cable issue

The bios issue has nothing to do with anything in this chain, the bios is shunting the bios output to whatever video output is first. 

your point 4 is more complicated then you realize, it is very possible that its legit and the rep you are talking to does not know. Each region handles their own stuff and distribution, they are legally distinct entities. ASUS NA, does not know what ASUS EU is doing and does not know what ASUS taiwan is doing. There regularly are official ebay shops that are just backroom deals at a distribution warehouse that almost no one in the company knows about in this industry.  

Why did ASUS reach out to you at all in june when you had no active/recent RMA issues with them?

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

4 hours ago, starsmine said:

The bios issue has nothing to do with anything in this chain, the bios is shunting the bios output to whatever video output is first. 

 

On this pice of display it does. There are devices that just don't work at all like a ThinkPad Yoga 12. Others somewhat work like the display not waking up for Intel 10th gen.  Don't know exactly why but it does.

 

My guess is that NVidia G-sync makes it more reliable. Also I don't think BIOS supports G-sync and is rather some other video mode as UEFI likley only contains/load basic video driver. Not my expertise so I could be wrong.

 

4 hours ago, starsmine said:

your complaint is they didnt handle something in 2021 and that they havent changed?

Not at all:

1. They screwed up e.g. in 2021 which I just noted in 2024. 

2. THEY asked with the goal to improve.

3. Ghosted. Simultaneously addressing the screwup from 2021 was possible.

 

9 hours ago, thewelshbrummie said:

That's your first clue - Asus NA won't be able to deal with European based support requests.

That's why it is explicitly mentioned as the first point.

The response could have been on the line of this has been forwarded and I will be inquiring a follow up from team XY in ... weeks. Combined with some other texts.

If Asus North America has no path to talk to HQ and Europe teams than this is an entirely different issue they would need to address.

 

Some of the technical support request wasn't with the EU support anyway.

Also you never know if Asus NA regional office is in talks with HQ which would make NA the right person to inform.

 

9 hours ago, thewelshbrummie said:

you were contacting Asus NA where GDPR doesn't apply

Never mentioned GDPR. The response where created by the Asus privacy @ asus.com (email  I send there after beeing ghosted here). In the end the account got deleted so that's fine. The issue is the completely inconsistent messaging that came from there.

 

For Asus_NA: The main point: Asus was reaching out to understand and improve, there was an ongoing issue, it was never addressed. TL;DR No intend of change/improvement shown by Asus.

 

4 hours ago, starsmine said:

There regularly are official ebay shops that are just backroom deals at a distribution warehouse that almost no one in the company knows about in this industry.  

If you take a look from the perspective of the semiconductor/IC industry than even just an official distributor selling "unauthorized" (in the context of ICs: fakes and harvested) will be taken serious.

Now imagine the official ST-Microelectronics or TI stores selling those products and the sales rep/technical marketing at those companies goes like what ever. This would set quite a big wave in motion.

 

Meanwhile consumer electronics Asus is here and is basically we don't care at all and we don't even know or pretend to not know who our official store is.

 

13 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

@FlyingPotato_is_taken

Was any of this more recent than June as they only announced what they were going to do to improve customer services in July,

Would need to double check. I might have pinged Asus_NA one last time in early July.

 

 

13 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

but will be more careful to buy from a retailer that I know will support me if ASUS do not.

Always a good idea regardless of the manufacturer/brand. Knowing that if it goes wrong there will be a good communication makes solving issues so much more relaxing.

 

 

 

Btw. Still heard nothing from @Asus_NAsupport.

 

@LMGcommunity is the @Asus_NAsupport account still active?