Asus Laptop Service, or lack of!
Back in March 2009 I purchased an Asus 1000HE netbook from Amazon.com (USA). I had the first drama with this laptop even before i received it!
Apparently UPS left the box at the door, without getting a received signature, but the laptop was not found at the door! It was gone, or never delivered, or whatever. Point is, i did not have it.
Much to Amazon's credit, when i rang them to report this they immediately submitted another shipment, and the netbook arrived 3 days later.
We've used the netbook for about a year (12.5 months exactly) before it seemed to die. Unfortunately this was immediately following a trip to New York City,(in fact on the train home from the airport) and all of the video and pictures i had taken were already transferred to the netbook. Obviously i had some panic feelings when it did not start, and rang the Asus "international" service line for help. After a few confirmatory actions given to me by the agent, i was asked to send the unit to Asus for repair.
Hoping to recoup at least some of my pictures, i removed the HD from the unit, attached it to another computer, and was able to copy all media files. The HD seemed to work fine.
After a few days i rang Asus to find the status of the investigation, but all i was told was that i was sent an email that would give me more information. The service line could not give me details of the email.
After several calls during that week in which i communicated my confusion about why emails from Asus seemed to take a very long time, i finally received a snailmail (post) version of the document. In it Asus informed me that as the unit had been purchased in the USA the guarantee was valid for 12 months only, and 12.5 months was beyond 12 months. I was asked whether i wanted to pay to have the unit repaired. All appeals on my part for some leniency on the warranty as 2 weeks beyond 12 months seemed a bit strict, were rejected.
Prior to deciding on a repair i thought it important to learn what was wrong with the unit, but was only informed that the harddrive was defective. That is, the HD that i had coincidentally connected to another computer prior to shipping to Asus, and in doing so had confirmed that the HD was in fact not broke!
After some further investigations on my own i discovered the repair company that actually completes Asus repairs here in Europe, and spoke to them.
Although i was not permitted to speak to a technician, apparently technicians are not permitted to have phones in this company, or so i was told, i learned that some additional items were going to be replaced on the unit.
With this information i agreed to the repair, and sent them an email confirmation of this approval.
A week later i rang Asus to learn the status of the repairs, and was told that some parts required for the repair were on backorder, although the agent could not tell me which parts.
I then rang the company that is actually repairing the unit, and they told me they were still waiting on the confirmation from me authorizing the repair!
So, i sent this to them again...
The Saga is still ongoing....
21 May: after ringing the hotline every day this week to learn the status, i was told yesterday that my netbook was on the way back to me. And, it arrived today! Finally. After almost exactly 1 month!
And, the replaced parts were also in the box: the harddrive and the front screen fascia of the screen. The fascia does not seem to have any electronic parts on it, so why replace it?
After starting up the computer the first surprise: XP in German! Remember, this was an American unit, which was part of the whole problem.
Second disappointment: different to the US unit, this version of XP is loaded with bloatware! So, some more work to be done.
There was no bill in the box, so i'm expecting that to come in the mail the next days. But, i can already say that this experience with ASUS was a complete disappointment. One whole month to essentially replace a HD on a netbook! In comparison, while the netbook was being repaired i also had a problem with my Logitech DiNovo keyboard, also purchased at Amazon in the US.
One call to Logitech US, who referred me to Logitech Germany, who took my data and immediately dispatched a replacement unit to me, which arrived two days later! The new unit arrived and it was a model that we better than what i originally have, which bty i still have. Logitech did not ask me to ship the broken keyboard to them!
So, my summary on these two companies?
Logitech: Super!!
Asus: Crap!
Many companies can make an interesting product, but it's the whole "package" that counts. Logitech seems to have learned something about customer loyalty. Asus seems to care less about customer loyalty!
Next netbook: NOT ASUS!!!
Apparently UPS left the box at the door, without getting a received signature, but the laptop was not found at the door! It was gone, or never delivered, or whatever. Point is, i did not have it.
Much to Amazon's credit, when i rang them to report this they immediately submitted another shipment, and the netbook arrived 3 days later.
We've used the netbook for about a year (12.5 months exactly) before it seemed to die. Unfortunately this was immediately following a trip to New York City,(in fact on the train home from the airport) and all of the video and pictures i had taken were already transferred to the netbook. Obviously i had some panic feelings when it did not start, and rang the Asus "international" service line for help. After a few confirmatory actions given to me by the agent, i was asked to send the unit to Asus for repair.
Hoping to recoup at least some of my pictures, i removed the HD from the unit, attached it to another computer, and was able to copy all media files. The HD seemed to work fine.
After a few days i rang Asus to find the status of the investigation, but all i was told was that i was sent an email that would give me more information. The service line could not give me details of the email.
After several calls during that week in which i communicated my confusion about why emails from Asus seemed to take a very long time, i finally received a snailmail (post) version of the document. In it Asus informed me that as the unit had been purchased in the USA the guarantee was valid for 12 months only, and 12.5 months was beyond 12 months. I was asked whether i wanted to pay to have the unit repaired. All appeals on my part for some leniency on the warranty as 2 weeks beyond 12 months seemed a bit strict, were rejected.
Prior to deciding on a repair i thought it important to learn what was wrong with the unit, but was only informed that the harddrive was defective. That is, the HD that i had coincidentally connected to another computer prior to shipping to Asus, and in doing so had confirmed that the HD was in fact not broke!
After some further investigations on my own i discovered the repair company that actually completes Asus repairs here in Europe, and spoke to them.
Although i was not permitted to speak to a technician, apparently technicians are not permitted to have phones in this company, or so i was told, i learned that some additional items were going to be replaced on the unit.
With this information i agreed to the repair, and sent them an email confirmation of this approval.
A week later i rang Asus to learn the status of the repairs, and was told that some parts required for the repair were on backorder, although the agent could not tell me which parts.
I then rang the company that is actually repairing the unit, and they told me they were still waiting on the confirmation from me authorizing the repair!
So, i sent this to them again...
The Saga is still ongoing....
21 May: after ringing the hotline every day this week to learn the status, i was told yesterday that my netbook was on the way back to me. And, it arrived today! Finally. After almost exactly 1 month!
And, the replaced parts were also in the box: the harddrive and the front screen fascia of the screen. The fascia does not seem to have any electronic parts on it, so why replace it?
After starting up the computer the first surprise: XP in German! Remember, this was an American unit, which was part of the whole problem.
Second disappointment: different to the US unit, this version of XP is loaded with bloatware! So, some more work to be done.
There was no bill in the box, so i'm expecting that to come in the mail the next days. But, i can already say that this experience with ASUS was a complete disappointment. One whole month to essentially replace a HD on a netbook! In comparison, while the netbook was being repaired i also had a problem with my Logitech DiNovo keyboard, also purchased at Amazon in the US.
One call to Logitech US, who referred me to Logitech Germany, who took my data and immediately dispatched a replacement unit to me, which arrived two days later! The new unit arrived and it was a model that we better than what i originally have, which bty i still have. Logitech did not ask me to ship the broken keyboard to them!
So, my summary on these two companies?
Logitech: Super!!
Asus: Crap!
Many companies can make an interesting product, but it's the whole "package" that counts. Logitech seems to have learned something about customer loyalty. Asus seems to care less about customer loyalty!
Next netbook: NOT ASUS!!!
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