ASUS has abruptly agreed “to overtake its buyer assist and guarantee programs,” writes the {hardware} evaluate website Avid gamers Nexus — after a three-video collection on its YouTube channel documented unhealthy and “probably unlawful” dealing with of buyer warranties for the channel’s 2.2 million viewers.
The Verge highlights ASUS’s greatest change:
If you happen to’ve ever been denied a guaranty restore or charged for a service that was pointless or ought to’ve been free, Asus needs to listen to from you at a brand new e-mail deal with. It claims these disputes will probably be processed by Asus’ personal workers relatively than outsourced buyer assist brokers…. The corporate can also be apologizing at the moment for earlier experiences you may need had with repairs. “We’re very sorry to anybody who has had a unfavorable expertise with our service group. We admire your suggestions and giving us an opportunity to make amends.”
It began 5 weeks in the past when Avid gamers Nexus requested service for a joystick drawback, in line with a Might 10 video. First they’d obtained a response wrongly telling them their injury was out of guarantee — which additionally meant Asus may add a $20 delivery fee for the requested restore. “By some means that was ASUS saying the LCD must be changed, although the joystick is roofed underneath their restore insurance policies,” the investigators say within the video. [They also note this response didn’t even address their original joystick problem — “only that thing that they had decided to find” — and that ASUS later made an out-of-the-blue reference to “liquid damage.”] The restore would finally price $191.47, with ASUS mentioning that in any other case “the unit will probably be despatched again un-repaired and could also be disassembled.” ASUS gave them 4 days to reply, with some legalese including that an out-of-warranty restore charge is non-refundable, but nonetheless “doesn’t assure that repairs could be made.”
Even when ASUS later agreed to do a free “partial” restore (offering the requested in-warranty service), the video’s investigators nonetheless obtained one other e-mail warning of “pending service cancellation” and return of the unit except they spoke to “Bill Citation Assist” instantly. The video-makers stood agency, and the in-warranty restore was later carried out free — however they nonetheless concluded that “It felt like ASUS tried to rip-off us.” ASUS’s response was documented in a second video, with ASUS claiming it had merely been sending a listing of “accessible” repairs (and promising that sooner or later ASUS would cease robotically together with prices for the unrequested restore of “beauty imperfections” — and that they’d additionally change their automated emails.)
Avid gamers Nexus ultimately created a fourth, hour-long video confronting numerous firm officers at Computex — which lastly led to them publishing a listing of ASUS’s promised enhancements on Friday. Some highlights:
- ASUS guarantees it is “created a Activity Pressure group to retroactively return by means of a protracted historical past of buyer surveys that have been unfavorable to attempt to repair the problems.” (The third video from Avid gamers Nexus warned ASUS was already on the federal government’s radar over its dealing with of guarantee points.)
- ASUS additionally introduced their repairs facilities have been not allowed to assert “customer-induced injury” (which Avid gamers Nexus believes “will take away a number of the monetary incentive to fail units” to hurry up workloads).
- ASUS is creating a brand new U.S. assist heart permitting prospects to decide on both a refurbished board or an extended restore.
Avid gamers Nexus says they have already got units at ASUS restore facilities — underneath pseudonyms — and that they “plan to proceed sampling them over the following 6-12 months so we are able to guarantee these are everlasting enhancements.”
And there is one remaining enchancment, in line with Avid gamers Nexus. “After over a yr of refusing to acknowledge the microSD card reader failures on the ROG Ally [handheld gaming console], ASUS will probably be posting a proper assertion subsequent week concerning the defect.”