ASUS has issued something of a public apology over its convoluted warranty RMA process, pledging that it will revamp the entire process. It is a rare admission of guilt by the company, and it comes after the company was outed by the investigative tech journalist channel, Gamers Nexus (GH), and its founder, Steve Burke.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, the story begins when GH sent a ROG Ally back to ASUS under warranty, in order to replace a defective left joystick. Stick drift is a common issue with the gaming handheld, as it is with other gaming consoles like the Steam Deck, primarily because these joysticks aren’t Hall Effect. It should also be made clear that GH only sent in their Ally after having received numerous emails from disgruntled ASUS customers, and it did so under another name to ensure that the company would not know that it is from the channel.
And for good measure, GH also photographed every square inch of its Ally before officially sending them in.
Now, a product that is still under warranty means that any repairs covered within ASUS’ RMA process would be free, the downtime notwithstanding. Instead, GH received a response from the brand’s technician, demanding that US$200 (~RM942) to fix what was determined to be minor cosmetic issues and refused to reassemble the device until the fee was paid. Again, it was the left joystick that was faulty, and everything else was fine.
For lack of a better word, this was a dick move by ASUS, to the point that GH even brought in a lawyer to explain to its viewers the gravity of the company’s actions and in a later video, explained that its was already under scrutiny by the US government.
It gets even better. After GH received its “repaired” Ally and posted the video, it began asking ASUS for an explanation, only to be met with the usual level of resistance and blame-shifting, the latter to customers, accusing them of not understanding the company’s repair options.
Fast forward to Computex 2024 which took place last month, where a determined Burke met with high-level ASUS staff, the company finally caved in and apologised for all the RMA issues experienced by its customers, and vowed to do better moving forward. This apology didn’t just include disgruntled ROG Ally owners, but also customers whose motherboards from the brand suffered from the dreaded burnout of their Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs.
You can watch the GH video of the meeting in the YouTube we’ve embedded above. For now, only time will tell if ASUS will really revamp its RMA process for products under warranty, or if it will just revert to the “it’s the consumer’s fault for not understanding our process” mentality and response in the foreseeable future.
(Source: Hot Hardware, Gamers Nexus)
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