It is rare that I keep whatever computer I have for more than a year's worth of time. Because of this I had never, until last month, had to RMA an entire laptop. It just so happened that last month my Asus T101MT (that I have been very happy with) up and died on me. I was using the system when the screen just cut out. I pressed and held the power button, waited a moment and then fired the system back up.
Nothing, nada, not even a bios screen posted.
I had some extra sticks of DDR2 memory laying around so I tried swapping those out before I called in for an RMA. No luck there. So I looked up when I had purchased the netbook only to discover it was one whole month out of the warranty.
Wonderful.
I'd heard stories from fellow Linux users about companies not honoring hardware warranties, unless Windows was reinstalled on the system. It's wrong, but it does happen. I called up the Asus support line and after jumping through a countless number of automated menus I arrived at someone who could help me. After being walked through a few id-10-t checks the person on the phone agreed with me that the unit needed to be sent to a repair center. It's didn't matter that the system was running Linux, it was a clear hardware issue.
I mailed the laptop out and a few days latter I received a call from the Asus repair center. This is where I was further impressed with the Asus quality of service. Not only where they going to honor the warranty even though it was a month expired, but they discovered that the SSD I had installed in the system the week after I bought it had died and shorted out the motherboard with it. They offered to let me mail them the original 160gb hard drive to install into the unit with the replaced motherboard, but I opted to instead simply have them mail me a working hard-drive-less netbook. They also sent me back the bad SSD so I can get it RMAed (last time I will ever buy an ADATA product again).
So in short I was very impressed with Asus quality of service and they will have the continued support of this Linux user. I received the system back last week and it is working great! Much to my joy they even extended the hardware warranty for me an extra 3 months.
~Jeff Hoogland
great to hear this kind of stories. Living in Italy I can tell you that Asus tech support was excellent as well. Just called in a couple of time and always found helpful people. Not the same I can say for Samsung here our country.
ReplyDeleteciao
Good to hear. I like ASUS products and have never had a problem with them but it's nice to know that if I did they would most likely take care of the issue.
ReplyDeleteI too love use Asus products for most everything, since the original EEE 701. I'm glad to hear your tech experience is good.
ReplyDeleteA quick pass through newegg's customer support generally shows a lot of negative reviews about Asus's customer service, as apparently they won't do anything unless you've registered your warrantee in the first month of ownership.
Not looking forward to the day that I might have a hardware fault on this HP netbook where I need a remedy under it's warranty. The brief statement regarding a "Must return entire package if you do not wish to continue the Microsoft install" gives me a clear indication of where they are coming from in regard to a non-acceptance of Windows. This from a company that boasts it's a supplier of hardware to the motion picture industry. I just laughed at the posturing on their statement, but it wouldn't be the first time I've needed to rubbish a retailer's arguments to their face. The first thing I did was to get some practical usage facts regarding their choice of OS over mine, and for Win7 starter, it does not look at all pretty.
ReplyDeleteThis is good to hear, because I have an ASUS laptop that's just under a year old running Linux Mint 9 LTS "Isadora", and while I haven't had any problems with either the hardware or the software (aside from it being unable to suspend/hibernate, despite my best efforts), it's good to know that the customer support understands the difference between hardware and software when offering help.
ReplyDelete--
a Linux Mint user since 2009 May 1
Asus is great stuff. They put out some of the best looking laptops, and their hardware is quality. I'd never heard of them until I bought a laptop built off of an Asus barebones back in '05. Since then I've bought a laptop and a netbook, built a desktop on one of their boards, and convinced family members to try them out to the tune of several more netbooks and desktops. When I worked (briefly) at Best Buy, I always tried a little harder to sell their stuff to customers than HP, Dell, or whatever else. Glad to hear they delt with you respectfully and to your satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteNo contact with support - but I have had an 18.5 " asus laptop since mid 2009 - and have multi-booted multiple fedoras ubuntus mints and slacks with absolutely no problem. Asus is certainly ready for linux.
ReplyDeleteMSI has rediculously awesome tech support.
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome. You usually hear the exact opposite story. I will definitely check them out when it is time for my next upgrade.
ReplyDeleteJust revamped our accounting department with new Asus computers and I have to agree with you on their CS. The service was excellent with understanding a small business like ours.
ReplyDeleteGlad you and the others had good experiences with ASUS. I just contacted support and had a radically different one. My ASUS motherboard has some SATA ports that are dying, and I wrote in for warranty support. The official reply included this choice quote:
ReplyDelete"Please do not use Linux on our motherboard.
The motherboard doesn't support it formally."
I did a Google search for ASUS Linux support and this site was the top result. I thought I would share my experience even though this is an older post.
That sucks - honestly though in cases like this just don't even bring up that you run Linux. Just stick to the facts - their hardware is broken and you want it replaced.
DeleteThat being said at large companies like Asus departments like Motherboard (that you dealt with) and Netbook (that I dealt with) are fairly distant often times.
I just ordered an Asus, I heard they where good but now to hear they are pretty Linux friendly makes it even better!
ReplyDeleteI'm also planning to buy ASUS K53SD...
ReplyDeleteand i'm a big fan of linux which brought me to this page :)
Do you think this laptop too will have a nice linux support ?
Hi all.
ReplyDeleteI have a Asus A55A laptop, switched the harddrive for a SSD, running Ubuntu on it, it runs perfect on the Asus. Have been a Linux user sence 1994-95.
Never had a problem with Asus, they make good hardware!
//M