ASUS Customer un-Service. Again. Still.
If you missed the previous posts on this, you can go here and here and here.
A small recap. I bought a $500 Asus T91 Tablet from Amazon, on the day it was released. I never buy brand new technology and this was a huge splurge for me.
The day after it was delivered, it died. Broke. Wouldn’t turn on. The Wi-Fi stopped working, I rebooted it to see if that helped, and when it turned off, it never turned back on.
Amazon sold out of them the first day and it was going to be at least three to five weeks before they had more in stock. So I sent it to the factory, because I didn’t want to wait that long to get it back.
ASUS has now had it for over a month. They started out by saying I broke it by spinning the screen around and around, and I would have to pay to have it fixed. I did not break it. I wasn’t going to pay to have it fixed.
Since I bought it on my American Express Platinum card, and they have purchase protection, I got them involved.
When the American Express claims guy called me, he conference called me in as he called ASUS. They told him that they are going to fix it free of charge. As soon as a part comes in. Of course, they’d never told me that, they waited until AmEx got involved to mention that.
That was weeks ago. They still don’t have the part. I don’t believe they have any intention of fixing it, but they did effectively get American Express out of the picture. Apparently, that was all AmEx needed in order to leave me high and dry as well.
I am at a loss as to my next step. I’m going to try American Express again. I may try contacting some of the tech sites out there, see if one of them wants to blog about this. Maybe someone with apparent contacts at ASUS?
I’d love to find an email address or phone number for someone high up in the corporate ladder at ASUS and have a talk with them.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:18 am
RQ- do you have the equivalent of what we call consumer affairs department, from your state government? We have this where they will advocate on your behalf – and also expose the company once they review your case. I also find that you can expose a company on radio “talk-back” – even a threat of this gets action here. But I understand you have a completely different system probably! Or you could write the saga up in a review of the product (there are normally web reviews of popular products like this). Good luck. What a ***#$@ company!!! I bet there are lots of buyers having the same problems as you.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:35 am
You definitely need to report this incident to the Better Business Bureau.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:41 am
I’d be telling AM EX to remove the charge completely and that would be the only way to solve this as far as you were concern. You have been more than fair and patient and tried to resolve it. Now let them keep it.
Start over later……………………
August 28th, 2009 at 8:49 am
In the mean time, it might give you some satisfaction to write an honest review of the product on Amazon, since that is where you bought it.
DH and I ALWAYS read Amazon product reviews before we buy, even if we don’t buy from them. You may educate some other consumers.
Just a thought.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:09 am
I hope they solve this situation quickly! And thanks for reporting it, there will definitely not be any buying from that company as far as I’m concerned!
August 28th, 2009 at 10:43 am
ASUS Computer International (ACI)
Debby Lee
Corporate and Consumer Press Relations
(D) 510-818-4821
E-mail: debby_lee@asus.com
Josh Norem
Technical Marketing
(D) 510-818-4804
E-mail: josh_norem@asus.com
You can also try sending to this list I found from another customer of ASUS who is not happy with their service. Not sure how many work but it can’t hurt.
support@asus.com
customersupport@asus.com
complaints@asus.com
rma@asus.com
Jerry_Shen@asus.com.tw
tsd@csc.asus.com.tw
gladys_mellema@asus.com
info@asus.com.tw
frank_yu@asus.com.cn
nfo-usa@asus.com.tw
tsd@asus.com
linda_chen@asus.com.tw
sirirat_s@asus.com.tw
Eric_Xu@asus.com.cn
rohan_kadam@asus.com.tw
GreenASUS@asus.com.tw
Roy_Chong@asus.com.tw
kittithida_p@asus.com.tw
rebmastew@asus.com.tw
hr@asustek.co.uk
ramesh_sundarrajan@asus.com.tw
Jack_Huang@asus.com.tw
Alex_Hwu@asus.com.tw
Chihwei_Chen@asus.com.tw
Apple1_Wu@asustek.com.cn
Kitty1_Liu@asustek.com.cn
App_Xu@asustek.com.cn
Hendry_Huang@asus.com.tw
Ruru1_Xu@asustek.com.cn
adm_uk@asus.com
ellis_wang@asus.co.tw
ellis_wang@asus.com.tw
support@asus.com.tw
peter_butler@asus.com
Shawn_Chang@asus.com
Joe_Hsieh@asus.com.tw
Leon_Yu@asus.co.tw
henry_yeh@asus.com.tw
andrew_tsui@asus.co.tw
jonney_shih@asus.com
jonney_shih@asus.com.tw
carmen_li@asus.com
william_oneal@asus.com
Sherry_Wu@asus.com.tw
August 28th, 2009 at 10:44 am
One idea would be to sue them in small claims court for a refund. Usually you can get a court date very quickly and you do not need a lawyer, but they do. They will quickly calculate that the cost of showing up to defend the lawsuit (hiring a local lawyer to be there on the court date) is greater than the cost of refunding your money.*
*Note: I do not know the state in which you reside or the rules of its local courts, and therefore I am not qualified to offer you legal advice in this matter. Accordingly, the above should not be considered legal advice. If you need legal advice on this matter you should contact a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. The above should not be construed to create any lawyer-client relationship between you and me. For the reasons above, I cannot represent you in any action you might decide to pursue.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Thank you tvw526!!!
I’ve sent a polite email off to the top two people. I’ll give it until the end of the day and then send it to the full list if I haven’t heard anything by then.
I also called American Express again after I made this post. I’m supposed to hear from someone else at AmEx by the end of the day Monday, though their “position” is that as long as ASUS says they plan to fix it, AmEx won’t do anything. It appears that the Platinum Card Purchase Protection isn’t all they advertise it to be, after all. The person I spoke with was very understanding of my problem and didn’t completely close the door though, so we’ll see what they say when they call me back Monday.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:25 am
daddyjac – I will likely be looking into that option as well at some point, though at this point that’s kind of a last resort.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:28 am
You might also try posting it on Consumerist.com. They LOVE stories like that. And a lot of times, getting that information out there on that site gets you results.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:32 am
katienmaggiesmom – you have to “audition” to become a commenter there? And there doesn’t appear to be any way at all to create a new story.
Is there some email address there that I can send my problem to? Or is there a URL I’m not seeing with a place to tell them my story?
I would love to put it there, but don’t see any way to do that.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I am so sorry you have to go through all of this. I never buy techno stuff through Amazon.com. I usually buy with home shopping network channels because you can return anything within 30 days regardless of what it is and there has never ever been a problem, they refund me straight away. I don’t know what is wrong with techno stuffl lately, but I bought a camera and it was hopeless, and then had to return that. I bought another camera, it worked great for three days, and then froze up competely. I couldn’t even turn it off. I had to send that back as well and get my refund. I am now reluctant to buy another online. Maybe I just got duds. This is all so frustrating for you. Luckily, you got some good suggestions. I was thinking about getting a laptop but have been hestitant. I hope that you can get this resolved, their responses are not good enough.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
What about getting it on Clark Howard? He may have a way of helping.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
2qts4me – I could have returned it to Amazon, but they were out of stock and I wouldn’t have received a new one for a lot longer than I wanted to go without. I had no idea ASUS would put me through this, or I’d have returned it to Amazon, as I do trust their Customer Service. Anytime I’ve had issues, they’ve been very responsive. I just didn’t want to have to wait that long for a new tablet. Irony is, here it is over six weeks later and I still don’t have it.
—-
nicurn – I’m not familiar with Clark Howard, I’ll do a search and check into it.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
katienmaggiesmom – found the email address, and sent an email to tips@consumerist.com – we’ll see if they want to do anything with it. Thanks.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
That’s awesome tvw!!
Are you on Facebook? You could look for or start an “ASUS Customer Service Sucks” group and have your friends publicize it. Surely you’re not the only one with this problem, especially if the “part hasn’t come in” (yeah, right! All that tells is you is that they know how to get around credit card protection services).
August 28th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
By the time you get this resolved, Asus will probably already have a newer, more powerful model out for less $$$ :(
August 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I think LouiseMe’s suggest would be most effective if you get a large enough following and some press coverage.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
RQ, you could try contacting Good Housekeeping. They do a monthly column where they help a consumer out with similar problems. Or, see if a local radio or TV station has a reporter that looks into consumer fraud issues. I’d also recommend calling the company at least once a week (more often if you have the time) to check on the status of the backordered part, repair progress, etc. Be a squeaky wheel!
August 28th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
In our City Newspaper, there is a news columnist who helps consumers with “issues”. After dealing with Maytag for 9 months on a dishwasher recall (OMG!!!!), 18 hours after I emailed her, I had Maytag on the phone offering me a brand new dishwasher and could they schedule a time to come install it? 18 blinking hours!!! I couldn’t count how many times (and hours) I’d been on the phone with various people/departments for 9 MONTHS and she solves the problem for me in 18 hours!!
Is there someone like that in your area? Worth their weight!
Good luck, it sucks how companies treat us!!
Snick :)
August 28th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
If Amazon was going to take forever than I’m not surprised that the company is still holding onto it. If they can’t supply Amazon the probably can’t supply anyone else.
I wonder if they have a solution to the problem yet? Is this their first model?
August 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am
I agree with daddyjac. Small claims court can be a quick and effective method to resolve it. Doesn’t hurt to file the complaint, you should get a court date several months down the road, and it can be easily dismissed if you resolve the matter in the meantime. It really should be a relatively easy process.
My other thought was, get the state attorney general’s office involved? Years ago in school, I bought an Acer laptop I had nothing but problems with, and the company gave me a hard time when I wanted them to fix it (under their own warranty terms). I filed a complaint with the MN AG’s office. They were SO helpful, as soon as the AG’s office got involved, Acer suddenly wanted to fix my computer as quickly as possible.
I agree with others – reviews on websites like Amazon and CNet, and filing a complaint with the BBB, may not help solve your problem, but you’d be doing a good thing by informing future consumers, and would be getting back at ASUS too.
August 29th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Do you have a Fixer? In our local paper {The Chicago Sun Times}, there is a columnist who tries to help with these kinds of problems. Her request is typically that you have tried to intervene on your own behalf and that you have a “track” record of those interventions {whom you contacted and when}. As several have mentioned before, often a company becomes very responsive once she gets involved.
August 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Any news or updates? I second the reviews. I wasn’t going to leave a review about the first camera I had to return, I went to the home shopping site and just out of curiousity looked it up. I thought I just got a dud, but there were many other complaints about it.
The second camera (different brand) that I returned didn’t have any complaints so assumed I got a dud.
Reviews are really helpful. I still haven’t got a new camera.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:49 am
Next time you contact ASUS by email send them a link to you very well read blog. Companies do not like bad press.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Hmmm… Interesting. It just so happens that 2 weeks ago, after receiving my brand new ASUS 1005HA-P at my door, I had an instant problem with it right out of the box. After a 12 hour charge, no power, no nothing. Upon getting nowhere with ASUS, I returned it to the online supplier I bought it from, and promptly ordered the Samsung Netbook I had passed over for the ASUS. Guess I’m not the only one soured on ASUS…
August 31st, 2009 at 8:30 pm
You should write a hand written letter to the CEO of the Company’s (Amazon,Asus,AmEx) with your complaint and contact #’s, and state to them WHAT YOU WANT, to satisfy you. That is your negotiating point atleast, if you need to neg.
You should ALSO send them each an email also expressing your complaint and what you want etc.
If you haven’t heard from them within the week or so. Do it all again. Third time, do it all again plus call them each. It can be done! After awhile, they will get sick of you. According to Andy Rooney.
You can also do a video all about the company’s with your complaints and all you did to try to resolve the issue and post it on Youtube. That is a big hit for the company’s.
I watched this from Andy Rooney from Nightline or whatever show he’s on. Youtube is loaded with everyday ordinary people’s complaints videos and the company’s don’t like it. Some of the folks rec’vd new items or deep discounted repair bills, etc. HTH~
September 6th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Make a simple call to AmEx again. They will issue a chargeback and you will have your money in about 15 minutes. Then buy it from a reseller that focuses on customer service (Newegg). I think you gave up on AmEx too early. As a cardholder, you can pretty much get your way 100% of the time as long as you aren’t consistently doing chargebacks. You just need to stay in contact with them until the issue is resolved.
But since the second round of T91′s has arrived from China, you can expect to get your replacement soon (if you haven’t already).