ASUS Scammed Us

and they wanted to charge us

$200 for that D also they never

addressed the problem we sent it in for

only that thing that they decided to

find connector broken also don't know

what that's reference no idea what that

means everything there were no broken

connectors when we sent it in system

noise okay don't know what that means

yeah Gap abnormal what does

mean it felt like Asus tried to scam us

when they tried to charge us $200 to

repair something we didn't even claim as

damaged in a warranty claim this was

sent back in it's our Asus Rog Ally to

repair a thumbstick problem and somehow

that turned into Asus saying that LCD

needs to be replaced even though the

joystick is covered under their repair

policies and what's better still is it

felt like Asus was threatening Us by

saying we'll send the device back

possibly unassembled if you don't pay

this fee it honestly felt like an

extortion attempt where they're like if

you want to see your beloved Asus Al

working again pay us

$200 for something totally unrelated to

the actual warranty claim you had when

we sent this into Asus the screen was

working they said that the reason they

were rejecting the claim is because

of

this can you see it can you do you have

the zoom lens on we might need a t you

know what let's let's bring this down to

the microscope I'll show you the

damage we're going to find the damage

I've got the Ally here let's adjust the

microscope so where is the

damage

oh oh there it

is

that's

$2 and we're not alone in this and we

have evidence as always just this week a

user post on Reddit noting that Asus

demanded $3,758 Canadian dollar to

repair a 490 video card which the user

paid $ 2,799 CAD for the reason for the

repair was a scratch in the housing of

the connector not burning not melting

not fracturing literally a scratch the

same problem we had with our Ally this

sounds like policy as quickly as

possible here are examples from our own

viewers who have emailed us March 26th a

viewer emailed us claiming AC's cracked

the chassis of their laptop when it was

sent in for repair the user has

documentation reporting this March 13th

a viewer emailed us stating that their

new video card exhibited instability

Asus replaced the device with a

different damaged refurbished device

February 19th a viewer emailed us where

Asus rejected a motherboard RMA for

quote unquote customer induced damage

the user believes Asus damaged the board

very first the user emailed us telling

us about an Asus arm for a motherboard

which Asus remotely diagnosed as having

memory issues Asus later quoted the user

$190 for the repair of the $210

motherboard citing quote unquote

physical damage after previously

diagnosing a memory issue December 21st

user emailed us telling us about how

their laptop was stuck in RMA hell for

over a month December 7th a user emailed

us where Asus quoted them

$2,658 to repair a laptop the laptop is

one of asus's special ones that ships

with liquid metal pre-installed by Asus

the liquid metal leaked user States they

never opened the system and Asus denied

the claim and demanded money to fix it

and we have at least one 100 of these

emails over the past several months

alone and this is a list we're showing

now from May 2023 alone last time we did

this with Asus featuring damaging

devices and for repair and returning

them stating that 109° for GPU hotspot

is normal uh it's not and more and Asus

clearly has a warranty problem and today

all of that is what we're talking about

but we are fortunate enough to have our

own experience with it and it wasn't a

good one we sponsored our own undercover

warranty investigation if you want to

directly fund the extreme lengths we've

gone to lately for content and our

continued independent coverage grab this

limited time golden blue variation of

our cyber skeleton foil shirt on store.

Gamers access.net the shirt features a

new fit and new colors with a rib cage

design made of computer components like

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pre-order the shirt today or grab one of

our other items so now one year later

almost exactly since we last talked

about asus's issues with its

motherboards at the time and then its

warranty practices stemming from all

that where we had attorney Vincent

Augusta on the show to talk about some

of his interpretation of it we are back

to blow the doors back open about what

it's like to really be a customer of

Asus this is our Asus Rog Alli Z1

extreme we've had it for about just

under one year actually and we've bought

two of these now the other was the

non-extreme device in just one year

since purchasing our Z1 Extreme has had

the following issues the micro SD card

slot never worked and seemingly burned

itself out the left joystick on the

xaxis stopped working and began drifting

which you can see in some of our footage

showing mouse cursor movement on the

desktop and the battery has already lost

8% of its lifespan in just one year of

extremely lightweight use that's a lot

of problems in one year and two of those

are inarguably not our fault in fact

they are so not our fault that Asus has

made fixes for them part of their

explicit warranty coverage so anyway we

sent the Ally in and before we did

because it seems like hundreds of you

have complained to us about having

similar issues we decided to carefully

photograph and document every single

corner of our device and also get the

internals of it documented in addition

to super highresolution photos we also

took microscope shots of the pcbs the

connectors we logged the level of

stripping on the screw heads and we

logged any damage of our own to the

Plastics we also removed our SSD because

our advice to anybody sending a device

in for repair of any kind is to remove

the drives this was also a good test of

asus's processes and competence here's

the timeline first we filed an RMA for

the defective thumbstick and this part

is critical we did this anonymously they

didn't know who we were we're just a

normal customer uh and we also did not

tell them about our broken micro SD card

slot which again as a reminder that is

an Asus problem not an us problem so

that's important to the story because we

wanted Asus to discover it on their own

if they were going to Discover It here's

how all this went down first we did some

troubleshooting locally and swapped the

thumb stick between our Z1 non-extreme

and our Z1 extreme we found that this

fixed the issue indicating a defect in

the PCB or the stick itself so that's an

easy repair for them we then swapped it

back to the original state and our issue

matched this one described on Reddit on

April 8th we contacted asus's customer

support we told them only that the left

stick doesn't work here's our exact RMA

form Patrick filled this out I asked him

to pretend to be a relatively uninformed

customer who only knows enough to know

that the joystick isn't working right

this is part of our normal testing for

warranties so rather than acting as

patient and well-informed customers

leading them to the answer we act as an

uninformed user who is normally patient

at first but becomes frustrated as the

company genuinely becomes frustrating to

deal with because that seems fair uh so

that's our process and normally our view

is if the company can survive that it's

kind of like a thermal torture test it's

like if it can pass this test it can

pass anything uh and we just keep the

bar as long as it's sort of reasonable

but frustrated that's the max we'll dial

it up to these days for these tests now

Asus asks you to write your operating

system password and BIOS password in

plain text in their RMA form uh they do

suggest that you just wipe those

passwords instead though so instead of

doing something insane like writing a

password on a piece of paper going in

the mail we ensured no passwords were on

the device At All by removing them from

bios and also taking the SSD out Asis is

very clear in these things as well they

say quote Asus is not responsible all

caps to you or any third party for loss

of data including during the inspection

process this is another reason to remove

the SSD Asus doesn't guarantee they say

the original parts which would include

include the SSD again another reason to

remove it Asus also tells you not to

send in the device with anything that

you might want back because they'll

throw it away they actually explicitly

say that they will quote not be returned

to you not that they might not be

returned but straight up that they won't

be returned so fair enough they warn you

we kept the box in the accessories we

then fabricated a signature for our

undercover Alias Pat stin operating in

conjunction with agent be sturk both

have been on the job job for about a

decade now and we sent it in with a

simple note that said left stick is

broken and only goes up and down that

seemed sufficient without being

belligerent or overly annoying on April

9th we packed the box and shipped it to

asus's spec Asus provides an R checklist

they ask you to wrap the device with a

few inches of bubble wrap pack it in a

box with an air gap then pack that box

in a box we think that's great they also

provide a shipping label which is good

as we'd have dinged them pretty hard for

that since it's ultimately their fault

the device is going back anyway we

dropped the device off on April 9th and

by April 16th it was at the RMA Center

Asus emailed us on April 18th and this

is when the problems began and they told

us that they were testing the device

they said the turnaround would be 7 to

10 days the same day Asus emailed us

with this quote we would like to inform

you that your product in is out of

warranty or judged as customer induced

damage C thus the repair charge shall be

applied our service center will contact

you with more detail there was no way

for us to respond to this they don't

have an option to reply and in fact the

email was sent from a no reply mailbox

which if you reply to it gets bounced as

uh failed descend so this it's

particularly frustrating just because we

knew there was no customer induced

damage we had documented every aspect of

the device before sending it in uh and

yet we had no way at that time to

dispute the claim we just sat and waited

on April 19th only a day later we

received a more detailed email it said

quote received your unit at a repair

center with signs of damage which is not

covered under the manufacturer's

warranty so strike two and this is

starting to feel like the new egg

motherboard story they sent us a list

referring to notebooks monitors video

cards and motherboards for examples of

customer induced damage none of which

are an asus's ally and all of which are

completely irrelevant and they basically

just said there's customer damage and to

us the lack of transparency here and the

lack of information is an immediate red

flag where as a customer it feels like

you're getting fleeced for money for

something that you sent it in with one

problem and now it's suddenly got all

these new problems you never noticed or

heard about and it just feels like a

scam so it's certainly structured to

encourage acceptance from people who

don't know better and from people who

feel time pressure because they put you

under a lot of time pressure to agree to

all this quickly lest you receive the

device back in pieces and we wondered

what the damage could be so Asus sent us

this photo of the uh damage you might

not be able to see it again we had to

check our own photos to make sure they

didn't cause it but that microscopic D

was in fact from us and they wanted to

charge us

$200 for that Den we didn't even ask

them to fix that part we didn't even

notice that part that's how small it was

also they never addressed the problem we

sent it in for only that thing that they

decided to find to us in combination

with the emails from our viewers and

with the recent story about that video

card with the insane charge related to a

similar problem uh it feels like an

intentional attempt or a policy to

mislead the customers into a position

where they'll pay for a service they

don't need and it's you're really stuck

if you don't know what you're doing as a

customer uh and if you're not willing or

not sure you can stand up for yourself

because they're trying to sell an

unneeded fix and if Asus is worried

about losing money on every Ally because

they have to replace the entire

motherboard and two thumbsticks then

maybe this would be a way to help cover

the cost we don't know their motives but

if I were to try and think through

reasons why you would do this thatd be

the first one I would assume now back to

the email nowhere in it did Asus say it

would fix the thumb stick for which we

sent the device in the best part is that

in the background of asus's own photo of

damage our own RMA form can be seen with

the words detailing the completely un

address thumbstick issue Asus said the

quote was delivered for an LCD module

replacement at

$98.59

labor for that was $60 and shipping was

20 because now they're claiming there's

customer induced damage which means that

they can try and scam us out of another

20 bucks for shipping instead of being

forced to eat the cost for their own

stick defect that started this whole

thing so that's a clever way to avoid

paying the shipping cost there's some

tax in there too totaling 191

buck47 at this this stage they finally

gave us the option to pay reject or

dispute and once again nowhere in there

did it mention the original issue or the

micro SD card issue that we knew existed

but wasn't disclosed quote please be

advised that if payment is not received

for repairs to the unit the unit will be

sent back unrepaired and may be

disassembled the liquid damage May

prevent our repair team from

reassembling the unit for return where

did the liquid damage come that like

came out of nowhere unless the repair

technicians are drinking a little bit

while they're working on it that would

actually explain a lot that might that

might explain most of this but the we'd

assume that the liquid damage thing is

part of some form email that they just

send to anyone but that doesn't make it

okay it states the liquid damage in a

very matter OFA way and we think that is

manipulative and accusatory and this

entire email reads to me like if you

ever want to see your ally again pay us

uh

or it'll will throw it through the

window on your bed in pieces next time

that the Godfather I think that's what

that was now we have a number of legal

questions about this and so I connected

with Lewis Rossman to ask if he knew

anyone who could help inform us and

educate the audience on your rights as a

consumer for warranties Magnus Moss for

example is one of the commonly cited act

uh and what else you might be able to do

it sounds like we're going to have a

part two to this and it'll be a pretty

interesting one but for now we need to

finish these emails so in the meantime

the rest of asus's email said this quote

please note that if no action is taken

with this quotation your product will be

returned to you unrepaired after five

business days from the invoice date end

quote however Asus also says that

acceptance of the quote is required in

three days and that the quote is only

vowed for 4 days this creates intense

pressure for the customer to accept

because delays could result in a

disassembled box of scrap being returned

in the mail Asus also doesn't even

guarantee it'll work they say quote any

outof warranty repair fee prescribed by

Asus and accepted by the customer is

non-refundable and does not guarantee

that repair is can to be made continuing

the timeline we didn't respond for a few

days on April 22nd we received a

reminder that the invoice has been

outstanding for two days now Asus again

warns that the device will be returned

unrepaired if we don't respond within

five total days even though the device

has defects that Asus caused with its

own component choices there is no

presented option to reject the

unnecessary paid for repair and accept

only a free repair covered under their

own explicit policy fortunately because

their warranty policy is written and

they are contradicting themselves

customers have some pretty substantial

legal ammunition to be used against Asus

and we'll talk about that more in a

little bit on April 22nd we issued an

RMA dispute the dispute only allows 100

characters so you really don't have much

room to defend your case we tried to

send more detail but a 100 character

limit is pretty strict to fully test

Asus our dispute was written with the

tone of a frustrated uninformed customer

so it's intentional to read like this

and we accused Asus of breaking our

screen because their quote indicated a

screen replacement despite us sending it

in with a functioning screen the same

day Asus responded to the dispute with

this quote our service team found Case

Dent on your unit the screen works fine

however in order to replace the dent

case the whole LCD screen needs to be

replaced as it is directly connected to

the case they are a whole part physical

d damage is excluded from the standard

warranty coverage if you would like to

proceed with service payment is required

or we can proceed warranty repair for

card reader joystick issue only and

ignore the dent if you do not care about

end quote on April 24th we sent another

frustrated email in reply and rejected

the screen replacement the same day Asus

sent us a second reminder that our RMA

will be automatically rejected if we

don't pay up immediately that this

dispute we filed didn't pause the

process of rejecting the RMA because it

hadn't been paid for yet is insane it's

manipulative it is overbearing and it

applies a huge amount of pressure to a

legitimate customer to capitulate and

pay less they risk receiving a device

unrepaired and potentially disassembled

10 days in Asus finally answers our

question we've had this whole time they

say they'll repair the joystick and

confirm that it doesn't require payment

they say quote we have reach out to our

repair team to request partial repairs

ignoring the Case Dent end quote after

Asus told us this we received another

email that states this quote we received

your service cancellation on your

pending repair we will proceed with

returning your unit to you unrepaired

end quote and the RMA number that they

showed in this email was the only one we

were ever issued there were not separate

RMA numbers for the outof warranty and

in warranty repairs it's now unclear to

us as customers what the hell Asus is

even going to do at this point it's

Schrodinger's RMA the device is both

repaired and unrepaired as long as you

don't open the box we ignored that email

and we replied to the one prior that

told us theyd fix the joystick we

replied with a simple okay as there was

no call to action and no questions the

next day ASU said this quote our team

has indicated that they are able to

proceed with the repairs of your product

and ignore the Cosmetic issues as such

we discarded the quotation and you will

receive a system generated cancellation

response which should be ignored as

repairs will resume now as a reminder

this came after they sent that response

so we were in a period of confusion for

about a day finally on April 26th Asus

says it generated a shipping label for

return we're still not sure if they

fixed anything at this point April 29th

it ships and on May 4th it's delivered

to us Asus provided this hard copy of

the repair report there was no online

version of this made available to us

which means that this is the first time

in the entire process we have any

indication as what Asus actually did and

here's a quick clip of me and Patrick

trying to decipher what it means so

problems can't detect memory card that's

an issue we had uh I don't think we ever

told him about that we did not tell them

about the SD card connector broken also

don't know what that's refence no idea

what that means everything there were no

broken connectors when we sent it in

mechanical assembly problem uh maybe the

thumb stick system noise okay I don't

know what that means yeah Gap abnormal

what does we we had taken it apart

before so yeah but that was I don't

think I've like ever been more careful

with a disassembly and then action so

they say tape for system noise tape wait

okay we we'll inspect that and then Gap

abnormal mechanical myar for assembly

problem and for the assembly problem

they ex

exchanged the parts uh then they have

iob board for connector broken con for

connector broken this whole thing's a

con and then main board for can't detect

memory card wait what the so all of

these are the um in warranty repairs

that were done uh because we they have a

note here that we denied the uh the

screen replacement yes we denied the

unnecessary screen replacement so here's

the quick recap the motherboard both iio

boards and both joysticks were replaced

as part of the repair on the report

these are all marked as ecn which we

think stands probably for engineering

change notice this to us would imply

that Asus is replacing these components

as part of standard practice when any

Ally comes in from at least 2023 what's

really unclear is that their RMA

language says that it's covered under

for the Asus Rog Ally and it say

parenthetically 2023 that is not a model

that doesn't exist the only thing that

exists

is sorry some customer induced damage is

the RC71 l

uh there's no year signifier on it now

if we were to give them some leeway

maybe what they mean is manufactured in

2023 so it seems like they might be just

replacing all those boards or maybe

those within a certain serial range if

that's true it sounds like a soft recall

that should have probably been turned

into a real recall a long time ago or at

least done with active Outreach to the

customer now barely more than a week ago

The Verge directly asked Asus quote has

Asus actually found a hardware fix for

the faulty SD card readers if someone

rmas their Ali to Asus this way will

they get an SD card reader that no

longer fails to which Asus responded

quote our commitment is to assist all

customers effectively if any user

suspects they're encountering issues

with their products we encourage them to

reach out and make use of our RMA

process as needed they can expect us to

provide a suitable resolution in other

words um to translate corpo speak no

they haven't found a solution because if

they had they would have said yes it's

really that it's like it's as simple as

an if then statement if the answer isn't

equal to yes it is no it doesn't matter

what they say after that uh Asus did

fully repair our Ally that includes both

the stick issues and the unmentioned

micro SD card issue for now we'll see if

it fails again that required replacing

basically the whole system the Apu or

the so the Wi-Fi card all of the vrm

components all the mosat inductors

capacitors everything that's on the

board all of it was replaced and it was

only done after we fought them over a

manipulative repair process that in the

early stages of it up until we finally

got a resolution it feels like it tries

to guide customers into just accepting a

$200 fee for the world's tiniest plastic

divot to replace the board and the

sticks is most of the device in fact one

of the only things they haven't replaced

at this point is the screen which is

interesting because that's what they

were trying to charge us to replace so

those are some expensive repairs and if

Asus is having to do those repairs on

all 2023 allies it may explain why the

Ally X Hardware that they just announced

was announced at all and why Asus is

uncomfortably squirming in a new

interview with the Verge quote and while

Asus still won't admit that the Allies

SD card reader ever had any fault The

Verge says uh tells me it's the same

exact as the card reader it uses in its