ASUS Already On Government's Radar for Warranty Issues

if Asus has done this exact thing to

more than a 100 people and the FTC has

receipts about it that is enough for

them to go after him you know you were

showing me your phone and you're just

there was just email after email after

email of people with complaints if all

those people filled out this form 100%

the FTC would do

something acus has posted a second

apology it's the classic recursive

apology apology from a corporation after

it's non-apology where it's apologizing

for that non-apology so we're not going

to give the light of day it mostly says

the same stuff there's nothing concrete

or substantially different in it it's a

longer version that is less accusatory

but it basically says the same thing so

uh this video is not only about Asus

we're going to be talking about how to

protect yourself from getting screwed as

a customer talking about some of your

consumer rights some of this is very us

specific some of it is wider reaching

applies basically anywhere we're in the

US those are the laws that are the

easiest for me to research and

understand uh but as far as the Asus

part because we do want to close it that

story line This is basically part three

it might be the final for now uh again

we did a a similar thing last year with

them so there's always room for more

especially with Asus and we'll see maybe

we talk to them in the future but just

to get it out there publicly I asked

Asus if I could try to help them with

their own customers by which I meant hey

I have an inbox full of very upset Asus

customers I would like to help you help

them and they rejected the offer which

is cowardice and uh in my opinion anyway

and in the very least kind of shows what

they think of their own customers um so

anyway what we're doing now this because

this does go beyond Asus we can do

something productive and help some of

the people with all of these warranty

issues in general uh maybe even get some

policy passed that's kind of one of the

next things I'm starting to look into

but we have something for you all first

so we've created a warranty click

toolkit on the gamers nexus.net website

this is freely available there are no

ads on the page for any thirdparty

services and this web page contains some

legal definitions some explanations for

a US audience to inform you of your

rights but it also contains templated

replies that you can use in any region

and adapt for your own warranty claims

these are written to help you get a

productive and hopefully Speedy response

to your warranty issues with any

manufacturer we also have guidelines on

how to document your device suggestions

on how you could confirm everything in

writing and seek manufacturer guidance

every step of the way so they can't

you out of a claim and how it's

a push back against rejections of valid

claims if you happen to face one like we

did our hope is that with this

information you'll have some confidence

to be able to successfully push back in

many common scenarios of rejection of a

valid claim and we've even pointed you

towards if you're in the US at least a

couple of laws that you can reference to

maybe just get escalated to a supervisor

and have it resolved further we're

compiling a report with the public

interest interest research group they

were recommended to me by LS Rosman

Nathan Proctor from it's pronounced perg

will be joining us today in most of this

video to talk about consumer rights so

the goal here is consumer education uh

and just trying to help people as much

as possible when the company is uh

acting in the way that Asus is so we're

also going to be filing that report that

we are working on which is Asus specific

with the Federal Trade Commission so I

am going to be either personally

submitting it or submitting it to the

public interest research group who will

then bring it up as high as I can to the

FTC these reports are pretty powerful so

they are important now for everyone in

our audience who has had an Asus

warranty issue even if you've already

emailed it to us and thank you we have

lots of them now please also visit this

genius link on the screen it's GE ni.

us/ Asus claim that's just a link

shortener so g. us/ Asus claim and that

will bring you to a Google form we've

created the goal of this is to compile

evidence in a quickly referenceable and

standardized way so a form so that we

can use it going forward such as if we

want to bring any of these matters to

the attention of the FTC before that we

brought you this video our limited foil

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us head over to store. Gamers access.net

this issue goes far beyond Asus and

we'll be investigating other

manufacturers as well we've done a lot

of undercover warranty investigations

over the years Intel for example was one

of them in the past uh but I have

something to say to Asus directly as we

kind of close out their part of the

story line so our objective is for Asus

to be better and the reason I want Asus

to be better is not for Asus it's for

the customers or our viewers because our

really primary objective at GN is

consumer Focus who typically has the

least power in the whole chain of events

uh and if by the way of helping

consumers Asus also betters its own

reputation it gets some marketing then

great everyone's happy and Asus that is

our goal there is no other goal here so

if you claim to be a leader in the

market like you do then set the example

by sales Asus you are the leader in many

of these markets and no one is in a

better position to support the customer

than Asus they shouldn't feel threatened

by their competitors at least in things

like motherboards even handhelds they're

doing pretty well compared to their

competition uh regardless of total

market sales so if as if you suddenly

support your customers properly then all

of the manufacturers who compete with

you such as gigabyte ASRock MSI other

motherboard vendors they are going to

have to follow in order to compete

that's the great thing about when the

market leader does something right

everyone else is going to have to follow

it to compete whereas if someone smaller

does it that might just give them an

opportunity to Leap Frog Asus eventually

and get to the top so this can only help

Asus and we really want you Asus to set

the right example okay let's get into it

so we want to create a somewhat

permanent referential resource for you

to check for help with your warranty

claims it has basic guidelines how do

you successfully file a claim this is

assuming of course you have a valid

claim uh and that it's not a scam

because companies have to plan for that

too which we can respect and understand

that but the way to plan for that though

is not to just turn around and scam the

customer instead so there's the line to

be drawn we have the website page that's

made we're going to update that whenever

we think of something new to add some

kind of advice or suggestions to post

there so that's supposed to just be

there forever for you to help out

bookmarket or whatever for when you have

a warranty claim in the future uh

consumer rights differ between countries

as I said our focus is mainly the US

it's the market we're in selfishly uh

and it's the one I'm the most competent

about in terms of having access to

lawyers or people who know the laws so

we can inform ourselves so that's our

main focus but there's some generic

stuff in there too for everybody now uh

this video mostly is focused on an

interview with Nathan Proctor from the

public interest research group or again

perg uh again recommended by Lewis

Rossman and it's a companion piece to

our interview with attorney Vincent

Augusta where we discussed warranty laws

in the US Magnus and Moss the act from I

think it was the 1970s and some consumer

rights there so we've got these two

pieces where what we're trying to do

again is really take the opportunity to

to provide consumer education that is my

personal objective here because you know

this Asus thing uh it it sucks that

they're doing this it is upsetting and

it's frustrating at the same time

there's kind of a limit to how far you

can get with being frustrated and so the

thing to do once you hit that limit is

to try and turn it into education that

can be used broadly not just for this

one instance that we've been reporting

on so that's what we're doing here today

again to reference the article so it

talks through several of these aspects

we'll leave most of them there for you

to just read if you ever need it as one

example though we have some details on

how to convert a warranty support phone

call into something in writing so

everyone's on the same page that way

this is something that attorney Vincent

Augusta recommended in our discussion

with him where he's talking about

getting everything written down so the

manufacturer the customer everyone knows

what's supposed to happen here our guide

for example says to reaffirm with the

support rep on the phone that you

understand the agreement or the next

steps properly read it back to them from

your notes and then ask for their email

or a general support inbox so that you

can follow up at which point you would

confirm this understanding send the note

say just confirming that this is what we

agreed upon or what the next steps are

and that allows you to get it into some

form of writing now of course they can

respond and disagree but at least that's

written down and you can take it from

there now the reason for doing all this

or the I don't know the underlining

principle for GN from our sort of

standpoint is uh gan's grown enough at

this point and I've grown dissatisfied

enough with how a lot of these not all

of them but a lot of the companies

handle these situations where we're

starting the process of taking our

findings as far up the chain as we can

so you at first it was kind of talking

to lawyers about it getting some on

camera discussion educate the audience

and it's getting people like Nathan

Proctor on today to talk about even more

of the consumer right side but the next

step that I'm starting to look at is the

process of taking some of our findings

for things like this Asus claim and

whatever else we uh may run into to

lawmakers so I've already begun that

process of uh basically figuring out who

we want to connect with on the Congress

or Senate side of things who makes the

most sense to talk to I'm sure I'll be

having conversations with perg with Le

Rossman anyone else who can point me the

right direction who has experience with

it uh and also I'll be contacting the

Federal Trade Commission just in general

so not necessarily for Asus although

that's an option too but just more of a

hey I'd like to establish a line of

communication kind of like we did with

the US consumer protection the US cpsc

which is an agency

um that we worked with for the NZXT

cases catching on fire issue uh kind of

like that except on some of this

warranty and support side of thing so

that's kind of what we're looking at

right now which is because we've we've

done this enough we've complained enough

and um the goal isn't to just complain

it's to actually get something done and

if the companies aren't going to do it

themselves then we'll find a way to make

them do it that's that's where we're

going with it so anyway I want to

briefly talk about two times

specifically that we've covered where a

company did exceptionally well with a

warranty type issue the reason I'm

bringing these back up is because I want

to set a road map where Asus or just you

all anyone can look at it and say all

right we get it what do you want Steve

and there's two examples Arctic and

fractal both did phenomenally with their

own warranty issues they were of

different severities so uh quick recap

we already covered them in Fall we'll

link them below if you want those

details but Arctic had an issue with

corrosion of its one of its liquid

freezer 2 Series of pumps so the

previous generation they had a serial

number range and they actually contacted

us before we found out about it on our

own which is amazing already and they

said we' found this big problem uh the

pumps are getting gunked up and it's

causing temperatures to be too high or

feasibly could cause failure of the

liquid cooler product so they told us

about it they explained what the issue

was they I think gave me like some kind

of I x-ray analysis materials analysis

or whatever of the failure and with all

that detail they then said here's what

we would like uh we want everyone to

know about this and that's awesome

because their feeling was they want the

customer to have a good experience with

the product they would hate for anyone

to have this problem and not know they

can get help for it or that it's an own

issue and so they did a uh an option

where you could either send it in to get

repaired or you could take a repair kit

and repair it yourself and that was

great handled excellently um really

professional handling of that fractal

had an issue similar to XTS where it had

a PCB and I believe it was the torrent

that was uh a poor design and could

short in a way that could potentially

cause it to uh burn or maybe even catch

fire if you have the wrong conditions

just like the H1 fractal also contacted

us in advance and they said we have this

problem we are pulling all of the

shipments of the torrent back this is

like before it was really fully hitting

the market and we're fixing all of them

and we'll send them back out again with

the fixed one so those are two examples

not going to get them further we have

videos on them but the point is that

companies can do stuff well and I

actually I won't specify which one but I

spoke with one of those two companies

after it was all said and done and I

said so how'd it work out and they said

well we fixed all the claims and

actually our sales increased so much

that it even covered the cost of fixing

everything which is awesome because

companies should be recognized and

rewarded for doing the right thing like

that that is exactly how the system

should work and uh I I hope that's

encouraging for Asus to look at this and

go maybe we need to recalculate how we

view warranty claims and if they don't

if large corporations don't then keeping

in mind that you know these smaller

companies have the mobility and they

have the motive to act in the interest

of the consumers whereas large

corporations will be more calculating

and one thing that changes that

calculation is laws and policy and

legislation and things where it now

there is a potential uh punitive aspect

to it

and that that Waits the outcome for the

consumer enough of that so closing out

on the Asus side of things specifically

if you've been affected by their

warranty processes in the past even or

especially you emailed us please fill in

the survey we've linked the emails are

not going to be used for any kind of

marketing uh it is explicitly so that we

can collect data in a spreadsheet so the

inbox doesn't doesn't automatically sort

of spread sheet if I it uh and use that