Gamers Nexus has done an undercover investigation of ASUS by sending their defective ROG Ally in for warranty service. Gamers Nexus stated that their ROG Ally had a damaged thumbstick which showed drift, and tested it by swapping the stick with a known working model which repaired the unit. GN states this was not the only issue they had as their SD card slot never worked, and the battery has lost 8% of its lifespan after just 1 year of light usage. GN then conducted detailed photography and videography of the unit prior to sending it in. This included microscope enhanced photos of the PCBs, connectors, and even the level of stripping on the screws. They also logged any damage they noted. They then anonymously requested a warranty repair by using language an uninformed user would use such as “the left stick is broken and only goes up and down”.
On April 9th, 2024 they sent the device in. On April 18th ASUS notified GN they were testing the device. In less than 24 hours, GN was informed that the warranty claim was denied due to “customer induced damage”.
An interesting note on this e-mail is that it specifies that “Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not represent those of ASUSTeK”.
This, in my opinion, is an extremely dubious statement from an official repair e-mail from an ASUS itself, and lays the proverbial groundwork for them to claim no responsibility if their own hired and trained service technicians make an error. The letter came from the Asus Service Team. There were was no reply option.
ASUS claimed a very small ding in the plastic was the cause of the warranty denial, and requested $191.47 (US) to repair the ding. ASUS never addressed the issue that GN originally sent the unit in for. ASUS then stated that failing to pay for the repair would have the unit sent back without repair. and possibly dismantled. ASUS then claimed that there was liquid damage as well. ASUS stated the repair quote is good for just 3 days, and that the customer must answer within 5 days.
GN disputed the denial and ultimately, after several e-mails, ASUS agreed to fix the original RMA issues without addressing the dent that GN never asked them to address in the first place. These issues were then fixed under warranty.
This video is a roller coaster of bad customer service that has to be viewed to be believed, and I will leave the results of the repair for them to explain in the video. Please watch the GN video and make sure you subscribe.
My personal take on this: I have had half-a-dozen motherboards die on me from three companies including ASUS, and an inexpensive monitor die from another company over the last year. I don’t even bother sending them in for warranty repair anymore because of the time-vampire it is to deal with situations like this. For the hours I would have to dedicate to get a $200 part repaired I could make more money doing something else. It becomes a net loss for me, and companies know this is true for numerous customers from users to businesses. Indeed in my own career, I observed corporate users simply opt not to fix items because it ultimately costs less to replace them than to pay employees to deal with the RMA process. I applaud GN for using their resources to expose this practice, though I hold no hope of it changing.
Good work Steve and GN Crew.
