Review on ASUS Warranty Service

I have been working as a part-time technician at an Apple Authorized Reseller. Before we hire a full time technician in, I spent half of my working time in the service room and fixing computers. I have encountered various cases that computer breaks down and needs different levels of service.

The store I am working at is an Apple Authorized Reseller, but most of the service job I received was from ASUS because the store is also one of the authorized service center in western Canada. I am not saying ASUS’ quality is bad; after reading my post today, you will understand this. Before I share my experience on the inside of ASUS warranty service, please take a look at the newly published article on ASUS’ Laptop quality, “ASUS Tops Laptop Reliability” (from www.lebokov21.com).

From the graph of the article, we could see ASUS wins out from all the top brands in terms of the qualities of the laptops. That’s to say that among the same quantities of laptops from all the brand name, the least laptops from ASUS need to be sent back for service. I don’t own any PC laptops, but before I went for my Apple Macbook Pro, ASUS was the brand I would go for. As for today, I couldn’t really comment on the quality of the laptops other than giving you the positive feedback from online reviews or comments out of my clients.

However, I could, as a part time technician, give you some feedback on ASUS’ warranty service.

1. Turn-around time

Usually the turn-around time for ASUS warranty service is about 1-1.5 weeks. When the clients brings in the laptop, we, as the service center side will perform a quick diagnostic and briefly explain what could have gone wrong with the computer. Then we could contact ASUS and confirm the service job; usually ASUS could send the replacement parts needed in within a week (parts are mostly from the US). The actual service job will take about another day.

2. Special service for highend models

Although the store I am working at is certified, ASUS will take care of the high end laptop models. If you model is ASUS G series, most likely your laptop will be sent to the Toronto central servicing site if you are in Canada. I don’t know the exact reason for that, but normally your laptop will receive special treatment. I remember once, when I was still new at the store, I accidentally receive the job to replace a motherboard for an ASUS 17″ Gaming series. I ordered the parts and ASUS actually sent them to us; the customer was satisfied with my work on his laptop, but I received a warning from ASUS that I should not touch those laptops a couple weeks later.

Now whenever there is customer bring in the high-end laptops models for service, we will need to check the list; if models matches, we will need to wrap and pack the laptop nicely and ship it to ASUS Toronto main service site. I actually saw one laptop that needs the hard drive to be replaced, but I handed it back the customer, I realized the keyboard was replace (It was ugly-dirty when I received it.), the missing screws were all put back on and the hinge caps were replaced too (the hinge caps were SLIGHTLY damaged). If I was doing the job, I would get the hard drive in, replace it and return back to the customer, but ASUS will actually put the computer form condition 5/10 back to 8/10 for those high-end models? Or it was just a rare special case?

However, no doubt on their speedy service from Toronto though, and the return rate of those serviced laptop is lower than 5% — only less than 1 out of 20 serviced laptop will come back for second service on the same problem.

3. Global warranty

Most (not all) of the ASUS laptop users will enjoy the benefits of ASUS’ global warranty. Since the the store I work at locates in the area where a lot of Asians gather, I service quite a lot of laptops that not originally purchased from Canada. When I checked the warranty through ASUS’ service site, I found they provide global warranties to most of their models. Other than the global warranty, they usually provide extended manufacture warranty comparing to other brands. If you are interested, check the service label on the bottom of your ASUS laptop, it usually says 12Months, 24Months or 36Months. The common one is 24Months based on my personal experience.

**Just a special note that, if you computer is purchased from those big electronic store like BestBuy, please check your model and see if it’s qualified for service from authorized service center. For example, if you are buying the laptop and BestBuy labels it as “Exclusive to BestBuy” and offer attractive discounts on it, there is a very high chance of your laptop service can only be made through BestBuy.**

4. Help to technician over the phone

No matter how long you have been a technician, you can’t 100% guarantee you can solve any service problems. If you, as a technician, have problem while servicing ASUS laptop, you can just give them a phone call and there will be a senior technician to guide you until either you get it or you give up.

Just right before I post this write-up, ASUS provide a new component of their service site. They released diagnostic tool for EACH models; I could now login and choose the model that’s been servicing and download the correct testing tool. It really help out to check whether the problem(s) is(are) caused by faulty memory or defective video chip and so on.

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I mentioned that we received mostly ASUS’ laptop, and definitely it’s not due to the quality, but because ASUS really provide outstanding post-sale service. For example, if I drop my Macbook Pro, Apple will shake their heads and tell me they won’t help me out even I have Apple Care; if I drop my Vaio, Sony might just take an arm or a leg from me to get the laptop fixed; but ASUS will usually give you a “grace period” to register and activate your “Accidental Warranty”, just in case you will drop your laptop “accidentally”.

Based on the article I read about the quality of ASUS laptops and my personal experience on its servicing policy and quality, I could really confirm their slogan is true. ASUS, “Rock Solid” in laptop quality and “Heart Touching” in post-sale warranty service.