Gamers Nexus has reacted to Asus' announced improvements with cautious optimism, stating that they are not taking Asus at its word. In order to monitor these changes, editor-in-chief Steve Burke has mentioned that they already have devices in Asus' RMA centers under pseudonyms and plan to continue sampling them over the next 6-12 months to ensure that these are permanent improvements. Gamers Nexus will be closely observing the situation and expects Asus to follow through on its commitments to address the concerns that have been raised.
Asus is planning to address the issue of the ROG Ally handheld's SD card reader failures by issuing a formal statement about the defect. The company has also extended its warranty and will reimburse for damaged cards if customers send them and the handheld for repair5. However, it is not clear whether the card reader can be repaired. Asus has created a Task Force team to retroactively go back through a long history of customer surveys that were negative to try and fix the issues. Additionally, the company is creating a new support center in the US which will enable customers to choose between a repair of their board or a faster swap with a refurbished board.
Asus has pledged to take several specific actions regarding past warranty repair denials and unnecessary service charges:
Asus has created a new email address, executivecare@asus.com, specifically to re-process prior RMAs (Return Merchandise Authorizations) that customers feel were unfairly classified, misclassified, or charged for a service that should be free.
The company has committed to refunding service charges for unnecessary repairs which customers felt compelled to accept in order to have a warranted repair covered, such as unrelated or misclassified Customer Induced Damage (CID).
Asus has also committed to refunding shipping charges in scenarios where a warranted repair was part of the RMA. For clarity, if a customer has both an out-of-warranty repair and an in-warranty repair in the same claim, shipping will be covered by Asus.
Additionally, Asus has committed to refunding labor and taxes related to these aforementioned qualifying disputes.
The company has created a Task Force team to retroactively go back through a long history of customer surveys that were negative to try and fix the issues.
Asus has removed the power from the repair centers to claim CID. Now, CID claims must go through Asus’ team. This will remove some of the financial incentive to fail devices.
Asus is creating a new support center in the US, which will enable customers to choose between a repair of their board or a faster swap with a refurbished board. This solves an issue where refurbs were the only option in some scenarios previously.
These actions demonstrate Asus' commitment to addressing past issues with their warranty repairs and service charges, aiming to provide better support for their customers moving forward.