Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath, so a very old saying goes.
After damning reports on its warranty procedure in the US, spearheaded by Gamers Nexus (GN), the PC and electronics manufacturer Asus has agreed to implement a comprehensive number of changes to its support and repair systems. Among various commitments, Asus says it will create a team dedicated to resolving all outstanding issues raised in customer surveys and a new US-based support centre.
The full list of changes and agreements has been posted by Gamers Nexus, as all of this came about due to the investigative work of Steve Burke, founder of GN, and his team. This culminated with a face-to-face meeting between the hardware review site and Asus at Computex 2024, something I can't recall happening in the PC hardware industry very often, if at all.
Asus' first response to the criticism of its US warranty process was decidedly tone-deaf and all of us in the PC Gamer office felt that it made recommending its hardware a difficult choice, regardless of how good it was. The company vowed to 'do better' barely a week after that response, but I should imagine that Gamers Nexus felt that it wasn't enough, hence why it pressed for a direct meeting with Asus at Computex.
In the recording of the meeting above, Burke presses Asus' representatives on a number of points and while I don't revel in seeing anyone being put under pressure, the initial responses tried to side-step things as much as possible. Persistence won through and although Burke didn't get the best possible answers from Asus, the overall outcome is all that matters.
Right now, it's mostly statements on what Asus plans to change and introduce regarding its handling of warranty claims in the US. However, some things are far more concrete, such as having a dedicated email (executivecare@asus.com) for customers to use for RMAs that they felt were handled incorrectly. Asus has created a specific template for such emails to help fast-track any claims.
The company will also post a formal statement about the SD card overheating issue in the ROG Ally at some point this week. It's not something I've experienced with the Ally personally, but given that the reader is located right underneath a heatpipe, I should imagine prolonged use of the handheld PC with an SD card installed would eventually bump into the problem.
As things currently stand, our feelings on the whole matter haven't changed all that much—not yet, at least. Until it's totally clear that Asus' warranty support in the US works properly, then recommending its hardware will always come with the caveat that American customers may not experience a satisfactory RMA should any problems arise.
Gamers Nexus has said it has "devices in their RMA centers under pseudonyms" and plans to "continue sampling them over the next 6-12 months," so we'll know in due course whether Asus has fully committed to improving or not.
