Asus voids warranty of devices sent for repair over minor damages and performs unrelated repairs

Asus customers reported rejections of their repairs by what the manufacturer calls "Customer Induced Damage". Customers say that the reasons given or damages listed were wrong, and that the repairs performed were unrequested and unrelated, and that the customers had to pay a large fees to get their devices back as the warranty was voided by the manufacturer. When customers got their devices back, the original problem the device was sent in for was not fixed in several instances.

Background

Asus has a repair service where customers can send their devices under warranty back to the manufacturer for repair, using an RMA form. On this form customers can write down what is wrong with their device, so that it is clear to the manufacturer what needs to be repaired.

Unfair voiding of warranty and unrelated repairs

Over a hundred customers e-mailed about their repairs, and how their warranty was voided over reasons that should be covered by warranty. In 2024, Gamers Nexus read these e-mails and started investigating the repair process by sending a device for repair. They anonymously sent a ASUS ROG Ally handheld gaming device which had a issue with one of the joysticks, which should be covered under warranty for repair. They stated the issue with the joystick on the repair form, and knew the repair would be easy as they tested that replacing the joystick fixed the issue. The device also had a broken micro-SD card slot, which they did not mention to see if Asus would figure this out when repairing the device, as that should also be repaired under warranty.

The repair policy has a strict checklist:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR RMA:

• ASUS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR LOSS OF DATA. All or some data may be lost during the inspection or repair process. You are responsible for backing up all data BEFORE sending your product to ASUS. ASUS AND ITS AFFILIATES AND CONTRACTORS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOSS OF ANY DATA.
• ASUS DOES NOT GUARANTEE TO RETURN ORIGINAL PARTS, IF REPLACEMENT PARTS ARE NEEDED. ASUS will not return the original part, if it is being replaced. ASUS AND ITS AFFILIATES AND CONTRACTORS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR RETURNING ORIGINAL PARTS IF THEY ARE BEING REPLACED.
• ASUS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE/HARDWARE INSTALLED OUTSIDE OF ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER SPECIFICATIONS. Repair may result in third party software/hardware being deleted or removed.
• Please note all accessories sent in with your return and are not listed below, will not be returned to you. Please visit our product — specific handling instructions before processing here: Product-Specific Handling Instructions for RMA

For customers that means that they will likely remove the storage from the device, which requires opening up the devices themselves. Once the handheld device arrived, it was marked with "Customer Induced Damage", causing the warranty to be voided like one of the earlier customers reported happened to them. That "damage" was a small dent on the side of the device, which was probably caused by opening up the device, which should not be an issue and not a reason to void the warranty on the broken joystick, according to Gamers Nexus. It was notified to the customer from a no-reply e-mail address, with no way for the customer to respond and no immediate transparency on what this damage was. That was only sent later as a picture, with the sent repair form clearly showing in the background.

That detail is important, because the joystick was not repaired, they decided to repair the small dent instead and charged over $190 for it, and the bill listed costs for replacing the entire screen. The terms of services states in the bill required the customers to pay within "3 business days after the quotation is given. ASUS will consider customer to have declined the service if no reply is received.", and declining the service means you could get your device back disassembled without the repair done. Paying the fee, as stated by the terms of services, also does not guarantee the repair can be made.

As there was no option to reject this unrequested repair and instead request the repair originally on the form, a dispute was made. This dispute had the desired effect, as the response now clearly stated the following:

Based on the details of your RMA, our service team found case dent on your unit, the screen works fine, however, in order to replace the dent case the whole LCD screen needs to be replaced as it is directly connected to case, they are a whole part. Physical damage is excluded from the standard warranty coverage. If you would like to proceed with service, payment is required. Or we can proceed warranty repair for card reader/Joystick issue only and ignore the dent if you do not care about.

To which they could finally reply that they did not care about the dent, and wanted the card reader and joystick fixed like stated on the original repair form. But they got back an e-mail stating they still had to pay to prevent the RMA automatically being rejected. There was another automatic e-mail stating the service was cancelled, which they ignored but caused confusion on whether or not the repair would be done. Eventually it was shipped back with the full repair done under warranty, with the components marked as "ECN". The sd-card reader issue is stated on the Asus news website as a common issue, for which the repair warranty is extended to twenty-four months.

Asus's response

To the sd-card issue there was only the announcement on their news site, and no active outreach. The full response is covered by follow up videos by Gamers Nexus.

Legal

Reports were made to the Federal Trade Commission by customers.

See also

• Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act