My First ASUS RMA - A Mixed Bag Experience

Okay, well, I decided to request an RMA a couple weeks ago for the optical drive of my M50VM. The cursed thing was so loud at startup and initial reading that it nearly drove me crazy. ASUS made the RMA application relatively painless, only asking me to return the drive. Earlier today, my replacement ODD came in, which is much quieter than the original. So if you have a M50VM and think the drive is extremely loud at startup, don't hesitate to get it replaced.

Normally, I'd be all "yay" right now. After initial testing, I tried to mount the drive to the chassis with the screws and noticed the threads weren't catching. After pulling the ODD back out of its bay, I realized that it didn't have any threaded mount holes on the underside. This leaves me a little troubled, because the only thing keeping the drive secured in the chassis is the SATA connection.

Since then, I've been trying to describe this problem to ASUS's support team. My first two attempts with tech support ended with me explaining everything and being put on hold until eventually being disconnected. The third time, I was told to contact customer service for a new drive because it's likely to be an odd/rare manufacturing defect. So I did. After describing the problem and telling the CS representative that I already discussed it with tech support, she attempts to transfer me to tech support anyway. WT-...

So just a couple minutes ago, I sent a technical inquiry through ASUS's email system. And probably end up getting another RMA, which I'm not happy about, mainly because it took two weeks to get the replacement I have now after being told the turnaround would be 3-5 days because they would use cross-shipping, which didn't happen.

So yeah, I had to vent a little. Not very happy with ASUS at the moment and didn't expect such shoddy service in the US after hearing how well they do.

Update: 10-21-08

 

Luckily it is not a vital part of the laptop. It will still be functional without the optical drive...

It would really be a pain in the a.. if you were trying to RMA the graphics card, CPU, LCD etc...

 

Yeah, that's primarily why I'm only annoyed, rather than extremely PO'd with ASUS. I had the benefit of a mostly-functional notebook during the couple weeks and the replacement drive is actually a huge improvement over the original one, except for the fact that I can't secure it inside the bay.

But I ended up wasting a lot of time today trying to sort everything out with the support staff. The fact that I was told before sending it out that I would have the replacement within a few days, only to find out how long it really took felt pretty deceptive. And I was never given automatic notification about the package leaving their facility. I had to ask customer support for the tracking number and was lucky to be home when it was delivered so I could sign for it. These small annoyances would've been easily forgivable if I wasn't in my current situation, on the verge of another RMA.

 

did you remove bracket from old odd and move you new one you know the one that mount on back optical disk

 

What bracket? I wasn't told anything about that when customer service instructed me on removing the drive. Earlier today, when I asked a technician if there was bracket that might be needed (because I did wonder about this), he said there wasn't.

 

Maybe asus does,nt most slim dvd have bracket on them screw on to back

I can,nt find picture but it if like optical driver picture

http://bixnet.net/images/SlimCD-Rear.jpg

see the back drive they usely screw on bracket beside connector i can,nt find picture at moment but that problay why

 

i weep for you man......

g'luck

 

I would guess if the drive you sent in had the bracket and the new one doesn't, you'd be able to tell the difference by looking at it? Although in two weeks it's not sure that you would remember...

Maybe another M50 user could unscrew their drive and post a photo so that you can compare. At least you would not wait for 2 weeks and be sent the same thing over again, without the bracket --- you would know for sure what to ask.

Anyway, sorry about your bad experience.

 

Well, I was finally able to get some clarification from ASUS. Indeed, there is a bracket that should've been removed from my optical drive before I sent it in. To make matters a little more confusing, the RMA service was supposedly under the impression that I was going to ship the entire notebook in for repair, even though the technician told me how to take the drive out (without saying anything about the bracket) and the FedEx was only prepaid for ground shipping, which is apparently what they use for parts exchanges, not the notebook repair overnight service.

The customer service rep I discussed this with today said she would contact the returns center and follow up with me tomorrow. I called a little late and the returns warehouse it was sent to was closed for the day. Stupid time zones...

 

Then it's your fault, not really ASUS's. You should have asked them for dis-assembly instructions before doing anything.

 

The thing is, I DID. They told me which screws to take out and how to pull the drive out of the bay, with no mentioning of the bracket. Pay more attention to my posts before assigning blame.

And just to make it a little easier to spot where I said this, here's some quote-age from two of my posts.

 

Yeah, it's the technician's fault, in my opinion. He should have been careful and should have had enough experience, to know that the bracket has to be removed, and to tell you to do it.

Of course, it'd be difficult to assign blame officially unless the phone call was recorded etc. Hopefully, such a thing won't be necessary. Just ask them to send you the drive bracket together with the drive next time (politely). I don't see any reason why they shouldn't. It's something that costs less than 5 USD to fabricate, I'm sure.

 

Well, I technically do have a record of it because I asked about disassembly via email right after being issued the RMA. But I don't want to assign blame; I just want the issue resolved.

Right now, I'm trying to see if they will send me a bracket without needing to RMA the drive I currently have. The problem I had with the first one seemed to be pretty widespread and I don't want to risk swapping the new drive for another loud one. And the customer service rep never contacted me yesterday, so now I'll have to wait until Monday and hope for the best.

 

Agree, this is a mixed bag.
BTW, I'm always respectful to those who has a self built system.

 

Finally time for an update. I contacted ASUS yesterday afternoon with questions about progress on the issue since I hadn't yet received a follow-up. All I was told was that they were still working on it and they would contact me later. So it pretty-much felt like a dead end. When I came back from class a few minutes ago, there was a package from FedEx waiting at my door, signed for by my roommate.

It was shipped via overnight, apparently on Friday, according to the tracking number on it. It was originally intended for delivery yesterday, but nobody was here to sign for it. Inside was a new bezel, bracket, and mounting screws.

Thanks ASUS for making things right. Give me a heads up next time, though, would ya?

Thanks. I originally built it when I was 16 and upgraded it a couple years ago.

 

I'm really glad this story came to a happy end