Returning a Nexus 7 (2013) to ASUS

[jjhoneck]

So tonight, as I was surfing Facebook, my beloved Nexus 7, my jack-knife of all trades, my Swiss Army knife of tablets, did an uncommanded reboot.

And froze at the "Google" start-up screen.

No amount of gymnastics would make it go beyond that point. I tried everything from a soft reset, to a hard reset, to getting into esoteric things like using the bootloader to flash a new factory image to the tablet using my Windoze machine.

Nothing. Everything points to a hardware issure, most likely the flash memory being toast. Ugh.

So, being just six months old, I waded into the dreaded "return" mode. Sam's Club would only take it back up to 30 days later. Google claims ownership, but Asus made the damned thing -- so I poked around on line about the procedure to return a Nexus 7 to Asus.

There are dozens of nightmare stories about returning stuff to Asus. They just seem to universally suck -- if you believe the on-line reviews.

I pressed on. I tried to "create an RMA" on their website, but died on the "serial number" requirement. The only place the serial number is recorded is in the tablet's menu system -- which was inaccessible. (And on the box, which was thrown away not long ago.)

So, with great trepidation, I called their 800 number. At 9 PM on Saturday night.

To my surprise, the voice mail menus were easy and logical, and I got a nice young man with a strange accent I could not localize. He was very helpful, in that weird, foreign help desk way, and within a few minutes I had my RMA number and instructions on where to mail the unit for repair.

Again, to my surprise, it's going to Grapevine, Texas. Hell, I could almost deliver it myself. (I live in South Texas.)

So, we shall see what happens next. They say 10 days to 2 weeks, but with the holidays it might be longer. All in all, I am very impressed with the way Asus has handled this....so far.

At the end, I asked "Zed" where he was. He was in the Bahamas!

 

[brosko]

Please Keep us posted as to the outcome of this.

 

[Grifter73]

I had the same thing happen, but on a 2012 model. I sent mine back to Asus, and they told me it would be $200 to "replace the motherboard". Hell, for $200 I can almost get a brand new one. No thanks.

 

[Jon_Doh]

Asus is horrible. All they usually do is a factory reset and you get the tablet back not fixed but having lost everything on it.

 

[YAYTech]

Asus is horrible. All they usually do is a factory reset and you get the tablet back not fixed but having lost everything on it.

What experience or information do you base this statement on? Not that I would be surprised if factory reset is pretty early in their diagnosis process.

 

[brosko]

What experience or information do you base this statement on? Not that I would be surprised if factory reset is pretty early in their diagnosis process.

Early and first to do yes, but many have reported that's ALL they did and sent it back (never fixing the problem).

 

[Toeduster]

I had to send Nexus 7 back for repair when the screen died. It was out of warranty. I was able to track it nicely on their Web page via RMA number. Had it returned 2 weeks after mailing. my only out-of-pocket was shipping to them. They replaced the screen and returned on their nickel. Very please with Asus service.

 

[brosko]

I had to send Nexus 7 back for repair when the screen died. It was out of warranty. I was able to track it nicely on their Web page via RMA number. Had it returned 2 weeks after mailing. my only out-of-pocket was shipping to them. They replaced the screen and returned on their nickel. Very please with Asus service.

This is good to hear. You are a rare person to find. I think this is the first thing I have ever read praising Asus and their warranty service.

 

[YAYTech]

This is good to hear. You are a rare person to find. I think this is the first thing I have ever read praising Asus and their warranty service.

Keep in mind that a happy customer will often only tell 1-2 people about their positive experience, while an unhappy customer will tell 15-20 (or in this case, find an online forum to rant on, in essence telling hundreds or thousands.) You can't get an accurate gauge of happy vs unhappy customers by comparing how many happy vs unhappy threads are on a forum. It's grossly inaccurate.

 

[brosko]

Keep in mind that a happy customer will often only tell 1-2 people about their positive experience, while an unhappy customer will tell 15-20 (or in this case, find an online forum to rant on, in essence telling hundreds or thousands.) You can't get an accurate gauge of happy vs unhappy customers by comparing how many happy vs unhappy threads are on a forum. It's grossly inaccurate.

I understand but it seems to be common belief that Asus cs is terrible.

 

[motorcycle_monkey]

I had a 3 month saga over touch screen issues... Horrid, worst customer service I have ever encountered. They even sent me the wrong model once and wouldn't send me the right one until they had the incorrect one back. It took 3 weeks after the wrong was received before I got the right one. Lost countless hours of my life on the phone with them. Not to mention the unknown amount of money I lost not having my tablet, which I use to test software professionally. Water under the bridge now though.

I have had a lot of random reboots lately. May have to factory reset.

Posted via the Android Central App from my Moto Droid Maxx

 

[brosko]

I had a 3 month saga over touch screen issues... Horrid, worst customer service I have ever encountered. They even sent me the wrong model once and wouldn't send me the right one until they had the incorrect one back. It took 3 weeks after the wrong was received before I got the right one. Lost countless hours of my life on the phone with them. Not to mention the unknown amount of money I lost not having my tablet, which I use to test software professionally. Water under the bridge now though.

I have had a lot of random reboots lately. May have to factory reset.

Posted via the Android Central App from my Moto Droid Maxx

This is the common experience that I have read of.

 

[kamikazemind]

I had to send Nexus 7 back for repair when the screen died. It was out of warranty. I was able to track it nicely on their Web page via RMA number. Had it returned 2 weeks after mailing. my only out-of-pocket was shipping to them. They replaced the screen and returned on their nickel. Very please with Asus service.

Maybe you or someone else can help me!

I sent mine in and the tracking shows that Grapevine, TX repair center has received it 2 days ago (01/07). My issue is that when I check RMA status online it shows they can't find anything leaving me worried. The RMA was written on the outside of the box as requested (in fact, in their address portion) so I doubt that's the case. Does it take a while for it to be put in their system?

 

[Rarry]

Another vote for 'Asus service is rubbish', at least here in the UK. From two faults they sent my N7 back faulty three times. The last time was with the wrong firmware twice when I gave up and figured out how to fix it myself. And that's not counting having to argue with them about if it's still under warranty when it was their faulty repair that was the problem. I think if I bought from them again I'd have to just regard the kit as disposable and bin it if it went wrong.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Jon_Doh]

What experience or information do you base this statement on? Not that I would be surprised if factory reset is pretty early in their diagnosis process.

Having sent mine in to them. Came back factory reset, everything lost and hardware problem still not fixed.

 

[kamikazemind]

Just got my N7(2013) back. It was for turning on but staying on the google screen problem. It took almost 3 weeks! I'm in Louisiana right by Texas so that was surprising. But I'm glad to report everything has been fixed and I got the Lollipop update finally.

 

[msross]

I sent mine to asus and with the tracking number, they located it. There RMA database is useless.......It took three weeks and I got it back running with the standard factory load. I lost all my data ( I backed it up prior to the bricking). I updated to 5.02 and it seems to running ok now. BTW they did not charge me for the service.........

 

[jjhoneck]

Sorry for the delayed response.

Asus did exactly what I expected -- they screwed me.

First, there was no response. When I called them, they claimed they never received the unit. When I told them that I had delivery confirmation, they put me on hold. 5 minutes later they admitted receiving it, and that it was in the cue to be repaired. Fine.

Two days go by, and I received an email, with an INVOICE FOR $200 to repair my 6 month old Nexus 7 (2013)!

They claim that it's out of warranty. I call them and tell them that -- despite their instructions NOT to include the purchase receipt -- that I had, in fact, enclosed a copy. They put me on hold, after saying they didn't have it. A few minutes later, they confirmed that they had the receipt, but that it was for a 16 GB N7, and I had returned a 32 GB unit.

Now, I've purchased FIVE N7s for my family, but mine was the newest, it was purchased at Sam's Club, and it was just 6 months old. This all matched the receipt, so did Sam's have it wrong on their receipt? Who knows?

It didn't matter. There was no reasoning around this problem, and they refused to fix it under warranty. So, I told them to box it up and send it back. I plan to use it for target practice at the range, and will never buy another Asus product.

Since then I bought the amazing Samsung Galaxy S 8.4" tablet. It is superior to the N7 in every way.

 

[brosko]

The galaxy tab s is Definitely not superior to the n7 IMO.