ASUS P4P800S-E: Standing Out in the Crowd

ASUS P4P800S-E: Tech Support and RMA

For your reference, we will repost our support evaluation procedure here:

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we are not getting the staff on an “off” day) all contain fixable problems that we have had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 business hours to respond and then we will report whether or not they responded within the time allotted, and if they were successful in fixing our problems. In case we don’t receive a response before the review is published, any future responses will be added to the review, including the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria upon which to base your motherboard purchasing decisions. As motherboards become more similar every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we are interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews, so please do email us with your comments.

We are pleased to announce that ASUS has finally included a clear, readable RMA policy on their web site. After much writing on this subject in the past, we’re pleasantly surprised to see some progress being made in terms of ASUS’ customer support. We’ve reposted ASUS’ RMA policy for your convenience:

Dear Sir/Madam
Please provide the following information so that we may process your request for warranty repair service. Once we have obtained that information from you, we will issue an RMA # and provide the proper shipping instructions. Please read and provide all of the information below. We cannot complete your request, if all of the information below is not provided.
Thank you,
ASUS Computer International

PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH:

1. THE MODEL & SERIAL NUMBER OFF OF YOUR PRODUCT model (name of product) serial# (10 digits/characters long, no dashes).
2. YOUR FULL NAME/NAME OF COMPANY (Only provide company name if the shipping address is to a company).
3. YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS (no PO boxes please).
4. YOUR DAYTIME PHONE/FAX NUMBER.

ASUS Computer International (USA) is a warranty repair service center. Please contact place of purchase for credit, refund, upgrade, or advance replacement. Asus does not provide these services under any circumstances.

ASUS Does not cover physical damage. Please refer to page 2 of your users manual. There is a $15.00 fee to replace a broken socket. There is a $40.00 fee to repair all other physical damage. If a product is not repairable, the product will be sent back to the customer. If a product is sent in with physical damage and is not accompanied with a payment, the product will be rejected and customers will not be reimbursed for shipping charges. A payment can be made by check, money order (payable to ASUS), or a credit card#. The payment must be sent in with the damaged product. Customers from Canada must make payments with a credit card#.

This is a fairly clear RMA policy without too much extra fluff that could confuse some end users. Read through the following procedures to access ASUS’ RMA information via the web:

1. Click the “contact ASUS” hyperlink on their North American (U.S.) web page.
2. Here, you will find several international contact listings, including the North American contact information, which will read Asus Computer International (AMERICA).
3. Click on their http://helpdesk.asus.com hyperlink, which will connect you to their support website.
4. In the lower left hand corner, there will be a hyperlink that reads “ASUS RMA Online”, and three options will appear.
5. Go to the option that reads “issue a new RMA online”, where you will be immediately taken to their online RMA form.

If you have problems reaching ASUS’ RMA form, click here. You may also contact ASUS RMA via email at rma@asus.com or fax them at (502) 933-8713. All ASUS motherboards carry a standard 3-year warranty if purchased after November 1, 1999; if purchased before then, it holds only a limited 1-year warranty. To view ASUS’ warranty information and RMA, click here.

ASUS’ tech support is also available on the same website as their RMA and warranty information. The ASUS tech support email address is tsd@asus.com, or you can try and reach ASUS at (502) 995-0883 in the U.S. Press “3” on your phone for full access. One positive aspect of ASUS’ tech support is their phone line hours, which are 5:30 AM to 5:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time). Unfortunately, their tech support email response time is still as poor as ever, missing our 72-hour deadline for the umpteenth time in a row. We’re delighted ASUS has improved their RMA situation, but their tech support must improve before we are thoroughly impressed.