Asus Customer Service a Mixed bag? (Live from Japan)

WARNING LONG REVIEW ON ASUS CUSTOMER SERVICE: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED



[Angry rant mode]

Well lets get to the point. I originally bought an Asus S5ne from Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. I had it shipped from Toronto so I would only have to 7% tax (Damn you 12.5% tax!). Anyway I bought this computer because in October 2004 I would be travelling overseas for buisness for a year in Japan. Well now it's January 2005 and I'm in my apartment, an angry and disgruntled foreigner who does not understand Asus Customer Support.

I bought this laptop thinking that since it has a "2 year Global warrenty" I would be safe from the hazards of the little problems that it could face. Anyway to cut a long story short, the keyboard's "Enter" key has gone to the dogs. The little plastic clamps under the key had broken off after excessive use. Too much online chatting and notebookforums.com posts I suppose.

I started off by calling the Japanese Global Service center at +81-43-3029800 listed under http://www.asus.com/support/english/.../index_en.aspx but then the phone started croaking about how it was the wrong phone number. I thought "What the hell?" Upon further investigation i realized that the phone numbers on that page were meant to be dialed outside of the country and that while your inside the country you would have to change the first few numbers a bit. So I said to my self "Okay, I'm just a stupid foreigner anyway, it's my fault". Although I still do believe that they should be a little bit more helpful for people who are overseas, I mean for the love of God some people are overseas for a short amount of time and need help FAST. I'm going to be here for a while but I need help fast because my line of work requires me to do a lot of typing.

Being my ignorant self, i finally went up to some of my friends and figured out that inside Japan the phone number 81-43-3029800 would have to be written as 043 302 9800. "YATTA" (YES!) The phone rang, and it rang, and it rang, and it rang. Wait a minute, it just kept ringing. This was at about lunch time here in Japan and I refuse to believe that NOBODY was there. I tried this on and off for 1 week, totalling at about TWENTY FIVE TIMES. All in all NOBODY answered.

I got fed up and finally decided to call the Asus North America Global support center. Turns out that I have to pay international fees, great. I tell them my problem and they tell me to keep trying calling the Japanese service center. I ask them to find out WTF is going on with their service center in Japan but he tells me basicly that they only take care of the American side of things. America takes care of America and Japan takes care of Japan, Great. Well atleast he sends me a spare enter key through the mail. The problem is he cant ship it to me to Japan, he can only ship it to my Canadian address and I have to rely on someone to ship it overseas . In additon he tells me that some packages sent from the Asus service centers would sometimes take THREE FUC*ING WEEKS to arrive at a Canadian address if sent from an American adress. After that I have no idea how long a package will take to cross the Ocean and arrive at my doorsteps in Japan. He tells me that he will send it to me anyway even if I get a hold of the Japanese service center. Thanks Asus, I love you.

My job requires me to always be on my laptop and to be typing, I was not about to wait a month for a god damned enter key, so instead of using the phone I thought I should start sending E-mails (Big mistake boys and girls). I narrate the entire story to the Asus Asia Pacific Technical support at http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx

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Apply date : 1/7/2005 8:38:07 PM
[Contact Information]
*Name : JFVergara
*Email Address : ingenuity@fido.ca
Phone Number :
City : Maizuru
*Country : Japan

[Product Information]
*Product Type : Notebook
*Product Model : S5Ne
*Product S/N : *******
Place of Purchase : bytewizecomputers.com
*Date of Purchase : 2004/6/22

*Operating System : Windows XP Professional

[Problem Description]
My keyboard "Enter" key has been broken, I am in need of a replacement. I believe my warranty is
still valid. I hope there is someway that I can have the replacement sent very quickly, it is an
emergency.

I tried contacting the Japanese phone number for technical support but it wasnt working. Also I am not sure the exact date that I bought my computer....but I do know that my warrenty is still
okay.

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This is the reply i get this morning (Monday morning)

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Dear Friend :
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is Leon and I would be assisting you today.
Please contact them again,I think you will get a answer,by the way the number is: +81-43-3029800
If having any problems, please don't hesitate to let me know. Let's discuss this issue together.
Thank you for using ASUS products and enjoying ASUS services!

---------------------------

I procedeed in throwing around various pieces of Japanese furniture around my apartment after this reply.

Im still trying to contact Asus Japan. Any help, suggestions, rants, flames, and spare S5ne enter keys would be helpful


[/Rant off]

Edit: Does anyone know where I can post images? I will take pictures of the enter key and what broke off. Also how this matter is dealt with will probably decide wheter my next laptop will be an Asus or a Sager. Again any comments or your own stories would help, I plan on sending this thread to an Asus Service manager in Japan and in North America.

Update: Well I managed to call Asus Japan. Heh this is the last time I will be bringing an Asus product that has the promise of "Global Warrenty" overseas. They basicly told me that I would have to fork over 130 dollars to get my keyboard fixed. This is just a bunch of horse crap since they told me that I needed to get the entire damn thing reoufitted. I just want ONE key and they told me that I needed the whole thing fixed, they also tell me that it isnt covered by warrenty and that it's my fault.

I find this entirely strange since I contacted Asus North America and they told me that it was under Warrenty. The only reason I am contacting Asus Japan is because Asus america wont ship globally for me. They are sending the replacement key to my Canadian address and my family has to send it to me here in Japan.

This is totally absurd, I tried calling them 200 times until one time I got lucky and then they tell me that I have to fork over 130 bucks because it's MY fault and they dont sell individual pieces?

Why is there such an inconsistancy with the service I'm getting back in North America and here in Japan? Why would they bark out "Global Warrenty" when the service centre here in Japan is giving me bullshit?

Yeah, thats not a bad idea actually. :\ I actually havent thought about that. I guess i'm just frustrated with the service Asus Japan is giving me.