Is this how Asus does business???

Check the picture out.
Asus sent me a GTX 570 but here is "the rest of the story".

My wife purchased me a EAH6970/2DI2S/2GD5 for my birthday several months ago. It started to produce memory artifacts so I sent it in to Asus for repair.
This is what I recieved today ( see picture).
I thought it might be a mistake but not when they place a AMD EAH 6970 sticker over a GTX 570 sticker on a a GTX 570 card and call it "RMA complete."
Nowhere did they ask me by email ( which they have on record) if that will be sufficient.

Is this how Asus RMA dept. does business???

I do understand GTX 570 is close to EAH 6970 performance wise but the fact is that I am NOT a NVidia fan boy and want what I spent $400 on.
I called Asus appx 7 times to get this corrected and was informed a couple times that this will be passed to level 2.......then get hung up when on hold.

Anybody else gone through a similar situation like this with Asus service?
Personally I have purchased Asus brand for many years and won't knock their product but their service is very dissapointing this time.

Moderators, Please send this post to the proper location.
Posted when upset.

WOOOOOOOOOWWWW that's BUUULLLcrapp.
They actually put a 6970 sticker an a 570 and called it RMA complete... that's insanity...
I'd sue. That can't possibly be legal. Even if it's legal under their RMA there HAS to be something in Texas that makes that illegal... HAS to be.
It's one thing to get an equal or better GM car when your GM car breaks but if they send you a Toyota, I think you have some legal recourse.
This is actually disgusting to me. Literally. I've never been 'disgusted' by an RMA story but this one did it.

If you look at the bottom of the EAH 6970 S/N sticker in the picture you can see a small part of the GTX 570 sticker below.

You are right. If you spend a large sum of money to buy an item it is because that item is what you want.

I think its closer to buying a Chrysler town and country and getting a dodge caravan.

Still, not right.

In answer to the thread title question: Yes, yes it is.

eobard, you base this on a prior experience?

If you get disconnected more than once, they may not know they are having phone problems. Call in again and insist to speak with a floor manager. If they say there isn't one, they are full of crap. Then, calmly and directly explain the problems you are having with the card and the phone disconnects. Try your best not to be rude or point blame at him or they might get defensive. You could even ask for a warm transfer to another department. That way, if it disconnects, you guys are still on the phone together.

I know what works good, I work in a call center. If I pick up the phone and instantly have someone yelling at me, I'm not going to be inclined to go out of my way to make sure his issue gets fixed (even though I still fix it, regardless). If they call up and go "Hey man, I've been working on x issue for y weeks now and I just can't get this resolved with you guys. What can you do to help me?" and actually mean it, I go to pretty much any length to make sure their stuff gets fixed. This may or may not work, depending on the company and the people you deal with.

Either way, I hope you can get this figured out. Some support is just bad.

EDIT: If that doesn't work, I'd send it to corporate. Those guys want to make sure there is no bad press. Go all out on these guys and your issue might be easier to solve than you think. I've had some out-of-scope callbacks at work come to me because they complained hard enough. Make sure they know about the thread here. I did this with Western Digital when I had a run-in with them and they went way out of their way to get my issue resolved. There was no threat of "I'll go public with this", the thread was already created and I just pointed them to it.

I've had issue with ANUS support in the past, and I've got a problem with a current mobo that I'm not even going to give them the chance to disappoint me on. I'm just taking it like a victim and moving on. Everyone's experiences are different but what I've seen from them (more than just personal experiences, things I've seen happen to other people as well) is they make products that hold up better than average so you are less likely to need warranty service, but insert-diety-name-here help you if something they make does fail, because they won't be there for you.

My wife called Newegg today whom she origionally purchased it from and spoke to a sales rep who sent my wife a questionaire concerning this issue because we were not getting anywhere with Asus.
My wife is also upset about it. I did not know she did that till about an hour ago.
Not sure what Newegg can do about since it is past Newegg exchange time limit but crossing fingers.
Newegg has been very supportive on all the products I have bought from them if it had issues. Kinda miss the days when they covered the VGA cards for 1 year instead of 30 days, it was a speedy exchange and great service ( personally speaking).
Asus shipping a VGA downgrade to a customer on a RMA will not help Asus keep that customer. Next time he will attempt to find another brand.

That would be pretty awesome if NewEgg would step up and help you out here.

thideras said:

That would be pretty awesome if NewEgg would step up and help you out here.

Click to expand...

Sure would be. Who knows, after all the business I have given them throughout the years might pay off

My wife is handling that part since I origionally told her Newegg has already met their obligations months ago so I doubt they will do anything.
She is bent on proving me wrong . I wish her all the luck.
I see Newegg don't carry Asus EAH6970's anymore so not sure what they can do.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121417

Asus said yesterday that a lvl 2 rep will contact me within 24 hours about this issue( still waiting for that call and they have 3 hours left).

What really chaps my hide about this is.
1). They sent me something very different without asking or informing me. Placing a EAH6970 S/N sticker on a GTX 570 card then calling the RMA closed is not good business practice.
2). The GTX 570 is a downgrade in my opinion ( as per multiple reviews)
3). They were rude to my wife and hang ups from Asus reps. Granted she also was a bit blunt to them but that was because they origionally would not let her talk to a supervisor about the issue and they told her they sent what they had. To her that is not accetable in any way.

I only used the card for about 1 week before I had to return to Iraq (was on R&R for 2 weeks) and when I finally got back home again it was showing memory artifacts.

thideras said:

I know what works good, I work in a call center. If I pick up the phone and instantly have someone yelling at me, I'm not going to be inclined to go out of my way to make sure his issue gets fixed (even though I still fix it, regardless). If they call up and go "Hey man, I've been working on x issue for y weeks now and I just can't get this resolved with you guys. What can you do to help me?" and actually mean it, I go to pretty much any length to make sure their stuff gets fixed. This may or may not work, depending on the company and the people you deal with.

Click to expand...

Sweet jesus, more people need to realize this. It sums up my attitude while working in a call center as well. Start off screaming about past experiences, you're going to just get the bare minimum out of me so I can still say I'm doing my job. Call up cool, calm, and level headed with a serious problem? I'll do whatever it takes to make sure it's resolved.

This actually happened to me when my daughter's out of warranty Saturn SL blew the journaling in the head and oil and radiator fluid freely mixed. Turned out this was a well known issue. She bought it used and in no way was GM/Saturn on the hook for the repairs. No way she could get it repaired either. She barely could afford the monthly payments.

So a friend advised me to use honey instead of vinegar and to be positive with the reps on the phone. So I did just that and Saturn ended up replacing the head at their cost ~$2k. (only $100 cost to us) The dealer maintenance chief later said it was my positive attitude that made the difference.

Wow, that sucks. I don't even consider Asus a valid option when I'm buying parts these days, mainly because I've had multiple bad experiences with their CS department.

I am also starting to reconsider Asus as an option for system building.

I have been buying their merchandise since the 1.8ghz P4 days. I have never had an mobo that was not an Asus.

My wife did inform me an Asus CS rep did call today to apoligize for their behavior during the calls but nothing was really mentioned about correcting the RMA issue.

Ya seems Asus is great when it works, but their CS and RMA is just pure crap, i think they are too big for their own good they really dont care about the consumer.

Same frame of thought like Netflix?
Didn't seem to work in their favor

Galador, please PM me or email hokie at overclockers dot com with your (and/or your wife's) name, address and phone number. I have brought this to our ASUS representative's attention and they want your info to liaise with their support team to try and resolve your issue.

It shouldn't need to come to that. I'm glad someone is stepping up, but... .