4 ms·

I've heard good things about ASUS. I wonder if it also makes sense to buy from Costco considering their return policy.

solardev 4y ago
Asus was once a big OEM that supplied Dell and others (https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-asus-and-dell/ https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-as...). Its newer first-party brand (also Asus) is relatively new, applying what they learned from their OEM days. Their hardware is generally good, but their support suffers, especially when crossing cultural barriers (they're a Taiwanese company). The support/return culture is very different in the US vs Taiwan, where they're from -- they don't do returns there, it's just generally not a thing. Asus products sold in the US will be subject to retailer returns, but if you ever have to get corporate support directly from Asus, my experience is that it's hard to communicate and they don't have the same desire to please as the Western companies (at least Dell wants to LOOK like it cares; Asus doesn't really play that game because it's not part of their culture... they instead just try to make the hardware a bit better). Lenovo is a Chinese company, but they inherited the support culture from IBM, who they bought their computers division from. But the thing is, most of the computers in the world are made from component parts produced by only a tiny handful of OEMs using reference designs, then put in different chasses and rebranded and whitelabeled. By the time it gets branded as any one particular company, mostly it's not the same people responsible for marketing or support as for the original integration engineering. i.e. it's not necessarily the case that any one "brand" actually has consistently good or bad hardware, it just depends on the sourcing for that one product line for any one production run, unless they are totally vertically integrated (and I don't think anyone is anymore, except maybe Samsung to a degree.) So the support culture is more important than the actual hardware, IMO, and neither Asus nor Dell (consumer) excel in that regard. But yes, you hit the nail on the head... unless you pay for business-class support (which is worth it, IMO), the only real support you'll get is from your retailer, not the manufacturer. Costco, Best Buy, and Amazon are all great for this. I get all my electronics from Best Buy these days because their return policy is great (60 days if you're part of their membership program, which also covers extended warranties and repairs) and it's so much easier to return things than at Costco (just because the lines are usually shorter, and you're dealing with tech people who understand what various components are... the average BB person at least knows more than the average Costco employee when it comes to tech). Edit: I've had a lot of good luck with used laptops from Best Buy, which usually carry both a BB return policy (+ extended warranty if you're in their membership) and the original manufacturer's warranty, plus are much cheaper and also vetted/tested before resale.
jesse__ 4y ago
I ordered an ASUS motherboard off Amazon a few years ago and got not one, but FOUR defective units in a row. Took probably four months to finally get one that "worked" even though it still randomly bluescreens at boot sometimes. I've been building custom PCs for ~15 years and never had a worse experience than dealing with ASUS customer support.

Asus was once a big OEM that supplied Dell and others (https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-asus-and-dell/ https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-as...). Its newer first-party brand (also Asus) is relatively new, applying what they learned from their OEM days. Their hardware is generally good, but their support suffers, especially when crossing cultural barriers (they're a Taiwanese company). The support/return culture is very different in the US vs Taiwan, where they're from -- they don't do returns there, it's just generally not a thing. Asus products sold in the US will be subject to retailer returns, but if you ever have to get corporate support directly from Asus, my experience is that it's hard to communicate and they don't have the same desire to please as the Western companies (at least Dell wants to LOOK like it cares; Asus doesn't really play that game because it's not part of their culture... they instead just try to make the hardware a bit better). Lenovo is a Chinese company, but they inherited the support culture from IBM, who they bought their computers division from. But the thing is, most of the computers in the world are made from component parts produced by only a tiny handful of OEMs using reference designs, then put in different chasses and rebranded and whitelabeled. By the time it gets branded as any one particular company, mostly it's not the same people responsible for marketing or support as for the original integration engineering. i.e. it's not necessarily the case that any one "brand" actually has consistently good or bad hardware, it just depends on the sourcing for that one product line for any one production run, unless they are totally vertically integrated (and I don't think anyone is anymore, except maybe Samsung to a degree.) So the support culture is more important than the actual hardware, IMO, and neither Asus nor Dell (consumer) excel in that regard. But yes, you hit the nail on the head... unless you pay for business-class support (which is worth it, IMO), the only real support you'll get is from your retailer, not the manufacturer. Costco, Best Buy, and Amazon are all great for this. I get all my electronics from Best Buy these days because their return policy is great (60 days if you're part of their membership program, which also covers extended warranties and repairs) and it's so much easier to return things than at Costco (just because the lines are usually shorter, and you're dealing with tech people who understand what various components are... the average BB person at least knows more than the average Costco employee when it comes to tech). Edit: I've had a lot of good luck with used laptops from Best Buy, which usually carry both a BB return policy (+ extended warranty if you're in their membership) and the original manufacturer's warranty, plus are much cheaper and also vetted/tested before resale.

jesse__ 4y ago

I ordered an ASUS motherboard off Amazon a few years ago and got not one, but FOUR defective units in a row. Took probably four months to finally get one that "worked" even though it still randomly bluescreens at boot sometimes. I've been building custom PCs for ~15 years and never had a worse experience than dealing with ASUS customer support.