ASUS TUF A16 Laptop: 16" 1200p 165Hz, Ryzen 7 7735HS, RX 7700S, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Expired

BUYER BEWARE: If you happen to buy an ASUS product and you need to RMA it they will not honor it properly. Refer to Gamer Nexus/Louis Rossman about current issues with ASUS.

I haven't minimized anything. I stated multiple times exactly what they are doing and what the actual issue is according to the source on it you yourself linked. If a year of investigation results in hundreds of complaints then you are massively overblowing the issue.

Even pretending like terrible warranties and RMA processes are not the standard is pretty absurd since if you bothered researching the issue you're telling me to you would see the forums for it both for your linked video and elsewhere are filled with as many complaints about Acer, Dell, HP, and every other company as they are about Asus.
All I've learned from the YouTube videos and Reddit posts on this topic is that Asus apparently honors their warranty most of the time but also denies claims outside of it and has a really thorough RMA inspection which shockingly is pissing off a lot of people because they are being asked if they want to repair issues they weren't aware of or told that spilling soda on their laptop or motherboard is not covered under warranty. Known liquid spills make up a large portion of complaints for warranty denials. This honestly probably even explains why liquid damage is included as a boilerplate message in the video example. The over all small number of actually relevant complaints after a full year of reporting and trying to get more complaints says a lot. Note this isn't just your linked video investigation it's the same on Linus, Reddit, and several other forums so having such a small number of complaints is pretty interesting for an allegedly company wide policy spanning issue impacting every warranty claimant... They must have an extremely low return rate to have so few people with complaints.

To respond stating commonality of these types of complaints in the industry as a reason not to raise issue is minimizing but we can agree to disagree.

I could not find any instances of other manufacturer RMA complaints relating to a repair where a user is billed for unrelated damages and not told whether their warranty item was to be repaired. I also could not find any instance of threats/warnings to return items disassembled. I actually did run into a few but then realized it was also Asus product lol.

All the numbers and frequency of claims is something we don't know. We don't know the breakdown in claims, # cases that are resolved without issue, how often customers are actually at fault for device damage/defect. Even if we did, we would still need other mfr data to judge if it was "good" or "bad". You seen to have drawn a conclusion already but those are the reasons why I haven't touched on it and why I haven't stated that all of Asus is terrible. They definitely have good products and as I've previously stated I personally had a good RMA experience with them in the past.

My main point are these actions are so egregious and severe this warrants attention even if it occurs in a low rate.

I just want to know if the laptop is good and these two out here having a debate about the ethics of business lol

Honestly that's the entire point. The laptop is very good with a very low failure and return rate and this is a good price for it. Saying not to buy it on the low chance you'll need to use the RMA process and the lower chance you'll have extra hassles and confusion to get your warranty honored doesn't make any sense.

Battery life is about the best you're going to find in a gaming laptop and one of the few that can reasonably be expected to last all day. Everything else is pretty good. There are better choices if you're planning to use it primarily as a desktop replacement but not really better choices at this screen size if you are actually using it as a laptop. It's primary competition is the Lenovo Legion.

Any experience with open box in excellent condition via best buy?

Putting all the ASUS warranty drama aside, this laptop is pretty darn well equipped for $750, yeah???
Are there any other laptops out there for under 1K that are better?
I was hoping to find something similar with a touchscreen?

$700
ASUS ROG Flow X13 2-in-1 Laptop: Ryzen 9 7940HS, 13.4" FHD+ 120Hz, 16GB DDR5
^ This model has similar CPU but the graphics inside it show 1/2 the performance when comparing the RX 7700S vs AMD Radeon 780M ...?

That makes sense. I would be surprised if it's even half the performance.
780M is the integrated videocard included in the processor.
7700S is a dedicated separate videocard.

The ROG Flow does have models with dedicated videocards that would be more comparable but they generally cost a few hundred more.

Interestingly including the video you linked I haven't seen a single example where anyone was billed for unrelated damages and not told whether or not their warranty item was being repaired... That isn't what happened in the video or in any of the examples I've found so far.

I agree that would be pretty egregious but nothing presented indicates that is what is happening.

I used to run a repair shop and now I'm just a hobbyist I have multiple bad experiences with Asus RMA recently, it became much worse after covid. I always take pictures and videos before sending it in.

The 3 most memorable is a monitor, motherboard, and GPU so I can give examples of all 3.

1. Monitor, I sent it in because it was no longer turning on. They fixed it sent it back in a larger box than I sent in with minimal packaging. It arrived broken (obviously). They wanted me to pay for shipping to return it to them so they can confirm it was broken or have me pay for a new screen which costs more than a new monitor. I sent them pictures of it broken with the box it was in a single strand of bubble wrap. It had web cracks and told them I'm not going to spend another $30 sending it in (I had to pay the first time). They finally escalated it and after 2 months of disputes they finally replaced it.

2. Motherboard, I called ahead of time because they said to remove any heatsinks before sending it in, I asked them, do I remove the m.2 heatsink and the rep said, since the instructions said to remove it, that I should remove it, but he said to notate on the form that it was removed per the rep's instruction and he also instructed me to take pictures and videos.
I sent it in and they emailed me back saying the motherboard was damaged and if I wanted it to be fixed it'll be $500. The mobo itself is $400 new btw. I emailed them back and asked them what was damaged, their response was that the m.2 slot is damaged and missing a heatsink. I disputed and said it isn't damaged and I notated that it was removed per their CSR instructions and they can refer to recording of X case. They said sorry the mobo should be sent in complete and if I still have the m.2 heatsink that I should send it in. I asked them sure send me the shipping label because it was their CSR's fault. They said they don't do that. so I had to spend another $8 to send it in. They ended up fixing it.

3. GPU was sent it because of blank screen/no POST, they said after testing the HDMI port had physical damage so it voids warranty. I told them I have pictures and videos before sending it in that there was no damage. They responded since I sent it in with my own UPS label that I had to deal with UPS dispute for damage over delivery. I opened the case with UPS who asked for pictures of the box when it was received. I asked Asus who said they didn't take pictures of the box because the box wasn't damaged. So I was like, you want me to dispute with UPS but you can't ever provide step 1? They were like sorry we don't have the pictures we'll send you back the card or you can pay $1200 for them to repair it, which was 2.5x the cost of it retail.

So, in my experiences, I've never seen Asus charging a repair fee for a specific damage, it's usually a very general "fix"/replace item line which is usually more than the entire cost of the item. I honestly would be happy if they can be like "hey we diagnose the issue as this, the out of pocket for out of warranty should be $" but it's usually all or nothing

But I can confirm that the RMA team is definitely trying the most to find any excuse to void warranty and upcharge repairs.

There are very few good reps who would actually try to help. But 99/100 time they would prefer to look for any damage to void warranty and upcharge.


If there's the smallest physical damage, they will void warranty. I was denied because the bracket was slightly bent from shipping. They returned it, I bent it back and sent it back in and they accepted it.

TL;DR
Multiple RMA experiences, if you ship the item back without their expensive label, any dispute is out of their hands (you shipped it, you deal with the courier).
They don't care if you have proof of no damage. they blatantly refuse repair and prefer to upcharge.