ASUS Customer Service: A Tale of Woes

I'm Mikhailov from Team Retrogue, a group that enjoys vintage video games and the gadgets that play them.

We've all heard the tales. A random part of the ROG Ally breaks just past the return policy. What does one do? Hold on! It's still in the warranty period. It's time to contact ASUS customer support. Everything will be okay, right?

No. Everything is not okay. Not since a YouTuber and reviewer in the scene had to deal directly with ASUS over a malfunctioning ROG Ally in a full video and article investigative series by Gamers Nexus—until now, because it happened to me.

The Issue

Yesterday morning, I enjoyed a game called Final Fantasy XIV—no big deal. After I was done, I put the ROG Ally X in its case and got to work. I decided to play a quick game during my lunch break after finishing teaching my drowsy juniors the first chapter of "Of Mice and Men."

Then it hit….the LT button stopped working. No answer. Dead. Completed. Sadness.

I felt an RMA was looming, and I would be without my precious ROG Ally X for a while. Since I had some time before my next class, I decided to try calling them to start the process.

Software Troubleshooting

After watching the videos on Gamers Nexus, I hesitated to send my ROG Ally X for repair. There are a few minor indications that I opened the device because I changed the hard drive. Thus, there was genuine worry that ASUS would mark minor flaws as damage.

I had previously completed the following fundamental troubleshooting procedures:

  • Armoury Crate's complete reinstallation
  • A full driver reinstallation
  • executed the Windows update
  • RanWindows Update
  • Updates were performed via My ASUS, including a BIOS update and a few more drivers.
  • The machine was restarted (yes, they questioned if I had turned it off and back on again).

The computer was restarted (yes, they asked if I had shut it off and then turned it back on).

Navigating Customer Service

These procedures ultimately convinced me that the trigger itself was a physical problem. Remember, I'm a tinkerer. My experience as a reviewer in this field has taught me the fundamentals of troubleshooting.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long to speak with a human, but that's the extent of my praise for ASUS's customer support.

The representative asked me what troubleshooting steps I had already taken. I enumerated every step I had previously described and waited for the representative to determine the next course of action.

A typical consumer will likely need to perform basic software troubleshooting instead of following these procedures. Even though I was a little frustrated with this process, I remained calm and patient with the representative.

However, the representative on the other side didn't seem to know what she was talking about. She kept giving me stuff to "try" and putting me online to conduct "research" before opting to reset the console. I didn't want to do this since I knew I would have to redownload all my programs.

Still, I was on wait once more while the reset process started. But the bell did ring. It was almost time for the next lesson.

I was given a case number, told to call back if rebooting the machine did not resolve the issue, and politely advised the representative that I could no longer remain on the phone.

Online "Chat"

After the reset was finished, I gave the trigger another test. It didn't work. "How about I give online chat a try?" As my students eagerly read the synopsis of George and Lennie's disastrous Salinas Valley travels, I pondered myself.

I used two distinct methods: the ASUS website directly and the MyASUS app on the ROG Ally X itself. Ultimately, both choices led me to the screen seen below:

I reasoned that to see the actual chat waiting room, I might need to click "close the window." Not at all. I was shut out of the entire program because of that. I returned inside. For over 90 minutes, that screen persisted without any sign that the queue was moving forward.

As I waited, I saw the picture and noticed that ASUS uses Best Buy's Geek Squad to handle RMAs. I tried the online chat with Geek Squad. I immediately spoke with someone who politely explained that I had to go through ASUS's RMA procedure before they would examine it.

Dead end. I expected to make another call when I got home.

Fine! I'll Do It Myself!

Now that I was home, I opened the device and removed the left trigger, where my iFixit kit was kept. There was clearly a problem. The button had dried glue dangling from it. My worry and frustration were already running high, even though I should have been taking images for this story. After an internet investigation, I discovered how hall-detecting triggers operate from this Reddit post.

MAGNETS!

Below is the "lightbulb" comment:

For comparison, I removed the Right Trigger. It turned out that there was a missing magnet where all that dried, flaky glue was. Fortunately, it had secured itself to the fan assembly, and I used a tiny set of tweezers to remove it safely. We were back in business when I quickly dabbed hot glue from my low-temperature gun.

Conclusion

If I had progressed that far, I would have documented the entire RMA process, just like Gamers Nexus did. Unfortunately, I became so irate that I handled it myself, so I don't know if ASUS would have initiated that procedure. For now, fixing the Ally X myself was more straightforward than troubleshooting them, although I still intend to get a replacement left trigger in case my remedy was only temporary. If you can't do that, your best choice is to phone them and make the necessary arrangements. Right now, their online chat appears to be broken.