Diehard Asus customer gets RMA denied for a cheap 2.4 GHz headset receiver despite spending more than $30,000 with the brand — firm refuses to send a cheap dongle, then relents after social media backlash
There's a reason they say be loyal to the product, not the brand.
An ardent Asus customer who's bought over $30,000 worth of the company's products recently had his brand loyalty put to the test. Lucas (u/lucaslucaalucas123) wanted a replacement for the 2.4 GHz wireless receiver that came with his ROG Delta II KJP gaming headset, but was denied support because accessories aren't covered under warranty. He took to Reddit to express his disappointment and was met with a hopeful reply in the comments.
ASUS support has been a nightmare over a simple 2.4 GHz headset receiverfrom r/ASUSROG
The OP brought receipts (literally) to prove his unwavering commitment to the brand, with screenshots showcasing at least 18 different items bought just this year alone. In the second picture, we can see the ROG Delta headset was purchased in April, and it's still under warranty till 31 January 2027. This is a premium headset; it costs $270 normally, though it's on sale for just $199 on Best Buy right now.
Asus' official support policies say that free accessories, such as a mouse with a laptop, are not covered under warranty. But accessories bundled with peripherals are indeed covered under the same terms as the peripheral itself. Since a wireless receiver is a key component of the headset, it should be replaced in case of a defect or hardware failure. However, if you lose it or break it yourself, that's a different story.
Since the customer was asking for a replacement outright instead of opening a ticket for a defect, it's possible that customer service simply wasn't equipped to help him out. Small parts like these often don't carry their own SKU number, so it's hard to bill them separately, or it could be just that the reps are misinformed on the exact nuances of free, optional accessories versus core accessories required for proper functioning.
Anyhow, Lucas was told to buy the receiver himself through a third-party reseller. Asus lists three suppliers in North America for replacement parts, but we weren't able to find the specific receiver for the ROG Delta II KJP on any of these websites. It's actually unclear if the OP has found a supplier that even has this receiver in stock, because the post concludes with him asking others how they managed to get a replacement.
Fortunately, an Asus rep in the comments apologized and said they've escalated the matter. They also remarked how this shouldn't have happened regardless of one being a new or a loyal customer. Lucas' allegiance to Asus had perhaps created a bubble where he thought the brand would reciprocate the loyalty. We're not inferring this either; his caption clearly implies he felt betrayed after investing so much.
Ultimately, it took one simple receiver to completely shatter that illusion. Businesses operate on the basis of fatter margins. Laws bind them to offer customer support. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that they'd do much worse if they could get away with it. So, let this serve as a cautionary tale for the next time you're being brand-conscious or trying to be an evangelist; remember that they are profit-making organizations first and foremost.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
-
Lord-Xanthor Reply
I used to love and respect ASUS hardware, for over 20+ years. Every gaming server I and my kids built in past always had an ASUS pentium motherboard. Only thing of ASUS I use now is their router. I stopped buying their hardware during their Nexus tablet period after one of their adapters almost set fire to my kids bedroom. They ran so hot, one burned through the plastic shielding of the plug amd the cord burned into the rug setting off one of our smoke detectors. Found the other 3 just as hot and after talking with UL and sending one in, wasnt suprised at all that an engineer made changes without sending the work back to UL for approval, and instead just sold them with the UL stamp. ASUS played games and I was going to file a small claims to deal with the.issue as small claims here doesnt allow attorneys so its equal ground. Problem was, got very sick and found out I had cancer and totally forgot about it until I read this article. It used to be you get what you pay for but these days, even paying top dollar can get you shoddy work and components. Refusing to replace a dongle on a 30k item from ASUS doesnt suprise me in the least.Admin said:Asus refused to replace a loyal customer's wireless headset receiver because accessories are apparently not covered under warranty. The customer was not happy to see his dedication be put into question like this, brining receipts of past purchases to express their disappointment over this betrayal.
Diehard Asus customer gets RMA denied for a cheap 2.4 GHz headset receiver despite spending more than $30,000 with the brand — firm refuses to send... : Read more -
TechieTwo The only mobo I ever had fail in 30 years of building high end PCs for Biz, friends, etc. was an Asus. It failed within a year and was sent back for warranty replacement. Asus U.S. support sent me a used POS replacement mobo that someone had manually soldered in replacement capacitors for the massive failing capacitors issue of the day. The board was literally filthy dirty to the touch like it had been sitting on the side of the road for a year.Reply
It went right into the trash bin and I purchased a new Asrock mobo. That was the last Asus product I have ever purchased. -
Lord-Xanthor Reply
That brings back memories. Lost count at how many times I had to replace the capacitors on 3 of my p6x58D motherboards. They'd blow out like Xmas lightbulbs, but that didnt start happening till after the 3rd year so never put blame on the mb. I ran those 24/7 macroing Ultima Online (It wasnt unattended, I was there) Id sell the gold and rares on ebay through PayPal before they permanently banned the trade due to millions in charge backs with EAs mass banning due to duping. Paid the rent, paid for upgrades and new builds.Pixel sales was a huge market till the emulation community came into being with just about an emulator for every popular mmorpg. UO gold went from $250 per million down to $13, which is when I sold my accounts for real work and my first baby on the way. Best decision ever as year after was when pixel sales forever banned.TechieTwo said:The only mobo I ever had fail in 30 years of building high end PCs for Biz, friends, etc. was an Asus. It failed within a year and was sent back for warranty replacement. Asus U.S. support sent me a used POS replacement mobo that someone had manually soldered in replacement capacitors for the massive failing capacitors issue of the day. The board was literally filthy dirty to the touch like it had been sitting on the side of the road for a year.
It went right into the trash bin and I purchased a new Asrock mobo. That was the last Asus product I have ever purchased. -
btmedic04 This is just standard Anus behavior. After 20+ years of buying their motherboards, I wont buy another after the way Jaun Jose Guerrero handled a post i made on their facebook page regarding shoddy soldering quality and other issues with my crosshair x670e gene.Reply -
Lord-Xanthor Similar topic different situation I should have posted about a few weeks ago. Due to the huge price increase in ram prices, many big sellers like Amazon have purposely modified their webmail, which are those invoices they send that vanish when you go looking for a warranty replacement which is why I always screenshot before, during, and after a sale. I wrote an article 4 years back which was why they stopped sending invoices with prices like they used to. Buy 10 Zevia 24 packs on sale at $9.99 to get bank warning Amazon failed charging $470. Because the email is a webpage they changed the price to $43, and my card setup stops the charge going through if its anything other than the price at checkout. As for the recent memory scam, filed a sc100 small claims for $3600. Not much. They csnt use attorneys and lost to me before. This time its because I purchased 16gb ram boards 3 years ago sold and shipped by Amazon, for them to change the invoice to the manufacturer and remove the defective exchange link, telling me I have to now send it to them out of country where trustpilot already is filled with complaints that nothing was ever replaced or accept a $72 refund? Nope not happening. Plus all those times they sent refunds for defective products that showed as pending credits turned out to post as debits instead. Bank did charge backs and Amazon instead reset my cards on file to include every card I ever used in a 6 year period, whether mine or not which caused no end of issues because it also reset current ones to old exp dates causing medical supplies, extremely important ones to decline, hence the $3600. Imho, if your getting the same treatment from them with ram or drives past the 60 day charge back time, a small claims is not only easy to do, its cheap or even free if low income. You dont need to know law like in civil. Just present the screenshots and what it costs to replace the bad item and let the judge decide. Most are computer buffs like us and depending on state will allow the fee to be included. Just a tip.Reply -
julianpaul ReplyTechieTwo said:It went right into the trash bin and I purchased a new Asrock mobo. That was the last Asus product I have ever purchased.
Isn't Asrock part of Asus?
My memory of them is being an oem type of brand while asus was the customer facing retail image of the same company. Not sure if things have changed now... -
Phaaze88 Mmm, good ol' brand loyalty... and what do you get for it one day?Reply
When a company gets big enough, customer service tends to fall off.
They're formerly Asus; they broke away from them.julianpaul said:Isn't Asrock part of Asus? -
Bigshrimp Lot of RMA horror stories going on these days. Not a fun time to have a warrantied item break down.Reply -
julianpaul ReplyPhaaze88 said:They're formerly Asus; they broke away from them.
Oh I didn't know this, and wikipedia just mentions some restructuring but same parent company, which means your money goes to the same people, whether rock or sus...