It has been five long weeks since my brand new Asus Zenfone
2 (ZE551ML) malfunctioned. I want to take a moment to review what happened thus
far. Read on. You might learn a lesson or two.
One time while I was downloading some applications, the
screen suddenly froze. I tried to power off the phone by pressing and then
holding the power button, but that didn’t seem to work. Took a few minutes of
struggling, figuring it out how to turn it off before all of a sudden it just
finally did. Little did I know that it was the last time I was going to be able
to use my phone. Ever since, every time I power it back on, all the screen
would show was just some kind of a USB logo (see illustration 1). My brand new
Asus phone, busted after just one week of regular use, and by regular I mean
just the usual texting, downloading, games, music and internet browsing.
 |
| Illustration 1: Asus Zenfone 2 stuck on USB logo |
I thought of having it replaced, but it has been more than
seven days since I bought the phone by the time it got broken. You see, here in
our country there is a common belief that you only have until that time to have
defective merchandises you’ve purchased to have it returned or exchanged (but
surprisingly when I searched about it on the internet, it turned out to be
false. Anyone who can enlighten me about this subject, which I believe is the
“Consumer Act of the Philippines,” feel free to do so).
So naturally, I opted for my next best option: going to the
service center. Paid a visit to one of the Asus stores in SM North-EDSA mall in
Quezon City to ask where their service centers are, and was advised that they
had one in Cubao, also within the same city.
As soon as I had the time, I was finally able to make the
two to three hour trip from my home in Laguna City to Cubao. Unfortunately,
when I finally got to the service center in Cubao called Aikontech, it was closed. “The store is closed due to the company
outing. Sorry for the inconvenience,” the note on the front door said. Just
my luck.
Instead of going home and then back again, which will end up being more tiresome, I opted to lounge some place nearby until the store opens the
following day. And when I did arrive there just fifteen minutes after the store
just opened, the waiting line was long already. Not surprising, since there was
just one employee attending to the customers. Took another fifteen to thirty
minutes actually before another staff got there to help out. By then, I was
already getting a bad impression from that service center.
Fortunately for me, there was another customer who got ahead
of me in line waiting, with the very same exact concern. We chatted for a few
minutes while waiting for our turn to be called.
Shockingly, the whole ten to fifteen we waited there, we’ve
managed to hear A LOT of complaints regarding the service center from the other
customers who were waiting in line. Some said they were already on their second
or third trip back to that store, complaining that their phone was still malfunctioning
after having it repaired. And more worryingly, some even said that they still
haven’t gotten their phones fixed to the point that their six-month warranty
have already expired since they surrendered their phones to Aikontech. There
was even this particular scene where one of the customers was already shouting
at the store staff out of sheer frustration, saying out loud that he couldn’t
believe the store would make such a stupid mistake of notifying him through SMS
that his phone is already repaired, only to find out in the end that it wasn’t
really the case and his phone is still in the process of being fixed. And, as
if to validate all my doubts that’ve been increasing since I arrived there, the
person whom I talked to, the one with the exact same problem I have
encountered, got called for his turn to take to the store employee, only to be
told that he’d have to wait twenty one days at the earliest, without ANY
guarantee whatsoever that his phone will be repaired.
No person in his right mind would still consider
surrendering his phone, after having gone through everything I’ve experienced
while I was in Aikontech, was what I thought.
When I got back home, I immediately resumed researching on
the ‘net how else I can have my phone fixed. As was advised by the person I
chatted with while in Aikontech, I even joined existing groups of Zenfone 2
users (‘Asus Zenfone 2 PhilippinesCommunity’, and ‘Asus Zenfone 2Philippines (SUPPORT)’), where possibly, I can find a solution for my
phone.
And just to be sure, I also sent an email through the Asus website
about my complaint.
Days went by as I continued researching
online, and asking advise from the people within the Facebook Zenfone 2
communities I’ve joined for solutions (a couple of people reached out to me
through that group, offering to help, but it was only after I posted my first
open letter to Asus about my concerns), all of which ended up not being as
fruitful as I hoped it would be. I also still haven’t gotten any replies from
my email directly to Asus (eventually it took them EIGHT LONG DAYS before
replying, giving lame excuse of blaming it to a system glitch in their mailing
system).
So, I decided to bring my phone to
one of Asus’s service centers again, this time to MSi-ECS. I got word that
this service center was supposed to be more reliable in fixing mobile phones.
And boy, how wrong it turned out to be!
They got me to surrender the phone
after giving me the impression that it was the only way to have my phone
repaired. And so I did. They advised me that I should get a “feedback” after 2-3
days. And what sort of feedback did I get afterwards? Just some sort of table,
with short words on it (see illustration 2). That’s it. No further explanation.
Yes, I know the information on that table was pretty self-explanatory. But, not
even bothering to ELABORATE? Was it really so hard to compose a PROPER EMAIL
REPLY?
 |
| Illustration 2: MSi reply email |
Of course I immediately replied,
asking for a further, MORE DETAILED explanation. And then I was made to wait another THREE DAYS before getting their next reply, only to be told that I had to wait ANOTHER 10 DAYS OR SO FOR THE
PHONE TO BE REPAIRED?!
In light of all these, whether or not this problem I'm encountering with trying to have my phone repaired A.S.A.P. gets resolved? I am certain of one
thing: NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY ANYTHING FROM
ASUS.
