ASUS A54C-AB91 15.6-Inch Laptop Review

List Price: $449.00
Price: $399.99

Product Features
Intel Pentium B980 2.4 GHz Processor
4 GB DDR3
320 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, Intel HD 3000 Graphics
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By Eric Jacobs (Adams, MA United States)

We purchased an Asus laptop (ModelX54C-BBK24) three months ago from Best Buy for a business project, along with a Geek Squad service contract, and are seriously dissatisfied with the results. About two months after the purchase, the computer stopped working. We took it into Best Buy for diagnosis and repair. The Geek Squad determined that the problem was a defective hard drive and its replacement was covered under Asus's warranty. We were informed, however, that we needed to provide "recovery discs" that would allow the hard drive to accept an operating system so that the computer would be operational; without these discs the computer, even with a new hard drive, would not work. Although Best Buy is an authorized service provider for Asus products, we were told that they had no access to Asus recovery discs, and it was our responsibility to provide them.

Inasmuch as we had not created these discs, an oversight on our part that does not void any explicit or implicit warranties (it is reasonable expectation on our part that a newly purchased computer will work longer than two months), or give excuse to Asus for manufacturing a shoddy product, it was necessary to contact Asus. We did so, and Asus was willing to sell us these necessary recovery discs for fifty dollars. So, to rectify their inability to manufacture a serviceable product, we were expected to pay approximately twenty percent of our purchase price to remedy Asus's manufacturing incompetence. In our view, this was an outrageous demand, an effort by Asus to turn their shoddy quality control into a profit center at our expense.

We contacted Asus Customer Support and for three days worth of telephone calls received apologies and excuses from representatives and supervisors; all were terribly sorry about the inconvenience, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum, but showed no real effort on Asus's part to make good on their defective product, save for an offer to subtract $12.50 from the purchase price of the recovery discs. A mean spirited offer that we refused. In effect, unless we pay Asus a fee to rebuild our newly purchased computer, their corporate policies will effectively prevent us from using our property. Not a nice alternative and a terrible corporate policy that looks to avoid responsibility for the poor quality of their product, and demeans their customers by forcing them to subsidize Asus's corporate ineptitude, manufacturing incompetence and indifference to customer satisfaction.

We will never again buy an Asus computer and would advise other consumers to consider striking Asus products from any purchasing consideration. For our part, we will be filing a complaint against Asus with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.