[UPDATED] A joke of a "suggested" repair... - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

I sent in my tablet for a bunch of repairs including screen tearing, random reboots, charger ending up smelling of smoke after it heats up really hot, wobbly dock and a few other things and asked I also mentioned an issue with a bit of plastic what has become lose around the area of the USB Dock, it doesn't effect me at all and isn't even that obvious.
I just got a reply from ASUS with their I guess... suggested repair and they think my dock should be replaced for a cost of €159... it's a tiny bit of superficial plastic damage what has come unhooked from the chassis. I'm quietly confident that it could be fixed in no time at all by removing the chassis and putting it back on as the bit of plastic has not been snapped and it's not lose.
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I obviously rejected the repair and have requested they just leave it as it is, I assume warrenty is just for 1 year so... in January 2013 I will be able to open it up myself and "fix" it for free lol Yes, USB connection still works perfectly fine.
Anyone else got stupid suggested repairs like this?

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i sent my unlocked device in last week and its allready underway back from czech republic.
sent it in for defective speaker and cracking noises with dock closed (screw issue).
made a lot of pictures before sending it to asus... hope its not scratched etc .
and i hope its still unlockable ........
anyhow , i never had problems with rma , only the frequency is way to high lol ( 4 rma for tf101 and tf201)

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Tempie007 said:
i sent my unlocked device in last week and its allready underway back from czech republic.
sent it in for defective speaker and cracking noises with dock closed (screw issue).
made a lot of pictures before sending it to asus... hope its not scratched etc .
and i hope its still unlockable ........
anyhow , i never had problems with rma , only the frequency is way to high lol ( 4 rma for tf101 and tf201)
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Hey, here is a full list of issues what I had:
- Lose docking connection, the screen wobbles slightly whilst docked when it should be perfectly flush.
- Wi-Fi semi-dropping when in sleep mode even though the settings tell it to keep the connection alive, it would be connected but it wouldn't get any internet and it was NOT a router issue.
- Noticeable light bleed when watching a video, booting the tablet up and when playing games.
- 25+ ANR's every single day.
- Random reboots (once or twice a day)
- Power connector get's really hot and then starts smelling of smoke which is a fire hazard.
- Screen tearing along the left hand side and the bottom of the screen once or twice a day.
- Awful microphone sound recording, it was super quiet and also not very clear.
- One of the side bits of plastic has come out (around the USB), undoing the chassis and re-doing it back up should fix it.
- The rubber stoppers on the dock come out far to easy, well the bottom one does.
Anyway, I hope yours comes back working perfectly please let me know of it's condition on return and if they fixed everything.

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Updates:
July 24th: During my call I was told that I would be contacted by 2nd line support in regards to the repairs within 48 hours.
July 26th: Nothing, no call.
July 31st: I decided to contact ASUS again telling them to ignore the dock replacement but continue the repairs, the service centre applied the actions and I was informed that my tablet would be shipped back to me.
August 3rd: Delivery of "Repaired" tablet, I unbox it to find that nothing appears to of been done.
- The docking hinge is still lose so the tablet wobbles lots.
- All operating system files are untouched, Identical light bleed, thus meaning the tablet hasn't been opened at all which means they haven't fixed the microphone nor have they fixed any screen tearing, random reboots, multiple ANR's
- Charger is still the same... this is a health and safety issue because it was smelling of smoke after a while which means something inside the charger block was/is burning.
That's not all... it's actually come back worse than it went. I've spoken to some guys on IRC about this and one even had a look via teamviewer and we've both come to the agreement that ASUS have broken the USB Cable so now a computer or laptop can't detect the tablet...
I've called them up and the support was useless, they said they couldn't do anything and that it appears none of my issues are able to be repaired under warranty they've moved it up to 2nd line support once again but it means I'm stuck dead in the water for 2+ more days.

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As far as your charger goes, have you tried plugging it in the opposite way? The charger can be plugged in to an outlet either direction. I know if I plug mine in one direction the charger gets extremely hot (almost too hot to touch) and if I recall correctly I think there is a slight 'smoke' smell if you hold the charger up close to your nose after it has been charging for a while. However, if I plug the charger in the opposite way it doesn't get nearly as hot and feels close in temperature to other USB wall chargers that I have. So ever since I discovered this I have obviously been plugging it in in the direction that it doesn't get hot.

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jordache16 said:
As far as your charger goes, have you tried plugging it in the opposite way? The charger can be plugged in to an outlet either direction. I know if I plug mine in one direction the charger gets extremely hot (almost too hot to touch) and if I recall correctly I think there is a slight 'smoke' smell if you hold the charger up close to your nose after it has been charging for a while. However, if I plug the charger in the opposite way it doesn't get nearly as hot and feels close in temperature to other USB wall chargers that I have. So ever since I discovered this I have obviously been plugging it in in the direction that it doesn't get hot.
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The USB end can only be inserted one way. The 40pin connector can only be inserted one way (It has arrows to show you). It charges fine but it can't get any USB Data connection.
A charger under any circumstances should never ever smell of smoke, as the saying goes "there is no smoke without fire" meaning something is melting/burning which makes it a fire hazard.

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Hyflex said:
The USB end can only be inserted one way. The 40pin connector can only be inserted one way (It has arrows to show you). It charges fine but it can't get any USB Data connection.
A charger under any circumstances should never ever smell of smoke, as the saying goes "there is no smoke without fire" meaning something is melting/burning which makes it a fire hazard.
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I'm not referring to the USB end or the 40pin connector, I'm talking about the two metal prongs on the USB wall charger itself. The two prongs are the same width meaning you can plug it into the wall either direction (as I am sure you are aware most plug ins will have one prong larger than the other so you can only insert it one way as to not reverse the polarity). However, several AC adapters nowadays (including the adapter for the Prime) can be plugged in either direction as they are designed to be indifferent from a polarity perspective. But as I have found (as well as several other users here on the forums) plugging the wall charger in one direction will result in the charger getting extremely hot, whereas plugging it in in the opposite direction it will not. I don't know exactly why this happens but it appears to be a polarity related issue with the hardware.
If you have tried plugging the charger into the wall either direction and it gets extremely hot and smells of smoke both ways then you definitely have a problem. However if it only does it when the wall charger is plugged in one direction and not the other than I would guess you are experiencing the same thing that other users on here have experienced. I'm not trying to defend ASUS or anything as I think there is an issue with the charger as you are exactly right, under no circumstances should an AC adapter get extremely hot and smell of smoke. But if I was you I would try and plug the wall charger into the wall the opposite way that you normally do and see if it gets as hot.

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jordache16 said:
I'm not referring to the USB end or the 40pin connector, I'm talking about the two metal prongs on the USB wall charger itself. The two prongs are the same width meaning you can plug it into the wall either direction (as I am sure you are aware most plug ins will have one prong larger than the other so you can only insert it one way as to not reverse the polarity). However, several AC adapters nowadays (including the adapter for the Prime) can be plugged in either direction as they are designed to be indifferent from a polarity perspective. But as I have found (as well as several other users here on the forums) plugging the wall charger in one direction will result in the charger getting extremely hot, whereas plugging it in in the opposite direction it will not. I don't know exactly why this happens but it appears to be a polarity related issue with the hardware.
If you have tried plugging the charger into the wall either direction and it gets extremely hot and smells of smoke both ways then you definitely have a problem. However if it only does it when the wall charger is plugged in one direction and not the other than I would guess you are experiencing the same thing that other users on here have experienced. I'm not trying to defend ASUS or anything as I think there is an issue with the charger as you are exactly right, under no circumstances should an AC adapter get extremely hot and smell of smoke. But if I was you I would try and plug the wall charger into the wall the opposite way that you normally do and see if it gets as hot.
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I'm assuming you're from Europe, I'm from the UK we have a different plug layout consisting of 3 pins one plastic and two metal this making the plug much safer.
See below, I threw together an example:
Wouldn't by your suggestion mean ASUS have wired these chargers incorrectly for UK plugs... or they haven't taken into account the different voltages, amps and wattage output by every country. I'm pretty sure there must be something in the UK Consumer Product regulations or Health and Safety regulations what make ASUS and respective resellers legally have to replace this and/or fix the error right away.

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Hyflex said:
I'm assuming you're from Europe, I'm from the UK we have a different plug layout consisting of 3 pins one plastic and two metal this making the plug much safer.
See below, I threw together an example:
Wouldn't by your suggestion mean ASUS have wired these chargers incorrectly for UK plugs... or they haven't taken into account the different voltages, amps and wattage output by every country. I'm pretty sure there must be something in the UK Consumer Product regulations or Health and Safety regulations what make ASUS and respective resellers legally have to replace this and/or fix the error right away.
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Ahh, that explains the confusion. I'm in the US and was assuming you were as well.

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jordache16 said:
Ahh, that explains the confusion. I'm in the US and was assuming you were as well.
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Yeah, I should of explained at the start about what country I'm from, I updated my avatar and location so it doesn't confuse anyone in the future
I've spoken to Tien (Asus_USA) about the issue and he is unable to help me directly as he only deals with the USA however he did forward my issue on to the UK/Europe team to try and get something done.
Two hours ago I received the following email:
Dear Customer
Thank you for contacting Asus UK.
We have been informed that you received the unit back under RMA: XXXXXXXXXX however the unit is not working.
Our system shows that damages were detected that are not covered by the Asus warranty.
It also informs that you did not want these to be repaired, only the in warranty issues.
The unit was checked fully for the other issues what you have reported and all tested to work OK.
As no fault was found on the other issues, the unit was returned back to you.
If you are still having the issues with your Asus product, please reapply for RMA to arrange collection and repair.
As damages were found on unit, charges will be again applied when rebooking the unit in for repair.
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I'm more than confident everything from docking hinge, screen tearing, light bleed, random reboots, wi-fi issues, faulty charger block, awful microphone and continuous ANR's are all covered by warranty
I wouldn't be surprised if Asus are in breach the health and safety regulations and are legally bound to replace the charger free of charge because it's obvious that something is wrong with either this specific charger or there is a flaw in the design of the charger which in turn is creating a fire risk.
I decided to call Asus today to explain my frustrations, it's now 3+ weeks since my initial submission, over 10 days wasted waiting for Asus to emails and my tablet's in a worse condition than it first went out... the only thing he said was that the 2nd line support team obviously agree with the repair center and that the only other thing what can be done is file a complaint of which I will be doing after this post.
I'm 95% sure that I will never be using or buying any Asus products after this tablet is defunct. This is one of the last things I would think from a company what apparently prides itself on "Persistent Perfection", I'd hate to see them own a child care centre with a similar motto. >_<

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I am surprised they didn't at least give you a new charger out of the deal. I am assuming they at least tested your charger when you sent it in and if it did in fact check out "OK" then the only other thing I could think of is the wiring to your electrical outlets possibly being reversed polarity (highly unlikely that this is it though b/c you would have most likely ran into issues with other plug in devices). My best guess at this point though is you have a defective charger and it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't do a damn thing with it when you sent it in and just sent the whole thing back to you after they found the supposed CID.
Most of the other issues you mention unfortunately are problems that several of us are suffering from based on what I have seen (ANR, random reboots, light bleed, screen tearing) and I am not sure ASUS is able to actually do anything about them. The light bleed issue I know is hit or miss, you either have it or you don't. I had an Amethyst Gray Prime for a short while before my Champagne Gold pre-order arrived and the Gray one had no light bleed what-so-ever but my Gold one does have some minor light bleed along the right edge. It doesn't bother me so I choose to not get worked up over it. As far as the software related issues go, all we can do is hope for an OTA update that will fix some of them.
One thing I know is that you're not in this boat alone, I have seen numerous threads about people having major issues and complaints around ASUS' RMA process. As much as I hate Apple the one nice thing with them is you would have never gone through this BS with them. You could have walked into an Apple store with your iPad, said "hey look at this light bleed, give me a new one" and they would gladly replaced it on the spot with a new one (usually a refurbished one). They still do a quick once over to check for water damage or other types of CID but as long as it checks out OK you are walking out of the store with a new device.
One last thing, I noticed in the screenshot from your original post they have "TF101" listed as the model number, must have been a typo or something, but I just found that interesting.

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jordache16 said:
I am surprised they didn't at least give you a new charger out of the deal.
Snip...
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You're right, I was surprised too I would of thought they would of done a new charger just to cover their asses, because if this charger was to burst into flames then they would have a legal case on their hands and yes I would have no problem going down the legal route. I reported the issue and it's been into a repair centre they have supposedly cleared it and said that it was okay.
I know and understand a lot of people are having issues with the ANR's, random reboots and screen tearing but some people don't have them so they MIGHT have a hardware difference and thus able to make a minor change what fixes the issue. However light bleed can definitely be fixed so can the awful microphone recording, wi-fi sleep issue/bug which I assume is hardware because my software tells it NOT to do this. I'm waiting for an OTA but it seems to be taking forever and I can't even run test/beta builds because I'm in the UK so it takes a bit longer for me to see results than most Americans.
Yeah, I've spotted a hell of a lot of threads in regards to their RMA proceedure, Gary or Tien if any of you see this exact paragraph you might want to bring the RMA process up somehow in a meeting because it's costly for you having to do all of the shipping costs and also it pisses off your "Valued" customers which is really not a good thing.
I thought that was slightly odd that they listed it as a TF101, I just assumed the incompetent fool who did my "repair" made a mistake. ^_^ I was messing around on my cousins iPad yesterday and I never saw any light bleed, no screen tearing, random reboots, charger blocks burning up and the microphone is perfectly crystal clear which put's Asus's prime to shame

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I just received a reply from my complaint form with the following:
Code:
Dear Mr. XXX
I am sorry to hear you are having such a bad experience with the repair and service.
I have thorougly read the topic on XDA and can't say that this is the normal procedure at the repair centre. Please allow us to apologise.
It is very understandable that you do not wish to go trough this procedure again, but the only advise I can give you is to book the device in for repair again.
Should you need any further assistance please let me know.
Kind regards,
ASUS Service Team
I've replied to their email mentioning my distrust in the repair center and mentioned/asked about if they can exchange the device for a TF700T with a small fee on top... let's hope they do this route as the TF700T looks like a much more finished product or lets say fixed.

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Hyflex said:
I just received a reply from my complaint form with the following:
Code:
Dear Mr. XXX
I am sorry to hear you are having such a bad experience with the repair and service.
I have thorougly read the topic on XDA and can't say that this is the normal procedure at the repair centre. Please allow us to apologise.
It is very understandable that you do not wish to go trough this procedure again, but the only advise I can give you is to book the device in for repair again.
Should you need any further assistance please let me know.
Kind regards,
ASUS Service Team
I've replied to their email mentioning my distrust in the repair center and mentioned/asked about if they can exchange the device for a TF700T with a small fee on top... let's hope they do this route as the TF700T looks like a much more finished product or lets say fixed.
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Please keep us informed
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

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It seems they don't have any form of exchange available currently.
Dear Mr. XXX,
I definitely understand that you have lost your trust in the repair.
However be aware that every repair centre can make mistakes and it not always easy for the engineers to duplicate the problem.
It is very likely if you will look at any other brands forum you will read similar experiences.
In regards to the cosmetic damage, this is unfortunately not covered by warranty. The test report shows that the WiFi and Microphone tests were passed ok. I am unsure why nothing was done about the light bleed, that's why I suggest to book the device in for another repair.
We don't have an exchange option in the UK.
If you wish to take this matter further I advise you to contact Trading Standards/Consumers Rights.
Our apologies for the inconvenience.
Kind regards,
ASUS Service Team
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I've been in contact with the service team since that reply and he's kindly given me the address to do a formal postal complaint to the ceo of the complaints department. As soon as I get another reply back I'm going to request a replacement charger/cable ASAP due to it's fire risk/health and safety and also because I can't connect my table to my computer, this actually means I can't even root my tablet so I can't use Titanium backup to restore.
I'll get a formal complaint written up soon and post it, they might of thought at first that I would give in fast and easy but no... I go right to the end!

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Hyflex said:
I've been in contact with the service team since that reply and he's kindly given me the address to do a formal postal complaint to the ceo of the complaints department. As soon as I get another reply back I'm going to request a replacement charger/cable ASAP due to it's fire risk/health and safety and also because I can't connect my table to my computer, this actually means I can't even root my tablet so I can't use Titanium backup to restore.
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So just a small suggestion from someone who has worked in support (not with asus) before, requesting the contact information of "The CEO of" or "The President or" is just going to get an eye roll from the support staff. Your likely to have better luck going on the phone and asking to be escalated, repeatadly then sending a letter.
Also what is likely to happen, you send a letter to the CEO, whose assistant or secretary reads it and realizes it's a support case, who will then route it to a manager of the department, who will then assign it to someone on the support staff. The person you want to read it will probably never know it existed and it will just create a week or two delay in the process. If you need to file a formal complaint your likely to get a better response externally through a local consumer protection agency (or even the media). Of course I may just be cynical, and Asus may be a more responsible company then I'm used to dealing with.

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Balur said:
So just a small suggestion from someone who has worked in support (not with asus) before, requesting the contact information of "The CEO of" or "The President or" is just going to get an eye roll from the support staff. Your likely to have better luck going on the phone and asking to be escalated, repeatadly then sending a letter.
Also what is likely to happen, you send a letter to the CEO, whose assistant or secretary reads it and realizes it's a support case, who will then route it to a manager of the department, who will then assign it to someone on the support staff. The person you want to read it will probably never know it existed and it will just create a week or two delay in the process. If you need to file a formal complaint your likely to get a better response externally through a local consumer protection agency (or even the media). Of course I may just be cynical, and Asus may be a more responsible company then I'm used to dealing with.
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I've called up 4 times and each time I ask for it to be escelated even higher they say everything has been done and that there was no one higher, I sent the letter off last week and there has been no reply what so ever so I'm going to give them a call again tomorrow if they don't do anything then I'll be going to contact Laksys about a full refund because it's just stupid.
I still have a consumer rights and trading standards options aswell. I'll keep updating this thread.

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I e-mailed Laskys and got a reply earlier today, I'm not sure what to reply to them but I would of thought I am within my right to ask for a full refund because I'm having countless issues and I stuck it out to see if GPS could be resolved by a firmware patch, the product is faulty all over.
Dear Mr XXXXX
Thank you for your e-mail. I am sorry to hear you are having problems with your tablet.
We would not be able to offer you a refund at this time as Asus hold the warranty and they are delaing with your issues.
Kind regards
Ian
Laskys Customer Services
0844 892 0124
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How should I respond to this message?

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Hyflex said:
How should I respond to this message?
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I'm not familiar with british consumer protection laws, but i'd say you have a contract with the seller, not with asus. So if they cannot fix the products faults within a reasonable amount of time (you should set a deadline by snailmail) or send it back faulty more than once, then i'd return it to them and demand a full refund.
Whatever happens between the seller and asus should not be of your concern. If they do not refund, get help from a consumer protection agency or a lawyer.
Another option would be to ask them if they would be willing to exchange the prime for an infinity (including a small fee from you).

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gazpel said:
I'm not familiar with british consumer protection laws, but i'd say you have a contract with the seller, not with asus. So if they cannot fix the products faults within a reasonable amount of time (you should set a deadline by snailmail) or send it back faulty more than once, then i'd return it to them and demand a full refund.
Whatever happens between the seller and asus should not be of your concern. If they do not refund, get help from a consumer protection agency or a lawyer.
Another option would be to ask them if they would be willing to exchange the prime for an infinity (including a small fee from you).
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Thanks for your reply, that is exactly what I thought, I'll read up on the right laws and acts to try and work it out.