A couple of weeks ago, BGR India revealed the hoops a buyer has to jump through to get after sales support if one has bought an Asus device from Flipkart. Since then, Asus has sent out what seem to be misleading media statements that claim its warranty practices in India are the industry standard and Asus goes a step further by providing support even when the user doesn’t have an invoice. Let’s take a look at what really transpired.
In a statement to Medianama reacting to BGR India‘s original article, Asus told the publication that “in this particular case the customer was unable to produce the invoice which led to warranty being determined based on date of manufacturing.” This is factually incorrect.
In its statement, Asus also says that it requires the invoice of the product to expedite the service. Here’s the excerpt from the company’s statement: “In order to offer a quick and convenient service to the consumer, the service team requests for the invoice as the proof which expedites the process in terms of reaching out to the specific partner and taking the appropriate action for the case.”What Asus is hiding here is that it does have a warranty approval process. The industry practice is that the customer goes to a service centre with the product and its invoice, which is enough to get the necessary warranty. However, in Asus’s case, one has to first email the invoice to their central service centre, which will then approve the warranty, and only then the customer is supposed to visit the service centre. Here are the screenshots of mails exchanged with Asus where they first said the product was not under warranty and then later asked the customer to go through an approval warranty process.
This is not the industry standard. Nowhere does Asus mention the warranty approval process but the screenshots of emails exchanged by the customer with Asus central service centre team (notice the subject line warranty approval) clearly shows it has a warranty approval process. In this case, the customer, who first contacted the central helpline, was explicitly told not to visit the service centre before the warranty is approved. And to get that warranty approval, the customer is first supposed to mail them the invoice.
The other claim from Asus is even more shocking. Here is the proud statement: “Out of a total of 1262 certified buyer reviews, 45 have provided 1/2 stars.”
It is unbelievable that a brand would put such a statement in their press release. Majority of the electronics companies, chase a six sigma level of quality – a standard made popular by GE and Motorola. In Six Sigma, the quality level is 3.4 defects per million opportunities, which means that there are 3.4 defects in a million units. Anyone can use the process sigma calculator and calculate the sigma levels of Asus as per their statement. As per their statement, a defect rate of 3.5 percent is a an achievement. And in a million units the defects per million opportunities or defects will be 35,658. This is a sigma level of 3.3 – which is a terrible quality level for any global company.
Source : BGR
