Question Getting that MoBo back from warranty repair - How did it work out for you?

[TrufflesG]

I've just sent back an Asus ROG Strix MoBo under warranty.

It might just be me, but I'm not really expecting a good result.
If they send a refurbished board back to me, that means one that had issues and was repaired.
Knowing electronics fairly well and because of the sheer complexity of modern Motherboards, I could imagine a lot
of failed "repairs".

Complex electronics can work fine under certain loads, temperatures etc, but fail under others.
Or components can have partial failures where they might work sometimes and not others.
Motherboards are among the most complex electronic devices out there. So many tiny resistors and capacitors and diodes not to mention a lot
of IC chips onboard.

Not sure the motherboard companies want to invest too much into repairing boards when their unit cost is probably quite low.
I can see a scenario where they send it to their repair contractor and get a diagnosis and based on that they give them the Go or No Go and either have them "attempt" a repair,
send you one that has already been "repaired", or send a new one if the repair cost approaches 90% of the new replacement cost.

I imagine the big Motherboard companies probably use one or two "Repair shops" where they all send all boards for some kind of diagnostic evaluation.
Or maybe they do that in-house then decide to send it for repair or just replace it.
Chances are you may never get the same board again.
Maybe they have an in house repair shop but I see the big manufacturers as being far more concerned with handling development of new products and sales as their most
important objective.

Short Version......
So I was wondering how it turned out for others who sent back motherboards under warranty?
Did they repair your board? Did it work properly afterwards or did you have the same or different problems?
I wonder in general if Motherboard warranties more often result in failure for the customer or success and a fully functional motherboard?

Thanks

 

[Zerk2012]

The only time I delt with Asus was years ago and sent it in twice only to receive back the same board with the same problem.

 

[DSzymborski]

The profit margins on motherboards are quite small; companies would much rather repair them than be out a new/refurbished one, if possible.

 

[TrufflesG]

The profit margins on motherboards are quite small; companies would much rather repair them than be out a new/refurbished one, if possible.

While I do believe you, I find that surprising.
I buy a substantial amount of electronic components from around the world and also have designed and had made quite a few PCBs for various projects mainly SMPS PSU's.

The MoBo manufactureres buy in MUCH larger quantities than I ever can.
I realize they may have to license some chips.

I can't see a ROG Strix B470F Motherboard costing Asus more than $50 per unit to manufacture. That may be high.
Most of their costs, however, could be in development. That could cost quite a bit and has to be spread out over the final total unit production count.
I imagine they sold quite a few of the B470F Mobos. WAG...250,000 ? Unreasonable?
If their development costs were even $1 million for that board that is still only $4 per board

That said, I am totally guessing and have no actual idea.
How do you come to the conclusion their profit margins are slim?
Is there readily available info on this?
Thanks

 

[TrufflesG]

The only time I delt with Asus was years ago and sent it in twice only to receive back the same board with the same problem.

Thanks.
This is what I am expecting.

Very little faith in their Warranty.
My gut feeling is it's a sham.

 

[USAFRet]

How do you come to the conclusion their profit margins are slim?

Volume.

If they can slim the advertised price by $10, that is more sales.

 

[TrufflesG]

Volume.

If they can slim the advertised price by $10, that is more sales.

Higher volumes usually result in better margins. No?

 

[USAFRet]

Higher volumes usually result in better margins. No?

margin is the difference between total cost to market and actual sell price.

 

[DSzymborski]

Motherboard margins tend to be well under 10%. There are a lot of chipsets to license from a lot of places, Intel, Realtek, etc. and since it's a very mature market, there's a brutal race towards the marginal cost. There's a reason you see a ton of companies into peripherals or PSUs or coolers or monitors say "nope, out" when it comes to motherboards.

 

[TrufflesG]

K
You learn something new every day.

Thanks

 

[BFG-9000]

Long ago I bought a bunch of the most expensive non-Enterprise ASUS boards there were at the time, and every single one failed over a few years. The RMA process was painless, but every board I received back died within 3 months to a year, and I believe it was because the replacement boards had been adjusted to severely overvolt the chipset because of the design flaw of using a two-phase VRM on a 89w load (mind you this was for office use, unoverclocked). There was a huge thread on the [H] about this.

Normally you'd expect a refurb product to be more reliable than new simply because it's certainly gone through much more testing to make sure every sample works, than is the case on the normal assembly line. In this case each board was simply hand tweaked until it just passed, longevity be damned.

After awhile I decided the warranty wasn't worth all the time spent diagnosing, sending it back and reactivating Windows all of the time so I never bought ASUS new again. I'm sure most of their products are great but how they handled warranty on the occasional dud product was disappointing.

 

[TrufflesG]

Long ago I bought a bunch of the most expensive non-Enterprise ASUS boards there were at the time, and every single one failed over a few years. The RMA process was painless, but every board I received back died within 3 months to a year, and I believe it was because the replacement boards had been adjusted to severely overvolt the chipset because of the design flaw of using a two-phase VRM on a 89w load (mind you this was for office use, unoverclocked). There was a huge thread on the [H] about this.

Normally you'd expect a refurb product to be more reliable than new simply because it's certainly gone through much more testing to make sure every sample works, than is the case on the normal assembly line. In this case each board was simply hand tweaked until it just passed, longevity be damned.

After awhile I decided the warranty wasn't worth all the time spent diagnosing, sending it back and reactivating Windows all of the time so I never bought ASUS new again. I'm sure most of their products are great but how they handled warranty on the occasional dud product was disappointing.

Thank you for that.
I would take a WAG that ASUS is no worse than the rest of them.

MoBo warranty is probably a sham. They probably never have any intention of ensuring that your issue is resolved.
A virtual PR stunt.
I would wager that I will get the same board back, untouched, but claimed to be "fixed".
This will likely be my first and last mistake pursuing a warranty.

Used to be motherboards could last 15 years. I had an EliteGroup K7S5A that was simply spectacular for over a decade.

What worries me most is the thought that they design the boards to last only a short time, but charge a premium for them.
This is pretty much the global manufacturing model now on almost everything.
Planned failure forcing repeat business. If they ALL do it, ALL of them will thrive on this business model....until consumers can no longer bear the costs.

I see blatant examples of this in large appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators.