Asus has made it clear if a device sent in for repair is covered under warranty, or if you'll have to pay.

Asus's performance over the last few months has shown the importance of good customer service. Since May, when Asus was cited for poor service, the brand has been working to improve things. It's now implemented its next service improvement.

The company's "repair quote format" has been updated in the September 30th addition. Asus claims it has "added a column to our notification emails to better explain the types of repairs and their status". The repairs will be divided into "covered by warranty", "optional" or "required". This is good news, as the original concerns were mainly about Asus' ridiculous quotes.

Here's a quick break down. Gamers Nexus published a video in May that shed light on the issues with Asus' RMA procedure. The channel showed that Asus offered GN a $200 fix for "customer-induced damage", which was cosmetic in nature and not related to the original reason for sending in the device. The warranty repair was eventually sorted out, but not without some back-and-forth and scaremongering.

The main problem highlighted, and which has been a problem for other users, is with unnecessary quotes and pressure to accept them and pay for. The latest "quotation notifications" should hopefully prevent this.

Asus, after GN's video, and an initial tone deaf response that seemed blame customers for not knowing the RMA procedure, committed to improving the situation and published a list of actions it would take to improve the RMA Process, originally published in May. These are:

• Clearer communication in quotation emails
• Video and photo documentation
• Transparent repair reports (effective September 30, 2024)
• Communication enhancing service (effective September 30, 2020)
• Changes in repair prices for component damages (effective immediately).
• Improved cosmetic repair options (effective immediately).
• Improved quotation accuracy (effective immediately).

After meeting with GN in June to discuss the issue, the company agreed to implement a number of additional and more specific changes. This included the creation of a team that would review negative surveys and attempt to fix any identified problems.

Since then, it has been implementing its service improvement plan, with this month being one of the most significant for the customer experience. Repairs will be classified as either covered by warranty, optional (for problems that "could impact your device's functionality but are not necessary for basic use") or required (for those repairs "that are required for your device to function normally or are essential for the issues you reported").

All of this is great news, but it will be interesting to see how the changes are implemented over time and what the end user experience will be. It's hoped that this will mean an end to outrageous and unnecessary quotes and the beginning of a much simpler and more transparent RMA procedure.