ASUS improves 'nightmare' RMA policy

VIP hails move from ASUS to begin offering credit on motherboard returns via distribution

ASUS has addressed a sore point in its channel by introducing a policy of offering a credit on faulty motherboards.

Motherboards carry a notoriously high RMA [return merchandise authorisation] rate but ASUS has traditionally offered customers with defective units only a repaired replacement – a set-up distributor VIP branded a "nightmare for all concerned".

From the start of 2015, the Taiwanese vendor has begun offering its UK distributors a credit on returns, which can be passed onto the reseller and, ultimately, the end user.

VIP director Duncan McAuley said VIP deals with about 1,000 ASUS motherboard returns a month.

"We've been pushing ASUS to do this for years," he said. "Motherboards are always the worst product for returns because there's so much that can wrong with them and it's really good that this change has happened for everyone down the chain.

"Before, customers would send [the returns] to us and we would swap them for a repaired unit – but the customer couldn't get a brand-new replacement or credit, which is what a lot of them wanted," he said.

ASUS and rival Gigabyte are roughly neck and neck in a global motherboard market worth 38 million units in 2014, according to market watcher Companiesandmarkets.

Recent stats cited by Hardware.fr suggest the returns rate on ASUS motherboards in recent times has been about 2.86 per cent, compared with 2.51 per cent for Gigabyte.

McCauley said ASUS' change of heart prompted VIP to improve and standardise its own returns policy across its entire portfolio this month. All faulty stock returned to VIP under the manufacturer's returns policy will now be credited back to the customer at market value rather than offering a replacement product.

"ASUS motherboards was the big category for us that stopped us giving credits on products," McCauley said.

"The only products we wouldn't get involved with is where the manufacturer has its own service centre, for instance for notebooks. Anything that comes back to us as part of a policy we now offer a credit on."