LOOSE RJ45 jacks: TWO BRAND NEW RT N66U's

megabyzus said:

Yes, they seem to have acknowledged there is a problem and have agreed to send me a BRAND NEW device (not reman'd) that they have opened and tested. They said my unit(s) were manufactured May 2013. The new unit they are sending me (and supposedly tested to not have the problem) is manufactured August 2013. They have tested with different cables including the one included in the box. They have issued an RMA and an 'advanced placement' (IOW, they take my cc and send a device and I return the defective one). What I'm going to do is go to BestBuy return mine and get another one to extend the 15 return another 15 days and see if the 4th one also exhibits this before going through this rigmarole. I'm not confident the new one they'll send me will work.

I hope this helps.

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Cool, let us know how the new one works out for you. I'll wait until then before pursing the advanced RMA. Thanks!

Iano said:

Cool, let us know how the new one works out for you. I'll wait until then before pursing the advanced RMA. Thanks!

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I've changed my mind and decided to risk it and keep my faulty unit until ASUS sends me the replacement (sorry for being flakey). I figured I won't gain much by buying a 4th unit because, chances are, it will be faulty too. I looked on the box and the mfg date just says '2013' and doesn't specify a date unfortunately. If it did, one could avoid the 'May' dates I suppose.

As soon as ASUS sends me, and I receive, the new unit, and test it, I'll post an update. Probably sometime next week.

Thanks!

megabyzus said:

I've changed my mind and decided to risk it and keep my faulty unit until ASUS sends me the replacement (sorry for being flakey). I figured I won't gain much by buying a 4th unit because, chances are, it will be faulty too. I looked on the box and the mfg date just says '2013' and doesn't specify a date unfortunately. If it did, one could avoid the 'May' dates I suppose.

As soon as ASUS sends me, and I receive, the new unit, and test it, I'll post an update. Probably sometime next week.

Thanks!

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I was kinda wondering what you were expecting to accomplish by buying another from BB. Also seems to me that Asus should have sent the replacement in an expedited manner.

Iano said:

I realize this isn't a $3k piece of Cisco equipment, but I've never had a quality wireless router do this before.

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To be honest, I don't recall ever seeing anything like this even on cheap networking equipment (ignoring physically damaged ports, e.g. from obvious abuse).

UPDATE: I have not received the item yet. As if this has not been enormously inconvenient for me, ASUS has sent the product with a 'signature required' flag. This means I have to stay home for this item to arrive. I have asked them to change it but they quote company policy this and that. I have routed the product to a Fedex center for holding.

Overall, the entire experience with the product return and exchange has been sub-par. I gave up on 'chats' and telephone calls. Emails exchanges are about once every 24+ hours. My return process is in the bottom of the second week and the item has not arrived and considering the signature required flag and my reroute attempt, it's arrival is unclear.And once it arrives, it's not clear if it'll work.

So here it is, a customer with no fault, trying to purchase a working product, and a company that has done everything possible to make the exchange process as difficult as possible.

Really sorry to hear that I hope you get it soon. I hope Asus customer service is not like Comcast but it sounds like maybe it is. Good Luck with it.

megabyzus said:

UPDATE: I have not received the item yet. As if this has not been enormously inconvenient for me, ASUS has sent the product with a 'signature required' flag. This means I have to stay home for this item to arrive. I have asked them to change it but they quote company policy this and that. I have routed the product to a Fedex center for holding.

Overall, the entire experience with the product return and exchange has been sub-par. I gave up on 'chats' and telephone calls. Emails exchanges are about once every 24+ hours. My return process is in the bottom of the second week and the item has not arrived and considering the signature required flag and my reroute attempt, it's arrival is unclear.And once it arrives, it's not clear if it'll work.

So here it is, a customer with no fault, trying to purchase a working product, and a company that has done everything possible to make the exchange process as difficult as possible.

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Requiring a signature is pretty much how every company works out when sending replacements. We get the same at work from Seagate, WD, etc... Asus isn't doing anything unusual there, and I doubt they are also making it "as difficult as possible".

In fact, for many courier services there is no alternative, unless you go with their cheapest AND slowest delivery service - anything faster will involve requiring a signature.

@all: if you also have the same issue, please contact Asus through Networking_Support@asus.com. I recommend you try to get it exchanged as soon as possible, as it will be helpful not only for you but for Asus themselves - having an actual defective sample in hand for analysis will speed up the actual resolution if there is indeed a quality issue with certain batches.

RMerlin said:

Requiring a signature is pretty much how every company works out when sending replacements. We get the same at work from Seagate, WD, etc... Asus isn't doing anything unusual there, and I doubt they are also making it "as difficult as possible".

In fact, for many courier services there is no alternative, unless you go with their cheapest AND slowest delivery service - anything faster will involve requiring a signature.

@all: if you also have the same issue, please contact Asus through Networking_Support@asus.com. I recommend you try to get it exchanged as soon as possible, as it will be helpful not only for you but for Asus themselves - having an actual defective sample in hand for analysis will speed up the actual resolution if there is indeed a quality issue with certain batches.

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True or not that makes zero sense. I have ordered these flawed devices twice from Amazon and no special signature was required. In fact, when any vendor sends me something I don't need a signature. On the rare occasion that a signature is required, it has been through UPS which, upon registration allows digital signature in lieu. ASUS, unsurprisingly, uses FedEx.

No matter. 'Advanced placement' doesn't have anything special about it to require signature when other vendors do not. Using a company's ossified 'process' as a means to justify poor performance is nonsensical.

megabyzus said:

True or not that makes zero sense. I have ordered these flawed devices twice from Amazon and no special signature was required. In fact, when any vendor sends me something I don't need a signature. On the rare occasion that a signature is required, it has been through UPS which, upon registration allows digital signature in lieu. ASUS, unsurprisingly, uses FedEx.

No matter. 'Advanced placement' doesn't have anything special about it to require signature when other vendors do not. Using a company's ossified 'process' as a means to justify poor performance is nonsensical.

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You can't compare that with a reseller like Amazon, who will send things the cheapest way possible since they make thousands of shipments per day. Two totally different cases. Indeed, most resellers don't require signatures (and they absorb the loss of lost packages), but every single manufacturer with whom I have delt with at work for warranty replacements has required signatures upon reception.

I've heard a good share of horror stories from major couriers dropping boxes anywhere they can if no signature is required. A signature is meant to protect you, not to annoy you.

RMerlin said:

You can't compare that with a reseller like Amazon, who will send things the cheapest way possible since they make thousands of shipments per day. Two totally different cases. Indeed, most resellers don't require signatures (and they absorb the loss of lost packages), but every single manufacturer with whom I have delt with at work for warranty replacements has required signatures upon reception.

I've heard a good share of horror stories from major couriers dropping boxes anywhere they can if no signature is required. A signature is meant to protect you, not to annoy you.

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Totally disagree. Signature is meant to protect ASUS not the customer. A practice that inconveniences the customer is not meant the 'protect me'. Additionally, according to ASUS, if this were a 'regular RMA' (I send in my device and THEN they send a replacement) signature would not have been required. This differentiation is nonsensical and preposterous.

megabyzus said:

Totally disagree. Signature is meant to protect ASUS not the customer. A practice that inconveniences the customer is not meant the 'protect me'. Additionally, according to ASUS, if this were a 'regular RMA' (I send in my device and THEN they send a replacement) signature would not have been required. This differentiation is nonsensical and preposterous.

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At this point, you seem determined to think that Asus is going out of their way just to aggravate you. I guess no matter what anyone would do or say, your mind is just set on this opinion.

RMerlin said:

At this point, you seem determined to think that Asus is going out of their way just to aggravate you. I guess no matter what anyone would do or say, your mind is just set on this opinion.

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Actually, I'm not 'determined to think' anything. It's apparent, that as a customer who has purchased their faulty product, ASUS should have ensured a smooth exchange and not allowed this to carry on for so long. Additionally requiring a customer to stay home for a day waiting for an item to arrive is simply stupid. I wonder why you would disagree with that? Apparently you believe, when an innocent customer, who pays for an RT N66U with a major flaw (three times in a row), should expect to wait in their house for an entire day to provide a signature due to some ossified internal ASUS process. YOUR position is not normal.

Mind you, it's not clear, once and if, I receive the exchanged RT N66U whether it will work or will it exhibit the same major flaw the other three new ones I purchased: RJ 45 ethernet ports all disconnect on minor movements.

simple solution, refuse the router delivery, get a refund and buy another brand.

GoNz0 said:

simple solution, refuse the router delivery, get a refund and buy another brand.

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No that's not the solution. If he just gives up Asus may drop the whole thing instead of investigating what went wrong with these batch of routers and possible recall of the affected batches so they don't keep being sold broken.

Kel-L said:

No that's not the solution. If he just gives up Asus may drop the whole thing instead of investigating what went wrong with these batch of routers and possible recall of the affected batches so they don't keep being sold broken.

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Exactly. Needless to say, I want to make sure I get a working RT N66U finally (not successful yet). And of course, I'd like to get it with zero headache (not successful). However, I also want to make sure that the consumer community is aware of this major flaw (somewhat successful) and, not to mention, make ASUS aware and ensure they take appropriate actions to everyone's satisfaction (not successful). Thanks to ASUS, that's only 1 out of 4 conditions met.

Kel-L said:

No that's not the solution. If he just gives up Asus may drop the whole thing instead of investigating what went wrong with these batch of routers and possible recall of the affected batches so they don't keep being sold broken.

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This issue is being taken seriously and is already being investigated. If anyone encounters issues with loose LAN connection, we advise you to contact us at Networking_support@asus.com.

Asusnet said:

This issue is being taken seriously and is already being investigated. If anyone encounters issues with loose LAN connection, we advise you to contact us at Networking_support@asus.com.

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Considering my experience and enormous inconvenience caused, I don't believe ASUS is taking this seriously at all..

megabyzus said:

Exactly. Needless to say, I want to make sure I get a working RT N66U finally (not successful yet). And of course, I'd like to get it with zero headache (not successful). However, I also want to make sure that the consumer community is aware of this major flaw (somewhat successful) and, not to mention, make ASUS aware and ensure they take appropriate actions to everyone's satisfaction (not successful). Thanks to ASUS, that's a only 1 out of 4 conditions met.

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It would be great if you could take on the rest of the networking and telephone equipment industry that has "jack size problems" with the same level of dedication and bravado. It seems to be long time problem rampant among companies selling consumer networking and telephone communications equipment.

For example I have a Linksys 4200v1 router I bought a two years ago that has a design flaw where the RJ-45 jacks that have a fit so tight that some of my regular Cat 5e cables get stuck to the point where I almost feel like I am going to break the router when I try to remove them and I can't even plug some of my standard Cat 6 Ethernet cables into it. Many owners and professional reviews complained to Cisco/Linksys about this problem with what was at the time their consumer grade flagship router. Cisco was aware of the problem but they continued to sell their top of the line consumer router with that design flaw. They couldn't even offer a replacement to consumers for that model at the time. I am not sure if they corrected the design flaw until the next v2 model came out a year later.

I have run across similar what you would call "critical design flaws" with phones, cordless phones, external and internal fax modems and fax machines for decades where the RJ-11 jacks seemed to be "out of spec" by being either too loose or too tight. Jacks that were too loose were never as much as a problem as jacks that were too tight. I broke off the plastic clip ends on the jacks of many phone cords trying to remove them them from similarly "critically flawed" phone equipment with RJ-11 jacks that were "too tight". The loose RJ-11 jacks usually could be bent slightly upward to make the connections normal.

If you really are dedicated then hopefully you take your quest beyond just this recent run of Asus routers. Since these "too loose or too tight jack problems" have been going on for many decades maybe your extreme passion for this quest can effect worldwide industry wide change for network, telephone and computer manufacturers using RJ-45 and RJ-11 jacks in their products.

megabyzus said:

Considering my experience and enormous inconvenience caused, I don't believe ASUS is taking this seriously at all..

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I'm sure your constant complaining will really help the ASUS support presence on the forum.

jlake said:

http://www.sequim-real-estate-blog.com/internet-business/fedex-signature-waiver/

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We have that. That is only for 'Indirect Signature Required' delivery option and even then it is not guaranteed, since as far as I know this is not a sanctioned FedEx form. Regardless, in this particular case, ASUS has sent the item as 'Signature Required'.

Thanks for the try though!