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watch out where you buy an ac88u

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thank you!

here is my text i just sent to gearbest in china:

the unit is an rt-ac88u, serial number H91CGW000343, MAC ADDRESS B46EBF6B4BA8. i received the unit from china on july 10, 2018. the 5ghz led was not lit nor was there a mac address for the 5ghz band. i tried several settings none of which worked so i decided to do a hard reset to restart from factory default settings.

the unit rebooted in chinese and i did not know how to proceed. i called tech support for asus usa giving them the model number, serial number and mac address. they worked with me for several hours finally escalating the call to a level 3 supervisor. she worked with me to get from chinese to english and then emailed me the latest firmware. she explained how to use rescue mode which i did and which was successful. however, the 5ghz led still did not light nor was there a mac address for the 5ghz band.

after many, many calls to asus usa, they issued an rma USBVJ70785 on july 20, 2018. i waited for a return package to be received by me and failing to get that, i called asus usa and they issued a pre-paid mailing label on july 25. i mailed the unit back to asus usa on july 26.

i checked the status several times and on august 2 they emailed me a note as follows:

"Hello Ron Francey,

Please be advised that the unit you have sent in for service was not sold by Asus w/in the US and only carries a local warranty in the country it was originally sold. My apologies, but we are unable to provide repair service on this unit at this time. Your unit will be returned back to you as is/unrepaired. Thank you."

this is distressing as they knew prior to my shipping the unit to them that the unit was purchased in china. their tier 3 level escalation supervisor even helped me get from chinese to english!

i received the unit on august 10, 2018 not repaired and once more booting to chinese.

with all the work i have done to try to get this unit working and with all the days i've specnt on the phone with asus usa tech support, i ask you to treat this a a dead in the box 7 day total refund including shipping.

i enclose several screen shots showing the 5ghz led not lit and the gui page showing no mac address for the 5ghz band.

your attention to this will be appreciated.

enc: screen shots

thank you,

ronald Francey
 
BTW, repairs aren't necessarily done by the manufacturer (Asus), but often by a third party that is paid by the manufacturer to do it. That would explain the lack of communication between Asus's tech support and the RMA center. It's also why repair centers might follow some different/stricter rules.

I used to work for a Compaq service center. Compaq's support would send people with defective computers to us for repair.
 
Are you somehow past the point of returning for a refund/exchange? How about handing the situation over to your credit card company?
 
maxbraketorque said:
Are you somehow past the point of returning for a refund/exchange? How about handing the situation over to your credit card company?
Click to expand...

turns out i didn't contact my credit card company due to this message from gearbest received this morning:

"
Dear ronald,

Thank you for your message. We once again apologize for any inconvenience caused.
We are willing to help you the best way possible and wish to offer you the following solution.

You can return the products to our logistic center in the USA.
Kindly see our returns warranty here for your reference: https://www.gearbest.com/about/warranty-and-return.html

For this we will give you a prepared shipping label for your return. Please note that a fee of 5.99 USD will be deducted from the final refund to cover this fee.

When we receive your returned item you can choose from the following solutions:
1: Resend A New Item
We can resend the same item free of charge. For this, please confirm your address once more below :



2: Refund To Your Original Payment Account
We will refund 249.99 USD to your original payment account.
-For PayPal account holders, please allow up to 48 hours for the transaction to appear on your PayPal account.
-For credit card refunds, the transaction will appear within 7-14 business days.

The exact length of time is dependent on your card issuing bank and is unfortunately beyond our control.

Please tell us which option you prefer. We will send you the returns label within the next 24 hours after receiving your reply.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Best Regards
Vicki
GearBest Customer Service
http://www.gearbest.com/"

here's hoping this works out for me.

:)
 
Last edited:
I think you have to be something fair to the seller too!

And that means give them the chance to repair or replace the unit.
It is not their fault but defective by asus production!
Their service offers are ok, what do you want more.
 
Grisu said:
I think you have to be something fair to the seller too!

And that means give them the chance to repair or replace the unit.
It is not their fault but defective by asus production!
Their service offers are ok, what do you want more.
Click to expand...

If the router was DOA, I see no reason to allow the reseller repair it or replace it with a refurb. Should be a straight out exchange for a new unit or a refund. The reseller should be able to send DOA units back to ASUS for credit. And Gearbest is definitely playing a chancy game by offering non-US market versions of products to US customers, and they need to be prepared to offer refunds when customers realize that they did not purchase US market versions of products.
 
I wonder what OP did when it came up with Chinese language after hard reset. I can read/write/understand Chinese even tho I am not Chinese. Is there a significant difference in h/w between U.S. and Chinese version?
 
TonyH said:
I wonder what OP did when it came up with Chinese language after hard reset. I can read/write/understand Chinese even tho I am not Chinese. Is there a significant difference in h/w between U.S. and Chinese version?
Click to expand...
exactly the same, only different cfe-bootloader set to according region.

When I got it with older firmware the all-language setting has been on first initial page and so no problem, only later versions lost this feature on initial pages and all other languages except chinese and english.

PS: partial refund done by gearbest as offered, all ok for me!
 
Last edited:
maxbraketorque said:
If the router was DOA, I see no reason to allow the reseller repair it or replace it with a refurb. Should be a straight out exchange for a new unit or a refund. The reseller should be able to send DOA units back to ASUS for credit. And Gearbest is definitely playing a chancy game by offering non-US market versions of products to US customers, and they need to be prepared to offer refunds when customers realize that they did not purchase US market versions of products.
Click to expand...

an update. i contacted my cc company and asked them to investigate my claim for a full refund. they issued a case number. in today's mail, we got confirmation of a full refund issued by gearbest on august 26th. we checked our online cc statement and verified the full refund. case closed.

i bought a tp link archer c1900 dual band router and had it set up within 5 to 10 minutes. it works like a charm.

thanks for all your comments/suggestions. a lesson learned by me.
 
ronald francey said:
an update. i contacted my cc company and asked them to investigate my claim for a full refund. they issued a case number. in today's mail, we got confirmation of a full refund issued by gearbest on august 26th. we checked our online cc statement and verified the full refund. case closed.
Click to expand...

Good to hear things got resolved - looking further up the thread - looks like Gearbest was looking to close things out with an RMA and refund.

Wonder why you opened up a charge-back with the CC company, as that's usually the option of very last resort, and it can get one black-listed not just with one e-commerce company, but others as many share the CC clearing house services...
 
sfx2000 said:
Good to hear things got resolved - looking further up the thread - looks like Gearbest was looking to close things out with an RMA and refund.

Wonder why you opened up a charge-back with the CC company, as that's usually the option of very last resort, and it can get one black-listed not just with one e-commerce company, but others as many share the CC clearing house services...
Click to expand...

... because it seemed way too long to get the refund. i did not trust them. it always took two days to get a turn around message from them. i'd post a note, then wait for a full day to get a response.

perhaps i was wrong to have those feelings yet it seemed that getting an rma from asus usa, followed by their denying me a fix when they knew this came out of china unnerved me especially when usa sent back a no;te that i refused them to repair ... not true at all.

i'm not too happy with asus over the way this got resolved.
 
sfx2000 said:
Sorry to hear it - but the beef was really with the reseller - Gearbest...

Asus could have done better, no doubt...
Click to expand...

funny, but gearbest had me ship it to their service center in california. asus usa didn't know gearbest had a usa service center??? i mean why did asus usa give me a phone number in hong kong when i could have worked witg gearbest california???
 
ronald francey said:
funny, but gearbest had me ship it to their service center in california. asus usa didn't know gearbest had a usa service center??? i mean why did asus usa give me a phone number in hong kong when i could have worked witg gearbest california???
Click to expand...

I may be behind the times, but as I see it, global retail is in its infancy... if you choose to participate, you should not expect all of the before and after sale processes to be in place and smooth sailing. It's far more likely that you will experience a service disruption/breakdown than if you had conducted your purchase through established local retail channels. Your experience here is an example of this. I think you should expect these sorts of issues and be prepared to work them through at your own inconvenience. Or as you put it, watch out where you buy.

OE
 
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