This is not my preferred approach but after 3 months of trying to speak to a human being that cares, I feel I have a responsibility to warn would be customers.
My drama started in October 2017 with the failure of an Asus approximately 3 year old laptop. I suspected a hard drive failure and at this stage felt no undue concern.
After a phone call or 2 I learned that Ensure Services were the authorised agent. I took the laptop to their Cape Town repair centre and received an SMS with the reference number. All very professional and efficient.
Sadly, that was the last time professionalism and efficiency would make themselves known.
Daily checks of the reference number showed no progress on the call. I tried calling only to discover that the only way to contact ensure is via their call centre where you have to log a ticket to find out about your ticket. After Googling, calling and emailing I eventually made contact with the technician working on the machine.
Once I had made contact and had an email address I was able to get updates. Each day there was a delay for another driver or something. One has no choice but to wait, so wait I did. Then I got the call to collect the laptop....
The approach taken to resolving the problem was not replacing the hard drive as I would have expected. No, they just formatted it and re-installed the original Windows 8.1 (it had been running Windows 10 for long time so why go back to 8.1???).
No image was made of the drive before formatting it, we were never contacted about what they were about to do! I was expecting to pay for a new hard drive then to try and recover the data from the failed one - but no, they just formatted it....
With little choice left to me, I took the laptop home, downloaded Windows 10, reinstalled (Microsoft recognised the device and activation was automatic). Smooth sailing and only a couple of hours. How come it took them 2+ weeks to trash my data and reinstall Windows 8.1
Sadly, the drama didn't end in October 2017. At the time I didn't question that they hadn't replaced the drive - I figured they'd determined the problem wasn't the drive. Roll on January 2018 and lo-and-behold the hard drive crashes... This time I'm not messing with Ensure Services and purchased a new laptop.
The only gap left to fill in is that it is impossible to find a human being at either Asus or Ensure services who will speak to a customer. Once they've taken their money they have no interest in them. I have tried contact them a number of times with no success. The technician said she'd forwarded my email on to the management - but I never heard from them.
How does one avoid such situations? I don't know. One sees the brand out there and trusts it. I wasn't unhappy with the laptop, but when I needed service.... And therein lies the rub...
Please suggest as many people as possible read this. First because I think the fact that the management of the 2 companies couldn't be bothered to take a call from a lowly home user needs to be shared. But, perhaps more importantly, so that people consider costing-in the service they won't get from some brands, but will get from others.
My drama started in October 2017 with the failure of an Asus approximately 3 year old laptop. I suspected a hard drive failure and at this stage felt no undue concern.
After a phone call or 2 I learned that Ensure Services were the authorised agent. I took the laptop to their Cape Town repair centre and received an SMS with the reference number. All very professional and efficient.
Sadly, that was the last time professionalism and efficiency would make themselves known.
Daily checks of the reference number showed no progress on the call. I tried calling only to discover that the only way to contact ensure is via their call centre where you have to log a ticket to find out about your ticket. After Googling, calling and emailing I eventually made contact with the technician working on the machine.
Once I had made contact and had an email address I was able to get updates. Each day there was a delay for another driver or something. One has no choice but to wait, so wait I did. Then I got the call to collect the laptop....
The approach taken to resolving the problem was not replacing the hard drive as I would have expected. No, they just formatted it and re-installed the original Windows 8.1 (it had been running Windows 10 for long time so why go back to 8.1???).
No image was made of the drive before formatting it, we were never contacted about what they were about to do! I was expecting to pay for a new hard drive then to try and recover the data from the failed one - but no, they just formatted it....
With little choice left to me, I took the laptop home, downloaded Windows 10, reinstalled (Microsoft recognised the device and activation was automatic). Smooth sailing and only a couple of hours. How come it took them 2+ weeks to trash my data and reinstall Windows 8.1
Sadly, the drama didn't end in October 2017. At the time I didn't question that they hadn't replaced the drive - I figured they'd determined the problem wasn't the drive. Roll on January 2018 and lo-and-behold the hard drive crashes... This time I'm not messing with Ensure Services and purchased a new laptop.
The only gap left to fill in is that it is impossible to find a human being at either Asus or Ensure services who will speak to a customer. Once they've taken their money they have no interest in them. I have tried contact them a number of times with no success. The technician said she'd forwarded my email on to the management - but I never heard from them.
How does one avoid such situations? I don't know. One sees the brand out there and trusts it. I wasn't unhappy with the laptop, but when I needed service.... And therein lies the rub...
Please suggest as many people as possible read this. First because I think the fact that the management of the 2 companies couldn't be bothered to take a call from a lowly home user needs to be shared. But, perhaps more importantly, so that people consider costing-in the service they won't get from some brands, but will get from others.
