Motherboard manufacturer with the best Customer Service?

[TahoeDust]

I'm going to be picking up a new board in the next few weeks. I have been an Asus fan in the past, but their CS has a terrible reputation. I do not know much about MSI, Gigabyte, or ASRock's CS. What experiences have people had and how would they rank these four?

Asus
ASRock
Gigabyte
MSI


I would imagine EVGA has the best customer service in this sector, just like they do in PSUs and GPUs, but their motherboards have a history of being inconsistent and pricey. I am not considering them at this time.

 

[UsandThem]

I have seen horror stories for all of them, honestly. I have seen posts warning people to NEVER!!! buy one from Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, MSI, Biostar, and even good 'ole EVGA.

The best thing a person can do is to install the motherboard as soon as they get it, use the heck out of during the return period of the retailer (30 days at Newegg, but differs), and send it back and get a replacement if needed. The motherboard manufacturer's RMA departments just aren't set up to provide fast, friendly service.

 

[EXCellR8]

as someone who's owned boards from basically every manufacturer i can confirm that there really isn't any superior brand in terms of customer support. all of the manufacturers are in china/taiwan and the support offices are spread across most major countries. having said that, it's kind of a gamble with who is actually helping you whether it's a service rep or someone further down the line. the last support I received was from ASRock, and they were actually very helpful and responsive.

 

[Indus]

MSI is the absolute worst. Motherboard died under warranty and they never replaced it. They never sent me my mail in rebate either for the motherboard or the video card I bought.

Gigabyte is good that in 4 boards I've never had to call CS yet.. and I have 2 boards that're still going strong from 2007 and 2004. I just gave the 2007 to my dad and I'm about the retire the 2004 one after I just built my last comp with AsRock.

AsRock I'm liking so far after a month..

 

[yendor]

Asus email support lately is dicey if it's complicated. Phone support has shown more initiative when I ask dumb questions that do not have a simple answer available to them. (They can only be as good as the information they have in front of them. big product selection reduces the chance any particular technician will be familiar with your issue)

But for generic help their actual forums, when they have them, have been decent for asus, gigabyte and asrock. MSI on the other hand does not appear to have an official forum with actual employee's taking part regularly. Note that asus has more than one forum. ROG has employees who interface, the vip forum has moderators who are decent generalists but don't have the experience you're likely to want at times.

 

[Pantoot]

I would recommend you skip ASUS.
The above is spot on with their email support and their phone support might be better if you have a few hours to sit on hold.
The "advance RMA" they provide on their ROG products isn't worth anything, since the RMA department doesn't have any in stock (ever).
So you pay to ship your product in, only to be told it has damage (no kidding) and that they will charge you over half the value of the product to fix it.
Not worth the hassle.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Do NOT base your purchase decision on the mb manufacturer's customer service. They ALL have crap customer service.

 

[Ancalagon44]

I saw an article somewhere about the RMA rates of all of the Big Four manufacturers - Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock and MSI.

They were all pretty comparable in terms of RMA rates, I think MSI might have done the best but I'm not 100%.

The way I see it, I'd rather not need to contact CS at all.

That being said, I am biased towards manufacturers larger than BioStar because I have the impression (and I made be wrong) that bigger manufacturers might get software and BIOS updates out faster.

 

[x26]

They're all Terrible!!

I throw the motherboard away before I try to Contact CS.

 

[RLGL]

If it is two years into the three year warranty I toss it

 

[tcsenter]

Pretty much all suck because the last to actually be located and have substantial operations in the USA was Intel (which no longer sells desktop boards). All the rest just have business offices or importers here with a handful of personnel, mostly sales and marketing. Probably contract all their warranty/repair/support services to some other company.

 

[Ratman6161]

Ill repeat what everyone else is saying. They all get horrible reviews. You best bet is to do your homework and buy a board where you won't need customer service and then buy it someplace that has a good return policy...just in case.

 

[wingman04]

I have had good luck with Gigabyte RMA, two week turnaround.