Asus Charges Redditor $700 For Z690 Hero Exchange

Asus’s free replacement for Z690 Hero Fiery Death Defect models isn’t going as planned for owners of altered boards, as one Redditor found after submitting a board with bent USB port pins. He thought they’d simply remount the misplaced capacitor, but Asus had other plans.

With this in mind it’s time to remind some users (and inform others) that the Z690 Hero replacement program is most likely for exchange, not repair. The reason for this is that the cheapest way to do rework is in batches. In this case, Asus probably collects a batch of motherboards, sends that batch in for repairs, and sends the buyer a replacement from a previously-repaired batch. Any modifications to the board makes it ineligible to send to someone else, regardless of whether that modification is intentional (such as a swapped voltage regulator cooler) or unintended (such as bent USB pins).

Knowing that when some ports are damaged others can still be used, Redditor McDucc69 was expecting the exact motherboard to be repaired and returned, which doesn’t fit easily into a batch process where individual motherboards aren’t tracked. Asus’s remaining option would be to replace the damaged USB ports before putting his motherboard into the batch process, but the firm doesn’t seam interested in adding an individual repair to its workload. Perhaps Asus is overloaded by its exchange program? That would explain how a $35 port replacement (estimated cost of labor) ballooned into a $700 complete motherboard replacement charge. It’s too bad for McDucc69 that this board only cost $615 when purchased.

Other Redditors have chimed in that McDucc69 should keep pushing until Asus decides to do only the repair covered under warranty and return that specific motherboard. That could certainly happen…after Asus deals with its current repair surge.

We’ve reached out to Asus for comment, but expect that any response will take at least 12 hours. Please stay tuned for updates!