[roninorder]

I started just sending broken products back to Amazon. My DENON smart speaker broke outside of warranty (1.5 years), so I bought a new identical speaker and returned the broken one.

It's unethical but I am just tired of paying $$$ for products that break right after warranty ends.

[ToucanLoucan]

I did exactly this with a busted ASUS monitor. Bought a 43" 4K display for my desk and it failed after barely 2 months of use. Contacted ASUS and their support said they'd be happy to fix it under the warranty, after I sent the item to their repair facility in Texas, on my own dime. A 43" monitor. Would've costed me $180.

Fucking ridiculous. I ordered a second if for no other reason than to get back to work, and that one arrived broken! But, fortunately, the power supply was in-tact so I took them both apart, constructed a working one, kept it and returned the broken parts. If whoever's fulfillment can't even be fucked to check the ones they're shipping out to see if they're shattered, I figured it was long odds anyone would even care if I did it. And I never heard a thing about it.

And an interesting side note, I received refunds for both purchases. I have no idea why, but clearly some folks working at either Amazon or ASUS aren't too on the ball.

And the monitor I built still works too, so.

[roninorder]

This is becoming the most valuable benefit of buying on Amazon. At least I can always return a broken product and not just eat the cost of the ever-decreasing quality of consumer electronics.

[liminalsunset]

FWIW, if this was somewhat recent, Gamers Nexus recently did a segment [1] on ASUS' warranty support and practices, and they say that they are making some improvements to the way warranty support is being handled. They claim that they retroactively reviewed, or will review, warranty cases for issues such as what you outlined like shipping being charged, high RMA fees, and so forth.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ZoCYXmF0Q