A PC gamer recently shared their tale of how Asus recently cancelled their order of an ROG Astral RTX 5090, for which they paid US4,607 (~RM18,842) in full. Then, to add insult to injury, it tried to charge him US$5,090 (~RM20,818) for the card, nearly RM2,000 more than what the original buyer paid.
As the story goes, Redditor IndependentOk1031 said that they had purchased the ROG Astral RTX 5090 via NVIDIA Marketplace for US$4,607 after taxes in the US. They paid for the card in full, but instead of honouring the sale, Asus cancelled the sale because they had hiked the price. The problem here, for Asus at least, is that the customer has purchased the GPU before the price hike came into effect.
US$5,090 For An RTX 5090
IndependentOk1031 obviously wasn’t going to accept this nor was he going to accept this, and decided to reach out to Asus about it. Asus then told them that this issue had nothing to do with them and sent the Redditor to NVIDIA. To which, you guessed it, NVIDIA then sent them back towards Asus, all short of stating that this was a “them, not us” problem. At this stage, it’s safe to say that the Spider-Man meme springs to mind here, something that the Redditor points out as well.
Luckily for IndependentOk1031, they saw a light at the end of the tunnel: NVIDIA reached back out to them and said that they would honour the original price that the gamer paid for, instead of the new price of the ROG Astral RTX 5090.
Deja Vu With Asus
The Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 retails well above RM21,000 in Malaysia currently, which is a small fortune by virtue of many folk’s standards. It is, however, not as expensive as Asus’ current top-tier dual-display laptop, the ROG Zephyrus Duo. That laptop costs RM36,999 and is only available in one configuration, but good goshdarn, is it the prettiest (and powerful) thing we have ever seen.
This also isn’t the first time Asus has come under the spotlight of questionable practices, and none other than Gamers Nexus’ Steve “Tech Jesus” Burke has done a more methodical job in pointing out its follies over the past couple of years. One particular incident with the brand had Burke sending in their first generation ROG Ally over some scuffs and dings while still under warranty, but ended up wanting to charge Burke US$200 (~RM817) in repair and service fees.
This led to a crusade of sorts on Gamers Nexus’ part, with Burke chasing down Asus to Computex 2024 two years ago and having them promise to improve its RMA and warranty practices, although it remains unclear if the company has actually made those changes.
