[Nexus 7 (2013) Q&A] micemicerabies:
Asus RMA was not horrible

I want to close out this thread with some answers about my experience.

I requested an RMA from Asus and sent my device to get checked out or repaired by them. I was fearful that they would notice that I had tampered with the device. I removed the backing to check the battery, unlocking the bootloader and flashing 3rd party ROMs etc.

I ended up re-locking the bootloader since I had fastboot access and tested my luck. I bubble wrapped the devices as Asus said they do not supply padding or any packing material for return of the product.

I was able to check the RMA status page and saw that my tablet arrived in TX at the repair site. They did not update the status page for 3 days with no indication of what caused the issue. Finally the status was changed from < Received > to < Repair Complete >. I had to contact support as they did not supply me with a tracking number. They gave me the tracking details and I got my tablet back yesterday. Asus did not use any of my bubble wrap and the tablet was free floating in a barely reinforced cardboard box.

No explanation was given as to the cause of the failure, I got back the exact same back cover as well as the screen. So either they changed some internal part or flashed some part of the device that I am unaware of.

Anyone else who has a similar issue and needs to get an RMA I would recommend the following.

1. If you still have access to fastboot relock the bootloader. You can check using

fastboot getvar all

1. Take photos of the device and all physical imperfections so you have some recourse if someone breaks the screen

2. Bubble wrap the device tightly to ensure no damage occurs on the way to the repair site.

3. Tracking & Insurance is a must. If you can prove the screen broke due to USPS or whoever then at least you can get a new tablet with the insurance money. Don't cheap out, get the $250 or $350 worth. The whole cost of shipping should be less than $10 and is worth the piece of mind.

Finally I just updated my tablet to 4.4.3 as it was returned with 4.4.2. Here is what a successful flash looks like, as well as how long each part takes to flash. Compared to the previous flash times one can see the difference.

root@box:/Android/razorg-ktu84l-factory-9f9b9ef2/razorg-ktu84l# ./flash-all.sh
sending 'bootloader' (3911 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.227s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [ 1.285s]
finished. total time: 1.512s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [ 0.006s]
finished. total time: 0.006s
sending 'radio' (76038 KB)...
OKAY [ 4.231s]
writing 'radio'...
OKAY [ 2.986s]
finished. total time: 7.217s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [ 0.006s]
finished. total time: 0.006s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: FLO-04.02
Baseband Version.....: DEB-Z00_2.42.0_1204
Serial Number........: 0*******
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
OKAY [ 0.003s]
checking version-bootloader...
OKAY [ 0.004s]
checking version-baseband...
OKAY [ 0.004s]
sending 'boot' (7050 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.408s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [ 0.335s]
sending 'recovery' (7600 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.432s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 0.290s]
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [ 1.297s]
sending 'system' (740284 KB)...
OKAY [ 42.003s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [ 32.278s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 21.615s]
formatting 'userdata' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
Size: 28856791040
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 8192
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 32768
Label:
Blocks: 7045115
Block groups: 215
Reserved block group size: 1024
Created filesystem with 11/1761280 inodes and 154578/7045115 blocks
sending 'userdata' (139085 KB)...
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 13.308s]
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 0.368s]
formatting 'cache' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
Size: 587202560
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 7168
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 2240
Label:
Blocks: 143360
Block groups: 5
Reserved block group size: 39
Created filesystem with 11/35840 inodes and 4616/143360 blocks
sending 'cache' (10984 KB)...
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 1.145s]
rebooting...

finished. total time: 113.509s

My overall experience with the RMA process was great I did not have any of the nightmare problems that I read about on other forums.

Good luck to anyone going through this headache.