Asus: Breaking Eee warranty seal doesn't void warranty

When the Asus Eee PC first hit the market, enthusiasts expressed frustration with a small yellow sticker on the bottom of the device which informed owners that their warranties would be void if they opened the bottom panel, which provides access to the laptop's memory slot. It appeared as though Asus was attempting to prevent Eee owners from upgrading the memory in the product.

After receiving many complaints from consumers, some of whom pointed out that a warranty policy of that nature is unlawful in certain countries, Asus has issued a formal statement affirming that Eee owners can break the seal and that it won't void their warranties. Asus has also decided to change several policies and rewrite portions of the warranty itself so that it is clear to Eee owners that unauthorized servicing isn't prohibited. Asus will also start using a different sticker, which will simply inform Eee owners that Asus is not responsible for damage caused by hardware modifications.

"ASUS wishes to assure its customers that merely breaking or removing this kind of seal will not void the ASUS Limited Warranty," Asus said in a statement. "Although ASUS recommends that customers use ASUS-approved service facilities and components, ASUS is committed to honoring the terms of its Limited Warranty and making sure that its customers are free to make appropriate hardware and software modifications and upgrades, regardless of whether the service is performed by an approved facility, a non-approved service provider, or by the customers themselves."

Asus has been extremely quick to respond to concerns expressed by Eee consumers and the open source software community. When Asus was criticized for failing to comply with the GPL and obscuring changes made to specific kernel modules, the company quickly resolved the issue by releasing the relevant source code.