ASUS service is not up to par. If you sell a fragile product to a school district intending use by students some mishaps will occur, ie. drops. A 24" drop in the case, landing on a back corner gets a larger impact than the thin case will withstand due to the weight of the 6 cell battery. Apparently ASUS does not maintain parts stocks, and covers up that fact with a policy of not making repair parts available to the public. Buyer be ware. Also note that servicing sellers use this same policy to make repair unavailable as economically unfeasable. (parents are asked to pay for the whole magilla when the computer works fine but has a ding) Kind of like driving a car with a dent. Watch out for false economy. Get parts lists and availability before inking a deal and make damn sure that becomes part of any contract with providers.

Sorry to hear that you've had bad experiences. I've purchased about 5 netbooks from Asus from various stores online and offline and nothing bad happened so it might be the exception than the rule. I'm sure if you let them know about your experience they may try to make it good.