Wow I've been off this thread for quite a while but surprise surprise! Still new cases popping up!
Anyway to the latest victims I'm really sorry that you have to go through hell with Asus but give up hope that they will issue a statement about this problem, they are just turning a deaf ear to all these complains and just cover things up.
My advice once your phone gets fixed is try to sell it if possible to rid yourself of more future problems and never touch another Asus product again!
*PS: if you guys noticed, even the mods haven't responded to any of the issues here for months so there's your proof that they don't care!