Asus temporarily postpones Eee PC 900 battery upgrade offer
By Julian Prokaza on Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Asus has postponed its £10 high-capacity battery upgrade offer for the Eee PC 900. Due to begin yesterday, the offer was designed to placate owners who were unhappy with performance of the Eee PC 900’s stock 4400mAh battery.
Unfortunately, delays in battery shipments to the UK meant that Asus wasn’t able to start the offer as planned – much to the frustration of owners over at EeeUser who are already unhappy with the awkward handling of the offer.
Understandably, Asus chose to postpone the upgrade offer temporarily rather than press ahead and hope the batteries would arrive on time – imagine the uproar if the promised 5-working-day turnaround extended into weeks…
The good news is that the shipping delay was a minor one and the replacement batteries have now arrived in the UK. As a result,the programme will now start from 1 July. Anyone who has so far registered for the battery upgrade can now expect to be issued with an RMA number from Asus from this date onwards.
Why did Asus, when people called about the upgrade, inform them that the program had been postoned idefinitely? Given everything that has happened, you would exect Asus to be extra careful. Everyone is sick and tired of Asus and how they have handled this situation.
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re: written by Col , June 24, 2008
Too many typos. The above should have read:
Why did Asus, when called about the upgrade, inform people that the program has been postponed indefinitely? Given everything that has happened, you would expect Asus to be extra careful. Everyone is sick and tired of Asus and how they have handled this situation.
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Again! They are a joke at customer care! written by Adam Elphick , June 24, 2008
Sorry Jules but its just not good enough on their part. Frankly I dont believe a word of it. The shipment is 'delayed' yet turns up the day after the proposed start? If that was the case then Asus would have known its delivery day as by then it would already have been either fully on route, or more likely already in the UK for final destination delivery.
Their customer service stinks to high heaven. They have held back truths form us all constantly and lied about various reasons for the fiasco. They have the cheek to charge us for this even though it would appear that new 900's are beginning to appear in the UK with 5800 batteries thus proving our point that the 4400 was NOT the standard battery. Plus if we do go for the upgrade 'offer' we have to be without a battery which after yet another cock-up on their part is even more annoying.
After this last straw they should do the upgrade for free and be done with it. I for one (along with almost every member of this forum I suspect) will never touch another Asus product as we now know that if anythign goes wrong we have little or no customer support whatsoever to hand!! I for one would rather spend a few quid more and know that problems will be sorted.
There will be plenty of good ultra portable machines from reputable manufacturers when I come to replace the 900, and one of them will get my money now. On principle I wouldn't give them another cent (or penny in my case!) as they have treated me like a piece of dirt under their shoe.... along with most of the other 900 owners in this country and any other that got the pitiful 4400 battery. Irrespective of whether they were told it was going to be a 4400 or not it simply is not good enough to power the machine with any length while using its most basic features, and as for using the bios to 'fool' the 900 into letting the battery run down further - that will do nothing except bugger the battery up quicker!
The group action suggested at eeeuser.com forums is the way to go guys - I think they have had long enough!
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Asus\' foot-in-mouth disease gets worse written by Matthew , June 24, 2008
I ask again - why do they want the old batteries back? It costs them handling and (probably?) postage, and they can't use or sell them - so they are less than worthless. It's sheer bloody-mindedness to persuade people not to take up the "offer".
Now that the price of the 900 has dropped by 40+ (in less than two months) AND it's being supplied with the higher capacity battery (proving that Asus' claim that the 4400 was "standard" was a bare-faced lie), the least they can do is allow the early adopters the consolation of having a spare lower-capacity battery for their 10 and the down-time while the battery is replaced.
And why are they too incompetent to put news like this on their own website? Unbelievable!
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... written by Col , June 24, 2008
Asus intend to use the returned batteries for replacement under warrenty. I understand that this is perfectly legal, but I question the safety of such practices. As far as I am aware, there is no reliable way of checking if the battery has been abused. Abused Li-ion batteries are very dangerous, liable to burst into a very intense fire. I certainly would not be happy receiving a secondhand Li-ion battery as warrenty replacement.
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... written by Matthew , June 24, 2008
Thanks Col - well I may be naive but I would be very surprised if I had second hand parts put into anything I returned for repair under warranty. And if I got something cosmetically damaged I'd be annoyed too. Is Asus going to insist that the returned batteries are in mint condition?
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... written by Adam Elphick , June 24, 2008
Basically they don't CARE Matthew! I think they have shown their contempt for their customers with this whole sorry affair! Who cares if the battery bursts in to flames eh? You would have to PROVE it was their fault! No doubt they have far better lawyers than they do PR people!
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... written by Col , June 24, 2008
I believe that they could probably replace with a cosmetically compromised second-hand battery, if the battery being replaced is cosmetically damaged too.
To main issue - for repair work under warranty, all they need to do is rectify the problem. This does not mean that they should or must use new parts. From a green perspective, I actually agree with this. Of course, they should test anything they use for repair or replacement. However, as indicated in my earlier comment, I don't think they can reliably test the battery. They can test its capacity, but abuse might not be apparent from such tests. Many people will not buy batteries from third party suppliers because of safety concerns. What would happen if a warranty replacement battery went belly-up, and was shown to be second-hand? If not tested for safety, there might be good reason to not only claim damages, but negligence too.
I wouldn't like a second-hand battery as a warranty replacement part. Anything else, but not the battery.
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... written by Dan , June 25, 2008
While I agree with the protests, and am astonished at ASUS poor P.R. effort on this, I would expect any Eee owner to want to have more than one battery anyway.
I have three, and would always take a charged spare on a trip, two if not sure of the remote availability of charging facilities.
dan
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... written by Adam Elphick , June 26, 2008
While I agree with your comments to a certain degree - I have to say that you seem to have missed the point! You shouldn't HAVE to buy another battery because the manufacturer decides to put a sub-standard one into a certain location! You should buy one if you WANT to. Asus has lied about the global 'standard battery' as some locations are getting the 5800 now (some always have got) instead of the crappy 4400 - presumably to stop users moaning as much as UK owners have. Now to top it all off on the day of the launch of the 'offer' they withdraw it with no idea of when it will come back., excuse being no supply of 5800 batteries. Yet some reports say they have arrived - so what are they doing with them? New customers maybe and they are still shafting the existing user base? Heaven knows how a company like Asus can be so awful at customer service and PR?!
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... written by dan , June 26, 2008
I bought the other 2 batteries because I needed them - I always buy spare batteries for such equipment, I'm not sure I understand anyone who does not -if you are away for a day 2/3 batteries are a necessity if no mains availability.
The reason why I could never buy a Macbook Air - non replaceable battery.
But again I say I'm real surprised at Asus lack of conciliatory P.R.
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... written by Col , July 01, 2008
Julian, you might (or might not) like to again visit the battery thread at eeeuser.com.
It is a complete shambles - as indeed it has been all along. Asus UK seem incapable of carrying out any kind of administrative task to even the most basic standard. Never before have I witnessed ineptitude on such a scale.
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Postponed again! written by Adam Elphick , July 07, 2008
Well latest news is that they have RAN OUT of batteries!! How funny is that! Supposedly there was a 'handful' of complainants - this was clearly a lie! Those who have not had one shipped now will have to wait until the next batch come in to UK... what an awful situation.
PLUS still there is no mention at all of the scheme on their website - very shabby indeed.
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