ASUS offering full refunds or extended warranties to TP owners in UK

[Pliablemoose]

http://asus.co.uk/blog/news/eee-pad-transformer-prime-update/1057/

If the Ice Cream Sandwich update, bug fixes and piles of apologies from the folks at ASUS just aren't cutting it and you happen to live in the UK, then we've got some good news for you. You are free to take your Transformer Prime back to the shop for a full refund. Don't expect turn around and pick up that updated TF700T with your haul, though, it won't be hitting shelves in merry ol' England till at least June. If you choose to keep your dockable tablet, ASUS will offer an extended warranty of 18 months, just to soothe your panicked mind that wakes you with night terrors about GPS issues and unknown serial numbers.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/18/asus-offers-refunds-and-extended-warranties/

Sucks for TP owners, but I'm very impressed that ASUS stepped up, now if other manufacturers would do the same, are you listening Samsung?

 

[kubani1]

Sucks for TP owners, but I'm very impressed that ASUS stepped up, now if other manufacturers would do the same, are you listening Samsung?

it sounds better than it is, I pre-ordered my TP on boxing day, I was supposed to get it on the 12 Jan. It took ASUS 2 days to acknowledge that they didn't have any stock to deliver, two days of lots of pissed off customers wondering where the hell their product was.

so yes, its something, but only after a pretty good f*** up of customer relations just before hand.


plus, under EU directive 1999/44/EC, all suppliers have to offer a 2 year warranty*, so the 18 months is great, but I'm still legally entitled to more if i so choose to kick up a fuss.

*technically its not a two year warranty, but the retailer is liable to repair or replace the item within two years of purchase, as long as its not damage caused by the user.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Sounds good for those that bought one and didn't know what they were getting into.

Personally I don't really care the GPS barely works- it works good enough to update my widgets with my location and that is all I want. I would never use it as a car GPS because quite simply I need its battery fully charged for the boring hotel room that follows such drives.

Honestly the only big negative surprise I have had with my Prime is lack of 5GHz N support like the iPad 2 has. Not huge, just annoying.

Overall though it is by far the best tablet I have seen. ARMed with ICS (and ICS Browser +) it is slick, smooth, powerful and versatile. I am glad I waited for it instead of buying a Tegra 2 tablet last year, and I am glad I have it now over future 1080p tablets that will rape the GPU in a Tegra 3.

 

[gorcorps]

I must have missed something... what did they screw up so bad that they have to offer refunds to save face?

 

[poofyhairguy]

GPS behind aluminum.

 

[gorcorps]

Are they remaking it or just chalking one up to bad design and going on their merry way?

 

[Bryf50]

I must have missed something... what did they screw up so bad that they have to offer refunds to save face?

I got a Prime from Best Buy and returned it a few days later.
Problems I had:
1)When you used a Bluetooth device the Wi-Fi signal would fall so far that it was unusable.
2)No GPS lock period.
3)1 Dead pixel(not a huge deal but annoying) and a bit more than normal back light bleed in 1 corner.
4)After the ICS update it would frequently lock up for a few seconds before returning to normal. This happened mostly in the browser.

I really liked the device too. It felt great in hand, the screen was great for the most part, and the performance was buttery smooth. I just couldn't deal with spending $500 on a device that half worked.

 

[Phynaz]

Wasn't this supposed to be an iPad killer?

 

[Phynaz]

GPS behind aluminum.

And bricking trying to install ICS.

 

[gorcorps]

I got a Prime from Best Buy and returned it a few days later.
Problems I had:
1)When you used a Bluetooth device the Wi-Fi signal would fall so far that it was unusable.
2)No GPS lock period.
3)1 Dead pixel(not a huge deal but annoying) and a bit more than normal back light bleed in 1 corner.
4)After the ICS update it would frequently lock up for a few seconds before returning to normal. This happened mostly in the browser.

I really liked the device too. It felt great in hand, the screen was great for the most part, and the performance was buttery smooth. I just couldn't deal with spending $500 on a device that half worked.

Sad

I had high hopes for this too

 

[poofyhairguy]

I got a Prime from Best Buy and returned it a few days later.
Problems I had:
1)When you used a Bluetooth device the Wi-Fi signal would fall so far that it was unusable.

I don't have that problem, but I think I got a second batch. As indicated in Anandtech's review (and confirmed by an Asus representative on the XDA forum), it seems the very early units had wifi problems. On mine I can stream HD content over the internet with audio going to my bluetooth headset no problem, but mine was from a Jan batch, not a December batch.

Apparently Asus is letting whoever got a bad batch RMA the device for a fix.

2)No GPS lock period.

It is not great, but I do get a lock. It just takes forever and isn't accurate at all at a range needed for driving.

4)After the ICS update it would frequently lock up for a few seconds before returning to normal. This happened mostly in the browser.

Yeah, the pure ICS browser has some issues. That is why a Prime user created a fork called ICS Browser+ available in the market. Not only is it more stable, but you can force a desktop user agent. It is my primary browser on the device.

 

[poofyhairguy]

And bricking trying to install ICS.

Most of that I have seen on the XDA forums were from people who rooted in Honeycomb.

I mean, I won't pretend ICS is perfect (as mentioned the browser has stability issues stock) but what other tablet even HAS ICS?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Are they remaking it or just chalking one up to bad design and going on their merry way?

Both.

As far as the GPS thing is concerned all upcoming units based off the Prime (like the HD version announced at CES) have a plastic strip at the top to accommodate those signals. So it will be remade in HD later in the year.

For the original Prime they removed the GPS from the spec sheet, so basically they are "going on their merry way" for us regular Prime users. They did give us in the ICS update a way for it to use wifi-assist to get the satellite info, but that isn't the same as a real working GPS.

It is really a poor decision on their part, as it surrounded the Prime launch with negativity and it showed they are willing to "pull a Samsung" and leave a flagship device on the market with a broken GPS unit.

Personally I didn't care as much because I wasn't going to use the GPS in the thing beyond what it does provide.

What I will use, and do use, is its combination of high profile h264 support, its NTFS support, and its great HDMI support to play my media library on the go. The Prime is the first tablet with that combo (without rooting) and I am tired of waiting for a real tablet.