Faulty Asus TF300T-1A098A Refurbished Tablet

cobba on 11/08/2014 - 19:55
Last edited 11/08/2014 - 19:56

Advice on what to do!!!!!

So after seeing that deal just of late, https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/155642 and leaving my run late to snap this up, reasearhed this transponder tablet some more….

Living pretty close to the dealers store in Parramatta , I decided to visit their store in Westfields last Fri to check out, http://www.wireless1.com.au/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=tf3… and have a play with one of their display models.

I was pretty happy with the performance of the tablet, but didn't purchase as I still wanted to "chew the fat" so to speak.

At home on the PC later that day, searching on Ebay, noticed that this dealer has an account there, trading as Sydney Tech, and was auctioning off quite a few of this model Tablet.

I decide to bid and I win, 40 bux below what they sell them for in the store.

I give them a call not long after, telling them that I won the auction and if it would be OK to collect and pay on Saturday.

They give me the OK, as long as its +24 hours past the auction close time (which made it a Saturday afternoon collection)

I decide to make an afternoon of it, and drag the wife and kids along.

Once we got to the store, I approach the counter, explain who I was and can I please collect the tablet.

She goes out the back and returns with the box (which was supposed to be factory sealed) and places it on the counter. Immediately I noted that the seal was broken so alarm bells rang, but let that slide for then.

She then gets it out, then mentions that we will need to hang around for an hour so she can charge it, then test it to make sure it is working as it should. Now alarm bells are really ringing. We did have other business within the center so I agreed and we moved on.

On return, she fires it up then coincidently, the touch screen is faulty…..

She then packs it up, goes out the back then returns with another one boxed and unsealed and guess what???, wants us to wait again..

This was out of the question as we had children that were getting restless, parking getting close to free time expiry as well as other appointments to meet that afternoon.

She assures me that this one will work and cant explain why the last one didn't.

I quizzed her as to why the boxes were unsealed (especially when they specify that all are manufacturer sealed on the Ebay listing) and she went on to say "customer sometime want see colour).

Soooooo, we leave with the tablet.

Later that evening, its charged and then when tested, it performs exactly like the first one with an unresponsive touch screen.

An email was sent to them and when they made contact back, they have instructed me to send it back, and they will send out another.

Like,,,,,,, I cant belive what is going on here…..

As far as faulty items slipping past quality control inspections during the manufacturing process, I can understand but, when returned, tested and refurbished so to speak, then put back out to retail, surely they cant get it wrong again!!!!

That or, something dodgy is going on as far as this dealer is concenrned.

I guess I could ask for a refund but I really do want one of these, as per what was advertised.

Any advice on which way I should handle this moving forward would be great fellow members

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • iseenya on 11/08/2014 - 23:12

    When I bought an Asus factory-refurbed laptop last year, it was in almost flawless condition and the original serial number sticker had been replaced with a clearly-marked "Refurbished Warranty 12mths" sticker.

    Is there an Asus serial number sticker on these dodgy tabs and if so, does it state that they are officially refurbished stock? If it doesn't, I'd suspect that they are returns that never made it to the Asus importer's authorised repairer and are just botched fix-ups from your supplier.

  • zolinger on 11/08/2014 - 23:13

    I think you should get away from the store. While acceptable return policies, this should not be happening.

  • Cheeper on 12/08/2014 - 00:22
    +2

    Ask for a refund and go and buy from somewhere reputable.
    Sounds like you are being landed with dud gear from this dealer.

    Do you want a genuine new product that works or do you just want to save $40 on a dodgy one?

    You ask yourself that.

    PS: You could have cut your story down to just a few lines by removing the stuff that was irrelevant. :-(

  • cobba on 12/08/2014 - 06:43

    Thanks for the replies

    @ iseenya
    Just checked and no, there is no "Refurbished Warranty 12mths" sticker to be seen anywhere.
    There is no evidence anywhere to say that it is refurbished.
    The only evidence of a refurbished item is on the issued sales receipt.

    @ zolinger
    I am thinking the same.

    @ xywolap
    Well, there is a few dealers sealing these for similar prices, particully in other states.
    Its another gamble should I go down this road, resulting in higher return postage costs should I get another dud.
    That being said, I have not aborted on that idea as yet, and still may choose that option.

    [Qoute] Do you want a genuine new product that works or do you just want to save $40 on a dodgy one?
    You ask yourself that.
    PS: You could have cut your story down to just a few lines by removing the stuff that was irrelevant. :-(

    I think I should have added extra information.

    The original Tablets that I viewed were as per the second link I provided in the OP.

    They were NOT new, but instead, supposedly "Manufacturer refurbished"

    Remember what I also said in the OP…….that, I hadn't made my mind up on securing one of these when I was in the shop. I made my mind up later, at home. As far as the dealer was concerned, the Ebay product was exactly the same as their shop product.

    In hind sight, Most Oz bargainers here would have chose Ebay seeing the auction sale price finished as it did (its an auction and could of blown out)

  • Counterpain on 13/08/2014 - 17:07

    Hi Cobba !!!
    The same thing happened to me as well ! but with my nexus 7,
    it was so unresponsive , it took me 20 min just to type my wifi password in.

    Called them , and they said they can either refund or replace it. since i really want the tablet and I have already bought the case , I choose to replace it .

    Hope the replacement will work as intended, im afraid they will just give me another tablet with different kind of faulty and re-"sealed" the box.

    Any suggestion on what feature to check / test when I get the table ?

  • cobba on 13/08/2014 - 19:21
    +1

    Sorry to hear that you are having trouble as well Counterpain.

    Was your model sealed when it arrived????? cause it "SHOULD" have been…….

    I forgot too mention in the OP that, when I quizzed the shop assistant as to why the first two that she tried to palm off to me weren't sealed, she also said (on top of claiming that seal is broken for customers to view colour)that most they get from the manufacturer are NOT SEALED. This is so untrue and I will explain soon….

    This has been nothing short of a nightmare transaction, I can tell ya.

    Right, heres an update to the saga.

    Given the advice here by some, I decided to leave the dealer out of this, and contacted ASUS AU directly.
    I told them the problem I was having, they gave me a repair autherisation # and details of the Sydney ASUS service center.
    BTW, for those that live out of the way and cant physically drop a unit off, they will courier collect at their cost.
    I chose to drop it off personally (I know, more of a personal time waster) and I am glad I did, as it gave me an opportunity to learn more about the refurbished unit to dealer process……

    ……. and yes, it is confirmed that units leave their premises as "Stamped and SEALED"

    Ok, they were really there to help me and gave it a quick test while I waited, then confirmed that the screen was faulty, and to do the job right, I would need to book it in and expect to be waiting up to two weeks (parts order and repair)

    http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/shayneh2006/All%20ot…

    I am usually a pretty calm person but by now, things were heating up.

    Cut a long story short, before booking it in, I ring the dealer as a dummy potential customer and ask if they have my model in stock and yes,,, they have ten…. BeauWWWWWTY :-)

    Back to the dealer I go with tablet in hand…. was served by someone there "Mickey" that was actually wanting to help me out,,,.

    He told the girls that served me on the Sat were only new (they didn't sound like it to me at the time but I played along with it), and that they shouldnt of given me a unit that was not sealed…..

    He swapped the faulty unit with one that was "SEALED", that we opened together to check its asthetics.

    I didn't wait this time for a charge and fire up test but did that all when I got home and am happy to say, st this stage, it seems to be functioning as it should.

    One thing that did concern me though when I was there, he asked me if he could take a copy of the ASUS service diagnosis report,,,. Why would he want that, especially if its going to be returned to the manufacture anyway.

    I don't know fellow Ozbargainers……. there is still a lot of factors that don't add up in regards to this dealer.

    Finally, I am happy its worked out in the end….. but has been very costly in regards to all the running around I have done (fuel and other running costs), but my time has been the biggest cost of all.

    Shayne

    • iseenya on 14/08/2014 - 07:58

      Thanks for taking the time to come back and close out the story for us, Shayne. I'm pleased that you finally found a tab that works properly.

  • hanzyman on 14/08/2014 - 10:31

    Same thing happened to me with my Nexus 7, it was just faulty. Since I'm from Melbourne and really want the tablet I just went straight to Asus and have them handle the repair/replacement instead of sending it back to Wireless 1.

    • Counterpain on 14/08/2014 - 10:33

      im in melbourne as well , how long did it take for you to get the replacement? or repair?

  • hanzyman on 14/08/2014 - 11:39

    I just had the courier deliver it to Asus yesterday (free pickup). The person I talked to over the phone said around 5 business days, but I'm expecting it to be more than that.

    • Counterpain on 14/08/2014 - 12:15

      it took 14 days for them to repair my previous Asus laptop , so I prefer just return it to seller and get it replaced.

  • hanzyman on 14/08/2014 - 15:09

    Yeah it's just that I can't be hassled with again having a faulty product from the seller especially if I can't test it first hand and specially if the product sold out when they did the promo. I'm just thinking there will be a higher chance that the unit they'll be replacing it with is another faulty product like what they did with with cobba.

    Anyways that's just me being pessimistic and I hope you have a good replacement unit from them.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join