About 11 months into owning my Iliad (which I really liked, despite the fact that newspaper subscriptions never materialized), the screen suddenly developed an odd fault: a single horizontal white line traversing the whole screen near the top. In other words an entire line of pixels stopped flipping white-black as they're supposed to.

I've attached a picture of the fault. (Iliad 00.16.7C.00.OB.E3 closeup.jpg )It was fairly clear to me that this was NOT a problem of the screen being bumped, since a) I've always been careful and b) since it traverses the whole screen in a perfect line, it looks like an electronics problem.

It was surprisingly annoying to read with it, so I returned the Iliad to Irex. Who now tell me that this is somehow the result of a break in the glass substrate due to pressure on the screen. Evidence for which they attach the following picture (bruch2).

Of course the most obvious thing is that the picture in question clearly differs from mine. I guess this is supposed to be the glass substrate underneath after they peel the front of the screen off? I still don't see how the damage shown could possibly have produced the symptom on my screen.

All of this would be sort of irrelevant if they weren't trying to charge me 275 euros for the repair. That's a lot of money. If it was half of that I'd probably just pay after complaining a bit. But instead I am stuck without my Iliad, wondering whether to pay basically the cost of a new reader (from anyone but Irex) to get the thing repaired, when I am kind of doubtful about what they are telling me...

What does the forum think? Does this look like a reasonable explanation on Irex's part? Doesn't 275E seem kind of steep?

The 275 Euros for replacing the screen is not to much, if it has been mishndled. The cost of the actual screen is not far from that price.

I do not know, wether your screen has been broken due to pressure or not. I aggree though, that your initial picture does not indicate a damaged screen, but i am not a technician, so its just my oppinion.

Personally, if the issue is just the one line across the screen, I'd keep my cash in my wallet. It seems to me a waste of money repairing an otherwise working device when new eInk products, with better screens (albeit most are 6"), are coming on the market all the time.

But thats from just an eBook-reader's perspective ~ if you use the iLiad's note-taking etc a lot more then perhaps you might have to. What exactly are the yellow arrows supposed to be highlighting?

I would absolutely rather want a dead line on top of the screen than to shell out 275E for a screen update. I just saw a video presentation of the Amazon Kindle, and while it is no option for me (closed and just a reader), it does seem to be a very nice piece of hw. A somewhat broken display should hold up long enough for a competitor to the iLiad with an 8" vizplex display to get there.

/R

For one, I have no idea what they are trying to tell you with those yellow arrows. Secondly I find this pretty poor sort of support. Yes, I understand that a company cannot replace devices that get damaged by improper use. And yes, I understand that iRex might not have the means to be as generous as one would wish.

Yet, if there is no apparent misuse of the device, if the technology used is so prone to being defective ... shouldn't some sort of 'in dubio pro reo' be the guideline for a company like iRex? I.e. they should simply replace it and take some pride in making a customer that was willing shell out so much money for the device happy.

To me, this is just another forum entry that keeps me from buying the Iliad. I have seen way to many people report similar things (that is, having hardware issues and / or iRex being not all too generous when it comes to support) both here and on iRex's own forums.

They might get the 275 Euroes from you (if at all), but they sure won't get my 649 Euroes if reports like this one keep popping up.

Yet, if there is no apparent misuse of the device, if the technology used is so prone to being defective ... shouldn't some sort of 'in dubio pro reo' be the guideline for a company like iRex? I.e. they should simply replace it and take some pride in making a customer that was willing shell out so much money for the device happy.


I'm sorry for the original poster, but let's face it, iRex' technicians are the people best qualified to judge whether a screen fault is down to an electrical fault or a mechanical fracture, even if the damage was entirely inadvertent and the person may not have been aware of it. You say "in dubio pro reo" but perhaps in this case, to the technicians there was no "dubio".

Many peoples' house insurance allows them to make claims for accidental damage of this type.

I don't believe that the iLiad is any more prone to mechanical damage than other devices of this type. They do, however, have a glass substrate to the screen and need to be handled with a reasonable amount of delicacy.

I don't believe that the iLiad is any more prone to mechanical damage than other devices of this type. They do, however, have a glass substrate to the screen and need to be handled with a reasonable amount of delicacy.

I suspect that the bigger the device the more likely it will get broken. At least that is the way it works for my windows.

Dale

¿Es que nadie ha visto el fondo horriblemente GRIS

Con ese fondo, que hace ilegible el texto, a riesgo de perder la vista en pocos meses, yo no entiendo cómo alguien puede preocuparse por unas simples líneas horizontales que no debían estar; es como tener cáncer de huesos y quejarse de un simple catarro.

@juancarlosleo: Please write in english. I suspect you are spamming your opinion in threats with different subject.

OK Gogolo, My english is ugly.
Have you seen the background color?
No further questions.:blink:

Since e-ink uses the same type of matrix under the e-ink that LCD screens use and the single line not working is a common problem with LCD screens, it seems that it is not damage caused by the user. What happens is that one of the row capacitors or transistors stops working and keeps the entire row at a constant color.

To my way of thinking it is a manufacturing defect.

RWood-that was exactly my thought, and was the reason when I sent it in, I was virtually certain I would not be paying for it. Nevertheless, it seems that Irex has me over a barrel here. I think I am going to pay for the repair even though I suspect they are screwing me.

JuanCarlos-I have to admit that the ridiculously bad contrast ratio between text and background was kind of a shock when I first turned the device on. [JC's analogy for my complaint was along the lines of: complaining about a single white line on a display with such blindingly crappy contrast is akin to complaining about an eye cataract when you've got bone cancer] In bright light though, (which is exactly when laptop screens are worthless) this thing is amazing to read on.

When EInk fixes the contrast and speeds up page flips, this will totally replace reading on computers, I can almost guarantee it.

Hello jackbrown


The first picture is a line out error (covered within warranty) the second picture looks indeed like there is a crack in the tft layer (not covered within the warranty). I suspect there is maybe a mix up - could you pm me your ticket number via the irex forum -> http://forum.irexnet.com

than i can have a look at it regards

Karel

Well, needless to say I'm very happy to have gotten a positive response from Karel at Irex; this is good customer relations. I will report back here on further developments.

Jack,
I understand your frustration.

I had been extremely pleased with the iLiad which I purchased in August. It provided everything I have been looking for and I had recommended it to a number of colleagues, friends and customers. That was until somebody accidentally leant on the screen and cracked it (not their fault, it was buried under some papers on my desk at work). That’s when my troubles started.

I contacted iRex and arranged to send the device to them for repair. I sent it off at the beginning of November and they must have received it about the 8th as they wrote to me to say how much it would cost and that I should buy vouchers to that value on their website. As it happened, I had to buy vouchers to a slightly higher value as they only go in increments of £57.14. I didn’t complain at the time because I needed to get the device repaired and thought it would be a small price to pay to get it back quickly.

Since then I have had to chase their technical support team a number of times to try to find out what is happening. I’ve tried writing directly and I’ve tried raising individual cases to obtain a reply, but they only reply about every fourth time I write, saying that they’re waiting a batch of the screens to come in.

As you can see, it’s now over a month since they received the device and they’re still unable (or unwilling) to tell me when they will be able to return the device to me.

From having been a really happy customer, I’ve become a very disgruntled one with insult having been added to injury by the fact that they’ve had £204 of my money (and the device of course) for over a month. I’m on the verge of telling them that they can keep the device and asking for my money back. This experience will, of course, colour my advice to others about the device.

Well, since my initial contact with Karel (here and immediately afterwards in the Irex forums), I have had no word from Irex at all other than a message from one of their engineers saying if I don't pay up by next week, they are going to send my device back to me (now with a broken screen and not just a single line out error). Feels a little bit like extortion at this point, especially since the iliad was working okay before I sent it to them.

As EdwardH points out, they are extremely uncommunicative. I am kind of back to square one since not even Karel is replying to my messages.

Well, since my initial contact with Karel (here and immediately afterwards in the Irex forums), I have had no word from Irex at all other than a message from one of their engineers saying if I don't pay up by next week, they are going to send my device back to me (now with a broken screen and not just a single line out error). Feels a little bit like extortion at this point, especially since the iliad was working okay before I sent it to them.

As EdwardH points out, they are extremely uncommunicative. I am kind of back to square one since not even Karel is replying to my messages.

This is outrageous ... I really really feel sorry for you :(

This is outrageous ... I really really feel sorry for you :(

They finally sent it back after six weeks - no word of an apology or anything - and minus the USB cable. I've emailed them but, as usual, no reply.

I contacted the distributor in the UK, hoping that he'd lean on somebody at iRex (as he had done just before I got my iLiad back). He was really kind and, in addition to writing to iRex, sent me a new cable (even though it wasn't his fault).

I was going to buy an iLiad, but I'm seriously doubting after this.

Maybe in 2008, iLiad will have competitors with even superior capabilities by less money. I'm thinking to wait, I have enough crappy customer support with ISPs of Spain.

Well, the minute I bought the repair vouchers, I got two very nice surprises. A reply from the store saying the repair was actually in warranty, and a note from Karel (at Irex support) saying he'd been out of the office on vacation for a couple of weeks, thus his lack of replies, and that now that he was back, he'd cleared up the mix up at the repair center, and that my money would be refunded promptly and they'd do the repair for free.

All of which needless to say puts me in a very good mood toward Irex again. My feeling after this (my interaction with Karel and the repairs dept. people) is that when it comes down to it Irex is a very very small operation and they just don't have enough people to deal with weird problems like mine (a repair center mix-up) with any degree of speed and effectiveness. If it was Sony, the replies would have been more prompt, but on the other hand I wonder if they would have ultimately been as nice as Irex... Anyway, assuming the Iliad eventually gets back to me with the screen fault fixed, I will be a very happy customer again...now if they could just line up some newspaper subscriptions!!!

Well, three big cheers to Irex and Karel in particular. My Iliad came back yesterday with a nice new screen (It appears they replaced the screen and not just whatever was giving it that odd line-out error pictured at the beginning of the thread). They are refunding the money that I paid. It's still not entirely clear to me what happened, but it appears that the repair center mixed up mine with someone else's when it got sent in, thus explaining the pictures they sent me of an iliad with a smashed screen.

I definitely got mine back (although with the memory wiped and the OS upgraded to 2.11) since it has the same MAC address. Although I am annoyed that the repair center people were so uncommunicative with me, so unwilling to listen when I complained that I hadn't sent them and Iliad with a smashed screen, I must commend them for in the end, delivering excellent customer service. Karel's job, which seems to be customer complaints troubleshooter, is an important one.

Anyway, I'm happy to have my reader back, and especially so since they were able to get it back to me so quickly here where I'm working in Egypt, even though I bought the device in the US....