[llamatron]

I've been trying to get iRex to replace a screen that has the infamous 'black line' fault, and I've pretty much given up. I got as far as them sending me the packaging, however they provided no instructions. I asked for them to resend the instructions and nearly two months later I'm still waiting for an acknowledgement.

The only email I received in the last three months was an email to say that things were held up because of the battery replacement program. Naturally, the fact that I was eligible, but wasn't notified that this was available made me furious, but the fact that somehow the battery replacement program prevented me from receiving shipping instructions for two months was just insulting.

Apart from that, I asked a number of questions which went unanswered, and only received the usual form responses. When I raised the issue, my iliad was in warranty, but it is now out of warranty. I have absolutely no faith that iRex will honour the terms of the warranty and will do all they can to fleece me for the cost of a new screen. I also have no faith that if I were to get the terms honoured, that I wouldn't be missing my ilaid for an unacceptable amount of time.

The irony is, that I would rather pay for a screen which I could install myself, rather than go through the pain of having iRex perform this service for me for free. The question is, can I? Probably not.

iRex have lost me for good as a customer, and this is an additional warning to those who are thinking of investing in an iliad. I'm not saying it's not a great device, it is, however a premium product at a premium price dictates a certain level of treatment of customers (especially early adopters) beyond that of simply getting away with the bare minimum.

Customers tend to stay loyal to a technology provider if there is a certain level of trust. When I purchased my iliad, reports were bad, but apparently 'getting better'. Suffice to say that in my experience not the case.