Anyone gotten a refund yet on the basis of false advertising?

[blued]

I tried getting a refund asking politely from techsupport@irextechnologies.com(I also sent an email to info@irextechnologies.com). Their answer: 'Unfortunately we can not give you a refund'.

Any tips? Should I call them?

I really don't want to litigate or cause them more harm than I have to. The iLiad is mostly a fine device, but it is just not what I paid for.

[Riocaz]

Blue what country are you from?

If it's an EU country you should get a better response by quoting the appropriate EU directives at them (They are in my misleading advertising thread). If not then I'm not sure what else you can do or whether the legal route would even work. (Though threatening them with it might have some effect)

[sic]

why is it false advertising? they said it's not ready...

If it was SONY I would understand you better, as they claimed PDF support without properly explaining to customers about the page-size issue.

As far as I know IREX always made it clear that their product is an early version, plus at least they have opened it up completely.

[blued]

Originally Posted by sic

why is it false advertising? they said it's not ready...

As I understood it, they said that the software was not ready. The hardware was supposed to be the final version.

Then they admitted that they never will get to 21 hours of usage with the current hardware.

Originally Posted by sic

If it was SONY I would understand you better, as they claimed PDF support without properly explaining to customers about the page-size issue.

As far as I know IREX always made it clear that their product is an early version, plus at least they have opened it up completely.

Yes, they made it clear. They saying that the product is not ready, doesn't mean that they don't have to keep what they promised. The original deadlines for many promised features were months ago. And it's not like these were some vague promises. We have the original spec sheets, forum posts etc.

I agree that complying with GPL and the open and patient attitude of some of their employees(Karel and Matthjs) are good qualities. Those are the reasons why I am not angry, just a bit disappointed. And because iRex is a new and promising company, I don't want hurt them any more than I have to. The case would be very different with Sony, because they have the resources and the experience to know better.

[blued]

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Blue what country are you from?

Finland. So EU directives apply.

Originally Posted by Riocaz

If it's an EU country you should get a better response by quoting the appropriate EU directives at them (They are in my misleading advertising thread). If not then I'm not sure what else you can do or whether the legal route would even work. (Though threatening them with it might have some effect)

Yes, I mentioned directive 1999/44/EC. I don't know if helps though, at least with low level support persons.

I do have experience dealing with multinational corporations in difficult warranty and refund cases. It really can be daunting and quickly becomes tiring. That is why I hope that iRex would just do the right thing. My unit is in almost mint condition as I have kept it in an M-Edge case. So now they would only lose a part of the iLiad's price and would gain a content customer who could recommend their product to others. As always, when lawyers get involved, things get very expensive quickly.

And I really do think I have the law on my side.

[joblack]

OMG - what kind of disadvantage is killing your reading fun ...??

It isn´t unusable .. is it ...

[sic]

Good points blued!

[blued]

Originally Posted by joblack

OMG - what kind of disadvantage is killing your reading fun ...??

It isn´t unusable .. is it ...

No, it's not unusable. However, I paid for the most expensive reader available at the time for consumers. I paid 650 euro for the promised features, not for something that "isn't unsable".

[blued]

Originally Posted by sic

Good points blued!

Thanks for the support.

Well see what iRex is going to do about this whole mess. For now they seem to be content dodging the issue and evading questions by pointing to their returns policy.

Edit: Anyone know know about Netherlands' consumer law. Finland's consumer bureau advised me that because iRex hasn't marketed this actively to Finland, the case would probably be handled according to Netherlands' laws. If it gets to that I would also get legal help from the bureau.

[Riocaz]

I have some friends in the Netherlands' I'll see what they know.

But as part of the EU, their laws should match that directive.

[pdam]

I would suggest you try a different contact route - try writing to the MD rather than tech support, this may illicit a better response.

[Snappy!]

Not an iliad, but a mobile phone for me. I had a mobile from Siemens many years back and when I got it, I was surprised at the difference in icons and menu on it when compared to the advertised images.

I sent an email to their HQ in Germany, and they tried to explain that it is because the units in my region is localised and hence the difference, while the ad images are standardized worldwide. I replied charging that they are having false advertising and lying to customs about the look and feel of the mobile. The international verion of the mobile phone is not available locally, so they flew one in to Asia for me from Germany! wooo hoo ...

ok, I know, there are usually fineprints with "Product images are for references only. Actual product may vary." but I guess they played nice, and I give them brownie points for that! ... not that it's worth anything much ..

[blued]

Originally Posted by pdam

I would suggest you try a different contact route - try writing to the MD rather than tech support, this may illicit a better response.

This is probably the best course of action. I would be grateful if anyone who had talked with a director of anything, preferably customer relations, would give their email addresses. PM them to me, if you don't want to display them publicly. I want avoid start calling until it's absolutely necessary because of the prohibitive cost of multiple calls to a another country. Although maybe with skypeout or similar it would be cheap enough.

[blued]

Originally Posted by Snappy!

Not an iliad, but a mobile phone for me. I had a mobile from Siemens many years back and when I got it, I was surprised at the difference in icons and menu on it when compared to the advertised images.

I sent an email to their HQ in Germany, and they tried to explain that it is because the units in my region is localised and hence the difference, while the ad images are standardized worldwide. I replied charging that they are having false advertising and lying to customs about the look and feel of the mobile. The international verion of the mobile phone is not available locally, so they flew one in to Asia for me from Germany! wooo hoo ...

ok, I know, there are usually fineprints with "Product images are for references only. Actual product may vary." but I guess they played nice, and I give them brownie points for that! ... not that it's worth anything much ..

Thanks for the anecdote. Although to a lesser degree, this is very much like case iLiad. Sadly, even large and faceless companies like Siemens seem more reasonable than iRex. I guess it's the thing that iRex only has one product(having their eggs in one basket) that they can't allow even one crack in their return policy.

I guess it's Fight club's 'The formula' applied to iLiad:

If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall? You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out *of *court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don't initiate a recall. If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt. If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don't recall.

Of course here it's 'number of iLiad's sold A' times 'the ratio of customers wanting a refund B' times 'the loss of sales due to damage to reputation per customer feeling cheated C' equals X. If cost X is higher than the cost of doing the right thing and giving refunds to those who want it, then they do it. Otherwise they do not. Only thing we can do to encourage them is to try increasing the value of X.

[anansi]

Has anyone got some new answers (the law abiding kind) from iRex, with the other post of 10k units sold and a possible ipo it surely seems they can afford the refund, and if there is any truth to the ipo bit, then it would be in their best interest to clear this mess up real "soon"

ps: oh and someone posted these contacts from the Irex site , maybe they can be of use to anyone, cheers.
Commercial Contact
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