Well, you certainly had that right, Duck.
We are now at our motel waiting for the for the soccer game we came here for, but we stopped by the Astak address. As you say, doorbell in an industrial park. One car out front, but no answer to the bell. I'm sure I heard this before somewhere, but the name on the door is "Team Research, Inc" so I'm not all that sure if someone had answered the door I would have gotten more than a blank look.
We hopped across the street to Frys, but although they have an Alturek for $139 and Sony Touches for $149, I opted to wait it out. Like you say. If I can get a new screen for $80, its still a better deal, unless something else was damaged, too.
The friends we stopped to see in Hayward gave me some pbooks so I don't even have to go buy any, and I am free to wait til I get home to pursue this silliness.
If, as you say, it will take 3 weeks turn-around to get a fix, it sure would have been nice to be able to drop it off and only have a week to wait once I got home.
A Sony as a replacement would be an option, since it was a close race between them and Astak initially -- especially with a Touch for only $149.
But the Kindle still doesn't have access to Library books, so every book I buy with a Kindle that I should have been able to get from the library just adds to the true price of a Kindle. That nice $140 wifi K3 shipping at the end of August isn't really such a bargain, in my book (or ebook).
On the other hand, with other options out there now, I'll have to see how Astak gets around to addressing this problem and decide whether a refurbished unit (which I have no doubt is the Astak definition of "repair") out weighs just waiting a while and getting another brand's new model.
If I choose the latter, I'll keep in mind your binning option, since I've certainly gotten better support out of you than Astak, so far.
Thanks again,