Quote:
Originally Posted by AJ Starr
I, too, took off my battery door, and the plastic below it WAS blue. The stripes shown in the purple picture were the same way on mine, but the material of the door WAS blue. Apparently the stripes are the way their manufacturing process leaves the bottom side when painting this rubber coating. I imagine the full case would have this type of stripes on the inside also. It's hard to paint both sides of an item without some indications left.
You seem to only want to criticize eveything eveyone says, and you don't indicate you have a PEZ, just a Sony. Are you TRYING (and Not succeeding) to disrupt this forum?
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Yes, I am being critical and there is a reason...first I was interested in this device as well as the 9.7" color display that was announced a while back. So I will comment and observe and question all I want. Don't care much if it meets with your, or anyone else's approval.
One needs to remember the bragging by Astak about this device. Turns out most of the spin fell quite short of the mark. I have followed Astak from early on in "the BIG thread" and even offered several suggestions which were used. But as time wore on less and less valid statements were forth coming as was Astak's demeanor and vicious criticism of other devices here on MR. BTW, on multiple occasions Astak's statements about other brand's devices were shown to be patently false. Astak chose to go down that road then he needs to live with the same critical eye when looking at and evaluating Astak's products.
Discussing the flaws and being objectively critical is "disruptive"? Just because I did not drink the Kool-aid does not mean I cannot follow and contribute to ANY THREAD on this board. Feel free to ignore them.
I had high hopes for Astak at one time, they seem to have super CS, seem to want to do the right thing in order to keep positive comments coming and the original EZReader was nice enough. But they seem to drop the ball when it counts these days. Maybe they are trying to do too much too soon and that can lead to the issues people are seeing. Don't forget the paint is the least worrisome of the issues people have posted about.
I WAS a big supporter of Astak but you would have had to read that big thread to find it...
BTW, maybe a company with more background in dealing with this sort of thing would have explained to anyone who pre-ordered devices there was an issue and an external layer of paint was going to be required to allow shipping these devices into the US (or out of China, whatever...) and give them the option of canceling the order. Doing a proper paint job would have caused a bit of a delay but then again, which do you prefer getting it right or getting it right-now?
We will NEVER know the real reason for any of this...BUT, if you blindly believe it is completely out of Astak's hands, well, not much anyone can say beyond, wow??!! Astak is small and trying to grow a big nice business. Often that leads to this sort of fiasco because they are ordering in, relative to the actual mfg's bigger customers, small quantities. So I doubt a full batch of plastic case material would be mixed just for them. That could be the problem. Resin plastics are very fussy. This issue could be the result of an single drop of color additive or hardener or ?? It all depends on the formula. Humidity can also be a BIG factor here...under the wrong conditions this can happen, especially when a company is trying to learn it on the fly.
Do not forget also these things are made in the country that shipped 1000s of tubes of toothpaste which killed people because it contained anti-freeze only to say "...oh, we're sorry..." at least the guy who did that allegedly hung himself, or was encouraged to do so. Maybe these days China customs is indeed being over cautious with potential hazardous materials (I mean it would be bad form to have plant managers hanging themselves every other week)...that is the ONLY reason I could see for the case to require painting AFTER the fact. I would have thought this was taken care of before during the prototyping phase...
There are a lot more holes in the story. Maybe holes is the wrong word, inconsistencies might be better...and that rests solely on Astak's Marketing Wonks (I really mean that as a joke not mean spirited...I have hired and fired a lot of marketing folks, they are all wonks, even the one's I liked...about on the level as attorney's.
). Remember we do not even know if one person is posting under Astak's ID. Nothing unusual there for a company to spread that workload...I tend to believe it is only one person, but we do not know for sure.
And I do believe that they really do not know what the reason for this might be...I doubt it was drying time at all. I would believe it had more to do with the type of paint used for the surface to which it was being applied. If the surface is not squeaky clean and properly prep'd and itself is completely cured and the out-gassing is done, then the paint won't stick. Also it might be there was too much paint applied all at once. Heck they could have been doing them by hand one at a time. Lots of places for something to go wrong.
Also, if you read, I suggested if someone like their reader...get the black or white version instead...nobody has reported any issue with those builds. Never did I say not to ever buy the reader only to be aware of the issues and not to convince yourself yours will be "the" perfect one. The production line has issues.
I feel Astak owes those loyal supporters not only a free exchange (shipping both ways) but also a credit they can use once the online bookstore gets going. Yeah, they might lose a bit in the near term, but in the long term people will be happy.
And where do you read I have a Sony?