I feel like I have been hard done by. We paid more for the EEE PC. Then we got the rubbish battery.Then we have to send our battery back, live without it for a week or so.And pay £10 for a new battery. I bought a 701, sold it and bout a 900. This is the last ASUS I will end up buying.I know it is better than nothing and I will take the deal. But it should have been either completely free.
Asus offers £10 high-capacity battery upgrade for Eee PC 900
Asus has finally decided to throw a bone to Eee PC 900 buyers who are unhappy that their laptops came with a smaller battery than expected.
Owners can send their original 4400mAh battery to an Asus service centre and for £10 + VAT (but inc P&P), they'll get a 5800mAh battery in return. Not quite the same as the free battery upgrade Asus extended to unhappy Hong Kong Eee PC 900 buyers, but better than nothing – and Asus was really under no obligation to anything at all, in this case
The offer is expected to be available from 10th June and in the meantime, Eee PC owners can download a BIOS update that Asus claims will add half an hour to battery life. Full details of the Asus announcement and the whole Eee PC 900 battery imbroglio after the cut.
Complaints about the Eee PC 900’s battery arose because review units in the UK were sent out with a 4400mAh battery. Since the Eee PC 701 had a 5200mAh battery, cautious reviewers were quick to check with Asus about what battery would ship with final production models.
When Mobile Computer reviewed the Eee PC 900, an Asus spokesperson told us that the battery capacity hadn’t been finalised yet, but it would probably be a higher capacity cell than the one we had – so that’s what we said in the review. In fact the Eee PC 900 eventually shipped in the UK with the same 4400mAh battery as those first review units.
So far, this was just a case of bad luck – that “probably” statement from Asus is hardly binding and anyone buying an Eee PC 900 hoping to receive a bigger battery would have done well to check its specifications with the vendor first.
But here’s where things get a little more convoluted.
Eee PC 900s sent out for review in the US came with a 5800mAh battery, and that’s just what customers got. Review units in Hong Kong also had a 5800mAh battery, but retail units actually came with a 4400mAh battery – and that obviously made customers angry.
So angry, in fact, that Asus eventually claimed that review units were sent out with bigger batteries by mistake. In a wise PR move, it also offered Hong Kong and Singapore buyers a free battery upgrade to the 5800mAh cell.
Alas, despite howls of protest from UK buyers feeling similarly hard-done by failed to impress Asus UK. Its official response was that it “offers different solutions in different markets. In EU countries, we use 4400mAh battery. However, we give a two-year warranty within the country you bought the Eee 900.” So, longer warranty > bigger battery.
However, Eee PC 900 owners weren't buying this (the official response, that is – they’ve already bought the Eee PC 900) and in a lengthy debate taking over at EeeUser, some owners demanded a bigger battery for free, while others are more sanguine and think Asus are in the clear.
So, this announcement from Asus is something of a surprise, though some forum posters stated they they were given advance warning by Asus when they called to complain. All credit to Asus, however, for recognising that the customer is always right, even when they might be wrong. Let's just hope that it's going to recycle those returned 4400mAh batteries in an environmentally responsible way...
Asus has also released a BIOS update that it claims will extend battery life by 30 minutes or so. Version 0601 of the BIOS update is available to download from the Asus support website.
The full announcement from Asus is below.
ASUS delivers unique customer service
ASUS appreciate that there has been a lot of speculation regarding differences in the battery supplied with their new Eee PC 900 in different geographical locations across the world. Particular confusion has arisen between the USA specification and the UK specification as articles referring to both specifications have been published in English across the Internet.
ASUS hope the following points will clarify the matter:
1. Presently the standard battery supplied in the UK is the 4400mAH.
The 4400mAH (2.2mAH, 4 cells) is the default standard battery pack for ASUS Eee PC 900 worldwide. The 2.2mAH battery cell is the most commonly used battery cell in the market.
2. ASUS believe in taking care of their customers and the UK standard Eee PC 900 comes with an impressive 2-year warranty, including a 1-year warranty on the above 4400mAH battery. This generous warranty package delivers peace-of-mind to customers and is a highly competitive warranty compared with other 'Eee PC copy-cat' notebooks presently available in the UK market.
3. ASUS have always striven to provide the best possible solutions for their customers needs and pay close attention to customer feedback. Therefore they have appreciated that there is increasing demand for longer battery life on ASUS Eee PC 900 for some users. As a result, ASUS have developed the following solutions to meet such requirements:
a) ASUS can now deliver an immediate performance-enhancing boost to Eee PC
900s through a quick-and-easy firmware update; the newest BIOS supplied from the official ASUS support website version 0601. Available from 29th May at 10:00 am GMT, this update will help to add around 30 minutes extra battery life on the ASUS Eee PC 900. Please refer to the BIOS update procedure accessed from the following link:
b) As innovators in customer service and market-leaders in notebooks ASUS are proud to announce an additional support service to their Eee PC 900 customers with the new Battery-Swap offer. This provides the Eee PC 900 user an opportunity to buy a higher capacity battery pack (5800mAH) at a special price of GBP10 +VAT, P&P included, in exchange for the return of their original battery pack(4400mAH) to an ASUS service center in the UK.
ASUS will release information regarding the detailed procedure in a few days and anticipate the battery purchase service commencing from 10th June 2008.
Update: Is the Eee PC 900 battery brouhaha a storm in a teacup?
Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
© Dennis Publishing
© Dennis Publishing
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Comments
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There is absolutely no reason for Asus to want the old batteries back - they cannot sell them, so they will simply be left with a pile of toxic waste to get rid of. The inevitable conclusion is that requiring the old battery back is a spoiling tactic designed to minimise the number of people taking up the "offer" - especially when you consider you have to send it back before you get the new one, thus leaving you with an Eee tied to the mains in the mean time! And what about the cost of posting the old battery to them?Mobile Computer - you should be asking Asus why it wants the old batteries back.The bit about the guarantee is pure spin. Asus is supplying Italy with 5800mAh batteries, and the two year guarantee! All products bought in the EU which are expected to last two years by default have a two year guarantee anyway, so comparing the Eee to its competitors is disingenuous.As to the BIOS upgrade, it looks like this just lets the battery discharge further before shutting off. What's this going to do to the longevity of the battery?Over the moon? Don't make me laugh.
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They say that the 4400 battery is standard worldwide - this seems to be a lie as in the US it is the 5800 battery, first shipments going to Italy are 5800, and HK and SG got them replaced free too.... how is charging UK owners for the same 'customer service'? I am appalled.
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Getting charged for something I should of had to start with and then being inconvenienced by sending it back.Are they kidding?Think its getting re-boxed and sent back!!!
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According to ASUS UK i was the first person to get the EEEPC 901 at the official launch.This allowed me to air my views on what it "felt like" to recieve the eeepc 900!When i was filmed,i mentioned the battery issue, they told me they didnt have any idea what they were talking about.now i think they all do and they realise they were wrong .... which is a good thing! However i shouldnt have to pay anything to have a replacement. just for good will they should just send us one. Especially as they are discontinuing the model...dont get me started on that!
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I bought the 701 and recently the 900... am very disappointed how the whole UK battery thing went ... bring on the competition. ... MSI Wind, Dell mini Inspiron and that little Acer (damn its ugly) all coming around around the corner .. Asus have thrown away a considerable market share that was theirs for the taking ... goodbye Eee PCs, was nice knowing you :) Asus you blew it!
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Asus did not display battery specifications for the eee900 for the UK market at their website.Asus sent out 900s for review with the 5800 battery.Asus indicated that they would ship higher specification batteries than were supplied to those few, later, reviewers who received the 4400 batteries with the 900.The UK User Guide supplied with the 900 states "a fully charged pack will provide several hours of battery life".Asus states that the UK received the lower spec battery because of a 'generous two-year warranty' - there is nothing generous about it; it is a requirement of law within the EU. Additionally, Italy receives the 5800 battery anyway!The UK pays more for the eee900 than any other market yet supplied, but receives a sub-standard battery! Now we are expected to pay even more to receive a similar battery to the rest of the world.Asus have tried supplying sub-standard batteries to other regions, but after receiving complaints, they exchanged batteries at no extra charge - as indeed they should have done. Why is the UK treated differently in this regard?Asus have habitually misinformed contributors to the eeeuser.com community throughout this dispute - including: that the battery supplied was the choice of individual UK suppliers. This is completely untrue.The eee900 is intended as an ultramobile device. An average of 90 minutes use from the supplied battery can only mean that the 900 - with a 4400mAh battery - is not fit for purpose. It is unreasonable for Asus to expect their UK customers to pick up the tab for a mistake/miscalculation on the part of Asus.And, why do Asus require the return of the 4400mAh battery? Do they intend to supply the second-hand battery to new customers in another market? Very many people were - (begrudgingly) accepting of offer rumoured from Asus' direction that they would supply a 5800mAh battery for a small fee (about £10) as goodwill gesture. So, customers would, in effect, end up with a sub-standard battery (the 4400mAh) for £10, and have a similar battery to the rest of the world too. Instead, customers now have to pay £11.75; go without a battery for who knows how long (they must return the 4400 before they receive the 5800); they must also pay the insured costs of posting the 4400 battery; and they don't have the satisfaction of having a cheap backup battery to offset the disappointment of having to pay extra money to put themselves in the position they should have been in the first place.Asus have shot themselves in the foot. So many of those that should have been ambassadors for Asus will now instead be warning everyone they come across, for years to come, to steer clear of Asus.I am totally bewildered and absolutely astonished with the response of Asus to this problem.
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My guess is that Asus is going to take cells out of the returned batteries and use them in "refurbished" units. Want to bet?
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In the UK at least they would be opening themselves up to some HORRIBLE legal problems if they were reshipping those batteries to anyone else without doing some major checks on them.
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I got a 4G (701) a month or so ago. It came with a crappy 4400mAh battery. So can I get a proper replacement as well?....
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Well I would suggest you check your manual on section 3-2 / 3-3 and see if it says 'several hours'. Then check to see if you get several hours out of your 701. If not start a thread (pointing to ours about the issue in eeeuser.comm forums in thee 900 section). You will find lots of useful stuff on eeeuser.com, and if Asus have indeed begun shafting 7021 users too we may as well stand together.
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I was, this week, going to go buy a 900 ... that was until I saw this. I think Ill pass on being ripped off and treated like a peice of dirt
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Paul - go to the eeeuser.com thread and post those comments as Asus need to know! http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=277049#p277049
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Absolutely terrible. How much does a battery stand Asus? They're probably still making a profit on this try and win back the customers stunt.
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I am still considering buying one of these to do some travelling and find a good place to start a business.The battery issue really is only a small concern, ok so some people are disappointed with the battery life, but for a little more than the 11.75 for asus changing the battery, you might as well get a 2nd one from ebay, giving better battery life.But I really think some people are being a little harsh on Asus, especially as in essence what they have created is fantastic piece of kit.
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We agree the 90 is a great piece of kit -- but it's let down in UK by a battery that does not last as long as its little brothers the 701 series. Asus HAVE been underhanded in the release in the UK as the 440 battery was not mentioned until AFTER the launch thus people expected the same battery as others have been given, and are being given. Asus LIED about the 4400 being the global standard. This is unacceptable.
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I have been following this topic around the net and feel that Asus have a really bad press over it.The thing that strikes me is the actual system is so cheap to buy its more of a throw away gadget than a serious laptop. Everyone slates the 2 year warranty as not being worth anything but IMO thats what swung it for me when I got one. Ok at first when I read the whole battery issue I was a little angry but now I can get a replacment for a small admin fee makes me think fair enough. I would much rather pay £10 get a new battery than loose a years warranty. I have had 3 laptops that between 12-14 months have died. Yes there is the argument that in the EU you should get a 2 year warranty anyway - please tell this to HP who are refusing to fix my dead laptop saying that I would only have a 2 year warranty if I had bought my laptop from John Lewis !!! Now that makes my blood boil !! Also I would like to clarify one thing here. You do not have to send in your battery before you recieve the new one which a few people have stated here. Asus will send you the new battery first.I think although there is the battery issue the fact the laptop is so small and compact which means it really is easy to take out with you is over looked in everyones posts. It has one small flaw but lots of positive aspects to it.
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Hi Sharon. The point is that the warranty issue is complete lies, because France is getting 5200mAh batteries and Italy is getting 5800mAh batteries, and both countries have the EU 2 year warranty too! Add to that Asus' cageyness about their capacity (no-one knew it until they opened the box, and they told me twice on the phone that the UK would get 5200mAh) and it is obvious that the UK is being shafted due to the battery shortage. Asus should have done the decent thing and offered a totally free swap once supplies had been sorted out. Anything other than that and they deserve all the bad press they are getting.It is good news if they send the new battery out first - where did you get that information from, though? It seems everyone is saying different things! And why do they want the old one back at all? It's used - it is of no monetary value to them. I can only conclude it is more Asus dishonesty - to get good publicity by offering a deal which is duff on closer examination.The other thing is that they should provide a pre-paid bag with the new battery in order to send back the old battery. Otherwise it is not £10+VAT - it is more.As for your laptop, I suggest you threaten your retailer (not HP - your contract is with the retailer) with the small claims court: moneyclaim.gov.uk.Yes, there are a lot of positive aspects of the Eee, which we haven't overlooked or we wouldn't have bought it in the first place. ;)
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Hi Sharon,In the UK it is possible to claim up to 6 years after you make a purchase. The actual amount of time that is reasonable in the circumstances would need to be determined by a court if your retailer will not play ball, but my guess would be that the court would determin that 12-14 months as an unreasonably short time for your laptop to remain operational. From what I have read though, a much shorter period of time will be deamed reasonable for a bettery (comapred to the laptop), as batteries are considered 'consumables'. You should contact your local Trading Standards for advice.Given that we have strong consumer rights in this regard, the two-year warranty does appear to be worthless, as it probably adds nothing to our rights.
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Thanks for the response and advice regarding the warranty on my HP .. In practice it sounds so simple speak to somebody and tell them you have rights but actually nobody wants to listen - you come up against people who work for a company and defend them to the death.so with that in mind having a two year warranty set out for me pre-purchase means that i dont need to argue with sales assistants - i honestly have tried to say about my rights and short of spending hours fighting this which i just cba to do.this is why now when i buy something the warranty period is something i defo look in to.This may sound a bit extreme and maybe I am just unlucky with laptops but I have had a Sony Vaio which I paid £1,800 for originally, Dell XPS Gen 2 which was just over £1,500 and then this HP which wasn't an expensive laptop all die really short after the warranty ran out. I don't even use my laptops for extreme use I have a main PC for my work etc - I only ever really use laptops for surfing - so when i saw the Eee pc with its small price tag and longer warranty from my past experience it was perfect for me.
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I can understand your feeling on the warranty issue Sharon. You have had really bad luck as I had a Vaio that I sold on eBay a few months back after having it for 7 years! But it's not the warranty issue that is the point. European rights say you have a 2 year warranty with the retailer anyway as said before... but that aside... Asus kept the truth about battery life from UK buyers until AFTER they bought... and up until the 22nd May they wouldn't even admit the problem! They have acted underhandedly - plus now today it seem they are attempting to rubbish the problem by issuing statements to online news sites saying only a 'handful' of people have complained - that it yet another untruth! You have to admit they are being underhanded? A Ultra portable Laptop with only 1.5hours battery is ludicrous in any users eyes, but even more so when it has been constantly quoted as having 3 to 3.5 hours of battery life! They must be worried by this rash of complaints otherwise they wouldn't try to rubbish it all suddenly.
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Actually, the two-year rule is true for most of Europe, but was never ratified in the UK. The reasoning was that we have stronger rights already - up to six years after purchase, depending upon the specifics of the complaint. So, in most of Europe they have two years protection anyway, and in the UK, we potentially have six (realistically, less than six).
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Good point Col... a bit of effort and you can get your rights within that period.. although it's dependant on each case separately I suspect.Either way it pretty much makes Asus two year extra warranty worthless when compared to decent battery life!
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Where has the poll gone?
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ASUS hope the following points will clarify the matter: 1. Presently the standard battery supplied in the UK is the 4400mAH. The 4400mAH (2.2mAH, 4 cells) is the default standard battery pack for ASUS Eee PC 900 worldwide. --------However, I bought black Windows 900 from Clove & black Linux 900 from Play on release and both came with 4400 batteries. Today I received a white Linux 900 from Clove with - 5200 battery(All proper UK keyboard models!)What IS going on?
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hi there,any news in this matter ? cant find any info on asus website.if i would be given an option to pay tenner more when i was buying it i would definitely pay to have the uptime they've claimed at the beginning.would save me a lot of time anyway...
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Comments are disappearing again! I had one detailing the slip management to customer service telling them to try to stop us getting the exchange and to pay for the extra battery - that's been here all day but now gone!
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Editor - Julian ProkazaI've been working on the comment system today, Adam - please let me know if you experience any more disappearing comments.
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OK Julian will do, thanks.
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It gets better! Even option 1 of the asus "fix" has now been recinded. The 601 bios is no longer available from the ASUS support site.
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I'm also disappointed to find that my 900 came (from Dixons) with the 4400mAH battery. I would certainly like to exchange it. My problem is that I'm most of the time in France.
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I am wondering if the UK small battery version was originally intended for the Far East, but they couldn't sell them? When I got mine the software had a chinese/english language option on it. I now have ubuntu.
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Asus have cancelled the battery upgrade THIS MORNING on the day it was supposed to launch. I have been told this is indefinitely until management make a decision!! Yet another sorry section of this whole badly handled saga!!They have no idea whatsoever how to look after customers - even the stores who are supposed to be selling the special priced batteries from 1st July have no idea about it yet! Someone needs to quizz then at a high level as this is a disgusting lack of care for existing customers.
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Just to add, the BIOS updates for eee900 have been a joke too. You can read about them at the eeeuser.com forum.
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Just followed the phone number at the top of this thread for ASUS. Spoke to a guy at ASUS, who said they now have a web site, put up 3 days ago to registered for the replacement battery so go to :http://rma.asus.de/pick_eu/uk/eee_battery_form.aspxComplete this, it will email you back and you will be in the system. I was told there is a back log, they are currently working on order/queries from 24th June. But I guess its important to be on their list ....Oh yes, it validates the Eee serial number, so check those O's or 0's !!!
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A maiden with many wooers often chooses the worst.All the treasures of the earth would not bring back one lost moment.
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:evil: I just rang Asus and they said the battery replacement scheme ended on the 31st July!!!I then asked if you could buy the batterys from them, and they suggested that Ebuyer, Misco, were companies that you could get them from, and that they were the official Asus ones and not third party ones.Not good enough I say!
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:( I gave in to temptation and ordered one from Ebuyer. £29.99 inc. VAT.By the time Asus finish f***ing about over this issue. I'll be drawing my pension - excuse the language!
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Bugger just found this link.Reply from ASUS today.The offer for the bigger capacity battery was valid just for certain time. Unfortunately the offer is no longer valid, the offer ended 31.07.2008.Brought my PC in China and ASUS say it does not have Glogal warranty.Quote " Did I inform you that eeePCs doesn
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I think i have a problem with my battery. I received a message "BIOS IS FLUSHED" IF SO HOW CAN I PURCHASE A NEW FROM ONE OF THE SERVICE CENTRE.
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