Group Buy / EOI new generation DNS head units (RNS-510 alternative)

[XQUIZT]

He was like an ambulance chasing lawyer, trying to force me to either accept the unit or take a $100 loss because I didn't want to continue.
.

Why would you have to take a $100 loss? It wasn't like a restocking fee because there was no stock to begin with?!?

From what I've read so far it appears the initial batch is going to need more than a firmware update. Will be interesting to see what the 'return policy' (if there is one) is once the conclusion is confirmed hardware issues.

$700+ for a system which only works depending on weather is anything but premium

[kwalsh24]

Good point, I wouldn't even take 100 bucks to be left suffering with a unit that only works in warm climates, that's like owning a car that only runs in the summer. Eff that.

PayPal may have a little work to do, as I'm guessing all of us North American buyers used PayPal, and that's really our only means to fight with.

I always had a bad feeling about this whole thing. The delays, and more delays, now this. It will take a replacement system to fix the issues that's being reported back by current users that's for sure! At who's cost tho?

Sorry, my frustrations are just coming out, 6 months nearly of waiting and I do literally have a 800 dollar paperweight as I'm afraid to install this thing in my car to find out once I do I void any return policy that may or may not exist, as really my guess is that there is what, 5 units in North America that are faulty, times that by 740 (PayPal fee & warranty) equals $3700, do you really think Sandy has that laying around to do the refunds after the traveling he seems to do? I know i likely wouldn't if I were him, hell I don't right now haha. And that's just for us cold climate folk who have tested out these unit just to have them fail. What about all the Aussie orders ?

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[markos_chaos]

He reluctantly gave me the refund, but only after trying everything he could no to, and only after someone took my place

Damn, sorry to hear. To be fair, he handled my return very well. But that was a few months ago, I'm sure hes much more stressed now and might have taken it out in the emails

[asa572]

Looks like ****s gunna start getting interesting!

[Mattlock]

These just add up to a rushed production item.

Well to be clear they are, because some people on this list requested an early release unit.

When there had been the delays and changes from AS that we all saw, then I was surprised to see people thinking this was the way to go.

I did get out of the GB but mainly because I couldn't wait any longer for a unit to sort out my car. I only ever paid the deposit because this was a step in to the unknown.

In Sandy's defence, when I got out he refunded me within 24hrs and followed up with a couple of PMs with alternate solutions to help me out.

I believe the unit will be good but not until the middle of 2014, 12 months after AS announced it. They have massively over-promised on the project and have then had to rush units through to try and match the early demand that has been whipped up. This was the timeline I was working too.

[kwalsh24]

I understand that, but like why are these units so crap vs what Sandy has? Something doesn't add up, like his unit would likely be hand made as well and be no different than ours (or shouldn't be) minus the climate conditions.

These issues aren't livable issues, they aren't repairable with a software fix. We shouldn't have to wait 10+ minutes for our radios to warm up in our cars to work properly or close to as proper as these things do. The units just don't seem to be stable at all under all climate conditions

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[moda]

It really has been a bit of a cluster****, hasn't it? I guess we really are playing guinea pig.

Hopefully my unit turns up tomorrow (after an entire day of sitting around doing nothing waiting for the courier to turn up, but anyways).... a tracking number or something would have been nice. *shrugs*

Will give it the full once over and ensure that everything is working, get some photos up and let everyone know what's what.

I'm wondering if the cold weather hardware issues the canadians guys have been facing is caused by the solder/electrical connections expanding and contracting with the weather (which should be something that is fixed by the units going into mass production...)... at this point who knows.

@Kwalsh talking about shipping being $200, it really won't be. It sounds like DHL giving you the runaround. Like I said, when I shipped a headunit back to Eonon in China, fedex quoted me ~$200, but I just ended up using International Auspost, $30, only took 10 days, and that was that. Surely you guys have the same option. It's not like Audiosources need the unit back NBD or anything, a slower and significantly cheaper shipping method should be fine.

[kwalsh24]

Well, if something cheaper were to be used they likely wouldn't get it for a month or more. Then they would likely need the unit In hand before anything would get processed so they wont be out any. Either way, it wont be me paying a cent more for this fiasco

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[moda]

Well, if something cheaper were go be used they likely wouldn't get it for two months or so. Then they would likely need the unit I'm hand before anything would get processed so they wont be out any.

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I guess it depends on what service you use. Surely there are better options than express via DHL, considering how uneconomical it is, or get Audiosources/Sandy to work out something with their logistics company, because the onus shouldn't be on you.

[kwalsh24]

Well really in Canada we only have Fedex, UPS, Loomis/DHL, Purolator and Canada post as the main couriers. Canada Post being the cheapest. The rest are likely expensive as they can be expensive just sending within the country, to the other side of the world, likely a good chunk of change.

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[XQUIZT]

I started a GB on this forum a few months back selling R20 headlights sourced from China.

I collected money from buyers only after i confirmed with supplier stock was ready to be shipped, I made sure that all orders were delivered to customers within 3 weeks & had in place a refund policy fair for both parties. all happy customers & a clear conscience.

This GB my friend,.. Is an absolute embarrassment !!

[kwalsh24]

Yeah, lesson learned for me.

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[moda]

Well really in Canada we only have Fedex, UPS, Loomis/DHL, Purolator and Canada post as the main couriers. Canada Post being the cheapest. The rest are likely expensive as they can be expensive just sending within the country, to the other side of the world, likely a good chunk of change.

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Maybe it's worth getting in contact with Audiosources directly? Otherwise Canadapost would be your best bet. But as I said, if it were me I wouldn't be paying for postage, it's not on you.

As I said above, i'd be fairly confident in saying that the cold weather issues are caused by the solder points expanding and contracting. I've seen it before in other electronics (Xbox360 comes to mind, the RROD was caused by the solder heating up after extended use and lifting up off the PCB - in the case of the DNS my guess would be the solder has contracted overnight from the cold, causing it to not be in contact, and then as the unit/car heats up the contacts/solder expand and go back in contact - possibly a function of the fact that some points are hand soldered).

I started a GB on this forum a few months back selling R20 headlights sourced from China.

I collected money from buyers only after i confirmed with supplier stock was ready to be shipped, I made sure that all orders were delivered to customers within 3 weeks & had in place a refund policy fair for both parties. all happy customers & a clear conscience.

This GB my friend,.. Is an absolute embarrassment !!

It really just reminds me to never organise a group buy on anything haha... I don't like handling other peoples money for goods etc, can get messy.

[kwalsh24]

[QUOTE=moda;1011417]Maybe it's worth getting in contact with Audiosources directly? Otherwise Canadapost would be your best bet. But as I said, if it were me I wouldn't be paying for postage, it's not on you.

As I said above, i'd be fairly confident in saying that the cold weather issues are caused by the solder points expanding and contracting. I've seen it before in other electronics (Xbox360 comes to mind, the RROD was caused by the solder heating up after extended use and lifting up off the PCB - in the case of the DNS my guess would be the solder has contracted overnight from the cold, causing it to not be in contact, and then as the unit/car heats up the contacts/solder expand and go back in contact - possibly a function of the fact that some points are hand soldered).



Yep, I did post my concern about the whole hand made topic before the radios were even sent out. It does make a little sense however these units should of been tested for that

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[Mattlock]

I understand that, but like why are these units so crap vs what Sandy has? Something doesn't add up, like his unit would likely be hand made as well and be no different than ours (or shouldn't be) minus the climate conditions.

We don't know that and can't assume that. Sandy got his hand-made unit more than a month before this batch. I can only assume that the volume supply chain procurement hasn't started yet and AS may well have used different parts. They may have also revisioned the detail on the hardware between his and these ones.

I work in an industry where QC is vital because of electronic components on circuit boards. We track batch numbers of critical components to identify failure patterns and reject replacements from the supplier if we're not happy. We've even pulled working units from the production network because they carried a component from the same batch as one that failed.