heyhey:xarqi: "A pup"?
The problems ran much, much deeper, involving the design, manufacturing, and testing of the model prior to release to the market, and the abusive and utterly unprofessional conduct of the retailer that emerged when it became clear that I couldn't be fobbed off with the standard "I've sold hundreds of these and nobody else has complained" line. However, no amount of bravado could prevent him being non-plussed when he found that 3 of 4 units in his stock wouldn't power up properly!
pup = dud, whatever you would like to call it.
Oh I understood the term, but it didn't apply in my case. It wasn't a one-off manufacturing problem or similar, but appeared to involve the model itself, not just the specific unit I first received.
You seem to have intimate contact with the manufaturer if you're familar with the design, manufactruing and testing of these receivers.
No "intimate contact" is required. Flaws in design or manufacturing (and testing) were apparent to me from the 75% failure rate for one presumably hardware fault alone. Testing faults were also obvious to me from the numerous and egregious blunders that I observed, particularly on the firmware side, indicating to me inadequate development prior to release. I could not see any of these being fixed under warranty, whether it be 1 year, 2 years, or 20 years duration. It was not that something had broken, it was that it seemed to me that it had never worked properly in the first place!
Is it possible if we make suggestions you can pass them on?
Well, no, sorry, I can't as I've never had much contact with the importer, and none with the manufacturer(s) [see below *]. When I asked the retailer to forward the very very detailed list of faults I'd painstakingly documented up the chain for comment and action he seemed to take it as a personal affront and there is no evidence that he ever did. Nor was I really very happy about spending hundreds of hours doing unpaid product development work.
Maybe the retailer is who you have your beef with.
There's no doubt about that at all. It's a shame really; until things started to go off the rails, the retailer was extremely pleasant, helpful, courteous and professional. When problems arose, there was a dramatic change. He seemed to take it very personally and I triggered a massive defensive response from him resulting in very unwelcome and repeated torrents of nonsense and abuse. Unfortunately, under the CGA, my recourse is with the retailer in the first instance, so I had to cope with it as best I could.
None of that absolves the importer from responsibility for releasing a buggy product though. Had I found no such issues, the difficulties with the retailer would never have arisen.
[*]As for the manufacturer, well, who is that? For some models I believe it's Fortis, in Korea, in others it's never been revealed as far as I know.
It seems to me that "Ultraplus" is essentially a badge or brand-name applied by a local importer to units they source from, well, who knows where, much like the "house brands" that are seen at The Warehouse, JB HiFi, Dick Smiths, whatever. That's not to say that such products cannot be cheap and reliable, but I found Ultraplus to be neither, and would have done so even without the profound unpleasantness I encountered on the way to discovering this.
Still, time has moved on. It could be hoped that the current crop of Ultraplus offerings are all that they claim to be and maybe more. I won't be taking the chance though, nor advising anyone else to do so.
At the end of the day, it's caveat emptor and have a firm grasp of your rights under the CGA.
Trusted
