Air Console XL 2 cannot be switched on

[jmtosses]

Hi,

my Airconsole XL 2 unit is broken and I'm trying to get in touch with your support team but nobody responds to my mails or answers my calls. I would like to get the unit repaired or replaced - what are my options?

Regards,
JM

[Flange_Gasket]

The 'No Response from tech support' is a very common compliant here...

[kwok]

Last year when I bought my airconsoles, one of them was defective and I sent an email to request for an exchange. Simon Hope responded that time and arranged for a no-questions-asked replacement. Hasn't seen Simon active on the forums for a long time so I'm not sure if he's still part of this company. Simon's email address was simon@get-console.com .

[simon]

Hi All
First of all sorry for the recent problems we have been having with the support mail box. Due to an overly aggressive spam filter it has basically either been not receiving all the mail or our replies have been dropped by the outgoing amazon SES filter. Unfortunately this has meant slow or non existent responses to customer support queries. We have hopefully fixed this now, and also will be shortly implementing a better trouble ticket system that can more accurately track support requests.

Airconsole XL not charging or not operating when it is not connected to external power is an indication of a faulty hardware unit. During shipping some units with our last batch of XL units we have seen the failure rate around 3% of the battery connection to the motherboard. This is unacceptably high for us - if you have an XL unit that will not operate unless it is connected to external USB power please return it to us at:

Get Console
Level 3, 32 Market Place
Viaduct
Auckland 1010
New Zealand

or

Get Console
11 Oxford Street
Southampton
SO14 3DJ
United Kingdom

Please include your return address and if known your original order number.

We will immediately send you a new tested XL unit at no charge.

Thank you, and apologies again for support delays.
Simon Hope

[jmtosses]

Hi Simon,

finally an answer - thank you for that already! The unit is indeed broken - I know because I opened it. The connection to the battery is broken. I tried to solder the broken connector back on but there was no way it would hold - there was just not enough 'meat' left of the contacts. Looking at how this unit's hardware is designed I would strongly advise to add a lot more support to hold the battery in place. Especially the XL units have huge batteries and the little rubber and tiny plastic latches cannot support the weight of the battery even on a fairly calm airport luggage band or through overseas shipping. That said I'm wondering if the smaller units would be more stable/better designed in this regard. I have to travel a lot and I cannot have my airconsole break every second time I board a plane.

Apart from that I must say the software part of the airconsole left me quite impressed - I like it, the functionality, the UI and the features. It's pretty much the first time I found something that worked so well right out of the box ... after some googling around for hints on how to make it (really) fly with my Mac that is.

So - I will take your advice and send the unit back to you. It take some time from Germany but as long as I can get it repaired or replaced I'll be happy. Will you need anything more than just the main unit?

Best regards!
Jan Manuel

[simon]

Just send the main unit. We will send a new one. I am sorry you have this problem. We are working hard on getting our new support system at support.get-console.com up and running which will hopefully become the one stop shop for these types of issues and also let you chat directly with myself/eric/daniel/steffan/alex etc if you can't get a fast response by email.