I have been lusting after a tablet PC for a while now, but could not justify buying one, my Archos finally upset me one time too many and I bit the bullet and went to ebay.
On the 26th May I purchased a Motorola Xoom from ecell with an expected delivery date of 6th June, Bank Holidays, weekends 200 miles up the road and Royal Mail all contributing to the length of time taken for delivery.
Here is a link to the listing on eBay :http://tinyurl.com/66zb3yh
A few pertinent items from the listing are as follows:
Unlocked, SIM Free, No Operator Logos so you can use any Pay As You Go or Contract SIMs
GPRS, Edge and WiFi Data connectivity.
Messaging: SMS; MMS; Push Email
Powerful OS - enables you to fully customise your phone's capabilities.
Micro SD support for cards up to 32GB
As I was going away I emailed them on the 3rd to check that they were despatching it that week and got the reply that it had been sent out by Royal Mail on the 2nd. Imagine the glee when I went to work (Royal Mail) in the morning expecting to pick it up, glee turned to dismay when after several more days it had still not turned up.
I emailed them requesting a tracking number, which should have been supplied in the original notification of despatch and was told that RM won't look for anything until 15 days after posting, finally on the 9th.I got an email with a tracking number for a next day delivery, on checking the system they had not posted it until the 9th seven days after they originally claimed they had sent it.
I have had loads of things to do around the house, we went away for the weekend and didn't really have a lot of time to play with my new pride and joy, I spent a lot of time researching the pros and cons of rooting it and installing a custom ROM or putting the US firmware on it to get the Android update and decided to leave it stock for a while and started downloading all the software I have on my phone for it and some games too, I tried putting Hancent SMS on and the Market said no, when I checked there was no native SMS on the device I started to wonder why? I put a PAYG SIM in and still no luck, so I sent a link to the download from my Android phone, took the SIM out of the phone and put it in the Xoom, still no luck and no phone network either.
To cut a long story short I delved around the software and the interweb to find that despite what the advert said the Xoom I had been sent was actually WiFi only, It had a slot for a SIM and an SD card, neither of which are supported, although the SD card is available after a ROM update.
During the time all this fun was going on I opened the "Genuine Motorola Leather Case" I had ordered from another supplier on eBay, only to find the leather was PLASTIC, I nearly went for the Tough Luv leather option as their case for the Archos is very good and was beginning to wish I had paid the extra, I contacted the seller and they were dismayed at the mistake in the listing, changed it immediately on eBay, apologised and offered a full refund. Having tried the case I decided to keep it.
Meanwhile back on the Xoom front, I contacted ecell to complain that the item I had brought as a 3G connected Xoom was actually a WiFi only model and how did they plan to correct this error.
This morning I received an email from them containing the link I posted at the start of this post, saying they had sent me what they advertised and what I paid for, my reply is below.
I am sure this will carry on for a while, hopefully I will get a 3G Xoom soon, to make it even worse someone called Keef from the UK won one from Slashgear while this was all going on
Dear e_cell,
Thanks for your reply, I have copied various lines from your description of the item I brought from the link you sent :http://tinyurl.com/66zb3yh
This Tablet has no network logos; is factory unlocked allowing it to work with any Contract or Pay as You Go SIM. See below for network compatibility.
This Tablet is supplied to you direct from the UK from an eBayer you can trust with 600000+ feedbacks.
Specifications
Wi-Fi: Yes, 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
Data: GPRS EDGE
USB: Yes microUSB v2.0
GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support
Memory (Internal): 32GB
Memory (RAM): 1GB
Memory (External): MicroSD 32GB Max
Features
Class Leading Connectivity - Wi-Fi, HSDPA & GPRS make for a Tablet that connects in most places around the world. Together with Bluetooth, SMS, MMS and email you can guarantee being connected virtually anywhere. Powerful OS - With Android Honeycomb operating system, Motorola XOOM MZ601 is an amazing Tablet which enable you to fully customise your phone's capabilities to support your lifestyle.
Messaging: SMS; MMS; Push Email
Email: Yes
IM: Yes
Browser: HTML
Battery: 24 W-hr
Stand-by: Up to 336hrs max
Talk time: Up to 9hrs max
So to recount your advertisement says I can put any contract or PAYG SIM in the device as it is factory unlocked and had no network operator logos,it has GPRS and Edge data connectivity, I can receive SMS and MMS messages and save files to a micro SD card. A point here is that micro SD is not supported yet.You also say that it is an amazing Tablet which will enable you to fully customise your phone's capabilities to support your lifestyle.
So after reading all this information regarding SIMs, GPRS and customising my PHONE why would I pay you more for a WiFi only tablet than I could have brought it in a local retailer?
I wouldn't have,I brought this in good faith as a 3G connected tablet as advertised and expect you to supply me with the same within the next 7 days.
Thank you
K. Hinton
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