I’ve just gotten back from my local Kmart store. They didn’t get any Augen tablets on the truck today. What’s worse is that the electronics manager checked with distribution, and it’s not going to be carried on the entire eastern seaboard. I’ve checked a couple dozen stores, and he appears to be correct. Boy was this a dumb maneuver. I don’t know if you noticed but the hype for this tablet is incredibly high. The last time I saw this level of hype for an unreleased product Apple were involved.
So right now Augen is 1 for 3. They’ve released 3 new products in the past 2 weeks. The e-reader was decent, the laptop was crap, and the tablet is non existent. Bravo.
P.S. I wouldn’t necessarily blame Augen for this; it strikes me as classic Kmart idiocy. Stupid stuff like this is why Kmart are going bankrupt. On the other hand, Augen did decide to sell to Kmart.
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Did you ask for a raincheck? They should be able to issue one and that will lock in the price for when they do get it in.
They wouldn’t give me one because they weren’t going to stock the item.
I called all three of the Kmart locations here in Springfield, Missouri and none of them had ever received it, though they said that they’d been getting a LOT of inquiries about it, from its appearance in their ad circular. They didn’t outright say they weren’t going to carry it, though. Perhaps it would be worth wandering by and asking them for a rain check. (There’s one just a couple of blocks from where I work, so I might just do that on the way home.)
An article I saw elsewhere suggested some locations might be getting it “later this week”.
Just an update: I got my raincheck.
(Kind of neat, too: they now do it by tapping a button on their touchscreen cash registers, rather than the little carbon-copy postcards we filled out when I worked there ten years ago.)
None located yet in #STL / St. Louis, MO – Kmart wouldn’t give me a raincheck either – the store was supposedly a “non-raincheck” store. I did however have a nice back and forth e-mail with this guy – Daniel.Honigman@searshc.com – Daniel Honigman – and he said he passed over my request for a raincheck to his ops people. I also tweeted this earlier today – http://twitter.com/RexDixon/status/19750549465 – about Augen customer service or lack thereof. I also found the CEO for Augen on Facebook, and sent him a message.
Still at the end of the day, my Kmart up the road has none – but the display cards for both the tablet and notebook sit in a case with TheBook eReader which they had 3 of the last time I was in there this morning.
Thanks for the kind words, Rex. Hopefully we can get you squared away quickly!
Still none at the store up the road from my house. I think I have been in Kmart more times in the past week than probably the past year or two! I will say, the store is very clean and the aisles are nice and wide. Much better than I remember it. Still – no Augen GenTouch78 here!
Quick update: Received a call from the store I went too this morning. They said they would honor the $149.99 price when they receive one, but they also checked and there are *NONE* within a ~50 mile radius of #STL / St. Louis, MO – so that means – none for today or the very near future unless Augen shipping sends a bunch to this area pronto!
Someone did get their hands on this and posted a video review, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfha5r6law0
And part II,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3T6jm5PBHA
Supposedly KMart only had 600 total in stock, so very hard to find…
Augen Gentouch Android tablet – what we know so far | The Digital Reader // Jul 31, 2010 at 7:47 am
[...] it’s been a week, and the Gentouch 78 is still not n stock in most Kmart stores (and probably won’t be in most stores). At this point all I have are the specs; I’m waiting on a promised review unit. But a number [...]