Important announcement regarding the new Apex

[Terence]

Every new technology product launch faces challenges. That just comes with the territory. And, although we expected to be fixing small bugs and making UI tweaks here and there, we never expected to go through what has transpired over the last few weeks.

It seems that a very small number of our new Apex Systems were built with faulty Micro SD cards that would pass through our system QA process but would later fail in the field. In fact, these particular SD cards could even be considered counterfeit as we were assured by the supplier that all shipped to us were identical. In fact, the internals of the cards showed something entirely different.

For those of you who have the new Apex I am sure the first questions you want answered are “How do I know if I have a faulty one?” and then “What happens now.” Here is the answer. We have just released a new version of the AOS (Apex Operating System) that, when updated within Apex Fusion or the Apex local interface, will fail to load and will render your Apex disabled if it has the faulty SD card. If your system passes through the update, then it has the authentic SD card, and everything will be fine going forward with your Apex.

For those Apex fails the update, please contact us (https://www.neptunesystems.com/support/contact-support/
with “Failed AOS Update” in the subject) and someone to contact you to send you a replacement Apex. Again, if your AOS update passes, your Apex does NOT have any issue with its SD card.

Ultimately we take complete responsibility for this as we failed to properly perform an adequate inbound inspection on this part. We have now adjusted our inbound parts QA accordingly.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused our customers.

Instructions on how to update to the new AOS are in the images below.

 

[jsker]

Thank you for your post, any frimware updates for the gold

 

[BetURWrasse]

Awesome, once you guys can ensure all your systems going out are good I will buy.

 

[Terence]

We are resuming shipments this week to our resellers. All systems now shipped will not have this issue.

 

[Darryl]

thank you Terrance!
that explains a lot ,now can't waite to order mine!

 

[akc425]

So outside of the constant issues, the only way to check if your apex is defextive is to run an update that may or may not brick it until a new unit is shipped. And if you got a winner, you get to pay a $300 deposit top of the already $799 to cross ship the faulty unit.

Interesting way of taking complete responsibility.

 

[Terence]

If you have a system with this faulty part, we do not want you to continue using it as it will fail at some point in the near future. We would rather take care of those customers as quickly as possible. All customers should do the update regardless as there have been a number of bug fixes.

 

[Wy8tt_Earp]

Mine was one that had a problem and had to be returned. Yes I had to leave a $300 deposit but that speeds up the replacement process and once my faulty unit was received back a Neptune's shop my deposit was returned quickly. The other option was to ship my faulty unit back to Neptune and wait for it to be repaired and returned but you are without your Apex for a longer period of time. I will admit I was very frustrated as I was leaving town for vacation 2 days before my Apex crashed but Josh and the guys at Neptune went out of their way to make things right. My new base unit was overnight shipped with Saturday delivery at no cost to me and then Josh called me on his day off to make sure I got my Apex up and running to 100% satisfaction before I went on my trip. They didn't need to overnight ship with Saturday delivery or even call me on a Saturday to ensure I was satisfied but that's were I see Neptune stepping up to take responsibility even though it was at their time and expense.

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

Tagging. Gota check mine. Mine is constantly disconnecting from my Internet and I literally unplug it at least once a day to reset it. I'm not happy about it and have been requesting someone contact me to fix it but all of get is email instructions on how to fix it myself and if I could I would of already done it.

 

[aquaterra]

If you have a system with this faulty part, we do not want you to continue using it as it will fail at some point in the near future. We would rather take care of those customers as quickly as possible. All customers should do the update regardless as there have been a number of bug fixes.

Mine passed the update to F16! Customer support has been great in getting this unit up and running. Is there a chance that randomly some units will have less than ideal chips from the early shipments and even if it updates now it'll still be a ticking time bomb that will fail because of it?

 

[Terence]

If you pass through the AOS update your hardware is good. If you have a bad SD card, the Apex will not work after attempting the update. This is preferable to prevent the scenario you mention.

 

[Suspect]

The proper resolution would be a blanket recall of all affected batches at Neptune's expense so there is no impact to the customer's systems. If Neptune can't determine which batches were affected then every product should be recalled prior to the fix being in place. Instead they are placing the burden on their customers and forcing multiple days of controller downtime that puts livestock and system health at risk. Unacceptable.

 

[Yakland]

@Suspect.... +1

 

[DLHDesign]

This was the update I was waiting for - thanks @Terence!

Now I just need to find the budget for it... ;-)

 

[gcarroll]

The proper resolution would be a blanket recall of all affected batches at Neptune's expense so there is no impact to the customer's systems. If Neptune can't determine which batches were affected then every product should be recalled prior to the fix being in place. Instead they are placing the burden on their customers and forcing multiple days of controller downtime that puts livestock and system health at risk. Unacceptable.

Wouldn't a blanket recall be "forcing multiple days of controller downtime that puts livestock and system health at risk" for way more people? It seems a better course of action is to identify the problem units and only replace them. That is exactly what Neptune is doing.

 

[Terence]

If Neptune can't determine which batches were affected then every product should be recalled prior to the fix being in place. Instead they are placing the burden on their customers and forcing multiple days of controller downtime that puts livestock and system health at risk. Unacceptable.

This is factually incorrect. Please read above more carefully. The update will determine if you have an affected system.

While we do not know exactly who would have the problem, the number of people affected will be very small based on the information we know. One would not be out multiple days - and for those affected your aquarium could have been at risk anyways if you did not do the update. The downtime should not be for more than 48 hours as we are overnighting the returned systems.

Do you own an Apex?

 

[Suspect]

The fact is that the update bricks the device if the customer is affected. That will cause multiple days of downtime (48 hours is multiple days) and that is unacceptable for a high end aquarium controller that controls vital components of the system.

 

[Suspect]

Wouldn't a blanket recall be "forcing multiple days of controller downtime that puts livestock and system health at risk" for way more people? It seems a better course of action is to identify the problem units and only replace them. That is exactly what Neptune is doing.

No, a blanket recall would be Neptune shipping out replacement devices for affected batches and the customer sending back the defective parts when their system is operational. Then the customer would only have the downtime of unplugging the controller and plugging it back in. This is standard practice for defective parts in other industries.

 

[gcarroll]

No, a blanket recall would be Neptune shipping out replacement devices for affected batches and the customer sending back the defective parts when their system is operational. Then the customer would only have the downtime of unplugging the controller and plugging it back in. This is standard practice for defective parts in other industries.

Can you please cite an example of a recall that was implemented in that way?

 

[FoD]

No, a blanket recall would be Neptune shipping out replacement devices for affected batches and the customer sending back the defective parts when their system is operational. Then the customer would only have the downtime of unplugging the controller and plugging it back in. This is standard practice for defective parts in other industries.

Really? When my Denali had a recall for faulty brake lines, GM didn't send me a new truck. They informed me of the possibility of a bad part and instructed me to take it to service as soon as was feasible for me.