The 6600 battery is also available from Clove, and slightly cheaper - I paid 45.71 including p&p for mine. However I'm going for the swap to get a cheap 5800, because the 6600 battery is too big for the nice leather case I just bought

Yep - I have the PDAir leather case, and the battery sticks out too far at the back for the leather strip to stretch around.

adamelphick wrote:

As far as I know the 5800 official battery is the biggest you can get without increasing the size.

precisely why this whole affair is so frustrating, as the UK users want maximum performance from minimal form factor, just like any eee owner would

That doesn't surprise me... it's just the UK that seems to have been totally screwed at this point.

fester61 wrote:

(oh the 01908 number for ASUS posted above no longer works)

The number is 01442 202700 and it does work. Press 2 and it connects you to the 0870 line.

They seem to be only taking phone numbers for now and issuing reference numbers. I am told they will call me "within a couple of days" with the next step. They still cannot confirm the total cost.

I hope I have not been misled so that others get the process details quicker.

Out of interest, just how much bigger is the Clove 6600mAh battery? Does the 900 still fit in the supplied soft case? With all this faffing about it might be easier to just buy one and keep the 4400 as a spare.

simonuk wrote:

Out of interest, just how much bigger is the Clove 6600mAh battery? Does the 900 still fit in the supplied soft case? With all this faffing about it might be easier to just buy one and keep the 4400 as a spare.

I've got the 7800 Mugen, which I imagine is about the same size as the 6600.  It still fits in the case ok and isn't really much bigger than the 4400,  but I do notice the increase in weight.

I plan on taking Asus up on the upgrade offer, partly because I'd prefer the battery I was expecting when I bought my 900 and partly because it'll cause the most inconvenience for their customer services department.

i got the same email as well from gladys the dutch lady. This is becoming a joke. Ive got the mugen and big brick 10400 mah but that is not the point. We should have the same battery as the rest of the world woth our 900. We should all return our eee pc and buy a wind instead. At least they are honest with the battery they are providing.

I've just called them on the 01442 number and waited to speak to the "Marketing / PR contact". I spoke to a woman called Lou (I think), who advised me that the 5800 batteries are now in the UK, and that they will be distributed to the resellers this week. She told me to contact them directly about the promotion AND the upgrade situation, and they will be able to let me know how to proceed.
This sounded like passing the buck to me, and when I called the store I bought mine from, they had no idea about either the promotion or the upgrade. They hadn't got any batteries in, and didn't know if or when they might be likely to get them.
This is becoming a complete waste of time. If I didn't love the 900, it would have been returned by now!

Yes , it absolutely stinks.  Carry on with the upgrade offer, but delay the replacement programme.

Let me guess - those of us desperate (having already waited 2 months for Asus to sort this out) for decent battery life will have either have to risk not getting a decent battery at all (what are the chances that Asus cancel the replacement programme) or fork out £29 for a new battery.

Bit more than the £10 + get to keep old battery that we were originally told.

Like others, apart from the pathetic battery I really like the 900.  I have spent a considerable amount of time tinkering with it to get it set up how I want it and I don't want to have to get rid of it.  Equally it has to be usable as a mobile laptop and not tethered to the mains.

I don't really need or want the 4400 as a spare.  For not much more than £29 I can get a larger replacement battery from Ebay...so what to do?

eeexpecting wrote:

red death wrote:

Bit more than the £10 + get to keep old battery that we were originally told.

I don't think we were ever told that.

Many of us who contacted Asus early on were told precisely that - have a look through some of the earlier pages of this thread if you are interested.

FWIW I have just sent this to Jules at MobileComputerMag (as he has been the most helpful of the media):

I am not sure if you have heard the latest on the Eee 900 battery exchange/upgrade programme, but we have been told this morning that the battery exchange has been postponed.  It is not clear if the upgrade (ie pay £29 for a new battery) will go ahead, though some people have been told verbally that the batteries have arrived in the UK and the upgrade programme will go ahead.

Call me a cynic, but if the upgrade does go ahead and the exchange is postponed then that leaves many of us with a large dilemma ie do we wait even longer (it has already been 2 months) and more importantly do we trust Asus to actually go ahead with the exchange (or have any stock left) at a later date?

It all seems to be very up in the air given that we have been told so many different stories by Asus.  Suppliers either claim to know nothing about the upgrade or to know about it but have no information from Asus about how it is supposed to work.

All very frustrating and the Eee 900 remains an excellent machine crippled by its very poor battery life.

Perhaps you might have more joy than joe public at getting to the bottom of this?

Cheers