Hey all!
New to the forums and Arduino, but not totally new to its possibilities as I've been to Burning Man recently and seen a lot of the projects that are Arduino controlled. I got a starter kit for Christmas and was excited because I have until the 1st off of work. It was purchased from the Arduino official store. And to what I understand it came bricked. When pulling up the device in device manager I'm presented with "AtMega16u2 DFU" instead of the arduino name. From reading forums, I've gathered that this means an essential piece of the firmware was not loaded and cannot easily be reloaded by a noobie. After 6 different threads all ended with "I returned it" i decided it was time to up and return it as quick as possible.
I contacted the store support with my operating system, the error, and the order number. I was told something totally contradictory to every thread I found and that it was my fault. That my computer was not working properly and changing computers would fix the issue. I seriously doubted this claim, but I digress. He sent along with it instructions for Windows XP (when I told him I'm on 10), then sent a form with all of the questions I already answered plus asking for pictures (which i get). I also tried it on a second computer with the exact same issue. but it's now 3 days later and a replacement is not even on it's way. With his language, it seems like he's not going to replace it when it's clearly not my fault.
I'm wondering if this is the standard of excellence I should expect and I should find another platform to start off with? Is this fairly regular for these board to come bricked? It just seems like email support is another way of saying "You're definitely going to get a completely incorrect form response".
Disappointed and definitely reevaluating the Arduino choice. Wishing at the very least I had bought it from Amazon because I'd have a new one already.