Wow, that's worse than I thought. If they cannot recognize the serial number of a scope sold by one of their own AD, it only shows how poor their own record and inventory management system is. It may work for the market of $300 scopes, but they definitely are not ready for the $1000+ market, let alone the $10K market they hope to break into. Can you imagine if you run a lab and you pay $13K for a top shelf MSO8000, and that's the answer you get from Rigol!
As I said before, I don't think they want to admit or advertise the fact that some scopes have dim screens and loud fans and have a massive warranty claim (and not able to tell which scopes are affected by owners only make the matter worse, as it is so subjective and all of us would always want an even brighter screen and quieter fan). If they cannot track which serial number contain the updated scope, can you imagine the nightmare if numerous owners demand them to check their scope to ensure it has been updated. So the "easy" solution would be to claim there has never been any update to avoid having to do any upgrade to sold scopes. I tend to agree with tv84 that there is indeed an underlying hardware change at the component level, if hardware is indeed identical since day one, how can firmware report different version numbers by scope, and the fact they still have not fixed it in 10 months and two firmware refreshes to report only one version of hardware as they claimed.
Gandalf_Sr, no one has ever taken a picture of a dim display scope next to an updated scope. If your first scope is indeed from old stock prior to update, you will be the first one who can provide the before/after comparison. In any event, hopefully the replacement would be a scope that has a <11 month old calibration. Based on what Rigol publish below, it is perhaps reasonable to expect a cal <180 days old.
This from Rigol:
All Instruments Products come with a Factory Calibration Certificate
Traceable to the International System of Units (SI). RIGOL certifies that the product meets or exceeds published measurement specifications and has been calibrated using standards traceable to National Metrology Institutes (NIST, NIM, NPL,PTB). The policies and proceedures used at the RIGOL facility are based on ISO9001 & ISO/IEC17025:2005.
Recommended Instrument Calibration Intervals are identified in the corresponding product datasheet and user manual.
RIGOL has determined that the factory calibration of our instruments are not significantly affected by storage of up to 180 days before first-time use. Cal Interval should start at the time the unit is placed in service OR 180 days past the "Date of Calibration" on the certificate received with the unit. (note: there are several exceptions to this. Please see your instrument's Calibration Certificate for the specifics of your product.)