Thanks to everyone who helped - I had to return my unit (the seller confirmed it was DOA and have now replaced it).
I have flashed the firmware on the new unit to 1.12 without incident. Although getting the unit replaced was a bit of a pain I now have a working POD and it sounds.... just brilliant.
I suppose the take-away from this is that faulty units do exist, but these are probably just teething issues with new hardware and firmware.