Any chance of having a warranty beyond 1 year on something like the 12k or Crystal?

Pimax Hardware Pimax Discussion
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Pimax has not at all been shy about touting how advanced they believe the 12k and Crystal are supposed to be, particularly the 12k. From all the comments made, something like the 12k is supposed to be a headset you can hopefully use for a long time to come before one would even need to think about upgrading if they don’t value pancake optics and small form factor highly. And if they deliver on everything for it? I could easily see some people who get the 12k keeping the headset for multiple years or longer. There’s people out here still rocking things like original HTC Vive Pro’s because they value certain aspects of it so highly.

However, you get what you pay for and these headsets are crazy expensive, it’s a big purchase for a lot of people. Industry standard is 1 year(Or 2 in some countries) warranty, but I think I speak for a chunk of people, especially those getting the 12k via the trade in program, when I say that if we buy one of those headsets and if it dies shortly past the default warranty, we’re not going to jump out and immediately buy another one even if it’s the best on the market. If it’s meant to last and be a future proof headset, it’d be nice for it to last and for Pimax to have confidence it will too.

I know that it varies based on local laws, but even as an optional purchase, as many companies have for hardware, I think it’d be welcomed since I’d definitely consider buying an extra year or two of warranty for the 12k with some of the money I save on the trade in. I’d love to have the peace of mind for something I’m buying that’s this expensive. Sometimes, tech can last forever, but sometimes it’ll die literal days after the warranty runs out.

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I’d like a longer warranty too, the law here in the uk is just 1 year. I’m on the fence about whether i’d only buy Crystal from Amazon, usually with Amazon tech purchases you get an offer to buy an extended warranty/accidental breakage cover at checkout.

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Additionally, a longer than “7 Day Return” Policy would be nice especially since you can buy from Pimax Official Online store and be stuck with only a 7-Day return window for a $2,499 + (Accessories) device or buy from other official resellers (Amazon, Microcenter, and others) and get a better return window and with Amazon in particular a probably better return policy (Amazon maybe a little too flexible in some cases.)

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Actually, the Pimax Trade-in Program should be very odd when it comes to something like a full refund… afterall they are in theory still in possession of your old headset, though it may have already be “Recycled” by the time you request a return or RMA.

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I think a better warranty is an serious requirement. These are really expensive gadgets we’re talking about, Pimax is asking for a lot of trust with those pricetags.

A better warranty goes a very long way to show Pimax has faith in their products, and that customers can expect to get their moneys worth.

Pimax. Think hard about this.

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For that price the 12k Qled should have a life time warranty , especially the fan will get louder after time because of dust getting in the hmd after 1 year

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Normal wear and tear is not actually covered by any warranty in the world.
But the possibility of a reliable, not overpriced service over many years would be a great thing.

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More than the warranty length, I worry about Pimax’s short return window.

If you’re having any issues with a new Pimax purchase, the short return window means you had better immediately demand to return it. Sticking it out and hoping that it’s something that can be resolved and doesn’t mean your product is defective is too much of a risk.

That situation isn’t good for Pimax or the customer. It pushes the customer to return the product prematurely at the first sign of trouble. And it puts stress on the customer to worry about whether any little issue is a defect or not.

That gets amplified the more expensive the product is. I’m actually fearful about doing the 12K trade-in program because of Pimax’s short return window. That’s going to be stressful because I’ll only have a short time to decide whether a $2400 VR headset with a lot of features to check is defective or not. It’s likely to have some issues, but are they defects or resolvable? Choose wrong and get stuck with a $2400 broken product you can’t return.

That’s not what the buying experience for a high end product should be. I should have piece of mind to enjoy the product stress free and feel like Pimax will have my back if I experience any problems. Instead, Pimax’s current policies make me feel like they’re actually hoping to stick me with it if the unit I purchased turns out to be defective.

One thing I haven’t been clear on, by the way, is whether the return window is based on when you first log the support ticket or when Pimax support decides the unit is defective. That is, if support takes too long to decide that your product really is defective after you complain about it, can that actually make you miss the return window?

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Agreed. To me the big issue is that your warranty should be paused while your having a return issue resolved. As it has often taken months to get a pimax warranty resolved between there attempts to get folks to accept a coupon to keep a defective until an RMA is authorized to receiving a replacement.

Keep things simply and have a 2 year world wide warranty as the EU requirement and have the warranty paused from the first Ticket filed once an RMA is identified to be required. The warranty period being extended by the amount of time between first ticket til the replacement is received(Tracking number confirms delivery). So if it takes 3 months then a 3 months added to warranty.

Also add an option to enhance/extend warranty for an additional year for a fee at time of purchase.

And pimax has to stop trying to get customers to accept a coupon after it has been rejected.

@PimaxQuorra @hammerhead_gal

I had hoped pimax would have clarified a new warranty period considering it has been an issue for a long time. Especially after the KS complaints like those whom requested to wait for full package to be ready. Some users didn’t discovery serious defects until there warranty of 1 year expired; learning that usb ports were misconfigured to Lighthouse tracking defects.

Things not able to test as no modules had been released and Lighthouses backed never shipped within the 1 year period.

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Extend warranty is under consideration :heart_hands:

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To me this is a crucial business decision for Pimax.

I will be frank - if it is a one year warranty, I do not see myself purchasing a Crystal or 12K even if the reviews are great, just out of fear that I would be the next one whose displays suddenly have purple lines, broken housing etc. after say 15 months (remember the issues on the Vision series?) and the 2k+ investment goes down the drain making it a 133$ per month deal. Too big a risk, especially given the historical record of Pimax’ QA.

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I imagine Pimax will be comparing their policies to those of their competitors.

I thought Varjo would likely have better policies, but their return policy is also 1 year. And their return window is also 14 days. And it’s the same for Valve, too.

There are some differences though. Varjo extends the warranty as necessary for 3 months after a repair or replacement. And Pimax only warranties accessories for six months (!).

I discovered that last one when my fiber optic cable failed at 7 months, and Pimax wouldn’t replace it even after having me jump through hoops for several hours of testing to verify to their satisfaction that the cable was bad. After putting me through all that, they then said oh, it’s out of warranty anyway. I was not impressed.

Still, I was expecting to see more significant differences in the warranty and return policies between these companies.

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Interesting as is Finland part of the EU? If so then at least in the EU from my understanding they are required to have a 2 year warranty. Valve and other companies are also required to provide a 2 year warranty to be able to sell to consumers there.

This is a clear opportunity for pimax to be a leader vs a follower.

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I can verify that Valve does indeed warranty Index headsets for 2 years in the EU. A friend in Germany recently had a headset failure at the 1 year and 11 month mark, and Valve replaced it under warranty without any guff. They even provided an advanced replacement.

But it’s only 1 year for US customers.

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While I’d certainly like to see a 2 year warranty, looking into this more has made me wonder if Pimax’s warranty and return policies are really the actual problem. Since they are inline (for the most part) with other companies in the same space and at similar price points.

Yet Valve enjoys a much better reputation for its customer support than Pimax does. Valve’s support has a reputation for being slow, but you can be confident that they will take care of you. I have seen that over and over again with consistency.

I believe a significant portion of Pimax support’s current reputation is because it used to be very poor. My impression is that it has improved quite dramatically in more recent times. But it has done so quietly. I keep seeing instances of old customers not even attempting to open support tickets for new problems because they expect Pimax support to be useless.

New perspective customers shy away from getting into Pimax because of this bad support reputation. It was a serious consideration for me when I purchased my first Pimax VR headset at the end of last year. The expectation that I wouldn’t receive any help and struggle to return it if I had any problems was perhaps my chief concern, and I waffled on it a lot and only narrowly decided to go for the purchase of the 8KX.

If I instead felt that Pimax would have my back if I had troubles, it would have been an easy purchasing decision.

Other than the fiberoptic cable failure, I’ve actually had good results working with Pimax support. I’ve found it to be for the most part similar to Valve’s support. Except that I feel that Pimax support looks too hard for reasons to cut off their support, not accept a return, etc. Support needs to do their due diligence, of course. Valve’s support does the same thing. But Pimax support goes the extra mile in not trusting the customer and also in enforcing the limits of their support policies to the letter. While their support is very polite, there’s a total lack of goodwill there.

I feel like Valve has my back when I buy their products. I don’t end up with that same feeling for Pimax.

It could have a significant impact on sales if Pimax were to make improvements in this area. I think they’d only need to relax their policies just a little, but more so to broadcast that they’ve made this change. And that they are committing to having the customer’s back. If they are able, expanding their warranty coverage and/or return window would be a great way and a great time to broadcast that commitment and send a message that things have changed.

This is actually the primary thing that prevents more people from buying Pimax. As much as I love my 8KX, I almost never recommend it to anyone else because I think they will have trouble with it and get frustrated and stuck and ultimately be left disappointed. And so I will be embarrassed for having made the recommendation.

But if I could feel confident that they will be supported by Pimax and any problems they have will be swiftly resolved… well, that would change everything, now wouldn’t it.

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My 8kx housing cracked outside of the warranty window(even though cracking was supposedly fixed on these headsets…) I was basically told to pay to ship it back and then pay to have it repaired and pay to get it sent back. Or to by a silicone cover for it. 1 year warranty’s really don’t cut it on a product that is known to fail. I wasn’t even using it all that much and it still cracked. This has been an ongoing problem with literally every model of Pimax headsets.

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2 years should be the law globally, especially when countries are looking to reduce ewaste etc. EU has the right idea with mandatory 2 year minimum.

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any chance of crystal in 1 week? :saluting_face:

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Agreed especially as commerce is more moving to Esales online.

I recently watched something on a leader in the EU that had reduced waste going to the landfill to 5% iirc. Which is quite the accomplishment. An inspiration to more thsn Europe.

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Well, as Pimax is currently talking of their 7th anniversary celebration but not mentioning the Crystal at all in this communication, rather NFT‘s of all things, my guess is that there will be no shipment of the Crystal in Q3.
But there is no communication from Pimax whatsoever on that part. Interesting choice, after having gone to some length to create an interest in their new product back in May. They could of course surprise us with an order option for the Crystal announced on 30 September with immediate delivery, but I don‘t expect this to happen.

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