If anyone has a statement from Pimax, officially telling the backers that the warranty is 1 year, please post the quote/source down below since I have missed that information completely, thanks.
I was dealing with the support since October last decade and back then I wasn’t able to find any information about the length of our warranty, now I got this after contacting support again:
“Sorry for the trouble. But I have checked your order and found your order has passed the warranty period. We offer one year warranty. You received the item on Jan 2019. And now you contacted us on Feb 2020. So I am sorry we cannot offer free warranty service. If you want to repair, you need ship it back to us at your expense. And you also need pay repair fee. Then we will repair it for you. If you need repair, you can let me know. Thanks.”
Which in my case would mean to pay almost the full price of a new 5k+ (cracked housing + dead pixel). No thanks.
Backstory: (TLDR: I had a broken cable, cracked housing + dead pixel, tried to get HMD replacement but only got a cable replacement. Now I tried to contact support again since it seems to have improved and got told I’m out of warranty)
I had a broken cable, contacted support (October 2019) but didn’t get a response for 2 months.
Eventually during that 2 months I asked for a HMD RMA and not just the cable replacement, since it has a cracked housing + a dead pixel (It was rumored that the warranty would be 1 year but it was never officially confirmed so I figured it was about time to get it replaced)
I also wrote Sweviver a DM + posted a poem, trying to get help from him with the unresponsive support (he read the poem but never responded to my DM as he told me to do so)
Pimax support responded but only offered me a cable replacement
“Sorry about the late reply.
We will arrange shipment the cable first to solve the sparkling issue.
If your headset does have a problem that can’t be working normally, our technical colleague will help to fix that.
If it can’t fix, we will give your RMA service.
We are deeply sorry for the long time no response, it is a terrible experience and we are working on this right now.
Please do believe you will get the fully after-sales service.
Have a good day and Merry Christmas!”
I agreed to get the new cable and didn’t asked why I don’t get a HMD replacement since it took 2 months to get a response from the support. I was afraid if I start a conversation it could take another 2 months just to get a reply. Also it was constantly said that the support would improve. So I figured it would be the best to take the cable now and contact them again for the HMD RMA once they would have improved support. This decision was further backed by the insight COO Kevin Henderson gave us in an interview saying the support has trouble understanding the English language but support would improve in the future.
Surprisingly the new cable I got did not fix the cracked housing and the dead pixel, who would have guessed that.
After Pimax acknowledged the Artisan housing issue and announced an accelerated RMA process for cracked housings I figured they finally have improved the support and I can get my HMD replaced.
Since I created a new ticket (February 2020) they seemed not to know that I was already trying to get a HMD RMA a few months ago, hence the response that I’m too late to ask for a RMA.
Today (21 February 2020) I contacted the support person who arranged the cable replacement for me explaining the situation, since there are the messages located to proof that I already asked for a HMD replacement before the warranty was over. (I haven’t got a response yet so I’m writing this post to increase the chance of getting my issue resolved, since the forum has been more helpful in the past then the support was).
But seriously what am I supposed to do if a replacement takes 3 months! (from first contact until I got a cable replacement).
After I got the new cable I needed a break from complaining about pimax everywhere to get attention just to maybe then get help from the support. And Pimax needed time to improve the support and answer the dozens of tickets from people waiting for several months.
And once they seemed to have improved the support and I’m contacting them again for the same reason I did already months ago, I get told I’M TOO LATE.
No. Just No ! after struggling for 3 months with support and not receiving what I’ve asked for ?
Ticker Nr. from February 2020 where I got told I’m too late for free RMA: #24151
Ticker Nr. from October 2019 where is proof I asked for a HMD replacement in December 2019: #18860
the only positive thing to mention here is that the support replied after 2 days instead of 2 months.
please Help @pimaxquorra
Edit 24.02.2020: I just received an E-Mail from the vivi (who told me I couldn’t get a free repair) saying they looked at my case again and found it’s indeed under warranty, since I contacted them before the 1 year period was over. I got offered to get it repaired or a discount if I upgrade to one of the vision series.
Not sure where to look but they have said 1 year. However you requested an RMA in Dec originally that was not resolved. So imho they should grant the RMA under the Dec Ticket as them sending a cable didn’t fix any of the issues. Plus they would need to adjust things as they told everyone to wait til after pimax days.
@asampal conducted an interview with PimaxUSA about housings at VRTO meet up Jan 2019 in Toronto.
This situation is precisely why I have been trying to get Pimax or support to
advise on my problem,with the warranty running out shortly.
Day’s are going by without a word.Which is causing people (me especially)
consternation.
Ticket #24088 it’s under another thread “Warranty Running out” I and other members
have tried to get a response from pimaxQuorra or Support for days nothing but silence
So hopefully they will look at your scenario and replace your HMD under warranty
as they should do.
Good Luck
As a backer I would gladly pay S&H if Pimax covered the “repair” cost, but asking for both stings pretty badly. I guess I hope the headset I’ve “had” for a year (used for a month) won’t develop any issues!
Warranty starts from headset receipt, and not receipt of full package? @PimaxQuorra
Difficulty with that is backers and or online purchases that are not local to the user not covered by local laws unless retailer is selling in that region.
Hence why Samsung withdrew from the EU as they on one side didn’t like the consumer laws.
Imho this is how the warranty should work especially for those who had requested not to receive the headset before everything was ready.
As a full backer I cannot test LH & Controller function with headset. So cannot verify it works as advertised.
For Headset only backers/pre orders it should start once MAS is received. Again imho.
If I had known how long it would be before receiving full packages I would have opted to wait on receiving one of my headsets till everything was ready.
Please, not confuse vendor liability to private end users with limited warranty which is completely up to the manufacturer in regards of terms and time. This has been confused oh so often. If you buy from a vendor direct, even if you buy locally B2B as a company. here is no law that will grant you any safety. If you want this you have mandatory buy through a vendor with operative base within the EU. Regarding how they avoid certification and VAT issues it is even doubtful it can be enforced buying through Amazon.
I have also contacted support 10 days ago and have received very quick answers (within 24h) and very good english conversation.
My 5K+ had several defects from out-of-the-box (won’t stay connected if I don’t use an active usb extension cable, horizontal black lines issue (like several 8k users have reported) on 1 panel, 1 stuck pixel, and then several cracks after 1 or 2 weeks that have became worse over months).
I have waited on purpose to be close to the end of the warranty period to ask for a RMA so that I benefit at best from what Pimax would have learned over a year to improve the headset production.
Support has offered me several options from coupons to compensate for those defects, upgrade plan, or get a replacement and I have decided for a replacement.
So support has confirmed 2 days ago he has applied a RMA but also told me this procedure can take 5-10 business days, so I hope he won’t come back to me saying the RMA was not approved as my warranty should end in 3 days from today.
To OP: I hope pimax will accept to send you a replacement as your initial contact with the support to make this request was within your warranty period.
I also agree with Heliosurge that this 1 year warranty should be extended for backers HMDs as people have had no way to check if it was fully functionnal with the base stations as Pimax haven’t shipped them from the KS pledges (for people who have at least added one to their pledge).
I wouldn’t go as far as asking the 1 year HMD warranty should reset when the lighthouses are finally received from Pimax, but at least a few months starting from the day the lightouses are received would be fair.
We did mentioned your ticket number with our CS team, and they should be replying you shortly.
For your case, we will forward your message to them, so that they are able to take the action. Hopefully with the briefing, they understood the whole situation that you met with.
Please kindly let us know, if your problems are remain unresolved.
thanks, I already got a response mail this morning, offering me the free replacement. I just wonder how is the RMA process for cracked housing accelerated as mentioned in the latest pimax update ?
Well - hopefully thats the new process. They said they would tell UPS to send it back to me so I could send it to somewhere in the EU (not sure why this wasn’t the case first time) but even then nothing has happened.
So I’m in limbo. Still - I’ll be able to set up my basestations as an art installation for a while when they arrive…