Pimax is creating too many problems for itself with its customers?

Pimax Hardware P2: 8kX
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Lately I’m seeing that the sloppiness in solving problems, poor foresight, attempts to save a few euros and bad practices with respect to customers, are making the already not very numerous customers of Pimax, even the craziest fans, leaving them. It’s not that they had a good reputation before, especially because of the poorly focused lenses of the first Pimax 4K that non-European eyes also noticed.

Promised things that don’t come true, trying to get people to reject gifts for being a backer, selling expensive solutions to problems that they themselves create, make people abandon Pimax products to avoid problems and extra costs of customs, shipping to China, technical service, etc. The bad reputation has already cost them that most consumers do not even consider buying a product, just because it is Pimax.

In Spain there were two support groups (in Telegram) about Pimax; as far as I know, there is only one left of which I am an administrator, so I know what I am talking about.

Given the large amount of defective products and the problems in fixing them, shipping costs, returns, etc, people choose to sell them as if they were fine, and the following buyers do exactly the same, generating a large amount of haters. The creator of the other support group bought a second-hand Pimax 8K (not mine) and it was so bad that, in anger, he deleted the group.

Now I’m seeing that in the only group left, where there were people still excited about the Pimax 8KX, seeing how Pimax was handling things, many switched to the Valve Index, including all the members of my Pimax 8K M1 Testers group, who ended up quite fed up with the way they were treated. The only one who still continues, almost out of curiosity, is me.

Of the few who didn’t switch to the Valve Index, hoping to have better sharpness with the 8KX, many abandoned them when Sebastian Ang’s releases his video about the HP Reverb G2, because they preferred above all sharpness and not having to deal with Pimax. With the latest actions of removing USB, not complying with foams, making us pay customs fees, etc. All the other members of my group are considering leaving Pimax and moving to G2, in fact, there are a few who have already withdrawn their order for the 8KX and have taken advantage of the G2 discount. As they say, having other Pimax is not worth having so many problems and expenses, just for losing some SDE; and at the loss of a FOV with less sweet spot and even with distortions, you get used to it.

In short, if the rest of the groups in other countries are the same, excited about competing products and talking about the new Microsoft Flight Simulator or other things, Pimax has a very, very serious problem.

People are not in favor of promises and I don’t think a new miracle product out of the blue could make things better.

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Long term reputation and customer support is what companies live and die by.

@Cdaked I think you should change your argument to something Pimax can understand.

Taking care of your customers is cheaper in the longrun. Because people will have the CONFIDENCE to buy your product without thinking twice.

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I have seen something similar in the part of the German community I am active in - the number of users interested in the Pimax headsets, and now of course the 8KX, is definitely less than before the 8K and 5K(+) were released.

I myself indeed in March bought the Index, which I had no intention of buying, even after trying it, out of sheer frustration about Pimax not even being able to ship me my base stations after so many months of broken announcements, promises. And it is a decent headset, for sure, but not revolutionary better than the combination of my previous ones - just a good combination, sort of a best-of (save for the 5K+ FoV).

…and yes, I have hit the pre-order button for this one too… just to check it out for myself. I will then have the Index, G2 and perhaps my backer 8KX here to battle it out. One or two of them may have to go when all is said and done.

One the one-hand side I want to have a really great headset - but then again, the ease of use of the Index and hopefully G2 is something I really long for. I am quite sick of having to fiddle around with all sorts of settings to get to play my games. Of course this is not only the case for the VR headsets, all sorts of experience enhancing equipment introduces a layer of complexion, some outright with the requirement to set various parameters and install extra software etc…

And on top of all of that comes the fear that the Pimax product may be of poor design & build quality, and if you have support issues, you never know what you get (apart from the shortest-in-class warranty period - that one is guaranteed…)

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They really need some positive X reviews to brighten some spirits. I’m fearful of a crash before receiving my backer stretch goals. I’m hesitant to go forward with pimax until some good news.

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My 5K+ already died and I was basically told, sorry but we can’t help you by Pimax. Still waiting on my base stations and controllers and stretch goals. No idea what I can use them for at this point

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That sucks. You could always sell them on ebay or maybe buy and Index. (I assume you won’t be buying anything more from Pimax.)

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I honestly love my device and hope I can get it working, but the company I have zero desire to support.

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Just my two cents for Pimax.

I hear a lot of good things about the HP Reverb Gen2.
If we speak of image clarity and color richness, the Reverb Gen2 seems to win hands down to most if not all competition.
And it’s only like 600 bucks?

So even I haven’t received my preorder 8K X, it’s already that the headset loses to something less than half the price (since it has controllers bundled) in many aspects.

I also preordered the 5k+ back then, but when I received it, the Index was right around the corner just a few months later, so the premium status of the 5K+ was sort of short-lived.

If Pimax will keep going on as they are now, it will always mean the product will lose some of its premium statuses by the time it reaches their customers. Even though the customers need to pay the premium price tag upfront.

So in my eyes, Pimax needs to up their game for sure. Probably Pimax knows this. But the question is, can they rise to the challenge?

I’m not sure if wide FOV will become the norm, but if it does, Pimax will loose all potential unless they deliver mostly as planned. And like this needs to be the norm asap.

I do still have a fondness of Pimax because of their ambitious attempts. They have my respect for that. But honestly, I am not sure how loyal I can stay with the current state of their operation.

As time goes by, for people like us (the customers of Pimax), VR will be a mandatory/everyday device and I believe most of us won’t have the patience to wait for so long while there are excellent products that can be delivered right away to your doorsteps.

If HP comes up with a Reverb that has 170 FOV horizontal, I’m sold.

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Yep honestly they need to hope they don’t get more competition and if starvr or another company creates a cheaper or even similar priced model for home use and can do well with support then Pimax will have a very hard time keeping customers.

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I really like my 8K, even though I’ve had to have the cable replaced and it’s got some cracks in the case. I decided to upgrade to the 8KX, because it should solve my 2 main issues with my 8K: Insufficient resolution and SDE which is too visible.

The thing is, desire or not, I need Pimax to succeed, so that they will continue improving and maintaining PiTool. Software is critical for a VR product to be (and continue to be) usable. That’s why I do what I can to help Pimax. I just wish they would stop making such poor decisions (like only shipping 1 thickness of face-foam for their top-of-the-line product).

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Compared to the best, Reverb G2 has a joke 114 FOV, inferior WMR tracking, not that high pixel count (looks amazing due to tiny FOV) and isn’t upgradable - hence it’s cheap and cheap to most is attractive.

Compared to the $600:competition though, it’s great, and will sell a lot.

Due to the obvious (cost limited features) it cannot possibly compete with 8K-X though just as 8K-X is out gunned visually by top end enterprise headsets that cost $7,000.

I would agree as an easy to set up, affordable if low FOV headset with great clarity, Reverb G2 is a tempting thought and it’s good manufacturers are upping the specs, but unfortunately can’t be bothered to increase the FOV yet it seems. When that happens it’ll give consumers much more choice and hopefully the prices will drop in response as competition builds.

Pimax’s saving grace is so far, no one in their price range produces wide FOV headsets but when they do, then things will get interesting.

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It sad but all true. Not really seeing any light at the end of the tunnel for pimax.

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@PimaxVR

  1. Hire an imago consultant
  2. Hire more and more qualified support staff
  3. Keep promises

Sincerely, Trevor

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That said, I hope the Vision series will turn the tide.

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Having followed Pimax over the years I believe their biggest problem is the disconnect between their China operation, where all the final decisions are being made, and their customer base here. @SweViver and @PimaxUSA are working incredibly hard to bridge that disconnect and make it all work but it seems they don’t have the say in the company that would be needed to turn things around. I believe it must be incredibly frustrating for them to work as hard as they do just to witness repeated setbacks like with the missing foams and then, of course, having to take all the blame for it.

Without a doubt it is their decision to stay on board and go through all of this, even though things don’t seem to improve, but I suppose that is due to their true passion for the product and the industry.

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Yes, we all want that. Some companies will go bankrupt in the next few months. Many employees also have to be paid. Pimax has a new CEO in Shanghai and of course I don’t know how everything is connected.
As an early pre-orderer from 2018 who missed the Kickstarter, I also feel like a supporter of Pimax (5K +, 8Kx + eye tracking) and I wish Pimax was successful. You have capable brave people at Pimax (engineers, pitool developers, support and logistics staff and of course Kevin and Marcin).
I am also open to suggestions and criticism, but what is currently going on in the forum is disgusting.
So I wait patiently for my X and the best pitool they can give us.

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In general, I don’t see any big problems with Pimax, except for the delivery time.
Overall, they do their job and I love it.

Remember where you would be now if you had not looked into a wide eye. StarVR is too expensive for the average VR buyer and is clearly not a competitor.

Pimax gives us what we need and I think they are doing the right thing.

Delays are saddening. But for the sake of a good and polished product, I no longer find it harmful.

Now the deliveries of 8KX have begun with might and main, I am waiting calmly and know that I will receive a quality product.

Only 8K didn’t live up to my expectations (not quite). Hopefully 8KX can handle this.

Pimax, you are the best.
(@Helio, you remember about RGB. Strange 8K screens, but oh well)

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I am a backer and still waiting for my base stations almost 3 years later, while non backers have been receiving theirs for months…

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Did you file a ticket prior to Pimax Now Event requesting them ahead of controllers?

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I think there is a market for a prosumer “all in” headset. But for such a product the expectations have to be met. E.g. regarding audio, image quality, product quality, software and last but not least support - no unfitting “cheap outs”.
I’m honestly not sure whether Pimax can become that company. It would need some serious effort.
Think they have the technicians for that. Now the environment and conditions would have to follow suit.

Winning the race for the masses with cheap, “good enough” HMDs would be difficult as it is already in the focus of companies with a lot of money, strategic goals (and thus the will to cross finance) and well established infrastructure and branding.
Hope it all works out in one way or another!

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