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Good luck ever getting a warranty or return done on these. Look around at their support. It’s awful. I had to file a dispute after they wouldn’t provide a refun

by selykg 5y ago

Good luck ever getting a warranty or return done on these. Look around at their support. It’s awful. I had to file a dispute after they wouldn’t provide a refund for my return after nearly 30 days of non-movement of the return (their label, their shipping carrier). I would strongly caution you run away. Worst customer support I’ve ever experienced. Edit: I will never understand people that downvote a warning like this. But HN, you do you, I have karma to burn and if this warning helps one other person I’ll consider it worth it.

zarkov99 5y ago
To balance your report with something positive, I also had a warranty issue, as there was a bad batch of R2's around August, and they provided me with a replacement with minimum fuss.
sillysaurusx 5y ago
Can you provide more details? It's a bit unclear what happened. You bought it, asked for a return, and then what? I don't know what non-movement means.
- selykg 5y ago
  They provided the label and picked the carrier (DHL). DHL picked the package up and promptly lost it or forgot about it or whatever happens with shipping companies that are trash. I waited about 2 weeks before I complained because COVID and all that. After 3 weeks of absolutely zero package movement (stuck in the same location) they refused to give a refund. I filed a dispute and finally got my refund after it sat around in a shipping facility for over a month. The entire time Remarkable provided incorrect and misleading instructions for my return. Often calling it a replacement. At one point their service manager actually said they were refunding me and then about 30 minutes later retracted it and said they’d only refund me when they had the return in their hands. I provided a full timeline of their horrible support to my credit company, I can dig that up if you want the full rundown on their awful handling of a simple return.
  - sillysaurusx 5y ago
    Nah, that covers it. Thanks. I was going to say that such things happen, but your chat with the service manager sealed my feelings on the matter. They could see just as well as you that DHL had the notebook, not you, and they should've eaten the loss. The other comments here are reMarkably negative too. I was briefly tempted to get one, but I'll wait for whoever the Vive of this space turns out to be.
    - selykg 5y ago
      I think it’s a cool idea but it’s very half baked at the moment. A feature I love about GoodNotes on an iPad is it can search hand written notes. If I’m going to write a ton in something that isn’t as easily skimmed as a real notebook search needs to be a thing. The other thing I find annoying is buying the pencil tips. Apparently the Remarkable ones need replacement often. Sort of mind blowing. All in all the writing experience was nice. But the device and the features were not there. If these things survive another 3-4 generations of devices then I think we may get to a place they’re maybe ready for more mass usage. I hope in that time the company that also provides reasonable support rises to the top lol.
      - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
        > Apparently the Remarkable ones need replacement often. Not really. It comes with 8 or 10 tips. I go through a tip in a month with very active use. New tips are pretty cheap and come in a batch. Sorry don’t remember the cost.
bilekas 5y ago
How dare you give a warning based on experience. I'm always suspicious though of heavy affiliate links and when every review on a product (1000+) are all 4-5 stars. I know it's not but it screams to me of the dropshipping popup sites.
- selykg 5y ago
  What I've heard, and no idea if this is true, but I think my experience backs it up somewhat I just have no hard proof of it. If you see a company advertising heavily on social media sites, and Remarkable is everywhere for me on social media sites, they're basically throwing all their money at advertising and all other areas of their business are getting the short end and suffering. With the recent news they're moving subscription for their various services I think it's clear Remarkable is likely to die in a couple years.
- rchaud 5y ago
  Affiliate sites have ruined product search in the same way that Pinterest has ruined image search. Video reviews/tutorials are often the way to go because they tend to be more up to date (you can't fiddle with the Youtube publish date the way you can with a blog site). Additionally, the tutorials can help demonstrate niche features and whether they function as expected.
6chars 5y ago
Wow, that's a really crappy experience. Personally, I had a pretty good experience with their customer service. My stylus broke after a few weeks (just stopped working for writing entirely). They sent me a new one right away and didn't require me to mail mine back. I think the way they do returns is pretty unfriendly compared to other electronic companies I've gone through this with. I was going to exchange my tablet after I bricked it, and they wouldn't send a replacement until they received and processed the return. Based on the label, the return center is in Hong Kong (IIRC), so it probably takes a while to get the replacement even if everything goes according to plan. I ended up recovering the device myself (that ordeal's another story, but that's entirely my fault) so fortunately I just had a week without use of it, not a month+. I would expect it to be beneficial to them to send the replacement first along with a return box, then charge for a whole new device if the return isn't received on time. Maybe that only works if you have the scale and resources to build such a system that companies like Amazon have.
- selykg 5y ago
  That reminded me, they had two different return sites. First one they sent me to didn't even recognize my order, and because it takes them at least 24 hours to respond to an email (sometimes 2+ days) that was 24 hours of me continuing to twiddle my thumbs while they sent the second return site to me, both of which they included incorrect instructions for. But yes, part of the hassle was the return to Hong Kong I suspect. That said though, it shouldn't be on me to foot the bill for a product until their shipping company can deliver it to them. If I chose the shipping company, then sure, I guess I can see that. But it was their label, their return site, their rules, and I'm just stuck footing the bill until the product gets returned. What would they have done if it never actually arrived? Would I still be footing the bill? I had to file the dispute because the time period was running out on being able to do so AND I was then outside their 30 day return period because of the lengthy delay in their shipping provider moving the product. I sent it back less than a week after I got it, but it took another month for the stupid thing to end up in their hands. Anyway, yea. It was entirely self inflicted by Remarkable. My assumption is they've been burned by people returning incorrect products or something, but if they handle it this way they're just upsetting legitimate returns. I wasn't entirely dissatisfied with the product, it just wasn't in a state I could use it right now. Had the return gone better I may have purchased a newer version down the road. Now however, I will avoid them at all costs, and I am being vocal about it ... all they had to do was treat the customer appropriately and this all could've been very different for them. It just goes to show how important good customer support is.
yepthatsreality 5y ago
I can agree. I had a WiFi issue with mine and the customer support had me reconfigure my router a few different ways to alleviate the issue until an update released. Then they stopped responding after the issue wasn’t fixed. From other anecdotes, I’ve determined that their policy is to string the customer along until an update is released or they’ve run out of options to diagnose the problem, then you’re trash. Even opening new tickets returned no response. I advise people review other eink tablet options before considering Remarkable. Addendum: At some point, months later the issue was resolved via a software update. This issue was originally discovered a few days after unboxing and using the device. I did not expect the return process to be non-existent or refusal.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
tejtm 5y ago
Anecdotal: I right away, broke my screen ** from my perspective ** dropped something on the screen, the next time I used it there were all sorts of horizontal and vertical lines on it. My wife got me a replacement because that is how she is. I contacted the company to see if there was anything I could to try and fix the old one ... I am not opposed to opening it up an poking around. They suggested I send them pictures of the damage then replied that it should not have happened and exchanged with a replacement. Noting that at no point did I ask them for anything and took full responsibility (in writing) for the impact I assume caused the failure. I have nothing but high praise for their "support".
fouric 5y ago
I would like to say that the device itself, if it works, is rock-solid. With that said: > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- selykg 5y ago
  ah yes, there's always that stickler for the "rules." What would we ever do without that person chiming in.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - fouric 5y ago
    Every single one of the guidelines is there for a reason. In this case, like the guidelines say, complaining about voting makes for boring reading, adds no value, and actively makes HN worse - as do comments like your reply. Interesting and useful reading: the first two paragraphs of your original comment. Boring reading that detracts from the HN experience: > Edit: I will never understand people that downvote a warning like this. But HN, you do you, I have karma to burn and if this warning helps one other person I’ll consider it worth it. > ah yes, there's always that stickler for the "rules." What would we ever do without that person chiming in.
    - selykg 5y ago
      Cool. Tell ya what, if that's your take on it, I'll just stop participating here. Clearly I don't add value here so, thanks bud. Enjoy your elitist hacker news self moderation!

by selykg 5y ago

zarkov99 5y ago

To balance your report with something positive, I also had a warranty issue, as there was a bad batch of R2's around August, and they provided me with a replacement with minimum fuss.

sillysaurusx 5y ago

Can you provide more details? It's a bit unclear what happened. You bought it, asked for a return, and then what? I don't know what non-movement means.

selykg 5y ago
They provided the label and picked the carrier (DHL). DHL picked the package up and promptly lost it or forgot about it or whatever happens with shipping companies that are trash. I waited about 2 weeks before I complained because COVID and all that. After 3 weeks of absolutely zero package movement (stuck in the same location) they refused to give a refund. I filed a dispute and finally got my refund after it sat around in a shipping facility for over a month. The entire time Remarkable provided incorrect and misleading instructions for my return. Often calling it a replacement. At one point their service manager actually said they were refunding me and then about 30 minutes later retracted it and said they’d only refund me when they had the return in their hands. I provided a full timeline of their horrible support to my credit company, I can dig that up if you want the full rundown on their awful handling of a simple return.
- sillysaurusx 5y ago
  Nah, that covers it. Thanks. I was going to say that such things happen, but your chat with the service manager sealed my feelings on the matter. They could see just as well as you that DHL had the notebook, not you, and they should've eaten the loss. The other comments here are reMarkably negative too. I was briefly tempted to get one, but I'll wait for whoever the Vive of this space turns out to be.
  - selykg 5y ago
    I think it’s a cool idea but it’s very half baked at the moment. A feature I love about GoodNotes on an iPad is it can search hand written notes. If I’m going to write a ton in something that isn’t as easily skimmed as a real notebook search needs to be a thing. The other thing I find annoying is buying the pencil tips. Apparently the Remarkable ones need replacement often. Sort of mind blowing. All in all the writing experience was nice. But the device and the features were not there. If these things survive another 3-4 generations of devices then I think we may get to a place they’re maybe ready for more mass usage. I hope in that time the company that also provides reasonable support rises to the top lol.
    - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
      > Apparently the Remarkable ones need replacement often. Not really. It comes with 8 or 10 tips. I go through a tip in a month with very active use. New tips are pretty cheap and come in a batch. Sorry don’t remember the cost.

bilekas 5y ago

How dare you give a warning based on experience. I'm always suspicious though of heavy affiliate links and when every review on a product (1000+) are all 4-5 stars. I know it's not but it screams to me of the dropshipping popup sites.

selykg 5y ago
What I've heard, and no idea if this is true, but I think my experience backs it up somewhat I just have no hard proof of it. If you see a company advertising heavily on social media sites, and Remarkable is everywhere for me on social media sites, they're basically throwing all their money at advertising and all other areas of their business are getting the short end and suffering. With the recent news they're moving subscription for their various services I think it's clear Remarkable is likely to die in a couple years.
rchaud 5y ago
Affiliate sites have ruined product search in the same way that Pinterest has ruined image search. Video reviews/tutorials are often the way to go because they tend to be more up to date (you can't fiddle with the Youtube publish date the way you can with a blog site). Additionally, the tutorials can help demonstrate niche features and whether they function as expected.

6chars 5y ago

Wow, that's a really crappy experience. Personally, I had a pretty good experience with their customer service. My stylus broke after a few weeks (just stopped working for writing entirely). They sent me a new one right away and didn't require me to mail mine back. I think the way they do returns is pretty unfriendly compared to other electronic companies I've gone through this with. I was going to exchange my tablet after I bricked it, and they wouldn't send a replacement until they received and processed the return. Based on the label, the return center is in Hong Kong (IIRC), so it probably takes a while to get the replacement even if everything goes according to plan. I ended up recovering the device myself (that ordeal's another story, but that's entirely my fault) so fortunately I just had a week without use of it, not a month+. I would expect it to be beneficial to them to send the replacement first along with a return box, then charge for a whole new device if the return isn't received on time. Maybe that only works if you have the scale and resources to build such a system that companies like Amazon have.

selykg 5y ago
That reminded me, they had two different return sites. First one they sent me to didn't even recognize my order, and because it takes them at least 24 hours to respond to an email (sometimes 2+ days) that was 24 hours of me continuing to twiddle my thumbs while they sent the second return site to me, both of which they included incorrect instructions for. But yes, part of the hassle was the return to Hong Kong I suspect. That said though, it shouldn't be on me to foot the bill for a product until their shipping company can deliver it to them. If I chose the shipping company, then sure, I guess I can see that. But it was their label, their return site, their rules, and I'm just stuck footing the bill until the product gets returned. What would they have done if it never actually arrived? Would I still be footing the bill? I had to file the dispute because the time period was running out on being able to do so AND I was then outside their 30 day return period because of the lengthy delay in their shipping provider moving the product. I sent it back less than a week after I got it, but it took another month for the stupid thing to end up in their hands. Anyway, yea. It was entirely self inflicted by Remarkable. My assumption is they've been burned by people returning incorrect products or something, but if they handle it this way they're just upsetting legitimate returns. I wasn't entirely dissatisfied with the product, it just wasn't in a state I could use it right now. Had the return gone better I may have purchased a newer version down the road. Now however, I will avoid them at all costs, and I am being vocal about it ... all they had to do was treat the customer appropriately and this all could've been very different for them. It just goes to show how important good customer support is.

yepthatsreality 5y ago

I can agree. I had a WiFi issue with mine and the customer support had me reconfigure my router a few different ways to alleviate the issue until an update released. Then they stopped responding after the issue wasn’t fixed. From other anecdotes, I’ve determined that their policy is to string the customer along until an update is released or they’ve run out of options to diagnose the problem, then you’re trash. Even opening new tickets returned no response. I advise people review other eink tablet options before considering Remarkable. Addendum: At some point, months later the issue was resolved via a software update. This issue was originally discovered a few days after unboxing and using the device. I did not expect the return process to be non-existent or refusal.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

tejtm 5y ago

Anecdotal: I right away, broke my screen ** from my perspective ** dropped something on the screen, the next time I used it there were all sorts of horizontal and vertical lines on it. My wife got me a replacement because that is how she is. I contacted the company to see if there was anything I could to try and fix the old one ... I am not opposed to opening it up an poking around. They suggested I send them pictures of the damage then replied that it should not have happened and exchanged with a replacement. Noting that at no point did I ask them for anything and took full responsibility (in writing) for the impact I assume caused the failure. I have nothing but high praise for their "support".

fouric 5y ago

I would like to say that the device itself, if it works, is rock-solid. With that said: > Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

selykg 5y ago
ah yes, there's always that stickler for the "rules." What would we ever do without that person chiming in.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- fouric 5y ago
  Every single one of the guidelines is there for a reason. In this case, like the guidelines say, complaining about voting makes for boring reading, adds no value, and actively makes HN worse - as do comments like your reply. Interesting and useful reading: the first two paragraphs of your original comment. Boring reading that detracts from the HN experience: > Edit: I will never understand people that downvote a warning like this. But HN, you do you, I have karma to burn and if this warning helps one other person I’ll consider it worth it. > ah yes, there's always that stickler for the "rules." What would we ever do without that person chiming in.
  - selykg 5y ago
    Cool. Tell ya what, if that's your take on it, I'll just stop participating here. Clearly I don't add value here so, thanks bud. Enjoy your elitist hacker news self moderation!