Warranty - I have paid a total of 173.30 euros to get a One R repaired!

Hi friends and if you still want to buy an Inst360 camera,

I received an Insta360 One R on 12/22/2020 as quit new (sales order INS5969201214172825695168) directly from Insta from HongKong with DHL. On 12/23/2020 I did the first test and everything seemed fine! On 24.12.2020 I could no longer use the camera, because it constantly crashed during recording! It was not possible to eliminate this error by a new firmware. I contact the Insta360 service. By email / chat / and by phone.

Unfortunately, as a German customer, I had to find out that there is no European support! Special everything must be handled via HongKong or California (phone). So there was already a language problem, because the whole correspondence worked only in English! Then the different time zones came into play, HongHong + 7 hours / California - 9 hours to CET! Thus 16 hours time difference! I am still waiting for the callback from California! So all answers always came delayed and you had to wait. Or, get up early or go to bed late... Super customer friendly!?

After several emails, the support took pity on me and agreed to the repair. There was a link to order the repair, with various options. There should also have been a field where you take over the customs fees when returning!? I have not seen or my English was not good enough to capture "the small print"? But more on this later... will still exciting! Promised...

Let's start first with the shipping of the defective camera (Without function after a use of about 60 minutes... 2 years warranty in Europe and 14 days right of return without giving reasons). Only in Hong Kong not! For "ALL" Hong Kong is not in the EU, makes one before so no thoughts to... actually stupid or? So fix the DHL Express page called and booked the service for Hong Kong = 67.99 euros (which you have to advance to get a repair at all), still one or the other customs form filled out, with customs number for camera that records images and sound! I have to do daily with something like that - so a piece of cake. Of course not, so researched on Google what they want to know from me... Ok, done - package to DHL and on the way to HongKong (shipping on 06.01.2021 - was still Christmas in between - stupid holidays). Then it takes what feels like forever until the Chinese customs has released the goods (arrival at the service on 19.01.2021). Super fast confirmation (1 day) by the service that the camera is actually defective and has the described error! Info camera is exchanged and returned with DHL. The shipment was then 22.01.2021! Very good, that worked out - enthusiasm!

So now comes the part where all interested in the Insta-Onlineshops should read carefully! It took until 12.02.2021 until the camera was delivered to me in Germany. Thus almost 6 weeks! For the long transport time I would not make Insta responsible, because Insta has no influence on customs processing nor Covid19. But that I also have to pay the customs clearance costs of 105.31 euros is in my opinion a cheek! It is still under European law a warranty case! In Hong Kong, however, it seems to be more of a goodwill repair.

Thus, I have paid a total of 173.30 euros to get a new camera repaired!

I think this is no fun anymore and advise all interested parties to buy the camera in a store in Europe!!! Here you have consumer protection and you will not be ripped off!

In the meantime I received the following reply:

Repair order IWOQAC12101060524BE3

"Dear customer,

This is Insta360 repair service.

We totally understand your situation and mood, however, we have notified you in the previous shipping instruction email whether you need to apply for tax exemption before sending it back to us, because the customs policy of each country is different. Did you apply for a tax exemption before sending it back to the camera? Could you please try to explain the package was repaired unit to your local custom？If you need any relative document to prove it, please don't hesitate to let us know, we're very glad to help, thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Have a nice day!"

I understand this answer as a challenge. Since it is a warranty case, I can not be satisfied with this answer in any way and will not rest until I have my expenses refunded!

Have any of you had the same experience and perhaps had your costs reimbursed?

Regards

André