Does Anker have customer service?

I have seen in comments reference to “great customer service” of anker. I’m still to experience any CS worth the name; default option is email exchange that takes days, had to search internet for a phone number and the response has been “send the unit in, we are not engineers and can not help you troubleshoot”.
I’m almost wondering if those glowing customer service reviews are written by anker themselves.
My (first) anker product is 13-1 TB3 docking station; anker is new to such relatively complex products, maybe they have not realized the difference of support between a usb charger and a thunderbolt docking station.
If any of you have advice of how to get “great” support from anker, please share.
Thanks

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Sorry to hear your experience with customer support hasn’t been great. I can tell you for a fact that the people saying the customer support is great are not written by Anker as I myself have said it countless times. The great customer support I have experienced came through email, yes I had to wait a day or two for a response but they were still polite and responsive and made the process of getting a replacement that was covered by warranty rather easy. For some products they do need you to ship it to them so that they can figure out what’s wrong with it if it isn’t a common problem they are aware of, that way they can help prevent this and solve this with others. I don’t know about calling support but I know that email has always ended really great for me any time I have had an issue. May I ask what issue it is you are having?

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Hi,
The issue is described here: Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station / HDMI Problems
Regarding the customer service, exchanging the device should be the last resort, or at least not the first thing to do. Besides the huge inconvenience, the issue could be related to the device itself and replacing it with another such device, without understanding the cause will only lead to repeated issue and more frustration.
I expected some troubleshooting but the email “support” pretty much boiled down to “check all the cables, send in the device”. Very robotic, not trying to understand and fix the issue but just going down a fixed checklist where the next thing is “return device”.

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@last22775 Do you get anything from using win+p when you get the ‘no video input’ after a video ends?

It might also be worth checking you are running the latest video drivers for the x360 from HP and not the Windows update defaults.

@ndalby thanks for the response.
win+p allows to switch between the multiple display modes but does not bring the external monitor to life.
Regarding the video drivers, yes, all HP recommended updates are done. I think the issue is with anker though - the video is still present in other anker’s outputs (usb-c), just not in HDMI.

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Hi @last22775 figured that may be the case but it’s always worth asking. Have you tried any alternate HDMI leads such as HDMI 2.0 or 2.1 to rule out any cable compatibilities?

I can honestly say from experience Anker’s reputation for good customer service is accurate and from genuine buyers. This is mainly due to support where possible and standing behind their products by offering replacements when an issue occurs.

I understand it is frustrating that not all answers can be given but the first line teams can only advise based on information they have been provided (and 8 of 10 times most issues are hardware related, so it is case of triage in many ways). The more prevalent an issue becomes with a product it can be looked into by the developers and engineers for resolutions.

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I’ve seen posts where they praise their customer support. I’ve been lucky to never have to contact them (knock on wood)

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@ndalby, thanks for the advice. Will try changing the cables once I get my hands on 2.0+. So far got by without paying much attention to HDMI’s version as the external monitors are just HD and used for trivial tasks (no 4K, protected multimedia streaming, etc.). Also, the video shows up until the stream’s end, so I don’t think it has anything to do with the cable.

FWIW I’ve been an Anker customer since 2014 and have always had positive customer service experiences. I would speculate staffing and supply chain issues may be stressing things.

In the end, Anker held up on its CS commitment.
There is an issue with the device (SW problem IMHO) where HDMI out falters if the streamed video uses Widevine (many sites use it). Anker would not replace the device (which would not have helped anyway) but issued a partial reimbursement.
Good enough as everything else works fine.

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Greatest Title Ever…

Glad they gave you a partial reimbursement