I’m having the exact same issue. I’ve contacted support and they are offering me a 28,48 dollar refund. The product is 7 months old and bought on the offical Anker store on Aliexpress for € 148,92, which was a good deal back in september 2020.
They are not offering me a full refund / enough refund for me to buy a new camera (€ 99) or sending me a replacement camera because “there isnt one available”. I really feel like I am getting scammed.
Unfortunately, Aliexpress has their own policies that generally only allow for a partial refund if you keep the item. Anker provides more information here.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the reply. I just want to enjoy my camera’s so I would like to replace the foggy one because now it’s no use to me. What is the best option for me to do in situation?
You’ve been told your AliExpress options for the failed item.
Return for full refund, you pay postage.
Partial refund.
To get another your option is to buy or not buy. Obviously you are now wiser as to the AliExpress policy that Anker has to follow.
Thats it!
Different sellers, different warranty options.
Always good to read before buy something!
The warranty is the same the return policy is different.
This keeps coming up and yet effectively people are trying to get cheaper product from a specific source then get the same return policy as a more expensive source and then use public forums to try to threaten to trash brand name to get better than entitled to.
Did I understand correctly?
Wow ok, so I am a bad guy for trashing a company name? Because an outdoor camera with a ip67 rating isnt working properly and I am replying to a post of people with the same issue?
As for where I bought the product. Of course I’m looking for the best deal I can find for the same product. It’s not like I am going for a cheap nockoff version, it’s the same product., at least I hope so. If the warranty would be the same then there wouldnt be a problem. I buy a product. The product breaks down within the warranty period, which is 2 years (by European law), you get a replacement or a refund. Without going through the hassle of sending everything back, I would go for the replacement option but this is not possible for an unknown reason.
You didn’t buy from a European distributor. There are Eufy EU distributors.
The issue is buying without a free return, you are entitled to a full refund, when you return it. The issue is for AliExpress the return cost is born by the buyer. It’s a very common issue. And not Anker specific.
The product got shipped to me from Poland (I had 3 options: China, Russia and Poland). I chose Poland because of there European Union status so there wouldnt be a import at the Dutch customs. Doesnt this mean that I did buy it from a European distributor?
AHH that might explain why there isnt a replacement as they don’t currently have any from Poland?
They still adhere to AliExpress policy.
Do you end up with with money net returning if return is to Poland the return cost is less? That’s your two options, return you pay return cost and get full refund , or accept credit. As the fault makes it useless return is probably your best option.
Then the question is if you buy another or not, now knowing the risks. Any product can fail and it’s a judgement if worthwhile.
Also if you search in other AliExpress threads you’ll see we advise to discuss your individual case here as it in effect stops you getting more than you’re entitled to.
If I send everything back to Poland, which costs around 20 euro. The package (hub + 2 2C camera’s) cost me 148,92 euro. I’ll get a refund - shipping costs of 128,92 euro.
The same package on big webshops in The Netherlands (Amazon, Bol, Coolblue) costs: 219 euro. On Aliexpress US $239.36, with no option to send it from Poland so i definatly get in trouble with Dutch customs.
219 - 128,92 = 90 euro gap.
If I go down the route of sending everything back it will cost me 90 euro to replace everything as it is now. And that is if i’m lucky and I actually do get that refund and no packages are lost or something like that.
I did some research regarding shipping costs and who is responsible for it when its a warranty issue. It turns out that the seller is responsible for the shipping costs so what Ankers customer service is saying to me (that I only have 12 months of warranty, that I should pay for return costs, that I am only entiteld to a partial refund) is all illegal.
Thank God I live in Europe.
Ok so that would mean I have to prove the camera was broken within the first 6 months that I bought it. Its going to take time again, and will probably be for nothing since I’ve received an email again today that the best thing customer support can do is refund me 28,48 usd, but here we go:
A great way to spend the weekend figuring all this stuff out for a simple warranty issue.
Title should be renamed “perils of buying from AliExpress” - I’ve bought many things from Anker, some failed, I’ve done multiple warranty replacements and one return, no problems whatsoever. I’ve bought either direct off their site or Amazon.
Also you cannot resolve this in a public forum, for obvious reasons.
This has nothing to do with Aliexpress. As a European it doenst matter where you buy your products from, you are always protected by their 2 year legal guarantee and companys (Anker, Eufy, Aliexpress) are legaly obliged to this law, no matter what commercial guarantees they might have.
Also why cant this be resolved on a public forum? Isnt a forum meant for serious issues like this? Especially if a customer service is operating outside of the law?
Lastly, if you have experience with that many failed Anker products. Doesnt this say something about the overall quality of this brand and their products?
I’ll stop posting on this forum because I’m not getting anywhere other than being blocked. All I wanted was 1 camera to be replaced under warranty for one that doenst have leaks in it. It’s really sad to see that it’s to much to ask.
@boutjuh You are best continuing to contact support on the dedicated email support@eufylife.com or support@anker.com, the community is designed for users to assist each other with issues rather than for warranty/fault resolution by the support team.
As it has been mentioned several times, the issue is due to the rules and regulations which Anker has to follow for AliExpress which is a China based company, regardless whether the item has been dispatched from the EU, the T&C’s are still written by the AliExpress home office in China.
You could try highlighting the following with support as AliExpress did state in Feb 2021 that they would start to follow EU consumer laws, might help get some movement.
Out of dozens of purchases I’ve had about 3 failures.
That’s quite good.
Each of them was resolved amicably very quickly. That’s very good.
The issue here is not Anker.
Anker does care about it’s customers, but they don’t particularly read this community so you’re mostly venting to other Anker customers. Email is far better to talk with Anker. You’re not going to improve anything here.
Thanks, for that article. I’ve read that as well. I’m going to contact Aliexpress and see what they have to say about this.
Good in the meantime you and everyone else should in EU buy from the Eufy or Amazon store obviously as there’s always some risk of a warranty need which you and many others have similarly shown with AliExpress.
There’s not an issue with the brand, just the market.
If you’re in EU why didn’t you buy from Eufy or Amazon? Usually for most people they have no choice in many countries but in your case you had good alternatives
I am aware of the risk with AliExpress and I’ve only bought dumb simple products through them or bought at a substantial lower price fully aware of my risk if needed to return.
