Hi!
So I purchased a SoundCore Pro from Anker official store on Aliexpress during the Black Friday sale and it arrived just in time for Christmas. I was looking for a decent bluetooth speaker to have in the house and after reading about different speakers online it seemed like Anker and specifically the SoundCore Pro would be my best bet. The reviews I saw online praised the sound quality of the Anker speakers (relative to their price) and they also praised them for their customer support.
So anyway, I collected the speaker from our local āpost officeā, unpacked it, plugged in the charger and started testing the unit. I was immediately amazed by the sound quality of this little device! It was absolutely perfect in terms of prize, sound quality, size and appearance. To be honest, at that particular moment, I donāt think Iāve ever been more satisfied with a purchase! But unfortunately my joy was to be short lived.
After about 30 minutes to an hour into listening to different music while it was charging (it went from one dot up to three solid dots with the fourth one blinking, so the charging was working fine at this point) it suddenly went quite. I looked over at the speaker and noticed that it had turned off - none of the leds/lamps were lit. I tried to start it up again, but it never did. The speaker is now completely dead. I doesnāt matter if the charger is plugged in or how many times Iāve tried to press and hold the power button - itās completely and utterly dead. And no, itās not discharged since I saw with my own eyes that it was in fact almost fully charged before it went dead.
So after searching online I noticed many people got the tip to contact Anker via their support-mail, which I immediately did. At this point I wasnāt worried since Anker was praised for their support (the speaker had an 18 month warranty, it says on the box I received); surely they would compensate me as well!
The first response I got was your typical tiresome support-mail reply, which contained almost only suggestions I had already tried, or which would be redundant given the information I had sent them in my e-mail. No problem, Iāve experienced this with almost every support I have ever contacted - they tend to disregard what you have written and instead start with the most basic problems to eliminate them. So I sent an answer basically informing that, no, this didnāt help; the unit is, in fact, completely dead.
The reply I got was the first time I actually started to get angry with Anker. It basically said that since I purchased the speaker on Aliexpress (even though itās Ankerās own official store) Iām not entitled to the same warranty as if it was purchased directly through them or on Amazon. They told me to instead start a refund process on Aliexpress and that was that - no more help from Anker support.
So the next step was to start a dispute on Aliexpress, where I again explained the situation, uploaded images and even a video showing me testing the unit. I stated I wanted a full refund and even though I didnāt expect to be given that so easily (since my confidence with Anker had really sunk) and awaited their respons. I assumed I would be given a counter-bid of, say, 80% refund and that would be that - no hard feelings. But boy was I wrong! Their bid was: full refund if I send the speaker back to China (which wouldnāt be worth the cost or the hassle, since it would cost as much as a new speaker), or I get nothing. Nothing! Nada. 0:- Not 80% refund, Not 50% or 25%. 0%ā¦ What the actual fā¦?!
I must say Iām very upset with being treated this way and I feel cheated. The only thing left for me now is to do a youtube review of my broken device and basically reiterate everything above. Perhaps I will dissuade other potential customer from purchasing an Anker speaker, at least through Aliexpress. I mean, a speaker that doesnāt even function for more than one hour obviously has some serious manufacturing problem inside it, and if I was selling something that broke immediately after delivery my first instinct would be to compensate this customer with a new speaker - no question. But Anker seems to not care, and to be honest neither do I anymore. To me, Anker is blacklisted. I will never purchase another Anker product and I wouldnāt recommend them to anyone else either. Not after having to deal with their āsupportā and ā18 month warrantyā Iāve had enough. (Or perhaps itās actually 18 minutes of warranty? That would explain their reluctance to compensate me, since it actually worked for more than that)
Anyway, take care and happy new year to all of you!
Best regards,
Anders
very entertaining
Every manufacturer has defects and I totally agree the way you were responded to by whomever helped you was totally not professional. Just let Anker fix this and enjoy your new (hopefully working) speaker. Its only $50 down the drain if you do not give them the time to fix the issue. I have had an issue in the past take over a month to resolve. Be patient friend! 
I will enjoy reviewing your speaker. It will be a lot of fun!