PacsterDude

I just wanted to share with the community a conversation I had with representatives from Pimax, which made me, a firm believer of the Pimax VR headsets being the next evolution in VR and the step up for me from my Oculus, to walk away from them.
 
Pimax VR, besides their Kickstarter campaign, is now an online company with a new North American support center, which is shipping their HMDs (Pimax 8k, Pimax 5k+ and Pimax 5k XR) to users all around the world.
They frequently show up on game and hardware related events and show off the latest iteration of their VR headsets. They also recently announced a new 8K headset with 2 4k displays.
 
I am in the market for an upgrade from the Oculus and did follow their campaign and releases with anticipation to purchase one of their products. There are many Youtube and text reviews out there but choosing a headset is very subjective. I, for example, hate the screen door effect on the Oculus, but others say it is not that bad.
 
Well, I wanted to test the Pimax headsets, because they are $800 USD on their website, but they do not have any local outlets that let you test drive their products. They are, after all, an online company. Fine.
 
So I looked all over their website for the return policy, in case you are not happy with your purchase. I could not find it.
 
So I asked the question on their website under the Pimax 5k XR Q&A tab and received the following reply:
Q: What is your return policy? Can I return a device if I am not satisfied with the quality within a certain timeframe?
06/18/2019
  A: Hi,
When you receive the goods, you cannot exchange them without quality problems. 
If you need technical support, we will do our best to provide it
thank you"   They did not publish my question or the answer on their website.   So I created a login for their forum and asked the question there. Nice folks and some forum users forwarded me to a North American contact from their support team.   I also submitted a clarification question and received the following answer:   From: “sally.huang” <sally.huang@pimaxvr.com>
Date: 2019-06-19
To: "xxxx.xxxx@xxxxx.com" <xxxx.xxxx@xxxxx.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Your question has been answered (#16069)
视图 帮助台工票     Hi,
You can get a refund before delivery,
I also suggest you look at some reviews before you buy,
About aftersale,we have effecient tech support team to resolve aftersale service requests.
Thanks for your understanding.
已发送 作者 Pimax Technology 使用中 Odoo.
 
So the Pimax official suggestion for potential customers is to "read and view the reviews" and then purchase a multi hundred dollar item without the option to take it back unless it has a technical fault.
 
So Pimax, who decided to remain an online only shop, does not give anyone the option to test their products before purchase and would not take the HMD back in case you find out that you do not like it. That, to me, sounds incredibly shady.
 
One forum reply was from a person who purchased a Pimax 5k+, changed his mind 10 minutes after the purchase and asked for a cancellation of his order. Pimax did initially not reply, then cancelled the order after 4 days and kept $38 for a cancellation fee.
The Amazon presence shows a 15% restocking fee if you return the headset and "misrepresent the condition" (a.k.a. it was not dead on arrival or is unopened). This is $120 for a Pimax 5k XR. Just for taking it back in case you do not like it.
 
I think that Pimax should work on publishing their return policy and finally update it to support customers to have a certain test period before they charge a refund fee. Or they need to have local outlets or distributors that provide hands-on testing to customers.
Returns can be costly for an organization, but putting it to customers to purchase the "cat in the bag" after "reading some reviews" and then rejecting returns unless the product is faulty sounds not really customer friendly.
 
Pimax lost my business, and I recommend for any potential customer to only purchase a headset from them if you have tested it beforehand or if you are willing to pay a significant restocking fee.