Oneplus starts digging! Ignores all RMA requests for One

[TheSLSAMG]

I knew it, oneplus one is a fucking shit company! I told you all not to buy it! They are china for effs sake

 

HTC

MSI

ASUS

Gigabyte

AsRock

TSMC (semiconductor manufacturer)

SMIC (semiconductor manufacturer)

 

They're all Chinese/Taiwanese, and they are doing damn well. And to be honest, they're pretty much the same. (Not even trying to be racist here, it is the way it is.) And almost everything we own that is tech-related is made in China.

[jaggysnake57]

The catch is that their margins are very low. They were originally going to sell it for $500, but kept revising that down. They also don't market -- all sales are done through their website which cuts out a lot of middlemen. That allows them to turn a profit and/or invest more in development.

 

As far as customer support goes, they're a very new company. This is their first product. You should expect a backlog for customer support and RMAs as they work through issues, but they should definitely be addressing the issues better.

 

I don't think anyone expected this phone to be meant for everyone -- the phone is targeted at the tweakers and tech enthusiasts. If you want a relatively flawless experience, get an iPhone, S5, or anything else.

 

so why label it a flagship killer?

 

and im sorry but this being there first product is no excuse for piss poor customer service...if i pay for something then i expect it to work and if it dosnt i expect a replacement ASAP or my money back no excuses

[NICKT]

I'm curious, are they actively ignoring people's issues or are they simply just not responding to them as fast as larger companies with better capabilities?

Judging from all that I've seen and read of Oneplus, it doesn't surprise me at all to imagine that they're stretched thin and their customer service would take a hit 'cause of that, though I'm not sure if I've read or seen a case specifically that has been ignored outright, so please, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Seems like for the most part though, that we're expecting a lot from what essentially are newcomers, I'm all for having standards, especially when you consider the big hitters we already have in the mobile phone industry, but it's seeming a lot like how everyone expects new MMOs to be on par with WOW, despite the latter having a decade or so(?) head-start.

 

At the end of the day, either way, I'm going to actively avoid all the shitty band-wagon fuckery that goes on in this forum, my next phone may end up being a 1+1 so I'm gonna hold out and see how the situation pans out overall.

[wpirobotbuilder]

so why label it a flagship killer?

Same kinds of specs as phones that are almost twice the price. Some smaller things too, but mostly the price.

 

if i pay for something then i expect it to work and if it dosnt i expect a replacement ASAP or my money back no excuses

Of course. I seriously doubt that OnePlus isn't aware of the importance of customer support, but they seem to have underestimated the level of support they needed. That's common for young companies to do, especially when the first concerns are getting their product out the door.

 

At the end of the day, either way, I'm going to actively avoid all the shitty band-wagon fuckery that goes on in this forum, my next phone may end up being a 1+1 so I'm gonna hold out and see how the situation pans out overall.

It's a good phone, whose manufacturer had a snafu in both the pre-order process and subsequent support.

[marldorthegreat]

You do realise THEY MAKE ALL OF THE PHONES ON REQUEST, so they would have to MAKE ANOTHER PHONE FOR YOU. That is how it is so cheap!

[jaggysnake57]

Same kinds of specs as phones that are almost twice the price. Some smaller things too, but mostly the price.

 

 

 

yeah but its never gonna kill a flagship if you cant buy it

 

and its a bit stupid selling a phone with the same specs as most flagships @ half the price then being surprised when a f**k ton of people try to buy it....so far im not impressed with them.  when they general release a phone then i may look into them

[VincentC]

This doesn't sound like its the complete story. The Opo is shipped with a "locked" bootloader and root (Google's requirement to be shipped with Gapps), while unlocking and rooting doesn't void warranty, any problems that you cause is entirely your fault (data loss because you didn't backup is your fault). The problem with invites is that most people rather sell them or let them expire instead of giving them out freely. Also the service is the typical AS-IS attitude from Asian companies, you pay for returns and service they are not included with the purchase and if you don't like the DRM, quality, or customer service go somewhere else.

[xtroria]

nothing inherently. but the ratio of good to bad companies there is waaay lower than elsewhere

 

It probably relies on the quality control in the end. Companies which have strict QC no matter where they produce it will make good products, which China is being super notorious about, very very bad quality control.

 

There are some very good chinese products though with strict QC, take a look at Oppo PM1 - A $1100 planar magnetic headphone. Build quality directly competes with the similiarly priced, USA built Audeze headphone . The sound quality also competes directly although sound is just a bit subjective

[dizmo]

These guys are making a single digit figure per phone. I'm not surprised their customer service isn't amazing.

 

Honestly if you think you could buy a phone for $350 from a rather not so big company, hoping for a level of customer service of multi billion dollar company like apple or samsung, you're really going to have a bad time.

I'm typing this right now with my one+ one and it has 0 problem. It's true that it takes almost a month for the company to process your RMA, but for a company that produces a phone, ship it to warehouse and then shortly after that to customer, it's not surprising really.

This company takes very little profit for each phone produced after all

 

That's absolutely no excuse for poor customer relations. Simply ignoring someone and offering no interaction is wrong. Plain and simple. There's no reason you can't fire off a quick "we're working on something for you" email, or something of that nature.

 

They don't make peanuts. They've already made over $5,000,000 profit. No matter which way you cut it, that's a decent chunk of change. If they succeed in their quest for 1,000,000 devices by years end, that puts them over $10,000,000. They likely don't employ many people, have a $300 marketing budget, and get their manufacturing done by Oppo, which they are simply an extension of.

Their costs aren't really that high.

 

They don't make single devices. They make batches. To think they make one phone, ship that one phone to a warehouse, and then to a customer is pretty naive.

 

Don't think of them as some kind of holy grail company who's here to make no money and help the people.

 

 

I don't want to defend OnePlus but i have also had bad experience with samsung. I have bought my Samsung Galaxy S2 in summer 2011. After half a year it suddenly dropped it's IMEI. So i decided to send it to Samsung. They have blamed me for destroying it (damaged by water; irreparable), fixed nothing and charged me 30€. The point is: I rooted it & fixed it myselfe! The devices has worked from then on and still does.

PS: They have not refunded me those 30€...

It's not uncommon for them to turn down repair service if you in fact did trigger the water marker on the inside.

Even if you didn't know you did, if it was tripped, they'll refuse it. They don't know you. They don't know if you're trying to scam them or not, and more often than not, it is a person trying to get away with something they shouldn't.

Not really Samsungs fault, you should be blaming those who try and cheat the system.

Rooting it wouldn't be an option for them. They're not going to install a different companies software on your device.

They had an engineer look at it, and possibly mailed it back to you depending on how that part played out. That costs money. When they're not at fault, they keep the money. Makes sense.

 

Fine so y'all are worried that your 350 dollar device won't be perfect out of the gate and you may have to endure a bad RMA experience. There is an option to lower your risks substantially while still being able to try the oneplus one device.

Buy 2 of them.

Just as expensive as buying 1 of the flagships, give or take a little bit. AND, you may even get the 99 out of 100 chance of getting 2 perfectly fine phones, and can sell the extra one to a family member or friend to recoup its cost.

Flagship phones are often around $599.

The OnePlus, at least in Canada, is almost $500 once it's landed.

It's not really that different. Especially if you get a plan and go the subsidized route.

 

Didn't really read much of that, but the Oneplus one is a 5.5" phone. It was never advertised as a 5" phone :l

They really do need to put money into support. However, with a marketing budget of only 300$ and not a huge profit margin, they might not be able to squeeze much.

Oneplus opened up pandora'a box with that price range. It's a double edged sword that can either make or break their company depending on how they execute and manage.

Yes, it was actually. During the hype before the phone was released it was supposed to be a 5"ish phone, then it was supposed to feel like a 5" phone.

I'm sorry but 5.5" in a body that's bigger than a Note 3 (which houses a larger screen) was simply not what they were touting during their campaign.

They have $5,000,000 profit to play with, potentially $10,000,000 by years end.

They'd have much more if they either jacked the price up slightly ($15 is not unreasonable) or made more phones. That's a hell of a lot of money.

 

nothing inherently. but the ratio of good to bad companies there is waaay lower than elsewhere

Give it time. Japan a mere 60 years ago was pretty much the same; pumping out very low quality items. Look at them now.

 

You do realise THEY MAKE ALL OF THE PHONES ON REQUEST, so they would have to MAKE ANOTHER PHONE FOR YOU. That is how it is so cheap!

I don't believe that for a single second. That would make absolutely no sense. You don't make a single unit at time. It would cost exponentially more to do that.

They make runs of units at a time, meaning daddy didn't want to commit a full factory to OnePlus production, at the cost of Oppo products.

[xtroria]

They don't make peanuts. They've already made over $5,000,000 profit. No matter which way you cut it, that's a decent chunk of change. If they succeed in their quest for 1,000,000 devices by years end, that puts them over $10,000,000. They likely don't employ many people, have a $300 marketing budget, and get their manufacturing done by Oppo, which they are simply an extension of.

Their costs aren't really that high.

 

So from where did you get this $5 million dollar profit? I haven't read about this yet. I'm not sure about the cost aren't being that high. Given that apple spends around $220 - $250 to make an iPhone, a very massively produced phone. I'd think oneplus would spend around $180-$200 per phone produced + shipped to their warehouse. Add that to the employees they're paying for both manufacturing and staff offices, money spent on phone development first and then the future plan for later generation of oneplus phone, I'd find it really amazing they make $5 million in clean profit after 500K phones sold. 

[dizmo]

So from where did you get this $5 million dollar profit? I haven't read about this yet. I'm not sure about the cost aren't being that high. Given that apple spends around $220 - $250 to make an iPhone, a very massively produced phone. I'd think oneplus would spend around $180-$200 per phone produced + shipped to their warehouse. Add that to the employees they're paying for both manufacturing and staff offices, money spent on phone development first and then the future plan for later generation of oneplus phone, I'd find it really amazing they make $5 million in clean profit after 500K phones sold. 

They've sold over 500,000 units. They've stated this. Figure around $10 a unit in profit, which I believe is also stated. That's $5,000,000.

They use Oppo's factories, so that is likely partially subsidized. It's also included in the BOM, and really isn't as expensive as you'd think. Around $5 a device usually.

They also took the Find 7 and tweaked it a little. A lot of the ground work was done by Oppo.

 

Yes, they have other costs. I'm aware of that. However they have basically no marketing budget, employ only a few people...$5,000,000 goes a long way.

They don't even own or pay for their website. That was launched by Oppo.

[NoNameYet]

Not really Samsungs fault, you should be blaming those who try and cheat the system.

Well, their proof for the water damage was a picture of the micro-usb-plug, which's resolition was really bad by the way.

+ they kept telling me that it was an hardware failure but it wasn't... installing an app (which required root) was enough to fix the problem

[Majinferno]

That's absolutely no excuse for poor customer relations. Simply ignoring someone and offering no interaction is wrong. Plain and simple. There's no reason you can't fire off a quick "we're working on something for you" email, or something of that nature.

They don't make peanuts. They've already made over $5,000,000 profit. No matter which way you cut it, that's a decent chunk of change. If they succeed in their quest for 1,000,000 devices by years end, that puts them over $10,000,000. They likely don't employ many people, have a $300 marketing budget, and get their manufacturing done by Oppo, which they are simply an extension of.

Their costs aren't really that high.

They don't make single devices. They make batches. To think they make one phone, ship that one phone to a warehouse, and then to a customer is pretty naive.

Don't think of them as some kind of holy grail company who's here to make no money and help the people.

It's not uncommon for them to turn down repair service if you in fact did trigger the water marker on the inside.

Even if you didn't know you did, if it was tripped, they'll refuse it. They don't know you. They don't know if you're trying to scam them or not, and more often than not, it is a person trying to get away with something they shouldn't.

Not really Samsungs fault, you should be blaming those who try and cheat the system.

Rooting it wouldn't be an option for them. They're not going to install a different companies software on your device.

They had an engineer look at it, and possibly mailed it back to you depending on how that part played out. That costs money. When they're not at fault, they keep the money. Makes sense.

Flagship phones are often around $599.

The OnePlus, at least in Canada, is almost $500 once it's landed.

It's not really that different. Especially if you get a plan and go the subsidized route.

Yes, it was actually. During the hype before the phone was released it was supposed to be a 5"ish phone, then it was supposed to feel like a 5" phone.

I'm sorry but 5.5" in a body that's bigger than a Note 3 (which houses a larger screen) was simply not what they were touting during their campaign.

They have $5,000,000 profit to play with, potentially $10,000,000 by years end.

They'd have much more if they either jacked the price up slightly ($15 is not unreasonable) or made more phones. That's a hell of a lot of money.

Give it time. Japan a mere 60 years ago was pretty much the same; pumping out very low quality items. Look at them now.

I don't believe that for a single second. That would make absolutely no sense. You don't make a single unit at time. It would cost exponentially more to do that.

They make runs of units at a time, meaning daddy didn't want to commit a full factory to OnePlus production, at the cost of Oppo products.

Hm. Thanks for the information regarding the phone size. I wasn't aware of how it was advertised.

Can you please source your info regarding company profits? While they have no excuse for the less then acceptable support, the general consensus has been that they barely profit from devices. Even with the fairly small percent of defect devices, I think they could at least put together a support team. Also we have claims of credible people receiving their device fresh off the assembly line. I even recall MKBHD speaking about it in his review.

[Norman_the_Owl]

i can partly agree with this but some guys said they are waiting for over a week and a half ,i think they deserve an answer 

Well, can you imagine how swamped they must be? They've had a lot of issues manufacturing, every batch seems to have some weird niggle in it. A lot of people sure have had problems, and support might just be swamped

 

Bull. A customer should NEVER just have to accept that a company has bad support. If you can't properly support your products don't bloody release them until you can. Having some minor issues with support is understandable for a new company, downright bad support is not excusable.

I didn't say it's acceptable, i said it's not surprising.

[dizmo]

Hm. Thanks for the information regarding the phone size. I wasn't aware of how it was advertised.

Can you please source your info regarding company profits? While they have no excuse for the less then acceptable support, the general consensus has been that they barely profit from devices. Even with the fairly small percent of defect devices, I think they could at least put together a support team. Also we have claims of credible people receiving their device fresh off the assembly line. I even recall MKBHD speaking about it in his review.

Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/11/04/oneplus-one-sells-half-million/

"Single digits" I imagine is close to $9.99 per unit. I can't imagine them making any less.

 

Reddit. http://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/2ld1vp/half_a_million_devices_sold_max_10_profit_per/?sort=old

There are posts by actual OnePlus employees in here, and they don't argue the point.

 

So they have about 150 employees. 100 are for the Chinese market, 50 for International. I imagine they pay based on region, so that knocks down that cost even more.

 

A device can come fresh off the assembly line. It doesn't mean they're making them per order. That simply doesn't make economic sense.

They make small batches, and that was part of the small batch that they made at that time.

[MoonSpot]

They've sold over 5,000,000 units. They've stated this. Figure around $10 a unit in profit, which I believe is also stated. That's $5,000,000.

 

 

5'000'000 x $10 = $50'000'000

not 5 million

[dizmo]

5'000'000 x $10 = $50'000'000

not 5 million

Haha, oops. 500,000.

[marldorthegreat]

That's absolutely no excuse for poor customer relations. Simply ignoring someone and offering no interaction is wrong. Plain and simple. There's no reason you can't fire off a quick "we're working on something for you" email, or something of that nature.

 

They don't make peanuts. They've already made over $5,000,000 profit. No matter which way you cut it, that's a decent chunk of change. If they succeed in their quest for 1,000,000 devices by years end, that puts them over $10,000,000. They likely don't employ many people, have a $300 marketing budget, and get their manufacturing done by Oppo, which they are simply an extension of.

Their costs aren't really that high.

 

They don't make single devices. They make batches. To think they make one phone, ship that one phone to a warehouse, and then to a customer is pretty naive.

 

Don't think of them as some kind of holy grail company who's here to make no money and help the people.

 

 

It's not uncommon for them to turn down repair service if you in fact did trigger the water marker on the inside.

Even if you didn't know you did, if it was tripped, they'll refuse it. They don't know you. They don't know if you're trying to scam them or not, and more often than not, it is a person trying to get away with something they shouldn't.

Not really Samsungs fault, you should be blaming those who try and cheat the system.

Rooting it wouldn't be an option for them. They're not going to install a different companies software on your device.

They had an engineer look at it, and possibly mailed it back to you depending on how that part played out. That costs money. When they're not at fault, they keep the money. Makes sense.

 

Flagship phones are often around $599.

The OnePlus, at least in Canada, is almost $500 once it's landed.

It's not really that different. Especially if you get a plan and go the subsidized route.

 

Yes, it was actually. During the hype before the phone was released it was supposed to be a 5"ish phone, then it was supposed to feel like a 5" phone.

I'm sorry but 5.5" in a body that's bigger than a Note 3 (which houses a larger screen) was simply not what they were touting during their campaign.

They have $5,000,000 profit to play with, potentially $10,000,000 by years end.

They'd have much more if they either jacked the price up slightly ($15 is not unreasonable) or made more phones. That's a hell of a lot of money.

 

Give it time. Japan a mere 60 years ago was pretty much the same; pumping out very low quality items. Look at them now.

 

I don't believe that for a single second. That would make absolutely no sense. You don't make a single unit at time. It would cost exponentially more to do that.

They make runs of units at a time, meaning daddy didn't want to commit a full factory to OnePlus production, at the cost of Oppo products.

Really, they do. That is why they have an "invite" system.

[dizmo]

Really, they do. That is why they have an "invite" system.

No, they have the invite system to slow down the number of people that can buy the device, and they figure it gives it a more prestigious look, which it does not.

I don't think you understand how mass production works. It's extremely expensive to use a manufacturing line to produce one device.

If each device was made by hand, like Vertu, then it would be extremely expensive. Those start at $7,000 per device. Granted they use much higher quality materials, but the internals are the same.

They do production runs, then slowly sell off the stock they get from said production run via the Invite system.

[MoonSpot]

--snip--

 

They are no longer using the invite system as they've managed to balance demand, production issues and other issue that adversely affected the streamlining of production(or that is my assumption).

Even if the invite system wasn't initiated because of difficulties that arise with tying up revenue in stock, which tends to kill any start up; it can be viewed as social advertizing.  Just like Google plus did, facebook before it and dozens of others since.  I do not see it as anything sinister in the case of OnePlueOne.  They've been very clear that they have no interest in spending money advertizing, and if this generates free buzz then great.  But lets be honest, any device that hits the topdog specs, does it for half the price and isn't complete rubbish would be talked about by techies the world over regardless.

[dizmo]

They are no longer using the invite system as they've managed to balance demand, production issues and other issue that adversely affected the streamlining of production(or that is my assumption).

Even if the invite system wasn't initiated because of difficulties that arise with tying up revenue in stock, which tends to kill any start up; it can be viewed as social advertizing.  Just like Google plus did, facebook before it and dozens of others since.  I do not see it as anything sinister in the case of OnePlueOne.  They've been very clear that they have no interest in spending money advertizing, and if this generates free buzz then great.  But lets be honest, any device that hits the topdog specs, does it for half the price and isn't complete rubbish would be talked about by techies the world over regardless.

AFAIK they still use the invite system. They're starting to have days where they do preorders, but it's for a short window, and they run out quickly.

If you go to their website, you're still told you need to get an invite. Sinister, no. Stupid, yes. They could have sold many more units than they have. The demand was clearly there.

Preorders from launch would have been the smartest idea, and the best way to gauge interest.

They plan to make money off of accessories, which hasn't seemed to pan out with their supposed cancellation of the swappable back covers.

It'll be interesting to see where they go from here.