Tax-Free* | 18-Month Warranty | 30 Day Returns Guaranteed.
Customer Review
David C. Laffler
2.0
Failed when it countedReviewed in the United States on May 4, 2020
I bought one of these in Feb 2018, and liked it so much I bought a 2nd in July 2018. I have hardwired both to my vehicles and use approved SD cards. The cameras always chimed on and off when I got in/got out of the cars. I particularly loved the inward facing camera and the picture quality.These are solid-feeling, well-made cameras. No loose casings and appear to be good materials. I felt very good about finding them. So why the 1 star?Yesterday I was sitting in a parking lot and a guy didn't negotiate a turn well while towing a camper trailer. He struck my vehicle with the side of the trailer and tore the front bumper and headlight off, and pushed the fender in. I was lucky in that he was a nice guy and we exchanged info with no problem.I went to file a claim with his insurance (after taking pictures) and stated I probably had dash cam footage too. When I went to retrieve the footage it was not there. The minutes prior to the incident were there (on the road to the location) and some time after the incident was there, but no incident recording. What if it had been a worse situation?I went to review the other footage from it and noticed there are gaps in the recordings. The camera is set to record in continuous loop mode. I took the other one out of my Jeep to review it. There are gaps in it's recordings too. I did some Googling and found a couple forums that mention this issue as well.I reached out to Vantrue saying that I do not want compensation, but that my confidence in their product is severely damaged. I offered to return the units to them should they like to analyze them - since it's a possible/widespead issue. Their response:Hello D,We feel very sorry for the incident and for any inconvenience caused to you.Most of the time, the camera can record an accident.But if the incident is severe or for some reason the power is disconnected during the hit, the camera will lose power and thus probably won't be able to record the event. This happens occasionally.We apologize for any inconvenience caused to you.If you want to file a case, we have some tips.You can report this to local traffic policy to file a case and have them check the owner of the vehicle from the road video for you.If you bought insurance for your car, you can file a case and have your insurance company compensate you.Hope this information helps you.Best Regards,HelenVantrue Customer Service Team--I responded with clarification that I don't need advice filing a police report - just that I wanted to make them aware of the issue. I am pending a response and will update this review.UPDATE 05-07-20They responded after some confusion/language barrier issues. They offered some incentives - a discount and an SD card. Fair enough, but not interested. The product didn't function as intended. As stated, this is a product that only has to work once, but HAS to work that one time. The end result of the two emails below is:1. They know there is an issue with the intermittent recording, most importantly.2. They will take the cameras back for analysis with another offered incentive. I will be sending the cameras back to them.Hello D,Thank you for waiting. My manager reviewed your case and asked me to express our apology to you.A. Among all the reviews on N2P, some reviewers mentioned that the camera can't record an accident; other reviewers mentioned that the camera captured the accident (some of them sent us the videos via email). You may also check Vantrue FACEBOOK page. Some users often upload videos to FACEBOOK and YouTube.https://www.facebook.com/vantrue.live/B. Yes, we are aware of the camera performance during an accident. There are some technical restraints about this and some of them is difficult to control. We have been trying to improve this. We apologize for any inconvenience caused to you.To make the camera capture the video, there are some conditions:Sometimes customers use an over-used card or card that is designed for phones, the camera can't write videos into the card during extreme circumstances. Or the camera had been used for a long time and all the camera components are not as sharp as before. I noticed that 2 of your camera seem to have passed the Vantrue 18 months warranty period.When a car gets hit, the camera will sense the vibration and record, saving the video at the Event folder.There are some factors that may cause the videos to disappear:1. The accident was beyond the monitoring range of the camera.2. The vibration was not big enough and the video was saved at the "normal folder".3. If the accident happened at the end of a video clip for just a few seconds, the whole clip will be saved at the "event" folder, but the rest of the accident will be recorded into the next clip, and saved at the "normal folder", so please check both folders as per the time of the accident.4. When the card was stuck at that moment, then nothing can be recorded.5. If the accident was severe and break off the power supply off, the camera won't record at that moment.6. When the event folder takes up 30% of the whole memory card, the event videos will recycle themselves, meaning the old event videos will be erased. Would you please check this? If it is possible, please send us the screenshot of the videos close to the time of the accident.C. You mentioned that your camera doesn't record videos anymore.Would you please help check what firmware version does your camera have and update firmware to V37? (Go to System Setup->System Info)To express our apology, we would like to send you a Vantrue 128GB card as a gift if it records again.The sales team is also willing to offer 30% discount for N1Pro, N2 Pro, N2, T2, S1, or X4 model.--Hi D,Thanks for your time to read this email. I hope I'm not interrupting you. This is Ariel from Vantrue store.1.So sorry that we didn't bring the pleasurable using experience for you. We appreciate your sharing and advice, and we would try our best to solve it.You can return the defective item to the following address, so that our product department can examine them and analyze it to improve product quality better and avoid the same issue.WXDT + Troy Li1101 Executive Dr ,Richardson, TX 75081 US334-372-6136/972-333-4401(Remember to take out your SD card and don't ship it back.After ship it, please send us the screen shot of the shipping receipt. Thank you!)2. I just noticed that this camera warranty has expired. According to our warranty poliy, we cover 18 months free replacement warranty for the cameras.To express our apology, if you need a new camera, we can offer a 30% discount for you to buy our N2 Pro dashcam.If you don't need it, please don't worry, we have applied to the manager to refund you $30 as compensation. What do you think of it?Many thanks for your kindness and understanding.Have a lovely week. Waiting for your reply.Best regards,ArielVantrue Customer Service Team--As a customer I certainly appreciate their apologies and effort to make it right. I am not interested in a replacement from them but on this situation there's only so much they can do. For their effort I will adjust my review up a star - but the fact remains the cameras MAY be unreliable to however many people have bought them until the intermittentMy advice is caveat emptor.
