Tax-Free* | 18-Month Warranty | 30 Day Returns Guaranteed.
Customer Review
schyler wessels
2.0
Don't buy, can explode.Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2019
I used this camera for 24 months. It's picture quality and interior night vision are decent. It's menu isn't the easiest, but for the price that's acceptable.What isn't acceptable is that after 24 months, the small battery in the camera failed violently. The camera made a very loud "pop" while I was driving in the freeway one night (it felt like a large firework went off a few feet from my head, ears ringing the whole number), and ejected it self from the mount. I had paying customers in the car (Uber/Lyft). Now all files are corrupted, won't record new files. Of course, it's out of warranty. You can get the Thinkware fa200 IR for less money, and it has a capacitor instead of a battery so this will never happen.Edit:Vantrue customer support initially confirmed that the product was out of warranty, and that it was only covered for 18 months. They also stated that the battery exploding was "not life threatening".Edit 2:After some back and forth, vantrue has sent me a replacement. I still feel that the Thinkware FA200 IR is a superior product as it uses a super capacitor rather than a battery. I will likely use this replacement until it inevitably fails, and then but the Thinkware.Edit 3:Vantrue support has requested that I further update my review. I am thoroughly satisfied with the customer support experience that I received from vantrue. Even though I felt that they were initially flippant with my concerns over their product exploding while I was driving, they ended up replacing the product. a manager with fancher has reached out and requested that I specifically rate this product four to five stars. Considering that I would separately rate my customer service experience with vantrue about 4.5, and the product a 1, I cannot rate this product higher than 2 stars. Even a stellar customer service experience is hindered by an inferior and possibly dangerous product. if vantrue did a recall and reissued this camera with a supercapacitor that does not explode instead of a battery which can (and in my case did), I would be happy to reassess this product review. For reasons including a very good customer service experience, and a very poor product experience (including ongoing issues with mounts, memory card issues, corrupted files, etc), my rating for this product remains a 2.
