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***Five Star Review? Buyer Should Have Serious Doubts About Buying From Reolink
Leaving five stars because most people only look at the great reviews...so here is a more rounded review that should give everyone pause before they buy.
Let me start by saying that I love the cameras. Bought 4 here and 3 more directly from Reolink on their Ebay store. The cameras have great picture quality and if you follow the instructions for setup using the bar codes, it takes about 45 seconds to get them up and running.
And I am returning all of them. Further, I would strongly encourage all prospective buyers to strongly consider looking elsewhere for their security camera needs. Reolink is simply INEPT when it comes to backing up their products.
A couple of weeks ago I bought 4 of these cameras. At $150 a camera with the solar panel, they are not cheap. As instructed during the setup of one of them, I went to lift up the little 1/2 inch by 3/8 rubber flap that covers the on/off switch and secures it from rain. The flap is held to the camera with a paper clip thick protrusion that goes into the body of the camera. When I pulled at it, that extremely thin piece of rubber holding the flap to the camera, broke. I didn't pull it hard, and I do not have super human strength. It just sort of broke and although I can still place the flap into the camera, it needs to be repaired because if it ever falls off, the entire camera will be ruined.
I didn't think this was a big deal.
I was wrong.
I wrote to the company and explained the situation. I explained that the cover tore and I wanted to know how I could get a replacement cover. I would be happy to cover the costs. No problem. And I made it clear that I only needed the little cover because the camera otherwise worked fine. I just need the cover!
Their response was that they wanted me to send them a picture of the camera. Admittedly, I was irritated. So I wrote back that I was surprised that they wanted a picture of this because the camera worked....I just needed the small cover and that I could probably buy it on ebay for a few cents plus shipping. This thing seemed like a no-brainer to me.
They wrote back and said...oh, now that we understand that the camera works they will refer it to their techs.
Great.
Next day (and keep in mind that their turnaround is always a day later) I get an email asking me to send them a copy of the invoice. No problem. I did that within a minute.
Next day..we enter the Twilight Zone. Instead of simply writing back to me with something saying that they are shipping out the new cover, I get an email asking me to send them the link of the Ebay listing for the cover I found so that they can tell me if it will fit the camera. HUH? So they have gone from taking responsibility for making a cheaply connected cover to helping me ensure that a third party solution (that did not exist) would fit their camera? This was sort of nutso.
I wrote back and said simply that I did not find a cover on ebay.
This morning - another 24 hours later - comes the latest response...they want to give me a 5 dollar refund.
Now you would expect that a company selling a 150 dollar camera with a rubber cover for the on/off switch would grasp that the cover that they designed for their own camera to protect the switch from rain/snow/etc had an actual purpose for existing...but these folks instead want to refund me five bucks to accomplish what exactly? Am I supposed to tape the five dollar bill over the switch to protect it? I just need a new tiny cover!
So I am now a week into this silliness and I have had enough. These cameras are not cheap. So before you buy from these folks, think very seriously about the warranty and support that they give and ask yourself if you should be going for products made by Google or Netgear because there is no doubt that a similar situation with their products would have resulted in a replacement part coming in roughly 2 days.
Reolink makes great cameras. But they simply have no ability to back up their products with support that should make people comfortable. I have lost confidence in this company.
All of my cameras...a thousand dollars of cameras...are going back because they can't figure out how to send out a tiny rubber cover that cost them a few cents.
Pathetic.
September 2020 · Electronics · verified purchase