RMA to Hong Kong?

Product Discussion Peplink Balance
#1

Have a 20X that’s been occasionally rebooting itself, support want me to RMA the device, but have given me an return address in Hong Kong.

Does anyone know the cost of shipping from UK > Hong Kong and also what customs forms I’d presumably need?

Also does this effectively mean I’ll be without a Balance for however long that takes?

I’m not convinced it’s a hardware fault to be honest, it was rebooting fairly frequently previously until I disabled PMTU discovery on a SIT tunnel and it’s currently had 15d of uptime (The reboot 15d ago wasn’t initiated by me as far as I can remember)

#2

Hi. You can’t deal directly with the Peplink Partner from which you purchased it to handle the RMA issue?

#3

This would be my first port of call also, speak to the partner who sold you the unit.

#4

I’ve sent them an email to see if they can assist, will follow up if I don’t get a response.

#5

Support have arranged for one of their partners to handle the RMA, interestingly not the one I purchased from but I presume it’s something to do with it being a Primecare part and peplink handling the case directly.

The partner I purchased from did at least respond to my email but it looks like this has happened in the meantime (or the partner did some prodding from their side)

I’d have liked some more detail as to what support saw that made them come to the conclusion it’s a hardware problem but I doubt i’ll get that so I’ll go ahead with the RMA and see if it does indeed solve it.

Edit: Same problem but a different country now :frowning:

#6

The partner who sold it did agree in the end to take the RMA, however now Peplink are saying since they do not have the unit yet they’re not sending out a replacement, so i’ve gone from having a balance that occasionally rebooted (as in it had weeks of uptime) to not having a balance and being given the run around.

Given the current experience of getting the unit replaced I really cannot recommend peplink at all, they seem to think it’s reasonable to request the customer ship a unit half way round the world, provide no help with the logistics of doing so and then be largely dis-interested in providing a workable alternative.

To be clear the quote I got for shipping to HK was around £150 although that was just a quick quote on a couriers website, the quote I got for shipping to the distributor was more reasonable but due to Brexit I was unclear on if I’d need any customs paperwork to ship it, I go No help from either peplink or the distributor on that matter.

I’m not someone who needs to ship things abroad so I have no idea what’s required so I don’t think it unreasonable to ask the distributor or peplink who must be doing it on a fairly regular basis for help with the required paperwork, at no point did I ever ask them to pay for shipping just for help with the paperwork.

All I want is a working Balance 20x to replace the one that support requested me to return, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

I’ve also suggested in the ticket Peplink overhaul the RMA process for primecare devices.

#7

Something is broken in that process there for sure. Thanks for taking the time to highlight the issue.
I’m sure Peplink will investigate what happened here and look at ways to improve things.

#8

Hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel, Support are currently looking at if they can do anything to speed up the RMA process and the partner I purchased from has offered to loan me a b20 (don’t have a 20x available at the moment).

It looks like my 20x is somewhere in transit between the partner and peplink at the moment, I’ll wait for an update from support before confirming with the partner regarding the loan device (I Have a tik doing balancing at the moment so it’s not super critical but I’d like to get my SF bonding back)

1 Like
#11

Hi @dragon2611,

We are looking at ways to speed up the process for you. Please follow up in the ticket for additional details.

#12

This did get resolved in the end, however the RMA process for primecare parts really could use some improvement.