Heads up regarding warranty issues when choosing your VR headset of choice

[Globusdiablo]

An important matter that I haven't seen mentioned when comparing Oculus and Vive is warranty and availability.

I can't speak for the rest of the world, but as a Danish Commander, warranty and availability for the two HMDs are very different:

The Vive: 2 year warranty that follows the product (which means that it can be resold and still have warranty), and it can be bought and serviced through my local electronics store.

The Oculus: 1 year warranty that falls away if resold. I have to buy it overseas, and ship overseas for service.

This actually makes choice a non issue for me, and I will be getting a Vive when FD and HTC have made the device work as well in Elite: Dangerous as the Oculus does. Which will be "soon (tm)"... I wish...

Fly safe all.

Added info:
Apparently the 2 year warranty does apply in some cases:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...et-of-choice?p=4302369&viewfull=1#post4302369

Second update:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...et-of-choice?p=4302405&viewfull=1#post4302405

But the nullification of the waranty on resale still stands. Which means that if I buy it and don't like it, warranty falls away even if it's only a few days old.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

It might not be entirely FD that needs to get the vive sorted, but also steamvr.
For instance oculus uses asynchronous timewarp keeping frames as high as they can.
The vive on the other hand frame limits as soon as it cant keep 90 to 45 fps.

This is not fd's doing.

As far as fd rewriting their rendering pipes because of the vive is honestly not going to happen.
It might get pushed into consideration when they have to do the work anyways but I doubt that would happen no sooner than season 3, probably not before season 4.

By then we will have gpu's pretty much capable of brute forcing it.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

It might not be entirely FD that needs to get the vive sorted, but also steamvr.
For instance oculus uses asynchronous timewarp keeping frames as high as they can.
The vive on the other hand frame limits as soon as it cant keep 90 to 45 fps.

This is not fd's doing.

As far as fd rewriting their rendering pipes because of the vive is honestly not going to happen.
It might get pushed into consideration when they have to do the work anyways but I doubt that would happen no sooner than season 3, probably not before season 4.

By then we will have gpu's pretty much capable of brute forcing it.

 

[jabokai]

Oculus warranty is 24 months in the EU. It's an EU thing.

 

[Chainguns]

Oculus warranty is 24 months in the EU. It's an EU thing.

Do Oculus sell via an EU entity or under a contract governed by an EU member state? Also be aware of the difference between law and practice. Global giants all too often think they're above the law and have the in-house legal resources to fight local consumer protection authorities on all sorts of technicalities until you lose the will to live/the device becomes obsolete. In the end there is only so much a small EU member state consumer protection body can do against a big US giant that just says "no" for years on end.

On topic - would like to extend this warning for Razer's OSVR - it also foists a 30 day warranty probably in breach of local law and if you want to get it repaired or refunded you have to courier at your own cost - with track and tace - to the US. In my case this would have meant paying 64% of the cost of the device to UPS which meant it would have been stupid to go ahead with the RMA. Very sad considering it flashed up a legal sale purchase agreement with an Irish entity when ordering and ships from Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

 

[Globusdiablo]

It might not be entirely FD that needs to get the vive sorted, but also steamvr.
For instance oculus uses asynchronous timewarp keeping frames as high as they can.
The vive on the other hand frame limits as soon as it cant keep 90 to 45 fps.

This is not fd's doing.

As far as fd rewriting their rendering pipes because of the vive is honestly not going to happen.
It might get pushed into consideration when they have to do the work anyways but I doubt that would happen no sooner than season 3, probably not before season 4.

By then we will have gpu's pretty much capable of brute forcing it.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

It might not be entirely FD that needs to get the vive sorted, but also steamvr.
For instance oculus uses asynchronous timewarp keeping frames as high as they can.
The vive on the other hand frame limits as soon as it cant keep 90 to 45 fps.

This is not fd's doing.

As far as fd rewriting their rendering pipes because of the vive is honestly not going to happen.
It might get pushed into consideration when they have to do the work anyways but I doubt that would happen no sooner than season 3, probably not before season 4.

By then we will have gpu's pretty much capable of brute forcing it.

Good lord TorTorden, you're an insistent fellow aren't you.

Oculus warranty is 24 months in the EU. It's an EU thing.

Nope. If you buy an Oculus from Oculus, you're buying from a company based in the US. US law applies. In this specific case:

https://www3.oculus.com/en-us/legal/limited-warranty/

"...Oculus issues this Warranty to you, as a consumer who has
purchased a new, covered product from Oculus or an authorized retailer (“you”). This
Warranty cannot be assigned or transferred to any subsequent purchaser or user and is
not available to products that were purchased used or from any source other than Oculus
or an authorized retailer..."

And

"...This limited Warranty continues for one (1) year from the
date of purchase or delivery of the Product, whichever is later (the “Warranty Period”). However,
if you purchase the Product from within the EU, the Warranty Period shall be two (2) years..."

This last clause can be debated of course. I understand it as buying it from from a retailer within EU. Which there isn't at the moment.

In any event, the fact that the warranty falls away if I want to sell it, makes it a no go for me.

And I can try before I buy the Vive. Not so with the Oculus.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

Nope. If you buy an Oculus from Oculus, you're buying from a company based in the US. US law applies.

Are you sure about that? My sales invoice has "Oculus VR Ireland Limited" with a Dublin address (ordered from the UK). Not sure if the Dublin office covers the whole of Europe.

As far as I'm concerned I purchased from within the EU so my warranty is 2 years.

 

[Globusdiablo]

Are you sure about that? My sales invoice has "Oculus VR Ireland Limited" with a Dublin address (ordered from the UK). Not sure if the Dublin office covers the whole of Europe.

As far as I'm concerned I purchased from within the EU so my warranty is 2 years.

I stand corrected I guess. It certainly sounds as if you have the full European warranty. But I'm assuming that you can't sell it on without voiding the warranty? What does your fine print say?

I was merely refering to the information that I could find online.

I'll add this info to my initial post.

 

[Khaldur]

Nope. If you buy an Oculus from Oculus, you're buying from a company based in the US. US law applies.

Wrong.

In the EU if you order a Rift you order it from Oculus Ireland Ltd. That's inside the EU, so EU rules must be applied. The fact that the parent company resides in the US is irrelevant here. Any terms and conditions in the contract that contradict EU regulations or the buyer's country's laws are null and void in that case.
Independent from that, IMHO for internet sales the buyer's country's law applies anyways, at least regarding business-to-consumer contracts, even from outside of the EU.

 

[Globusdiablo]

Wrong.

In the EU if you order a Rift you order it from Oculus Ireland Ltd. That's inside the EU, so EU rules must be applied. The fact that the parent company resides in the US is irrelevant here. Any terms and conditions in the contract that contradict EU regulations or the buyer's country's laws are null and void in that case.
Independent from that, IMHO for internet sales the buyer's country's law applies anyways, at least regarding business-to-consumer contracts, even from outside of the EU. If you cannot comply to Danish law, don't sell your products to Danmark.

Again I stand corrected. Thank you. Can you confirm the annulment of warranty on resale?

 

[Khaldur]

Warranty for resales seems to be a difficult topic. I have to say I'm neither a lawyer nor an expert on such issues.
The reseller himself usually doesn't give any warranty which is possible for a private person.
The manufacturer's warranty doesn't automatically transfer to the new owner unless that's specifically mentioned in a written resale contract. And even then the manufacturer might not accept that. That's not a problem if you've got an anonymous receipt from the original sale (as it's common in retail sale), but that's usually not the case with internet sales.
AFAIK there are no clear rules for that so if you cannot agree with the manufacturer you might have to take that to court with all the trouble and risks that come with it.

 

[popuptoaster]

Any goods sold in the UK have to be "fit for purpose" and "of good quality" effectively this means that even if the warranty has run out your item should be free of defects and work for a reasonable amount of time. You have the right to repairs or replacement if needed for up to Six years for white goods and TVs and i would argue that a £700 headset easily qualifies for the same rights as a TV, i dare say it hasn't come up in court yet though.

Consumer rights have negated the need for extended warranties in the UK for years never understood why people pay extra for them.

Any big store such as Tesco for example (my ex used to be in charge of returns so I use and example I know about) will replace items straight away provided you have the receipt and it looks well cared for, they know legally the onus is on the retailer to sort the problem out.

 

[dannyboy]

This actually makes choice a non issue for me, and I will be getting a Vive when FD and HTC have made the device work as well in Elite: Dangerous as the Oculus does

It was a simple choice for me too. The Vive is far too expensive for me, even if it does include touch controllers and room scale capability. My man cave is far too small for me to do any room scale stuff anyway.

Not that I have anything against the Vive, mind. If money was no object I'd happily have both

 

[Chaz]

If money was no object I'd happily have both

Originally that was my plan too. Then they announced their prices.

 

[dannyboy]

Originally that was my plan too. Then they announced their prices.

They're both overpriced, IMO. All that guff from Oculus last year about selling it as cheaply as possible, and when it's actually released it's £500 . And the Vive is even more.