My Rift just broke!

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Something inside the spring loaded headphone arm mechanism on my Oculus Rift just snapped, two little pins have fallen out and the arm now hangs down limply at the side.

I bought the Rift less than a year ago (just) through Amazon but don't see any kind of link against my Amazon order for dealing with this.

I've sent a support ticket directly to Oculus.

Anyone had any experience with getting replacement parts/headsets from Oculus?
What's the best way to contact them?
Am I going to have a problem getting a replacement given I didn't buy directly from Oculus?
Worst case I guess I can just buy a replacement headphone arm?

Any reassurance anyone can give me (or just a hug) would be much appreciated.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Hell Razor5543 said:
I bought my Rift directly from Oculus, and when I have had problems they have been very helpful. I would not be surprised if they (after diagnosis checks) sent you replacement parts. I do know that (on their website) you can buy replacement ear pieces (with the in-ear buds).

https://www.oculus.com/accessories/
Click to expand...

£39 for a replacement set of on-ear headphones ... well that ain't bad. Guess I'll wait to hear back from Oculus first. In the meantime where'd I put my blutak?
 

CMDR Minion Blob

CMDR Minion Blob
Alec Turner said:
£39 for a replacement set of on-ear headphones ... well that ain't bad. Guess I'll wait to hear back from Oculus first. In the meantime where'd I put my blutak?
Click to expand...

Unless you absolutely hate earbud-style phones for some reason, might as well go for a set of those for 49. As they indicate, it's a significant upgrade to the stock on-ears in terms audio quality, specifically bass and upper treble range. I've upgraded to these buds ever since Oculus released them and never looked back.

The only advantage I can attribute to the stock on-ears are demo scenarios where the headset is being shared by several users and would prove more sanitary and require no personalization (fitting of different size inserts as needed).
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
CMDR Minion Blob said:
Unless you absolutely hate earbud-style phones for some reason, might as well go for a set of those for 49. As they indicate, it's a significant upgrade to the stock on-ears in terms audio quality, specifically bass and upper treble range. I've upgraded to these buds ever since Oculus released them and never looked back.

The only advantage I can attribute to the stock on-ears are demo scenarios where the headset is being shared by several users and would prove more sanitary and require no personalization (fitting of different size inserts as needed).
Click to expand...

I absolutely hate earbud-style phones. Thanks for the heads-up tho! :)
 

Ultra

U
That's pretty gutting mate but if somethings going to break then that's probably the best part to go as you can at least use another set.
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Oculus are currently investigating. I've just described what happened in more detail and attached a bunch of photos of the broken headphone as requested. I'll keep this thread posted as to what happens next.
 

Frank

Frank
My headphone speakers went on mine. They didn't need any photos from me and were prompt in getting a pickup scheduled to replace my headset.

The problem is that the headset went to the Netherlands to get replaced. It took about 9 days for the replacement to arrive. I'm handling the new headset with kid gloves.

When the approval arrives they'll tell you they want every bit back, so be prepared for that.*





*facts and figures are remembered as accurately as possible for a senile old man whose currently at work and doesn't have access to any corroborating documents
 
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Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Frank said:
My headphone speakers went on mine. They didn't need any photos from me and were prompt in getting a pickup scheduled to replace my headset.

The problem is that the headset went to the Netherlands to get replaced. It took about 9 days for the replacement to arrive. I'm handling the new headset with kid gloves.

When the approval arrives they'll tell you they want every bit back, so be prepared for that.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I have everything but I guess I might end up weighing up the hassle factor of packing it all away, posting it back and waiting for a replacement against the option of simply buying a new set of replacement headphones for £39. If they're really going to replace the entire headset (rather than just the headphones) then I guess I also have to weigh up the pro's and con's of replacing a 1yr old (but working perfectly) headset with a brand new headset (potentially prone to its own set of manufacturing deficiencies).

What would you folks do in this situation?
 

Hell Razor5543

H
When mine went wrong I sent it back. The audio issue I had was not a fault with the speaker (as it stayed on the light hand side when the speakers were swapped over).
 

Frank

Frank
Alec Turner said:
Thanks for the info. I have everything but I guess I might end up weighing up the hassle factor of packing it all away, posting it back and waiting for a replacement against the option of simply buying a new set of replacement headphones for £39. If they're really going to replace the entire headset (rather than just the headphones) then I guess I also have to weigh up the pro's and con's of replacing a 1yr old (but working perfectly) headset with a brand new headset (potentially prone to its own set of manufacturing deficiencies).

What would you folks do in this situation?
Click to expand...

You know what my choice was in the same situation, but I'll give you my reasoning. I'm actually quite a fan of the integral headphones. They make it easy to don and doff the headset. There's only one cable. And I discovered when playing music through them that they are of fairly high quality. The Oculus gamesmakers know exactly the target headphones, and can tailor their sounds for them.
 
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Alec Turner

Alec Turner
Frank said:
You know what my choice was in the same situation, but I'll give you my reasoning. I'm actually quite a fan of the integral headphones. They make it easy to don and doff the headset. There's only one cable. And I discovered when playing music through them that they are of fairly high quality. The Oculus gamesmakers know exactly the target headphones, and can tailor their sounds for them.
Click to expand...

Oh I agree about the integral headphones, I think they're absolutey brilliant and I'm a big fan of over ear headphones anyway so there's no question of replacing them one way or the other. The real question is do I want to replace the entire headset (which basically works fine apart from the broken headphone arm) at Oculus's expense (and quite rightly so, the product broke in under a year) but with a certain amount of hassle on my own part (and a small but geuine risk that the new headset will have some new fault such as a dodgy OLED), or keep my old (but faithful) headset, swallow the cost and buy myself a replacement set of over-ear headphones?

Having written that I'm tending towards the latter. I'll wait and see what Oculus say first tho.
 

Hell Razor5543

H
When I had problems with my Rift I got the impression that, had it been a user replaceable part, Oculus would have sent out a replacement set of speakers. If I am right it is possible they would make that suggestion (which would show good customer service on their part, and would mean their customer could enjoy their equipment for longer).
 

NeilF

NeilF
Alec Turner said:
Something inside the spring loaded headphone arm mechanism on my Oculus Rift just snapped, two little pins have fallen out and the arm now hangs down limply at the side.

I bought the Rift less than a year ago (just) through Amazon but don't see any kind of link against my Amazon order for dealing with this.

I've sent a support ticket directly to Oculus.

Anyone had any experience with getting replacement parts/headsets from Oculus?
What's the best way to contact them?
Am I going to have a problem getting a replacement given I didn't buy directly from Oculus?
Worst case I guess I can just buy a replacement headphone arm?

Any reassurance anyone can give me (or just a hug) would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hope it gets repaired/replaced OK!

I'll also make sure I treat mine more carefully now! They do tend to get bent around a bit during putting the headset on...
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Oh my god don't go via the manufacturer rma if you bought from amazon... reddit is full of horror stories for that...

Cancel that and contact amazon support, they will help you and they will deal with the hassle that is VR headset RMA (which is terrible with both manufacturers)...
 

Alec Turner

Alec Turner
StarLightPL said:
Oh my god don't go via the manufacturer rma if you bought from amazon... reddit is full of horror stories for that...

Cancel that and contact amazon support, they will help you and they will deal with the hassle that is VR headset RMA (which is terrible with both manufacturers)...
Click to expand...

Really?

I didn't have much luck finding an obvious link for Amazon support of this nature so I tried Oculus direct. What's the best contact for amazon for this kind of thing?
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Alec Turner said:
Really?

I didn't have much luck finding an obvious link for Amazon support of this nature so I tried Oculus direct. What's the best contact for amazon for this kind of thing?
Click to expand...

I don't have experience with Amazon, but their support is legendary, contrary to my own experience with HTC support and their RMA process. My headset broke a bit over 2 weeks after purchase (so outside of return window), and it was an obvious hardware issue (displaying a vertical bar in right eye). Despite that, and having proof my Vive is defective (checked with another vive), the support reps tried to con me into admitting my headset was okay, then dragging me through totally unnecessary checklists like power management in windows etc. etc.. After not-so-politely telling the third support guy that I am a programmer with ~15 years experience and I made sure this is a hardware error even by trying with another hardware, I got issued a RMA shipment label.
Shipped it out to another country, and waited a whole month with nobody knowing what is going on with my vive and the ticket in status "waiting for parts". At last I found a competent support tech, and after a series of hard but fair questions from my side, he finally escalated the issue, and it got solved in a week and sent back to me. Of course despite three times checking (because they fudged it first time) of return address they managed to forget my street address, and sent the headset on its way on the basis of postcode, town and country (OMG). Luckily my phone number was on the label, so the courier company called and I clarified, but that was one step away from total disaster. To add insult to injury, I contacted support on the same day the headset arrived but before the courier call, and the support told me they just sent a "hurry up" e-mail to the repair center...

And if you see reddit (trust me, better don't do it unless bad things happen, for consolation), there are similar horror stories, and even worse too on both Oculus and Vive reddits. I just hope they won't try to tell you it was your fault (because it broke on warranty). Check how much longer you have the warranty tho, you still might want to cancel that and contact amazon support. They're much better at least according to reddit and you might even end up with a replacement HMD.
 
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Verdigris

V
StarLightPL said:
Oh my god don't go via the manufacturer rma if you bought from amazon... reddit is full of horror stories for that...

Cancel that and contact amazon support, they will help you and they will deal with the hassle that is VR headset RMA (which is terrible with both manufacturers)...
Click to expand...

Really? I actually had a good experience with North American based Oculus support. Wonder if it's a regional issue, I just got lucky, or others just got unlucky. I'm amazingly picky about my customer service/support and feel Oculus did a good job. You can read here
 
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