I had a bad experience with DOFReality

[Natalucciu]

Hello,
First of all, I'd like to apologize for any English mistake I could make as English is not my main language.

I am going to tell my story about this DOFReality brand.
I had problems with my rig, happens, I've been trying for weeks to solve my issue, with and without the help of the after sales service. Let me explain.

I bought a DoF Reality H3 in March 2019.
At first, I've been pleasantly surprised how well and sturdy it looked.
I've assembled, balanced and configured everything, not the better part, definitely not plug and play, but far from unachievable.
I could then race a few hours with my old and trusty G25 and it was awesome! But a few days later, I've received my MIGE 20 Nm Direct Drive.
Guys, don't try to put a DD on the base mount.
So, I reinforced the whole platform with some 40x40 profiles I had from my static cockpit, way better now!

Then the problems begun.

After I would say 30 to 50 hours of dirt roads, powerslides, jumps and let be honest, a few crashes, I noticed some jerky movements. The rig begun to be very unstable and the movements wich was nice and smooth became so jerky I wasn't able to use the H3 in dynamic mode, had to play in static for a while.
At first I tried to fix the problem myself by balancing the platform as good as I could, but it was already very well balanced, so I started to browse the internet looking for someone who have the same problem as me.
And I did found. A lot of cases. Seems to be a common problem. I read some people had to replace the motors.
Nothing I could fix by myself.

I then told to myself, "Ok, it's a common problem then, they should be able to help me out"...

So, just before the warranty period expires, in early March 2020 I decided to contact DoF Reality. I explained the problem in detail. With a video showing what's going on.
They told me: Balance better, move the rig to the front, to the back, are you in the rig when it happens, do sine tests.
Sine tests, maybe I am not able to interpret, but If I understand well, the potentiometer should follow the sine sent by the driver and it's obviously not the case in the tests I ran.
I did all these tests and nothing helped.
Well after 6 days trying to solve the issue, they finally agreed to send me new "gearboxes".
I was kinda happy because I did not understand Gearbox is not a motor. I thought it was the whole component Motor + Gearbox.
And we agreed to replace two of them, but...
They've only sent me ONE gearbox, no motor.

I had to change the gearbox myself ! I did it, that's not difficult, but do you think it's normal a consumer has to change mechanical parts by himself ?
But the fun part is; it did not fix any jerkyness at all.

I would like you to read every email I sent and what their answers has been.
I won't even correct the few english mistakes I could spot so there is absolutely no suspicions I could have modified anything.

Spoiler: eMails

Hello,
I'm running some issues with my H3 platform.
It worked great for a while but it's becoming more and more "jerky".
I join a video so you can see by yourself what is going on.
Please keep me informed if we can find a solution.
I am a little disappointed because it has 30 to 50 hours of running time and I always took care of it and I spent a lot of time trying to get it as balanced as possible.
Please let me know.
Thanks.
Here's the video describing the problem.

Hi Noël

strange in dead
0) it happened with you in the seat?
1) looks like right side over weighted. did you balance the platform as requested in the manual? if not pls do so
2) pls do sine test as per chapter 5.4 i nthe manual and send us charts for both front motors with you in the seat
3) pls do sine test as per chapter 5.4 i nthe manual and send us charts for both front motors without you in the seat

Hello, thanks for your fast response.
Unfortunately I'm not at the place where my simrig is so I can't do the sine tests for the moment but I will as soon as I get back to my place.
But I can answer at the firsts questions :
0) Yes it happens when I'm in it but the exact opposite way, in the video, as I'm not in it it happens when I tilt the platform forward, when I'm inside, it happens when I tilt it back.
1) Indeed, it's a bit unbalanced because I'm not in it, but when I'm inside it's perfectly balanced, as I said, I spent a lot of time trying to balance as precisely as possible. I can tilt the seat just by moving my head or my arms.

I'll try to get to my place tomorrow to run those sine tests.
Thank you for your interest in my request.

according to your answers to 0) it is a balance issue
pls balance it

Ok, I hope this is the only reason, I'll to balance it even better.
I'll keep you informed.
Thanks again.

Hello,
So, I've been able to go to my place today.
I double checked everything on my rig, tightened every single bolt, removed a bit of weight and rebalanced it very precisely, I mean it was pretty good balanced but I listened to you and rebalanced even more precisely, now I can say the balance is heaven, near perfect !
Unfortunately it did not help, I have the same issue, even tho it seems to be a tiny bit less than before.
I wanted you to know as well that I'm not overloading the rig in any way, I weight 82kg so, far from the 130kg the rig is supposed to support.

Then I ran the sine tests you asked me to do, here's the results :

I of course joined the pictures of the graphs at this point.

I forgot to mention, I labeled the picture as InMotor1 and OutMotor1, "In" means I'm in the seat, "Out" means I'm not.

No response for 2 days

Hello,
Did you have time to take a look at the pictures I sent to you?
I'm really worry about the fact I may not be able to use the platform anymore.

Can you try to move the seat a bit forward and redo the tests sitting in it?

He joined a picture showing how to do it.

It's already in this position for me, do you want me to try the front position?

I joined pictures to show it was at the right place.

just move your weight in the seat = your weight a bit to the front temporary to see if it helps before changing the frame

Yeah, I tried, I swear I tried everything.
As soon as I move my weight on the front, the motors are jerky going up, when I move my weight to the back they are jerky going down.
And if the rig is perfectly balanced as it is right now, it's fine on the ±20 range, then it's jerky on both front and right directions.
One last thing:
Is it normal to have this much of play in the shafts?

I joined a video to show the backlash.

we will ship the replacement gearbox , but it is very strange

Well, I appreciate, but are you sure this is the problem ?
Because I have this much play on both sides. Even on the traction loss one, but it's not so inconvenient, I can't really feel it while playing.
Would you be able to show me what would be the "normal" play on these gearboxes ?
One more thing, I would like to buy your smoothing dampers.
Do you think it could help to prevent this issue from happening in the future ?
It would be perfect if you could send me the gearboxes and the dampers in one package.
I'll pay for the dampers and the shipping of course.
Would you want me to send you back the "faulty" gearboxes ?

This is strange as the play amount is fine but somehow the gearbox trackin was whered out
dampers will definitely help
i can put an order for you

I'm so sorry it's going this way, I wish everything was fine and I didn't bother you.
I don't want you to think that I overused or didn't take care of the rig and trying to get free replacements parts for mistakes I could have done, I swear I checked everything multiple times, I read a lot of topics on forums before I come to you, thinking I wasn't using the platform correctly, but now I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything wrong.

So, how do we do ?
Do I have to place an order on your website and you just add the gearboxes ?
Or do you want to send me a Paypal invoice by email ?

Ok, payment made.
Thank you so much for your understanding.
I'll keep you informed as soon as I receive the package, it may take a little longer than usual because of the COVID, France will be in quarantine from tomorrow.
Thanks again.

NP

Lol, "NP", really ?

40 days later :

Hi,
I just received the package today, and I have to say I'm very very disappointed !
We agreed that you send me 2 motors and you sent me just one gearbox with no motor, what's the point ?
I don't understand ? What I'm supposed to do ? Take the motor and the gearbox appart myself ? And reassemble it ? With absolutely no certitude it will solve the problem ?
That's very unprofessional from you.
I spent 2000€ for your platform, and I can't use it.
I'm very unhappy from your company and your after sales service.
What can I do now? Just sit on my 2000€ and throw my gear to trash ?
I want you to find a solution to my problem.

Hi Noël

Below I see that we promise to sent you one gearbox and you didn't mention that you want to purchase complete two motors
Pls follow this set of videos of the gearbox change

if you remove the protection ring and washer you can put a M6 washer towards the sensor rod to protect it and knock it from the sensor side
https://youtu.be/CbpF2KIPlAw

I don't want to purchase two motors.
I want you to replace my not working motors.
I want you to fix my not working platform.
I won't replace the gearbox by myself, I don't have the time, I'm not sure I'm able to do it and I'm pretty sure that is not the problem.
When you said "gearbox" I thought it was the whole component, Motor+gearbox.
Do you understand that I spent 2000€ + taxes in a piece of equipment I can't use ?
I'm very very unhappy.
I don't know what to do.
That is very frustrating, I just want to be able to use what iI paid for without spending this much of time.
And now I just can't.
I've waited more than a month to receive these replacement parts and I have to do the fix myself ?
No, I'm sorry, no.
I don't want to be rude but if you're not agree to find an amicable solution I will have to think differently.
I'm tired to try to fix this platform, it just doesn't work as intended.
Would you be ok if I send you back the whole rig and you refund me a partial amount of what I paid ?
That is the only solution I see, tell me if you have another one.

Hi Noël

I completely understand your frustration. But this the communication messages with you below were very clear.
1) our troubleshooting results in the one gear box issue. not a motor, not two motors. Just one gearbox.
2) we mentioned that we will ship it to you and you agreed to it
3) when you placed an order you've agreed to our sames and warranty terms https://dofreality.com/terms
Our mission is to make plug and play motion simulator platform affordable for many gaming enthusiasts.
We are scratching to the costs making it 2-3 times cheaper than any competition so many people dreaming of it can have it today.
the process of replacement of the gearbox is simple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqKDkyRNLU and should take you not more than an hour.

So, spend an hour replacing a (presumably) broken piece after 30 hours of playing is what you call plug and play ?
I'm sorry, I won't do it.

There is a missunderstanding, I thought it was the whole thing.
And I clearly told you I have the same problem on BOTH SIDES.
I told you a few times, I even sent you the sine graphs.
And you agreed there were a problem !
You didn't troubleshoot anything, I never received a message saying clearly "Here's your problem and here's how to solve it".
Even now you don't know what my problem is.
In fact maybe you know but you don't want to fix it, because i've seen a lot of people having the same jerking problem and I understood that is a common problem on your rig and it seems to come from the motors.

I don't care if you are "scratching to the costs making it 2-3 times cheaper than any competition" if it's to get a non working product.

I don't understand why you're mentionning "3) when you placed an order you've agreed to our sames and warranty terms https://dofreality.com/terms"
But since you point it out, let me remind me what's written on your terms :

5. Cancellations and refunds

5.1 By ordering a non-customized or customized product customer are entitled to a right of refund of the product cost only if the product is not working and was not restored to working condition by joint efforts of the seller and the buyer.

I tried everything I could.
I have the feeling that I just lost 2000€.

I've been very patient for months trying to solve this issue, but you don't seem to mind if you have a unhappy consummer, I don't know what I could do try to find an amicable solution.

Sorry, we did all needed, we send you part and instructions,
pls follow simple instructions and replace it and you will have working simulator

What if it's not working after that ?

We will help you out, as we always do

Two and a half hours later...

Ok, I just finished replacing the gearbox.
Absolutely no changes at all, problem still there, not better not worse, just exactly the same.

Pls send video. Or SMC sine charts as per 5.4

Hi,
Here's the charts you asked for.

I joined the pictures.

Hi Noël

Charts looks good, can you describe the issue in details ?

Are you serious ??
This is the same problem as the begining, jerky as hell, I sent you a video about it, I made every single adjustment you asked, why are you not reading what I write ?
Guys, it begins to be very annoying how bad faith you are showing.
You want me to send another video ?
Damn what can I do to prove that your platform IS NOT WORKING AS IT SHOULD ??
I don't even know how you interpret these charts but guys, your method is WRONG !
I can't play with your system, it's not how a simulator is supposed to work !
How the hell can you claim that I don't have any problem, it's 3 months I'm trying to fix it, nothing worked, we spent hours trying to solve this issue without any improvement and NOW you are asking me to describe the problem ???

Did you balance the platform and your weight as per instructions?

No, you can't be serious ?!
That's way ahead that I could ever imagine.
You are no limit!
Insane.
I understand now that I'm loosing my time...

I'm pretty sure some consumers will love to read our emails on sim racing forums.
I'm done, you don't want to fin a solution, right, I will file a complaint with a consumer association and I'll tell on every single forum I can find to avoid dealing with your company.

I'm sorry guys, you're doing everything wrong, your platforms are wrong, your after sales service is wrong.
Damn, that's huge, I've never been that disapointed in a product or a company, you are the worst.

Can you just confirm that you did balance the platform as it is critical?

Yes, I did.

it jerks on moth sides or one?

Both. Left, Right, Front, Rear, it's absolutely not smooth as it was at the beginning.

Strange
it was working well for a year and one month ago all of a sudden all 3 motors start misbehave and have significant play/slack ?
and replacement of one gearbox didn't help for that motor?

No, it's wasn't working well for a year !
I told you it has been working pretty fine for 30 to 50 hours maximum, I couldn't contact you earlier because of my work.
Again, you are not reading what I wrote, I told you that on the FIRST email I sent !
I don't know what's happening, if I knew the problem would be fixed by now, that's why I contacted you, for you to find a solution for me !
No, the new gearbox didn't solve anything. AT ALL !

strange as in the original email and investigation you mention problem only with one motor/gearbox
So all 3 motors were working great for about 50h and after it all of a sudden all 3 motors start misbehave and have significant play/slack all at the same time ?

I don't know if it's the motor !
I don't know what's the problem ! Do you understand that ? I'm not an expert, I'm not an engineer, I'm not a SimRacing company, I'm just a disappointed consumer...
I never told you it was sudden, maybe it's over time and I didn't realize a first.
I just told you it's faulty.
But every time I explain the problem, you keep saying "Balance it" "motors are fine" "Graphs are fine" "Too much weight"...
What next ?
You told me the play was fine, I trust you. What is the problem then ?? If it's not the motor, not the gear box, not the balance WHAT IS WRONG ???
All I can say is I CANT USE THE PLATFORM I PAID 2000€ FOR !
And it seems you don't want to help me and you imply that I'm doing something wrong !
Again, I've never done anything wrong !
I put money aside for months to acquire this rig and now it's all faulty and unusable.
That's a shame, I regret having bought it, I should have put more money aside and bought something more reliable.

Hi Noël

I was asking you simple questions to understand the situation better and still getting only accusation and threats .
It is extremely hard to help in this way of communication.
Even the platform is out of warranty as an exception we can repair it if you ship it to our agent in Poland and cover the return shipping as well.
Anton Mishchenko
Wloska 19/55
30-638, Krakow
Poland
+48575431492
if you don't need it any more we can do a partial refund (1200$) when you ship it all to Poland.
Please let me know

Don't be like that please I contacted you more than one month ago, I tried to fix anything I could by myself for weeks before I decide to contact you, I answered all your question as precisely as I could, I had to do like 200 kilometers to get the graphs you asked me the first time, I waited more than a month to get the "replacement" parts, I had to take 2 hours of my time replacing the gearbox.
And after all, the problem's still there.

And you're telling me I don't have patience?

The platform was still under warranty when I sent you the first email.

I'm going to go for a partial refund.
But I would like you to refund me the dampers as well, would you be ok to refund me $1400 in total?

Even though I don't think this is fair, because I would have lost more than a 1200€ for like 50 hours of driving, I would accept to end this terrible situation I'm going through.

What do you say?
$1400 and I send you back : the complete rig + the dampers + the old gearbox?

Ok nevermind.
It will cost me more than 400€ to ship.
I'm done, too much time and money lost.
Sorry to bother you.
I'll try to find another solution.
That's enough.
Thank you anyways, take care, bye.

DPD have great shipping rates for EU

DPD France | Envoi et suivi de colis en France et à l'international

Expert de la livraison rapide de colis vers les professionnels et les particuliers, à domicile et en relais - Suivre ou modifier ma livraison

www.dpd.fr

I can't use DPD, offices are closed because of the covid and I can't find anything on their website to even know how would it cost.
I tried UPS, TNT, DHL, Chronopost.
Either they tell me I can't send packages this big/heavy or it's at least 400€.
I'm giving up.
Honestly, I'm tired trying, too much frustration, to much efforts for way too much time.
I've lost too much time and money trying to get out of this situation, that's enough.
Thanks again for your time.

in few weeks all this virus hysteria will be gone and you will be able to ship it , and we will fix it, just give it some time

I don't want you to fix it, I don't want to pay 400 to 600 more Euros and wait weeks to get my rig back.
I told you I wanted a partial refund, I don't claim a full refund but a partial refund.
You told me how much money you will refund me, 1200$ - shipping which costs me 500$ so I get $700 out of my $2409 spent ($1989 the rig + $120 the dampers + $300 taxes I had to pay at delivery of the rig).
For a piece of equipment I've been able to use no more than 50 hours.
I'm not agree with that.
But as I said, I'm tired trying to get out of this situation.
I'm gonna put the rig in the shed and probably never use it again.
Too bad for my money and my hobbie, I'll wait couple of years to get a new one, from another company.
I wish you were a little more understanding and honest enough to admit there is something wrong.

No more response since then.

Now, I don't know what to do to get my money back or my rig to work.
But I hope you can see what a bad faith this company is showing.

I don't even ask for a full refund as I could use the rig just fine for a while, I'm an honnest guys and I would never try to take advantage of a situation to get free stuff or get money back from a purchase that I capriciously regret.

For me, I'm to the point I can't use my 2200€ rig because of a company wich is not able to assume there is a misconception in their products and shows bad faith regarding the real issue I encounter.
So, should you spend your hard earned money in a DoF Reality rig ?
That's your money, do whatever you want, but I can't recommend. I did it and I regret it. I should have waited a few more months and buy something more reliable.

So I feel like I just lost 2000€, the price of a SFX-100 system, think about that.

One last point, you know about these dampers they are selling ?
They are from the brand Matis and they are motorcycle direction dampers, the retail price is 380€ for one unit.
They are selling two of them for 120€.
Fact is, they are counterfeits.
Yes, counterfeits, not replicas, not chinese budget alternatives, counterfeits.
You can read the brand, model and even the "Made in Italy" mention.
I found this exact model on ebay for 60$ from... China...

Well that's a long message.
I hope you won't find this post too vindictive, but I can't stand this company's behavior, that's bad, for the consumer, for the simracing community and most of all I don't want someone else to be victim of these unscrupulous people.

If, like me, you are looking for a entry level sim rig, don't be bait by the price and the beautiful speeches you can read on their websites.
Don't trust Youtubers, they are doing reviews too soon, problems comes after a few weeks.
Do yourself a service, stay away from this company.

Thanks for reading, take care, bye.

 

[sneakygloworm]

I can't comment on the motors or how good the quality is. I thought the dof reality rigs were a bit of a bargain at the advertised price. However, therein also lies the problem. They're cheap. And money will be saved all over the place. I read of a guy snapping the foot plate off. Another guys rig completely collapsed, throwing him out (possibly because he was over the specified weight limit and had incorrectly balanced it). The motors come in 2 flavours for home and arcade use but 2 things always worried me with them. 1. The rig looks a bit flimsy and 2. The motors WILL give out at some point and they ain't cheap to replace. So, I went with a static rig and will add a next level V2 platform at a later date if need be. I'm sure the DOF reality rig is a good bargain at its price point but the longevity of them is something that puts a big "no" into my head. They really need a few years field testing to iron out the issues. I hope you get it sorted though.

 

[Natalucciu]

Hi,
Yeah, the problem is not about the quality, I mean, I knew it, at this price point, I wasn't expecting a high end product for sure, but I was expecting to use it more than 50 hours.
But, maybe my platform had this problem and maybe other people won't have any issue and yes, **** happens... What I'm complaining about is the after sales service which is for sure the worst I've ever experienced.
Long story short, we finally agreed on a partial refund.
They refunded me $1400 but I had to pay for the shipping, so, let's say I got $1000 back of my $2400 spent.
I won't say I'm happy but it could have been worse.

 

[wajdi]

Well... before buying the PT motion 4 DOF system I was thinking to buy the Dofreality P3 but I’m a big big man so the weight is a big issue for me ... their weight limit is 120Kg... only my seat,DD, pedals? Shifter... are 25KG... so this thing is only for small buys ( 60-70) KG.. so I decided to take the PT option which can left my big ass....
However they partially refunded you at least.... not many companies will do it.

 

[Natalucciu]

I think you made the right choice ! Sure, it's some extra money, but I'm pretty sur it will last a lot longer, you won't have to worry for years...
For the wheight limit, that's weird, when I bought it was 130 Kg for the H3 and 160 Kg for the P3.
Now, both of them are limited to 150 Kg.
I don't know what to think about that.

For the refund, let's say it has been an amicable solution we agreed on, I was ready to sue them and I told them. I didn't want to, waste of time and money for both of us but I would have done it.

Last thing I wanted to share;
I left the exact same message on xsimulator, the staff deleted my thread because :

I am sorry but we can not publish your thread on the simulator website. One of our main rules is to keep a friendly atmosphere between our community members. The bad experience and your showcase can have a generally negative impact on our entire community. That's why we had to remove your thread from the public.

Now, that's what I call censorship, but when you look how many ads DoFReality put on this forum you have the right to think they're giving a lot of money and everybody know how much xsimulator.net loves money !

I don't think I put a bad atmosphere between community member but only warn people about this company's behavior.
Now I know I can't trust this website anymore.
Fun fact, it was reading the DOFReality thread on xsimulator forum I made the decision to go for this rig.
If I had known...
Well, that's what I call irony.

 

[blanes]

Wow what a story ! Sorry for you man and I guess the old adage of "if it seems too good to be true, then it is" applies here because the DOFreality looks alot for a small price but there seems to be more than a few stories around about the flimsiness and breakdowns.

 

[DOF Reality]

It is really sad to see such misleading posts as Noël ( Natalucciu) got replacements needed and finally refund as he demanded, and we never leave a customer without help even after the warranty. I guess he didn't mention it here for a reason. I have to admit that our product didn't meat his personal expectations, but unfortunately we can't affect them. We have thousands of happy customers and top-notch almost 24/7 support that NO other company in any consumer industry providing. Any company and product has some small % of issues. Even renowned carmakers with over 100years history do recalls every year. What makes the difference how this exceptional situations are handled. Due to human psychology this fraction of % cases got more attention than 99.9% of extremely positive feedback. Let's be fair and post real issues that we did not attended.

 

[Natalucciu]

And bad faith continues
You are pathetic...
I did mention everything, even the wrong replacement parts you asked me to replace by myself and the ridiculous amount of money you gave me back for a under warranty (yes it was under warranty, I can prove it) non working rig.

Please read again my messages and prove me wrong.

24/7 support ?

That should explain the few times you did not respond for 2 to 3 days...

99.9% of happy customers ?

blablabla, same beautiful words, you know it is not true, don't drop random numbers like that or prove it.

Any company and product has some small % of issues.

Of course, and I totally understand that.
But, I'm not complaining about the issue I encountered, but about your behavior about those issues.

Yeah, the problem is not about the quality, I mean, I knew it, at this price point, I wasn't expecting a high end product for sure, but I was expecting to use it more than 50 hours.
But, maybe my platform had this problem and maybe other people won't have any issue and yes, **** happens... What I'm complaining about is the after sales service which is for sure the worst I've ever experienced.
Long story short, we finally agreed on a partial refund.
They refunded me $1400 but I had to pay for the shipping, so, let's say I got $1000 back of my $2400 spent.

I sent you 2 videos showing my rig shaking like crazy and you basically told me that I had no issue whatsoever...
Guys... Come on...

Let's be fair and post real issues that we did not attended.

And now defamation ?
Guys, stop doing that, you are making your case worse...

At the end of the day I just lost 1000€.

 

[Acerimmer1]

My H3 had a violent spasm yesterday. Turned it on and all 3 motors just went far to the right and the power unit seemed to die as the fans stopped immediately. Scared the bejezzus out of me. Thank the lord I wasn't in it when I turned it on! I emailed Igor and after a few emails/teamviewer session I was advised to buy an UNO board from Amazon link provided. That arrived today, they updated the software on it remotely, again using team viewer. tried it, didn't work. I asked for a refund on the product as I've had a motor shoot out of bounds once before, they said it was the sensor. I fitted that. I've barely used this thing in 11 months and its starting to fall to pieces! If you do buy one of these, like the original poster above said, it's your choice. BE WARNED... they won't let you get a refund. They are sending me a new power unit now... I'll keep this updated though.

 

[DirkW]

This sounds to me that they really do a lot of effort to help and fix problems, I find this quite impressive tbh.

My H3 had a violent spasm yesterday. Turned it on and all 3 motors just went far to the right and the power unit seemed to die as the fans stopped immediately. Scared the bejezzus out of me. Thank the lord I wasn't in it when I turned it on! I emailed Igor and after a few emails/teamviewer session I was advised to buy an UNO board from Amazon link provided. That arrived today, they updated the software on it remotely, again using team viewer. tried it, didn't work. I asked for a refund on the product as I've had a motor shoot out of bounds once before, they said it was the sensor. I fitted that. I've barely used this thing in 11 months and its starting to fall to pieces! If you do buy one of these, like the original poster above said, it's your choice. BE WARNED... they won't let you get a refund. They are sending me a new power unit now... I'll keep this updated though.

 

[Gman50]

Wish I’d seen this before ordering from DOF reality as I’ve had nothing but trouble with them ,they’re arrogant thinking they know consumer law inside out to get out of resolving issues but unfortunately their attitude didn’t wash with eBay who refunded me telling them to also arrange collection of the faulty platform sent out even though they were still trying to spout under uk law I had to send it them whilst residing in the Ukraine.After this they were demanding I stay in all day waiting for collection even though I said I had work and could give a 2 hour window but they were only interested using the cheapest courier which was not my fault they sent a faulty unit, so I did some digging around to find the motors used are sunrise wheelchair motors at $400 a pair with gearboxes, the controller is basically 3 arduinos ,low gauge steel box section and the bolts and other hardware are not even high tensile but just mild steel susceptible to breaking. So looking at the big picture ,yes they are cheaper than some others but not really when materials used cost about 33% of the cost of what they charge making them a cool 200% profit which if they were providing quality customer service and aftercare wouldn’t be an issue but coming across more and more unhappy customers is a regular occurrence now I’m researching ,personally thanks to eBay I got lucky as they didn’t want to have the product returned and gave me the runaround for weeks .now they’re trying to say I’m refusing to return but everything is logged and saved to prove they’re lying trying anything thinking they’ll get it reversed but they’ll never get another penny from me. If they hadn’t of been so underhanded I may of had half a day off work but even this wasn’t good enough saying they can’t give me a window for collection time with the courier they’re trying to use. I have no intentions of doing anything in regards to trying to keep this H3 as if they don’t collect it within a reasonable time period I will seek legal advice into my rights to donate it out of my way ,along with the new seat I purchased elsewhere and bundles of racing and flying games to a children’s charity all recorded on social media as proof

Hello,
First of all, I'd like to apologize for any English mistake I could make as English is not my main language.

I am going to tell my story about this DOFReality brand.
I had problems with my rig, happens, I've been trying for weeks to solve my issue, with and without the help of the after sales service. Let me explain.

I bought a DoF Reality H3 in March 2019.
At first, I've been pleasantly surprised how well and sturdy it looked.
I've assembled, balanced and configured everything, not the better part, definitely not plug and play, but far from unachievable.
I could then race a few hours with my old and trusty G25 and it was awesome! But a few days later, I've received my MIGE 20 Nm Direct Drive.
Guys, don't try to put a DD on the base mount.
So, I reinforced the whole platform with some 40x40 profiles I had from my static cockpit, way better now!

Then the problems begun.

After I would say 30 to 50 hours of dirt roads, powerslides, jumps and let be honest, a few crashes, I noticed some jerky movements. The rig begun to be very unstable and the movements wich was nice and smooth became so jerky I wasn't able to use the H3 in dynamic mode, had to play in static for a while.
At first I tried to fix the problem myself by balancing the platform as good as I could, but it was already very well balanced, so I started to browse the internet looking for someone who have the same problem as me.
And I did found. A lot of cases. Seems to be a common problem. I read some people had to replace the motors.
Nothing I could fix by myself.

I then told to myself, "Ok, it's a common problem then, they should be able to help me out"...

So, just before the warranty period expires, in early March 2020 I decided to contact DoF Reality. I explained the problem in detail. With a video showing what's going on.
They told me: Balance better, move the rig to the front, to the back, are you in the rig when it happens, do sine tests.
Sine tests, maybe I am not able to interpret, but If I understand well, the potentiometer should follow the sine sent by the driver and it's obviously not the case in the tests I ran.
I did all these tests and nothing helped.
Well after 6 days trying to solve the issue, they finally agreed to send me new "gearboxes".
I was kinda happy because I did not understand Gearbox is not a motor. I thought it was the whole component Motor + Gearbox.
And we agreed to replace two of them, but...
They've only sent me ONE gearbox, no motor.

I had to change the gearbox myself ! I did it, that's not difficult, but do you think it's normal a consumer has to change mechanical parts by himself ?
But the fun part is; it did not fix any jerkyness at all.

I would like you to read every email I sent and what their answers has been.
I won't even correct the few english mistakes I could spot so there is absolutely no suspicions I could have modified anything.

Spoiler: eMails

I of course joined the pictures of the graphs at this point.

No response for 2 days



He joined a picture showing how to do it.


I joined pictures to show it was at the right place.




I joined a video to show the backlash.












Lol, "NP", really ?

40 days later :
















Two and a half hours later...





I joined the pictures.







































No more response since then.

Now, I don't know what to do to get my money back or my rig to work.
But I hope you can see what a bad faith this company is showing.

I don't even ask for a full refund as I could use the rig just fine for a while, I'm an honnest guys and I would never try to take advantage of a situation to get free stuff or get money back from a purchase that I capriciously regret.

For me, I'm to the point I can't use my 2200€ rig because of a company wich is not able to assume there is a misconception in their products and shows bad faith regarding the real issue I encounter.
So, should you spend your hard earned money in a DoF Reality rig ?
That's your money, do whatever you want, but I can't recommend. I did it and I regret it. I should have waited a few more months and buy something more reliable.

So I feel like I just lost 2000€, the price of a SFX-100 system, think about that.

One last point, you know about these dampers they are selling ?
They are from the brand Matis and they are motorcycle direction dampers, the retail price is 380€ for one unit.
They are selling two of them for 120€.
Fact is, they are counterfeits.
Yes, counterfeits, not replicas, not chinese budget alternatives, counterfeits.
You can read the brand, model and even the "Made in Italy" mention.
I found this exact model on ebay for 60$ from... China...

Well that's a long message.
I hope you won't find this post too vindictive, but I can't stand this company's behavior, that's bad, for the consumer, for the simracing community and most of all I don't want someone else to be victim of these unscrupulous people.

If, like me, you are looking for a entry level sim rig, don't be bait by the price and the beautiful speeches you can read on their websites.
Don't trust Youtubers, they are doing reviews too soon, problems comes after a few weeks.
Do yourself a service, stay away from this company.

Thanks for reading, take care, bye.

 

[Gman50]

Wish I’d seen this before ordering from DOF reality as I’ve had nothing but trouble with them ,they’re arrogant thinking they know consumer law inside out to get out of resolving issues but unfortunately their attitude didn’t wash with eBay who refunded me telling them to also arrange collection of the faulty platform sent out even though they were still trying to spout under uk law I had to send it them whilst residing in the Ukraine.After this they were demanding I stay in all day waiting for collection even though I said I had work and could give a 2 hour window but they were only interested using the cheapest courier which was not my fault they sent a faulty unit, so I did some digging around to find the motors used are sunrise wheelchair motors at $400 a pair with gearboxes, the controller is basically 3 arduinos ,low gauge steel box section and the bolts and other hardware are not even high tensile but just mild steel susceptible to breaking. So looking at the big picture ,yes they are cheaper than some others but not really when materials used cost about 33% of the cost of what they charge making them a cool 200% profit which if they were providing quality customer service and aftercare wouldn’t be an issue but coming across more and more unhappy customers is a regular occurrence now I’m researching ,personally thanks to eBay I got lucky as they didn’t want to have the product returned and gave me the runaround for weeks .now they’re trying to say I’m refusing to return but everything is logged and saved to prove they’re lying trying anything thinking they’ll get it reversed but they’ll never get another penny from me. If they hadn’t of been so underhanded I may of had half a day off work but even this wasn’t good enough saying they can’t give me a window for collection time with the courier they’re trying to use. I have no intentions of doing anything in regards to trying to keep this H3 as if they don’t collect it within a reasonable time period I will seek legal advice into my rights to donate it out of my way ,along with the new seat I purchased elsewhere and bundles of racing and flying games to a children’s charity all recorded on social media as proof

Well pallet ways have collected the box today with thanks to my neighbour who was around to put it on the pallet while I was at work as DOF wanted me to lose a days wages waiting from 0800-1700 which I couldn’t do after losing so much in the lockdown, even though it was their fault sending defective product, being self employed claiming nothing to help out while dof had no issues with lockdowns as they just drop ship these sim platforms because they had no idea how the sim was originally packaged. DOF tried their hardest to lie to Ebay saying I was refusing to send the item back making up all kinds of lies thinking they’d get the payment reversed they are not a company id recommend to anyone as they are deceitful their products maybe cheaper than others only due to cheap materials so id look more at companies like YAW

 

[DOF Reality]

Dears

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DOFReality

DOFReality. Gefällt 16.147 Mal · 616 Personen sprechen darüber. DOF Reality Motion Simulator Platforms. Realistic, affordable, the most sold in the world

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Unfortunately within tens of thousands of our happy customers, there always will be few that impossible to satisfy, no matter what we do.
We prefer to put personal emotions away and let you - readers see the whole situation and make a judgments.
Gman50 got full refund as requested.
Here is an unabridged saga of the case mentioned above:
We just mask with ***** personal info.
========================
Gman50 :

ive had nothing but trouble with the reliability with this simulator, ive purchased all the games listed to work with the sim costing me £100's and it keeps disconnecting or won't connect at all. I have run through all the 'FIXES' listed on the net regarding the issues but nothing has worked. the price I paid it should be faultless
---------------------
DOFReality:
Hi

We are surprised to see your return request as there were no mentioned issues for our support team
Unfortunately according to eBay listing and our tems https://dofreality.com/terms
Can you mention what kind of issues you having with our platform so we can fix them ?
---------------------
Gman50 :

When it will actually connect it disconnects intermittently, as I build pc’s I have plenty of hardware to rule my equipment out of the equation ,I’ve even tried to use simhub ,paying for a pro subscription instead of srs and still get the same outcome ,I’ve tried various top end USB AB leads too. At times I get the tone that it’s connected to one of the pc’s with a slight faint judder of the platform then nothing else. I was ready to show the product to various people to gain some custom but unfortunately cannot recommend the platform as it’s unreliable
---------------------
DOFReality:

Sorry ro see it we can connect to your PC and check the firmware install Teamviewer send us ID and password and if it wont fix it we will ship replacement control box. pls reply to us over email
---------------------
Gman50 :

There is no way on earth I would allow anyone to connect to any device on my network that is a huge data risk , would you allow me to connect to your network ? I think not . My pc settings on all 3 I have set up at the minute are all fine and all drivers ok
---------------------
DOFReality:

in this case 0) we need more information and details on the issue 1) when the disconnection happen? 2) does the COM port dissaopears form the windows device manager ? 3) have you tried to update the firmware ? 4) does the same issue happen when you so sine test as per chapter 5.4 of hte manual ? lets move the discussion in the email for the convinience
---------------------
Gman50 :

As I’ve been away at my holiday home I only got round to testing it out a few weeks ago and being busy with work I worked on trouble shooting it an hour here and there on evenings. Which disappointed me as my kids have been nagging me to go into my mancave to have a go on the motion platform ..I’ve even had a technician who lives locally take a look ,but even he drew a blank. Im glad I didn’t buy wholesale like I was set to do the other week. All software and firmware has been checked and updated and as the issue is not just with SRS but with SimHub too on various pc’s it rules out my equipment and points to yours
---------------------
DOFReality:

But why you didn't contact us before? we have nothing to do with SimHUB , we dont use this software. let us know when you will be abailable to follow mentioned tests
---------------------
Gman50 :

I beg your pardon "why didnt I mention it before !!! ive only just had the thing its now June 9th I paid for it April 14th then waited for delivery so do the math... as for running backwards and forwards ,ive told you the issue you've sold me a defective item its not up to me to repair it like you've had so many others do that I seen when reading the forums, as for simhub its open source so any platform will work on it. if you do not want to resolve this issue Ebay and my bank will take over and get this sorted
---------------------
Gman50 :

also I was using SRS for your info
---------------------
DOFReality:

sure we want to help you pls answer points 1-5 mentioned in the previous message
---------------------
Gman50 :

As stated multiple times THERE IS NO CONNECTION AND NO MOVEMENT, so you asking to run tests is absolutely absurd as if it doesn't connect it can not send messages back and forth. further investigation shows you've treated people like this before maybe to waste time. im not paying £1700+ then having to repair it myself, fair enough if id had it and used it 12 months id say well ive had some use send the parts but only having it weeks ago and no use is not acceptable, with the seat and games ive bought ive spent over £2500 just to use it as a motionless rig for my wheel and pedals. you may not be in the uk but are still using Ebay uk to sell dof reality products
---------------------
DOFReality:

There can be multipe reasons for this issue. So we asked questions in order to undestand exact one. If this is hte only issue We can ship you replacement control box to solve it. please mention the shipping address.
---------------------
Gman50 :

******* It has no connection on the 1st pc ,gigabyte aorus pro with i9 9900k , 32gb ram , 3080 gpu and also on a amd set up ryzen 7 5800x , 5700xt gpu ,16gb ram there’s no signal from the H3 to either pc. When it’s advertised as plug and play out of the box that’s what’s expected not plug and wait for replacement parts to play ,I appreciate sometimes hardware can be faulty but since investigating this issue I’ve seen many other people online with similar issues .
---------------------
DOFReality:

Have you installed drivers as per chapter 5.1? https://dofreality.com/instructionsHP3.pdf
---------------------
Gman50 :

I completely wiped -re-installed software and drivers once all installed I connected usb-ab lead and there’s nothing showing in device manager, I tried another 3 usb-ab leads to rule the lead out the equation too
---------------------
DOFReality:

but did you install driver mentioned in the chapter 5.1?
---------------------
Gman50 :

I’m ** years old not 7 I’ve done everything per instruction say so , I’ve opened a return due to buying a short throw projector a couple years back from an over seas company and it being faulty then the company wasting time passed the return date resulting in me losing £2.5k on a paper weight , I maybe well off but I don’t just throw money away and won’t get caught short twice. There is a definite issue with the rig and it’s not software based it’s a hardware fault
---------------------
DOFReality:

We never dump a customer. We are shipping new box today.
---------------------
Gman50 :

Well you have my word if the issue gets resolved I’ll gladly change feedback too but you’ve got to look at things from my point of view as if you were going to ‘DUMP ON A CUSTOMER’ would you tell them you were or say it’s being sorted also you’d just forked over £2k on a motion rig ,seat and games and it not working you’d be pretty pee’d off wouldn’t you
---------------------
Gman50 :

hi do you have an ETA or tracking info on the box ?
---------------------
DOFReality:

Yes, the tracking # was emailed to you ****** pls check your spam forlders It is with royal mail CP******
---------------------
Gman50 :

Could you please check the tracking information you provided me for the control unit ,I’ve checked it the past two days and it’s coming up as invalid !!
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi it is working https://t.17track.net/en#nums=CP******
---------------------
Gman50 :

I was looking on Royal Mail and royal mails other owned company parcel force as thats who you said you'd sent it with !! do you know when I will be receiving it ?
---------------------
DOFReality:

Yes, as it is international it is EMS / Ukrposhta , and it will arrive with Royal Mail in a week or two https://t.17track.net/en#nums=CP*****
---------------------
Gman50 :

a week or 2, this is not acceptable ,with the amount I spent and receiving faulty goods id of expected fast shipping, its advertised as plug and play but far from it and further research see's there are quite a few people not happy wether it be the control box or failed motors in other cases ive read. id rather you just have it back as what next and when will fail.
---------------------
Gman50 :

Opened a eBay case "the seller is trying to send parts for me to repair the motion platform myself, its faulty and not as described ,its not plug and play as advertised but the main thing is it being faulty and the seller trying to ge me to fix it myself with him sending parts"
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi
In order to proceed with the refund pls ship the platform to
........
---------------------
Gman50 :
Hi I’ve been informed via eBay that you are to provide shipping due to the weight of the item being costly and myself having initially paid for delivery of the item
---------------------
DOFReality:
We need to know package(s) size and weight
---------------------
Gman50 :
ill get it all dismantled & packaged up later today (July 1st) and send you the relative information either this evening or 1st thing tomorrow.
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi
Do you have the information for the shipping to be organized ?

---------------------
Gman50 :
Hi I’m at my holiday home until tommorow night ,unfortunately I didn’t get time to package it on Friday as we go away every Friday -Sunday , I’ll get it all sorted Monday as I’ve got a free day and get you the info sent on the afternoon/evening
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi
Do you have the information for the shipping to be organized ?
---------------------
Gman50 :

Hi I’ve stripped it down and going to stop off at staples to get a strong large re-enforced cardboard box once I’ve finished with my last 2 customers asI never kept the original one so once I’ve weighed it I’ll send info
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi
Do you have the information for the shipping to be organized ?
---------------------
Gman50 :

As you may be aware England got through to the finals so I’ve been nursing a bad head all day after taking some of my employees to Wembley , I’ll have details for you later today before I go to my holiday home
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi
Do you have the information and pickup address for the shipping to be organized ?
---------------------
Gman50 :
I wish you’d of been this persistent on sorting the heap of junk out when I was messaging you instead of keep asking irrelevant repetitive questions . I was going to finish packaging it up today like I said on a message sent not long ago but now you can wait till I get back on Monday as I’m not putting myself out to rush around packing cheap Chinese sunrise wheelchair motors, low grade box section , a few arduinos and non high tensile nuts & bolts which you pass off as expensive sim platforms .If anything I should just give your courier as it is instead of using my time to package it up. If you think I have any ambition on keeping the junk think again for 1 I have plenty of money in the bank and 2 it’s of no use to me just like the seat ,runners and software I’ve also purchased to go with it and be thankful I’ve not done a video showcasing all of these findings
---------------------
Gman50 :
..ALL STRIPPED DOWN & PACKED UP
DIMENSION OF BOX 700MM X 360MM X 460MM
THE WEIGHT I CANNOT DO AS I DONT HAVE THE FACILITY TO WEIGH IT , A LITTLE BIG FOR MY LUGGAGE SCALES.YOU SHOULD HAVE THE WEIGHT ANYWAY
WHEN AND WHAT TIME WILL THEY BE COLLECTING ?
---------------------
Gman50 :
??? do you have the information
---------------------
DOFReality:

Thank you
we will work now with the shipping company for the pickup
I will let you know details once avalable
---------------------
Gman50 :

Oh I was under the impression you had all that set up and were waiting on me with the way you you constantly emailed, I specifically came back from my holiday home just to sort this out today/ tomorrow
---------------------
DOFReality:

We were not able to set up anything without your address and size of the shipment
---------------------
Gman50 :
I suppose it was magically teleported to me initially and you don’t know the weight of your own product which you needed to give when shipping out to me, when people put an order in with yourselves do they say just deliver it to somewhere in uk ,Spain , France anywhere you like I’ll find it where ever you leave it
---------------------
DOFReality:

That’s one heavy box over 60kg…Normal couriers refuse to take it due to the weight, it will need to be put it on a pallet or something , do you have somethink like a pallet?
---------------------
Gman50 :

No
---------------------
DOFReality:

Hi

Forwarder will arrive with the pallet
details were emailed to you hotmail
---------------------
Gman50 :

I can't see any messages with regards to pallet ??? also I need specific times and dates
---------------------
DOFReality:

the courier will bring the pallet with them. However, please be aware that once the driver comes to collect your pallet, the driver only has up to 10 - 15 minutes per collection round and they are unable to help you package your goods, i.e. you will need to put the box on the pallet and ensure that it is correctly labelled.
It will be collected on Monday between 0800 and 1700.
Attached is the label and documents that you should have the driver sign.
---------------------
Gman50 :

I can't be having a full day off work as I'll lose too much money also my wife is not going to be able to move the box or pallet even if she is in the house at the time he comes
---------------------
DOFReality:


Please contact *****
for the pickup coordination
---------------------
Gman50 :

im not your personal assistant and I have not conducted any business with bluebox so send your courier who will have to collect from the front door. not only did you not want to have this faulty item returned but you expect me to sort your problems out ,lose a days work and maul pallets around. I was expecting a quality product but what I received was below standard quality, using sunrise wheelchair motors a few arduinos ,low gauge box section and mild steel bolts all adding up to less than a third of what you charge consumers. which upon investigating the labels on motors are clearly visible in one of the demo videos of your platform. im seriously considering writing a full report on my issues ive had as im cheesed off with the whole scenario especially being stuck with a chair no longer needed and software ive purchased. if it wasn't for the amazing work Ebay did I doubt the return would be going ahead something at which you tried to say wasn't possible at first. so either message me on here or email me the date and time your courier is coming to collect this box and make it asap as its in the way at one of my properties. oh and I thought id send a pic of motor label proving what I stated of cheap inferior parts..
---------------------
DOFReality:

We agreed again to help you and arrange the forwarder at alternative pickup hours that sutes you.
You refuse to be provide the contact phone for the forwarder to arrange alternative pickup hours.
We agreed again to help you and ask you to contact the arranging partner for it.
You refuse to do so.
At this point we went so many times extra mile in order to accomodate your sutuation, but each time got your refusal.
You crossed all possible consumer refulations multiple times and ignore our efforts to get this product returned. I want to remind you again that it is your responsibility to return the product safely and your responsibility to cover any demage to it on the way.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/c...ind-about-something-youve-bought/#:~:text=You don't have to,it wasn't packaged properly.
If we wont get this situation resolved, we will have to forward this conversation to eBay escalation team to reverse that kind decision of the the refund, which they will be eagarly to provide considering this sitiation curcomstances.

BR
DOF Reality Team
---------------------
Gman50 :

Also you can contact me on here ,all through this you have tried to get me to move away from ebay to email so eBay wouldn’t of seen what you were saying and doing well that on its own violates ebays terms .. I have told you I will be at the collection address 1700hrs to 1830hrs I am not having a day from work due to your mistakes unless you want to pay my salary for the day
---------------------
DOFReality:

Unfortunately forwarders can't specify pickup time window more narrow
What do you suggest as realistic alternative?
---------------------
Gman50 :

If you hadn't of been so arrogant I'd of put myself out a bit more but after the way I was spoken too in a threatening way as if you were insinuating I was going maliciously damage or keep the item I'm not prepared to lose a penny, there's ways and means of treating people especially customers and I've never let no one talk to me in that way, even when I was in the paras I wasn't spoken to in that way or accused in that way. I've also checked uk consumer law with the accusation you made saying I changed my mind and as it was mailed and I didn't fully inspect it over before purchase I would of been well within UK law to return it even though it's being returned due to it being faulty which is what eBay told me to do. Which you can check up for yourself. So what do you suggest is the question
---------------------
DOFReality:

Just be be clear, without imotions.
You refuse to return it?
---------------------
Gman50 :

Just to be clear you are refusing to collect it unless I stay at home all day losing a lot of money
---------------------
DOFReality:

According to UK consumer return/refund laws you suppose to ship it back in the original packaging on our own cost.
we make huge way forward to help you in this , but you still blocking even pickup.
---------------------
DOFReality :

Hi

We really appreciate your cooperation, but so far didn't get any.
Lets look a bit in the history.
We shipped you exactly product that you order. Same as published and promoted. Exactly wit the motors and other parts. There are no false advertisement and listing details.
We are sorry that it didn't work out of the box. We try to help you to troubleshoot the issue , however you refuse to enable us to connect and check it.
As an act of good will we went ahead and ship you the new control box https://www.parcelforce.com/track-trace?trackNumber=
that you got in 8 days. And Still didn't want to try it.
The eBay listing clearly mentioned that there are no returns on it. You went ahead and claim to eBay that you got incorrect product in order to get a refund.
They were kind enough to accept it as an exception and refund you.
According to the refund rules return shipping is your responsibility. To make it convenient and cheaper for you we provide you address in UK , not in Ukraine to ship it to. You refuse to do it.
We went over what we suppose to do and try to arrange and cover the return shipping for you. With many different reasons you delayed providing boxes dimensions for weeks, and packed the platform that you got in two boxes into one box. This is against UK customer returns rules. In order to get refund on the return, the product must be in the original packaging. The way you pack it created an issue as it become one 60kg box instead of two of 30kg. None of the regular couriers can ship such heavy single item.

We agreed again to help you and arrange the special forwarder to pick it up. And ask you to find a pallet for it. You refuse to do it.
We agreed again to help you and arrange the forwarder to bring the pallet at pick up, so all you need is to place the box on it. You refuse to do it.
Also you refuse to be available at the arranged pickup hours.
We agreed again to help you and arrange the forwarder at alternative pickup hours that suites you. You refuse to be provide the contact phone for the forwarder to arrange alternative pickup hours.
We agreed again to help you and ask you to contact the arranging partner for it. You refuse to do so.
At this point we went so many times extra mile in order to accommodate your situation, but each time got your refusal. You crossed all possible consumer regulations multiple times and ignore our efforts to get this product returned. I want to remind you again that it is your responsibility to return the product safely and your responsibility to cover any damage to it on the way.

Changing your mind about something you've bought

What you can do if you’ve changed your mind about something you’ve bought - your rights, whether you can take it back and get a refund or an exchange.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

If we wont get this situation resolved, we will have to forward this conversation to eBay escalation team to reverse that rash refund decision , which they will be eagerly to do considering this situation circumstances.

BR
DOF Reality Team
---------------------
Gman50:

pallet ways have collected the platform, luckily my neighbour was about to put the box on the pallet as my wife couldn't move it, now you can stop lying about the situation and look forward to reading about the way you try to deceive people
---------------------
DOFReality:

Thank you a lot for your cooperation!

=================================================

 

[NeoGrotesk]

I'm honestly shocked at how rude some people can be when emailing for support.

 

[Wetchaser]

I have a DOF P3 which is the same model as the H3, just commercial motors. The machine has never failed me because of its simplicity in design. No other company responds to its users the way DOF does. They always go the extra mile. There is a great community on Facebook that normally troubleshoots any issues users have. We pass around ideas everyday on how to maximize the fun of these units. Sim Racing Studio updates the software quite regularly and listens to the DOF community on needs. The last patch addressed a fix they applied to Codemasters broken telemetry causing rig to jerk suddenly. They fixed something out of their control which i thought was amazing. They worked on it after a user posted about the jerk on DOF's Facebook group. Support for machine or software is just not an issue.
I have never had to connect remotely with DOF but many others have and praised Igor and staff for how fast they fixed any problems doing it. If anything had been done covertly during the connection, I'm sure those people would have let us know. The Facebook group is very active and does not hold back when discussing anything good or bad so we would know.
I am very happy with my rig and used it for 6-8 hours a day this last year during lockdown. Yes i have an addiction. This machine will plaster smiles on your face.

 

[Namastebuzz]

If I'd known GMan50 was an ex Para I wouldn't have bothered reading through all those emails to find out that he was a knob - because I'd have known already!

 

[Natalucciu]

Hello, OP here.
I'm sorry to have missed all these posts and there are some that I would like to reply.

First of all, I have the feeling that people didn't understand why I made this post.
Please don't think that I did it to centralise complaints and make it grow with nothing but unhappy customers testimonies.

I just wanted to share my experience and my disappointment.
And I feel I had the right to do so for many reasons but the most important one being that I had a well-known problem that many users experienced.
Please don't make me do a YT playlist with every video talking about the exact same problem I had.

And the company behavior facing this particular problem is disgusting as they just say that there is no problem at all and if there actually is, this is the user fault, because he "didn't balance the rig well enough..."

That said, I'm gonna try to be as objective as possible.

My H3 had a violent spasm yesterday. Turned it on and all 3 motors just went far to the right and the power unit seemed to die as the fans stopped immediately. Scared the bejezzus out of me. Thank the lord I wasn't in it when I turned it on! I emailed Igor and after a few emails/teamviewer session I was advised to buy an UNO board from Amazon link provided. That arrived today, they updated the software on it remotely, again using team viewer. tried it, didn't work. I asked for a refund on the product as I've had a motor shoot out of bounds once before, they said it was the sensor. I fitted that. I've barely used this thing in 11 months and its starting to fall to pieces! If you do buy one of these, like the original poster above said, it's your choice. BE WARNED... they won't let you get a refund. They are sending me a new power unit now... I'll keep this updated though.

They tried to help at least, but what happened next ?

This sounds to me that they really do a lot of effort to help and fix problems, I find this quite impressive tbh.

As I said, they tried to help, for sure, but "a lot of effort" ?
Tell a customer to buy and replace a part himself should not be considered as "a lot of effort".
Sure, they have remotely uploaded the code in the Arduino... But still... It's just a pretty normal after sale service.

Wish I’d seen this before ordering from DOF reality as I’ve had nothing but trouble with them ,they’re arrogant thinking they know consumer law inside out to get out of resolving issues but unfortunately their attitude didn’t wash with eBay who refunded me telling them to also arrange collection of the faulty platform sent out even though they were still trying to spout under uk law I had to send it them whilst residing in the Ukraine.After this they were demanding I stay in all day waiting for collection even though I said I had work and could give a 2 hour window but they were only interested using the cheapest courier which was not my fault they sent a faulty unit, so I did some digging around to find the motors used are sunrise wheelchair motors at $400 a pair with gearboxes, the controller is basically 3 arduinos ,low gauge steel box section and the bolts and other hardware are not even high tensile but just mild steel susceptible to breaking. So looking at the big picture ,yes they are cheaper than some others but not really when materials used cost about 33% of the cost of what they charge making them a cool 200% profit which if they were providing quality customer service and aftercare wouldn’t be an issue but coming across more and more unhappy customers is a regular occurrence now I’m researching ,personally thanks to eBay I got lucky as they didn’t want to have the product returned and gave me the runaround for weeks .now they’re trying to say I’m refusing to return but everything is logged and saved to prove they’re lying trying anything thinking they’ll get it reversed but they’ll never get another penny from me. If they hadn’t of been so underhanded I may of had half a day off work but even this wasn’t good enough saying they can’t give me a window for collection time with the courier they’re trying to use. I have no intentions of doing anything in regards to trying to keep this H3 as if they don’t collect it within a reasonable time period I will seek legal advice into my rights to donate it out of my way ,along with the new seat I purchased elsewhere and bundles of racing and flying games to a children’s charity all recorded on social media as proof

I'm kinda split about your testimony.
On one hand I agree that, just like me, they keep asking questions so as to blame the user and treat people like they are totally dumb.
On the other hand, I totally disagree with the way you talk about their products.
We know that is not an high end rig and we agree to make concessions.
It's like you're blaming Dacia for not doing BMW quality.

I'm honestly shocked at how rude some people can be when emailing for support.

I think (I hope) you are talking about Gman50 and not about me ?
Because I think I've been very polite at the beginning of my talk with the support.
That said, I have to admit, I think Gman50 has been rude a little too fast in the conversation.

But, it's very hard to keep your calm when you are talking to a wall...
Especially when you just spent 2000€.
I thought a lot before buying this rig. I'm not rich or careless with money; I put money aside for a few years to achieve a childhood dream and this dream turned into a nightmare in a few months.
It's easy to tell people "you get angry too quickly" when you are not facing the situation.

I have a DOF P3 which is the same model as the H3, just commercial motors. The machine has never failed me because of its simplicity in design. No other company responds to its users the way DOF does. They always go the extra mile. There is a great community on Facebook that normally troubleshoots any issues users have. We pass around ideas everyday on how to maximize the fun of these units. Sim Racing Studio updates the software quite regularly and listens to the DOF community on needs. The last patch addressed a fix they applied to Codemasters broken telemetry causing rig to jerk suddenly. They fixed something out of their control which i thought was amazing. They worked on it after a user posted about the jerk on DOF's Facebook group. Support for machine or software is just not an issue.
I have never had to connect remotely with DOF but many others have and praised Igor and staff for how fast they fixed any problems doing it. If anything had been done covertly during the connection, I'm sure those people would have let us know. The Facebook group is very active and does not hold back when discussing anything good or bad so we would know.
I am very happy with my rig and used it for 6-8 hours a day this last year during lockdown. Yes i have an addiction. This machine will plaster smiles on your face.

Just as I don't like people telling these rigs a bad or bad quality, I don't like replies like yours telling they are very good.
You didn't have problems. I'm genuinely happy for you, and hope you won't ever have any.
And I was as happy as you for a few months.
I beg you to please read my first post again, I never said that this is a bad quality nor bad value for money.

But please, try to put yourself in my shoes for a moment.
You said you played 8 hours a day, the problem I had happened approximatively after 50 hours.
That means, if it happened to you, it would have been after less than a week...
How would you have reacted?

If I'd known GMan50 was an ex Para I wouldn't have bothered reading through all those emails to find out that he was a knob - because I'd have known already!

Typical "I have nothing interesting to say so let's attack him on a not related subject" crap.

Dears

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Unfortunately within tens of thousands of our happy customers, there always will be few that impossible to satisfy, no matter what we do.

This one is gold.
Tens of thousands of our happy customers (So at least 20 000?), in 5 years.
That means 11 rigs sold per day.
Without any day off, any vacation, from the very first day.

The reality is far below, your eBay account says you sold a hundred rigs in 3 years?

I already told you to stop dropping random numbers, or at least make it believable...
And don't link your facebook and google business pages when there is 55 reviews total (not even, some are duplicates)...
And if you want to be honest, just put your 85% eBay rating as well...
I could go on and tell people to check your Amazon ratings as well but I'm gonna stop here...

Well, I'm so sorry for this long and useless post, but I needed that.
I'm of course open to continue this discussion but please, everyone, try to be as objective as you can.
Thanks, bye.

 

[NeoGrotesk]

I think (I hope) you are talking about Gman50 and not about me ?
Because I think I've been very polite at the begining of my talk with the support.
That said, I have to admit, I think Gman50 has been rude a little too fast in the conversation.

I was

Your emails were perfectly polite until you were clearly getting frustrated by the lack of progress. I think that's definitely understandable.

Starting out as argumentative and rude from the get go as gman appeared to do is completely different.

 

[Ricand]

I bought used DOFReality P6. I had problems setting it up. I shot an email to DOFReality on Sunday evening at 7PM. Thinking I'd get a response Monday morning. They got back to me in 1/2 and hour and walked me through getting it working on a Sunday night. It's a used unit, they didn't make any money off of me.

I've been blown away by how much fun this platform is and how great the customer service has been. I had another issue that was fixed the same day, with their customer support.

Every once in a while, after I get done with run in DR2, I think how bland it would be just sitting in a stationary chair. I'm sorry the two guys here seem to have had so many problems. I'm happy that DOFReality did their best to make it right for them.

However, I'm one of the great majority of us out here that are having fun and feel the price was worth it. I just wanted to give another perspective to this thread. BTW, thanks Igor for your help. Sorry to bother you on your Sunday evening at home.

Rick

 

[Brownedtrouser]

I have a DOF Reality H3 and although I saw this thread many months ago I had decided not to reply. I wanted to make sure I can be honest and clarify a few things.

(1) ALL sim rigs to date are NOT plug and play like a consumer off the shelf unit. It will take a grood deal of customization, some technical knowledge or willingness to learn. so if you are not a tinkerer type then it wont be for you. The closest thing I could compare it to would be 3d printers. Not easy, but truly awesome for someone with a passion for it.

(2) the only part of the system that is 'flimsy' would be the wheel mount. It has quite a bit of flex. its an easy fix but again if you dont know how to drill and cut 80/40 extrusion to fix this easily then again this will not be for you. (3) as far as the guy that 'snapped off the footplate' , I believe him, but I dont knwo how the hell he would have done that unless maybe he was standing on it for some reason.

(3) there is a direct gear drive version of these platforms coming out NOW and at that point I am confident this will dominate the market entirely,. The existing movement system does need dampers on the motors installed to smooth it to my personal liking, but again you have to know how to use a wrench or two and a drill to set this up

The other option would be to buy a system 3-4 times more expensive that literally will have almost zero support, these type of companies are notorious for being quickly out of business and then you are left having to learn to program etc. I hope people realize this., The DOF Reality community is quite large and very supportive. The more active members look at this as something we are ALL working to make great right along with the developers. The company ships a ton of these consistently for many years and I do not expect them to go anywhere, especially with the upcoming release

Lastly, Igor is a good guy and legendarily works hard to reply to all requests and questions immediately, at any time day or night. Considering he resides across the world is an almost opposite set of timezones its pretty awesome... SRS software fella in Canada is also cool as hell. Yet if someone is going on and on complaining as if this was supposed to be without a need for some basic technical knowledge or ability to turn a bolt here and there and kept "going karen" on them via email etc over and over, id see how anyone would blow them off. Also, even though Ukraine as of wroting this is dealing with a shitstorm he has moved to a contingency plan in the US. So if he DID delay in responding I would highly understand at this point.

If anyone here is interested in a comprehensive list of recommended and simple modifications and links where to acquire the various parts just let me know. I have a complete write up on it i've worked on

-semajodagled