My experience with a decently reputed Brand, RD: I first heard about the firm when DBHPian Saket77 told me about the PW unit on his Zen, and that it is a reliable brand with decent aftersales. I also noticed this brand to be a common name in aftermarket locking systems and PW modules. So it had a certain image in my mind.
We all know how poorly equipped XL6 is. I was looking for an Auto Dimming IRVM and RD had a product which claimed to have "Anti Glare" properties, was shaped like an Auto-dimming IRVM and had an integrated camera for dashcam. In theory it looked like a perfect product as I thought it will remove one separate dashcam unit too from my windscreen.
That's where I got duped. I failed to notice that this doesn't have a light sensor in the back which proper Auto dimming Units have. The front sensors are dummy units.
Perhaps product being from so called "Reputed" vendor was influencing my mind. I placed an enquiry on the site and Mr. Rupesh Pandey, their area sales manager contacted me. I asked for pics of bracket etc and he provided me some pics.
I was directed to a famous car accessories market in Ranchi, where I was promised that one of their installers will deliver me the product. I chose not to get it installed by them since they often tend to be very rough with the car, and I didn't get confidence when talking to them. For example, the fuse end provided in wiring harness was different than what XL6 uses, but when asked, the installer said it can be pushed into the fuse box and the blade type fuse cuts through the plastic fuse box and makes it's required space. Felt scary.
Hence I just paid the chap Rs. 9,000 and took delivery of the unit. Back home when I installed it, I came to know it's nothing but a cheaply made product. Issues I had:
-Lots of vibrations on the IRVM
-Anti Glare claim was a joke. Forget Auto-dimming, it was just a simple IRVM.
-Video Quality was Horrendous. Nowhere compared to dashcams like Aukey, 70mai etc.
-Lots of videos got corrupted. What's the use of a dashcam when half of your videos are getting corrupted.
-The hidden rear camera(which recorded in cabin events) was of funny quality.
I also got it checked by their authorised installer and there was nothing wrong with my installation. So in short, it was neither a proper dashcam nor an auto-dimming IRVM. My money went down the drain.
I then contacted the sales manager who clearly said they cannot return the product, no matter what. They offered me a replacement to check, but by this time I was clear their product was of low quality, and no amount of replacement will solve it. Funnily, RD has mentioned on their site that they value customer satisfaction and cases can be looked into if reported within 2 days. I did, and I was also called by many senior people of RD like Mr. B. K Nagpal who happens to be a product incharge at RD. I bluntly told them that their product is horrible and doesn't compare with any proper dashcam. Still, they clearly told me that their company doesn't have any return policy, all they can do is replacement of the unit. Talks volumes about their claim of customer satisfaction when they themselves had RETURN POLICY proclaimed in bold. I don't care what your return policy states, when your product doesn't do what it claims to, it's equivalent to cheating which should be shamed in public.
Later I was assured by Mr Rupesh, off the records, that he will get my unit sold whenever any next enquiry comes in the region. Well, the support I needed from the company was never received, and his small gesture of solving the case from his personal level doesn't change anything.
I plan to discard the unit someday as I cannot keep it for long and have my blood boiling everytime I look at it. I will not sell it on OLX or via any other means, since I know the product is crappy, and anyone buying it will feel cheated.
I later came to know that one Youtuber had reviewed it and had sung all praises for it. Had I known that the fool had endorsed the product and brand, I would have never gone for it. They are all thugs and opportunists of the highest order. Well I approached that Youtuber too to help me with the contact of that RD official in Video via a mutual friend, and unsurprisingly, I'm yet to hear back from him. You can also see that video quality in his video too seems bad.
Lesson Learnt:
1. Before parting with your hard earned money, research well at your own level, no matter how reputed the firm is. I admit I was a bit too excited and didn't doubt that a firm as reputed as RD can have such a crappy product. Not everything which glitters is Gold.
2. Beware of those thugs posing as Karolbagh Youtubers these days. If any product is endorsed by them, odds are they are mostly of crappy quality and hence be double vigilant.
Some pics and videos:
Day time footage of Dashcam, look how bad it is:
Night time footage of Dashcam:
Night time footage of hidden cam:
Regards,
Shashi