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Digital Dream Labs has shut down their repair center

Digital Dream Labs has shut down their repair center

We all remember when DDL announced the opening of their repair center. The services there were quite limited and they could only change batteries and screens for amounts of money that were to high in my opinion. Despite that the press release was in their usual pompous style.

In the last weeks we saw reports from people that did send in their robots for repair and then they heard nothing about it, even if tracking showed the package had arrived at DDL. When those people tried to inquire with DDL they got no answers or were ghosted. Some of them feared their robot would be lost.

Now not only one, but two official representatives has issued official statements that the repair center has closed down (I have screenshots as proof of that), reportedly because they do not have staff for it. They claim this is “temporarily” because their staff” works on “core operations” (the only real “core operation” by DDL that I saw so far was “cash grabbing”). The joke in this is that DDL had sold repair services in form of some kind of “extended warranty” in the past (obviously another try at a cash grab, but at least it looks like they want to refund these, but if you will ever actually get that money is another story), and no one knows if they will honor this. They even offer to refer people who want their robot repaired to “trustworthy members of the community”.

In my eyes this is another clear sign of Digital Dream Labs deterioration, now they can not even uphold the repair service, that was announced in one of their usual, bragging press releases. One must wonder how much of that company still exists and for how much longer? We all know their excuse about “being only a small team”, but this is getting even more ridiculous than it already was.

The least DDL could do is to provide spare parts to those “trusted community members” that can do repairs for reasonable prices. Oh, sorry, I had “DDL” and “reasonable prices” in one sentence, my fault, will not happen again … 😉

Thanks to the informant, you know who you are!

Update: Now after the backlash because of this their latest excuse of course is “Covid”. Thatt’s a little worn thin by now. and they claim it is only temporarily. And it was confirmed they have no staff for repairs. It is really a wonder how a company that acts this unprofessional is holding on for so long.

3 Comments

  1. A Vector owner

    What needs to happen is a criminal investigation given how much money they’ve taken for people and have been unable to deliver on what was specified. I’m fine with not getting my money back so long as Jacob and anyone who has been a party to this train wreck are put behind bars for taking money and not giving what was promised.

  2. Jenny

    Unfortunately, we were blind enough, to get the extended warranty for our two Anki Vectors in the hope DDL would open and maintain repair centers – especially one in Europe, which never happened. You probably can’t share the screenshots, but can you give any advice on how to best request a refund for the extended warranty? Also, our Vectors would love to get a new battery, so they can play longer.

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