Robot disintegrating, warranty repair returns more damaged, artificial "intelligence" support, and offering only refurbished replacements

Hi,

This is a recounting of my our on-going struggles with "Dreame". No, I do not recommend their products, and I encourage everyone to read this and form your own opinions. Be wary of the "5 star" reviews...

My wife and I bought a Dreame L40s Ultra CE mid February. Prior to this we had a moderate high-end iRobot vacuum and mop combo that mostly worked but had progressively worsened over the three year period we owned it. Before that we had a Neato D-Bot, which, by the way, is still going strong in our basement (in a press-to-run capacity) despite the company going under and the app no longer working. Keep in mind what we expected of earlier generations of robot vacuums...

So by end of June the bottom panel on our Dreame started disintegrating, leaving a trail of plastic debris and dragging the panel around. We promptly contacted customer support.

Their first-line of customer support appears to be two AI chat bots; "Evan" and "Yvette". These chatbots have default replies, and they'll ask you to reply with more details like invoice, order date, serial number, etc. as well as some troubleshooting steps that are tied to key words in the original email. Doesn't matter how many of these (or if all of these) were included in your original email, they'll ask for it again.

You'll spend a few days working through these glorified chatbots. Eventually my wife got a return label, packaged up the robot and sent it off. A few weeks later we got it back (two days ago). The cardboard box it returned in was haggard, but the robot itself was packaged in an intense bubble envelope surrounded by crumpled up (used...?) printer paper. The bubble envelope was intact and adequate. I was excited to get our robot running again, but was met with two things in the bubble envelope, our robot, and a small bit of black plastic...

I didn't know what the plastic was, it's smaller than a penny is wide, but took pictures just in case. I reasoned it could be part of the old bottom panel that got carried along for the ride. I was delusional, just too happy to have our robot back and excited for hassle free clean floors again. The bottom plate was securely attached - yay! It looks like the same material it was before, which is a little worrisome to me, but maybe it's tougher, I'm no plastic expert.

However one of the wheels wouldn't compress like the other - the other was springy from the suspension system, whereas the other kind of clicked in and out of place. I couldn't remember if the wheel was actuated in anyway, maybe it is (it isn't, so I started it up on re-mapping the house (I guess they cleared its memory?).

It mapped the house successfully, no issues, I was very happy. That's one thing this machine does much better than my IRobot did. Following, I started it on the first "deep clean"... It got most of the house done, but then reported it's side brush was tangled. Fair enough, I thought, I missed something up. I went over to the robot to find nothing there? I pulled the brush off, nothing below either. Weird. I pulled out the main brush and removed some hair in there, gave it a once over, and told it to resume. It ran for maybe half an hour more before reporting an issue again... Odd. I repeat the process. Then 15 minutes later. Then 5 minutes... Then immediately... Now it won't run for more than 5 seconds.

At this point I get right in there to inspect the bottom of the robot. I've got lights, a little camera thing, and a hand lens. I don't understand this brush issue, and I'm starting to wonder if the wheel and the black plastic bit are part of the issue. At the time of writing, I don't think they are, but I did figure out where the plastic came from - it's part of the case that holds the axle of the wheel's suspension. This piece of plastic holds the axle to the wheel assembly that it pivots on... The wheel doesn't "bounce" properly anymore because it's not connected to the axle anymore. I could see that there was also more plastic damage in there, I only found one of the broken off bits.

Great. So classic bad customer service is now paired with repairs that return robots that are more damaged than what we had sent off. As to the side brush tangled issue? Turns out its a common problem and "dreaded" on some forums, like here on reddit... Now I wonder, is the disintegrating plastic not limited to the bottom panel? Will the entire robot succumb to this eventually?

So I reply to our previous email thread with customer service with the two new issues, that the brush is not tangled on anything and I've cleaned it of all hair; dust; and fur, that I'm upset, and with a picture of the broken piece of plastic and that it appears to be from the wheel suspension assembly. The next day I get an email from "Evan" asking me to check if the brush is tangled... Seriously? Also, what about the broken wheel assembly? What about the part where you returned me a robot that's more broken than the one I sent you?

I asked to be connected with a human, told "Evan" I wasn't satisfied with his AI services, and required someone who can read the full thread. "Yvette" replied today, offering a "90%" refurbished replacement, but only after they receive the current one to their warehouse.

The lack of trust they are offering me, at this stage, is insulting. I've returned and exchanged tech before by mail, shining example Google will send you a new device, tell you to put the old one in the new one's box and send it back! Some say "chuck the old one", some say "destroy the old one and send pics" (Ninja), some say "keep it, throw it, doesn't matter to us" (Giraffe - okay not high tech, but also has the same AI models I think...).

So is this what Dreame's "3 year warranty" is? The chance to be screwed around with for nearly a month then an offering of a 90% refurbished unit? At what stage did they earn my trust in their ability to refurbish equipment? At what point do I start charging them rent for taking up so much of my brain!?

I just replied to "Yvette" basically with the latter points... Not the rent-free living in my brain part though or that I suspect she also works at Giraffe Tools.

I should have recognized that U shape review distribution on Amazon...

What am I supposed to do with this situation?