Walgreens

Full review
I See DEAD PIXELS!

DO NOT BUY ON SALE FROM WALGREENS!!

I love what Aiptek has been attempting to do over the years. Great product designs ideas, great and easy user interface designs, low end of the scale prices… now if they could only have some sort of consistency in making products that work as designed they would be a hit- not the miss that they are right now.

HISTORY: Years ago I bought a DV 4500 (still have it), and I really should have returned it immediately as the firmware in it constantly gets ‘hung up’ forcing me to remove the battery cover in order to ‘re-boot’ the camera. I bought another DV 4500 for my partner and his ALWAYS worked flawlessly until he killed it with abuse.

2009: I bought the new Aiptek Action GVS camera from Walgreens.com (on sale for $179.00). When I received the camera and tested it, all looked good until I played my video back on my HD TV… In every video setting I had dead pixels that were WAY OBVIOUS on the screen of my TV that could not be seen on the cameras small 3” screen. I double checked this again by looking at live video from the camera on the HDTV and sure enough, in all modes there are dead pixels that show up. One really bad dead one smack in the middle of the screen and more around the edges of the picture. I didn’t bother counting how many bad pixels as even one bad pixel can make this camera’s output worthless- assuming you bought an HD camera meaning you care about how it looks in the first place. TOO BAD… as this product really looked promising.

Here is where everything really gets CRAPPY: I called Walgreens.com customer service. Walgreens policy is to let you return the camera for a refund (at a store or ship it back). I REALLY WANTED THIS CAMERA and I really wanted an exchange for a new one… one that worked! The Walgreens.com website stated that the price had gone back up to $249.00 and that the camera was ‘out of stock’. The Walgreens.com customer support rep told me I could “order another one from the website once they were in stock again”. I mentioned that “I would like to get it at the sale price I paid as I noticed that the price had gone back to $249.00”. The phone rep said that she “could not authorize the sale price herself” (she was as friendly and as helpful as she could be- not her fault). The Walgreens.com phone rep said that she would make notations in her system about the problem so that when I called back to order again, that the information would be ‘on file’. Next day I checked the site again and saw that the camera was in stock again. I called to order it but was told I would have to pay full price ($249.00). I asked to be transferred to a supervisor that had the authority to ‘fix’ the situation. The Walgreens phone rep said that she could only take down my information (comments and contact info) and that a supervisor would get in touch with me via phone. WELL, It has been weeks and I have not heard a word from Walgreens.com at all. Sure- I could call back and demand a supervisor ‘fix’ the problem but F- IT! They should have called me back- and promptly. They need to fix their customer service so that a rep can ‘fix’ an issue like this on the spot. They were able to look up my original sale info (date, price I paid, etc.) and could see that I called about returning the product, all in a very timely manner as the camera was bad from day one.… yet Walgreens.com couldn’t honor the sale price! WTF--- THEY SHOULD HAVE SENT A CAMERA THAT WORKED CORRECTLY IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! Deciding that I have currently had enough dealing with f-ing idiots, I have decided never to buy from Walgreens.com… and to avoid Aiptek- at least for a few more years.

I have just purchased a Cannon HF100 on-line, for $289.00 and it has specs that beat the freakin’ pants off the Aiptek product, and with the Cannon name I do not expect to find any dead pixels in the product. I’ll chime in again to let everyone know how the Cannon works out for me.

In the end: TOO BAD for Aiptek… I really wanted to give Aiptek another shot (after lackluster experience with my old Aiptek DV 4500)- even another chance at a replacement Action GVS if Walgreens had not totally f-ed up my customer service experience with them… I’ll never buy anything from Walgreens.com on sale- that could possibly need returning as I now know first hand how BADLY that they can ROYALLY F THAT UP.

And AIPTEK… Perhaps I’ll give you another try in a few more years, when you can actually make a product that captures real, full HD at 1920x1080, at a good price, and it will have to actually work correctly. I am not sure if you are just using the cheapest parts you can get, perhaps that and a combination of poor manufacturing practices???? Like I state above, you have GREAT IDEAS and great interfaces… but the end resulting products seem to have very high failure rates. Congrats to anyone that got an Action GVS that works good… it sure looks like it would be a cool camera to have- even if it does not capture in Full HD at 1920x1080- still very cool.

As for Walgreens.com ... F YOU!  Your stores will still get my business but I'll spread the word about your crappy .com biz! CRAP!