Look I am not going to get into this but this one post.
I personally go into purchases expecting no support from anyone because often there isn’t any. The retailer palms you to the manufacturer and the manufacturer usually doesn’t care or replaces it with something as bad or worse.
When it comes time to solve a problem seemingly many places don’t care once they have your money. That is my experience. I have had this experience with major brands including Ford, Samsung, ASUS etc.
When I contacted Samsung about the poor quality fingerprint reader and high idle battery drain on my new Galaxy S10+ they told me it’s normal and there is no problems even though many are complaining about the issue. That’s the end of that and they weren’t interested. The retailer won’t take it back either as they see nothing wrong with trying to unlock the phone after 6 tries. It’s user error or some nonsense. No – it’s untested and a poor rushed design. I was aware and knew what I was getting into before I gave them money. I can live with this as I can use other methods to unlock.
When my fancy ASUS high end motherboard failed ASUS didn’t even bother to respond. Nothing. Thankfully the retailer swapped it out. I got one with different problems. Now I don’t just buy without good research.
Viofo has a predictable "perfect record" of releasing new dash cam models without fully testing hardware and firmware.
This applies to many companies and products today. It's essentially a lottery. Most seem to be like this from what I have experienced. We are the testers as consumers and we might get a fix. It’s incredibly frustrating. This is why I research the heck out of my purchases. I still went with Viofo because it is the most reliable unit I have found with the video quality I wanted. So far it has delivered for me. If it didn’t I would get my money back and write off the brand and go for something else.
I always wait 6-12 months before purchasing a new product as it always has problems. I risked it this time with the A129 Pro Duo and SO FAR I have nothing wrong YET. I lucked out.
I passed on the very expensive Blackvue DR900S because of the constant
problems with overheating, colour tinged footage, faulty rear cameras, mediocre video quality and general failures which I have observed and read about and that is a high priced “premium” product.
One member here has had several replacements. My friend has had 2 so far in a year. Viofo’s products don’t do this in my experience and use cases. Therefore they are better quality / better design with a better image quality. I was ready to hand over double the cost of the A129 Pro Duo for a DR900S. Glad I did not go with the Blackvue.
There is no “better” product on the market – they all have issues and compromises. Some worse than others. Perhaps others have better customer service. I don't know. This is why it took me so long to settle on a new dashcam. I haven’t even heard about the Viofo brand till this year. They are not in shops or advertised in my country. Only online.
I understand your frustration but you now have a fix to the G sensor. Other problems remain yes. I don’t expect any help from Viofo to be honest. You have a 1 year warranty which can be considered repair/replacement. I could only hope if my unit fails I can get a replacement. Beyond that what it does is what I am stuck with. Any updates are frankly a bonus – that is how I have come to see products.
Sadoka mentioned he has purchased not one, not two, but six a129 Duo dash cams.
I don’t own an A129 Duo but why would you buy six if one doesn’t work correctly? Should have returned the one and said no more. Buy an A129 Pro Duo it seems to work well.
I appricate your warning about Viofo but reading your posts about Viofo dashcams did not put me off their cameras as I believe from my prior experience of owning one, research and viewing of the footage these are one of the top on the market at this point. They do what I want and they do it reliably for my usage scenarios.
I have a couple from them as a result and they have been flawless in my cars. I am happy with my purchase so far. Again this might change if they fail or start having faults.
I have not used Viofo's support as I have had no issues so I can't comment on this aspect personally.
Read lots of reviews. If you don’t like what you a reading then don’t buy the product. They all have faults. You have to pick what you can live with.