Viofo A129 Plus Duo does not power on/start in my car.

[sn809]

Simple test, do the led lights light up on the hardwire kit?
Look in your fuse box and follow the wire from the hardwire kit that has the red, yellow and black wires, try to trace the wires back to where the installer has fitted them and take a good picture of them and how they are connected to the cars wires.

Don't worry about testing. Just ask for a refund, even partial as they have placed all the wires under the trims and new place only has to attach the wires. If someone has done the work and can share appropriate pictures for @smithdean to take to their installer it would be great.
I now regret not having hardwiring my dashcam as someone hit my parked car and went off. The Bumper appears to have unclipped. Thank fully no significant damage and I will probably just fix it myself but seriously thinking about hardwiring now.

 

[Mtrev]

Don't worry about testing. Just ask for a refund, even partial as they have placed all the wires under the trims and new place only has to attach the wires. If someone has done the work and can share appropriate pictures for @smithdean to take to their installer it would be great.
I now regret not having hardwiring my dashcam as someone hit my parked car and went off. The Bumper appears to have unclipped. Thank fully no significant damage and I will probably just fix it myself but seriously thinking about hardwiring now.

It’s not exactly testing, just determining if the kit has power.
The photos would help us understand what they have done for it to be so unreliable and intermittent and give him some ammunition for getting a refund.

 

[smithdean]

It’s not exactly testing, just determining if the kit has power.
The photos would help us understand what they have done for it to be so unreliable and intermittent and give him some ammunition for getting a refund.

Told me they don’t offer refund for labor cost but will talk to the installer when they come next week. Let’s see but told them I am not coming there again and again for same failed poor installation. The troubling part is another worker of same company told me the hardwire was properly done even though there were no fuse taps used and they all talk as if they don’t know what I am talking about when I mentioned using fuse taps ! However few years ago a white employee at another location of same company properly installed dashcam in my previous car and it worked fine for years until I sold that car. I didn’t bother to check how it was installed cos it worked flawlessly. He told me that time he has installed dashcams in many cars when I told him why so many in Illinois don’t use dashcams . So it depends on the employee’s skill and experience!

 

[jokiin]

it's certainly possible to install the camera properly without using fuse taps, it's not like they have to be used, it's just an easier method in most situations

 

[sn809]

it's certainly possible to install the camera properly without using fuse taps, it's not like they have to be used, it's just an easier method in most situations

Told me they don’t offer refund for labor cost but will talk to the installer when they come next week. Let’s see but told them I am not coming there again and again for same failed poor installation. The troubling part is another worker of same company told me the hardwire was properly done even though there were no fuse taps used and they all talk as if they don’t know what I am talking about when I mentioned using fuse taps ! However few years ago a white employee at another location of same company properly installed dashcam in my previous car and it worked fine for years until I sold that car. I didn’t bother to check how it was installed cos it worked flawlessly. He told me that time he has installed dashcams in many cars when I told him why so many in Illinois don’t use dashcams . So it depends on the employee’s skill and experience!

@jokiin But I am sure you would agree installation with fuse taps is a safer option.
@smithdean Fairly sure the color of his skin didn't affect his competence or that of the other employees you had visited later but yes it depends on the employee's skills and experience.

 

[jokiin]

@jokiin But I am sure you would agree installation with fuse taps is a safer option.

in the hands of a DIY installer yeah, for a professional installer it's not an issue, not so sure smithdean has been dealing with a professional installer though

 

[Mtrev]

in the hands of a DIY installer yeah, for a professional installer it's not an issue, not so sure smithdean has been dealing with a professional installer though

The thing is, if they actually work on cars they should be capable of securely joining 3 wires to a power, ignition and earth. The fact they claim to regularly fit alarms should cement that so I can’t understand why it’s been so difficult to do unless they’ve either bodged it or the hardwire kit is faulty.
Hopefully smithdean can take some clear pics of how the wires are joined.

 

[SawMaster]

Other folks have gotten good installs from their local "Best Buy" stores so I don't know what went wrong here. But I have to agree with Jokiin- these guys do not seem to be "Pros" at all and I wouldn't be going back there for a remedy at this point. If this can get sorted out by either the OP or some true "Pro" installer and it's not caused by a faulty component, then I'd be documenting (pictures) of what these guys did and what was done to fix it, then I'd take all that to the store manager and demand a full refund. If that wasn't forthcoming then I'd take it up at corporate level including links to this thread with notation that this is the premier website for dashcams in the English-speaking world and that bad press here will affect all their stores That should be enough to get the OP a refund or at least a Best Buy gift card for an equal amount of their merchandise. Another possibility is small-claims court; those vary a lot from place to place so may or may not get good results.

But you need good documentation to go this route, and that means a lot better pics than we've been seeing and plenty of those, along with vids of the cam's functioning now and after the fix has been applied. If the OP can't do it then they need to get a friend or relative to do it for them. Without that kind of documentation they're likely to just be screwed and there's nothing we can do about that from a distance

Phil

 

[DToX9]

Well, I'm certainly no expert.... but...
With all the frustration and problems the OP is having with this...
How much faith is there that the wires are run cleanly, and that there isn't some potential damage to the hardwire kit that can't be seen just at the fuse box?

I would want the full system pulled and inspected and re-installed by someone who knew what they were doing.
Or at bare minimum, pull it out myself to inspect, and re-install using some of the help graciously offered here and online if you're comfortable trying.
If you have the time to take it slow... and step by step... it's very DIY friendly with the right instruction.

 

[smithdean]

Today I went back to another of their location and the guy seemed confident and he told me the other guy at the other location clearly didn’t know what he was doing. So he did some work and he told me he sutured the hardwire kit and now it won’t be loose and will keep powering on my dashcam. He told me fuse tap method is not good and he told me if the fuse taps falls or goes bad the dashcam won’t work . The following pic is what it looks like after he said he “sutured”. I had to look at dictionary for what that means! Hope it won’t stop powering my dashcam .

 

[jokiin]

Today I went back to another of their location and the guy seemed confident and he told me the other guy at the other location clearly didn’t know what he was doing.

at least you got confirmation of what was suspected all along

 

[Mtz]

So Amazon replaced a working camera?

 

[smithdean]

So Amazon replaced a working camera?

How am I supposed to know ? If I did I wouldn’t be going through all this . Still a new camera with everything and none missing !

 

[jokiin]

So Amazon replaced a working camera?

a large percentage of faulty product that gets returned is not faulty, happens in every product category

 

[Mtz]

a large percentage of faulty product that gets returned is not faulty, happens in every product category

I think most of returned dashcams, except DOA, are because of cards.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[jokiin]

cards are certainly a common point of failure, more of a problem when people source their own cards as they too often get purchased based on price and end up buying fake cards, the type of user that buys a fake card doesn't often understand that fake cards are even a thing, there's a perception that because the cards have no moving parts that they're all the same, there's nothing to wear out etc