Unexpectedly Great Cusomer Service
Last September I upgraded my family to BL5000s, after my father had had a great experience with his Blackview phone from around 2015. He put the phone through the ringer, I forget the exact model, but it survived being run over by heavy equipment, multiple accidental water encounters, and all manner of horrible drops and falls. Within a week of having my BL5000 I dropped it in the worst way that I've ever dropped a phone. It fell out of my hand, about a 1.5 meter distance to the ground, and tumbled down a flight of concrete stairs. The only damage was a little nick and some minor scratching. In July however, I was using the underwater camera, well within the 1.5m/30min spec, and the phone became water damaged. I contacted Blackview customer service, and inquired first about any known hardware or software issues, as the water damage wasn't totally apparent at first. I gave them the full story, and suspecting water damage they sent me to the RMA department. The point of contact seems to be a single individual, whose company email is available on the site. They were very responsive, and the contact was timely, especially considering the time difference between Italy and Hong Kong. They first requested that I get an opinion from a phone repair shop before shipping. I did so, and was advised to RMA the phone. Upon receiving this info they immediately and without question gave me RMA instructions. I shipped the phone, at my expense (which I really don't mind considering the quality of service, also I feel that this is a risk you knowingly take when you import electronics or hardware yourself), and within a day or two of receiving the phone they decided to refund the purchase price in full. Their finance department sent the refund via PayPal about a week later. All in all this process took less than a month, and it could have been shorter had I been a bit more timely in taking action at several points. The customer care was phenomenal, and I really can't say enough good things about it. I went ahead and purchased the new BL8800, this time form an Italian retailer to avoid long shipping time and paying my own import fees. After a week with this phone, I couldn't be happier from a price to performance standpoint. However, I won't be testing its waterproof capabilities purposefully, without an extra lay of aftermarket protection.