Anyone buy direct from Zhiyun?

Tim Miller

Tim Miller

Well-known member
I'm looking at getting a gimbal from them and see they have a US store. Anyone have any experience from them? They have a 10% off coupon that really helps with the price.

Website - https://zhiyun.us/

Thanks!
 
I've been trying to get service on my Crane, it died and I am not sure how real the US "store" is. They said I would still have to ship my Crane back to China for repair. While I absolutely love my Crane and have shot lots of cool footage with it and really like it, for a working pro, you need to consider the Crane as a disposable. Mine has already paid for itself a couple of times over so I may throw it in the recycle bin and buy another. I have a good shoot for Sony next week that I need it for, the director specificially asked if I could use the Fujinon XT-2 on a small gimbal, the Crane will be perfect. I've had it ten months and have dragged it to a couple of different countries on documentary shoots. It has never been abused but it has been used a lot. It is a consumer item, not a pro level item so buy it thinking that with hard use, you'll probably have to replace yearly or so. All of my Crane original batteries died after ten months as well. Usually I can get 18 months out of Lithium rechargeables. I also have a Zhiyun M-Rider, a Go Pro gimbal and it's batteries are dying after 6 months. Not a biggie, 18350 batteries are cheap. But a bit disappointing. I like their products, but I would gladly pay 30% more cost to have 30-50% better build and reliability.
 
It looks like they accept PayPal, so at least you can maybe use that if you're feeling tentative.
 
I always like to see a real name and address in the 'About' pages of a website, none is found on their site.

Their website is registered using a mail box in a UPS store:

1707 1/2 Post Oak Blvd
Houston, TX 77056

According to the whois database their domain was going to expire on Fri Jul 28 23:59:59 GMT 2017, I assume it was renewed but you can't tell for sure.
 
According to the Zhiyun US website's "where to buy", Amazon is the authorized reseller that includes the 1 year warranty. What is confusing and contradictory is that it says "When ordering from Amazon, buy directly from "Zhiyun USA" to receive our exclusive 1-year USA warranty service.", but Amazon does not list Zhiyun as a seller. Plus you don't get to use the coupon code.

You should send an email to the Zhiyun US website and ask them to clear this up.
 
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I saw that their "address" is tied to a PO Box in a UPS store in Houston (street view). I talked to the Zhiyun entity (https://www.facebook.com/ZhiyunGlobal/) on facebook and after some back and forth they told me to go through Amazon. During this exchange they suggested using two different websites, one of which didn't have their product, the other site didn't work. Then in the end, said to use Amazon. Screen shots attached.

Then I found a video on youtube saying this person bought it from that site & reviews the product. What's interesting is the comments where some people said they went through there and had some not so satisfactory responses.

I don't know, all in all, kind of curious.

Screen Shot 2017-07-03 at 12.01.28 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2017-07-03 at 12.01.43 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2017-07-03 at 12.01.52 PM.jpg
 
Seems to me that they are a successful Chinese electronics firm who has not quite really entered the American market. I have no idea who Zhiyun USA is, if they are real, affiliated with Zhiyun-Tech of China, hard to tell.
 
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