Aputure Customer Service

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi all:

Thought I would just report here, one of the caveats of buying Chinese gear is the lack of customer service and follow up. I myself have gone through this both with DJI and Zhiyun. Many of us have Aputure lights and I wanted to report that my main LS 1S that I use with a small Chimera as a key light, the yolk and tie down knob stripped out on a shoot up in San Francisco two weeks ago. My gaffer showed it to me and made it work with some A-frame clamps for the remainder of that shoot so all was well. When I got home, I contacted Aputure US Sales who hooked me up with "Susie" (I love when Chinese people in China have American names, but it makes sense for dealing with Americans). She kindly pointed me to the Aptuture store on AliExpress and bought two replacement side yolk anchor plates and two new tie down knobs. They only had tie downs for the 120D on AliExpress so she told me to write a note to substitute the longer LS 1S knobs and she would make sure their warehouse subbed the longer knobs for me even though I had to order the shorter 120D knobs.

Anyway, so far, so good. It has taken some time, it's not a quick process, orders from China with AliExpress are slated to take 19-39 days with their included shipping, but you can pay $30.00 or $40.00 for FedEx/DHL but that didn't make sense on a couple of $10.00 parts. So far, Kudos to Aputure for solid customer support. If your Aputure goes down with an electrical problem, still not sure how they would handle that but so far on this minor parts issue, they've handled my problem MUCH better than DJI or Zhiyun ever has.
 
I’ve had the same experience with Aputure recently. I needed a replacement cable for my LS1, Aputure directed me to a web link to order. It’s on its way. That said, I wish they could stock common parts in -country for distribution.
 
Agreed, someone needs to have that earnest talk with Ted. Really like their products but things like having to wait 3-6 weeks to get replacement parts doesn't help.
 
>the yolk and tie down knob stripped out on a shoot

I hear that happening a lot. Seems like the/a main flaw with the light. Would love to see Aputure beef up those, have spare parts in regions where they sell a lot of lights (they know), and so on. I mean, you ain't the first (or most likely the 10th) person with this problem. Of course, that costs money and while it might earn them gratitude from customers, I wonder if it would earn them any more sales... Oh well; at least they make the parts available. Thanks for sharing your fairly positive experience...

Since the lights seem popular, are there any hacks people have come up with to install beefier yokes and bolts?
 
FWIW, for a repair like this it is likely that repairing the threads with a heli-coil thread insert would make the unit better than it was to begin with. Threads in aluminum are a little sketchy to begin with which is why in many high stress applications, such as aircraft, heli-coils are often installed in brand new assemblies since it drastically improves female thread strength. They are easy enough to install if you are handy at all. Kits for a given thread size include a drill bit, tap, installation tool and thread inserts and in smaller sizes are going to cost between $20-30 for a kit with 10 inserts. They can be purchased at most any hardware store or fastener supply. I find that Chinese machine screws are notoriously soft, so you might want to replace the fasteners as well with at least a grade 5 fastener. As much great stuff as China builds, their fasteners, for some reason, are really lousy for the most part. Just a thought from an old machinist who worked with aluminum more than a little.

Grant
 
+1....sometimes things need to be modified to bring these lights closer to "production quality". I make a point of buying spares in advance to replace the parts that are obviously not going to last when you do not handle the gear yourself. An example is of a Manfrotto Befree tripod I bought for travel...would never put it in anyone else's hands, and the tilt part of the little fluid head is useless but folds to 161/2 inches, so for a locked off shot on a sturdy floor it's perfect and weighs less than My a Miller D20 head! Also the little fluid head arm is joined to the head by a little section of plasm arm....just a matter of time, yet and easy remedy in advance
 
As far as a electrical problems. I bought an Aputure 672 back before the LS1 was available. It worked great for about a week and then something went wrong on the board and it just died. I took a few photos of the issue. They had me send it to their US location and sent me a free replacement. Pretty straight forward and painless. Although I do wish they would keep some parts stateside. The power supply got lost on a shoot and the only option was AliExpress, I ended up just using it as a battery powered spare light that could get tossed where needed.
 
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