Continue selling Rift (CV1) cables
Rift CV1 owners are concerned at the recent decision to stop selling the Rift CV1 accessories only 6 months after the sale of the last headset. Of particular concern is the lack headset cable which is probably the most fragile component. The expectation that we should buy a whole new headset if this $50 part fails is a major concern.
Many circumstances can occur outside of warranty conditions like
- pets can chew this cable
- accidental twisting over time fatigues the cable
- accidental falls can pull the cable from the PC
All these circumstances are not Oculus' fault and should not be handled under warranty. However the end user do have the expectation that they can repair a commonly failing part for their headset.
Consumer rights in the USA are very weak and favour companies over consumers. However in the EU, Australia and New Zealand the laws state that spare parts should be available for a reasonable amount of time after the product is discontinued. 6 months is not very reasonable considering that most users have an expectation that PC components should last between 3-5 years.
Ref: https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/products-and-services/problems-with-a-product/cannot-be-repaired
A survey of 250 Oculus users seems to suggest that most Rift owners expect to get approximately 4-5 years from their headset
Source of results can be found in comments for above image.
Many of us understand that this cable was possibly being made by a third party who has made the decision to no longer supply them to you. However you made the design decision to go with a proprietary cable so unfortunately the onus is on you to abide by consumer laws and will have to either make freely available design specifications and connector patents so a 3rd party can make them or source a new supplier for this cable so you can sell it yourself.
Your quality end user support compared to other VR headset vendors has earned you a great reputation in the VR community in recent years. This quality support has definitely helped accelerate the growth of your marketshare with as Oculus owners recommend your headset to family and friends based on how good your after market support is. Please don't tarnish this reputation and abandon the early adopters that have helped to grow your ecosystem. We want to remain Oculus customers but it becomes the standard that headsets (including the Rift-S) will be abandoned 6 months after the product is discontinued from sale many of us will have second thoughts about buying future Oculus products as well as using the Oculus store.
More voices here - https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/cynbei/forthosewhoneedareplacementoculusrift/
and here - https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/cyfsk3/riftcablenolongerforsaleineed_a/
phoenixdigital
shared this idea
259 comments
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Matthew Horoszowski
commented
Been an Oculus user since the Dev Kit 1, had the Kit 2 and now the Rift... but it looks like my next purchase will have to go to Vive. That you can't purchase replacement parts less than one year after the product is discontinued, for a product in the hundred of dollars range, is just unacceptable.
What you doing Oculus?!?
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Robert Kehoe
commented
No way I’d buy Oculus again with this kind of support. Terrible decision not to sell spare parts. No support = no customers.
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Shaun Elliott
commented
Not selling a replacement cable is just bad business. I won't but another Oculus product until this is resolved, but, I may just buy a Vive
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Michael Oretsky
commented
Really lame that you can't support the original and the first supporters of Oculus Rift. We are the ones who introduced it to our friends and spread the word. How quickly you forget about the loyal customers who have been using your product for years now. The replacement headset cable I bought from Oculus.com just this past August 2019 is already needing to be replaced and you won't provide them to users like us. So lame. You make me want to buy a Vive and campaign about how badly your customer care has become. If you can't make a $50 cable last 4 months you sure as **** should keep a healthy supply of them. Otherwise you're that tech company that can neither make quality goods or make a happy consumer.
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DIssappointment
commented
Complete utter disappointment in this brand and their business practices. You shun your original funding backers to create new headsets and stop production of accessories because generation 1 customers are no longer beneficial. On top of the fact that Oculus didn't release the schematics for 3rd parties to create a viable working option and replacement. In their mind I guess 3 1/2 years was enough (from Oculus cv1 release date) for a brand NEW market that people are still slowly getting into and still haven't fully delved into or have been convinced until this day. If this isn't resolved somehow, I will never be purchasing or recommending ANY Oculus product ever again...
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Tervos
commented
Please make them available again. We need them to be.
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Teigue
commented
I have 2 rift CV1, bought 1rst in 2016 (end of year) & the 2nd in 2017. I play echo arena a lot & it twists cable, so having headsets for 3 years I broke 3 cables, cable usually lasts about 8-12 months.
I contacted support as there are no cables on the market & it took me 2 months & couples of weeks to make them resend me a replacement cable, they considered my cable broken in about 2-3 weeks after endless discussions & providing all logs, photos etc. But then just took really long pause for 1.5 months, so I assumed they just had no these cables. But I finally got them. I hope they will restock them, as I have rift S & Quest as well & I almost never use rift S as it feels cheap & display grid breaks immersion (not SDE but the pixel arragement & colors) , Quest is good, but is too front heavier (even with DAS & vrcover) I use it often, but CV1 was the best for me.
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Bernie Meyers commented
Enjoyed my Oculus Rift until the cable got a short and no longer displays video. It only lasted a year. I can't believe support said I should buy a new Rift S or Quest. You expect better support for an expensive product that is less than a year old.
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Carmen
commented
Cable or I delete Facebook and never buy oculus **** again.
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Angery Father
commented
**** Turpin wore a mask. I feel totally cheated by their choice to discontinue the cable so early after ceasing sales. My rift has loads of life left in it if it was not for the cable. Surely they can see the profit they could still make from it. Not everyone has the spare money laying around to get a new HMD whenever a new one is released. Its an out rage. I will never buy a product from them again if this is the end of the matter.
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F L
commented
No replacement cables? Fine, I'll simply throw it out and buy vive
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Olivier Stfx commented
C'est une plaisanterie cette histoire de câble non disponible à la vente?
Un produit en vente dans l'Europe doit fournir les pièces détachées aux clients pendant 5 ans après la fin de la production... c'est la loi (Directive n°2011/83/UE). -
Greg M
commented
Ridiculous that the cables are no longer available to purchase. Oculus may not care about losing their 1st generation of customers, but this is no way to build a brand. At the very least, they should offer a trad in value to upgrade to the newest hardware, but not even that is an option. It's silly that a $59 cable is not available to fix this, and instead render everyone's headsets defunct.
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michelle Pike
commented
I just got this for my 11 year old in March and the cord already needs replaced. The sad thing is I am a single mom of 4 and I begged and borrowed to get that for him for his birthday. I can not afford to upgrade to a new version literally only had it 8 months, there definitely needs to be some kind of class action or at least Oculus needs to come up with a solution. I will never buy anything from Oculus again. But i am sure they don't really care.
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Tony
commented
I've been back and forth with Support over the last several weeks about my Rift not seeing HDMI. For the record, they've been lovely and have tried their best, but it seems their hands are tied. They tell me I should just buy a refurbished Rift headset from them.
I'm quite livid at this point that they cannot support a product that is barely out of stock.
Has there been any talk of a class-action? I will NEVER buy another Oculus product again. And I will shout from the mountain tops of the terrible build quality of their products.
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Hermanus Bothma
commented
I bought my Oculus Rift CV1 in March 2017. Though I intended to use it I never really had the time. All in all up to today I estimate that that have used it for 30 hours or less. This week being Thanksgiving and a long weekend , I finally cleared space and got everything ready and discovered....no video on headset. Sound, yes. White light, yes. NO VIDEO. I payed $650 for this and my disappointment is indescribable. Spent half of Thanksgiving day researching and found to my dismay that one can't even buy a replacement cable!!! Seriously, this is unacceptable. Please address this. Even if I used my Rift more, for that price, it should certainly last more than 2 years????
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Dennis
commented
My Cable broke and now i realise i cant replace. I was very satisfied with my rift but if i have to dump it or buy a used cable in ebay for 100$ i will 100 percent never buy a oculus product again. Even if its great Hardware and fair price for a whole Bundle otherwise,this is a absolute No-Go for me .
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Shooter Eighty
commented
If my cable dies and I can't get a replacement I'll certainly never buy another Oculus product.
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Kevin Ulmo
commented
This is ridiculous. I've had my Rift for just over a year, so it's out of warranty. I've used the **** thing for a total of maybe 50 hours, and the cable is broken. Now I find out that my only solutions seem to be to buy a used cord(if I can even find one) and hope for the best, or live with a bricked VR headset? I honestly don't understand how this is legal.
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Anonymous
commented
No replacement cables? Fine, I'll simply go to another competitor.