Ayaneo is pretty notorious in the handheld space for several reasons, one of them being its atrocious customer support. Now you might be hard-pressed to name a more iconic duo than Chinese companies and subpar customer service, but Ayaneo’s reputation was so bad that its CEO posted an article back in January to specifically address service and after-sales issues for overseas users that had built to a fever pitch. It was nice to see the company finally acknowledge its shortcomings and provide a Service Improvement Plan as a solution, but the question remained. Could Ayaneo turn a new leaf? My personal experience says no.
Video version of this article for those who prefer to listen
The customer support timeline
Back in April, I reached out to Ayaneo’s customer support about an issue with the Pocket S Mini: the controller’s buttons would disconnect when waking the device from sleep. At this point, the device was over a month old, and I had done everything an end user could be expected to do to help troubleshoot. I ran all of Ayaneo’s updates, I changed the battery settings for AYASpace and AYAHome to Unrestricted, and I even did a couple of factory resets, but the controller would still disconnect after 10 minutes of sleep.
Unfortunately, I was a bit stubborn with the troubleshooting process and missed out on the 7-day replacement window, so I had to reach out to Ayaneo to go through its tedious repair process, and its customer service, if you can even call it that, has been putting me through the wringer ever since.
Initial e-mail that kicked things off
On April 2nd, I emailed service@ayaneo.com about the issue, and I still haven’t received a response from this account. This silence threw me off, since that’s the email Ayaneo officially lists on its website’s Contact Us page.
My first reply, 8 days later, from an email address that I wasn’t supposed to contact for this problem
On April 10th, I sent an email to help@ayaneo.com and received a response several hours later. According to Ayaneo’s Service Improvement Plan, this email was supposed to be dedicated to unresolved after-sales requests submitted before 2025, but I was finally getting a response. The freshly contacted CS asked for a video showing the issue, as well as the system version I was on. I sent them a post I made on r/SBCGaming that includes a video showing the controller not working, along with the version numbers for the update, controller firmware, system version, and all the AYA apps I was using at the time, providing ample amounts of data, as requested.
Sadly, they needed my address to create the shipping label. Hopefully, they don’t sell it on the dark web
The next response I received was on April 13th, asking for my name and address so customer service could send me a shipping label to send the Pocket S Mini back for repairs, all the way to China. I got the shipping label, and they had FedEx pick it up on April 20th. Ten days from the first response to shipping it back seemed a bit slow, but I was glad it was being addressed.
A pretty cut-and-dry email with very little information, but they should’ve sent this as soon as the Pocket S Mini arrived
Then Ayaneo became unresponsive. I assumed the company would’ve sent an email when it received the device, but apparently not. I asked for an update on May 10th, and CS responded on May 15th, saying that the handheld had arrived and been sent to the repair department, and that more information would be shared once it was fixed. I thanked the service agent for the update and left it at that.
I find it hard to believe it took two weeks to figure out it’s a motherboard issue
A couple of weeks went by, and nothing happened. I emailed the company again on May 29th to find out what was going on, and I was told there was an issue with the motherboard and that support needed more time to fix it. On June 1st, I asked for a replacement unit since it had been almost two months since this all started. Ayaneo’s oh-so-helpful CS simply reiterated the fact that it was a motherboard issue, that they apparently need a special engineer to fix it, and that I need to wait longer. I was not pleased.
I’ve seen enough Louis Rossmann board repair videos to know that they don’t take 1 month to fix
More time passed without any communication. I reached out to Ayaneo once again on June 11th for an update, and CS replied on June 12th, saying that motherboard repairs usually take one month. I was once again assured they’d inform me when it’s done. I pointed out that they had already been holding my device for over one month, but still haven’t fixed it. I once again asked for a replacement, and Ayaneo finally decided to bite the bullet and send a replacement.
Finally
Of course, I still have to wait for the new Pocket S Mini to arrive, so by the time I get it, it will have been over 2 months since this long and arduous journey started.
Did things go according to the Service Improvement Plan?
At face value, Ayaneo’s customer service seems to have improved. Sure, I did have to contact the wrong email address for my issue, but aside from the one 5-day gap in responses, the company did reply to all of my emails within 48 business hours. But does that really matter when Ayaneo still takes forever to actually resolve a problem?
Something I wish I knew before all of this went down
I suppose I can’t really trash Ayaneo too much, since their Service Improvement Plan says they have 3 months to repair an item before sending a replacement unit, but that’s a painfully long time to go without a device I’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on.
And even though Ayaneo has mostly followed through on its plan, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Customers shouldn’t have to constantly email Ayaneo to find out the current repair status, which department it went to, or whether they even received the device. Overall, even with its customer service improvements, I’d say the process is still very frustrating and unsatisfying.
If you follow these guidelines, they might not respond
There’s also a lot of confusion about which email address you need to contact to get help. The Contact Us page on Ayaneo’s website lists service@ayaneo.com, but I only got a response from help@ayaneo.com, and according to its own article, I should have contacted store@ayaneo.com. All of these emails should be listed on the company’s Contact Us page, not buried in an article posted five months ago.
My advice
The golden ticket that could save you months of frustration
If you’re an Ayaneo customer who has had the misfortune of buying a defective unit, try to take advantage of the 7-day replacement if you can. You should also stress-test your device as soon as you get it, and if it has issues after installing the latest updates, contact Ayaneo immediately to get the ball rolling. Don’t be like me and try to tinker and troubleshoot while you miss out on your replacement window, because you could end up waiting several months, just like me.
If Ayaneo is reading this, I’d highly recommend shortening the repair window. People spending hundreds of dollars buying your “premium” handhelds shouldn’t have to wait 3 months for a repair. If it’s something that takes you more than 2 weeks to fix, just send out a replacement unit and figure out the repair on your own time.
