[Android Head-Units] dp12776:
Hi. My name is Daniel and I have some experiences I would like to share:

I first bought a generic android kitkat 2 DIN headunit from Joying in the beginning of August 2015. It took around 16 days to arrive from Germany to Spain, event though it said on their homepage that it was in stock. I think they later told me that it was not in stock. I installed it in my Hyundai Sonata 2008. I made quite a bit of modification to the trim in the car and made it look really nice. Everything well after I did a bit of programming with the help of information on this page. I made it use Poweramp as standard music player and after a lot of fiddling about I changed the "mode" button on my steering wheel to "back" so that it would go out of radio again. Anyway, it was hours of research and testing and flashing and what not.

My disappointment was great when it, after a few days of running perfectly, suddenly would not go past the startup logo. I tried a bunch of things but i think it was soft-bricked. I had not done anything to it, that was not directly recommended by joying here on this page, so my surprise was great.

I wrote back to Joying on the 29th of September with my problem. Now started a seemingly endless correspondence with only one reply per day. Instead of just replacing my unit, they had so many suggestions and wanted proof-videos of everything. So imagine, at first I had to make a video of the unit not starting up. Then another day. Then I had to make one of me pressing the reset button. Then another day. Then they wanted me to disassemble the unit and try and disconnect a board, plug it back in and of course film it all as the unit didnt start up again. And so on and so on. All in all, there were 27 emails sent back and forth. Only one per day, and none in the weekends. As you would imagine, I was without a headunit in my car for a long time.

Finally, they agreed to replace the unit, but they asked me kindly to send the old one to China so that they could troubleshoot for future costumers with the same problem. Unfortunately, a new unit was not in stock in the German warehouse and again I had to wait maybe 3 weeks before it arrived from China. The old unit, I sent to China straight away. The shipping cost was 50 euro, which i paid and kept the receipt. I emailed them the receipt and asked them to pay the money, since i was really just doing them a favour of sending it back. They denied this. I think he was shocked at the shipping price. Another day by day email discussion ensued. This is even despite the fact that they had initially promised to refund all my money. Eventually after many days of discussion, they agreed to pay 20 Euro to my paypal account. Of course I also had to pay the paypal fee for this.

I eventually got the new unit and worked for a day to get it installed and programmed like I had the old one.

It worked well for a time. I have travelling a lot and have not used the car for a long time. It had been parked in an airport parking and I had not disconnected the battery. Unfortunately, when I came back from my travels, the battery was dead beyond repair. My wife took the car to an authorised mechanic and had the battery replaced. Lo and behold, after this, the head unit was dead. Completely dead.

I had to get back to the emailing. Again, one email per day, and them asking me to take videos of tryng to push various buttons. As this didnt work, they started suggesting that I try and install the headunit in a friends car! or that I take it to a mehanic who could test it. Or even that I buy a power supply and start testing it myself. I keep insisting that the unit is dead and that I just need a replacement. They then start to complain that I have now broken 2 units! and that they had already sent me one, giving me the impression that, that must be enough.

I start saying that they should honor the warranty and send me a new unit. They suggest that I either just buy a new unit for a "good price" of 300 euro or that I take it to a local technician who can just replace a couple of components, or finally that I send it back to them, where they will repair it and send it back. Again, as I know it will cost 50 euro just to send it and that it would take months to get it back. Out of lack of better options, I am currently now trying to find someone locally who can replace the components. This is not easy, as this is rural Spain and not Hong Kong.

Needles to say, all this correspondence is still just going day by day and has currently taken more than 2 weeks without getting anywhere nearer a working headunit.

I am just sick and tired of Joying and it is my hope that others here will learn from my bad experiences and choose a different vendor when they buy their unit.

If you also have experience with Joying, please write it in the comments.

Daniel