I want to share my experience with Mars-Hydro customer service
I had a complete section die out in one of my Mars Pro II 320's.
After reading some horror-stories from Mars-Hydro haters, I was kinda curious how this would turn out. I can assure you all, you have absolutely nothing to fear. This is how it works in reality:
- I first contacted Sara on the 420 forum who then put me in touch with their repair service
- Then you get two choices - you can send the lamp to the closest repair center and get it repaired, or you can figure out what is wrong yourself (with good help from the Mars-Hydro team) and then get spare parts sent in the mail.
The last option made most sense to me as I don't want to send away the lamp and then have to wait a long time for it. Luckily I have one spare 320 so if one breaks I can always replace it with another one. I own 3 320's in total and I use two of them in my main-room. So it made sense to me to take down the broken, put up the other and in the meantime fix my light myself.
- Then Mars-Hydro produced a video exclusively for me to show me how to remove/replace the PCB section of the Mars pro series. That one is still not online so I can't share it here. It was sent directly to my inbox - plus points for this service! Really helpful
- They also sent me links to two other videos describing how to test which section of the lamp is broken. In this case it could be the PCB or the power controller for the blue section. This confused me a little bit because the links were for older Mars models, but I understood why when I opened the lamp. The instructions applied also to my lamp.
- The instructions I received were as following:
"Could you please detach the reflector and then take a picture of the number of PCB, too. BTW, I have observed those pictures. And the rows of the led bulbs with blank may be caused by the faulty power supplies or the led bulbs. Could you please kindly check the drivers inside? If it is hard for you, please let me know.If it is, please send the light to the service center where the engineer always offers professional repair.
Here is the instruction for swapping the driver.
STEP 1: Switch the drivers inside to check whether the led bulbs with blank will be on again.
STEP 2.1: If all the led bulbs with blank come back,the power supply will be the problem.
STEP 2.2: If some come back, the others not, the power supply and led bulbs both are faulty"
"Then some steps that only applies to their old series, so I removed them from this text"
Then I followed the instructions, swapped the drivers/power supplies, figured out which part was broken and sent them the requested photo of the PCB number plus this photo identifying the broken part:
Then Mars-Hydro repair service replied:
"Dear DeVille,
It's me again. Sorry for the delayed reply because of the weekends.
It's so great that you find the problem by yourself and give me an elaborate description. Thank you very much. I have consulted the engineer of MARS-HYDRO about the light's problem. The engineer says that the 100w power supply of the light should be replaced. So Mars-hydro is glad to send you a 100w power supply without any charge. Is the following shipping address available for you?"
"Deville's adress cencored out from the conversation"
"I will arrange shipment for you as soon when you confirm the shipping address"
- Then I received some great unrelated information about my Mars Pro II 80 lights
"BTW, I have checked the delivery system and it shows that your 4xMars 80 LED will be delivered in the next few days"
- "Deville's tracking information cencored out from the conversation"
I also made a suggestion for how they could make it easier for us customers to identify the PCB number without having to open the lamp. For this the repair-service had this comment:
"And for your suggestion, It's meaningful for MARS-HYDRO and I will send the suggestion to the engineer. Thank you.
Look forward to hearing from you
Best regards
Lucy (Mars Hydro)
Email: service@mars-hydro.com
Official Website: Mars , Led grow light , Mars Hydro"
After hearing all those horror stories, I have to say I am relieved. This was very straightforward.
Their repair-service representative was helpful, kind and friendly. Very willing to help indeed. I love that they let us fix our lamps ourselves if we belive we are qualified for it. How many other companies out there would let their customers do that?
In my case I was also relieved when I opened the lamp and saw how streamlined it was built. There is nothing in there a customer can't exchange her/himself. So I would recommend everyone to go for the "fix your light yourself" solution.
If you don't feel alright with that solution, they also have repair centers all over the planet that will fix it for you. But that would be too time demanding for me and I really don't like the idea of sending the light away.
All in all I would rate Mars-Hydro customer service 9/10 - Top notch!
But beware of the risk that language issues may lead to random moments of confusion
We managed to understand each other in the end and all worked out great.
DeVille
I had a complete section die out in one of my Mars Pro II 320's.
After reading some horror-stories from Mars-Hydro haters, I was kinda curious how this would turn out. I can assure you all, you have absolutely nothing to fear. This is how it works in reality:
- I first contacted Sara on the 420 forum who then put me in touch with their repair service
- Then you get two choices - you can send the lamp to the closest repair center and get it repaired, or you can figure out what is wrong yourself (with good help from the Mars-Hydro team) and then get spare parts sent in the mail.
The last option made most sense to me as I don't want to send away the lamp and then have to wait a long time for it. Luckily I have one spare 320 so if one breaks I can always replace it with another one. I own 3 320's in total and I use two of them in my main-room. So it made sense to me to take down the broken, put up the other and in the meantime fix my light myself.
- Then Mars-Hydro produced a video exclusively for me to show me how to remove/replace the PCB section of the Mars pro series. That one is still not online so I can't share it here. It was sent directly to my inbox - plus points for this service! Really helpful
- They also sent me links to two other videos describing how to test which section of the lamp is broken. In this case it could be the PCB or the power controller for the blue section. This confused me a little bit because the links were for older Mars models, but I understood why when I opened the lamp. The instructions applied also to my lamp.
- The instructions I received were as following:
"Could you please detach the reflector and then take a picture of the number of PCB, too. BTW, I have observed those pictures. And the rows of the led bulbs with blank may be caused by the faulty power supplies or the led bulbs. Could you please kindly check the drivers inside? If it is hard for you, please let me know.If it is, please send the light to the service center where the engineer always offers professional repair.
Here is the instruction for swapping the driver.
STEP 1: Switch the drivers inside to check whether the led bulbs with blank will be on again.
STEP 2.1: If all the led bulbs with blank come back,the power supply will be the problem.
STEP 2.2: If some come back, the others not, the power supply and led bulbs both are faulty"
"Then some steps that only applies to their old series, so I removed them from this text"
Then I followed the instructions, swapped the drivers/power supplies, figured out which part was broken and sent them the requested photo of the PCB number plus this photo identifying the broken part:
Then Mars-Hydro repair service replied:
"Dear DeVille,
It's me again. Sorry for the delayed reply because of the weekends.
It's so great that you find the problem by yourself and give me an elaborate description. Thank you very much. I have consulted the engineer of MARS-HYDRO about the light's problem. The engineer says that the 100w power supply of the light should be replaced. So Mars-hydro is glad to send you a 100w power supply without any charge. Is the following shipping address available for you?"
"Deville's adress cencored out from the conversation"
"I will arrange shipment for you as soon when you confirm the shipping address"
- Then I received some great unrelated information about my Mars Pro II 80 lights
"BTW, I have checked the delivery system and it shows that your 4xMars 80 LED will be delivered in the next few days"
- "Deville's tracking information cencored out from the conversation"
I also made a suggestion for how they could make it easier for us customers to identify the PCB number without having to open the lamp. For this the repair-service had this comment:
"And for your suggestion, It's meaningful for MARS-HYDRO and I will send the suggestion to the engineer. Thank you.
Look forward to hearing from you
Best regards
Lucy (Mars Hydro)
Email: service@mars-hydro.com
Official Website: Mars , Led grow light , Mars Hydro"
After hearing all those horror stories, I have to say I am relieved. This was very straightforward.
Their repair-service representative was helpful, kind and friendly. Very willing to help indeed. I love that they let us fix our lamps ourselves if we belive we are qualified for it. How many other companies out there would let their customers do that?
In my case I was also relieved when I opened the lamp and saw how streamlined it was built. There is nothing in there a customer can't exchange her/himself. So I would recommend everyone to go for the "fix your light yourself" solution.
If you don't feel alright with that solution, they also have repair centers all over the planet that will fix it for you. But that would be too time demanding for me and I really don't like the idea of sending the light away.
All in all I would rate Mars-Hydro customer service 9/10 - Top notch!
But beware of the risk that language issues may lead to random moments of confusion
We managed to understand each other in the end and all worked out great. DeVille
