WOOASK – ANOTHER KICKSTARTER-LAUNCHED PRODUCT WITH NO REAL BACK-UP
So let’’s be clear: this is a Chinese tech company – Shenzhen Wooask Technology Co., Ltd., established in 2015 – which claims to be “a national high-tech enterprise founded by experts in AI voice translation technology”…
… Which is all well-and-good and indeed, their website – wooask.com – displays a number of such Translators that have a couple of earbuds and which can be used for personal conversations, or by simply interfacing between two people using the buttons on the side of the actual container in which the earbuds are housed.
Kickstarter launched this particular A8 product for them around 15 months ago and I ordered one unit – which, on arrival, I was absolutely unable to make function as a translator: everything else worked fine, but it simply didn’t ‘translate’.
In any language...
Ever :())
Here’s the good part: I contacted WOOASK and – to be fair – they sent me a new unit: which did in fact work.
“Bravo”, I thought: “at last a company from China who CARES about their clients and reputations”.
Wrong.
Nevertheless, on trying – and it worked (more-or-less) for a good 10 months – the subsequent issue was that the interface is somewhat clunky and the translations from English to Thai are about as inaccurate as those produced by Google Tramnslate.
Wooask can’t be blamed for that: Thai – with its many inflections for the same word – is NOT an easy language to translate and indeed, when it worked, it didn’t do too bad a job of it.
... And then – a week ago – when recharging it after it had been idle for a couple of months – the unit fired-up… but just didn’t translate: again.
Everything else worked.
But not the Translations – and so: same issue as the original one.
My subsequent contact – again – with the company – generated a ‘Sorry – but we already helped you before and told you what to do – (and so now couldn’t really give a rat’s ass what happens now)’-style of reply: presumably because the unit was now out of warranty.
Who knows – and understands the ‘Oriental Mind’… (?)
Anyway – and yes indeed: the product had come with what could, if one were inclined to be generous – what might pass for ‘instructions’: though composed in the usual kind of to-be-expected, cut-down ‘Chinglish’ lexicon that is often less use than the paper on which it is printed.
That said, there wast nothing indicated to help in terms of trouble-shooting, or even any comprehensible ‘how to use’ text…
Whatever…
A second request for help – in both English and Simple Chinese – elicited absolutely no further acknowledgement or response...
Bottom line: DON’T be tempted to buy a Wooask product and expect any kind of long-term support because you’ll be as successful at that as wishing that your Buffalo can jump over the Moon.
In the end, this is just another Chinese company that likes moving boxes to get some money into their coffers – and once that’s happened, you can go away and suck your thumb until it falls off because that’s all that will ever happen.
This second unit has now gone the same way as the first one: into the trash compacter.
Rubbish from a ‘rubbish’ company.
... Which is OK because the technology has advanced so much over the last year that there are now plenty of better alternatives available – and this is all the incentive I needed for me to spring for an upgrade with a more seriously-inclined company..!
… And not Chinese..!
May 5, 2026
Unprompted review