OnePlus is under fire in Europe after customers say the company has started replacing warranty repairs and swaps with short-lived store vouchers that are, in practice, close to useless.
The complaints surfaced on Reddit and were later picked up across the tech world. In one case, a customer sent in a SuperVOOC charger for repair and was told the accessory had reached end of life, so OnePlus would offer a €100 voucher instead. Another user said their OnePlus Buds Pro 2 failed while still within the two-year warranty period, only for support to acknowledge the defect and then offer a voucher equal to the earbuds’ value because the product was no longer available.
That sounds like compensation, but the catch is doing a lot of the work here. The vouchers reportedly only work in OnePlus’s online store, expire after a month, and cannot be used on discounted products. In a store where much of the remaining inventory is already marked down — or simply out of stock — that makes the credit hard to spend at all. As one frustrated customer put it, the voucher had a “functional value of €0.”
That situation is especially awkward because the European Union’s warranty rules are not exactly flexible. Buyers are generally entitled to a two-year warranty, and a company can’t really brush that aside with a code that doesn’t buy anything. Some owners are now talking about escalating their cases to the European Consumer Centre, arguing that OnePlus is dodging its legal obligations rather than resolving them.
The timing only makes the whole thing look worse. For months, there have been growing signs that OnePlus is winding down its European presence. The company’s regional social accounts have gone quiet, some country sites have started nudging shoppers toward Oppo, and a few reports suggest EU storefronts have been running thin on accessories and even core products. OnePlus’s European arm previously said it was “reevaluating its regional roadmap and product strategy,” which didn’t exactly calm anyone down.
There’s also a broader shift underway that customers have noticed. OnePlus has already been steering some shoppers toward Oppo, its parent brand, and that transition appears to be happening while support for existing owners becomes messier. The company has not publicly confirmed an exit from Europe, but the pattern of empty shelves, redirected traffic and voucher-only warranty handling is hardly subtle. It also echoes signs of a wider retreat, with OnePlus pulling back from some markets and leaning harder on Oppo in places where the brand no longer seems to be going all-in.
The fallout may not stop in Europe. Reports suggest OnePlus stock is thinning in the US and UK too, and that the company is concentrating launches in stronger regions such as India and China. If that’s the direction OnePlus is heading, warranty handling becomes more than a customer-service headache — it becomes a litmus test for how the company plans to treat people who already bought in.
For now, the advice circulating among affected owners is simple: don’t accept a voucher unless you’ve checked the terms very carefully, because in this case the paperwork may be worth more than the credit itself.
