Posts by afg

Hi have a Z11 Pro Max that I purchased designed for the AU/NZ region. I setup the box in NZ and it has been working fine. I am intending to live in UK for the next 6 months. Then I will be returning to NZ.

Will the box continue to work if I bring the box with me to the UK? Or will it brick and I'll get the region lock message? Or does this only happen when setting up the box for the first time (and doing so OUTSIDE of the designated region). Some help would be appreciated as Formuler don't seem to bother replying to support requests submitted via the chat bot unfortunately...

Returning the box to Amazon.

Ordered a new one via https://www.elite-electronics.com.au and I can confirm it works perfectly in NZ.

Saw the support template, so including in case Formuler support team come across this post:

• Model: Z11 Pro Max (UK) BT1 Edition
• Retail Box or Provider Box: Retail Box
• Firmware version: latest firmware as at 25/04/2025
• MYTVOnline 1 / MYTVOnline 2 version: N/A
• Connection with provider: N/A
• Box connected with: Wifi
• Did you factory reset your device? and when?: No. Just turned on and completed setup. Updated to latest firmware before encountering the issue shortly afterwards.
• Picture url (only https): N/A
• Video download url (only https): N/A
• What issue(s) are you having? Unable to use box. Error message: "0000001E851EC This product is not for sale outside EU/UK. Contact your seller. 0" then device shuts down automatically.
• What was you expecting to happen? expecting the box to work as advertised.
• What happened instead? Error message: "0000001E851EC This product is not for sale outside EU/UK. Contact your seller. 0" followed by automatic shutdown.
• How can we reproduce the issue you are having? Turn on the box and error appears.
• What have you tried if anything to rectify the issue? Tried switching on the box again, and error happens every time.

Hoping that support are able to unlock this box so it is able to function normally...

• I am based in New Zealand.
• I purchased a Z11 Pro Max via Amazon.co.uk. Note that on the Amazon product description, there is no mention of boxes being region locked.
• I setup my box and shortly afterwards got the error message "0000001E851EC This product is not for sale outside EU/UK. Contact your seller. 0".
• The box is therefore completely unusable.

I gather from a little research that Formuler seem to use region locking on their boxes for some reason?!

Some questions:

1. Is there ANYTHING I can do to get the box working? Based on previous forum posts, I am not hopeful.
2. I have checked Amazon for product support and I am directed to https://support.formuler.tv/home/. There seems to be no way to easily create a support ticket on the support website except via the AI chat bot. I have done so about 5 days ago, but I have yet to receive a response - this is rather frustrating as there was no email confirmation upon submission of the the ticket, so I actually have no idea if the ticket was even created!
3. Anyone have experience with the Formuler support team or knows how long it might take to receive a response?
4. In this day and age, why in the world would a manufacturer decide to impose region locking on their devices???

FORMULER SHOULD:

• Make it easier to submit a support ticket
• Give customers an email notification that the support ticket has been submitted succesfully (and ideally with an ETA response time)
• MAKE IT ABSOLUTELY CLEAR TO CUSTOMERS (on the Formuler website and via resellers) THAT THERE ARE DIFFERENT REGION VERSIONS OF EACH BOX AND MAKE IT KNOWN WHICH YOU ARE BUYING. ENSURE RESELLERS HAVE THIS INFORMATION.
• MAKE IT CLEAR THAT BOXES ARE REGION LOCKED AND SPECIFY THE EXACT COUNTRIES EACH VERSION CAN BE OPERATED IN.
• Add links to authorised sellers from the Formuler website and make it searchable by residency country. e.g. would allow me to search for resellers where I can purchase a box that will work correctly in New Zealand.
• Ensure that websites like Amazon alter their product descriptions to make it clear regarding regional versions and region locking etc. Perhaps a warning message?! e.g. BOXES WILL FAIL TO WORK IF SETUP IN A DIFFERENT REGION TO BOX REGION.

Formuler, please consider making some of these above changes to save customers having a such a terrible customer experience. It seems like a few others have suffered the same fate as me in the past!

At this stage, I have exhausted my research to self support, so unless I get a response from Formuler in the near future, I will have no choice but to return the product to Amazon (unfortunately I will need to pay for return postage at my own expense).

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

A