VS-12BL Heavy Duty Biometric Fingerprint Wall Pistol Gun Safe

-Update 03/24The seller contacted me right away after I posted my original review. They worked on resolving the issue and got me in touch with the manufacturer. Manufacturer sent a replacement part (they actually offered to refund my money but I decided to keep the product as I do like it and besides the issue that I had, it works great and suits my needs as I mentioned before). They provided me with instructions to fix the issue with the replacement part they sent and now my safe is working just fine again! They also extended the warranty in case anything else happens after the repair. My first review completely changed due to the awesome customer service both the seller and the manufacturer provided!-Original Review:Been using it for almost a year. The fingerprint option works good so far, but the digits on the keypad started failing, even with the little use I gave it (opened maybe once a week, but now I touch one number and it dials several digits at a time) and now the only way to open it whitout an error code is with the fingerprint reader. Too bad because overall I liked the size of it and it was good for my needs.

The First to review and YES I was the guinea Pig. I normally would not buy anything off of Amazon without a review, but I took a chance with this because of the features. When I received the safe and opened the box I was looking for the directions and fount a piece of paper. It was a translation of (I'm Presuming ) Chinese to English. I've had experience with directions that were translated before and usually its just some nomenclature thats different. These might have well been in Chinese. I'm doing the company a favor by writing this because I'm sure people would be sending them back in droves. Without going into in depth of whats wrong its basically (operation order, mixed up, sequences and operations missing). I will just number what you need to do. If you buy the safe, read there directions, read these and you should be OK.UPDATE: The seller and manufacturer both contacted me and agreed that the supplied directions were suspect. They sent me the new directions that will be supplied. They are 110% better. You should not have problems, I'm leaving this posted just in case. The safe works fine, The manufacturer and dealer have actually kept in touch and were concerned about my satisfaction. This tells me they will be there if needed!). Open the box remove the safe , you will see a metal tag ( Says Viking )with two round head allen bolts. Loosen one and remove the other. There are a pair of keys included with the safe. Use the keys to unlock the safe. Once you open the safe you can install the supplied batteries in the back of the display.2). I held the door open while I did the remaining steps. The door has to lock before you can remove the keys. Once you have it open and the batteries installed, Locate the RED RESET button on the inside back hinge side of .the locking mechanism... (This drove me nuts until I found it ) Hold it in, after about 10 seconds it beeps and defaults to factory settings, everythings cleared. The screen say INIF and then OK. Once it says OK your ready to program fingerprints. Just momentary press the reset button, the finger scanning light will come on, place your first finger over it and it will scan it. When It beeps the screen says ID 01 02 your good, Now press the enter button (star) on the key pad. Your first print is in. Now you keep repeating this step to each finger or persons finger you want entered.3) check your finger prints for operation. Press the # or * to lock.. Once locked Press the *, when the red scan light comes on place your finger in the scanner it should scan it sometimes takes a few tries.. If it opens, you good.4).Next step., LOCK THE SAFE, by pressing the # or *. ONCE LOCKED you can put in the user entry code. The factory code is 1234. Press and HOLD the * key until you get one horizontal line or hyphen on the display.. Once you get that, enter your desired code then press the star key. Now repeat (enter the code and press * for the last time) The screen will say OK. ...To check, Enter your new code and press the *. key. The safe should open.. Thats pretty much it.This could have been rated at five stars if not for the directions and a few other problems.. First it seems like a well made unit. Its heavy, the door and lock mechanism is substantial. Mounting hardware consists of two 3/8 expansion anchors, there OK for a concrete wall but useless for much else. Plus you really need four anchors because its heavy. They only drill two holes at the side center points which is useless, so you need to drill four more in the corners and use four or six anchors. All in All not a bad unit once you figure it out and modify it a bit.

Only 2 mounting holes on the back and that’s really insufficient. I drilled 4 more to allow 6 mounting points. The width of the safe doesn’t allow mounting to studs since it is too narrow. Would really have been better to make it 18 inches wide to accommodate 16 inch studs. I mounted a 3/4 inch thick plywood board to the studs with 6 lag bolts and mounted the safe to the plywood. It’s not the best setup but a safe like this is truly just a deterrent until the police arrive, not an unbreakable safe.

This is a very easy safe to install and work with. Goes in the thickness of a wall in places people would never think to look because of depth. Fingerprint reader is very reliable.

It was easy to program - both numbers and fingerprint.... love the inside light, nice touch. We are mounting this in the wall.... but oddly - the only bolt holes for hanging this are in the back of the safe - not the sides. We bought it to go between studs.... there are no holes for mounting in the sides - and the shelf track is kinda in the way for just drilling new holes. huh. I'll make it work - but it's not really made for between stud mounting - only flat wall mounting.

There are 3 negative issues with the strong box:1) The instructions that came with the box are incomplete and confusing. About a week after I received the box I did get an email with much better instructions. Why not email these instructions at the time of purchase? Or include them inside the safe? A week late is not good.2) The biometric aspect of the box is suspect. I could not get the reader to consistently read my fingerprint. Maybe once in every three tries. After awhile I gave up and just inputted the code. Which works well.3) Quality control. The place of manufacture installs the batteries in the led lights before it is shipped. When it is shipped the door is held slightly open resulting in the 3 led lights being on the entire time. As such the batteries are likely dead or almost so upon arrival. Also it was unclear from the original instructions that there two separate sets of batteries, one for the door and one for the led lights. And the small trigger switch that activates the 3 led lights was not working correctly because it was bent out of position. I just bent again so that it correctly switched off the lights when the door was closed.So why the five star rating? Because the box is built like a brick house; very strong. Further, it is attractive. Plus the inner lining and led lights are an excellent touch. Also using the keypad worked flawlessly and the fact the electronics hold the code even if the door batteries go dead is excellent. Plus the inclusion of two manual keys in case one forgets the code is also excellent.Everything considered it is a bargain for what one receives and I would buy it again if I needed two.