[IdahoSageCreek]

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Here's my experience with Non Typical. I never thought about there name before but I'd have to say its quite fitting.

I bought my camera(expert) about two months ago. Shortly after buying the camera I noticed that the camera was draining batteries in less then 100 pics. I contacted NT and they suggested that I send it back in. I asked them since hunting season was only three weeks away, if they'd 3- day(UPS) the camera back to me. They informed me that that wasn't policy and that I'd have to pay for any express shipping, which I then did. The tech called me when he started work on the camera and informed me that he would be replacing the circuit board and would ship out the next day. SO FAR SO GOOD! I asked the gentleman if he'd go over the whole camera because I didn't want to end up sending it back again, as hunting season was just around the corner. He said he would.

9 days later I received the camera and re-set the time and date and all of that stuff and took her out to give her a workout. Set the camera out for a week on a heavily used trail and just got back in from getting it this afternoon. NO PICTURES! I knew it was BS so I set the camera out and did a little testing. Turns out the camera wouldn't take a picture unless I was about three feet away or closer, and wouldnt take any pics any further then that. Sometimes it would take a picture and sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes the flash would work and sometimes it wouldn't. Went to the computer to look at the pictures of myself, and the camera wasn't transferring the pics to the flash cards. Time to call customer service.

After about an hour of alternating between a busy signal and a recording I finally pushed 0 for the operator and got a person on the other line. After about three attempts she passed me through to a nice fella who said I'd need to send my camera back in for them to look at it. I asked to speak to a supervisor because I really wasnt looking foreward to sending the camera back a second time! I was then connected to a person named Terry. He seemed eager to help and after he asked the folks in the background to be quite(sounded like a game of grab ass going on) he listened to my problems. All I could think of was if they hadn't been playing grab ass, maybe they could have been answering the phone and I wouldn't have had to spend almost an hour of my time trying to get SOMEONE TO ANSWER THE PHONE!.

Turn's out Terry wasn't able to help, and he also suggested that I send the camera back. I let him know that I wasn't very happy about sending the camera back again, and reminded him of the express shipping that I'd already payed for, and the three sets of batteries that I'd gone through. When he asked what he could do for me I suggested that he pay for express shipping this time. According to him, that wasn't their policy and that was not going to happen. So if I plan on ever using the camera this year it looks like I'll end up paying for express shipping, again, both ways.

So I just shipped it off for another two week turnaround(if I'm lucky) and hopefully this will be the last time.

The funny thing is I was going to be a dealer for them! Not any more! When I informed him that I intended to post my dissatisfaction with the camera and my experience with them on Chasingame.com and my own hunting forum, he said that they are all amazed at Non Typical how much time we all have to spend on forums. He also said that they get threats all of the time from dissatisfied customers that threaten to "bring them down" and wasn't worried about it. BTW, I never threatened to "bring them down"

When I was speaking to the supervisor and he was trying to figure out how to format my flash cards, which he never did figure out, I felt by his attitude that they didnt think they where responceabile for their faulty equipment.

I dont think I've ever been more dissapointed with a company in my life. I'm retailer of hunting equipment, and I deal with manufactures all of the time, but this was a first. He did slip and say that they ''deal with thousands of returns" and my problem was new to them. lol!

So,

Am I happy with my Cuddeback? NO!

Would I ever recomend buying anything from Non Typical? NO!

Would I buy a Cuddeback again? NO!

Am I happy with the initial customer service? I'd give them a B+

Am I happy with the follow up customer service? Absolutly not! (F-)

Was I impressed with the management being able to take care of a returning unhappy customer? Hell no!

Do I feel better after posting this? As a matter of fact I do!

Scott

 

[grouse]

I had a moultrie with a bad display. It was the gamspy 100. I sent it back and in about 8 days I had a new 3.1 moultrie. Theres about 50.00 difference in teh cams. Thats darn good to me. For what teh cuddebacks sell for, youd think youd get better service!

 

[pinshooter]

Thanks for the warning. Thats one company I don't want to deal with.

 

[Horitexan]

That's CRAZY! Those people are proud enough to charge and ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS amount of money for those cameras and then they don't support them and are rude to customers? Oh HECK NO! For some wierd reason I've always had a bad feeling about that company so I've never bought one of their cameras and I've known a LOT of people to have problems with them. Now I'm GLAD I never bought from them and will never consider them.

There's an old sales ploy that exploits the adage, "You get what you pay for" and I think they've exploited that one about as much as anyone ever could. Unfortunately, I doubt even a full blown boycott by every AT member would make even a blip in their sales. Too bad.

Sorry for your experience but at least you found out the truth BEFORE you started reping them- imagine how mad you'd be if you'd have had to deal with this happening to a bunch of YOUR customers!

Best of luck!

Nick

 

[DANNYCROSS352]

I Use Moultries And Stealth Cams Myself All Cuddies Are Is A Pos Ford With A Jaguar Emblem On It (over Priced In My Eyes)

 

[r2t2]

I returned a Cuddie last summer to Cabela's because of the worst customer service (Treatment) I had ever recieved from any company I have ever done business with.

 

[Goatboy]

Yea cudde has a BIG problem with thier new cameras, that's why there are 275 replies to this thread on the trail camera site chasing game.com
They started with a good camera but now most companies have caught up and most will treat you well if they won't.

http://www.chasingame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=803

 

[arrowaddict]

Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on purchasing a trail camera this weekend, I won't be getting a Cuddeback. If they can't back their product up then I deffinitely don't want one.

 

[nybuckhunter]

Non Typical has bad service

I had a similar experience with their 35mm cameras. I had 3 cameras and 2 were bad. I gave up on them trying to resolve the issue so now I am looking for a digital camera and a different company.

 

[ShootingABN!]

35mm! Same deal!

All,

I had the 35mm camrea. The first year great pic's. Then the problems came. I returned the camrea back 3 times, on the last time it came back I just said the heck with it. They told me it was operator error.:mg: Battries, flim speed, sun light, ect... Go figure I used it for a year and no problems. From the same tree???

So no way will they get another dime from me. I've got a $200. camrea that will not work. That's what my wife paid for it when they first came out, not even counting my shipping.

So just be careful!

 

[Epinepherine]

Non-Typical has really dropped the ball this year. Between myself and hunting buddies, we've purchased well over a half dozen cameras from them this season alone.

While my experience with their customer service hasn't been quite as difficult, I can't say I recommend anything by them right now. Here's a link detailing some of my own experiences I posted a while back. http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=347798

As an update to the link above, two of my "fixed" cameras are not keeping accurate time. One of them loses about 10 mins a day -- which is tolerable I suppose given the fact that I check them every 3 weeks -- and the other is so far off with its time it's not even worth attempting to figure out it's net loss/gain.

 

[jdrdeerslayer]

im haveing the exact same problems with my cuddeback, ive had it since july and have got 0 pics with it, i sent it back, now im about to send it back again,,,,im very dissapointed and upset with my new $400 camera!

 

[ranchdog]

Man I will stick with my Leaf River cameras. The battery life is awsome and it is fast enough for me.

Ranchdog

 

[IdahoSageCreek]

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Saturday night I was looking at the other trail cam websites and noticed that Leaf River, unlike Non Typical, had a email address. So I thought what the Hell, I'd pass on my experience with NT to them. I also asked if I could expect the same service from them. Later that evening about 11:00 PM I received a response!

Here it is,


It is amazing how venting makes you feel better, I have to vent to my wife about stuff all the time, she just listens and agrees. I would love to say you will never experience problems with our products, but with all electronics the possibility is there. We do though spend enormous amounts of time on quality assurance and testing, each camera goes through a 15-20 minute test before beginning it journey to it's new owner. We also stand behind our product 100% and (I) consider our customer service 2nd to none. I love our products and take alot of pride in them because of the amount of time we (I) put into them, we never release a product without being totally satisfied with it. Would love to have you in the family, you can call and talk to Jamie Monday about becoming a dealer. How do you feel the market is in your area, I know there is a lot of public land and security is a important issue, and people are hesitant in leaving their investment on a tree for a couple of weeks. You will be impressed with our battery life also.

Let me know if you have any further questions, take it easy,

Mark Leaf River Outdoor Products

Now just the fact that they have an email address says to me that they're not afraid to deal with the public, and they don't choose to hide behind an inadequate phone system. Also, the fact that the man checks the company's email on the weekend tells me that he's concerned about his customers and the products name. Thats what I read into it, but you can make your own conclusions.

As of this morning, I know my next purchase will likely be a Leaf River.

Scott

 

[Nito]

I have my new cuddeback expert out in the woods now and will check it in about 10 days.
but i have already faced some of the described problems, if you tighten the screw to hard when hanging it up, it looses batteryconection!!! -really bad!!!
the solution was to bend the batteryplate a little upwards the batteries, but still, i paid $365 for the cam...
i have ordered a Stealthcam WD3MT and will o some face to face tests when i get it.

 

[Livin4November]

Here's another horrow story from Non-Typical...

Nobody has any complaints about Non-Typical charging a fee for repair????

I ask that because a friend of mine had problems with not one, but THREE of his Cuddebacks (the original 1.3 camera) and sent them back to have them "refurbished," as the customer service rep called it, for a fee of $35 per camera!
Two of the three have burnt out bulbs right now as I write this only a few months after the first "refurbish" and Non-Typical now wants $80 to repair each one!
$400 cameras and they're charging to repair them after only 1 year and 8 months of use?
I'll stick with my cheap Moultries, Leaf Rivers, and Stealth cams before I ever purchase a Cuddeback for the amount of money they want. I don't care if they take great pictures and have split second trigger speeds. I can work around that by using smart camera angles, high resolution settings, and good film. I'll live with it if it means having to deal with horrible customer service after paying a ton of money. By the way, I did have a problem with a Leaf River camera (35mm Trail Scan C1); sent it out and had it back 13 days later, not charge, no questions asked! Also, had a problem with an original Moultrie Gamespy 100 1.3 cam; sent it out and had it back in 8 days and with new USB cable! Again, no charge. Has worked great since and that was 3 months ago.
You have to understand that anything electronic that is exposed to the elements (outdoors 24/7) can break. As a company dealing with that product, and of such high dollar, they need to realize that and offer their customers better service. I am surprised people will pay that much for a camera and put up with such lousy service.

 

[timgeorge]

I was just about to buy a trail CAM, thnaks for the heads up.

 

[IdahoSageCreek]

I cant imagine a company that has such lousy customer service (Non Typical)will be in business for very long! I know if I shipped out a faulty product I'd be paying for all of the shipping and bending over back wards to make everything right.

Scott

 

[Epinepherine]

I cant imagine a company that has such lousy customer service (Non Typical)will be in business for very long! I know if I shipped out a faulty product I'd be paying for all of the shipping and bending over back wards to make everything right.

Scott

Right.

These are the guys that are "amazed" we have the time to spend 5 minutes creating a post/thread to inform other archers/hunters of our experience, but have zero problem telling us to send in another malfunctioning product -- an hour to the store and back purchasing packaging/foam/bubble wrap & and another half hour running to the post-office.

 

[SR71]

I bought the NoFlash in the last week of July. I've had terrible results with this cam! I did manage to get a couple of pics. I know for certain though that I missed a lot more!! This cam would not keep correct time, changing batteries sucked major ass and sometimes the cam would not trigger unless you were within 4 feet while jumping up and down! I've had it with this thing. I just got off the phone with Cabela's and they are sending me a new Recon Talon Extreme. I hate to lose the pixels, but at least I know this cam will work!!!!!