Replay experience
This is kind of a head scratcher for me, because the company had such great customer service up until this last interaction.
Bought a Replay XD from GAR in Dec 2012. First time I tried to use it the battery took a crap, and they replaced it immediately. Replay’s offices are next door to Mark Bahner’s shop, and on the way to a place I go every few weeks, so I’ve stopped in a couple of times to get stuff and they’ve always been real helpful.
After a couple of times where I didn’t get the camera turned on properly, I searched for and bought their remote control cable. Must have been the last one on the planet. Got it from B&H, cost more than $100, and it didn’t even have any instructions (there were red, black, white, and green wires in the power cable). It had a huge button with on/off/record and a LED to let you know what’s going on, and provides the option for external power. Used it for two race weekends, and the third time I used it, it powered up and recorded OK, shut down OK, but then the camera wouldn’t respond to anything afterwards.
I contacted Replay, and they took me through a ton of different charging and button-push combinations to wake the camera up, but no joy, so they told me to send in the camera and the remote button. They thought I’d wired it up incorrectly, or that a white or green wire was touching something (but I’d individually insulated the wires, and then insulated the bundle, so that wasn’t the problem). They also told me that if the camera was the problem I’d have to pay $100 for a replacement since it was out of warranty.
A couple weeks later they call me to go over the symptoms again with the tech who was working on it. He told me that the remotes had some problem where they were killing the cameras. A few days later they called to confirm shipping and get a CC for $100…, when they again admitted that it was the controller’s fault, I needed to replace the camera, and they were going to "give" me the remote power cable (which is like a $15 item) and I’d have to add a power switch and set the config file to record on power up. Gee, if that’s what I wanted I would have purchased that in the beginning….
They gave me the opportunity to select the newer, smaller camera for the same price – but the power cable wasn’t available yet, and they were unwilling to give me one, and I’d need all new mounts, etc.
Obviously I’m not too happy, having purchased a camera, a very expensive cable, had the cable kill the camera, and then have to pay for a replacement camera and less capable cable. This experience will probably push me to another brand when this camera dies.
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