. . . .She was very knowledgeable, very patient and very accommodating. She suggested I send them in with a detailed explanation of what was wrong with each unit. I asked about turn-around time: she said probably about two weeks. She added that my experience with these cameras was not typical and they function very well for their price-point when they work as they're suppose to. We'll see come September 18 or so.
Well, they arrived right on schedule, September 19. But one of the two new units Moultrie sent me to replace the defective ones powered up, died and would not re-start regardless of the quality of battery. The other unit works but I doubt seriously that it's a 4 mp camera - their idea of a 'high' quality setting doesn't apeal to me at all.
Once again, after many tries, I got through to Moultrie customer 'service'
. It was suggested that I use Duracell batteries and if those didn't work they'd pay for the return of the unit. Since that conversation, (three days ago), I've been on the phone no less than eight times waiting, leaving voice mails, leaving messages for hand-delivery and, the last attempt was an entire hour of listening to, "We're sorry but all of our technicians are still busy assisting other customers. We are experiencing high call volume and your wait time may be considerable. . . .We wanna dedicate the proper attention to your call and suggest that you call back at another time if your wait time is greater than 15 minutes" just to see if anyone was actully answering the phone (s?). Apparently not.
I'm sorry for whining, but this is just stupid. Four (4) units; only one that works. . . .and that one with ANY set of six D-cell batteries. That's a 75% failure rate right out of the box!! What are the odds against that? My thought is this. . . .if the caller volume is that high and the wait times are so long, it would stand to reason that either; 1) they're under-staffed, 2) technical explanations are taking longer than they should, or 3) Moultrie products, in general, are inherently problematic in that too many of them require a call to customer service.
I'm really glad that most of the folks on this forum are happy with their Moultrie products and I enjoy the pictures you've taken with their trail cams. But for myself I'm done with Moultrie products and their brand of customer service. I'll send the defective unit back at my expense and they can find a place to put it. I can't make the commitment to chase customer service around indefinitely. I just don't have time and they've proven that their products are not reliable.
Just one man's view from the field of experience. Thanks for listening.