First I would like everyone to know I am not bashing Cuddeback. I am ONLY telling my story with their customer service.
I bought a Cuddeback camera in the spring of 2004. It worked great until December 2005. At that time it started to take pictures every 30 seconds until the batteries died. Well I did not get to call them until April 2006. They told me that for $35 I could send it in and get it fixed. OK I was a little bit surprised that after spending $400 on a camera that 2 years later I would be spending another $35 plus shipping to get it fixed but it was out of warranty.
I sent it in and got it back very quickly. Well I did not test it I just put it back into the woods and went from there. When I did go out and get it I found that the camera had failed with a message of CamErr. I called them back and this time it took about 4 days to get thru. Seems they only have one or two lines into their building and the number was always busy. Try it. 1-715-762-2260.
Well I was told to ship it back again (more shipping cost) but I would not have to pay the $35. I did get it back very quickly again. They said they replaced the circuit board this time. I put it back in the woods with one of my freshly formatted cards in it. Well the next time I checked it it said I had 17 pictures. I couldn’t wait to see what I got. I put the card in the computer and the card was blank. I formatted another card and put that in the camera. I have a total of 3 cards for this camera and all of them come back blank after the camera says there are pictures. I have copied files to these cards and they work fine. The last time I checked the camera it said yet again “CamErr”.
So I start calling them again on Monday September 25th about 50 times a day but always get a busy single or get hung up on. I finally get someone to answer on Thursday the 28th by mistakenly hitting zero instead of 1 or 2. If I do get thru and hit 1 or 2 I get a recording that says “everyone is busy right now please call back later” and they hang up. So I get the receptionist by hitting zero. She tells me it sounds like the camera is not writing to the card. Ya think. She tells me that Jeff is who I need to speak with and he is at lunch. Says I will be his number one priority at 1:00 when he gets in. It is 12:40 at the time. Well no call that afternoon.
So I start calling on Friday. I call about every 30 minutes and dial 5 times each time. Always getting a busy signal. On Monday October 2 I get thru at 1:00 but am told Jeff is still at lunch and he will call me first thing when he gets back. She tells me that “he goes right by my desk and I will make him use my phone”.
Well I just called them back on Tuesday morning at 10:30 and after busy signal 8 times I got the receptionist again. This time Jeff was there. He tells me that he got my message but just had not gotten around to calling me yet. Best news is that for another $80 I can get the circuit board updated to use a different media. Then I can go out and buy new memory cards since I don’t have any of the SD’s. Or I could send it in again. I purchased this in Feb of 2004 and he tells me that it is too bad there is nothing else he will do.
Now I do understand that I waited until spring to call them but I have lost an entire season because of this. It is the only camera that I have as I put all my money into what I thought was one of the best available. Guess I learned that the hard way. When I first got this camera and it was taking good pictures I left a very positive review about it on here. I also told several people that it was a good camera to spend your money on. I know others have had good luck with theirs but I just think I should get more than 2 years from a $400 camera. I understand they do not last forever but 2 years???? I also think that their customer service should be much better then it is for a company charging this much for their camera when others are charging much less. If you have one good luck with it. They do take great pictures. I just hope you never have problems with it because their customer service is awful and all they try to do is get more money out of you. If you are thinking about buying one of these take the $400 and buy 4 or 5 cheap ones. You will be much better off.

Too much marketing lead to too many sales that they could not back up with enough customer support. It's too bad as I own 2 of these (2005 Cuddeback, 2006 Excite).

If the same thing was to happen to me I would not go about it quite as nicely. I know many people have had trouble with the older models. Some have had good luck with repairs, others not.

Thanks. I just wish I would have spent the money on several cheaper ones. I also want others to know what the customer service is like. Granted MOST will never need it but I will buy something from a company that I know has good customer service before I would buy something from a company with poor service.

As for going about it nicely it really does me no good to get upset with them. Jeff is the guys name and you can tell just talking to him that he does NOT give a crap about you or your problems. You already paid your money. He knows there are others out there who will buy and he is after them. Thing is had he been nicer and taken care of me (without asking for almost another $100 with shipping) I would be writing a very positive review about everything and others might buy based on that. Now I just hope I can get some to NOT buy a cuddeback so he knows that one person can make a difference. After all this review alone has 144 hits so if only 2 percent of that decides NOT to buy then he has lost out on 3 sales.

Yup, Cudde is over marketed and that's where their customer base comes from. Too bad the companies like Stealth Cam, Wildview, Leaf River etc. have much better customer service. All of these companies are gaining on the trigger speed feature Cudde is known for and all of them IMO have abetter unit. Cudde'sis cheap, and the 06 camera design is terrible.

I know for next year I am looking at the Wildview. I can get a 2.0mp for $90. I could get 5 of them for what I have spent on this one cudde so far.

They really "screwed the pooch" when they redesigned the camera's this year. I have several of the older models and thankfully have not had any problems, but I wouldn't recomend the new one to anybody.

I bought one of the Wildview 2.0 MP for 89.99 and at the same time bought a 4.1 MP from Moultrie. First week, I was very pleased with both cameras. After that first week, it was nothing but downhill for the "more advanced" camera. First it's batteries went bad every other day, then it somehow damaged my SD card so that became unusable, then it stopped taking picsaltogether.Luckily Cabelas gave me a full refund on the Moultrie, I still have the Wildview out thereandalthough it doesn't take the crisp pics the Moultrie didat first, it is still out there taking 50-80 pics every timeI get outto change the card.

Sometimes the cheaperone is the way to go.

I totally agree on the "screwed the pooch" part with the new case design Avalance. Also I've noticed that on my No Flash model, the trigger speed is no faster than the Leaf River IR that I have. For $150 less with the same functionality, the Leaf River gets my vote as the IR camera to own. Also the late '06 models of the Leaf River cameras now come with an expansion port where you can add up to (4) externally powered IR light arrays so you will be able to throw tons of IR illumination out there.

Well I have tried to erase all from the cards in the camera and it still won't work. All 3 cards that used to work do not. I am going to go ahead and send it back to them. I am NOT going to pay another $80 to get the newer board put in that would require me to go get new compact flash (I don't have any). I will keep you all posted as to what happens on this 3RD return to them good or bad.

Oh crap man....That sucks. ... Have you ever considered using it as a new smaller size of target of your practice sessions.....

Hope you get some satisfaction concerning it .. real quick.

P.S. everyone - keep the info on cameras coming. I have three Moultries right now and they are working fine, but I am wanting to get into a IR cam before next season, and I appreciate everyone experience and input. I have been eyeballin' the Leaf River units in the catalogues, but I am not pressed for time right now. But I plan to get one or two in time for next years scouting.