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A story of a failed product and it's bad customer service...


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Hello fellow operators. I’ve felt the need to write this review because 1: it needs to be address, and 2: if there’s anyone out there now considering a product by this company and another, this is definitely something to be aware of. Of course with any product in any industry, there will be those who are dissatisfied with it, but not only am I dissatisfied with the product, I’m extremely disappointed in their customer service. Let me also start by saying that my product from Teradek was 2 weeks old when it died and wouldn’t charge or turn on. When I initiated the process of getting it repaired, my rep suggested multiple times over the phone that I must not have been using Teradek’s cables and it was some 3rd parties fault that the insides got disintegrated…or whatever happened to it. I suppose after assuring them that this in fact wasn’t the case over and over, they finally agreed to repair the product for free. And now it’s been 3 weeks since I sent it off and the only way I was able to get an update was to call in and ask “why is it taking you so long”, only to find out that I still have another 2 ½ weeks to wait until it’s put into the service department. Their customer service has been rude to me, and made it a job in itself to get any information from them over the phone, even things as simple as "who am I speaking with". So my question now is, why did I invest all of this money in something that breaks after it’s 2nd week on set, and then takes another month (maybe) for it to get repaired? So now I’m spending money again to sub-rent the same product from wherever I can for my jobs and only breaking even in the end. It seems tempting to continue this route though as owning it myself has already failed to save me any time, headache, or money.

 

Sure, these things happen. Equipment breaks and needs to be sent in for repairs. I expected it to happen and continue to expect it to happen in the future. But for it to happen on a product that’s less than 2 weeks old and costs thousands of dollars, and then to be told that it’s my fault over and over, for me, is an unacceptable level of quality from any company. I’m sure many of you have had very good experiences with the company and it’s products, and I wish I could have had that too, but I think both sides need to be shared. The good, and the bad. There are companies out there who'll go out of their way to make sure you're taken care of, and others who simply don't seem to care at all.

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Tim,

 

I am at IBC in Amsterdam so please give me a few days to get back and find out what happened here. I sincerely apologize on behalf of Teradek for the poor service you have experienced.

 

No matter what happened, this is an unacceptable period of time to wait for a repair and there should never have been any delay in getting your unit back in house for a fix since you are covered under our warranty.

 

Shoot me an email when you get a chance so I know how your Bolt broke.

 

Mike

Mike@teradek.com

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Hey Tim,

 

Teradek is very responsive and always has been. Freak things happen and this sounds like one of them unfortunately.

 

I'm sure Mike will be right on top of this ASAP.

 

If you need one of my Teradeks call me and we can overnight it to you right away.

 

Robert

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I've had consistently excellent service (technical and warranty support) from Teradek, even making exceptions to replace an out-of-warranty Bolt receiver that bricked after a firmware update gone awry.

 

Your experience sounds very atypical and it sucks that your impression of Teradek is marred by your frustrating experiences with their support department. I'm sure Mike will make it right.

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I was surprised to read this. Since the title of the thread does not shed light on the company, I was reading the post waiting for the finger to point. I had a Bolt PRO and found Teradek to be excellent while ordering and with follow up. Never had a problem with the unit so I never needed repairs - it worked great. I recently sold the unit as I ordered a PRO 2000 which I believe is arriving today. Again, it was a pleasure dealing with Teradek. I'm sure Mike will get to the bottom of this.

 

On another note, using someone else's cables: This is the film business. As long as you are using quality cables, no one should try and put blame on that. There are a handful of respected cables makers who make their living supplying cables to film professionals. I hope this was just a misunderstanding.

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I'm glad to hear that the everyone on this thread has had great experiences with this company. What I'm hearing is what I've heard in the past as well, and is the reason I purchased in the 1st place, not to mention there really isn't a competitor making these products at the same level. My expectations and disappointment was high because of this though. I've been talking to Mike and he's gone way out of his way to set things straight with this situation. My loyalty to the company hasn't been lost, and hope to receive the same level of support as everyone else in the future.

 

Robert, I really appreciate your offer! Thanks for the reply.

 

Eric, it may not be a failed product overall, but for me it was. Not only the product, but also the service. It was not on par with PRO. I had a similar situation less than a month after I bought my rig from PRO, right after christmas, and the rig was received, serviced, and sent back to me before the new year. And that's during Christmas break. The problem was simply taken care of with no hassle, and no excuses.

 

And I apologize for the misleading typo. lol

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I guess I am one of the few that had bad experiences as well. Not this level of bad, but they turned me off and I ended up with Paralinx products, and am very happy with those guys service.

I had a commercial shoot in a hospital and had lawyers for the product (long story) hanging out in a tour bus outside. They needed to see what we were shooting. I wanted to broadcast a signal over the internet as the distance was prohibitive for anything else. This was before the Bolt was released, and I wanted to use the Cube for the job.

Now, I'm not a network engineer but I am not technically challenged and I know that the Cube is designed for what I needed. Therefore I called them to ask for guidance on how to do this. They did not want to help me at all, citing that I had to use 3rd party products, like 3G modems and such, and because of that they wouldn't be able to help me out. I spent a lot of time trying to make it work and it did for a second, but no longer and I had to give up.

That was very disappointing. We ended up having a lawyer on set at all times, and the shoot went fine, but I was really turned off by that attitude...

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Tim, Sorry this happened to you. I purchased a Bolt in Feb of 2013 a few days before leaving to Italy on a job, Received it, and since I did not have any experience with it, On the same day I received it, I took it to a production house who had experience with Teradek products as they had several, We plugged it in (With their supplied cables), it worked, the tech and I were chatting about it, and how clean the transmission looked and about 20 minutes after turning it on...It died. I called Teradek, they asked a few questions, and being that I was at a location who had purchased Teradek products before and it had been about 3 hours since i received the thing, they told me to ship it back, and when they had the tracking number, they would ship me a replacement, so I did. Same day I received it, it shipped back overnight. I gave them the tracking number, Kyle emailed me letting me know the replacement would go out that same day for Saturday Delivery.. The following day, nothing arrived, waited till the next business day Monday...nothing. I called them , they said they had not shipped anything out, simple enough, I cancelled the sale, got a refund, and bought a Paralinx with a crossbow, never looked back, I even bought a second one a few months back. I know the customer service at Teradek has improved and so has the product, so I'm sure your issue will be taken care of, although I would think repairs are almost as important and time sensitive as sales, if not more so. I've used both the Bolt and the Bolt 2000 on sets, Sometimes both at the same time and they rock. Just didn't for me at that time.

 

Ozzie

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I must say, we have a strange relationship with fellow members here. Anytime someone has a sub-par experience company, lots of people seem to rush to defend the company with stories of their success.

 

Granted, perhaps we can do without the melodrama of "a story of a FAILED PRODUCT" etc, but I don't think it's particularly constructive that anytime someone has an issue with a larger company (Cinetronic, Teradek, etc), the flurry of replies cite the responder's positive experience. I can't imagine it really helps the aggrieved to hear numerous stories of everyone's positive experience in the wake of sharing a negative experience.

 

Mike has already replied, and if they make good for Tim, I'd love hear about it from Tim himself.

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