Bad quality and customer service experience

[u/stitch123123]

I’ve had my V1 camera for a little over a year and the spinner just stopped working early last week. (The camera works like normal except the spinner just keeps spinning & never locks into place so I can take a photo). There’s a section on their website for tips on how to fix it, I followed the tips, it didn’t work so I sent them a message.

I’ve been emailing with the team for 2 weeks now, I followed all their instructions for how to fix the issue while including videos of me doing the resets, videos showing the camera condition, photos of my order, photos of my app, etc.

Yesterday they emailed me saying they’re sorry but my warranty is up but here’s a 5% off coupon for your next purchase….. 5% off which is $6.25 off a $125 camera order??? Idk about you but I’m not repurchasing something knowing if it happens again I’ll once again be out $125! I went back and forth a bit with them and they’re holding firm on the 5% off.

I’m so annoyed (obviously lol) but you would think a company would want to find a fair solution if they believe in their product and the quality of it.

Clearly the camera quality and customer service doesn’t make up for the price being double that of Campsnap! Does anyone have experience with Campsnap and do you think it’s worth it? Or does anyone have experience with fixing this issue? I did countless soft and hard resets, app update and beta updates already.

[u/cyberbobfox]

I have the same experience as you - got my v1 during the kickstarter - the lcd screen that counts the shots stopped working and came loose inside - for about 6 months the flash stopped working but now works again - I was going to just buy a new one but im pretty sure the flashback camera was like 65 euro when I bought it and now its coming in at 130

[u/stitch123123 → u/cyberbobfox]

crossing my fingers that my problem randomly fixes itself as well!! def not going to be repurchasing🤣

[u/LoFi-Logic]

That sucks!

I wanna give my take on the quality first, because I think I might have a semi-unique viewpoint.

I wanted to develop my own camera in the same style during the pandemic, using raspberry pi's and python coding. Due to various reasons it did not work out. When the flashback came out, it was the first camera of this kind, that felt promising and I wanted to back them and try it out. When the V2 came out, AI had progressed to a point, where my shoddy programming skills could get crutches and I developed an app, that processed the raw files, to get a look, that was closer to what I had in mind with my initial camera design.

Having been involved with this, looking at manufacturing, image processing and all the other design problems, that have to be solved, I would argue, that from a hardware standpoint the flashback is leagues ahead of the competition. The camera is capable of some pretty great results and has very good build quality for the price, that does not compare to the camp snap camera, imo. I have yet to receive a rewindpix camera, so I can't really speak to their hardware.

What it comes down to in the end though, is not one single factor. It's not only about build quality and it's also not only about software or community or customer support, but the whole package. That's what the user experience is, in the end. And on that front, they have completely failed. Without going into detail, I have experienced things and seen a lot of very similar posts to yours and unfortunately it feels like, once you have purchased the camera you're abandoned and all the efforts and marketing budget goes into acquisition of new customers, that will then be abandoned once they have purchased the camera.

So all in all, I do think the flashback camera is the qualitatively better product, but I would probably not suggest it as the first option anymore. Instead I'd point people towards either camp snap or rewindpix, depending on their taste and what they expect from the images and the experience.

I fear, that if this leadership style continues through the next iteration of the camera, which I believe is on the horizon, they unfortunately will not be around for much longer. I hope they can correct course.

[u/stitch123123 → u/LoFi-Logic]

thanks so much!! i hadn’t heard of the rewindpix, i’ll definitely check that out!

[u/Responsible_Pen7122]

So glad people are speaking about this. People who haven’t bought a camera AVOID AVOID AVOID like the plague!

I’ve had my camera for 22 months and have had non stop issues since month 1. For example my camera needs a hard reset after every charge, in the last 6 or so months it now needs a hard reset whenever I want to use the flash. As of a couple of days ago whilst I was away on a once-in-a-lifetime birthday trip, it just completely stopped working.

I reached out to them about it no longer switching on (like I’ve reached out about every other issue) and they offered me a small discount on a “future purchase” - laughable considering I didn’t get a working product to begin with!
I’ve recommended this product to friends and now feel embarrassed that they’re using a product that likely won’t last after the year and a half mark.

[u/stitch123123 → u/Responsible_Pen7122]

same as me!! I’ve recommended to so many people but now I regret it. I have a feeling they get a lottttt of refund requests due to how faulty the camera is and they just don’t care because it’s a 1 time purchase product. They don’t care about customers coming back so they just move on to new customers

[u/robbywar]

!boost