Anyone who has been around this board for any length of time has heard the saying "You get what you pay for" w/r/t gear.
My Acratech GXP suffered a fall when a shooting buddy, who borrowed the head, knocked his entire rig over. The ball head itself suffered a couple of knicks but was otherwise fine. Unfortunately the impact point was the lever release on the GXP. This caused the lever to have way too much play in it when it was locked. The lever release worked for months afterward without any incident. The problem was the noticeable play (movement) in the arm when locked made me very uneasy. You could see that at some point in the future it would be possible for the arm to come undone and have everything crash to the ground.
I tied to ignore it but it bothered me and made me uneasy so I resolved to purchase a replacement lever release from Acratech.
Called Acratech and ended up speaking to Scott. They had replacement lever clamps available ($140.00) but Scott wanted to know what happened. I explained the situation and he said to send the old clamp in and he'd have a look at it.
Sent in the lever clamp and Acratech rebuilt the entire thing. Now it functions as (better than) new again and I could not be more pleased.
I was willing to pay the $140 for a one of their "seconds" but Acratech basically rebuilt the old clamp and made it better than it was for the cost of shipping.
I ended up paying $14 for return shipping (Fedex 2-day) and that was it.
So in sum, yeah Acratech costs more but I don't mind spending the money up front when the company stands behind their gear and goes above & beyond to fix problems.
Two thumbs up to Acratech from a satisfied customer.
Good to know there are still companies out there that value customers and provide good customer service.
Unfortunately, I haven't been that lucky for the past several years, so now I purchase things with the expectation that there is no customer service at all and that the items I buy are essentially disposable. That includes camera gear as well.
I have an Acratech Ultimate Ballhead than I have used (heavily) for 15+ years. A while back I decided to send it in to upgrade the screw clamp to a lever clamp. While it was there they basically overhauled the whole thing, replacing and upgrading other parts… at no additional cost.
I was and remain tremendously impressed by their products and their service. The are definitely among the Good Buys.
smw6230 wrote:
Anyone who has been around this board for any length of time has heard the saying "You get what you pay for" w/r/t gear.
My Acratech GXP suffered a fall when a shooting buddy, who borrowed the head, knocked his entire rig over. The ball head itself suffered a couple of knicks but was otherwise fine. Unfortunately the impact point was the lever release on the GXP. This caused the lever to have way too much play in it when it was locked. The lever release worked for months afterward without any incident. The problem was the noticeable play (movement) in the arm when locked made me very uneasy. You could see that at some point in the future it would be possible for the arm to come undone and have everything crash to the ground.
I tied to ignore it but it bothered me and made me uneasy so I resolved to purchase a replacement lever release from Acratech.
Called Acratech and ended up speaking to Scott. They had replacement lever clamps available ($140.00) but Scott wanted to know what happened. I explained the situation and he said to send the old clamp in and he'd have a look at it.
Sent in the lever clamp and Acratech rebuilt the entire thing. Now it functions as (better than) new again and I could not be more pleased.
I was willing to pay the $140 for a one of their "seconds" but Acratech basically rebuilt the old clamp and made it better than it was for the cost of shipping.
I ended up paying $14 for return shipping (Fedex 2-day) and that was it.
So in sum, yeah Acratech costs more but I don't mind spending the money up front when the company stands behind their gear and goes above & beyond to fix problems.
Two thumbs up to Acratech from a satisfied customer.
