Manfrotto after sales let down.

Trev4

Trev4

Suspended / Banned
Messages
5,967
Name
Trev
Edit My Images
Yes
After using my 055CXPRO3 in the forest and carrying it back to the car with the camera mounted, I noticed that one of the rubber feet was missing. At no point had the legs been snagged or caught on anything that I am aware of.

When I folded the legs up, the small bottom leg retracted completely inside the middle leg due to the missing rubber foot not acting as a stopper. This allowed the internal construction to fall apart and stop the proper retraction of the middle leg.

I sent an email to Manfrotto explaining this, and after a few days got a reply saying that they would write to me in 5 days, so far this hasn’t happened.

I then phoned Manfrotto service, explaining what had happened and that the tripod was only 12 months old and had a 2 year guarantee.
He told me that this was a common problem and explained that I should dismantle the legs and then reassemble them, a quite easy task but one I initially wasn’t going to try while it was under warranty.

He then said that losing a rubber foot was classed as not a warranty problem and that they held the owner responsible for this. I expressed my view that unless the foot was forcibly pulled off, then there was a problem with it being too lose and was a quality issue. He went on to say quite indifferently that Manfrotto had made this policy and they won’t change from it. It was obvious at this point that he had other things to do and the call was finished.

The cost of a replacement is £7.00 plus VAT plus £2.50 postage totalling £12.30. That is for a pack of three, you don’t have the option to buy one.
I have no problem paying a fair price for items or replacement parts, but that seems excessive by any measure.

After a quick search on the net, I found some rubber ferrules on eBay, £2.75 including postage for 4. They are virtually the same in appearance and fit perfectly and tightly without any adhesive, purely a friction fit.

If anyone else needs these, look for 'Black Rubber 19 mm 'B' Type Ferrule'

I have checked the size and these will fit both of my 055 tripods (the metal and carbon one), plus it is the same as my Manfrotto monopod.

I cant say that I was impressed with the after sales service. I have 2 x 055 tripods, a monopod, 498RC2 head and a 393 gimbal head, all by Manfrotto, and I am wondering if I made the right choice of manufacturer to buy my equipment from.

This might all sound quite petty but I wonder what service they would offer for a larger problem. If this is a reflection of their after sales service then I will be changing my preferred manufacturer when I need replacments and hopefully get decent after sales as well.
 
Last edited:
Trev, it shouldn't matter that your problem was a small or trivial one. The product was faulty and that's all there is to it. I agree with you that Manfrotto should have been much more helpful and ready to hold their hands up. Given their reputation I would have expected much more.
Andy.
 
its not a case of warrenty this but fit for use - the rubber foot should not fall off during use. Contact the seller and tell them
 
I would never dream of making a warrenty claim for a rubber foot falling off. I may phone and point out the issue I have had and see what they say, surprisingly I have found many companies sending spare parts several years after the warrenty has run out if taking a very laid back attitude. I am not at all surprised they said the rubber foot is not covered under warrenty.
 
I agree with the comments above, and yes, I could argue it out, trading standards, fit for use etc., but unless its desperately important, then life is too short to take this route, or at least as far as I am concerned it is, and there was an easy, quicker, and cheaper answer.
I have always found that to get the best response to a problem, its important to be polite and respectful to whoever your talking to, talk to them in the way I want to be spoken to, they then tend to go just that bit further to help. That theory didnt work this time unfortunately.

I got a fairly negative response from the manufacturers so found my own solution. If it was a more serious and costly fault, then I would take the appropriate action to take the manufacturers to task, I wouldn’t lie down for them, but there is a balance between the cost and the time it takes, so in this case Manfrotto win... or do they... they have lost at least one loyal customer.

While I can see your point Dave, it was necessary to contact them, one to get a replacement, and more importantly, because the legs wouldn’t retract and I didnt know why at that time, not without dismantling the whole leg.

A friend of mine recently broke a locking lever on his Giotos, they posted a replacement free of charge for good will. I must admit that I was half expecting that sort of laid back response, but was still prepared to buy a replacement, but not at that price.
The ones I did get are much the same as the ones Rich has shown here, but they are plain like the original ones.

Thanks for your thoughts, but I also wanted to let fellow TP members be aware of this.
 
Last edited:
Trev4 said:
A friend of mine recently broke a locking lever on his Giotos, they posted a replacement free of charge for good will. I must admit that I was half expecting that sort of laid back response, but was still prepared to buy a replacement,

Thanks for your thoughts, but I also wanted to let fellow TP members be aware of this.
Click to expand...

Hi Trev

I can totally agree with this, for what it would cost them, I think is they had sent a replacement rubber foot out and (as they did) explained how to rectify your problem, it shows very good customer service and going that extra mile.

An example of good customer service I can give from 1st hand experience is the little plastic flap that covers the water in-fill tank of our Iron at home became loose and didn't always click shut, I phoned the manufactorers - thinking, okay how much is this going to cost for a piddly piece of plastic - didn't even get that far, was asked the problem, then the model number and told a replacement will be posted out - arrived 2 days later, no charge and a comp slip expressing their regrets of the problem we'd had. Thats good customer service !!
 
Last edited:
I had a little rant about this on a different forum:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1058826

Gitzo are the same company effectively. I am actually in agreement that losing a tripod foot is probably not a warranty thing. However, they should replace trivial items for free in my opinion, even if its only the tripod feet. The cost to the company would be minimal.

This is largely unrelated, but I have a backpack made by Osprey, a californian manufacturer. I lost the clip from the sternum strap whilst camping. They sent me not one, but 2 replacement parts first class to me. They arrived next day. With such a positive experience as that it makes me quite a loyal customer. Gitzo/Manfrotto should probably recognise that they dont dominate the market as well as they used to.
 
I have empathy for both views. Warranty, in itself, is big business. Claims are re-insured, etc., and costs are a major issue for manufacturers/insurers. In another unrelated incident, a friend had a very well known German brand of dishwasher. As is usual for those types of appliances, the timer thingy malfunctioned. It was just out of warranty and the company would not offer a free repair. They sent him a letter offering an extended warranty, but with an exclusion for existing/known conditions. I'd expect a quality appliance like that to last ten years of more, not fail after three. People buy them for that reason, and in my opinion the company should spend to protect their reputation. Anyway, I reckon the bean counters in warranty/insurance are not meshed with the sales / marketing / customer service people. I can understand Manfrotto's strict view, but the cost to send out a few feet would be negligible.
 
Reading the above statements, I think we are all generally in agreement over this. Maybe I am old fashioned, but based on my experience of running a distribution business for 40 years, I always insisted that good customer relations were paramount, this of course has to be balanced by commercial considerations and its often difficult to please everyone. Its easy to upset and lose customers, but hard to gain them. These are of course general thoughts.
Recently I lost a breast strap off a Lowepro backpack. A phone call established that they didnt have any spares but they said they were on order and they would call me when they were available. About 2 months later a replacement came in the post, free of charge. It was my fault and I was happy to buy a replacement, but that gesture of good will makes me happy to promote the Lowepro good name. I believe in complaining where necessary, but if you do that, you must offer praise where its due.
 
He went on to say quite indifferently that Manfrotto had made this policy and they won’t change from it.
Click to expand...

The Government make the policy via the sale of goods act, etc. If bits fall off, then it's not fit for purpose.

It's put me off Manfrotto now anyway.
 
About 12 months ago (before the change of British distributors))and outside the warranty period, I broke a clip on my Manfrotto tripod. The only way to repair was to replace the complete leg, clips or sections not being available. So, I spent 50% of the original cost of the tripod and changed the leg, as the 2 legged tripod was not stable:lol:.

A few months later (after the change of distributor)a clip broke again, but this time I was able to see a rep at an exhibition with the result of an exchange tripod with modified clips delivered free to my home address.

I guess its always difficult to assess company performance on a very limited number of examples
 
vintageman said:
About 12 months ago (before the change of British distributors))and outside the warranty period, I broke a clip on my Manfrotto tripod. The only way to repair was to replace the complete leg, clips or sections not being available. So, I spent 50% of the original cost of the tripod and changed the leg, as the 2 legged tripod was not stable:lol:.

A few months later (after the change of distributor)a clip broke again, but this time I was able to see a rep at an exhibition with the result of an exchange tripod with modified clips delivered free to my home address.

I guess its always difficult to assess company performance on a very limited number of examples
Click to expand...

Exactly right David, we can only base it on our own experiences. Unfortunatley mine hasnt been good. Dont get me worng, I am not being penny pinching, I dont mind paying a fair price for whatever I need, however, I dont like being ripped off either, but who does, and I do feel that parts shouldnt fall off an item when it isnt being missused. The main point is the way Manfrotto handled this issue.
 
garry71 said:
The Government make the policy via the sale of goods act, etc. If bits fall off, then it's not fit for purpose.

It's put me off Manfrotto now anyway.
Click to expand...

The device was older than 6 months so the burden of proof would have been on the OP to prove it was a manufacturing/design fault and not a knock/bump/misadventure that caused it to fall off.

The fact that the guy on the phone said that this was a common problem would have gone a long way towards that, but would still be difficult to prove.

For good customer service they should have sent a new one for free as the cost was peanuts and their reputation wouldn't have been called into question
 
Annoying maybe, but I'd probably have let it go, especially now I know that I can get replacements for so little. A useful tip Trev. Thanks for posting.
 
eccles said:
Annoying maybe, but I'd probably have let it go, especially now I know that I can get replacements for so little. A useful tip Trev. Thanks for posting.
Click to expand...
Thats right Mike, anoying for sure but there are more important things in life to worry about, I couldnt be bothered taking them to task even though I felt I was in the right, I found an easy answer and wasnt prepared to wate any more time. I did however feel it was worth pointing out to fellow members on TP for their own information. Thanks for all your replies and your interest.
 
After reading this I certainly won't be buying anything from Manfrotto. It's nothing to do with the cost of the parts, it's their "couldn't care less" attitude to the customer that puts me off.

I recently bought an Edwin Jagger razor, a lovely shiny chrome plated device. After a little while the chrome started to peel off in one area. It didn't affect the functionality one iota, it was purely cosmetic. I emailed them, asking to buy, beg or steal a replacement. They were very apologetic and sent me a replacement by return of post, together with a few little samples of smellies. Guess where I'll be buying again.
 
I am quite shocked reading about manfrotto over the these pages, the reason I am shocked is I had to contact manfrotto direct a few weeks ago about a tripod that had a problem, it was 18 months old however they asked me to send it back and they replace it under warranty. Within 5 days I had a knock at the door with my new replacement tripod, I even called the guy back at manfrotto to say thanks as I was stunned by the quick efficient service. I guess it depends like in every company who you get on the end of the phone.

I would say after my own personal experience that they went up a notch or 2 in my opinion, might I suggest that the OP uses the 2 names I spoke with as they were more than helpfully

Person I spoke to on original call was louise and the man in charge of distribution is a mr Steve barker

Hope this helps you get the response you should have been given in the first place
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top