A couple months ago, I bought a new GoPro Hero 3 Silver (from CycleGear). A couple weeks later, I bought two extra batteries for it (from Motorcycle Superstore), since the batteries are only good for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Both of the extra batteries I bought (I know because I marked them, 01, 02, 03 -- with 01 being the one that came with the camera), have gone bad after only one or two cycles. They no longer charge or anything. I contacted GoPro about this a month ago when the first one quit, and got a long, canned, idiot response with questions like, "are you sure you plugged it in?" The other day, after discovering the second one was bad, I replied to it and explained again, in detail, what happened. This morning, the response was, "our batteries don't carry any warranty, sorry." I will contact Motorcycle Superstore and see if they're willing to cover the batteries... but in any case, this thing is getting sold and replaced with something else... Contour, or who knows what. I just think it's BS to not have a warranty of some sort on your products, even a battery. I mean, really? 90 days would be acceptable. This is just BS. Anyway... thought I'd post about it in case anybody was considering a GoPro product. Keep that in mind. Rob
Unfortunately, I've heard the same thing from other people. It's actually kept me from buying one at this point. On the other hand, batteries are tough. Battery technology is crap. The next big thing is probably better batteries for everything.
I just called GoPro and they said all batteries had a 1 year warrantee. 2 stories from the GoPro reps? MrHix
That's very interesting. I may have to call them too, because I have an email from them saying they don't. I hope your guy is right. Rob
http://gopro.com/support/articles/warranty-information/ There's nothing in there that excludes batteries.
Sounds like the camera itself is toasting the batteries (IE over charging them in some way). Do you have access to another Go Pro to try them in? It is possible it's under-charging them (IE incorrectly reading them as fully charged, when they're near-empty) and trying to charge and use the batteries in another Go Pro would help diagnose this. Mind you, you shouldn't need to do all that yourself; should be a clear cut warranty job.
Just send the batteries to GoPro in california with a copy of the invoice. They replaced my camera that way no question asked.
My camera was overheating WHILE SKIING...returned the whole darned thing...now my new camera won't record for more than 20 seconds at a time...all in a all a very positive experience...
Let me share my story: This past summer, I was riding my (old) KLR with my GoPro on the side of the bike, hanging off the fairing. (all GoPro mounts) It has been there many miles, and has made it through the crappiest of roads with no issues. When I was stopped for fuel, a gentleman came up and was checking out the bike and noted that the GoPro looked really flimsy on the bike. I said it had been there for many miles, no problem what so ever. -I hit the highway and 3 miles down the road from where I got gas, I looked down and sure enough, my GoPro arm snapped. I turned around and went back to search, of course didn't find it. I called GoPro expecting to hear . Much to my surprise, they asked for pictures, proof of purchase and my 'story' via email. I get a reply almost instantly that they would take care of the situation and ship me a new camera. It did take a few weeks but I ended up getting a new camera, battery, case and arm out of the deal. Excellent service.
I have WAY to much Go-Pro stuff and have yet to ever have a problem with any of it. All the updates I have done have taken the first time (i read about people having issues with this). Love their stuff!!!!!!!
I broke the latch on my 7 year old original gopro, sent their customer service an email asking if the new cases would fit mine, they asked for details then sent me a brand new case free of charge, excellent customer service, you can't get better than that
I bought myself a Go Pro Hero 2 for Christmas. I've gotten about four minutes of video and two or three pictures. The battery dies within minutes. I've tried a number of things and finally emailed Go Pro. The customer service/technician asked via email that I delete and update the firmware. I had the same version as was asked to install, but it appeared to at least allow me to turn on and off the camera and the battery didn't die after approximately four minutes. That's the longest it's lasted. I had to go back to work so I don't know if it's dead yet, but I'll see when I get home. At this point I sure hope it works as advertised, but I have no confidence in it and wish I'd never bought it. I'd rather have a nice point and shoot instead at this point, but my "ruggedized" point and shoot won't die so I bought the Go Pro. If I have a single problem with it again I'm going to see if I can return it. ETA, customer service can be great, but the product has to be worth owning. At this point, I'm not sure it is.
Go Pro replaced the 3 extra batteries I purchased with my H3B, They also replaced a GP HD I had go bad last year with a brand new one 350 days into the warranty. I feel the H3s were released before they were ready, that coupled with a big batch of bad batteries made for some irate customers. I'll stick with GP, they treated me well and I haven't seen a product worth swapping it for.
The bottom line is the video quality of gopro cameras is better then the competition. A contour is crap in comparison.
Just an FYI. I have two batteries from GOPro Hero2 owned two years. No issue with batteries or recharging. Camera is used at least once a week for min of two hrs, each use. Love the gear
I can chime in on this as well. Been a GoPro user since the first one came out. Was also a demo user of the first HD unit. ANY issues I have ever had, they have either sent me a new unit or repaired mine. Last time my GoPro 2 died on vacation in puerto rico I sent them an email and 2 days later they asked for where I was staying so they could send me a replacement unit ASAP. Sure enough the next day I had a new GP3 unit with a "send the old one back after your vacation, enjoy the tropics and always GoPro!- Aaron Stake" Cant beat that service.
If not gopro, what other comparible cameras are there? Im not asking to sound like gopro is the best of the best, but its pretty much the only "high end" camera I have heard of for mounting on helmets and bikes and whatnot.
Just another experience. I had my Gopro HD1 for about a year when my homemade stick mount broke when I crashed waterskiing. They said that they wouldn't cover it under warranty since it was not a factory approved mount. However, after I showed them pictures of what broke to validate my story, they gave me a coupon for 50% off any purchase. So, I got an HD2 for half price. Now, I'll be putting a floaty backdoor on my camera if I take it waterskiing again! But, I lost my camera and it was mostly my fault. I applaud GoPro's customer service. They helped me out more than they had to.
There's the Contour and Sony just came out with their action cam. They're somewhat comparable. And there's the blatant knockoff - the Swann Freestyle. Which takes fine video for half the price. But, it's not quite the same quality.
