3 Legged Thing Tripods

One day, I decided it was time to purchase a tripod. Anyone who has decided the time has come to purchase a tripod has probably faced the same daunting task that I did when I first started to look around and was bombarded by the hundreds of different options.

For reasons I can't remember, the company 3 Legged Thing caught my eye. For those of you who aren't familiar with this company, here is a short video of the tripod I decided to go with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0mnZNY2pHY

I waited anxiously for what seemed like years for my new tripod to arrive. When it did, I tore open the box to find a very nice carrying case. I opened the case, and pulled out my new tripod, which is the Adrian model. I think the tripod cost me around $200 on sale. $200 is a steal, considering the ballhead I got with Adrian alone costs $180.

After playing around with the new toy for a few minutes, it didn't take me long to realize that there might be a problem with my new tripod. The legs would come loose whenever I would move them. I wasn't sure if this was normal or not, so I went to the most reliable source I know; the Internet.

Sure enough, I wasn't the only one who was experiencing this problem. I then proceeded to contact the company. After multiple emails, and a few days of waiting, I finally got a response. The response basically asked me what the problem was, and told me that it was most likely the washers that were causing the problem. The company asked for my address and sent me out a new set of washers.

The washers came at some point while Devan and I were in Disney world, and I threw those badboys on. The new washers fixed two of the three legs, and I decided that was good enough. I didn't really want to go through the hassel of contacting the company again, and then waiting, and being without a tripod, if I needed to send it back.

However, I woke up to this email this morning: Hi Dan,

I’ve just had an email from B&H about your review. I have trawled back through our emails and I am a little confused, but very much want to sort things out for you.

From what I understand we’ve sent you some replacement components for your tripod, and then received the question below:

On 16/01/2013 01:17, "Daniel Pomykalski" <pomykalsdj20@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,
I've received the washers. Which washers am I suppose to replace with these? The inside, or the outside?

Chris then responded on the 18th Jan that the washers were to go on the outside.

After this I am not sure what has occurred? I see from your review that you have referenced this happening to other people, but actually there is only one other instance, and the customer in question had not responded to any of our emails. It is very difficult for us to resolve a situation without any contact.

Putting this behind us, I am still uncertain as to the current situation with your tripod. What I would like to do, regardless of this, is to replace your whole kit with our new Evolution 2 version. If this is at all possible, please can you let me know where you would like it sent and I will make this happen immediately.

On behalf of my staff, please accept my apologies for any failings on our part in this process. We are a small company (just five of us) and try very hard to treat each individual customer as we would wish to be treated ourselves. Sometimes we fail, as humans are prone to. There are no excuses for this – I really do want to resolve this issue. Regardless of the review on B&H, or any other internet forum, my only concern is that you have a working product that you have confidence with.

Please send me your address and I will arrange the replacement.

I have copied in Yoel Berkowitz at B&H for their information.

Kind regards,Danny LenihanChief Executive Officer

It's reasons like these that make me happy that I decided to go with a smaller company. I'm not sure what's going to happen with my old tripod, yet; I'm assuming I'll have to send it back to them. Either way, I'm getting a brand new tripod, which is a newer version, sent right to my door. If they send the tripod the same way they sent me the replacement washers, it'll be no cost to me, and it'll arrive within the next week or so. I am very excited, happy, and honestly, somewhat surprised, that the company has reached out to me in an attempt to make things right. 

As far as B&H goes, don't do business with them. I ordered hundreds of dollars worth of things from them, including two flashes that they said were functioning. I received the flashes, and one of them clearly didn't work. They refunded me my money, but not the shipping and handling. I will not do business with them again, and I suggest you don't either. 

Update: Danny just emailed me back. Turns out I even get to keep my old tripod.