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BEFORE YOU BUY THIS HEAD I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU READ THIS WHOLE POST AND THE COMMENTS FROM PAST CUSTOMERS AND ALSO FROM THE OWNER OF THE COMPANY.
I WELCOME PEOPLE TO POST THEIR EXPERIENCES BOTH GOOD AND BAD.
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There is a lot of talk among people on which panoramic head to get as stitching is becoming popular. But I wanted to point out a few things on my purchase of the 360 precision absolute head that people might want to take into consideration before forking out a good sum of money.
1. My 360 head was set up for the 24-70mm lens. On receiving my head via FedEx the box contained no receipt of purchase, no instructions nothing other than the head and a bag of screws and washers (spares im assuming, well I hope so anyway). I got two dent rings and one was already fitted in the head. So three dent rings all up. The dent rings are double sided giving me six shooting options, the rings arnt labled at all so you dont know what settings they are for. (Once again I guessing).
2. Prior to buying the head all my email enquiries were answered within 12 hours from Matt at Precision. Since buying the head I emailed them asking about the three rings and any form of instructions on what I got. This was 10 – 14 days ago now and I have sent the same email to their orders email and Matts email address all tagged correctly as per their website instructions to avoid their SPAM filters. I tried emailing via their website’s tech support page but the page fails and you cant send anything. To date no reply from them at all.
3. When you go to the website for help on your precision the only page with details is how to put it together ie two screws the rest of the pages are “Under Construction” and have been like that for a very long time.
4. I joined their forum and was told I’d have my account activated within 24 hours…. still waiting and its been 6 days now. So I guess that wont be happening either.
5. Their is no doubt the head it well made and the information on the site is accurate about its quality and ability and isn’t embellished. Their lack of after sales support and communication has a lot to be desired. The head comes with a 5 year warranty and I’m just glad it looks almost indestructible as a business that doesn’t answer simple, polite emails asking about the head they just paid $1500 for wouldnt honor any warranty.
6. I know the dents on the head and working it out isn’t rocket science but I expected emails to be answered with info on the product that was bought and all my emails to them have been polite and there is no reason at all for them not to reply.
Thats my 2 cents worth on the item without going into any design aspects that need improving for people not wanting to 360 degree virtual tours. I have given up on expecting any form of reply and after a quick google search on the product I wont be expecting any either. I have posted some general info (as comments) that I found… all of it points to a company with no customer service.
Just an update, I found this on the internet
http://www.360rage.com/panorama-hardware-item.php?i=2
This is an extract from the sites administrator.
“Submitted reviews for the 360precision Panorama head will not be published anymore. The reviews that still are published here, are surrounded by controversy. I have received numerous complaints from the 360precision company about the reviews, and even a threat. They also have asked for email addresses from people posting bad reviews. It is also my believe, that 360precision is now actively asking people to post positive reviews. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of something. I have also posted my own review here, and I still stand fully behind it, but I cannot guarantee the objectivity anymore of some of the others, and therefore this section of reviews has now been closed. You can still post, but they will be deleted.”
I think that says it all and after reading some other peoples experience with the company on the link I feel I got away lightly complaining about no instructions. 🙂
Hi Matt,
I too have had a crap experience dealing with this dodgy company!! We purchased the Atome pano head from them on 21st December 2015 and due to unforeseen circumstances we needed to return it to them unopened 2 week later.
Royal mail can confirm that he received it back as he signed for it and we have tried calling several numbers to chase our refund to no avail. We have also emailed his website & i have even messaged him directly on Facebook but he just ignores us…..The guy is a thief & a COCK!!!
I would strongly recommend anyone looking for a pano head to avoid 360 Precision Panorama Head!!
Good evening,
I’m now waiting for an adjuste giga from 360precision. And very anxious because I just discovered your forum.
In september, I received an absolute after one month so I trust Matthew for my order. But since I ordered the adjuste, I don’t receive answer at any mail. I’ve got a tracking number but parcel force didn’t receive the parcel. I hope he’s too busy to answer and need time to build heads and parts. For people who are living in the united kingdom, is there no organization to protect consumers in the uk? Thanks for your answer.
Another worth while review as well…. another victim
http://www.kevingreig.co.uk/360precision/360precision.htm
All this info from the first page of a google search on the head…. I’m scared to click to page two.
Damn this is not good. Those images from Kevin’s site are shocking to say the least. For me this is just not god enough. I have called Visa stopped the payment and emailed matt informing of this. WHen I spoke with visa they said if gods are not shipped which they are not as I am still yet to receive a fed ex con note number and have kept all the email corospondence with 360 they should be no reason why they do not refund my monies and if I have not heard from them in 10 days to contact visa so they can take matters into their hands.
Why oh why is customer service in so many businesses lacking so badly?
Thanks Matt, I owe you a few beers and maybe even a steak meal when I am in Sydney next.
Glad I can help… just hope your emails gets to him and they don’t charge your card anyway.
I’m also glad my head appears to be in good condition unlike Kevin’s. Poor bastard to pay that money and have it turn up like that and then fight to have them accept it. Wonder if he got it resolved.
I’ll take you up on that beer offer as well when your over here. No Emu Bitter in this state though. 😉
Thanks for the advice Matt ,
I dont think I will be looking at getting it now .
Really bad state when a company has no problem takiing a large sum of money off you and not even taking time to reply to customers after they have .
Might start doing some more research into the Kaidan, sounds like Matthew is a one man team at 360 and is under the pump.
Thanks for the advice Matt.
I did post this somewhere else ….”I can’t for the life of me understand why people are rushing to buy this head”
Save yourself a wad of cash search the net and make one yourself.
Merv the head is well made (if you get one that isn’t defective) what doesn’t make it a good buy is the non existent after sales service or communication so if you had a problem or something was missing from your order your on your own with an expensive paper weight.
hi guys, I had problems with these blokes also, I had forgotten to mention how I paid for it and then nothing……….. I had no email saying thanks for your payment, or the item has been shipped etc etc. I thought I had done my dough but then it turned up and I have been happy since. Sorry I didn’t mention this before to all you who have considered buying one. Neal hope it works out for you mate. If you get it you won’t be disappointed if they get your money, hope you can get it back. We are successful in our galleries as we do all we can for our customers, i think these guys will go broke before too long, it is a shame as it is a bloody good head. I might have to send Matt an email suggesting he lift his game, now he has pissed off my mates, does he know who he is messing with??? 🙂 oh btw Matt L is that a 4 image stitch of your pano head? tee hee.
Hi Matt,
What made you purchase the absolute rather than the adjuste mkII?
I notice the adjuste is half the weight and quite more expensive, but does have 15 degree detents for multi row shooting.
See attached: http://www.fromparis.com/html/technical_us_quicktime_vr_360precision_adjuste_head_part1.php
Cheers Tom
Haha… yea fletch actually 6 image stitch mate 360MB file. I did the Cross process effect in Lightroom.. cool program… I have a trail version at the moment. I had a nice sunrise the other day and went to grab my head when I was on location and then pictured it still at home on my desk. Doh !! I dont carry in my bag as it is so heavy with the 1ds and the Linhof.
Tom I went for the absolute as I wanted something quick and easy to set up and set for one lens and the Adjust looked like you needed to set it up each time you went out. Now after dealing with this company the less parts that move the less chance of it breaking less change of doing your money.
Hi Matt,
Being an IT person I no longer rely on email!!!!! If people don’t answer my emails I gt on the phone and call them. I know its a little expensive in this case, but it just cuts through all the c@>p. I would suggest if you still want to pursue this to try and give the guys a call. Just a suggestion if you want to vent to them. 🙂
Jamie Paterson
http://www.jamiepaterson.net
Jamie, I agree… my emails to them have always worked before. If I had a problem with my head I would definitely be on the phone to them if email didn’t work. Seeing it is only about instructions and service I wont bother.
Matt,
Its a shame though that they aren’t listening to simple feedback. Sounds like a great product is being spoilt by just a few faults.
Jamie
Hey Matt,
Have you heard back from 360 precision yet?
I send an email Monday asking for a quote for the Adjuste sent to Australia. Haven’t heard a thing yet.
Tom as expected mate I haven’t heard a thing from them and I’m not expecting too. I guess if you buy a head from them it is at your own risk.
Nice to read about this head, feedback from other people always helps rather than salesmen. Whats the cost of that panohead about 500 pounds?
Panoheads are nice to have’s but not that necessary unless shooting things in the foreground.
What you should all do is go for the wooden tripod head, you can get it really cheap, see http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161123
Better yet I might start selling them!:)
Nice James… at least if you break something on it all you have to do is go back to Bunnings.
A google.com search on “360 precision” brings up this post on page two and this post started as the result of unanswered emails to the company. It’s the small oversights of a business that can make a difference.
Instead of emailing them I have sent another web enquiry form to them. And at the end I got and email with:
“We will endevaour to contact you within 12-24 hours. If you have any further questions regarding the 360Precision head you can contact us using the following methods”
Lets see if this works, I reckon I am in their spam box, the subject thingo didn’t work.
Tom look at the difficultly you are having just contacting these people to possibly buy their product. Now image if you have a problem with the item you buy. No other company has these problems.
Matt, a reply from 360. The form works.
1. The Adjuste is £595 + £60 shipping to Australia via FedEx.
2. Yes. We’re also about to launch a version that has click stops every 5 or 10º
3. The standard 4 track detent is 4,6,8 and 36, we also have a 6,12,18,32 and a 16, 24, 48, 60 we can also machine a custom detent with any 4 combinations you choose. There’s also a high-res version that enables up-to 192 stops using all four plungers at once.
Standard Adjustes are in-stock and ready to ship. Any additional custom parts can take anywhere between 2-6 weeks depending upon our current production schedule.
Thats great you got a reply Tom enjoy the communication while it lasts. That new version would be worth waiting for and make sure you ask for instructions. 🙂
Which detent system have you got on yours matt? and what would you recommend for the 50mm lens.
Tom, before you fork out all that hard earned cash have a look at this.
It might not be pretty but it works.
http://www.potd.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2991&highlight=
Thanks for that Merv,
But I do really like the setup of the 360 for precision, have the detent setup so you can do HDR’s. Also I like the sturdiness of it, I like photographing in windy conditions, and I hate flimsy products that shake with the wind. So hopefully it is a good product I pay for.
Tom, my head is set up for the 24-70mm lens. I find shooting at 24mm too wide on most occasions and find I shoot around 35 – 50 mm most times. I only use one ring and its the the one set up for the 70mm dents. All I do when shooting at 50mm or lower is watch the over lap in the view finder to make sure I have at least 1/3 rd. Haven’t had a problem yet.
Merv I agree with Tom, you get what you pay for in terms of quality and even though that system is cheap you will be plagued with set up and shooting problems and shake.
Thanks Mate, At the moment I have been using the liveview function whilst stitching, that divides the screen up into 1/3’s so I use the that 1/3rd to overlap, and usually take 9-12 images.
I find stitches longer than 8 images is too long and look strange. For me getting the composition right with this system is the biggest challenge.
Yeah…. your probably right about the cheapness and I agree , you get what you pay for.
I’m a cheap skate when it comes to some things like that. I can’t justify spending $1500 on something that I’m not going to use all the time and I’m not into selling large prints so don’t see as I need it, so would rather make one, there’s a certain satisfaction in making something like that.
When it come’s to spending $1500 or $2500 on a lens no problem, I can justify that, I’ve got a few of them, but for now I will make a pano head for $100.
Keep up the good work.
cheers fella’s
Merv I think when you do photography as a career or you make money from it you can justify the expense of some items. Well thats theory anyway. I can see how $1500 on a panoramic head is a lot when it’s a hobby. Hope the head you make gives you good results. Looks like there are a few tutorials on making one on the net.
Matt from 360Precision here;
To answer Matt’s initial questions;
1. The last email that we received on 04/02/08 was replied to with links to download the PDF instructions for setting up and using the Absolute. As I didn’t hear back from you I assumed everything was OK.
2. At the end of each business day I religiously activate any forum registrations made via the forum itself and manually register those that sign-up via the website. I do remember activating your account because I’d only just sent you an email. Half the problem is the huge number of emails that are bounced back undelivered. I’ve had our ISP look into this but as it’s not happening on our end there’s not much we can do about it. I’ve checked the forum admin and unfortunately it doesn’t record that date your account was activated, only the date it was registered.
3. If you had issues contacting me via email which I hate there’s always MSN and iChat. Generally I’m logged into MSN and iChat for at least 5-6 hours per day. I also try and sign-in for a few hours early in the morning and late at night for US and Australasian customers. Without fail I speak to customers via MSN and iChat 7/days per week and is really the only guaranteed form of communication as it’s LIVE.
Email really is the bane of my existence and again it’s why we have the forms on the website to try and bypass email as often as we can. We tried an online system for three months but 90% of the customers that used it hated it so we ditched it.
4. To the links that Kevin posted re his Absolute. I don’t like posting nasty comments about customers and I have only done so one other time. But this guy tried to scam us and I have independent proof that he tried to do so. EVERY SINGLE head that is shipped I personally build and pack and believe me I would never send out a head in that condition. Before seeing the photos I offered to send out a brand new replacement head to Kevin after receipt of the original head, he point blank refused to return the Absolute that he claimed was damaged on arrival. Now I’m a pretty reasonable guy and was more then happy to replace the head even though Kevin waited over 3 weeks to inform us of the problems. He then informed us that he would only accept a full refund and wasn’t interested in another Absolute. I was seriously considering this just to stop the guy from harassing me. Then out of the blue another 360Precision customer contacted us and told us that he had heard about Kevin through a friend and that he never actually planned to keep the head. He only needed the head for a particular job and was just fishing for refund. Up to this day Kevin is more than welcome to a brand new replacement head and he conviniently dissapeared when we told him we knew what he was up to.
5. Now to Berts reviews on 360rage.com, this post may seem like I’m making excuses but I have the right to defend my company. Particularly when we’re not at fault.
a) Berts initial grievance was caused by the fact that FedEx failed to inform me that they didn’t deliver door-to-door from the UK to the island Bert lives on in Bali. I’m not sure how this is my fault as the FedEx website told me that they did in fact delivery directly to Berts address. I did apologise for the fact that Bert had to drive 6 hours to pick-up the package. I also told Bert which screws to replace and suggested he source them locally as it made no sense to spend $60 on shipping $2 worth of screws.
b) Bert refused to remove the reviews posted by completely bogus customers. As of the 25th of May 2007 we had never sold an Adjuste to someone named Roger and when Bert emailed this person they never replied and it turned out that the email address was bogus. If you read this guys review I still have no idea what he’s talking about.
c) The other positive reviews were not solicited, I did however ask customers to post their honest opinions on the site and to this day I see nothing wrong with doing so.
6. All I’m going to say about Neal (spoolphotography) is that when I’d heard that his gear was stolen I offered to ship him the head free of charge and let him pay for it in his own time. But I guess he failed to mention this in his comments. Thanks for that. If someone emails me and tells me they’re contacting Visa to issue a charge back I assume the situation has been dealt with. I didn’t see any need to reply and the email didn’t solicit one. By the way, the offer still stands regarding the head.
7. Toms missing emails. I have no idea where his initial emails went but I didn’t receive them. As to the enquiry that was submitted via the correct channels the first email was answered within 4 hours, the 2nd within 37 minutes and the last email Tom sent was answered in 10 hours but was sent outside UK business hours so was really answered within 5 hours. Our average response time to all emails received is around an hour and takes into account international time-zones.
I completely agree that if you search online it looks really bad for us but you have to realise that the number of issues we have are miniscule compared to the total number of enquiries and customers. We deal with thousands or enquiries per year and have close to 1500 customers now. I’d say we’ve had problems with 50-60 customers over the past 4 years. I’d love this figure to be zero and in 3 or 4 cases that we were genuinely at fault I’ve given the customers full refunds, future discounts and have allowed them to keep the products. If you can find any other company that has a policy like this then I’d like to know about it.
I’ve also recently added another live web2.0 chat feature to the updated website along with the googlegroup email list and forum. So to date our support channels are as follows:
1. Tech support form on the website
2. Enquiry form on the website
3. MSN
4. iChat
5. Activa web chat
6. 360Precision forum
7. 360Preicion Google group and email list
8. 3 direct email addresses
To be honest I just don’t get when someone complains that they can’t contact us if they not tried at least 1-4. OK, emails may go missing but MSN friend requests don’t and neither do people added to my iChat buddy list. It’s funny how over 700 other customer are on my friends lists 🙁
I’ve read through this twice and if there’s problems I apologise in advance. I’ll re-upload the full absolute instructions to the website either tonight or tomorrow. They’ve not been a priority even though they really should be. We used to have a really detailed FAQ database but the ISP lost the back-up when we transferred the website across to a dedicated server. And I’ve not had a spare 50 hours or so to rebuild it.
Matt
360Precision.com
Hey Matthew, can you give me the correct msn address for your chat sessions? I tried searching your name but came up with 118 to choose from! Thanks!
While looking for the pdf document on the 360 website as mentioned above I was told that Matt was available on line by their site (pretty cool I thought) so I talked about my issues with my head and the conversation is below.
Posted for the people who have been following this thread as it answers my questions in my original post.
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Tech Support: I read the post on your site
You: I bought the absolute in February and on receiving it there were no instructions. I bought the head set up for my 1ds Mark II 24-70mm lens and I got three rings and you let me know why three rings
Tech Support: I think I included the extra rings so you could shoot at different focal lengths as you didn’t specify the focal length you wanted to use with the lens.
You: ok… but none of the rings are marked and with no instructions it makes it quite confusing.
Tech Support: do you I’ll sort that out for you tomorrow. I just assumed that wrongly that you would know how many shots you needed at different focal lengths
You: I worked that out in the end. I was just surprised that there were no instructions with the item. I just shoot with the 70mm dent now and if I change focal lengths I just guess the over lap. The posting on my websites blog was done out of pure frustration in trying to get info from you guys. Was pure hell.
Tech Support: I am sorry about that, i did reply to all your emails
You: All emails answered prior to buying and then none afterwards. After reading your post on my blog and some other peoples comments. Im staggered to think how much business you guys loose from this email issue. Especially when a head costs $500+ pound.
You: When will the Pdf be available for download from the site regarding the absolute.
Tech Support: tomorrow
You: When will the tutorials be available as they have been coming for a while.
Tech Support: I’m just going to remove that page as we just don;’t have time and we’re just stating to send any software related questions etc to the developers
Tech Support: you should have received a welcome email though with all the links and details you needed.
You: ok. I wont go into any one elses experience with buying from you as there is always two sides to the story. But for me if you included an information sheets / details on what was included in the package. It would have made the world of difference.
You: No email… nothing.
Tech Support: I’d prefer to not waste thousands of pages on unnecessary documentation
You: Well for me when spending $1500 Australian on a item only to have a bag full of metal pieces and no info on the website would have made a huge difference. I think someone else on another website posted the same expectation in regards to instructions.
You: Even if it was one page saying what people got and where they could find additional info.
Tech Support: OK, I;ll make sure I do this with all orders in future. Believe or not but only a dozen or so other people have commented on this
You: Ok… but maybe only a dozen or so took the time to comment. They may have all thought it.
You: Anyway it is up to you. As I said in my blog posting your heads are strong and your website dosent talk about a product that is different when you buy it. I focused on the communication factor.
You: Thanks for your info and clarification on the extra ring.
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Hi Matt,
I have been getting really prompt responses from matt.
It’s just the emails I respoded too never made it through the system, so I have just been using the web forms.
I am getting very close to purchasing an adjuste.
I have been nerding myself on the mathematics of which detent to get.
Tom
I’ve just put together a new guide for changing the Absolute detent. It’s not finished yet but it’s far better than a coming soon page. We did have these instructions online previously but I’ve not had the time to update the photos and layout.
http://www.360precision.com/360/index.cfm?precision=products.absolute_detent&MainSlideID=1&mainnavID=2&MainMenuOpen=3
If anyone has any specific questions or any ideas for Absolute guides please let me know.
Matt
360Precision.com
At the date of making this entry I am still receiving private emails from people at a rate that makes it worth to note who are expressing their problems with this company both in the way of replacement heads or parts for defective products on receipt, communication issues, broken promises, the list goes on.
Nothing seams to have been resolved as promised or outlined from the owner who posted on this blog above and his reasons to me appear to be excuses. At the request of the people who email me their comments and details they will not be posted on this blog or released and have been deleted from my email.
I have also received thanks from people who have read this blog who were almost about to buy a 360 precision head and decided to go with an alternative product.
Again all this is a shame, I teach a lot of courses to people who love landscape photography and when I show them my panoramic head the first words out of my mouth is “Don’t buy this head”.
Pick up your game 360 Precision your loosing money.
More great feedback on Matts Customer service:
On the 16th of August I was shooting sunrise on Sydney Harbour. As I was standing there with my Canon 1ds Mark II attached to my Precision Head a jogger stopped and approached me and said he too owns a precision head and he asked me a few things about my experience with the product.
It was of no surprise to me to hear that he had called Matt prior to ordering the head wanting to confirm that he needed it within a month as he had a contract shoot to do for the Lonely Plant at several countrys around the world. After being told no problem he then received the head some six months later and had to find an alternative for his Lonely Planet shoot after being left high and dry.
I’m sorry but this is simply not true. I’ve never spoken to any customer via the telephone from OZ that mentioned anything about having a head shipped within a month. I do think I know who you might have run into but I won’t mention any names. If it is Mr S then he really needs to speak to the guys in the US that he does work for. They ordered then cancelled on 5 or 6 occasions then finally decided they needed the product shipped urgently to Sydney.
Considering we can sell more panoheads to customers in France in one day then we have to Aussies in 3 years it’s not hard to work out.
I’ve looked back at all products we’ve shipped to Australia and since we switched to the new machine shop in early 2007 no order has taken anywhere near 6 months. In-fact the average delivery time from order to customer receipt has been 19 days. Now even 19 days sounds a lot but that includes the custom orders which we quote 6 -12 weeks for.
We have had the rare occurrence where a customer places an order then simply vanishes. I try emailing the customer on a daily basis for 28 days. If I don’t receive any reply then I’m not sure what we’re expected to do ?
Matt
Matt I never got his name. It was a quick chat in between me shooting.
I’m the recipient of the shoddy Absolute pano head mentioned in the second post.
Matthew seems to be suggesting my so called “SCAM” was to receive a perfect very expensive head, destroy the screws etc, then ask for a replacement.
Surely a scam involves some benefit to the scammer.
Matthew did offer to replace the head, but only after many emails sent to me in a tone that it sounds like many in these forums can guess, including being called an outright liar, leaving me in a situation where I would have no pano head, no cash and faced with dealing with Mathew again.
My only recourse was to get a refund first – which – as you can imagine, never happened.
I had to keep the head as I needed – and still need it to get my work done. I have to laugh at his “out of the blue” customer “through a friend” who felt the urge to contact him (he must keep better relations with a select few of his customers) – I guess that special situation means we have to take his at his word that I never wanted to keep the head (which he offered a full refund for!)
I guess he must also have lost his email with his special friend’s confession.
My “convenient disappearance” doesn’t seem to have stopped the pano community finding me even though Matthew has my email somewhere in his “customer relations” mail folder.
It doesn’t have to be said that I wouldn’t buy a new head from 360precision – it doesn’t live up to it’s name.
I have never posted any links, the URL posted here was only sent to Matthew, and – to date have only received shoddy goods and a public slandering for the hard earned cash I sent to 360precision.
Kevin
Thanks for your post Kevin. Your URL was found on a general Google search for 360 precision.
There has been yet another thread of conversation about 360 precision and their poor service started by another dis satisfied customer. http://www.panoguide.com/forums/qna/5726/
I welcome people to post on the blog their experience (good or bad), but please NO MORE personal emails I dont wish to be involved in this company any further or even discussing it.
To Kevin,
What upsets me about this situation Kevin is you have no gratitude. I knew your order was urgent and shipped you my personal 360Precision Absolute.
I emailed you when the head shipped that it wasn’t new. I know for a fact that you received the email informing you about the head being 2nd hand as you replied to the email and I have your reply.
I simply offered to replace the head as agreed free of charge. All I asked was that you returned your Absolute. You then went on a rant about shipping costs, insurance etc etc. Like I said in the emails, I never asked you to pay anything.
I was as nice as I could be in response to your abrupt emails. All you had to do was ship the head back on the situation would have been resolved. Why you were so stubborn was and still is beyond me.
Matt
Interesting to note that in a recent conversation I had with Christian Fletcher, he has stopped using this head as he doesn’t see the need for it. He is now using just a standard 3 way Manfrotto head for pano’s with no problems.
That statement doesn’t even correspond with your previous post, never mind your emails. Your aggressive tone left me unable to trust you enough to return anything.
On a positive note, I reccomend the Nodal Ninja 3 MKII.
I’m the same Merv, I have been experimenting with just using my tripod and getting just as good results. A bit of time to level the tripod but for those tossing up between a 360 precision just for general panoramic landscapes should try this technique.
Hey Matt. I should have knocked up one of mine for you, probably just as good, and just think what you could have done with the extra $1400. (:
Yea I know Merv, $1400 would go a long way. I recon you should post the pics of your home made head on your blog. If you do let me know and I will add a link on my blog to your post.
Hi all – I only discovered this “forum” after ordering rather spontaneously yesterday and I thought I’d revisit after I could contribute something, i.e. after I get my order.
Disclaimer/Background: I’ve not used NN’s tools yet, I like most of Novoflex’ items (got the original MagicBall, PanoPlate, Quick-Release etc.) but their Pano-System is currently outside my budget. As to 360precision – as a company and their products, the only official bit I had read about them before my first visit on their website (almost a year ago), was the review in a Mac magazine. Back then, the ATOME caught my attention, but was not available yet (if it has been available for longer, then my initial visit was even further back, whatever). I am sorry some have obviously had less than perfect experiences, but I assure you I have had no business whatsoever with 360precision before, I simply felt like adding my (positive) experience to this list of pro’s and con’s.
As I have the Nikon 10.5mm lens and am off to Miami on THIS coming Sunday I suddenly “re-realized” it would be pretty cool to take more panoramas in the future, and especially if I could take some on this immediate upcoming trip. Therefore – yesterday (Thursday) – I revisited the various panorama head manufacturers websites again. I also came across the 360precision Atome’s webpage (which still does not have a “details” page as the other models – then again, it probably doesn’t need it either… it does one thing only (I like simple products). Still, I had some questions before spending the money on one, not the least whether there was any chance of getting one before my trip.
I contacted Matt via the iChat option – my numerous questions were quickly answered and luckily he did have an Atome fitting my 10.5mm lens in stock. After he confirmed he should be able to get it to me today or tomorrow, I paid via PayPal, and received the shipping tracking number. Matt also informed me that the collection for the day was late, but that he would change it to Saturday delivery in case the Thursday parcel pick-up would not show.
This morning (Friday), via email, I received the manual in PDF form – at six pages, it contains more information than an entire IKEA living room setup would provide, and the simple steps are well illustrated and easy to follow.
And just an hour ago, I received my Atome, and everything looks excellent in my opinion. This is just over 24 hours after my iChat with him. With literally three days to get it before my Sunday flight, this was in my eyes a very good performance. Obviously this can only comment on the “order process/delivery/packaging” part so far, useful panorama’s hopefully coming out of it in two weeks time 🙂
All the best,
Jonas
Hi Matt,
I also purchase a Atome from 360 precision a week ago, they send me a Fedex track no., but they didn’t ship it out at the date they mentioned, then I sent them couple emails, but none of they had reply, may I ask you how long it take from you order to you received the head?
Thanks
Ricky
This is really getting boring when people can’t be bothered to read the order thank you page or confirmation page. Everything you’re whining about is clearly explained if you’d taken 30 seconds to read it.
We have a process for a reason and we spell it out step by step.
“Please note that receipt of the FedEx Tracking number is not confirmation that the item has shipped. It simply means that we have processed the shipping documents pertaining to your order. Once the order has shipped you then receive another email from 360Precision. ”
We’ve never given you a ship date. The order confirmation page also says 10-14 business days for deliveries yet you’re complaining after 3 business days.
We also clearly ask customers to email us if they need the product for a specific timeframe.
You clearly missed three main points that we explain that you now have the nerve to go to a public forum to complain about.
It doesn’t matter what you do or what systems you have in place there’s always one.
Matt
Ricky, I got mine in the approx time that Matt stated above. 10-14 days. Maybe a bit longer due to the international freight / customs vetting in Australia. I didn’t have a problem with how or the speed of the order was processed.
Hi Mattlauder, first of all, thanks for your reply.
And Matthew, if you reply my emails, I don’t need to ask other people in ‘public’, and if you have time to reply my question in ‘public’, why don’t you reply my eariler emails in ‘private’? Then you don’t need to spend time to search who was complaining about you and write a such as long reply. Anyway, thanks for your reply as well, hope I could get my Atome in next 10 days.
Ricky
yep when I ordered my Adjuste 360, No reply when I ordered it I had to email them asking, the head had a couple of matte black looking patches on it too not what I hoped for after spending over 1k for a head! no instructions but the actual head is a solid bit of kit and is engineered well so Im quite happy with it.
If you had these issues with the head why not contact us about them. It never ceases to amaze me that people are more than willing to cry on some random internet site but won’t contact us first ?
As the batch your head came from was HAND polished I may have missed a spot. The batch before that was all matte and no one ever complained.
We’ve since installed, at great expense a mechanical rumbler to give a perfectly consistent polished finished on all parts.
As for instructions, have you not heard about being environmentally responsible. Why on earth would we waste over 10,000 pages of paper, toner and electricity when every single customer has access to the internet ?
Maybe if more companies took responsibility for their actions both the economy and environment wouldn’t be in the crapper.
As for your order I’m starting to get bored repeating myself but if people READ the order thank you page 99% of the issues would never materialise.
From the order thank you page:
“PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY
Please note that receipt of the FedEx tracking number IS NOT CONFIRMATION that the item has shipped. It simply means that we have processed the shipping documents pertaining to your order. Once the order has shipped you then receive another email from 360Precision. If you call FedEx before receiving the 360Precision shipping email they will have no record of the shipment.”
Matt
Matt so many people have the same issues with your company and your to arrogant to acknowledge or fix them. Trust me that is also getting boring and they / we are all repeating ourselves.
No instructions because it is an environmental stand on your behalf… please what a joke, but thanks for the laugh. Don’t insult the people who do good environmental work for real.
People post on this forum as a last ditch effort to get answers as you never reply to their email or never get them. But you have no problem writing here.
Once again to all those who read this… buy your precision head with A LOT OF CAUTION !!!!! the proof is not what disappointed customers write but in the reply / excuses from the owner. (just imagine you have a problem with your order and picture the issues / hostility / denial and excuses you will have to deal with and this is after you can finally get in touch with them)
There are so many other products on the market that don’t have a trail of issues like this company does and I would HIGHLY recommend you explore them. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
I had a very similar experince with 360Precision. He was very attentive when I was asking about his product. After he had my credit card info he dropped off the earth. All emails were ignored.I put a stop payment on my credit card and he was refused payment.
He sent me an email then, telling me to go buy at one of his competitors and he was refunding my money. But he had no intention on giving me a refund. They went ahead and shipped it anyway.
But 360 Precision assumed the had me stuck and sent the head anyway. Fedex arrives and as is often the case, I signed (my mistake, but I assumed never thought it would be from them) without even looking at who the package is from.
I have heard that others have also had this experience. They were told they were going to get a refund but instead received the head.
I have told 360Precision that they should arrange to have the head sent back. Why should I pay to ship it back when he thought he was pulling a fast one on me?
Here is the message I just received:
“I’ll be in New York in the next month and I have no problem visiting in person to collect the money if you don’t want to pay. That would be unpleasant for both of us, believe me.”
An unambiguous physical threat of violence.
Thanks for the post Eric, another example of Matt’s unprofessional business practice. But I’m sure in the coming days he will post on here and point the finger at you and how your the one at fault blar blar blar.
Just glad your not a victim and you stopped payment in time. I have heard from a few other people who have done this and got their $$ charged back to their card. I’m happy to say that some have done this after finding this blog thread. Guess it scared them and rightly so.
If I may:
http://www.panoguide.com/forums/qna/5853/
Chrs
Gee another post on that site about the same issues. It is almost the same one as this http://www.panoguide.com/forums/qna/5726/
DONT BUY A PRECISION HEAD PEOPLE !!!!!!!!
Hi Matt,
I read your website and just gave 360 precision benefit of doubt, and it seems my nightmare is gonna come true. Its been a week they were paid by paypal. I first emailed them and confirm if he has stuff in stock, and he said it will be shipped on friday. Its tuesday now, the tracking number they provided shows no activity.
When I open resolution with Paypal, Matt write back with excuses.
Same time I ordered some parts with Nodal ninja and it arrived in 3 days, from USA to middle east, and 360 Precision hasnt even started shipping since a week.
I hope I am wrong and I get the stuff. We have just been awarded to do 700 Panorama for a city here and needed 9 pano heads that can be set up easily.
Regards
Hatim
Hatim I hate to say it but this sounds all to familiar. No one should give this company the benefit of the doubt. This blog thread alone shows what they are like and there are numerous other ones on forums as well. This company is bad and rotten to the core, thanks to this guy Matt. Best thing I did was getting rid of that piece of crap called the 360 precision head. I now shoot with a $200 system (Manfrotto leveling base and L bracket) I get better results with than that 360 thing.
Here’s my 360Precision story so far. I hope it will serve as a warning to others:
22 September – my inquiry via website chat wouldn’t work, probably due to filters on my sidee. I was at work.
Exchanged email with Matthew Rogers, including this from him, also on 22 September: “We have all the parts in-stock at the moment so delivery in 24-48 hours after payment.”
I took that to mean shipment, not delivery, as he is in the UK and I’m in the USA. (full text of all emails to/from 360Precision/Matthew Rogers are available).
I ordered an Adjuste Giga via email on 23 September, paid with Visa debit card. I made a typo transcribing the card number – entirely my fault.
Matt emailed me on 24 September about the card number being wrong. I corrected the card number via return email same day.
The payment cleared my bank account 24 September. No notice of payment, receipt, etc came from 360Precision. I inquired about that via email, and got a reply from Matthew Rogers, saying I should have gotten an auto-receipt, together with a forwarded PayPal (!) notification of funds paid, complete with PayPal transaction number/receipt number. Amazing, as I’d not paid via PayPal.
Current status: no delivery as of 13 November at close of business (7 weeks and one day from payment in full).
My experience regarding the post-sale communication void falls into line with the others who have posted here. I must now assume worst-case. It looks like I’m out my money. I’ll be taking recourse action accordingly, beginning tomorrow (Monday).
The truth about 360Precision’s current shoddy business practices needs to become very public in the online communities, both to prevent losses like mine and to let others know what they’re in for vis-a-vis the status quo.
It’s a shame all around, really – even if mine were delivered tomorrow, I’d have to figure on somewhere between poor and no support for warranty, service, or spares.
Thanks for the post Bill. Another victim of this company. No doubt Matt will post here soon putting all back onto you and make it your fault. Hope it arrives soon if at all. I suggest contacting your credit card company and have the money re charged to your credit card. Goods ordered on line and not even shipped has to fall into your credit card companies guidelines of a re charge.
Hi guys, I am another victim of 360Precision’s horrendous customer service.
I have yet to receive my Panohead, and my repeated enquiries after purchase (direct emails to Matthew Rogers, General Enquiry/Sales Support accounts, Web Enquiry Form) have been totally ignored.
Granted emails may have gone “missing” (convenient excuse, anyone? And I wonder if he ever looks into his Junk folder?) even after strict following of Rogers’ instructions of labeling Email Subject Header properly.
So, I tried his other customer support avenues like MSN and iChat. Twice, on iChat, I saw the guy. I fired my enquiries over, and what did he do? He logged off!! This happened on two separate occasions. Did my iChat enquiries go missing as well?
Communication seems to be okay, up until the point when payment is made. Thereafter, it’s impossible to get any response from the company.
I had another friend who experienced the same communication void when he placed his order in May 2009. Eventually he got his item after 2 months and countless emails which were ignored.
I’ll keep everyone posted of any updated on my end, but right now, it’s just sheer exasperation. and disappointment.
Dan, once again sorry for your experience. Shame you didn’t use your friends experience as a warning.
Matt at Precision360 watches this thread (among others) to jump on and point the finger back at his unhappy customers. That in it self must be a full time job !! So hopefully he might check his Junk mail for your requests after he reads this and get back to you. But be prepared for a nasty reply about posting on here for help. Blar blar blar.
Thanks Matt! I know he watches this thread, which is why I am posting! LOL.
I’ve exhausted all means to get in touch with the guy and I just found another today which may be of help to others in the same plight.
This I believe is his Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=628525266&ref=search&sid=647638487.465025956..1
I’ve written a message to him, so let’s see if he responds, of if it’s gonna vanish in thin air too.
I’m going to start a FB group to review 360Precision’s customer service cos there needs to be a public avenue for us to address this shoddy company.
Hey guys, a quick update on the situation. A FEDEX shipment notification came through today labeled “International Priority Package”, and if all goes well, I should receive the item within 2 days. Still no word/reply from 360P itself, but this is a positive step forward. More news from me when I receive the item. I hope this marks the end of my nightmare.
Well if you get it don’t expect any form of instructions about the item. Just two arms and a bag full of screws and rings. All the dent rings are unmarked as well so it is a guessing game to which focal length they are for. At least you will see the item is well made, which is a bonus as can you imaging trying to do a warranty claim through these guys.
I’ve just issue you a full refund. Life is simply too short to deal with customers that would prefer not to deal with us any longer.
Woo hoo… Dan if you are just going to use the head for standard panoramics your best off going with a very simple setup. I found shooting them with the 360 precision head difficult with the heavy dents causing the camera to shake in between shots. Even with the softer pin that Matt sent to me.
I use a manfrotto 338 leveling base and the L bracket and my stitches are great. Christian Fletcher (well know WA landscape shooter) sold his 360 precision and now uses the same set up for his work and never looked back.
What I love is no one ever tells both sides of the story. I don’t like airing customers dealings with us but sometimes my hand gets forced.
When Dan placed the order the shipping address he supplied did NOT match the shipping address used when the payment was made.
We notified Dan of this issue and made it clear that NO product could ship unless he could verify in a separate email which address was correct. This isn’t so much for the shipping purposes but we’re NOT covered in the event of a fraudulent transaction. We need to have the correct addressed verified by the customer in an email to then be covered.
We actually have THREE replies from Dan with this question below his replies and he simply fails to provide this information.
From my perspective this looks suspicious as there should be no reason for him to not verify the correct shipping address.
Other people reading this may be happy sending such an expensive product half way around the world without a secured payment. But we’ve been burnt too many times before and need to make sure it doesn’t happen. If it does happen then the cost of the fraudulent transaction simply gets passed on to other customers both through increased prices and longer ship times.
Matt
Hey guys, hey Matthew (good to see you on here)!
There’s been some new developments which I’d like to update, and seeing that Matthew has swiftly responded personally here (posting here works! Yay!) – there’s progress and I hope this episode can be brought to an amicable closure. It could go either way from here, but let’s see.
I received the FEDEX shipment notification yesterday (and duly updated on this thread immediately following a round of jubilation), but it has since been cancelled (ho hum, more on that if you read on). Following that, I received an email from Matthew this morning.
I hereby include our most recent email exchange for your reference.
————————–
On 04-Mar-2010, at 8:50 AM, Matthew Rogers wrote:
Dan,
Just to let you know that your total payment amount has now been refunded in full. I could comment on your posts but I can’t be bothered.
We’ve still not received a reply to the email regarding a verified shipping address. Even though you’ve emailed subsequently and posted to the support forum you still failed to answer our question re the shipping address.
I was taking a huge risk on my own head shipping the head without your confirmation of the shipping address. You have to see this from my perspective. I’m shipping a product that costs ME, not some big company but me personally over $USD600 to make. Once the product arrived you could simply call the credit card company and have the payment reversed. And as I have no confirmed shipping address from you I have no legal rights to then recover the money.
You obviously know whether or not your honest and genuine but we’ve been ripped off too many times in the past and it’s not worth the risk. One of your fellow “Matt Lauder Blog” posters actually did manage to steal a £600 product from us then has the nerve to complain about customer service, unbelievable.
In the end it’s not worth the risk shipping to you. I have three email replies from you with my question about the shipping address and it also clearly states:
“This needs to be confirmed before shipping otherwise we’re not covered via the Paypal Sellers protection.”
What’s funny is you clearly forget to mention any of this in your posts on the internet.
NB Please always prefix the subject of your emails with “360Precision -“. This will help stop our spam filters and increase the chance that your email will be received and replied to. Emails with generic or blank subject lines will most certainly get deleted.
Matthew Rogers
———————–
My reply:
From: Dan
Date: March 4, 2010 PM 04:00:27
To: Matthew Rogers
Subject: 360Precision – Order refund
Matthew,
Good to finally hear from you.
First off, I wanna say it was a great relief you initiated the shipment yesterday. I received the shipping notification and immediately updated the situation on Matt Lauder’s blog. You’d pardon me for seeking avenues of reprieve seeing that I had not received a word from you since the last email I received from you on 1st Feb.
It’s not true that I had not replied regarding the shipping address. The shipping address had been confirmed with my reply on the 1st February. Please see attached.
I’m not sure why emails correspondence has been such a challenge. You mentioned you received 3 email replies in all with your question about the shipping address. My question then is even if the shipping address confirmation I sent didn’t get through to you for some reason, and if it was important to verify shipping address before shipping the item, in normal circumstances, you should have got in touch with me again. There was a communication void.
I am not aware of your bad episode with the dishonest customer and I’m sorry you’ve been burnt. I only base my review on my own experience.
I appreciate you offering to take the risk to ship out the item, but you didn’t have to.
I do not want to play the blame game. All I want is for a transaction to go through as it should. I know you’ve given the full refund. But I would like to give this one more go so we can wrap this up amicably. I do think your equipment is a beautiful piece of work, Matthew. =)
In that light, can you advise how we should proceed. I’d place another order online but you mentioned AMEX doesn’t work for overseas purchases. Should I use Mastercard or Visa?
In any case, I hereby confirm the shipping address:
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
[Address removed here for obvious reasons =)]
Hear from you soon, and this time, please reply me. I look forward to resolving this matter swiftly and will gladly update my review accordingly online.
Regards,
Dan
——————————
So there’s the full disclosure of our last exchange. The ball is in Matthew’s court now, and I look forward to a positive resolution.
Thanks for having us, Matt Lauder!
Dan
No problem… happy to have both sides of the story posted on here. Good or bad. Glad it got all sorted for you.
Not sorted yet. Still unfolding. We’ll see… =) *Fingers crossed*
Quick update: Matthew Rogers just emailed!
“I’ll reprocess the payment tonight and get the order back on track.”
*Fingers Crossed*
Dan
I know that Matt Lauder’s Blog has attracted a certain group of 360 Precision customers who have gripes about the company.
I would like to add my experiences, in order to lend some balance to the opinions expressed here.
I have been doing high-end stitching since late 2000, long before it became main stream.
I am a long-time 360 Precision customer…, having had a custom measured Absolute head made for me by Matthew Rogers and Stuart Milne, delivered in May 2005.
I have “unusual” tastes in camera gear, and the guys went out of their way to make a custom measured Absolute head for my esoteric camera choices. Their service was outstanding. The “over-engineering” of the unit appeals to me very much. I know that if I wish to use the “Absolute” with Medium Format digital gear, for example, the Absolute will definitely be up to the task. That, quite simply, cannot be said for any other panorama head on the market!
I also own an “Adjuste” unit, which I now use with a Sony A900 (24 megapixel full-fame) body, and a variety of lenses, including the Sony/Zeiss 16-35mm, and the Sigma 12-24mm zoom; not a particularly light-weight or compact, camera / lens load….
I also recently purchased the “Atome” unit, which I use with the Sigma 10mm fisheye on full-frame, (“shaved” by Tobias Vollmer in Germany).
I have never had an email to 360 Precision go astray, or unanswered.
I have used iChat to talk with Matt personally on numerous occasions. I find that he is very frequently logged in…
As stated above, I started out stitching panoramas in the year 2000. I originally purchased a Manfrotto 302 and a Kaidan-to-Manfrotto adapter arm, in order to stitch 360 panos. This was the only decent option at the time in 2000/1, other than the Peace River unit. My Manfrotto/Kaidan equipment was well constructed (better than it is nowadays, btw), but “flex” and alignment problems were still evident. I was able to stitch great work, but extra effort was required to correct for the construction issues inherent in the equipment.
I have also used Kaidan’s newer units, but the construction still left a lot to be desired, IMHO, and once again, flexing became an issue, as well as imprecise rotator leveling over a full rotation. (Kaidan have recently ceased operation, btw).
I have also had experience with Manfrotto’s 303SPH, (while teaching Stitching at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia for four years…, which was, incidentally, the first course of it’s kind to be offered in the Southern Hemisphere. I conceived, wrote and conducted the course for the School of Creative Media, bachelor of arts Degree. The Manfrotto 303SPH doesn’t even hold a candle to the 360Precision Adjuste, IMHO. RMIT has a contract with the Manfrotto distributors here…., that’s why they chose it. It was an administrative/red-tape situation….
As for “customer relations”…, my previous clients have included Exxon Mobil Australia, Phillip Morris New York, Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures Los Angeles and numerous others.
I am an “Ex” New Yorker, btw..; don’t hold it against me, you Aussies 🙂 I really do love the people here in Melbourne, and have enjoyed very much living in the Docklands since December 2001… I was part of the early “panic” exodus from NYC after the Twin Towers were attacked….
My point is that in any business transaction, the “right” communication style is required for success in general, whether it be landing high-end clients as a photographer, or dealing with suppliers such as 360 Precision. We are not talking about placing an order with B&H or Adorama here…. 360 Precision is a different ball game. You get to deal with the real decision makers and in fact, the founders of the company, and in my experience, if you treat them the way you would like to be treated yourself, then you will be rewarded….. It’s a “Zen” thing…., or call it “Karma” if that appeals to you more.
This principle works with commercial clients, too. Maybe some of you should try it 🙂
On a parting note, I notice that David Palermo, (Apple Computer’s legendary QTVR pioneer), Jook Leung (NYC’s absolute master of the game), and Hans Nyberg, one of Europe’s greats, all apparently agree with me. They are very happy customers of 360 Precision.
Need I say more?
PS. If you want me to say more, please post responses. I’ll be happy to elaborate.
Thanks for the post John. Glad to see you get a good response from these guys, but as a long time customer you would expect that kind of service. From the posts I have read on here and else where on the web and also the posts from Matt having a swipe at me that I have removed from here, the guy has a lot to learn when dealing with customers.
Your right about were not dealing with B&H or Adorama here, they receive and also reply to personal emails and ship their goods as stated.
I have always agreed that 360 precisions gear is very well made and those who have them would have very little to complain about. It’s their ordering process that seams to be peoples biggest and I would say only issue. Fix that up, put someone with people skills in a customer support roll and you got a cracking business and blog posts like this would fade away instead of attracting desperate customers who have $1500 debited from their card with no response from the supplier once that happens. At least when they get here and post their issue Matt’s on to it with a reply. Case proven with Dan. All resolved now since posting on here after all other attempts to contact them failed.
Matt
If you ever need after-sales support or advice concerning an order from AdoramaCamera, I hope you’d always contact me!
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
helen.oster[AT]adoramacamera.com
I’m having the same trouble with recieving any info after I paid for the eqiupment. I’m wondering how do I add Matthew to msn messenger so I can chat with him on there and hopefully get a response that way. -thx
Hi Tara 🙂
Just be patient, and your first response will likely be a tracking number for your parcel. This doesn’t mean it’s actually being sent, but it does mean that you are next on “the list”…. Then wait a couple more weeks, and you’ll get an email confirming the shipping details, and it will be on it’s way; at least that’s my experience.
Matthew is an accomplished photographer in his own right, and I suspect, that depending on his work-load, the response time varies a little.
What I CAN ensure you of, reassuringly, is that these guys are 100% honest, and that your product will be delivered, insured and all….., in due course, and you will be blown away by the quality.
It may depend on exactly what you ordered, and what is in “stock” at the moment. I any case, the whole transaction shouldn’t take more than a few weeks.
As for MSN, I know Matt is a “Mac” user, and the best way to get him online, if your are on a “PC”…., is to download AOL messenger from Apple’s “Download” pages,( http://www.apple.com) ….. Download and register for an AOL account and Username…., it’s free, and your user name will work with Apple’s “iChat” which I know Matthew uses. There is info on the 360 Precision website on connecting directly to him on iChat.
If you have any more questions…, please post here….
‘Sorry for the late response, but I was on location shooting, and waited until I got back into town to reply to you 🙂
Wow what an interesting thread. I thought I would add another comment for a satisfied customer. I must say that my experience with these guys has been good. I have contacted support for settings and have received a reply pretty quickly (one issue was outstanding for a while but a gentle reminder and I had a quick reply from Matt). I am a novice user, so for me the adjuste is perfect as I could jump right in.
I have had my adjuste 2 for about half a year now, experiencing no issues at all. However, I feel I would not have ordered it if I had read the thread above before I placed my order, which I think would have been a mistake, as the overall experience for me has been positive and I would certainly purchase from them again (in fact I just purchased a 5D2 mounting plate).
Even if all the above is true, the product is superb and so easy to use. I have not had to change the settings since the initial setup. I highly recommend it.
Ordered a Nodal Ninja NN5. Received exactly on the day promised (5 days due to my choice of mailing option).
No problems. Reasonable instructions, easy to set up, and lots of detents. I’m a rookie to panos and my first attempts went well.
I highly recommend these guys.
…., yes…, but comparing the Nodal Ninjas to the 360 Precision gear, is a bit like comparing a massed-produced Hyundai, with a hand-assembled Bugatti…
You can’t get delivery of a Bugatti quite as easily as you can pick up a Hyundai…. (substitute your favourite brand names as you see fit, lol).
I am so glad I found this posting, I would have lost my job if I ordered this head and something went wrong. Better improve your customer relations 360Precision, you just lost a corporate order for as many as 10 pano heads.
If you’re the type of person to not buy a product based on faceless posts on a nobodies forum then I’m glad I don’t have to deal with you.
Dont let the door smack you in the head on the way out.
Matt
Need I say more why you should avoid this company at all costs.
I’m sorry but this is a complete load of garbage. We still have issues with people not being able to contact us, you know what, in EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE they’ve simply not made any effort to contact us. I’m logged into the following EVERY SINGLE DAY:
1. iChat on [email protected]
2. Aim/Aol on [email protected]
3. MSN on [email protected]
4. Skype on threesixtyprecision
5. Live website chat accessible via the 360Precision website at http://www.360precision.com
6. Our online support; desk at http://support.360precision.com
7. Our user forum; at http://www.360precision.net/forum/
8. Google chat; on [email protected]
9. Email addresses as specified in enquiry replies and order replies.
10. Website contact us form.
11. Telephone answer message; on +441869347272
We’re also on the following social networks which we can be contacted on in a last effort:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Blogger
4.Youtube
5. Ning
6. LinkedIn
7. Plexo
8. Tumblr
9. Identi.ca
10. Brightkite
11. Plurk
12. FriendFeed
13. Jaiku
14. Xanga
15. WordPress
16. Delicious
17. Koornk
18 YouAre
19. Yammer
20. Flickr
21. Vox
22. ShoutEm
23. Posterous
24. Photobucket Pro
25. Yahoo Meme
The first person that can reply to this post naming one single company in ANY industry where the OWNER is contactable LIVE during regular business hours on ALL OF the above 1-11 methods and the following 1 – 25 social networks can claim any FREE 360Precision product.
Now that I have an Ipad, live support is available most weekdays from 7am up until 10-11pm. Most days I’m chatting to customers well outside business hours. It’s funny how these customers and potential customers HAVE NO ISSUES contacting us yet some people can’t, I wonder why ?
I’m completely sick off these faceless people hiding behind the internet making completely false claims when they’re simply too lazy to make any effort to really contact us. If people honestly think email is a reliable form of communication then you simply don’t deal with any volume of customers.
What you read on the internet is never straight forward and very rarely do you hear an honest two sided argument. Considering we sell and ship well over 1000 units a year with the majority of sales coming for customer referrals do we really have any customer relation/ support issues ?
We even offer customers FREE EMAIL ACCOUNTS at [email protected], find me ONE OTHER COMPANY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD THAT OFFERS THEIR CUSTOMERS FREE EMAIL FOR SUPPORT ISSUES.
Seriously, some people just love to complain and it doesn’t matter what you do or how much effort you make you will never satisfy them, it’s simply impossible.
I’ve gone back through the list of people that have made complaints and NOT ONE SINGLE ONE has any form of live chat support. How on earth can you expect to complain about a company when you yourself can’t be contacted in real time. Maybe get your own house in order before complaining about others. It’s just typical with people since the advent of the internet. Everyone is more than happy to complain about others yet what they offer is far from perfect.
Yes we’ve had issues in the past and we’ve worked extremely hard to resolve them. If someone can’t contact us then they don’t know how to use a computer, telephone or the internet, it really is as simple as that.
Matt
If 360-Matt would invest half of the time and efforts in serious customer support instead of posting garbage and justification all over the internet, then there would probably be less unsatisfied clients all around.
Unfortunately I bought a product from 360 Precision some time ago. Today it’s absolutely clear for me what I would do:
EVEN IF 360PRECISION PANO HEAD WOULD BE THE BEST PRODUCT ON THE WORLD (and it isn’t), I WOULDN’T BUY IT AGAIN. – 360-Matt is just too much in my eyes!
I would go for any of the other nice pano heads on the market, but for sure not for 360Precision.
360 Matt is a crook. Period. All I have been able to find are negative comments about this company and I am having all the same issues. He will not return emails, but he will comment back on facebook. He told me they no longer have phone/online support and the only way to reach them is through the web site
Matt says,
“We also canned the online support system and phone number as most customers were either too lazy to read the emails explaining its usage or some other reason I better not comment on in public.
We now have ONE point of contact and that us [email protected]. No other communications will actually be received.”
I found the service slow but my product eventually did arrive and is a fantastic heavy duty piece. I actually worked myself up in a frenzy worrying about him not returning emails because of all the negative comments I saw online. But like I said, the product did arrive and I’ve been using it for nearly 2 years now with no issues at all. I’ve even dropped it once on cement and it has held up remarkably. If you have the patience to wait, I recommend his products. However, if you need to be in the loop the entire time with feedback from him he is not the man to order from!! (I do admit it drove me nutty not getting a response when inquiring about the estimated delivery). From what I understand he is a one man show. This does not excuse his poor client relations but it is how he opperates and not much else anyone can do about it.
If you ordered J I hope you receive your product soon. And I hope you are as satisfied with it as I was… might make up a little bit for the frustration during the order process 🙂
360 matt you may want to send me a FREE tripod head as I am the owner of a company and I can be reached 24hrs a day. My business line is forwarded to my cell after hrs and I have helped customers who have woken me out of bed at 4am.
Hi “J”,
I agree with Tara. Be patient. Your gear WILL arrive…, and you will be impressed.
I’m not sure that posting slanderous comments is a wise thing to do if you really want co-operative service, though. That’s my opinion.
Matt is a good guy, and the equipment is the best, period.
I know…, I’ve bought a load of junk from other “names” over the years, only to come back to Precision 360.
If the quality of your equipment is paramount, then bite the bullet and wait for your gear to arrive. It will.
But how long should a customer wait in silence though John. I think that is the problem people have.
Yeah 8 months is quite ridiculous! I waited about 6 weeks. I have to admit at that point id be looking to visa for insurance as well.
If he is a one man show then he needs to let his customers know. If he doesn’t have phone support he should update his website. If he doesn’t respond quickly to his emails he shouldn’t advertise a quick response. I have called, emails and even went as far as contacting him on social media sites. He responded to me on FB telling me he recieved my email and would respond once he got back into his office last week. Still no email response. I feel the guy lies to his customers and doesnt care about anything except collecting our money. There is no support for this product and no way to get ahold of the owner. Not happy here.
In the same boat here, I’m waiting +8 months and all emails are ignored no matter which support/ticket/email/protocol I use..(he responded before I paid but after that silencio)
Dude is still alive because we can see him Twittering daisy’s, the ‘good’ thing is that he posted some youtube vids of heads being drilled..so who knows he is restocking is items OR his firm is belly up?
To sum it up he lacks honesty and is farm from friendly..
Wish I had read your advice earlier Matt!
Wow… 8 + months is a long time. Might be an idea to contact your credit card company (if you paid that way) and have the transaction re credited due to non delivery / fraud. I think a few people have gone that way with them.
I have extremely negative experience with 360precision.
Placed three separate orders for various items (2 Adjuste and one Adjuste Giga), one of the heads is not delivered – over 12 months passed.
Matt either doesn’t reply or (after applying pressure over community) plainly lies about returned payments, shipped and lost packages and other bullshit.
My fault was that I was listening Matt’s explanations (some organisation problems, replacement of processing equipment for parts making) and was trying to get into his boots.
So I missed a moment when my money could be pulled back with simple procedures (charge back with Google Pay).
NEVER – you hear?- NEVER buy anything from 360precision.
If you need a tool for your needs in the area of panoramic photography rather than headache with fraudsters – better find other gear, market offers a lot of great panoramic heads.
Of course I’ve read about problems other customers have had with 360precision and Matt Rogers before, but I just decided that all these unhappy customers are somehow responsible for the bad communication.
DON”T REPEAT MY MISTAKE
Sad to hear your story. Its a shame that people think , “It wont happen to me” even after finding out about this blog, but there is a good chance you will be left wondering if you have done your cash with these guys.
Firstly Andrey you placed the following orders:
Alexander B*****v – Order Number: 360P2800039845 – Adjuste MK2
Andrey Ilyin – Order Number: 360P2800038869 – Adjuste Giga – Denis M*****v
Andrey Ilyin – Order Number:360P2800039598 – Adjuste MK2
Artur B*****v – Order Number: 360P2800036819 – Adjuste MK2
Yury P*****v – Order Number: 360P2800036895 – Adjuste MK2
Mikhail F*****v – Order Number: 360P2800036820 – Adjuste MK2
Yuri A*****v – Order Number: 360P2800036702 – Adjuste MK2
Stanislav K*****k – Order Number: 360P2800035091 – Atome 8mm
Andrey Ilyin – Order Number: 360P280009633 – Adjuste Giga
We’ve shipped out 9 orders and have only been paid for 8. The customer you’re claiming is waiting has neither placed an order directly with us or through you. In fact the only place I can find his name is in the emails you’ve sent claiming he’s waiting for the order.
As it stands 360Precision is actually £500 out of pocket as we shipped out an order that the customer then claimed the money back. Like I explained to you we can no longer see the exact details as the Google Checkout account has been closed. But it has to be your customer as you had a special rate. You were the only person that ever paid that exact amount for an order.
Looking back through the emails I can see that all the tracking numbers were supplied with the last one being supplied on the 28/11/2011. You then waited until the 24/01/2012 to inform us that the delivery had not been received. After this amount of time there’s nothing we can really do.
You were also aware that FedEx or in-fact ANY courier will only cover packages up to a maximum of £50 sent to Russia. Even though we’ve shipped out 9 orders on payment for 8 I offered you the £50 back.
We’re still waiting for you to supply the payment details for an order for ILNUR GATIN. I’ve spent three hours searching back through our records and we have NO record of an order either being placed for this customer or being paid for. The order that was shipped out twice was for order number #36819.
You then blame some Russian scammer for issuing the chargeback. The only orders we’ve ever shipped to Russia we’re either directly to you or to or to one of your customers via an order you placed. During the timeframe you were reselling 360Precision products we received NO DIRECT orders from Russia and any enquiries we received from Russia were forwarded on to you.
If you can supply to order number for ILNUR GATIN and the payment reference we will of course ship out the order.
As for Alex and J, if you’re too gutless to actually provide a real name or any actual order numbers how on earth can we actually believe your posts ?
As for Alex, we have 21 customers either named Alex or Alexander and all orders that have been paid for have been shipped. Again if you can’t or won’t provide any details how can we possible help you ? As to “j” we have 987 customers with J somewhere in their name and to be honest I don’t have to time to check everyone.
It’s so easy for gutless wonders to hide behind the anonymity of the internet. You can post whatever you want but there must be a reason for these people to not want to reveal who they actually are.
As to the communication issues we Andrey, we spent £100 registering 360precision.ru and set up accounts on our mail server for you and you’ve NEVER USED THEM. How can you claim we’ve not responded when you’ve not used the email accounts we setup for you ?
Just waiting for my Order # 1420 to be shipped – It is worth waiting for – it is the best Atome Sigma 5mm in the whole world . . .
Hi James, yes I would say it is worth waiting for. There a well made machined product.
Did it ever show up James?
Only after ordering a pano head from 360 precision website for my Sigma did I find this thread…then my heart sank. Yep, you guessed it – I too had the excruciating wait without any reply to email, phone call, voicemail, Facebook message (literally all contact methods).When I enquired about my order status the shipping status was ‘pending’ for a few months until I gave up and contacted my bank to claim a refund…that was a painless process in comparison.
In the end I found a 360 pano head on eBay from a very cool guy in Sweden who had no waiting issue with when he bought his a couple of years ago from the 360 website. I wrongfully thought that by me being located in the U.K my order would be a safe bet for delivery within a reasonable period since 360 Precision are UK based.
So not to repeat everything else here has said, I can confirm that for many it still seems to be pot luck if your order gets processed in a timely manner, or just gets pushed aside without any reply to an order enquiry. I totally understand a small company with many daily enquiries and shipments to organise is no fun when it is essentially a one man band operation – which is my understanding of the situation. But sticking ones head in the sand and ignoring emails or voicemail for weeks and weeks is pathetic. I would have appreciated a notice on the site to have simply said ‘ Due to increased demand, our shipping turnaround may be delayed by approximately X amount of weeks’ – or something like that. At least that would have some reassuring effect of not feeling like a complete chump for waiting so long. Sounds like the guy who runs the business has such thin skin, his fingers may actually bleed if he wasn’t to ever type a reply to a customer email. I’ve met a few people like this in similar fields of business…mostly talented and creative people, but people who end up resenting the fact that they have to run a business, yet totally refuse to accept help from others to lighten the load. I have no beef with the guy personally, I just don’t think he is capable of empathy to customers who just want to know where they stand after waiting patiently for months.
My advise to anyone fortunate enough to land on this thread before ordering from the 360 site is to do so at your own risk (and check eBay first!). The products from 360 precision are very good, that is not the issue here. But if you need any form of communication regarding your order, and you have been waiting for many weeks…you may have to learn some zen meditation methods to stop your blood from slowly boiling.
Matthew Rogers is 360Precision still operating a business?
Just so that you aware, the Sourcing & Procurement Manager from our company has tried several times to contact you through email and even through facebook, but to no avail. We have purchased many Adjuste MKII’s with you in the past, and now that we are in need to procure more, we cant seem to get in contact with you.
If you have a business address or email that we can get in contact with you to place an order we’d love to know as we’d be looking to purchase several Adjuste MKII’s.
Cheers,
“Matthew Rogers is 360Precision still operating a business?”
I would love to know that too. I bought an Atome head for my 5d at the end of June. Delivery time stated on the website being 5-8 days. It is now 14th August…I purchased the pano head on 28th June.
Ive tried contacting through all possible means. Via the 360 precision websites, phone numbers, linkedin, ichat, googlechat. I saw that he had read my message on Linkedin but didnt reply.
I wouldnt mind if the website said itd be a month or so for delivery. It just needs to say that. Currently he has over £300 of mine and wont respond to any attempt for information.
Im going to try once more to find out about my purchase and then like James Price did, I’ll request a bank refund. I felt Id give him the benefit of the doubt after reading so many scathing reviews of his customer service, but Im running out of patience.
All this means any shoots I had planned had to be postponed or cancelled. I dont know if he thinks its ok to treat people this way, people who rely on good communication and who work to deadlines and have schedules,
Hopefully Ill get my money back and I can just go buy a different pano head like I should have all along.
Hi Sean, Yours in an all too common comment on this blog. We have all been in your situation. I’d say start to process to get your money returned or contact the UK Dept of Fair trading like we have here in Australia if you have problems getting your money back after being deposited in your account. I know if you paid by Credit Card their very powerful in cancelling the deposited money and getting it back. Almost like a fraud guarantee which if he takes your money and doesn’t provide a product or doesn’t communicate with you, pretty much fits the bill. Good luck.
Thanks Matt.
I emailed him on Monday and said if he didn’t respond by Friday I would actively be seeking to get my money back. No response at all. (As usual)
Went to the bank today to start the process of getting a refund, and they had the same credit card advice. I think I will get one for purchases like this of over £100 so Im covered better in the future.
Im also going to looking into consumer watchdog options and fraud.
Its such a bizarre situation. I have never experienced such a badly run business. It really beggars belief why he cant either amend the info on his website to say deliveries can take X amount of weeks, or just respond to customer emails. All of this negative press would never have happened.
Managed to get a bank charge back. Its a service that not many people in the bank actually know about. I was told there was nothing that can be done because I used a debit card, but with a bit of research it turns out the bank staff just weren’t clued up.
After one phone call and 24 hours I had my money back. Ordered a Nodal Ninja which says is next day delivery. Hopefully can never have to deal with a company like 360 Precision again.
That’s great to hear Sean. Well done. When you look at the website you would assume that you can get in contact with him quickly and easily as it makes you feel like you can when you read all the ways and details that are provided.
I’m stunned that he is happy to just get charge backs for the kind of money the heads are.
Great result mate.
Anybody got the at atome pdf instructions handy, bought one second hand for 25 pounds and it is brill, thought might check detent ring if it has six (is four at minute)
Thanks!
You might be in luck as a marketing email went out saying theyre back in business…try contacting them directly.
Fraud Alert Precisio360.co !!!
Fraudster :- Matthew Roger ( [email protected])
I am from Mumbai, India. On 10th November,2019 I visited to http://www.precision360.co website so I liked their product after that I leaved an message to them is they can ship me the “Atome rotator sigma 8mm f3.5″ in India?” through their website. After an few hour a person name Matthew Roger ([email protected]) who is the founder of http://www.precision360.co contacted to me through e-mail stating that ‘We have the Atome rotator in-stock so can ship on receipt of payment.’ On 12th November, 2019 he send me the payment link and asked me to make the payment but when I tried to make the payment my payment got declined by the bank. After that we have regular discussion everyday till 18th November, 2019 regarding the product.18th November, 2019 when I try to make the payment for the product my payment got declined by bank because the payment card was not International.
So, On 2nd December,2019 I made the payment of Rs. 300.75 GBP and the payment got successfully after that my order also got confirmed. I received an e-mail confirmation of my order. According to shipping method I was supposed to receive my order in India within 5 – 10 days from the date of order confirmation. So, I waited for my order to received but after passing more than 12 days. On 16 December, 2019 I contacted to Mr. Matthew Roger ([email protected]) through e-mail for asking to him where is my order? I did not received my order yet, please kindly check the shipping status of my order. I didn’t got any reply of my e-mail. So, On 17th December, 2019 I again sent an mail to Matthew Roger asking him Is there any update regarding the shipping status of my order ?. Again I didn’t got any reply of my email. So, I thought something wrong is happening.
After that I decided to send him mail from different e-mail ID. The E-mail id is name of Jack Davis then On 17th December, 2019 from Jack Davis E-mail id I send the mail to Mr. Matthew Roger asking him how many days it will take to ship the product in New York ? within stipulated minutes he replied to Jack Davis mail. From this I got to know he is purposely ignoring my mail and trying to fraud me. On 18th December, 2019 I again sent a mail to Mr.Matthew Roger from Jack Davis e-mail Id asking him why he is not replying to ***as***gup**@gmail.com mail. After this email he got to know that I was sending the mail from Jack Davis e-mail id Now he started ignoring Jack Davis e-mail also. Everyday I am trying to reach Mr. Matthew Roger but he is completely ignoring to all my mail. I also asked to Mr. Matthew Roger if he don’t to deliver the product to me kindly refund my hard earn money but he is not replying to any of my mail.
Through this it can be clearly understand he is just doing fraud with me and not refunding my hard earn money.
An mistake
Its
Fraudster :- Matthew Roger ([email protected])