[Anthony]

August 26, 2008: HuntingCamOnline (HCO) announces their official exclusive distributorship of the Scoutguard products and an exclusive Scoutguard trademark user in the USA. The goal of HCO is to provide a quality product and be a responsible supplier to authorized dealers. They are working diligently with Boly Media (manufacturer of this camera line) to ensure the quality and features that buyers demand.

In order to protect its legitimate dealers and resellers, HCO urges buyers to purchase from its authorized dealers in order to maintain warranty and manufacturer support. Be aware that there are some resellers claiming to be "authorized dealers" and they are not.

Read the announcement on the HCO website:

http://www.huntingcamonline.com/press_release.html

[yoderj@cox.net]

Anthony,

This seems pretty simple to me. If HCO is the exclusive distributor, they know who all the authorized dealers are. They should post the list to their web site and keep it up to date. Until they do that, they should support any user who purchased a camera from someone who said they were an authorized dealer because the consumer currently has no way to verify. Once HCO provides the means for consumer verification of authorized dealers, they can withdraw their support for non-authorized sales, but until then, they will loose customer satisfaction if they do.

Thanks,

Jack

[custom1]

They do have a Dealer List http://www.huntingcamonline.com/dealerlist.html

[Roscoe]

Anthony,

This seems pretty simple to me. If HCO is the exclusive distributor, they know who all the authorized dealers are. They should post the list to their web site and keep it up to date. Until they do that, they should support any user who purchased a camera from someone who said they were an authorized dealer because the consumer currently has no way to verify. Once HCO provides the means for consumer verification of authorized dealers, they can withdraw their support for non-authorized sales, but until then, they will loose customer satisfaction if they do.

Thanks,

Jack

Kinda sounds like the cuddeback warranty deal to me. I have two questions: (1) How do "unauthorized" dealers get their cameras to sell? & (2) Worst case, shouldn't warranty be based on a production date verified by serial number?

[Roscoe]

They do have a Dealer List http://www.huntingcamonline.com/dealerlist.html

"Dorothy's Candles" is a distributor.

[yoderj@cox.net]

They do have a Dealer List http://www.huntingcamonline.com/dealerlist.html

It just says this is a list of dealers. It doesn't tell me that these are all the authorized dealers. Some companies just list a few dealers that they special relationships with but there are others out there. I'd suggest that HCO be very explicit and say that this is an exhaustive list of authorized dealers and if they are not on the list, you are out of luck.

Just one man's opinion...

[Anthony]

They do have a Dealer List http://www.huntingcamonline.com/dealerlist.html

It just says this is a list of dealers. It doesn't tell me that these are all the authorized dealers. Some companies just list a few dealers that they special relationships with but there are others out there. I'd suggest that HCO be very explicit and say that this is an exhaustive list of authorized dealers and if they are not on the list, you are out of luck.

Just one man's opinion...

they may have strategic marketting reasons for not doing what you suggest but I understand your ideas.

[Anthony]

Well, there are authorized distributors in other countries. A US retailer might buy cameras from Canada for example. It then becomes a matter for lawyers and courts to uphold the US trademark of Scoutguard in USA licensed to HCO. If I was HCO and users were buying cameras on eBay from companies in other countries, I would not be interested in losing money providing warranty work either. Those buyers should have to return them to the retailer who should then deal with their distributor. Thats only fair.

I don't think Stealth, Moultrie, etc will honor warranty work if you buy a camera off eBay from someone in another country... do they ?

This situation can not be compared to Moultrie. Even though Moultrie cameras are manufactured in China, Moultrie has 100% control over the inventory (I have not seen any moultrie clones). this means if there is an unauthorized dealer in the USA they must be getting the cameras from someone else in the USA.

In this case Boly Media makes the cameras and sells them to distributors in different countries who can ship them to other countries which makes this confusing and possibly hard to police. It will be the laws of the USA that will prevail I suppose and who has the pockets and desire to enforce the laws.

From my undersanding if it, HCO has the trademark of "ScoutGuard" in the USA as well as the exclusive distribution rights in the USA. Any US company selling a camera called "Scoutguard" must do so legally which means it should be purchased through HCO. Ohterwise these companies either cant use the name Scoutguard or they must buy from HCO. this sounds clear.

I think you can still legally buy a camera from a Canadian retailer but I would think you should not expect to return that for warranty to HCO, do you ?

[Roscoe]

Were you trying to explain this to me or confuse me?

It makes sense and really does not compare to cudde as HCO is not the manufacturer, where cudde is. As far as Moultrie goes, I have never had moultrie ask me where I purchased a camera, and I purchased several off ebay...but like you said they were the actual manufacturer. I wouldn't expect Bass Pro to take back a moultrie or stealth that I had purchased from Cabelas.

I wonder how HCO will police this? What kind of documentation will they require for warranty work/returns? I assume you folks better hang on to your sales receipts for a year.

[Anthony]

I am sorry were you confused ? I appologise for confusing you dude as I was just trying to clear things up by using examples. Maybe these were poor examples but I will definitely try harder to be clearer in the future. I thought my input would help in this case. I think I got my point accross though.

[Roscoe]

Your explanation was spot on, but I realized that I had not given you crap for anything in awhile. I figured you were missing gettin it as much as I was missin givin it!

[Anthony]

Your explanation was spot on, but I realized that I had not given you crap for anything in awhile. I figured you were missing gettin it as much as I was missin givin it!

I appologise if I have offended you in any way during this thread oor at any time in any other thread... Really I am soory... Is there anything I can do to help you in any way? Please let me know as I want your experience here on CG to be as fruitfull and fullfilling as possible.

With most sincerity,
THANK YOU ROSCOE for ALL you DO.

[outdoorsfellar]

I've been thinking of this somewhat latley. It will be interesting to see what type of marketing campaign HCO takes this next year. As long as these lil pups hold up, it will be a slap in the face to all the other makers out there when HCO's ads start hitting the popular hunting magazines AND start being mentioned in our hunting shows !

[Roscoe]

I appologise if I have offended you in any way during this thread oor at any time in any other thread... Really I am soory... Is there anything I can do to help you in any way? Please let me know as I want your experience here on CG to be as fruitfull and fullfilling as possible.

With most sincerity,
THANK YOU ROSCOE for ALL you DO.

You're off your meds again aren't you?

[yoderj@cox.net]

Anthony,

A stretch of an explanation. If Canada is the issue, then simply state: "You must buy from one of the following US authorized dealers:". You can have any conditions you want on your warranty, you just need to define them. You can even say, we don't cover cameras that fail on Tuesdays! You just can't say "authorized dealer" and not define who they are.

When I say "can't" I mean can't without alienating your customer base.

Thanks,

Jack