After downloading an update to my Soloshot 3 back in October - it quit working. The base will no longer recognize the camera and is caught in an endless loop. I have tried unsuccessfully for over a month to contact Soloshot. I even tried their order line and contacting them through the BBB (which gives them an “F” rating for customer service - surprise, surprise). All I am getting is automated responses via email. Does anyone know, are they gone, dead, kaput?
Nah, H4 ENGINEERING INC. d/b/a Soloshot, Inc. just sucks at customer service. They’ll happily sell you stuff though. It is unfortunate that such a great idea has gone to crap.
Hope you used a credit card to purchase this… if so check your card’s benefits… some (well at least mine) has a product warranty included with the card that will back up the manufacturer’s warranty… Report the product as defective for a full refund… the the credit card company will battle your battle for you
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Oh, no! I love my SS3 and have had pretty good service … though my issue was minor and there was no fix for it,* so I guess no skin off anyone’s nose to respond quickly to me.
*If you pause both tracking and recording to go tack up, the robot times out but when you get back and press the button on the tag to resume tracking/recording, it will track you but not record, even though the tag will indicate that it is recording. They told me it’s a bug they are working on (sure!), so I get around it by pausing only tracking and letting it continue to record while I tack up. I have plenty of SD card space, and the battery lasts, so I don’t mind. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very dumb feature, but it is so much better than my Pixio, I cut it some slack.
Oh, I had an issue with my SD card getting corrupted, and they responded right away. I wouldn’t say they fixed my issue, but they at least pointed me in the right direction and I was able to figure it out myself.
I’ve had major issues with them in the past - but could always get someone on the phone or via email. This total non-response is a new twist. They have not posted on their FB for several months - not that this means anything but is of note. The problem I am experiencing is all over the Internet as an issue with one of the latest software/firmware updates.
I’ve heard whispers that they are about to close down, no idea if it’s happened yet though. But try co tacting them through fb messenger. I had a lot of issues with mine and got immediate response through fb, as opposed to several weeks through email.
update: a bit over a week ago, I received an email from soloshot. They said that my problem could be repaired by shipping the camera back to them and for $30 plus shipping they would do it. They told me to reply and they would issue an RMA. I did reply also asking how long thee repair would take - and yet again surprise, surprise… no answer.
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Apparently the original guys were surfers so it’s not surprising that the thing works best under wide open skies – on a beach or cliff pointed at the waves.
I can just imagine the meeting where the marketing people insisted that they had to make an “indoor accessory” to compete with Pixio. And then the editing software, which has some interesting features, but… IF ONLY they had stuck to what they were already good at… 
It needs a clear view of the sky because it uses GPS, has nothing to do with surfing although the quality of the receiver set is good enough for their original intended market.
I think that was the point…it was designed with surfers in mind, that’s why they used gps. The use of markers like pixio uses isn’t really feasible in the ocean.
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It’s barely feasible in an indoor!
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As luck would have it, I work with people who have worked on the GPS program for decades. The general consensus is that having one of the GPS repeaters available to “bring GPS indoors” would solve the SoloShot inside problem. I have no use for that feature since I don’t ride in an indoor, otherwise would have tested it out by now.
All that said, I have both a Soloshot 2 and Soloshot 3 and they both work great. I concede the point that it’s hard to get their attention for customer service.
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The problem isn’t so much that the feature isn’t there. It is that people paid a CRAP ton of money for a device and that feature with the promise it would be available soon. Soon isn’t 3 years, soon is… soon. I haven’t read the contracts so I’m not sure if everyone got excited and didn’t check the fine print. Since it was a kickstarter way back when I’m sure there was plenty of fine print saying if such and such isn’t raised thanks for the money but you don’t get it back or something to that tune. I also know that it is quite difficult to transfer a pre-owned soloshot (not to sell it, but for the buyer to be able to utilize the camera’s account). That is a bummer for those who think they are getting a great second hand deal. I love the idea of Soloshot and Pixio, but they come with too many problems to want to spend that much money. I’ll stick to begging pony club kids and my fellow adult ammies to video here and there for now. Surely something better will come along eventually!
Did your friends give you any info on where to get a GPS repeater? From a google search, it looks like you need an antenna on the roof, or what sounds like a very expensive portable unit (price not listed, marketed to emergency responders/government agencies).
Currently in the US there is legislation that you have to have a permit or some type of license or the government to have a GPS repeater. Its a big deal if you get caught with one. Legislation happened back in 2005-ish, I’m assuming it hasn’t changed much.
Yep, I hadn’t thought about that. You need an FCC experimental license to operate a repeater due to the possibility of emitting to unsuspecting GPS users.
Pretty sure that people who asked for their money back got it. Haven’t heard of an example otherwise.
Ok, so I probably am just going to have to break down and learn to master my Pixio. The SoloShot is so much easier. It has a screen! And only two pieces need to be charged/placed, and they charge attached to each other! And the tag tells you (fairly reliably) if you are tracking and/or recording. And I’ve never had it track me wrong. Sometimes the SoloShot hasn’t recorded me when I thought it was, but several times I’ve had the Pixio record an entire lesson, but just behind me so the most you see is the occasional swish of a tail. Or just my head. Sigh. I know what I did wrong in those cases, but not until AFTER I did it. There seems to be an endless array of mistakes to be made. And it’s kind of embarrassing to set up in an arena that’s not yours. Like, “Yes, I’m such a narcissist I need a robot to document my ride, I hope it doesn’t spook your horse! And I hope you don’t mind being caught in some of my footage”.
I’ve definitely seen the opposite. Your credit card will only challenge within a certain time frame (either from purchase or warranty if it is due to product malfunctioning). Soloshot will only do refunds within 30 days of purchase (with limitations of course). Overall I think most people went into it knowing it was a tall promise to ever have an indoor feature. I know there are people who (at least for the indoor accessory) have requested refunds multiple times and haven’t gotten any and the response from Soloshot is always “we’re working on it”. They never gave a specific date so technically that works, although it has created a very unhappy customer base on the equestrian, indoor soccer, and hockey crowd. Surfers don’t need it so they don’t care 
Although, recently there have been complaints with SS3… half love it and half are ready to throw it in the water.
If you buy a second hand you are SOL because that is a private sale so the company doesn’t do anything about it - just gotta hope you buy from someone honest who will give you their account info since it only links to one and you can’t transfer that (just change the PW) - as long as you don’t mind never getting software updates to fix bugs/issues and not being able to live stream you can still use it to video and such. The warranty will not transfer to the purchaser so if it doesn’t work, again, better hope you went with an honest seller.
I have a really old tracker that I used quite a bit, but then as I added newer, better video cameras I realized that I had enough cameras to cover the entire indoor. So I just set up multiple cameras (2 or 3), go around and turn them all on before I ride, and then pick out and save the footage I want when I’m done riding.
Sometimes I edit the footage and save it, sometimes I barely look at it, but bringing the cameras out with me and turning them on when I ride has become a habit, so if I want to look at the footage I have it.
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