In last week's post, I talked about the Gorillapod Focus by Joby that I had recently purchased and how much I loved it. Within 15-30 minutes of publishing that post, this happened... 

I had seen a photo similar to this one when I was initially researching the Gorillapod Focus, but since I had only seen one example of the legs popping out like this, I hoped it'd never happen to me. Although I was devastated, the irony of typing up a blog post about how much I loved my Gorillapod only to have it break in less than an hour of hitting the "publish" button made things a little easier. 

Of course, I emailed Joby immediately. According to their website (https://joby.com/warranty), their products are covered by a warranty for a year. Considering I had purchased my Gorillapod two or three weeks before the leg popped out, I figured I'd be good to go. I also uploaded the photo of my broken Gorillapod on Instagram on my photo account (@dan_pomykalski_photography) and tagged Joby. Joby left a comment telling me to email them (which I had already done). After over 24 hours with no response, I decided to drive to REI and exchange my broken Focus for a new one, which was a 78 mile round-trip. 

I don't consider not receiving and email within 24 hours unacceptable. I wouldn't even consider no response within 48 hours unacceptable. However, It's now been eight days since I emailed Joby, and they haven't replied to my email yet. The only reason I can imagine they haven't responded to my email yet is that I left a comment on my photo on Instagram saying I had driven to REI and solved the problem myself. Two things about this scenario though. 1) they don't necessarily know for sure that the person who emailed them and the person on Instagram are the same person, and 2) they could have at least sent a follow up email saying something like, "sorry about your tripod, we saw you solved the problem yourself."

Speaking of REI, I felt somewhat guilty not supporting my local camera store and not purchasing my Gorillapod from them. However, they only have a 14 day return policy, while REI's return policy is a year (I believe. It keeps changing). I think my local camera store would have replaced my Gorillapod, but if I decide to return it all together, I can because I went through REI. 

I'm hoping my first Gorillapod was just a lemon, but we'll see. I'd hate to have any of my equipment break like this when I'm depending on it at a shoot. 

How it happened:

I had spread the legs out to take a video. The Gorillapod was supporting my D750 with a battery grip and an 85mm f/1.8G. I had finished taking the video, and "closed" the legs back up. As I was doing this, the leg just popped out. I don't think the force I was using was excessive, and the weight of my setup was under the 11 lbs limit. 

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