What happened to Otter…?

I can’t tell you how many Otter products I have purchased (2 lodges, 1 cabin, 3 hubs (lodge, resort, monster) rod case, table, chairs, sled) and I’ve started to experience issues with their recent products. I purchased a pro vortex lodge hub and the stiching was so bad the interior nets wouldn’t secure correctly and the stiching was so loose I had 3″ strings hanginging in numerous places. I sent them pictures and my claim was denied. Purchased a new tripod chair from a small bait shop and the rivot at the bottom snapped. I sent them pictures of the new chair, DENIED (out of warranty) its not even a year, it was used on 1 trip. Im a 220 # guy not 400# guy. I figure I’ve purchased 1K of Otter products each year for the past 8 years. Guess who’s NOT going to be supporting Otter ever again!

Eskimo here I come!!!!!!

Mark

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Mark J. wrote:

I can’t tell you how many Otter products I have purchased (2 lodges, 1 cabin, 3 hubs (lodge, resort, monster) rod case, table, chairs, sled) and I’ve started to experience issues with their recent products. I purchased a pro vortex lodge hub and the stiching was so bad the interior nets wouldn’t secure correctly and the stiching was so loose I had 3″ strings hanginging in numerous places. I sent them pictures and my claim was denied. Purchased a new tripod chair from a small bait shop and the rivot at the bottom snapped. I sent them pictures of the new chair, DENIED (out of warranty) its not even a year, it was used on 1 trip. Im a 220 # guy not 400# guy. I figure I’ve purchased 1K of Otter products each year for the past 8 years. Guess who’s NOT going to be supporting Otter ever again!

Eskimo here I come!!!!!!

Mark

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Seems alot of hubbub for a dinky chair. Otter hubs are known for crap stitching, plenty of threads on here from the past about it. Haven’t heard a complaint of their sled shelters tho

With that said I’m an eskimo guy, heck my red tri chair has been used and abused to catch softballs when my oldest played fastpitch, with a built in nut protector with that third leg reaching right up there it worked great.

Surprised to hear this, I have been impressed with the vortex pro lodge I bought earlier this year. I will say, each of the big 3 make a really solid shack at this point.

That bottom bracket on the chair looks about the same as most chairs in this folding style. Possibly a slight difference in size. I have had a couple that broke on other brand chairs. Before I just toss a broken chair I normally strip these bottom brackets off to possibly fix the next chair that fails.

I have purchased a few houses from Otter but nothing recently. The older units have been pretty much flawless for me.

Put a self tapper through that blanket in to the leg. All of my otter equipment is very nice. No complaints

Deuces wrote:

heck my red tri chair has been used and abused to catch softballs when my oldest played fastpitch, with a built in nut protector with that third leg reaching right up there it worked great.

Learn something new every day!!!! Got a 12 y.o. boy pitcher touching 70mph and gaining. That’s what usually ends our bullpen is when he drops one in the dirt in front of me! will be looking into this!!!

I have an issue with a new style Otter hub. Sent 2 emails and never got a response. I’ll think twice before I buy another Otter product.
You hear a lot of Clam complaints but their products have always been fine for me.

Wonder if it’s an outsources item. Made by a company that builds them for several companies {that charge much less} that put their name on them. Not giving them much quality control

stevenoak wrote:

Wonder if it’s an outsources item. Made by a company that builds them for several companies {that charge much less} that put their name on them. Not giving them much quality control

They still charge top $$$ for everything.

Had my first issue with otter this year that wasn’t resolved immediately by customer service! Very surprised!!!

People (including myself) pay top dollar for Otter products.

If they don’t back up the occasional failure the company will fail.

Otter—- Are you listening????

Seen plenty of issues with Clam. But never had a problem with Otter.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Seen plenty of issues with Clam. But never had a problem with Otter.

The roles might be flipping! lol. Clam seem to have improved their quality control recently.

I had an issue with Otter in the past (maybe 5 years ago) which they fixed. Now the past 2 years I’ve had issues (hub and chair) which have been rejected. Let’s be real, most of these manufacturers are having their products outsourced overseas and issues do arise. It’s really about how a company handles the issue. Did I hope Otter would replace the chair yes, however I might have even settled for a compromise (discount on replacement) but nothing was discussed. My last 2 issues I’ve gotten the corporate “Go Pound Sand” from Otter. This is why I’m going to sell my Otter gear. Otter is dead to me!

Mark

Mark J. wrote:

I had an issue with Otter in the past (maybe 5 years ago) which they fixed. Now the past 2 years I’ve had issues (hub and chair) which have been rejected. Let’s be real, most of these manufacturers are having their products outsourced overseas and issues do arise. It’s really about how a company handles the issue. Did I hope Otter would replace the chair yes, however I might have even settled for a compromise (discount on replacement) but nothing was discussed. My last 2 issues I’ve gotten the corporate “Go Pound Sand” from Otter. This is why I’m going to sell my Otter gear. Otter is dead to me!

Mark

What are you selling ?

Everything I own with an Otter name.
1) Pro X-over Lodge
2) Vortex Pro Resort
3) lights
4) Rod case
5) Chairs
6) Table
7) sled

There is definitely more that I’m not even mentioning!

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LOL Your going to have problems with the other 2 company’s also. All 3 have there poop made in China so your going to have the same issues with crap braking. will the customer service be any better? You will find out.

From my viewpoint, 10-15 years ago, Otter was way ahead of Clam and Eskimo in terms on quality. Fast forward to today and the difference in quality between those brands is negligible. With that said, I think that has more to do with Clam and Eskimo improving quality than it does Otter falling behind. However, I will say that I was a little underwhelmed when I bought my cabin flip over side entry the first year it came out. Not sure if is just because I got the side door entry first year model, but I like the front door entry cabin way better.

What happened to Otter is what happened to almost all Corporations. Corp. greed. Most likely over the years they started to either outsource the productions or at the least get parts from a outside the country source. A few penny’s here and a few there may not seem like much to a consumer. But to a Big Corporation it adds up to lots on money which most often ends up in a Top executives pocket.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

From my viewpoint, 10-15 years ago, Otter was way ahead of Clam and Eskimo in terms on quality. Fast forward to today and the difference in quality between those brands is negligible. With that said, I think that has more to do with Clam and Eskimo improving quality than it does Otter falling behind.

Agreed

Over the past 30 years, I’ve seen this ebb and flow from one big company to the next. If you get a great run of product from China and have systems in place to stop gap the bad ones, you can get some followers and brand loyalty…right up until the moment you can’t, then you tumble for a while and start climbing the hill again.

buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Gitchi Gummi wrote:</div>
From my viewpoint, 10-15 years ago, Otter was way ahead of Clam and Eskimo in terms on quality. Fast forward to today and the difference in quality between those brands is negligible. With that said, I think that has more to do with Clam and Eskimo improving quality than it does Otter falling behind.

Agreed

x3 – Back in the day in/around the glacial lakes (Waubay,Bitter,sloughs,etc) the guys out there all the time were running Otters. It was the best you could get as far as durability/warmth/quality/etc. I remember coming home from a trip and immediately ordering a Cabin and selling my Clam. Been on the Otter bandwagon since, but I agree the quality has seemed to gone down.

No problems here, I’m still a loyal Otter customer.

I haven’t had any issues with any of my otter items.
I now also added a clam flip over to my collection and it seems like a solid piece of equipment so far (fingers crossed).
I will say the clam sled house is a dumb ass shape and pulling by hand in any snow sucks.

All the tents are made by a couple companies in china. Manufacturers set what price point they want to pay per unit, and the company’s make them according to the specs. Better tents cost more, doesn’t mean companies like otter, clam and Eskimo don’t cheap out to make more profit per unit. Eskimo seems to have the most consistent product.

Not just ice fishing products. I bought a Craftsman nail gun and logged onto website to register for warranty. Kept getting error message that model number not recognized. Called customer service and got a gal who barely spoke English and heavy accent. She takes info and says she will register. Couple days later I check website to see if product registered. No. I email customer service and get BS response about their dedication and how they are experiencing website issues. Response says don’t worry about it and just
keep my receipt.

Thats a good response. You can put nails in with your receipt right.