Buyer Beware of SpyPoint Cellular Trail Cams

[wind gypsy]

I'm a little over a month in with a link-Dark and a few days in with a Cell-Link attached to a browning camera.

So far everything has worked well but I'm well aware they could kick the bucket at any moment.

These are in deer sparse Northern MN. It's as interesting seeing the bears, wolves, bobcats, and foxes as it is the basket rack deer that don't get eaten before they are two.

 

[mncoolbeans]

I've got 2 Spypoint Link Micro's running now for about 9 months strait and have never had a problem with either one. When it comes time replace with new Batteries I make sure I download the latest and greatest new Firmware and run that on a new SD Card each time. They've been working great for me.

 

[Dakota Dude]

I love my spypoint micro link. Getting picture notifications gets me so excited every day. My only problem is that bulls and bears are constantly raking/toying with it. I have to put it back up every 10 days or so after it takes a beating. The only picture I got of the most recent vandalizer was a little spooky!

 

[Jthaus76]

Just adding my $.02 I bought a NIB Spypoint Link-WM off a friend. It was a replacement for another NIB he had that wasn’t functioning, wouldn’t update firmware and wouldn’t make cellular connection. The NIB he sold me had the same issue. Turned out the antenna was bad new out of the box. I let him have it back and won’t mess with Spypoint based on this and my neighbor having the same issue with NIB not connecting. Saying that, Spypoint did provide them with good customer service and correct the issues, but I’d rather have a little less hassle in a purchase.

 

[Dakota Dude]

I can follow up on my post. I had the same bad antenna/wouldn't update issue with the camera I referenced above. Spypoint replaced it, but I still had issues with disconnecting with the new camera. Works great when its working (except it eats through batteries like crazy). I wish it was more reliable.

 

[weekender7]

I have one, 6 months, 0 issues. I run an external 12v battery for it and get my pics real time. I have it on a lease in another state from where I live. I really like it. Bought my BIL 2 for security work around his place and his both work as designed without issue.

 

[Short Track]

I just sent another one back.....

 

[NDGuy]

I will be converting to Tactacam next year. Everyone I know has spoke highly of them and the picture quality seems to be better.

Same price makes it a no brainer IMO.

 

[jdk99]

Can't speak to Spypoint or Cuddelink...but I do run Coverts and Spartans. Generally I like them but both have their issues at times. Relatively new technology in relatively low volumes so I suspect all will be glitchy. I agree with the poster above that the Covert folks are very quick to respond.

 

[CharlieTX]

I hear all these horror stories but I have had the SPYPOINT Micro for 3 years now and never any problems, just about a month ago the coins opened it and the battery area got rained on , out new batteries in and works just fine. Hope you get it worked out

 

[Manhunter338]

Hi Guys, whether your into this technology or not, I just wanted to share my experience with SpyPoint cell trail cams & the company that produces them "GG Telecom". I purchased a Spypoint Link Evo back in 2018. I've had nothing but problems with it from the start. Right out of the box, the cam did not work. I contacted GG Telecom, which really took some doing. GG Telecom is a French Canadian company based out of Quebec Canada. They are very hard to get a hold of, and after reading reviews online after my initial purchase (yes I know, big mistake not reading reviews before buying), I can see why. I think their support team is constantly busy fielding phone call complaints on the very sub-par performance of their products. At any rate, I finally was able to get someone on the phone, and explain to them that the camera was not working at all. I was told I needed to send my camera back to them (on my own dime), which I reluctantly did. When I received the camera back, it still did not work. Thankfully in the meantime last year I ended tagging out & filling my buck tag pretty early in the season, and after that I stopped running my cams. Fast forward to fall of 2019, I decided to try to take another run at my Spypoint, and see if I could get them to get it working. After a series of days sitting on hold for 30+ mins, trying to get a support person to pick up my call, one finally did. The gentleman told me the mistake was on their end, and that my cam did not have the proper firmware update? He was able to update it over the phone, and to my surprise the cam did start to work & send pics. I thought maybe I was in the clear, and I purchased a monthly plan from them. The issue I'm having now is that last month the cam sent over the number of pics that I purchased in my plan. Once it reaches the number of pics set in your plan, it will no longer send over anymore until the counter zeros out at the first of the month. Well it's now a new month, and my app on my phone is still telling me the "the monthly photo transfer limit for this camera has been reached". I bit the bullet this afternoon, and tried to contact GG Telecom. I sat on hold for 35 mins, and then just gave up. At this time point in time, I'm giving up, and just wanted to share my experience in hopes to not have any of you go down this road as well.

I can say that my cousin & I started running a couple of Cuddeback Cuddelink cell cams this year, and we've had the complete opposite experience with these cell cams. We've found them to be very reliable & dependable. They are relatively easy to setup, and most of all they work as described. I really wish I would've gone the Cuddelink route in the begining over the Spypoint. I would've saved al ot of money, time & headache...

Anyone else struggling trying to use the Spypoint cell cams? There's quite a few formal complaints on GG Telecom & Spypoint on the Better Business Bureau. See Link below:

GG Telecom/SpyPoint | Complaints | Better Business Bureau® Profile

View customer complaints of GG Telecom/SpyPoint, BBB helps resolve disputes with the services or products a business provides.

www.bbb.org

I've been using trail cameras since the consumer models first came out from Bushnell, Cuddeback, Moultrie, etc.... and Spypoint, which was a bit later than the others. Almost all of the early cams were white flash and I quickly realized that the white flash tended to scare deer, so I started mounting them high (6' or higher), angled them down on trails and got some great photos without spooking deer. The early Bushnells and Cuddebacks were very good, but went downhill quickly. The huge Moultrie cams were horrible with very slow trigger speeds, but when I got my very first Spypoint - a big, black, white flash cam, I was very impressed with the trigger speed and the quality of the pictures and I used them (and others) for several years.

I've used trail cams from almost every major manufacturer since, but I've tended to gravitate to Spypoint. Yes, I've had my problems with them from time to time and their customer service took a major downturn a couple of years ago, but lately, it's been very good. I have a lease in Illinois and one in Ohio and I've had Spypoint cellular cameras (Link-Micro, Link-Dark and, more recently Link-Solar) on both since 2019. In that time, only one, a Link-Micro, failed to operate at all and it was replaced by Spypoint. More recently, I had a Link-S on my Ohio lease that failed to turn on at all after 11 months in continuous operation without changing batteries (Energizer Ultimate lithiums). That one, too, was replaced by Spypoint in less than a week.

I have to say that the picture quality of some of the Spypoint cellular cameras could have been better. While not great, picture quality was "good enough" to score a deer, but the detection range (40 yards or more) and trigger speed has always been very good. Moreover, I really like the Spypoint app. It has built-in AI that allows the user to view only bucks, does, turkeys, coyotes, moose, wild pigs, bears or human activity or to view all pictures. A user can view photos from one camera or all cameras, remotely program all cameras, change subscription plans and so on.

I recently purchased five of their newest Flex cell cams, deployed them on my property, and I have to say that I'm very impressed. They are easy to set up and program, have excellent trigger speed (not the best, but very good), great detection range and the picture quality, in my opinion, is much improved. The Flex allows for wireless firmware updates from the Spypoint app, but one thing I would caution about the Flex is that a user must check and update the firmware - the software installed in the camera - before deploying the camera. While mine will connect and transmit with "two bars," it will not transmit photos unless the firmware is updated and two bars is insufficient bandwidth to update the firmware. I live in a very rural area with limited cell coverage, so I took my cameras to an area with good coverage and updated the firmware before I deployed them and they now work flawlessly.

For comparison sake, I've attached three photos taken with one of my Flex cameras on my property; I always test cams at home before I deploy them elsewhere. The first is a photo of a buck at about 10 yards, the second is the same buck in the brush at about 38 yards and the third is the same buck at night at about 15 yards. Trailcampro is doing a full test of the Flex and, in their initial review, rates battery life as average, but we'll see...

 

[Short Track]

Spypoint had a run of bad firmware. All of mine work now. Took a bit, but they work.

 

[wind gypsy]

I've abandoned bothering with the junk cell-links. Not worth it. Just using the cam as a regular SD card cam captures more and better pictures and I have to visit the cam less to pull SD cards than I do to troubleshoot cell-link failures.

My original Link-Dark is still running strong and taking pictures like crazy. It needed a firmware update the first time i swapped batteries on it to work again but been good ever since. The battery tray design is a weakness because there's all kinds of debris that gets in but that hasn't killed it yet.

I have a link-s-dark that has been unreliable. I swapped AAs in it a while back but by then the solar had charged the battery enough to get it running again. It ran off battery for a while and now shows a dead solar battery and hasn't checked in within two weeks. There is no way the AA's should be dead as the link-dark has been running for way longer on only AAs and taking way more pics. I'm not sure if it failed to switch back to AA's or what happened. Will do a wellness check on it this weekend to make sure it wasn't wrecked by a bear.

 

[Yoder]

I have two Spypoint Micro LTE cameras. One has never worked right out of the box. It doesn't recognize the micro sd card and I only got it to synch one time. It's not a format issue since I swapped sd cards with the working unit and it still doesn't work. I have to see if they will replace it. The other camera is decent. Pictures aren't amazing but it works. I like the fact they give you 100 free photos a month with no service charge.