Otter customer service

Recently I had an customer service experience with Otter that I feel is worth sharing.

I have an Otter Lodge that I purchased a few years ago. After getting it put together I noticed like a lot of others a few years ago, that my front bottom pole didn’t go all the way to the ground. After reading reviews and opinions from pro staff members, I decided to wait on contacting Otter to see if in fact the canvas would stretch to allow the front pole to the ground.

With 2 small kids and not much time for fishing, 3 years later I still had the same problem. Keeping in mind that I was well out of my warranty period I contacted Otter to see if they had any ideas or tips to try and get the canvas to fit right.

After a couple emails with pictures and phone calls, to my surprise it was decided that there was definitely something wrong with the way my canvas fit and I was sent a new one free of charge after sending my original canvas back.

Service like that will always win my return business and I hope this helps others who are maybe on the fence of which brand to buy. I can’t say enough good things about Otter and the way this was handled. Super impressed!

my otter 1200 seat doesn’t fit on my crossbar. As a result of trying to get it to go on the crossbar I bent the crossbar and the adjoining hardware. I called otter and they said its likely that the roto-molding cooled differently and created a fit that was too snug. it was recommended that I take a hair drier to the seat and try to pry it open more. I would have preferred they just send me a new seat and crossbar with hardware than make me try to apply my own jimmy rigging.

Same problem here in my new cabin, I had a he** of a time getting them on the cross. Seems ok once on, but I can’t get them off easily either. By the way, love the full thermal. Fished in 15 degrees with no heat! I guess I will try out my wife’s hair dryer:)

I had same issue. Take a file and work down the ridge that it hangs up on.(On the seat, not the crossbar)Mine works fine now. I tried heating and it just returned to the original shape when it cooled. Hope this helps.

gotta give it up to otter customer service! I took my fish house into otter this morning and showed them how the seat doesn’t fit on the bar and how the brackets are bent. Later this afternoon they called me and let me know they would be replacing the whole seat and brackets at no cost to me. Mind you I bought this house last year. They were very nice to talk to and the lady (her name is Linda), even gave me a little tour of their facility and left me with some Otter stickers/signs. Top notch customer service. Extremely impressed! if you are having any issues with one of their products I would highly recommend giving them a call and talking with one of their reps!

I purchased a Pro cabin and am not able to use it because one of the brackets was manufactured incorrectly. I contacted Otter Outdoors Several times to have a replacement sent. I took a picture of one correct bracket and the one that was made incorrectly, along with the form instructing the purchaser to contact Otter Outdoors if any parts arrived damaged. Needless to say, I have not received any response after weeks, and ice fishing season keeps rolling along. I can’t recommend this company. I am unable to use my expensive pro cabin to ice fish.

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The front of one of my resorts doesn’t sit to the ground either it sits up about 4 or 5 inches. I use the adjustable wind poles to make it go down to the ice. I though this was normal?

Bearcat89 wrote:

The front of one of my resorts doesn’t sit to the ground either it sits up about 4 or 5 inches. I use the adjustable wind poles to make it go down to the ice. I though this was normal?

Definitely not. Mine lays flat.

I recently purchased two used Hideouts on this site. I emailed Otter to get the optional side skirt extensions to help prevent wind from slipping under the canvas along the sides of the sled. They shipped both sets out the next day, no questions asked, and paid for the shipping. The extensions are helpful, too. Good service.

I had some problems w an otter hub and they ended up sending me a new one. I also got to keep the old one Wich is fully functional. Great service

Bearcat89 wrote:

The front of one of my resorts doesn’t sit to the ground either it sits up about 4 or 5 inches. I use the adjustable wind poles to make it go down to the ice. I though this was normal?

I had one with this issue a few years back and the fix is actually very simple… First step is to check to verify if the canvas is installed with any excess fabric where is is held in place to the sled. Just 1″ will make a big difference.

Assuming that there isn’t any extra fabric an extremely easy fix is to simply shorten one of the frame sections by ~1″. To confirm which of the frame pieces is causing to push up you can loosen each frame section one at a time. For me it was the 2nd one from the back. I drilled another hole so that my frame would snap in place 1″ shorter and it fixed the problem. The entire fix took less than 10 minutes

I just emailed them about my issue of the front bar sitting up about 4 or 5 inches. I wish I would have done this 2 years ago

Dan Ziegler wrote:

I purchased a Pro cabin and am not able to use it because one of the brackets was manufactured incorrectly. I contacted Otter Outdoors Several times to have a replacement sent. I took a picture of one correct bracket and the one that was made incorrectly, along with the form instructing the purchaser to contact Otter Outdoors if any parts arrived damaged. Needless to say, I have not received any response after weeks, and ice fishing season keeps rolling along. I can’t recommend this company. I am unable to use my expensive pro cabin to ice fish.

Dan, would it be possible for you to simply drill out the holes where they were supposed to be? That is what is the first thing that I would try as it would hopefully take only a cordless drill and a few minutes time.

Will

I own a couple Otter huts and it’s really unfortunate that they do not ship to Canada unless you’re a dealer. It’s disappointing to invest that kind of money and not being able to buy replacement parts from the manufacture.

Blair wrote:

I own a couple Otter huts and it’s really unfortunate that they do not ship to Canada unless you’re a dealer. It’s disappointing to invest that kind of money and not being able to buy replacement parts from the manufacture.

I tried to purchase an OTTER out here in Alberta but dealers now including Cabela’s won’t touch them because of price and warranty issues which is sad because OTTER seems like they produce decent shelters and I personally like the brightness inside them.

Drilling extra holes into the bracket will weaken it. This would increase the chance that the bracket would fail. I’m assuming that this part is manufactured for less than $2. This ice $899 ice shelter was just purchased brand new. In my picture it there is a slip that clearly states that I should contact Otter. If I drill holes in the bracket and it fails, it would be highly doubtful that they would honor their warranty. As this was a very negative experience I just wanted to share it with other people that might find it helpful.

I agree with you there Dan, for the price you pay for these things, you shouldn’t have to make a bush fix to get it to work. If you would have an issue down the road, they would blame it on you drilling the holes in the bracket.

Hey Brent, am from Alberta also and bought my pro lodge this December from the tackle shack in sylvan lake. I almost bought it from riverside outdoors there in Ontario. There price was cheaper. But they have pst there add that with the shipping and it was a bit more than buying from here. But have bought the rod holders and otter lights from them. There very quick and easy to deal with.

So I continued to push on in my cabin installation. I went to assemble the seat rail. Look how far the factory drilled holes are from each other on my Otter.

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That’s a bummer. The fabricators really screwed that one up. I just set up a Lodge Pro a few months ago and everything fit like a glove. I’m sorry yours didn’t.

I would take Will’s advice and drill a few new holes. These shacks are so overbuilt, hence the weight, that a few extra holes won’t realistically make a difference in terms of structural integrity. Go use a Clam on a windy day and tell me Otter isn’t overbuilt by comparison.

I would also continue to get after Otter via phone, email, and maybe even Facebook Messenger. I never had an issue contacting them for even simple questions, so it’s odd that you have. Maybe one of the IDO pro-staffers could help. Email Otter a link to this thread right here.

I would ask for a rebate rather than a new shack. Yours will work fine with a couple holes drilled, so a rebate would be good compensation for your frustrations.

Will Roseberg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dan Ziegler wrote:</div>
I purchased a Pro cabin and am not able to use it because one of the brackets was manufactured incorrectly. I contacted Otter Outdoors Several times to have a replacement sent. I took a picture of one correct bracket and the one that was made incorrectly, along with the form instructing the purchaser to contact Otter Outdoors if any parts arrived damaged. Needless to say, I have not received any response after weeks, and ice fishing season keeps rolling along. I can’t recommend this company. I am unable to use my expensive pro cabin to ice fish.

Dan, would it be possible for you to simply drill out the holes where they were supposed to be? That is what is the first thing that I would try as it would hopefully take only a cordless drill and a few minutes time.

Will

Will Roseberg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dan Ziegler wrote:</div>
I purchased a Pro cabin and am not able to use it because one of the brackets was manufactured incorrectly. I contacted Otter Outdoors Several times to have a replacement sent. I took a picture of one correct bracket and the one that was made incorrectly, along with the form instructing the purchaser to contact Otter Outdoors if any parts arrived damaged. Needless to say, I have not received any response after weeks, and ice fishing season keeps rolling along. I can’t recommend this company. I am unable to use my expensive pro cabin to ice fish.

Dan, would it be possible for you to simply drill out the holes where they were supposed to be? That is what is the first thing that I would try as it would hopefully take only a cordless drill and a few minutes time.

Will

I just wanted to give a final update on my poor customer service situation. Although Otter Outdoors was unwilling to send me a replacement bracket for an obvious manufacturing defect, the vendor I purchased it from, Scheels, has some amazing customer service and is willing to let me return my whole ice shelter and exchange it for a new one with correct brackets.

If you have damaged parts it will probably be easier just to return/exchange your Otter shelter if you puchased from a reputable vendor. Scheels is awesome!

Good to hear you were able to get this all worked out and solid advice.

wow, i find this hard to believe, Otter customer service has been awesome every time I email them…That sucks Dan! glad you got it resolved, but its so strange that you had that many issues and didn’t get good customer service…