Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I take reviews seriously and am not one to write a review unless I truly feel others could learn from my experience. I purchased this camera on October 18th 2019 as a Christmas gift for my husband, choosing this camera primarily due to the company being family owned with a return policy that exceeded the Amazon window knowing I it wouldn't be opened for a couple of months. On Christmas Day, my husband was thrilled and couldn't wait to set it up. Let's just say it was incredibly complicated to program; the instructions were hard to follow and it does not work with AT&T, etc. We watched YouTube videos to finally get it programmed and set-up. We then patiently waited for pictures. That night, all we received was a blur of gray and black and by morning the batteries were dead. We replaced the batteries and within a day the new batteries were dead too. I emailed customer service again and was told that a solar panel and rechargeable batteries (Panasonic brand) would do the trick and would also get us better night pictures. So...on December 28th we purchased their solar panel and the Panasonic rechargeable batteries which did not work either. The quality of the night picture (just got one) was just as bad and the batteries did not stay charged with the solar panel either. We tried every camera setting possible and each new thing we tried required a trip back out to the camera. We really wanted this camera and solar panel to work especially now that we were $400+ into the deal. There was nothing left to try. I emailed customer service on February 9th, 2020 through my Amazon portal inquiring about a return - they replied and told me in order to return them I would need to Google their business and look for their return information indicating they could not communicate with me through Amazon. I called several times for help and a return label with no luck. I boxed-up the solar panel and the camera together in one box along with all of the paperwork and returned them with tracking to their New York address listed on their website. The box was delivered; however, I did not hear anything. I emailed again through the portal asking about my return. I did not get a reply from them but instead I received a refund for the solar panel only but not one for the camera. I emailed again and was told that they did not receive my return and that I had used the wrong address; that the New York address on their website is their warehouse and no one is there. After several weeks of back and forth about the address and process, I was offered a replacement camera. I accepted the offer and let them know that any replacement would need to take good night pictures as this is when our deer are active. That was on April 7th, 2020 and I have not heard anything more as of today, May 24th, 2020, and at this point I am exhausted from the entire process and chalking the whole thing up to a poor purchase. We gave this camera every chance to work and we really wanted it to. If you are looking for night pictures or battery life of more than 1 day or a solar panel that works or SMS compatibility with AT&T or ease of set-up or programming remotely, you might want to do more research. Perhaps ours was just defective, we will never know. I wish this family the best and I believe they do want to do right by their customers, it just didn't workout for us.