Automatic Litterbox Central

Hello, everyone. My name is April, and I am the Customer Service Specialist for SmartScoop/OurPet's. I am making myself available here for questions, comments, etc., in the interest of facilitating communication for us to help you and you to help us.

I've been communicating with a few of the forum participants via email and have really appreciated their feedback, candor and, most of all, their patience. OurPet's is a small company that believes in our products, but the SmartScoop is certainly suffering some growing pains. The company, peopled by pet lovers like you, has learned some lessons that we're using to try to improve the SmartScoop and make it - and your experience with it - as good as it can be.

A little about me: I am the proud mom of one human teenager and three kitty ladies - Coraline, Lucy and S.L. - and I, too, am a SmartScoop owner.

Based on the ebb and flow of my workload, my replies may take some time, but I will do my best to answer all your questions. Thanks in advance to you all.

Welcome and thanks for the interest in our comments and input! Hope to hear lots of encouraging info. from you about improvements to the SmartScoop (*hint hint* longer curved lip).

Dawn

Hi April,

Welcome and thanks very much for offering to provide support here. I'm very impressed with your companies' committment to improvement!

-Tina

Hello there. Glad to see you here!

I have a SmartScoop collecting dust on a shelf as I can't get it to work, even witht he upgrades.

The rake continues to bind with the box, therefore stopping it's operation.

The very few times I have gottne it to operate without binding, it simply deposits the clump down the ramp.

I have the new motor, the higher lip at the end and the new rake.

I'd love for it to work as it cost me $100, any ideas???

Hi, April!

I just wanted to mention that April has been a really great customer service rep. We've had some interactions over my SmartScoop motors & issues.

Rare to find such willing & cooperative customer service these days.

Thanks & Welcome, April!

Camille

Thanks for the kind welcome, everyone. Sorry that I haven't been able to log on more often.

Dawn - As I believe Boys New Mom mentioned in another thread, there is a deflector re-design in the works that adds a curved, rubber lip to the top edge of the delector to help push clumps back onto the rake. We were expecting to have this re-design in our warehouse and ready to go this month, but that has been pushed back a month or two, and I currently have no expected date on that.

trberry5 - If the sliding rake safety door has always been closed when the SmartScoop has operated and the waste unit (top section) is secured to the motor with no gap between, it is difficult to diagnosis what would cause the problem you've experienced (which is a broken gear inside the motor). Please send me an email so I can ask you some questions about the unit and try to get this solved for you. aobrien@smartscoop.com

April - my girlfriend just sent this email to productinfo@smartscoop.com and I wanted to post it here too, in case you log on and can look for it /make sure it gets answered. Thanks for anything you can do!


We have the smart scoop machine (Blue - SS400) with 26 tines (upgraded model - as I found out from message boards) and it seems as though the rake is malfunctioning. I believe it is one of the gears within the motor that controls the rake from what I've witnessed watching the machine malfunction.

We found that the machine will cycle forward, and when it gets to the end of the pan and start to raise the rake, halfway through the raising cycle, the rake falls and moves forward more, only to get stuck on the curve of the pan when trying to raise the rake up again.

We did notice once after we cleaned the unit and reassembled it, the rake would make a loud click when started to raise the rake up and over. Was that a sign that led to this?

Please advise as we have left it off until we could find a solution to this - as it will not function properly other than doing what we described (and constantly gets stuck!)

Marc - I received and answered the email shortly before logging on to see this post.

Thanks, April! My girlfriend is going to look at the machine in a moment and answer you...

Hi April,

Can you provide a status report on the tester boxes? Also any improvements?

Thanks!

danniemac - The production date on the tester units was pushed back again, but we are expecting to receive them this week and will be shipping them out right away.

More information on improvements once we confirm that the improvements actually improve matters.

Great! Thanks April.

How do we know if we are one of the testers?

I have contacted and confirmed tester status with all the people who got in before all the slots were filled up. You are on the list, danniemac.

Excellent! I can't wait to test it!

Is that a sad day when you can't wait to get a new litterbox!

This is excellent news.