Spinshot-Player Tennis Ball Machine (Best Seller Ball Machine in the World)

This is my 4th tennis ball machine I have owned. I currently have a Lobster Grand IV (over 1+ year) and SpinShot Player (six months). Either machine is such an improvement over my 2nd ball machine (from Lobster), which I had last 15+ years until its pneumatic compressor gave out. (Some Kudo's for Lobster, as good as their advertisement)I love my SpinShot and Lobster Grand IV, using them almost 4 times a week, each time shooting over 200+ balls, primarily for my daily exercise as my doctor ordered. My primary job is located in Far East, but my home being in the SF bay area. When I am in Far East, I use my Spin-Shot, while at home depending on my Lobster. Both machines delivered on their promises, performance and reliability. I love both of them.Many of my friends have asked me to compare the two. It is very difficult in my opinion to compare the two machines, both being superb machines, with a Lobster Grand IV being about $300+ more expensive than a SpinShot Player. The SpinShot player gives programmability, more control on each shot, and remote control through Iphone or Android phone. (I have only an Android phone, while the rest of my family on ardent Iphone users.)One thing I have noticed is that the highest ball speed in the SpinShot looks a little bit slower than that of the Lobster. For my level (3.5 to 4.0, depending on what day it is), it does not make much difference at all, but if someone is a 5.0 or better player, it could. If one sets a SpinShot at a feed rate of 2 seconds (its fastest feed rate) and use it for 200+ balls, then, the battery seems to become low (or discharged substantially). There is such a drastic decrease in the ball speed. In my opinion, this has more to do with the battery provided (12 Ah, 12 V) in a SpinShot being on a weaker side. (Lober Grand IV, 18Ah, 12 V). I have ordered an external battery extension option from a SpinShot, which I hope will solve this problem.As I told my tennis partners, I love both of these machines and in terms of reliability and showing up on time on the court, they are far more reliable than my tennis partners....

Excellent Machines. Lots of features. User friendly, with instructions easy to understand. I was initially worried after purchase, that the remote and controls with the APP can only be used on an I-phone, as some literature reads. I was very surprised that it worked on my Sony Experia, as well as the phone of my son's coach. Simple as it may seem, I like the design a lot. It is small and can fit into the trunks of most scars. There are some ball machines which have a huge basket or bucket on top, as a holding container for the balls. As well as huge handles. These as you can imagine, make those machines harder to transport. Battery power decently long, quiet and performance A+.Indeed it is more expensive than the competitor(s), but you get your money's worth.

This review was updated on 9/2/2018The app for this machine hasn't worked since I purchased it. Customer support has lied multiple times and said that 'nobody else is having problems with the app' and then walked back that claim on numerous occasions. You can simply read the reviews on Amazon to see that many people have issues with the app. If you have a machine that is primarily controlled by an app (you don't provide a remote control) then it is your job to ensure that the app works properly. Shockingly Spinshot doesn't believe that having a functioning app is their responsibility. Here is a cut at paste directly from a response I got from them when I asked if they were planning to fix the app..."First , all other phones have no such issue reported. Also verified on all brands and models over 8.0.Secondly, spinshot sports offer the app for free and guarantee all remote feature related. We are not obligated to resolve the phone related issues not about the app function."As I mentioned they themselves confirmed that the issues I was having with the app had been reported by numerous customers (but only after denying it initially), secondly you can simply look at the Amazon reviews to see that this is a bold faced lie. Shockingly bad customer service deserves to be called out unfortunately.Old Review BelowI wanted to like this machine. I really wanted to like it! The concept of controlling the ball machine via your phone is a powerful one, but sadly at least in our case the execution was lacking. As we were coming up towards the end of the 30 day return period the app starting going from flaky (dropping all the time, requiring reconnection etc.) to downright unusable. I.e. We simply couldn't get it to connect to our machine. Initially I'll give Spinshot credit they did try hard to resolve the issue (sent replacement wireless module etc.) but sadly as the weeks wore on and none of these things resolved the problem the customer service responsiveness declined significantly. The service is based in China as I understand it, and despite multiple requests to have a live call to try to get the issues resolved there was always some excuse as to why that couldn't happen. Adding to this Spinshot outsources the app creation and maintenance to a 3rd party so that was a major inhibitor to getting this issue resolved. After something like 60+ emails back and forth it was clear this was going nowhere so we were forced to return the machine. Fortunately Amazon customer support (which is excellent in my experience) facilitated the return as we were struggling to get SpinShot to do so. I'd love to give this machine 5 stars, and in fact recommended it to a few people based on my early experience with the unit, but I can't in good conscience give it more than 2 stars given that it was basically non-functional due to app issues for quite a few weeks, and we never got the issues resolved. My warning to prospective buyers is that the app is flaky, and the service isn't US based so if you have issues you could be in for a rough ride.One additional note as this is a bit confusing in the listing, the machine does indeed come with a battery it's just that Amazon forces the vendor to ship the battery separately. Our battery came about 2 days after receiving the machine and took about 5 minutes to install into the unit.Overall an excellent machine and we are happy with the purchase.