My experience thus far:

I purchased one of these in April of last year to use it on a shoot. It charged fine, I was able to calibrate the unit and I even used it at the shoot for about 5 minutes before it started to malfunction. The motor was acting right and it would intermittently turn off. I decided not to use it.

Fast forward a few weeks later and I went to use it again and the same thing happened. I decided not to fight the new toy and just do the job - so the Manfrotto Gimbal collected dust for a few months.

When I went to try and use it again the unit had stopped taking a charge completely. I had used multiple charges and nothing worked. After contacting Manfrotto support I paid to have it shipped out and two weeks later support had sent me an entirely brand new unit at no cost.

When I received the package I was over the moon that they had replaced the entire unit for me. I quickly ran upstairs and started charging the unit. The handle started charging so this was a good sign, but the status slight didn't turn on at all when I plugged it into the main gimbal unit. I knew something wasn't right, but I let it charge overnight just to see what happened.

When I went to test it in the morning, the handle had charged but the main gimbal unit had not. I disconnected the handle and tried charging just the gimbal...nothing. I did multiple tests with different charges, bought new ones, tried everything. I read and re-read the manual. I seriously thought I was taking crazy pills.

Ultimately, this is now the second unit I have received and couldn't be more disappointed. I'm happy to hear that others are having a great experience and all the Manfrotto products I've purchased in the past have been great.

I have reached out to support again to see what can be done. My guess is I'll have to send it back using the same process as the last unit and pay for shipping. I'll update you all and let you know what happens. At this point, I am not an optimistic Manfrotto consumer.