Anyone ever dealt with Nalgene customer service?

I've sent them three different emails, all about the same issue, over the course of three weeks.

No responses whatsoever. No confirmation of receiving my email or anything.

I've had enough with it and decided I am done with them.

Anyone else had a bad experience like this with Nalgene?

What other brands should I turn to instead?

Telephone.

Right; many corporations get so much spam that they basically ignore their email--you have to use that old fashioned instrument you talk into. Assuming, of course, that you can wend your way through the complexities of most corporate phone systems and actually reach a human being! Or you can be really old-fashioned and write a "snail mail" letter. But I'd go with the telephone.

I find Nalgene bottles far too heavy and haven't used them for years. I far prefer Platypus containers.

I prefere the Nalgene Cantenes to Platy containers in camp, but have also given up on their smaller, rigid bottles. Every one I've owned has disintegrated, which, given the price really ticks me off.

You Nalgene bottles have disintegrated?

Every one, other than the Lexan ones. I don't know whether they don't put in UV stabilizers or otherwise have to use special plastics and/or manufacturing techniques because of their traditional role as lab containers, but they all eventually become brittle and literally crumble into bits. (The bottles do, but the caps don't seem to.)

I've simply stopped buying them. FWIW I store them dry in containers indoors with the rest of my gear between uses, so it's not as though they're abused.

I've never had any problems with a Nalgene bottle (and keep going back to my trusty old Lexan bottle.) However, if you're looking for cheap alternatives, try pop bottles or the bottles you get bottled water in. I've never used them, but have seen many folks who swear by them. They're cheap (free, if you bum them off your friends), and you can easily replace them if they wear out after a few trips.

"What other brands should I turn to instead?"

I've been using the PET bottles for years. I'm talking about the ones that bottled water, pop and gatorade comes in.

I have some in my garden that have been filled with water and lying in the sun for 10 years. No problem. Only the cap eventually wears out.

I use them daily at the gym. I use several bottles and by rotating them can make sure they totally dry out between uses. I use the smell test to make sure nothing is going on inside them before each use.

Once only. One of their narrow-necked, (rather than wide mouth) bottles broke its neck when I stupidly dropped the thing. I didn't think such lexan material should break, and in one email I called their attention to it. They sent me a new one. I can't remember if I had to send the broken one in. This was probably 4 or 5 years ago.

Like many others here, I've stopped using my Nalgene jars for hikes or any backpacking. I still use them heavily for taking to work, (I work outside,) car or truck tent camping, and around the house (I'm a very heavy water drinker.) But in my thread about all water containers, I was educated by this board about other ways to carry water in the pack.