I know when equipment fails, for any reason, the trapper ends up feeling like screaming, makes you sick to your stomach, as we have all had gear let us down at one time or another of every type, snares, footholds, conibears, cages, you name it, none are exempt. There is no one on the planet that feels more angry than me when equipment lets me down. In the imperfect world we live in it seems that trappers and trapping equipment are held to standards few other industries are expected to keep. We expect everything to work perfectly each and every time, but problems, though few for the most part, do arise.
I guess what it most important is fact finding, isolating what went wrong while putting problems into perspective, solving them, while first showing respect and consideration to whoever is making a product by going to him first with the problem, public later if necessary. There are two people who share equally in the success of a product, user and maker. Being on both sides of the fence I can assure you that both want and need the success to continue in their businesses. When I have something break or fail the first thing I do is go to others using the product and the source first. Find out, is this something that has been an ongoing problem or is it a freak one of a kind occurrence? If an equipment maker gets unfairly blamed for a rare failure, it not only does a disservice to the maker, but also slants how a prospective buyer will judge a what may in fact be a reliable device in the future, even if the accusations were not accurate or fair due to a one time failure.
I look for a few things. Does the maker stand by the product? Will he do what he can to make it right? fix what you have or provide you with a replacement on his dime? If you get no satisfaction, there is always the option to blow a gasket, go public and expose the problem for what it is. If you get mad first it's more difficult to go back to nice and never the same because words spoken can not be taken back. I don't like eating crow or apologizing, so I pick my words carefully to begin with, knowing that if I am treated with hostility there are no limits to how nasty I can get later. I guess it just comes down to respect and fairness, "do unto others as you would like them to do to you."