Im not jumping ship either, but buying pentax is like buying drugs. You have to sneak into some alley and meet some dude you called over a classified
However, I must say, there hasn't been any issues in Cape Town so far. I have two pentax retailers 5 minutes away and both are really well priced. Not sure if this will change, but Pentax will need to change their attitudes towards retailers. SACamera (.co.za) lost my sale because they didnt have a K20D _right away_, the excuse was "Pentax didn't want us to display cameras without an official cabinet" which sounded like horse excretion to me, all the other shops are fine.
Be as it may, we just have to wait through this droop period. They are undergoing changes, and we should expects a bit of hassle for the time being. The end reward will (hopefully) pay off