Originally posted by Miserere Every country has its own Pentax distributor and will deal with this issue in the way they find more efficient. The larger the market, the more complications there will be, and the US is probably the largest single market outside Japan.
What makes it more difficult to return the K-5 here in the USA is that most people buy them from online retailers, most of which (any of them?) are not equipped to test each single K-5 before shipping it to make sure they're not sending out more stained units. Those in the USA who bought their K-5 from a local, physical store can certainly go in, talk to the sales people and get a replacement without stains if the store has any in stock. The onus will then be on the store to return their stained units to Pentax for replacement.
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Well. It depends if you count EU as a market
Pentax certainly does and e.g., while their HQ is in Paris and their website is in Hamburg, their warehouse is in Brussels. One EU, three countries.
You're right with the online channel. But that's actually easier to deal with in the US too. The big three (adorama, b&h, amazon) have a large overall share. In the EU, the online market is much more scattered. E.g., Germany's most important online dealer for Pentax is small overall and just specialized on Pentax.
So I guess, it will need some time untill unchecked units are all swapped out of all retail channels.