and there is the rub....will anyone even bother to read the emails and/or pass them up the food chain? To me that is the core issue here...Pentax has never been great at customer service but there were always signs of attention being paid to some extent. but the new HoyaTax reign of terror treat the customers like mushrooms has a lot of people just fed up...you can't get the same info from two people let alone a dozen difference people.
I say email anyone and everyone at HoyaTax, carpet bomb them (that is just a joke, send concise emails but do BCC everyone for whom you have an email address.
About Falk & blende....I feel we all need to remind them why this place was fun by not bickering about it all, not taking sides, just be constructive and offer them a hand in friendship because we all enjoy the brand and photography. Even if a handful of people send them notes of support nothing changes if the site does not, as a WHOLE improve the level of conduct to one akin to how you would behave in front of your grandma...I mean that...having fun is never a problem but this hyperbolic anger stuff is very disappointing.
I came here from regular posting over on another site dedicated to a different maker, but it's a site where all users are welcome as are discussions about every maker and camera. And while they have their share of dust-ups, never have I witnessed something like this, and it's not the first time a moderator here has had enough, for whatever reason -- doesn't matter if it was valid or not -- but I will say, this year there has been a change in how the site feels to me. Maybe it's me because my health has gone downhill and I see many things differently now, I don't know.
Still, earlier this year the site lost a fair number of worn down mods, there are many posters who made me feel very welcome who had been here for ages that I NEVER see posting anymore either. I don't feel many of them have moved camps brand wise either. I have a sense something has changed from the inside, not intentionally but as a result of something and who knows, or even wants to know, why? But we as users can help things by simply not being "those sort of people" and getting back to the normal complaining mixed in with genuine fun and sharing.
And again, let's show Falk, blende and everyone else who lurks that this is still the fun place it was just a year ago...or not, I have no interest either way...but to work it needs to get back to the photography and fun...even in the face of odd news. hey, from the look of things I am at the EOL in many things in life but Pentax is now added to that list because of some silly simple function I took for granted.
BTW, I have a perfect example of what is wrong here....yesterday I started a thread about something I genuinely had no idea about which crossed my mind when I was here on the site...I posted a tread with the question...the result? First commenter basically called me an idiot and waisting the time of everyone here for daring to ask what that person took to be something "everyone" should know...and this is not the first time I've seen it. And we are not talking teasing here, the follow-up comments showed that the intent was contempt when if it was such a problem it should have been a "...just don't comment if you don't want to help somehow..." Teasing is fun, to belittle someone is not. As we all say about Pentax, this is not the only toy in the chest to play with....