Repairs

WallEye · 10-04-2014, 12:23 PM

I can't believe u bought more Pentax. My wait is moving towards 3 months. When 645d comes back I'm selling and going back to my cannons and Nikon. Loved the camera but Walmart has better customer service. And it's still under warranty!

Originally posted by ramseybuckeye

My camera is finally out of repair and they have a tracking number, Originally logged in on 7/17 at CRIS.
Attachment 239228
I've got a new K-50 arriving tomorrow , one of the amazing deals at Adorama right now. I should have bought it two months ago when they had a similar deal.

---------- Post added 10-04-14 at 03:28 PM ----------

Originally posted by Not a Number

By "normal" you mean normal for C.R.I.S. We don't know what the norm for Precision Camera is yet.

Your about to find out.. I have.. Pentax is in trouble!

Not a Number · 10-04-2014, 03:51 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by WallEye

I can't believe u bought more Pentax. My wait is moving towards 3 months. When 645d comes back I'm selling and going back to my cannons and Nikon. Loved the camera but Walmart has better customer service. And it's still under warranty!

Your about to find out.. I have.. Pentax is in trouble!

Good luck with your Cannons (sic.) and Nikon. You must have chosen to go to medium format for reasons other than customer service. That hasn't changed. You can always go with Hasselblad or Mamiya when those reasons come back at you.

Time will tell what the norm for Precision will be. It looks like the are starting to catch up with the backlog of work that C.R.I.S. dumped on them. And once the repair order gets into the system the workflow proceeds at a reasonable rate. For all we know C.R.I.S. backlogged stuff for a couple months before forwarding them Precision in one or several large shipments. I doubt even your beloved Cannons (sic.) and Nikon could cope with the flood of one or two months work dumped on them all at once.

How is Pentax in trouble? The problem is not systemic. You don't hear Pentax owners in Canada, Sweden, Germany, UK, Singapore etc. complaining about the same problems of their Ricoh/Pentax service centers. Comparing Pentax to Walmart is comparing apples to oranges. Walmart is a retail business. Pentax is not. Precision camera (and C.R.I.S. before them) is not owned or a part of Ricoh - they are just contracted to provide repair and they are just one of many such repair centers worldwide. If one WalMart store in Kentucky was having customer service problems would WalMart as a whole be in trouble?

Edgar_in_Indy · 10-04-2014, 05:05 PM

Originally posted by Not a Number

How is Pentax in trouble? The problem is not systemic. You don't hear Pentax owners in Canada, Sweden, Germany, UK, Singapore etc. complaining about the same problems of their Ricoh/Pentax service centers.

I know of at least one Canadian who would disagree:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/48-pentax-medium-format/271689-lost-cause.html

**monochrome** · 10-04-2014, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by Edgar_in_Indy

I know of at least one Canadian who would disagree:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/48-pentax-medium-format/271689-lost-cause.html

+1 Ricoh increasingly refers to Canada as part of Ricoh Imaging North America. Didn't they recently close the Canadian service department and engage a repair service company?

**mattt** · 10-04-2014, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by monochrome

+1 Ricoh increasingly refers to Canada as part of Ricoh Imaging North America. Didn't they recently close the Canadian service department and engage a repair service company?

They did. The Argentia office is no longer doing repairs.

**loveisageless** · 10-04-2014, 11:17 PM - **1 Like**

I hope Precision gets their act together and Ricoh holds their feet to the fire if they don't. This is a deal breaker for me with Pentax. It's not about FF or lens road maps. It's not even about doing the extraordinary, but rather doing the ordinary extraordinarily well. I may regret having bought upgraded Pentax gear this year. No one should have to go through what posters in this thread have experienced in trying to get their equipment fixed. There has been a lot of discounting going on lately in the forum market place. Gear that usually sells quickly, i.e. recent camera body releases, limited and * lenses are just sitting without much response. Some are probably sitting it out to see if the messiah, I mean FF, appears, but I suspect others are keeping their powder dry, so to speak, while contemplating switching systems. This kind of crap does not help the situation.

thibs · 10-05-2014, 12:39 AM

Agreed. But if anyone here thinks the same wouldn't have happened if Nikon change their service in the same way...
Of course Nikon always does everything correctly.

/rant

WallEye · 10-05-2014, 07:14 AM

Originally posted by Not a Number

Good luck with your Cannons (sic.) and Nikon. You must have chosen to go to medium format for reasons other than customer service. That hasn't changed. You can always go with Hasselblad or Mamiya when those reasons come back at you.

Time will tell what the norm for Precision will be. It looks like the are starting to catch up with the backlog of work that C.R.I.S. dumped on them. And once the repair order gets into the system the workflow proceeds at a reasonable rate. For all we know C.R.I.S. backlogged stuff for a couple months before forwarding them Precision in one or several large shipments. I doubt even your beloved Cannons (sic.) and Nikon could cope with the flood of one or two months work dumped on them all at once.

How is Pentax in trouble? The problem is not systemic. You don't hear Pentax owners in Canada, Sweden, Germany, UK, Singapore etc. complaining about the same problems of their Ricoh/Pentax service centers. Comparing Pentax to Walmart is comparing apples to oranges. Walmart is a retail business. Pentax is not. Precision camera (and C.R.I.S. before them) is not owned or a part of Ricoh - they are just contracted to provide repair and they are just one of many such repair centers worldwide. If one WalMart store in Kentucky was having customer service problems would WalMart as a whole be in trouble?

How does all you just wrote help the fact that I paid stupidly $8000 for a camera that they can't fix and now have to send to factory for 3 more weeks or more? Why did it take 2 months to figure that out?
Yes I did want medium format and was thinking of Hasselblad but went with pentax for older lenses. But as usual you get what u pay for. and in time will go with other brand. I happen to have sponsors to help pay and should have gone that way, but was interested in pentax because I grew up with them. I have a rooted heart felt feeling for Pentax but that does not pay my bills! I don't mean disrespect for Pentax or you, but ricoh has other problems than repair.

Fat Albert · 10-05-2014, 08:02 AM

Dropped my 40 XS off at Precision on September 20. It shows as being "in repair" since that day. Will update accordingly.

**ramseybuckeye** · 10-05-2014, 01:08 PM

Originally posted by WallEye

I can't believe u bought more Pentax. My wait is moving towards 3 months. When 645d comes back I'm selling and going back to my cannons and Nikon. Loved the camera but Walmart has better customer service. And it's still under warranty!

I really like the Pentax cameras and I'm heavily invested in lenses, to switch to any other brand I would be paying at least twice as much for a camera that has the capabilities of the K-50. I'm not happy about the wait I've had, obviously they were caught off guard and are trying to get through it. It was a poorly planned and or executed move and I have a feeling that CRIS stopped working on Pentax and just let things pile up as soon as they found out about the change. And unfortunately I don't think you can just go out and find anyone to fix cameras in a hurry. If they have hired new techs they are probably just getting through training. They made this vendor switch to improve service, hopefully in the end it does, but the transition has been painful. I personally think they should be extending warranties for us who have suffered.

I'm surprised that you haven't joined the professional program if you're a pro, maybe that program is new, but it sounds like you should be in that.

VisualDarkness · 10-05-2014, 01:28 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by WallEye

How does all you just wrote help the fact that I paid stupidly $8000 for a camera that they can't fix and now have to send to factory for 3 more weeks or more? Why did it take 2 months to figure that out?
Yes I did want medium format and was thinking of Hasselblad but went with pentax for older lenses. But as usual you get what u pay for. and in time will go with other brand. I happen to have sponsors to help pay and should have gone that way, but was interested in pentax because I grew up with them. I have a rooted heart felt feeling for Pentax but that does not pay my bills! I don't mean disrespect for Pentax or you, but ricoh has other problems than repair.

That is how the Nikon service get blasted here in Sweden (unless you qualify as one of the rare pro-shooters) and Pentax (Kameraservice i Kungsör) usualy gets praise. As he said the problem is there for all brands and usually not symmetrical over the different markets. Also you pay for the service from Hasselblad and Leica when buying the cameras, most likely about 30-50% extra on the sale price. Of course you get what you pay for.

mysterick · 10-05-2014, 05:50 PM - **2 Likes**

For what it is worth...I am the original poster and I am concerned about one thing: the lack of communication. After all of the moving, setting up, calibrating that Precision had to do, I have to say that I am HAPPY with the time the repair took and the quality of the repair. If someone would have just talked with me about my concerns! Even the call center did not give me much reason to be positive. In the end the repair actually took less time than I anticipated and cost half as much as the auto quote "app" on their website.

I received this from Ricoh in response to my email:

"Thank you for contacting RICOH.

Also, thank you for your suggestions and information regarding your recent lens repair at Precision Camera.
I will be happy to forward your correspondence to our parent company and RICOH subsidiaries, in a report designed for concerns such as these. RICOH always appreciates hearing from the consumer public regarding the use of RICOH products, or regarding suggestions for new products or improvements in any area. We appreciate you taking your time to express your thoughts.

If you are in need of further assistance, please respond to this email or call our technical support center at 800-877-0155.

Sincerely,
Randall S."

So I will be sending my 40mm Limited in for a spruce up, but HEY PRECISION...TALK TO ME!

VisualDarkness · 10-05-2014, 06:09 PM

I think that is how it most often works today at service centers, they just auto-answer. I'm, sadly, extremely surprised everytime I get real answer from a service center.

Gareth.Ig · 10-05-2014, 06:21 PM

Yeah. This is not an encouraging thread. My DA* 16-50 has been waiting on parts at my local repair center in St. John's since March 2014 with still no indication of when they will be available.

**monochrome** · 10-05-2014, 06:43 PM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by mysterick

I am the original poster and I am concerned about one thing: the lack of communication.

From my reading here and some limited personal experience, Randall S. is the 'Go To' guy at Ricoh Customer Service if you really need to get an answer or get something done. He actually takes resolution of Customer issues personally.

I'd send him a Thank You.

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10-04-2014, 12:23 PM	#151
WallEye New Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Up Up state NY Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 25	I can't believe u bought more Pentax. My wait is moving towards 3 months. When 645d comes back I'm selling and going back to my cannons and Nikon. Loved the camera but Walmart has better customer service. And it's still under warranty! Originally posted by ramseybuckeye My camera is finally out of repair and they have a tracking number, Originally logged in on 7/17 at CRIS. Attachment 239228 I've got a new K-50 arriving tomorrow , one of the amazing deals at Adorama right now. I should have bought it two months ago when they had a similar deal. ---------- Post added 10-04-14 at 03:28 PM ---------- Originally posted by Not a Number By "normal" you mean normal for C.R.I.S. We don't know what the norm for Precision Camera is yet. Your about to find out.. I have.. Pentax is in trouble!

10-04-2014, 03:51 PM - 1 Like	#152
Not a Number Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 10,526	Originally posted by WallEye I can't believe u bought more Pentax. My wait is moving towards 3 months. When 645d comes back I'm selling and going back to my cannons and Nikon. Loved the camera but Walmart has better customer service. And it's still under warranty! Your about to find out.. I have.. Pentax is in trouble! Good luck with your Cannons (sic.) and Nikon. You must have chosen to go to medium format for reasons other than customer service. That hasn't changed. You can always go with Hasselblad or Mamiya when those reasons come back at you. Time will tell what the norm for Precision will be. It looks like the are starting to catch up with the backlog of work that C.R.I.S. dumped on them. And once the repair order gets into the system the workflow proceeds at a reasonable rate. For all we know C.R.I.S. backlogged stuff for a couple months before forwarding them Precision in one or several large shipments. I doubt even your beloved Cannons (sic.) and Nikon could cope with the flood of one or two months work dumped on them all at once. How is Pentax in trouble? The problem is not systemic. You don't hear Pentax owners in Canada, Sweden, Germany, UK, Singapore etc. complaining about the same problems of their Ricoh/Pentax service centers. Comparing Pentax to Walmart is comparing apples to oranges. Walmart is a retail business. Pentax is not. Precision camera (and C.R.I.S. before them) is not owned or a part of Ricoh - they are just contracted to provide repair and they are just one of many such repair centers worldwide. If one WalMart store in Kentucky was having customer service problems would WalMart as a whole be in trouble?

10-04-2014, 05:05 PM	#153
Edgar_in_Indy Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: Indiana, USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,685	Originally posted by Not a Number How is Pentax in trouble? The problem is not systemic. You don't hear Pentax owners in Canada, Sweden, Germany, UK, Singapore etc. complaining about the same problems of their Ricoh/Pentax service centers. I know of at least one Canadian who would disagree: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/48-pentax-medium-format/271689-lost-cause.html

10-04-2014, 06:58 PM	#154
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	Originally posted by Edgar_in_Indy I know of at least one Canadian who would disagree: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/48-pentax-medium-format/271689-lost-cause.html +1 Ricoh increasingly refers to Canada as part of Ricoh Imaging North America. Didn't they recently close the Canadian service department and engage a repair service company?

10-04-2014, 07:29 PM	#155
mattt Site Supporter Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Niagara Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,907	Originally posted by monochrome +1 Ricoh increasingly refers to Canada as part of Ricoh Imaging North America. Didn't they recently close the Canadian service department and engage a repair service company? They did. The Argentia office is no longer doing repairs.

10-04-2014, 11:17 PM - 1 Like	#156
loveisageless Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Oakland, California Photos: Albums Posts: 1,250	I hope Precision gets their act together and Ricoh holds their feet to the fire if they don't. This is a deal breaker for me with Pentax. It's not about FF or lens road maps. It's not even about doing the extraordinary, but rather doing the ordinary extraordinarily well. I may regret having bought upgraded Pentax gear this year. No one should have to go through what posters in this thread have experienced in trying to get their equipment fixed. There has been a lot of discounting going on lately in the forum market place. Gear that usually sells quickly, i.e. recent camera body releases, limited and * lenses are just sitting without much response. Some are probably sitting it out to see if the messiah, I mean FF, appears, but I suspect others are keeping their powder dry, so to speak, while contemplating switching systems. This kind of crap does not help the situation.

10-05-2014, 12:39 AM	#157
thibs Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Photos: Albums Posts: 7,001	Agreed. But if anyone here thinks the same wouldn't have happened if Nikon change their service in the same way... Of course Nikon always does everything correctly. /rant

10-05-2014, 07:14 AM	#158
WallEye New Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Up Up state NY Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 25	Originally posted by Not a Number Good luck with your Cannons (sic.) and Nikon. You must have chosen to go to medium format for reasons other than customer service. That hasn't changed. You can always go with Hasselblad or Mamiya when those reasons come back at you. Time will tell what the norm for Precision will be. It looks like the are starting to catch up with the backlog of work that C.R.I.S. dumped on them. And once the repair order gets into the system the workflow proceeds at a reasonable rate. For all we know C.R.I.S. backlogged stuff for a couple months before forwarding them Precision in one or several large shipments. I doubt even your beloved Cannons (sic.) and Nikon could cope with the flood of one or two months work dumped on them all at once. How is Pentax in trouble? The problem is not systemic. You don't hear Pentax owners in Canada, Sweden, Germany, UK, Singapore etc. complaining about the same problems of their Ricoh/Pentax service centers. Comparing Pentax to Walmart is comparing apples to oranges. Walmart is a retail business. Pentax is not. Precision camera (and C.R.I.S. before them) is not owned or a part of Ricoh - they are just contracted to provide repair and they are just one of many such repair centers worldwide. If one WalMart store in Kentucky was having customer service problems would WalMart as a whole be in trouble? How does all you just wrote help the fact that I paid stupidly $8000 for a camera that they can't fix and now have to send to factory for 3 more weeks or more? Why did it take 2 months to figure that out? Yes I did want medium format and was thinking of Hasselblad but went with pentax for older lenses. But as usual you get what u pay for. and in time will go with other brand. I happen to have sponsors to help pay and should have gone that way, but was interested in pentax because I grew up with them. I have a rooted heart felt feeling for Pentax but that does not pay my bills! I don't mean disrespect for Pentax or you, but ricoh has other problems than repair.

10-05-2014, 08:02 AM	#159
Fat Albert Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 966	Dropped my 40 XS off at Precision on September 20. It shows as being "in repair" since that day. Will update accordingly.

10-05-2014, 01:08 PM	#160
ramseybuckeye Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Hampstead, NC Photos: Gallery Posts: 17,294	Originally posted by WallEye I can't believe u bought more Pentax. My wait is moving towards 3 months. When 645d comes back I'm selling and going back to my cannons and Nikon. Loved the camera but Walmart has better customer service. And it's still under warranty! I really like the Pentax cameras and I'm heavily invested in lenses, to switch to any other brand I would be paying at least twice as much for a camera that has the capabilities of the K-50. I'm not happy about the wait I've had, obviously they were caught off guard and are trying to get through it. It was a poorly planned and or executed move and I have a feeling that CRIS stopped working on Pentax and just let things pile up as soon as they found out about the change. And unfortunately I don't think you can just go out and find anyone to fix cameras in a hurry. If they have hired new techs they are probably just getting through training. They made this vendor switch to improve service, hopefully in the end it does, but the transition has been painful. I personally think they should be extending warranties for us who have suffered. I'm surprised that you haven't joined the professional program if you're a pro, maybe that program is new, but it sounds like you should be in that.

10-05-2014, 01:28 PM - 1 Like	#161
VisualDarkness Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Uppsala, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,439	Originally posted by WallEye How does all you just wrote help the fact that I paid stupidly $8000 for a camera that they can't fix and now have to send to factory for 3 more weeks or more? Why did it take 2 months to figure that out? Yes I did want medium format and was thinking of Hasselblad but went with pentax for older lenses. But as usual you get what u pay for. and in time will go with other brand. I happen to have sponsors to help pay and should have gone that way, but was interested in pentax because I grew up with them. I have a rooted heart felt feeling for Pentax but that does not pay my bills! I don't mean disrespect for Pentax or you, but ricoh has other problems than repair. That is how the Nikon service get blasted here in Sweden (unless you qualify as one of the rare pro-shooters) and Pentax (Kameraservice i Kungsör) usualy gets praise. As he said the problem is there for all brands and usually not symmetrical over the different markets. Also you pay for the service from Hasselblad and Leica when buying the cameras, most likely about 30-50% extra on the sale price. Of course you get what you pay for.

10-05-2014, 05:50 PM - 2 Likes	#162
mysterick Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: 44266 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 567 Original Poster	For what it is worth...I am the original poster and I am concerned about one thing: the lack of communication. After all of the moving, setting up, calibrating that Precision had to do, I have to say that I am HAPPY with the time the repair took and the quality of the repair. If someone would have just talked with me about my concerns! Even the call center did not give me much reason to be positive. In the end the repair actually took less time than I anticipated and cost half as much as the auto quote "app" on their website. I received this from Ricoh in response to my email: "Thank you for contacting RICOH. Also, thank you for your suggestions and information regarding your recent lens repair at Precision Camera. I will be happy to forward your correspondence to our parent company and RICOH subsidiaries, in a report designed for concerns such as these. RICOH always appreciates hearing from the consumer public regarding the use of RICOH products, or regarding suggestions for new products or improvements in any area. We appreciate you taking your time to express your thoughts. If you are in need of further assistance, please respond to this email or call our technical support center at 800-877-0155. Sincerely, Randall S." So I will be sending my 40mm Limited in for a spruce up, but HEY PRECISION...TALK TO ME!

10-05-2014, 06:09 PM	#163
VisualDarkness Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Uppsala, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,439	I think that is how it most often works today at service centers, they just auto-answer. I'm, sadly, extremely surprised everytime I get real answer from a service center.

10-05-2014, 06:21 PM	#164
Gareth.Ig Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Cochrane, AB Photos: Gallery Posts: 508	Yeah. This is not an encouraging thread. My DA* 16-50 has been waiting on parts at my local repair center in St. John's since March 2014 with still no indication of when they will be available.

10-05-2014, 06:43 PM - 2 Likes	#165
monochrome Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Working From Home Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 26,276	Originally posted by mysterick I am the original poster and I am concerned about one thing: the lack of communication. From my reading here and some limited personal experience, Randall S. is the 'Go To' guy at Ricoh Customer Service if you really need to get an answer or get something done. He actually takes resolution of Customer issues personally. I'd send him a Thank You.