[The Squirrel Mafia]

Funny. Yesterday the website said until the 8th.

Home - Ricoh

^ Now it got pushed back to the 11th. Will it get pushed to the 14th on the 11th? Hmmmmm........

[c.a.m]

expressing concern that in the internet age they currently have no internet presence in North America. Whether it is incompetence, technical challenges beyond their control, or a decision to not deploy perhaps scarce resources in this market, I have no idea. The outcome though is that anyone new to Pentax cannot find a website for their North American operations that touts their products, informs where to get warranty service, or makes available manuals and firmware updates.

It's not as dire as first impressions might suggest.

The Ricoh Imaging online presence in North America is served by two internet sites - one for Canada and one for the USA. The Canadian site appears to be fully functional (albeit, it's not an online store). The other one seems to be frustrated by a lengthy overhaul (completion date now further extended to 11 August). Even so, it's not totally dysfunctional - products are listed and described, warranty and repair info is given, dealers can be found through a map search, and firmware is available. However, user manuals don't appear at their link and parts of the site are not attractive, IMO.

We don't know the reason(s) for the progressive delay in the overhaul - could be the inherent complexity in the web site; overly optimistic original timeline; poor choice of new web components; glitches; person off sick; intern away for vacation... Who knows.

I agree that the Notice could have been better worded - it seems to suggest that a prospective buyer can't buy Pentax products during the overhaul period. It's obvious to us that that's not true, as the RIAC website is not the only source. But, the uninitiated buyer could be turned off.

- Craig

[konraDarnok]

It is clearly stated "maintenance on our site"

Right, but couldn't that be code for 'ceasing all operations immediately and burying all remaining Pentax merchandise in a landfill near the E.T. Atari cartridges."

[sheridangis]

Is there something you are particularly needing to do there that can't be accomplished on the English version of the Japan site?


Steve

Went to the site to see if the battery status was any different on their site, seems the Pentax LI109 battery is non-existent from B&H and other dealers. Third party batteries are out there but just wanted to see what the "brand" had to say.

Web Update now the 11th of August
"We will not be able to accept or process any web orders starting midnight June 29th until August 11th. During this time we will be doing some maintenance on our site to make it a better experience for our customers. If you place an order before midnight on June 29th your order will be processed.
We appreciate your patience. Thank You!"

[stevebrot]

Went to the site to see if the battery status was any different on their site, seems the Pentax LI109 battery is non-existent from B&H and other dealers.

Oh...yes, that battery appears to be back-ordered at both Adorama and B&H. If they are backordered, it is unlikely that the Ricoh/Pentax USA Web site would have one either. If you are open to third-party alternatives...I have had excellent experience with the Wasabi brand batteries.


Steve

[pakinjapan]

for me Pentax time is over.
my trust in Pentax is 0,00.
after a couple of survey's no answers
Pentax keep's on studying.
Pentax can't keep on with the other dslr makers,
mirrorless camera's compact camera's etc. etc.

Sorry to know that. Make sure you let 'em know on their FB page.

IMO, that big red message box with no alternative link for user to click on their front page is weird to me too. They mentioned about"better experience" for user, but this is no way a better experience. At less add an HTML link to an affiliated store, Come on Ricoh. It is not something hard...or maybe it is! I don't know.

@ebk Good luck on your next search.

[Kunzite]

Uhh... the better experience is meant to be offered after they finish working on it, not before

[pakinjapan]

Uhh... the better experience is meant to be offered after they finish working on it, not before

Don’t take it as an offense and sorry for my broken englishuuu. I mean if their mindset already sat to improve user experience then why not now. No need to wait until the new system is done which seems like they don’t even sure when it will be ready. In shrinking market envelopment today, if they want to survive, they better do whatever / whenever they can.
Close the old system before the new one ready to go live is one thing. It could be a technical difficulty, or just a bad timing and bad planning. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt for whatever it is. Then put out a message with design inconstancy to the overall site design’s direction is another thing, and the content of the message itself is also a bit confusing (keep on changing date) + no alternative links for possible new customer, etc. All things add up to customers or possible new customer’s frustration.


“In my view”, for technology we have today, there are rooms for improve user experience in almost every step of the process. (but only if they really want to improve it.)

[bladerunner6]

Right, but couldn't that be code for 'ceasing all operations immediately and burying all remaining Pentax merchandise in a landfill near the E.T. Atari cartridges."

I don't think Pentax is leaving the camera business. And even if they were why would they bury inventory?
The Atari cartridges were buried because they were unmarketable. That diluted the whole brand.

Pentax could still sell the inventory for something to cut their losses. Why worry about diluting the brand when you are killing it?

I do realize you were just being goofy but some people may not catch that.

[boriscleto]

Right, but couldn't that be code for 'ceasing all operations immediately and burying all remaining Pentax merchandise in a landfill near the E.T. Atari cartridges."

Right next to the Macintosh XL Lisa conversions...

[monochrome]

They're updating the completion date which means someone is actually paying attention. That's a good sign.

[Not a Number]

Ha ha! Now it says "August 16".

[goldenarrow]

Ha ha! Now it says "August 16".

What Year???

[monochrome]

Never assume they're incompetent.

My company has 275,000 workstations and legions of coders. They rolled out an app upgrade in our suite of integrated apps last month that crashed. It worked perfectly in limited test rollouts up to 25,000 machines.

For a month that request has returned a link that calls an old DOS display routine from 1986 runnning in a virtual window. Microsoft flew a team in last week and apparently they're having trouble fingering it out.

I literally see my client data on a non-integrated character-based screen and no one knows why.

It is fixed.

Whatever Microsoft did, the app is blazing fast and all the realtime links to the rest of the system are live.

[chitownarcher]

Hello everyone,

Like most of everyone here has mentioned that the date keeps getting pushed back. I checked before typing this and It's now August 16.

It seems like the only update they are doing is changing the date. How much are they paying that person to change the date every week?

I was thinking of buying a KS2. I know it's not in the US website, but it's listed in the Japanese site.

Should I just stay clear of Pentax?