Pentax USA out of repair business

pingflood · 08-14-2009, 04:25 AM

Originally posted by brecklundin

BTW, what is up with the Pentax USA...either use is being tracked via some 3rd party metrics gathering company or some sort of unsafe scripting is going on, or the info is incomplete as many of the tabs or links on the site fail to provide anything other than an error for ANY of the browsers on my system...Opera, IE8(Compatibility or regular mode), FF3.x, Chrome vwhatever-the-heck-it-is...

Don't think you need to get entirely paranoid regarding tracking, from a quick glance it appears they're using Google Analytics like countless other sites do.

Substitute · 08-14-2009, 09:54 AM

Outsourcing In France and in Germany where I live resulted in a total mess, warranties are no longer respected or honoured. A growing number of customers aren't happy at all.
And since the gear has issues (focussing problems, green line on K7...) it is all the more worrying to see a good repair service go....

BrendanPK · 08-17-2009, 08:43 PM

What about PPS?

Humm guess I gotta call my PPS rep to see how this will work out now. Hope the cost don't increase like the lenses did overnight

CaymanImaging · 08-17-2009, 09:05 PM

Brendon...JC from Pentax told me that it won't change for us. Keep our fingers crossed.

brecklundin · 08-17-2009, 10:36 PM

Originally posted by pingflood

Don't think you need to get entirely paranoid regarding tracking, from a quick glance it appears they're using Google Analytics like countless other sites do.

nope....those sites don't run either...they are also using doubleclick, which, until aquired my MS, was included in the MS MVP maintained HOSTS file.

There are perfectly reasonable ways to track metrics on their own server w/o either loading iframes from some 3rd party site or cross scripting...

btw, I run w/o any AV software and never have needed it because of the level of security I use on my networks.

BrendanPK · 08-18-2009, 11:38 AM

Originally posted by CaymanImaging

Brendon...JC from Pentax told me that it won't change for us. Keep our fingers crossed.

Yeah, still will shoot our rep a email though about all of it. Esp if their is a change of address to send to.

I'm not worried so much about the place they chose for repair, I know who JC is talking about, hes actually an old friend of mine, very good people, just I have no clue on price/time differences. Also many of us PPS and regular members would often get some things done with no charge (small things etc, the tech were just being nice with out even asking, Always was a suprise) I wonder if they will continue or charge for every screw and cleaning wipe they use to fix our stuff.

Samsungian · 02-10-2010, 09:18 PM

Good to know, Thanks

Originally posted by JCPentax

Since I manage Product Marketing and Support for Pentax, I feel like I am in the best position to address this transition.

First, Pentax has outsourced our Repair Service for about eight years now.

We looked at our current repair processes and the cost involved and elected to make a change in service providers. The transition will allow us to provide a high level of service in a more cost effective manner.

As far as the service provider, CRIS has been a trusted Pentax Authorized Warranty Service center for a number of years. They have participated in every repair training seminar that our previous service provider had, so the level of repair skill is equivalent.

Additionally, CRIS has a "A" ranking with the Better Business Bureau. This is extremely difficult to attain unless you offer the best possible service.

CRIS also agreed to maintain the same repair pricing as Pentax previously had. There is no change in costs to have a camera repaired.

Finally, the person at CRIS responsible for Pentax is a former Pentax employee. He worked for a number of years in the Pentax Customer Service Department and also was a Product Manager for Pentax during the *ist years. He is passionate about Pentax and about offering the best level of service.

We are very excited about this transition and feel it will allow Pentax to provide a higher level of service to Pentaxians in the U.S.

ACImages · 02-11-2010, 08:33 PM

Sent my DA*50-135 off to CRIS, SDM going to sleep (wow), called the Pentax repair center to track the progress, Randy was extremely helpful, full repair under warranty took less than 3 weeks from the time I sent it off to getting it back, they replaced the motor and now she works like a charm.

MJB DIGITAL · 02-24-2010, 02:45 PM

excerpt from my chat conversation with pentax....

Mitchel Bowen: this is a new repair department right?

Name of Pentax Guy: we switched back in august

Ben_Edict · 02-24-2010, 03:54 PM

Originally posted by falconeye

The outsourcing transition has already been made in Germany.

As a result, the state of Pentax service in Germany is in a complete mess right now. Up to a point where Hoya!! management in Japan started to reply and apologize to complaints sent by some members of German forum DFN ...

Put my name on the complaints list for Germany, too…

Ben

Ben_Edict · 02-24-2010, 04:00 PM

Originally posted by volley

Pentax in Germany also outsourced the repair business to an independent 3rd party (the same company that does already the repair and service jobs for CANON!). I'll find out about their service level quite soon, I've just shipped my K200 for an estimate after I damaged it - a concrete flooe is still more solid than a Pentax

Regards
Norbert

If Maerz, that's the company name, is as fast and responsive as they were with my repair, than you'll have a long, quite period, without the need for taking photographs with your K200. They lost three faxes from me and always gave the same useless answers on the phone up to the point of being rude.

I really look back to the old Pentax inhouse repair service, which was great. Fast, cheap and the people were knowledgeable and friendly.

Ben

**baldeagle21b** · 02-25-2010, 03:02 AM

CRIS turned my K20D warranty repair around in three weeks, good performance in my book given the volume that they deal with.

Mr Hyde · 02-25-2010, 09:45 AM

I sent my DA*16-50mm to CRIS and had it back in less than three weeks. It was alot faster turn around than when they were fixing things in Colorado. The repair only took a few days. It spent more time in shipping back and forth then it took to repair.

**volley** · 02-25-2010, 10:07 AM

Originally posted by Ben_Edict

If Maerz, that's the company name, is as fast and responsive as they were with my repair, than you'll have a long, quite period, without the need for taking photographs with your K200. They lost three faxes from me and always gave the same useless answers on the phone up to the point of being rude.

I really look back to the old Pentax inhouse repair service, which was great. Fast, cheap and the people were knowledgeable and friendly.

Ben

No reason to complain about the service from my side (other than that I was so stupid to drop my camera). I received an estimate for the repair within one week. As I found a good deal for a used K200 with low shutter count I did not go for the repair though.

02-10-2010, 09:18 PM	#52
Samsungian Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Colorado USA Posts: 1,337	Good to know, Thanks Good to know, Thanks Originally posted by JCPentax Since I manage Product Marketing and Support for Pentax, I feel like I am in the best position to address this transition. First, Pentax has outsourced our Repair Service for about eight years now. We looked at our current repair processes and the cost involved and elected to make a change in service providers. The transition will allow us to provide a high level of service in a more cost effective manner. As far as the service provider, CRIS has been a trusted Pentax Authorized Warranty Service center for a number of years. They have participated in every repair training seminar that our previous service provider had, so the level of repair skill is equivalent. Additionally, CRIS has a "A" ranking with the Better Business Bureau. This is extremely difficult to attain unless you offer the best possible service. CRIS also agreed to maintain the same repair pricing as Pentax previously had. There is no change in costs to have a camera repaired. Finally, the person at CRIS responsible for Pentax is a former Pentax employee. He worked for a number of years in the Pentax Customer Service Department and also was a Product Manager for Pentax during the *ist years. He is passionate about Pentax and about offering the best level of service. We are very excited about this transition and feel it will allow Pentax to provide a higher level of service to Pentaxians in the U.S.

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08-14-2009, 04:25 AM	#46
pingflood Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Borås, Sweden Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,169	Originally posted by brecklundin BTW, what is up with the Pentax USA...either use is being tracked via some 3rd party metrics gathering company or some sort of unsafe scripting is going on, or the info is incomplete as many of the tabs or links on the site fail to provide anything other than an error for ANY of the browsers on my system...Opera, IE8(Compatibility or regular mode), FF3.x, Chrome vwhatever-the-heck-it-is... Don't think you need to get entirely paranoid regarding tracking, from a quick glance it appears they're using Google Analytics like countless other sites do.

08-14-2009, 09:54 AM	#47
Substitute Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: NOLA Posts: 396	Outsourcing In France and in Germany where I live resulted in a total mess, warranties are no longer respected or honoured. A growing number of customers aren't happy at all. And since the gear has issues (focussing problems, green line on K7...) it is all the more worrying to see a good repair service go....

08-17-2009, 08:43 PM	#48
BrendanPK Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Maryland Photos: Gallery Posts: 735	What about PPS? Humm guess I gotta call my PPS rep to see how this will work out now. Hope the cost don't increase like the lenses did overnight

08-17-2009, 09:05 PM	#49
CaymanImaging Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Albuquerque, NM Photos: Gallery Posts: 194	Brendon...JC from Pentax told me that it won't change for us. Keep our fingers crossed.

08-17-2009, 10:36 PM	#50
brecklundin Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Photos: Albums Posts: 1,674	Originally posted by pingflood Don't think you need to get entirely paranoid regarding tracking, from a quick glance it appears they're using Google Analytics like countless other sites do. nope....those sites don't run either...they are also using doubleclick, which, until aquired my MS, was included in the MS MVP maintained HOSTS file. There are perfectly reasonable ways to track metrics on their own server w/o either loading iframes from some 3rd party site or cross scripting... btw, I run w/o any AV software and never have needed it because of the level of security I use on my networks.

08-18-2009, 11:38 AM	#51
BrendanPK Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Maryland Photos: Gallery Posts: 735	Originally posted by CaymanImaging Brendon...JC from Pentax told me that it won't change for us. Keep our fingers crossed. Yeah, still will shoot our rep a email though about all of it. Esp if their is a change of address to send to. I'm not worried so much about the place they chose for repair, I know who JC is talking about, hes actually an old friend of mine, very good people, just I have no clue on price/time differences. Also many of us PPS and regular members would often get some things done with no charge (small things etc, the tech were just being nice with out even asking, Always was a suprise) I wonder if they will continue or charge for every screw and cleaning wipe they use to fix our stuff.

02-11-2010, 08:33 PM	#53
ACImages Inactive Account Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: tx Posts: 28	Sent my DA*50-135 off to CRIS, SDM going to sleep (wow), called the Pentax repair center to track the progress, Randy was extremely helpful, full repair under warranty took less than 3 weeks from the time I sent it off to getting it back, they replaced the motor and now she works like a charm.

02-24-2010, 02:45 PM	#54
MJB DIGITAL Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: st. louis Posts: 1,170	excerpt from my chat conversation with pentax.... Mitchel Bowen: this is a new repair department right? Name of Pentax Guy: we switched back in august

02-24-2010, 03:54 PM	#55
Ben_Edict Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: SouthWest "Regio" Photos: Albums Posts: 3,309	Originally posted by falconeye The outsourcing transition has already been made in Germany. As a result, the state of Pentax service in Germany is in a complete mess right now. Up to a point where Hoya!! management in Japan started to reply and apologize to complaints sent by some members of German forum DFN ... Put my name on the complaints list for Germany, too… Ben

02-24-2010, 04:00 PM	#56
Ben_Edict Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: SouthWest "Regio" Photos: Albums Posts: 3,309	Originally posted by volley Pentax in Germany also outsourced the repair business to an independent 3rd party (the same company that does already the repair and service jobs for CANON!). I'll find out about their service level quite soon, I've just shipped my K200 for an estimate after I damaged it - a concrete flooe is still more solid than a Pentax Regards Norbert If Maerz, that's the company name, is as fast and responsive as they were with my repair, than you'll have a long, quite period, without the need for taking photographs with your K200. They lost three faxes from me and always gave the same useless answers on the phone up to the point of being rude. I really look back to the old Pentax inhouse repair service, which was great. Fast, cheap and the people were knowledgeable and friendly. Ben

02-25-2010, 03:02 AM	#57
baldeagle21b Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 223	CRIS turned my K20D warranty repair around in three weeks, good performance in my book given the volume that they deal with.

02-25-2010, 09:45 AM	#58
Mr Hyde Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 760	I sent my DA*16-50mm to CRIS and had it back in less than three weeks. It was alot faster turn around than when they were fixing things in Colorado. The repair only took a few days. It spent more time in shipping back and forth then it took to repair.

02-25-2010, 10:07 AM	#59
volley Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Springe Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,693	Originally posted by Ben_Edict If Maerz, that's the company name, is as fast and responsive as they were with my repair, than you'll have a long, quite period, without the need for taking photographs with your K200. They lost three faxes from me and always gave the same useless answers on the phone up to the point of being rude. I really look back to the old Pentax inhouse repair service, which was great. Fast, cheap and the people were knowledgeable and friendly. Ben No reason to complain about the service from my side (other than that I was so stupid to drop my camera). I received an estimate for the repair within one week. As I found a good deal for a used K200 with low shutter count I did not go for the repair though.