Tamron USA repair service anger

tibbitts · 03-01-2014, 08:58 PM

Originally posted by BillO

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but the subject forces me to.

@OP

I hear you on this. Even going back a few years, Tamron's customer service has left a lot to be desired.

Back in '99 I bought a Tamron SP 300/2.8 AF. It cost me $2800 back then. A lot of money by anyone's standards. Optically it was great but It had a really bad FF problem with my PZ-1 and Z-1p and could only be used in manual focus. Not too much of an issue with a 2.8 aperture and the wonderful viewfinders and focusing screens on those cameras. None the less, I paid for an AF lens. I brought it in to Tamron 4 times to have the problem fixed. The first 3 times they told me there was nothing wrong with it and the problem must be with all the cameras I tried it with (even though they had no problems with other lenses), the 4th time they told me 'Please, do not come back to us again'.

IT had the same problem with my son's PZ20, and with my istD, K10D, K7 and with my K3. Just today I discovered that I could correct the problem with full scale AF adjustment on both the K7 and K3, if I removed the standard filter in the little drawer.

All that said, Tamron a permanently off my buy list. I also vehemently discourage anyone from buying a Tamron lens. The company has no idea what customer service is about,

I understand your point, but I made multiple attempts at getting sigma to address problems under warranty as well, and got nowhere. But I wouldn't necessarily write off sigma for future lenses, partly because since we're dealing with pentax bodies here, there just aren't a whole lot of (modern, particulary) lenses available.

It's also possible that, especially back in the '90s, the tamron techs might just not have had enough familiarity with af (certainly on that model lens and with pentax) to be more helpful. Possibly things have improved since.

This is really a completely different situation than tamron refusing warranty service on a lens that wasn't bought from an authorized retailer. I think most manufactures will respond similarly and not provided support in such a situation, because it effectively undermines their distribution network to do so.

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03-01-2014, 08:58 PM	#16
tibbitts Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Oklahoma USA Posts: 2,196	Originally posted by BillO Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but the subject forces me to. @OP I hear you on this. Even going back a few years, Tamron's customer service has left a lot to be desired. Back in '99 I bought a Tamron SP 300/2.8 AF. It cost me $2800 back then. A lot of money by anyone's standards. Optically it was great but It had a really bad FF problem with my PZ-1 and Z-1p and could only be used in manual focus. Not too much of an issue with a 2.8 aperture and the wonderful viewfinders and focusing screens on those cameras. None the less, I paid for an AF lens. I brought it in to Tamron 4 times to have the problem fixed. The first 3 times they told me there was nothing wrong with it and the problem must be with all the cameras I tried it with (even though they had no problems with other lenses), the 4th time they told me 'Please, do not come back to us again'. IT had the same problem with my son's PZ20, and with my istD, K10D, K7 and with my K3. Just today I discovered that I could correct the problem with full scale AF adjustment on both the K7 and K3, if I removed the standard filter in the little drawer. All that said, Tamron a permanently off my buy list. I also vehemently discourage anyone from buying a Tamron lens. The company has no idea what customer service is about, I understand your point, but I made multiple attempts at getting sigma to address problems under warranty as well, and got nowhere. But I wouldn't necessarily write off sigma for future lenses, partly because since we're dealing with pentax bodies here, there just aren't a whole lot of (modern, particulary) lenses available. It's also possible that, especially back in the '90s, the tamron techs might just not have had enough familiarity with af (certainly on that model lens and with pentax) to be more helpful. Possibly things have improved since. This is really a completely different situation than tamron refusing warranty service on a lens that wasn't bought from an authorized retailer. I think most manufactures will respond similarly and not provided support in such a situation, because it effectively undermines their distribution network to do so.