[geomez]

Hello,


A few months ago my GR's LCD died so I sent it in to Precision Camera in mid November. By the beginning of December, having no word on the status of the repair, I called Precision for an update. They told me they were waiting on the part from Ricoh, and it was scheduled to be delivered on Dec 18. When Dec 18 came and went, I called again and they said the part was not delivered and they have no ETA from Ricoh on when they can expect the part. I've called them every week since and the story doesn't change.
How long does warranty work usually take? Is this abnormal?
I love Pentax and Ricoh products and have never had issues with any of the numerous ones I've owned over the last 10 years. Until now. I feel like Ricoh is ruining my experience with the brand. Idk how they can expect return customers when it takes months for repair.
Also, my warranty was good until a week ago. The last 20% of my warranty was used up while it was in for warranty work.

[Adam]

If they have the parts, it happens quickly, if they don't, then you've got to wait. If it makes you feel any better, I recently had to wait 77 days until my order for Limited lenses at the Pentax web store was shipped...

[PePe]

Sorry to hear about your problem. It is obvious that this is all too long to be acceptable. Due to the recent restructurings Pentax service levels have degraded in many places.

Legislations do vary, but in many places consumer protection laws set a maximum time limit for a warranty repair like this. Usually the distributor/importer has to replace the device once the time limit is met. In European legislations this limit varies from some weeks up to a month or two depending on the type of the product. Don´t know about the laws over there.
The other thing is that this slow service is really bad PR for the brand.

[Fire Angel]

Try going onto Pentax/Ricoh's facebook or twitter account and making a fuss there. If you don't have a facebook or twitter account, sign up just for the chance to complain. There's nothing like embarrassing a company in a very public place on the internet to get results. I've seen a number of accounts of consumers suddenly getting proper treatment that way. I'd also suggest that if you do complain that way and they get it fixed as quickly as they ought to have done to begin with, then go back and say thank you afterwards.

---------- Post added 01-19-15 at 12:43 PM ----------

If they have the parts, it happens quickly, if they don't, then you've got to wait. If it makes you feel any better, I recently had to wait 77 days until my order for Limited lenses at the Pentax web store was shipped...

Patience is a good thing, but Ricoh should provide parts to service agents in a reasonable length of time. If they don't they would be breaking the law in the EU, and although I don't know about the US legal system I expect they are at least open to being sued. I would have cancelled that order and gone somewhere that had the lens in stock long before 77 days was up.

[Giklab]

Over here it was: Nikon - 1 month, Pentax 1 - 2 weeks, Pentax 2 - 4 months. I've accepted that it's sometimes down to pure dumb luck whether your order is processed promptly or left sitting, whether you get the guy who's just won the lottery or the guy who just got the divorce notice.

[johnc]

Just waited over 6 weeks for a reasonably simple warranty repair for my K-3 here in the UK. Fault was that the mode dial decal detached, and the locking push button was lost.

Here in UK the repairs are handled by a third party, with some items actually being sent to France for repair (16-50 SDM replacement, for example).

After about a month I started tweeting the Ricoh imaging Uk twitter account. Their PR consultancy (presumably who runs the account) emailed back to say they had raised it with the Ricoh people and that it would be another week or so, owing to waiting for parts.

Two observations:

Firstly - I don't think this duration with no feedback is very impressive. And a 'sorry' with the offer of extending my warranty for an extra six weeks would have been the least they could do.
Secondly - I think Ricoh should be running their own twitter account. And preferably, doing their own repairs

This is the second body in a row that has required warranty service or replacement - both have taken far longer than I am really comfortable with. Next time I buy a new body I will try to keep the old one as a standby (it will therefore take longer to save up for the new body!). I don't think any of Ricoh's rivals are significantly better, unless you manage to get onto their 'pro' service where equipment loans and expedited repairs are offered.

John

[pete-tarmigan]

Hello,


A few months ago my GR's LCD died so I sent it in to Precision Camera in mid November. By the beginning of December, having no word on the status of the repair, I called Precision for an update. They told me they were waiting on the part from Ricoh, and it was scheduled to be delivered on Dec 18. When Dec 18 came and went, I called again and they said the part was not delivered and they have no ETA from Ricoh on when they can expect the part. I've called them every week since and the story doesn't change.
How long does warranty work usually take? Is this abnormal?

Such turn-around time is not limited to warranty repairs. In addition, it has been standard throughout the industry for 30 years.

[loco]

I had a remarkably similar experience with Precision repairing my K-30. It took two months but I got it back a couple weeks ago and it's working great.

I was getting nowhere until I emailed Ricoh about my experience twice. The second time I politely asked them how long a warranty customer should be expected to wait for a repair. What is their policy on replacement if the repair cannot be completed in a reasonable time? I never got a response but the same day, coincidentally or not, my repair status changed from "On Hold-waiting for parts" to "In Repair". I got the camera back about a week after that.

Who knows if Ricoh actually intervened, but it can't hurt to let them know your frustrations. I can understand Precision having to wait for parts that are on order. What I couldn't understand was the "no ETA" for their arrival. I made that clear to Ricoh.

Good luck!

[stevebrot]

It can take a long time. I have a friend who shoots Canon and she was three months waiting shutter repairs on her 7D.


Steve

[Canada_Rockies]

I have the impression that unless one has a "professional" (read high cost) account, such as available with Nikon and Canon top of the line cameras, all repair work is slow. It boils down to p***ing off the 4 or 5% of customers who get cameras with flaws. The other 95-96% don't ever notice.

[jezzeppi]

I just sent my K3 in for a non functioning rear lcd. Turn around was super fast (1 week). I would have been more satisfied if they had actually fixed it though.....

[Adam]

Patience is a good thing, but Ricoh should provide parts to service agents in a reasonable length of time. If they don't they would be breaking the law in the EU, and although I don't know about the US legal system I expect they are at least open to being sued. I would have cancelled that order and gone somewhere that had the lens in stock long before 77 days was up.

I agree that such long wait times are unacceptable. They need to improve their supply chain and get the parts to where they are needed within a reasonable time frame. I'm sure it's being worked on behind the scenes...

I would have never shopped at the web store if they didn't have a rock-bottom deal at the time B&H, Adorama, Amazon, or just about any other retailer is easier to work with and much faster to ship.

[Lowell Goudge]

dont worry about the repair using up the last of your warranty, the repair should be covered typically for 90 days. and if anything failed not related to the repair, then you just claim anyway and advise them that you consider the loss of use as an automatic extension of the time out of your hands. any one who argues this will lose.

[geomez]

Hello,
A couple weeks ago about how it's been more than two months since I sent my GR for warranty repair and the parts needed to fix it are indefinitely on backorder from Ricoh. Well today I called Precision Camera (Ricoh's official camera repair contractor), and they said the status of my repair had not changed. I told the representative to give me all the info they could about my repair so I could issue a complaint with Ricoh. They obliged and in addition told me that Ricoh has a policy that if they don't deliver parts for warranty work to the repair contractor within 60 days, they are obliged to replace the camera with a new one. Luckily for me it has been 61 days since the part was ordered
After our conversation, I went on Ricoh's website to issue my complaint. They're internet contact solution is a thing called "Customer First" where you give them all your relevant info and submit to them a message. I filled out the form and wrote my complaint, but when I would hit the "Submit" button, the page would just refresh as if nothing happened, except the CAPTCHA was different. Assuming this was browser incompatibility, I switched from Firefox to Chrome and tried again. This time the button worked, except it directed me to a page that said,

"Your request has been submitted. Please wait while the system completes your inquiry. You will be redirected after request has been completed. Please wait a few seconds, system is processing request......"

The only problem is that the page never redirected me, it just stayed as is. So I tried again. Same result. Based on what it said I assumed it didn't process fully. I also assumed I'd get a confirmation email like every other form of corporate internet inquiry. Once again assuming it was browser incompatibility, I switched to the newest version of Internet Explorer. Surely their site had to be compatible with IE...
But no. On IE the submit button doesn't even do anything! No redirect, no refresh, NOTHING!
It's as if they don't want to hear from any of their customers. I guess I'll have to try calling them tomorrow. All I know is this not how you keep customers. Great products, yes, but you're screwed if something goes wrong.

[Bob from Aus]

That sounds like me using the canon online system to complain in Australia. They must know when it is a complaint as it wouldn't go through. However as they are a bigger player so they can afford to take 3 months to have a simple inquiry knocked on the head. I did once get a reply from canon in under a month but then they didn't answer the question.

For Pentax, in Australia we just phone the distributor and talk to a knowledgeable human and get an answer. I have no idea who is responsible for Ricoh cameras.