[amoringello]

Good luck. I hope you're one of those with no problems. Wish I knew what made them do their job or not.

Anyway on the plus side, Ricoh received my lens. They found it to be in great shape (i.e. not banged up and therefor no cause to think it was not well cared for). So they are going to ship out a new lens to me.

It may take a few weeks if it needs to come from the Philippines, but at least after about two months I am done with Precision on this repair.,

[jeffryscott]

Good luck. I hope you're one of those with no problems. Wish I knew what made them do their job or not.

Anyway on the plus side, Ricoh received my lens. They found it to be in great shape (i.e. not banged up and therefor no cause to think it was not well cared for). So they are going to ship out a new lens to me.

It may take a few weeks if it needs to come from the Philippines, but at least after about two months I am done with Precision on this repair.,

That's great news!

[Qwntm]

One thing to remember, with Pentax you get the same crap shoot crappy service as every other company has, but you pay 20-40% less for the items new to begin with. There is something to be said for that. I can put up with a lot more "hassle" when my cameras cost $800 vs. $3000.


3.5 ~ K-3II's to one D810 or 5Ds makes it a lot easier to send one in and wait.

[virusn3t]

One thing to remember, with Pentax you get the same crap shoot crappy service as every other company has, but you pay 20-40% less for the items new to begin with. There is something to be said for that. I can put up with a lot more "hassle" when my cameras cost $800 vs. $3000.


3.5 ~ K-3II's to one D810 or 5Ds makes it a lot easier to send one in and wait.

Thats not the problem, the problem is the sloppy repair, the not know what theyre doing to the lens and the poor customer service, if they do the work as they are expected even if the repair time is 1 month or 2 then is a ok repair center, but if they dont do any repair even if the gear is returned in 2 days... this are the result.

In this place we are sayin prescicion sucks, why Ricoh hired them? any other people say Ricoh warranty sucks i do not buy from them anymore....

[mee]

One thing to remember, with Pentax you get the same crap shoot crappy service as every other company has, but you pay 20-40% less for the items new to begin with. There is something to be said for that. I can put up with a lot more "hassle" when my cameras cost $800 vs. $3000.


3.5 ~ K-3II's to one D810 or 5Ds makes it a lot easier to send one in and wait.

That is an apples and oranges comparison though.. an APS-C body versus a FF.

The better comparison is K-3 to d7100 if we are comparing similar bodies.. then the costs are about the same. The service may or not be still though.


I want to send in my camera and a few lenses (out of warranty) to get calibrated to one another.. but it is a really troubling situation with the negative reports coming in abundance towards Precision. It seems there are really thorough and knowledgeable staff there and the complete opposite... and perhaps there is an issue with number of tickets handled per day. At least that is my guess on why the service is so hit or miss...

That is how it is in outsourced customer service.. I know that first hand once working tech support for a national tech company that outsourced their support. I used to get red marks on my call metrics reports because I actually sat on the phone and guided customers through resolving their issues. I even had a talk or two from my managers about my long handle time per customer with threats to fire me due to my long handle times. Yet most of my customers got off of the phone with me happy to ecstatic because I didn't give them lame, fake solutions and then hang up on them. Which also means they were generally angry to highly hostile when I got them.. thanks, coworkers.

Yes meanwhile joe bumb1 and jane bumb2 to the left and right of me are giving the customer a knowingly fake solution and telling them to call back if it doesn't work.. to massage their reports and make them look good in front of management. (quicker time per interaction means more customers served means employee of the month). This is regardless to if they know the solution or not... sometimes the solution meant reconfiguring things that took quite a long amount of time. We ain't got time for that. In quite a number of the cases, it was impossible to fix the issue in the recommended handle time allotted.

That is really how support seems to work in large scale enterprises. It is about the metrics and how someone comes across on paper. Actually.. its about the paper indeed. metrics to money.

Customer satisfaction is probably in there somewhere but it is more a sleight of hand trick to make the customer think they care. Very few people (at least in the ginormous center I worked in) really seemed to care. It didn't make sense for them to get invested in the customer calling in, because they had to take care of their own business in keeping their job (by making their metrics figures look good). To most people it was just a job and the customers were a number on their weekly reports.

I do NOT miss that job. It almost broke me emotionally. Dealing with many dozens of mostly, at least initially, hostile customers daily yelling obscenities at you to management pressing down on you for not meeting their goals for metric values is highly stressful. It is (or was then) a very rough job. I saw people run out crying or just walk out.. quit on the spot from the stress.

Anyways.. I'm (completely) guessing Precision is generally run the same way.

[jatrax]

Anyways.. I'm (completely) guessing Precision is generally run the same way.

While I have no doubt you are correct in many cases I believe you are giving Precision too much credit. Managing by metrics, flawed or not, implies that someone is actually managing. Which in this case I seriously doubt based on my experience. Maybe they are totally overworked, or maybe they are simply incompetent, maybe they have had to hire a lot of new techs. I have no idea. But when gear gets returned multiple times without even being looked at, or looked at and not repaired but sent back anyway, that is IMHO a complete lack of management. Or in the case of warranty repair an intentional deceit of the company paying the bills, which in the case of warranty repair is Ricoh.

[bobore]

Pentax should have a network of authorized repair stations, as in the past.

Advance Camera in Oregon used to be one of those, and they had an excellent reputation (still do, as far as I know).

[Not a Number]

Advance Camera in Oregon used to be one of those,

They still are.

[virusn3t]

They still are.

Yeah, but Ricoh must (at least) put on his page the autorized repair centers, and the autorized warranty center.

I as a example, in Mexico there's no info on repair centers, and actually believe they were inexistent, (K30 with exposure problems aka aperture lever) while i believe the cost of repair will be too much (send to USA, repair fee and return to México) i bought a k3 (adorama sale), on Facebook a group of Pentaxians on Mexico tell me about one autorized repair center, i contact them, send my camera and is on repair right now

Why Ricoh dont publish the info about this places?

[Qwntm]

Thats not the problem, the problem is the sloppy repair, the not know what theyre doing to the lens and the poor customer service, if they do the work as they are expected even if the repair time is 1 month or 2 then is a ok repair center, but if they dont do any repair even if the gear is returned in 2 days... this are the result.

In this place we are sayin prescicion sucks, why Ricoh hired them? any other people say Ricoh warranty sucks i do not buy from them anymore....

Yes, I agree that sucks. Hopefully if enough jobs get escalated to Pentax because Precision is dropping the ball, Pentax USA will do something about it.


It becomes not cheaper for Pentax if they have to get involved more because Precision is doing a crap job of it. They will realize they can save money by not having to fix things Precision screwed up by paying another company more to do a better job.

---------- Post added 10-07-15 at 11:13 PM ----------

That is an apples and oranges comparison though.. an APS-C body versus a FF.

The better comparison is K-3 to d7100 if we are comparing similar bodies.. then the costs are about the same. The service may or not be still though.

As there is no Pentax Full Frame, and I am running my commercial Photography Business with Pentax crop cameras, the format really doesn't matter. i.e. I make the same money shooting a K3II or D810 or 5Dsr, or A7IIr, so for me, the cost up front is a consideration.


I make the same money, I spend less on the cameras. That's apples to apples or dollars to dollars. We could argue about the image results being different, but the clients never say a word... Funny how that works.

[stevebrot]

They still are.

Yeah, but Ricoh must (at least) put on his page the autorized repair centers, and the autorized warranty center.

Advance is an authorized Pentax service center (Pentax-trained and able to get parts from Ricoh/Pentax), but not an authorized warranty repair center (contracted to provide warranty evaluation/repair). There is a difference. There used to be at least three shops here in the Portland area that did Pentax repair, but since Knight Camera called it quits, Advance may be the only remaining.


Steve

[virusn3t]

Advance is an authorized Pentax service center (Pentax-trained and able to get parts from Ricoh/Pentax), but not an authorized warranty repair center (contracted to provide warranty evaluation/repair). There is a difference. There used to be at least three shops here in the Portland area that did Pentax repair, but since Knight Camera called it quits, Advance may be the only remaining.


Steve

Yes but the problem remains, almost nobody know about the Service centers (who and where to find them) everybody recalls them from the time before Hoya, or are redirected from a member of the forum cause they repair something like KEH, advanced, etc

People out of warranty want a closer place to repair or get service to our camera.

[Not a Number]

I posted the old list before. Here it is again, courtesy of archive.org

Call the shop nearest to you and ask them if they are still authorized. Call do not email. You should not waste your time contacting the Chandler, AZ centers. They'll tell you to send it to Precision.


RICOH IMAGING Service Center
250 N. 54th Street
Chandler, AZ
85226

Advance Camera Repair & Sales
8124 S.W. Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway
Portland, OR
97225
503-292-6996

California Precision Service
1714 28th Street
Sacramento, CA
95816
916-451-1335

Camera Repair Japan
3435 Breckinridge Blvd, Ste. 130
Duluth, GA
30096
770-935-9771

C.R.I.S.
250 North 54th Street
Chandler, AZ
85226
480-940-1103

Forster's Camera Service
40 West 2950 South
Salt Lake City, UT
84115
801-487-1288

Photo Tech
1413 South King Street, Ste 201
Honolulu, HI
96814
808-952-6161

Picture Perfect Unlimited
25876 The Old Road, Ste 300
Valencia, CA
91381
818-998-5204

Precision Camera and Video Repair
3 Anngina Drive
Enfield, CT
06082
860-749-7380

United Camera and Binocular Repair
1062 Tower Lane
Bensenville, IL
60106
630-595-2525

[mee]

As there is no Pentax Full Frame, and I am running my commercial Photography Business with Pentax crop cameras, the format really doesn't matter. i.e. I make the same money shooting a K3II or D810 or 5Dsr, or A7IIr, so for me, the cost up front is a consideration.


I make the same money, I spend less on the cameras. That's apples to apples or dollars to dollars. We could argue about the image results being different, but the clients never say a word... Funny how that works.

The format does matter when you're comparing different cameras to their pricing. In this case you compared an APS-C camera to a Full Frame camera and then stated " I can put up with a lot more "hassle" when my cameras cost $800 vs. $3000."

Well yes.. that is fine.. but your camera cost 800 dollars because it has an APS-C sensor and a processor that can handle it. If it was full frame it would inherently cost much more today. So your comparison is not accurate since the objects you are comparing have different pricing structures due to the differing technology inside of each (and a differing markup), respectively.

[Newtophotos]

I called United Camera and Binocular Repair as I live in Chicagoland. They said they don't service Pentax anymore due to difficulty in obtaining parts. Argh. Does KEH service camera bodies in addition to Pentax lens?