Originally posted by Zoomer Done with Pentax - wanted to thank you all for your info and help !! Hello all, I have been a very loyal pentax fan for over 35 years - my 1st camera was a K-100, my second camera was a ME-Super, then an SFX - 1. I always thought that they were the best camera in the world. 2 weeks ago my K-50 developed the Aperture Control Block problem and for 2 weeks I have been trying to get Ricoh to stand by there product and repair the camera. They won't and I'll be damned if I am gonna buy another product from them when they know this flaw exists in there camera's and won't take any actions to at least stand by there product. I wanted to thank you all for all the great info, help, tips, techniques and photos I have seen since I joined here, I don't post a lot but I sure read a lot and I will never forget how awesome you all are !!! Thanks so much, Zoomer
Originally posted by Not a Number I polite letter to Ricoh explaining your decision would help. Otherwise it's just tears in the rain and nobody will notice.
I know that having a defective product after the guarantee period is deceiving. Also, bad experiences with Ricoh customer service in the US sounds rather strange to me, because I contacted Ricoh Europe a couple of times, and they've largely over-delivered, way beyond what I would expect, they were super fast and they've delivery more than I asked, so, what can I say. On the other hand, I contacted the Pentax dedicated shop in Paris, and I felt like the employee could not care less about selling Pentax products or did not give a damn about customer, therefore I did not buy anything to them. It seems that Ricoh customer service isn't standardized across different geographical locations. I noticed that same between local shops here, in some shops, you just feel like they aren't interested in selling, and this is definitely not a good reason to change brand (there would be other valid reason, but not the one of the OP).
You bought 3 cameras in 35 years. Looks like Ricoh does need more revenue than that to pay their employees and survive as a business. You have to understand that the K50 is designed to be as cheap as possible, and even the defect rate is rather low for such cameras from Pentax. The problem is, this kind of camera profit margin in probably around $100 to $250, which basically means that there is no way Ricoh can support those products free of charge after the guarantee period, otherwise, it would make customers very happy (to get cheap products and unlimited support for free), but not profitable for running a viable business. That's why it would make sense that Ricoh send those kind of customers to their competitors who may be willing to waste money for nothing.