The Pentax web store has some great sales today. Official Pentax Online Store | Pentax Digital Cameras | Pentax Webstore

The FA 31mm Limited is on sale for 773! smcP FA 31mm f/1.8 Limited (Black) | Pentax Webstore

The D-FA 50mm Macro is 303. smcP D-FA 50mm f2.8 Macro | Pentax Webstore

There are a lot of other lenses on sale as well although the price cuts are not quite as high generally.

I just ordered the 31mm :-)

[EJMzagsfan]

In theory they should carry replacement parts and specialty items B&H or Adorama may not carry because of the limited market. I'm not saying that's the case, but that's one reason to have a brand store.

I received an email they have canceled my order of 55-300 WR and Q7....Really annoyed I should have learned my lesson the first time.

What reason did they give you?

[danny09]

Cancellation? This story gets intersting... who requested cancllation? this should certainly go to the law of the land.

[xinanbei]

Cancellation? This story gets intersting... who requested cancllation? this should certainly go to the law of the land.

My order of HD55-300 and FA 31 still shows back-ordered. Haven't seen cancellation yet. Hope the OFFICIAL store would honor our orders.

[ToyTank]

What reason did they give you?

Cancellation? This story gets intersting... who requested cancllation? this should certainly go to the law of the land.

We regret that we were not able to ship your item(s) in a timely
manner and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Please note that your credit card has not been charged because we
were unable to ship the item(s) requested, and your order has been
cancelled.

I've sent an email but I don't expect a response I'll call when I get some time

[EJMzagsfan]

That doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of since considering they are still offering those items for sale. Monochromes comments seem to be the likely reason, they just don't want to offer the items at those prices because they're losing their ass.

[TedW]

Here is the response I received yesterday to my inquiry about by 55-300 order which is currently shown as backorder status.

"Due to an unusually large response, we are temporarily out of stock
of the item(s) you ordered. Additional quantities are on order and
we expect them soon. Your order will receive priority upon receipt
in the warehouse, and we expect to be able to ship order within 30
days or sooner. We are very sorry for the delay and assure you that
we are making every effort to expedite your order.

If you wish to cancel your order, please call us at 1-800-243-8633,
or e-mail us at the address listed above. We believe the wait will
be worthwhile, but of course the choice is yours."

Pretty standard form letter I'm sure.

[mee]

If managed properly, it can give them a small level of control over the market.

Don't they already do that with MAP?

[vZwicky]

Being strung along for weeks on end is bad enough. I can't imagine how furious I would be to have my order cancelled after all of it. Especially after all the other holiday deals from reputable sellers had expired.

For a company with a tiny sliver of market share, and that does not advertise much, I believe Pentax is doing themselves a grave disservice by not providing top notch customer service. I agree with previous posts. It would be better to not have a web store front at all, than to have one that provided consistently poor service.

[panoguy]

As the price for the free shipping on my Q7 kit, I had to allow e-mail.

Anyway, they've just informed me that they're now on ShopRunner.
Let's see if there's any improvement in the service.

FYI: Shoprunner is only an e-commerce aggregation service. The same old BrandShop that messes up the PentaxWebStore experience is still in charge of pricing, shipping, and customer service.

[mee]

If this was me, and I had the means, I'd wait them out. Either they give you what they claimed they could, or they don't (and you politely let them know how awful the experience was and what a disservice to the Pentax brand they are).

[Douge]

In theory they should carry replacement parts and specialty items B&H or Adorama may not carry because of the limited market. I'm not saying that's the case, but that's one reason to have a brand store.

I received an email they have canceled my order of 55-300 WR and Q7....Really annoyed I should have learned my lesson the first time.

Not sure what the American equivalent is, but if that happened to me I'd write to the Competition Bureau. Because they took your order and then cancelled it much later. Preventing you from buying products on sale from competing merchants during the Black Friday sales.

[vZwicky]

If this was me, and I had the means, I'd wait them out. Either they give you what they claimed they could, or they don't (and you politely let them know how awful the experience was and what a disservice to the Pentax brand they are).

That's the plan. I'm a polite guy, and the couple of folks I spoke with from the webstore's customer service have been pleasant and helpful. If they can get their order system and shipping departments running smoothly, they might have something to be proud of.

---------- Post added 12-22-14 at 09:43 PM ----------

Not sure what the American equivalent is, but if that happened to me I'd write to the Competition Bureau. Because they took your order and then cancelled it much later. Preventing you from buying products on sale from competing merchants during the Black Friday sales.

They have more to fear from the proliferation of negative comments in forums like this than they do from any regulatory agency... which is how it should be, IMO.

I will try to be constructive with any criticisms I offer. I want Pentax to do well as an entity, and for it and the K-Mount to survive for a long long time.

[PKMike]

Here is the response I received yesterday to my inquiry about by 55-300 order which is currently shown as backorder status.

Quote: "Due to an unusually large response, we are temporarily out of stock of the item(s) you ordered. Additional quantities are on order and we expect them soon. Your order will receive priority upon receipt in the warehouse, and we expect to be able to ship order within 30 days or sooner. We are very sorry for the delay and assure you that we are making every effort to expedite your order. If you wish to cancel your order, please call us at 1-800-243-8633, or e-mail us at the address listed above. We believe the wait will be worthwhile, but of course the choice is yours."

I got this same exact response via email yesterday (12/21/2014).

[lytrytyr]

FYI: Shoprunner is only an e-commerce aggregation service. The same old BrandShop that messes up the PentaxWebStore experience is still in charge of pricing, shipping, and customer service.

Sure, but the fact that they felt the need to do this window-dressing
indicates that they have realized they have a problem.

Pricing may be more directly controlled by Ricoh.

---------- Post added 12-23-14 at 08:31 AM ----------

Don't they already do that with MAP?

MAP is a control to move prices up.

PWS is a control to move them down.

[ToyTank]

I called and hopefully everything is sorted out now. They said the Q7 Kit may not come back in stock, but they reinstated my order and discount for the 55-300 which I was told will be shipping next week. It was canceled because the shipping and billing address did not match, even though the shipping address is on file as alternate with my bank... If it ships and I don't have to call back I'll be as happy as can be expected. They didn't even ask me to prove original sales price so I call it progress