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 :-)

[gofour3]

Pentax Webstore is the OFFICIAL web sales arm of Pentax US

Exactly, as this web store ONLY ships to the USA.

This is a Ricoh USA issue and not a Ricoh Japan or Ricoh Canada issue. (We have lots of Pentax brick & mortar resellers in Canada and don’t need a dodgy web store.)

Remember Ricoh is a Japanese company with lots of world wide divisions, this is isolated just like the mess Honeywell created with Asahi Pentax back in the 1960’s & 70’s.

Phil.

[Al_Kahollick]

I tire of this, its not a hard concept at all. Pentax Webstore is the OFFICIAL web sales arm of Pentax US.

You're absolutely right, not a difficult concept at all. I don't get why it's so hard to understand. Does the Official Beer of the NFL get that distinction because it's the favorite beer of the players,coaches, fans, etc., or because they promise (amongst other things) more free promotions of the game and a larger piece of their profit pie? If someone thinks the PWS is just like any other seller of Pentax gear, then I guess they'd also assume people who like / play football also like the same brand of beer!

[PentaxJax]

So apparently Toshiyuki Masai is running Ricoh USA as instructed.

[monochrome]

I'm afraid you couldn't be more wrong. You don't become the "Official" anything of anything (insert your own product / company) without promising sales and/or service above and beyond the average retailer,

If BrandShop got preference Ricoh's regular retailers such as B&H and Adorama would drop the line. The Webstore actually gets less service and specials from Pentax than their primary Dealers.

this is why Pentax USA steers their business there!

Pentax does not steer business there.

BrandSmart/SureSource is surely on the inside track as far as stock replenishment goes,

They're a Dealer just like anyone else, subject to the same volume discounts and direct-order rules. They pay RIAC for the right to market Pentax gear, not the other way around, and make profit (or loss) on their sales of Pentax items, just like any Dealer. Pentax gets none of that. RIAC makes its profit selling camera gear to Dealers, not selling camera gear to consumers.

UNLESS they're somehow in default of their agreement with Ricoh. As I stated earlier, something is fishy when on-line retailers start changing their name.

You are just wrong. BrandShop is one of a group of eCommerce companies owned by a Hedge Fund / Private Equity company(VSS). Such operators change the dba names of their operating companies frequently in order to promote the brands as they develop them. The corporate name remains SureSource, LLC.

B+H and Adorama carry ALL manufacturers of camera gear, so I'm guessing since Pentax is a smaller percentage of their sales, the amount of warehouse space allotted to Pentax is smaller as well, yet they don't seem to suffer the same inventory problems as the webstore.

B&H and Adorama are massive, old companies that dealt by mail-order catalog long before the internet. They're just better companies than BrandShop.

You are right about one thing, Ricoh has no interest in running a retail operation, it's just not that profitable, better to contract that part of the business out.

Many camera companies such as Nikon operate their returns resale, overstocks, accessories and branded garment merchandise operations through BrandShop but do their own, in-house Webstore, Pentax just chooses to do the entire thing through BrandShop.

Ricoh likely inherited the webstore deal from Hoya / Pentax, so they may not be to blame for this mess, but I suspect they're not getting what they're paying for!

They're getting precisely what they pay for - every bit of it.

Google SureSource llc and BrandShop. Then read the parts of their corporate website that link up. It's actually pretty interesting. Caterpillar, Hershey Chocolate, etc.

I'm critical of BrandShop more than RIAC. RIAC does not have the skill or personnel to operate a webstore and they don't maintain a retail warehouse inventory to sell at retail. They don't maintain a parts inventory to supply the public. They contract out their web design. For a time they contracted out their customer service 800 numbers (that might have changed).

Gradually RIAC is rebuilding the corporate infrastructure that Hoya destroyed - they doing much better, but there remains a lot to do. Most of what they've done we don't see. They'll get to the webstore eventually.

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Last edited by monochrome; 01-04-2015 at 07:28 AM.

[Al_Kahollick]

Pentax does not steer business there.

I don't know what your experience in the retail / wholesale business is, but I'll guess it's minuscule.

Go to the Pentax USA site, look up a lens, click "buy now", where does it send you? That's not steering business their way???


I'm not going to waste my time with you any longer.

[monochrome]

I don't know what your experience in the retail / wholesale business is, but I'll guess it's minuscule.

Ricoh needs to fix the Webstore - but not for the reasons you suppose.

But go ahead. Flame away. You are forthwith boriscleto'ed™

[vZwicky]

The charge for the FA 31 just reappeared on my CC account within the last hour. Maybe things are beginning to move.

[lytrytyr]

The charge for the FA 31 just reappeared on my CC account within the last hour.

The discounted price?

[vZwicky]

Yes. It is shown as pending.

[xinanbei]

The charge for the FA 31 just reappeared on my CC account within the last hour. Maybe things are beginning to move.

They charged me as well. I called and tried to change the payment to another card. They told me the warehouse might have shipped it already. So it means I should get my lenses in a week. Cheers~~~~~

[vZwicky]

They charged me as well. I called and tried to change the payment to another card. They told me the warehouse might have shipped it already. So it means I should get my lenses in a week. Cheers~~~~~

This is good news indeed. I don't recall the last time I was quite so happy to be headed to the poor house.

[cfraz]

Let's assume that RIAC simply cannot afford to operate its own webstore. It is simply too expensive to do that. Does anyone have a suggestion of another company Ricoh could contract with that offers a similar service with better results until they've rebuilt volume to a level that justifies bringing this operation back in house?

In the IT world, these kinds of outsourcing arrangements work because of the service level agreements attached to them. The agreements include things like user support response times, system uptime, data transmission rates, etc.

Anything related to device performance can and does go into these agreements. The service provider generally performs to the terms of the agreement because failing to do so results in significant financial penalty.

I see no reason this couldn't apply in retail sales. RIAC should be holding all the cards: in exchange for using our good name on your store, you will sell according to this pricing structure, maintain stock at these levels, conduct promotions x times yearly, etc. Failure to meet performance metrics results in loss of pricing discounts.

Same thing for warranty/repair provider and the RIAC website hosting/management.

[greenlight2001]

My CC was charged for the 55-300 lens earlier today (the correct sale price). Hope that means I'l be getting it soon.

[rjp]

Not as lucky as others... I have a pending charge on my cc for the 55-300, but at the regular price....
Guess I call tomorrow...

[greenlight2001]

I just hope they're not placing charges to get the capital needed to go ahead and order the stuff. There will be trouble if I don't get a shipment email shortly. I was patient right up until they had my money in hand.