The reviews needn't have statistical significance in order to be significant and valuable. And it is significant that even the page you linked to has Pentax at the bottom in every category.
The reviewer's comments are what is significant here. It's not as though we're talking faulty products alone. This is about a company denying coverage which they promised through their warrantee and/or treating their customers poorly. This should never happen. The site was not simply a rating based site. It allowed for lengthy comments and any objective reader taking the time to read through them can clearly see that Pentax's service was subpar, to put it lightly.
The other link was more significant and was what I referred to when I said that this is not an isolated incident. That is of major significance in the same ways as the other and also has much statistical significance, as it's an across the board problem affecting customers in many countries. This link speaks of a major fault in their manufacturing that went unaddressed by Pentax.
If you'd read through the link with the personal complaints, you'd have seen mine, which described just a bit of my story this past year with the company. I've wished Pentax had a program for working professional photographers for years.
I did call them asking them to sign up for this program.
I was told flat out that they did not have one. I was also told that they didn't think they could help with the issues I was having with my e-dial and sensor spots, "but if I insisted on sending it in", the turnaround time would be twelve weeks. When I asked how I was supposed to work without my camera for twelve weeks, I was given very rude and dismissive non-answers. It was only months later when I got fed up and called them telling them I was going to report them to Pentax directly(the warrantee and repairs are handled by a third party company) for their lack of service, that suddenly I was told they would rush my repair through and that "I'm sorry you were not told of the pro program, we don't like to advertise it".
I have names of employees, dates and times for all of my conversations with them.
I wrote this not as a rebuttal to your reply, but because I wanted to let people know. I am telling of my situation to inform people.
If it doesn't apply to you, that's a good thing. But you shouldn't ignorantly defend anything, especially not a company before you know the whole story.
I believe those links I posted are significant whether or not you agree.
I have also met many people over the years who've had similar experiences with Pentax and seen many an ad on Craigslist go up where someone is selling their gear for similar reasons.
I was warned by someone a couple of years ago that for my wedding photography business, I should not go with Pentax because they lack in this area.
These kinds of posts, grounded in real events, are important.
Hopefully others can avoid the same problem, or maybe someone from Pentax imaging will see this and be inclined to do something about it to improve in this area.
I've got a drawer full of B&H receipts adding up to over 10k for Pentax gear alone in the last three years. That may not be much to everyone, but it's a lot to me and I would have thought, a lot to Pentax, too. B&H certainly seems to appreciate my business.
I strongly supported Pentax and always went out of my way to hip people to their build and image quality.
But being a defender of a company when they're not doing the right thing is rubbish.
I used to defend Pentax because I thought they made the best gear in their price-point, hands down.
Because I thought that in-body stabilization was a more intelligent and certainly less expensive system to own. I thought and still think that they've got some of the best optics in the world and that their weather sealing is unmatched at, and far above their price-point.
I could go on and on listing all of the reasons why I think Pentax gear is so cool.
As previously stated, though, for a customer, and I think enthusiast, too, that's only part of a company. Customer service, support, and coverage when something goes wrong is what you pay for when you buy equipment.
I used to recommend the k7 to everyone. I shoot video professionally and I turned many people on through my YouTube movies(shown by comments of people saying that they went with the k7 because they saw the quality of my work). I did side by side comparisons and showed how the k7 blew the 5d mkii away in the stabilization category and how Pentax's image quality was on par with some of the best out there.
I've had only a couple of posts on here because I'm not someone who enjoys posting on the web, but I've benefitted from Pentax Forums for a couple of years now and I thought this was something some users might want to know.
Also when I hear about someone having difficulty with something, I don't tell them it's not statistically significant. Do you really think that person cares? To them the statistic is 100% failure. Usually "sorry you had a bad experience" - might be a nice way to begin and then you can go on to offer your positive experience.
Since I've already told much of the story, I'll finish it for users who may be interested to know.
Because I had been previously told they had no pro-coverage, the supervisor I spoke with said they were going to make an exception when I told them I was going to contact pentax corporate offices and when I told them I'd met Ned Bunnell and had a great conversation with him about Pentax.(I believed he really cared about Pentax and quality and doing things "differently".
He said that they would rush my repair through and that if it was delayed beyond two weeks, I'd receive a loaner, just as someone on their coverage plan would.
I said this was a good start and thanked him, despite his rudeness just prior to my mention of the President of Pentax for the Americas.
I called a few days later when I had received the shipping label and was ready to send it out, and not only was I told that he never said that, this guy(whose voice I recognized as the person whom I'd last spoken with) gave me a different name.
Turns out he switched between his middle and first name on different days, but the reality is, he knew exactly who I was and wanted to give me the whole "I don't know who you spoke with" line, so he actually resorted to giving me a different name.
The whole thing was so absurd and difficult to believe that I gave up on Pentax.
I sent a long letter to Pentax describing in detail what had occurred, and received no response.
I won't spend my money with a company who cares so little about customer service that they'd outsource their coverage and to a cheap, 2nd rate subcontractor with no customer service skills.
The false apology the day the empty promise was made was the only one I received.
So, I'll spend my money elsewhere.
