Customer Service is rare these days, especially with electronic goods and getting them repaired.
I thought I’d give a shout out to Nikon.
I needed to get a Nikon D70 repaired. The flash had quit working and the unit was out of warranty.
A quick look at Nikon’s Repair page pretty much gives you your options.
1) Take it to an authorized service center -or-
2) Send it to them.
I contacted the store where it was originally purchased because it is a Nikon authorized repair center. I also did a couple of quick searches on the web and it looked like repairs seemed to take between 4 and 8 weeks.
The store confirmed that they probably couldn’t fix it. That they would fool with it for a couple weeks then end up sending it to Nikon anyway and would only add time to the process so I elected to go direct.
I fedex’d the Camera body to them on November 3rd. After a week I received no information even though with the camera I sent a letter asking for an email confirmation. I did of course insure it and track the delivery and it went overnight so they had it on the 4th.
Around the 12th I called them because I still had not received anything via email or snail mail. The explained the sent me a letter already with an estimate and the info to log onto their website. I approved the estimate over the phone and gave them a credit card to take care of the out of warranty repair.
I asked how long, they said 7 to 10 business days.
Out of curiosity, on the 18th I logged on again and the camera showed repaired and shipped. It arrived today.
Awesome.
There are a few things they could do better. Email notification is one. Better tracking through the stages as well. But over all I’m very pleased.
I wish I could get my Cannon camcorder repaired in the same manner.