Dissatisfied by Epson warranty service

Didier

Didier

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I had bought a R-D1 in june and noticed a small vertical (top) and horizontal (right) disalignment of the rangefinder. Following the seller Robert White's advice I could send it directly to the Epson service department of my country (Switzerland). That's what I did 6 weeks ago (hmm, seemed a long time to me, but I have heard of longer service times with Nikon and Olympus).

Got the camera today, and had instantly a bad feeling as it was not packaged very well. Small box, not much stuffing space. I put the (recently CLA'd) 50 Summicron on, focused the church tower on the other side of the lake, and - oh my lord - the rf disalignment is even worse than before. Now the patch is vertically under and horizontally left. They overadjusted it. Same with all other lenses.

Looks like Epson has a warranty fulfillment problem, as I have read about dozen's of R-D1 owners with the same or similar problems.

I won't send it back but buy a box of toothpicks and try this one here.

:bang:

Didier
 
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Didier said:
I had bought a R-D1 in june and noticed a small vertical (top) and horizontal (right) disalignment of the rangefinder. Following the seller Robert White's advice I could send it directly to the Epson service department of my country (Switzerland). That's what I did 6 weeks ago (hmm, seemed a long time to me, but I have heard of longer service times with Nikon and Olympus).

Got the camera today, and had instantly a bad feeling as it was not packaged very well. Small box, not much stuffing space. I put the (recently CLA'd) 50 Summicron on, focused the church tower on the other side of the lake, and - oh my lord - the rf disalignment is even worse than before. Now the patch is vertically under and horizontally left. They overadjusted it. Same with all other lenses.

Looks like Epson has a warranty fulfillment problem, as I have read about dozen's of R-D1 owners with the same or similar problems.

I won't send it back but buy a box of toothpicks and try this one here.

:bang:

Didier
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This is about what I'd expect from a company making consumer grade ink jet printers and other digital gadgetry.
 
I am personally very sceptical of all warranties. I have learned from bitter experience that many manufacturers often just try to placate customers and actually do no tangible repairs -- or even worse blame the customers for the problem -- just anything to keep from having to put up real money to seriously repair or replace an item.

Thank goodness for forums like this which can help expose these bad apples.
 
I have to add that Robert White UK just offered me to resend the camera to them and they would take care Epson UK would do a better job. That's very friendly, but I could not accept as I will leave for a China trip soon and prefer to do the toothpick service myself.

Anyway it seems to be the R-D1 owner's destiny to learn how to align their camera :)

Didier
 
David Murphy said:
This is about what I'd expect from a company making consumer grade ink jet printers and other digital gadgetry.
Click to expand...

i think they make a lot more than just inkjets
 
iUser said:
i think they make a lot more than just inkjets
Click to expand...

They produce more than inkjet printers indeed. Scanners, projectors, touchscreen display devices, industrial robots, and more. But even a consumer inkjet printer has probably more and smaller and trickier parts than a R-D1.

The problem is less the production portfolio but more the "sell & forget" attitude of these companies.

Didier
 
Some companies are good - I recently had a Sony laptop repaired out of warranty. DHL picked it up, took care of packaging, sent it to Sony in France, 5 day turn-around and back it came. Excellent service. Interesting too that you pay for "logistics" and one of three fixed tier prices, depending on what needs doing.

With digital cameras, I don't think it's worth them investing in the skills and facilities to repair them, most manufacturers will just ship a replacement, free within warranty and some sort of fixed price out of warranty.

As for Epson, they should have three service centres - US, Japan, Europe, staffed by people who "know".

Sounds like the service you have received from Switzerland has been attrocious but it's more of a reflection on Epson than it is on Switzerland.
 
i think it was OK when it left epson but the packing was so bad it's been knocked out again, still the bods at epsons fault though.
 
Mark Norton said:
As for Epson, they should have three service centres - US, Japan, Europe, staffed by people who "know".

Sounds like the service you have received from Switzerland has been attrocious but it's more of a reflection on Epson than it is on Switzerland.
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AFAIK, all european R-D1 go to Epson France. Maybe the guys there did zidanize my camera :bang: But the bad package was from Epson Swizz.
(No other Zidane thread intended!) ;)

Didier
 
Unfortunately, we're getting this kind of "customer service" because people accept it. They are the only digital RF game in town (any town).

I remember calling a few years back regarding a printer problem. I was on hold for almost an hour; it boiled down to having to purchase a replacement. And that's what people do, purchase or get replacements. Very few companies do real service and repairs.

After all, many products have a useful life of, what, two years? Unless this mentality changes, the company's attitude towards their customer won't change. That's why I am hesitant to buy anything from them anymore.

They have too many clients to worry about me, though.
 
Didier said:
AFAIK, all european R-D1 go to Epson France. Maybe the guys there did zidanize my camera :bang: But the bad package was from Epson Swizz.
(No other Zidane thread intended!) ;)
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Perhaps they should have done a neutral withholding and held it in secret for three generations. We can all do subtle pointing.
 
Epson Service

Epson Service

I have actually had great service from Epson but perhaps I just got Lucky.

I had a problem with a photo printer that was nearly out of warranty when it developed a fault that I expected them to fob me off.

Within two days I had a brand new printer on my desk.

I think the problem is inconsistency. Maybe they keep enough people happy to refute poor service claims.

That said, when you pay the kind of money that the RD1 costs and experience bad service like this it is extremely frustrating not to mention that most RD1 owners will depend on having a reliable and ready camera.
 
I've noticed national variations with other makes too - it appears Canon is much better in Canada than in US, for example. I had good response from Epson via Robert White's when I had problems early on. Perhaps UK is just one of the better Epson offices?


This is just hearsay, so I hope no-one gets upset by this comment.
 
to be fair, adjusting the range finder is very easy. if your not happy with it just have a go yourself. make sure you clean all the rubber pad glue off and buy some rubber based glue to lock the adjusters and some two sided tape for the grips. you only have to remove one grip. just make sure you put the winder on the way it came off.
 
iUser said:
to be fair, adjusting the range finder is very easy. if your not happy with it just have a go yourself. make sure you clean all the rubber pad glue off and buy some rubber based glue to lock the adjusters and some two sided tape for the grips. you only have to remove one grip. just make sure you put the winder on the way it came off.
Click to expand...

iuser
I'm game. And I'm ready to buy screwdrivers that fit. You are the only one that I have seen on the forum that actually got off the topplate. How about giving us amatuer camera repairman a blow by blow description of the disassembly and alignment procedure?

I have nothing to loose as I dropped my preecioos and the alignment is totally hosed. I was gettin g ready to send it to DAG but meanwhile I have discovered the joys of zone focusing. Hey, much to my surprise , it works! I'm willing to expand my horizons with zone focusing for a little while, so how about sharing your experiences in Epsonland?

Rex
 
iUser said:
...to be fair, adjusting the range finder is very easy...
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Yes, as long it concerns the focusing accuracy at infinity (which can be adjusted by the 3 screws below the hort shoe). But if you have close up focus problems, (see this thread), a top plate disassemble is needed to reach the baseline adjustment wheel at the left of the viewfinder, and then it is getting slightly uneasy to do it yourself.

That's were I am actually. My r-d1 rf is vertically and horizontally well adjusted - at infinity - but 12cm off depth at 1m, with a 2/50 lens.

Didier
 
I've seen some nice images from the R-D1

I've seen some nice images from the R-D1

...but Epson is a crappy company that doesn't stand behind their products. Their printers suck and constantly clog (I've owned two and that's two too many if you ask me) and they will fight their customers to the death. They are still dragging their feet with the class action lawsuit that they recently lost regarding their printers.

Epson and most Japanese photography companies will bend over backwards and spend tons of money to legally fight, avoid and dodge their customers instead of listening, learning and trying to make them happy.

I simply cannot support a company that will not support me if I need them. Sadly, consumers keep buying despite the crappy service while companies like Leica languish. R-D1, no thanks. Bring on the M8!
 
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