R-D1 servicing - let's coordinate!

Great. Count me in. Let's come up with an address and who to send it to, list the points that we should mention in the letter, and we can all go off and write it ourselves and send on a certain date. I think this would be much more effective than 1000 people sending the same letter.
 
RichC said:
...if Epson don't want to/can't service the camera themselves, make service information, software tools, parts, etc., available to (designated?) third parties in (at the very least) one location in each continent
Click to expand...
Epson does service R-D1 and R-D1s bodies under warranty through a French subsidiary named Epson Engineering (address below) which seems to service all or most European bodies so far and did repair my new R-D1s recently although i bought it in Italy.
We should ask them to do the same for out-of-warranty bodies IMHO.
Best,
LCT

Epson Engineering Europe SA
60 rue Auguste Perret
Europarc
94000 Créteil
France
Tel: +33 892899999
Fax: +33 156715726
 
Right, well everyone seems in favour of the idea. I'll ask a mod to stickify this thread.

So, the first thing we need to do is decide on what we want to say. My thoughts:

• Absolutely no eye poking. We must be polite, respectful and factual.

• State our problem - whilst pointing out our high regard for the camera and Epson's braveness in commissioning the project in the first place.

• Suggest solutions. Epson's not going to hire staff and open an R-D1 service centre, so we have to come up with realistic solutions. For example, see my suggestions in my second post above.

There's no immediate rush, so let's take our time and do this as best we can.

If folk post their thoughts on what to go in the letter, or, even better, a draft, I'll collate everything together in a week's time, and post a suggested letter.

Once we agree on the text, we need to publicise what we're doing, so as many R-D1 owners as possible know what we intend, and will be ready to post a copy of the letter to Epson on a target date.

So, once we've got the letter finalised, I'll create a web page, explaining what we intend to do (succinctly and politely - the idea is not to antagonise Epson) - then, people can publicise this page by posting to forums or any other means they can think of that will attract the attention of R-D1 owners.

On a practical note, we will need someone who can both translate the letter into Japanese and create a PDF.

So, let us begin...
 
I can have a short, concise expository letter or opening web statement translated into Japanese. My wife can't do many, many technical pages. She doesn't have the time and it's a hard job. But I'll draft something maybe over the weekend and post it.
 
I'm in on any efforts here, obviously. I like the "state the problem, with emphasis that we really like the camera and the fact that they made it, which is why we want to be able to keep them working" approach.

And I also think that encouraging them to provide skilled 3rd party specialists like DAG with parts/info is good, even if only for the mechanical parts of the camera. I'd understand if a sensor failure required shipment to the factory, but things like the shutter and RF anyone should be able to fix if they had the parts.

BTW, I don't know if people saw my update in the other post, but apparently the Epson path-to-repair for my camera is a $511 flat rate, shipping included, with no regard to what the actual problem is. So I'm guessing that they'd take my camera, ship it to Japan, and ship back another body altogether. Which I'm a little wary of just because everything else on my camera was working quite well... so I'd rather just fix the shutter if I can...

j
 
Speaking of making this easy for Epson, is there any RFF'er who would be willing to translate our letters into Japanese? I wouldn't think we could necessarily assume that the people who most need to read them are fluent readers of English (although maybe I'm wrong about that.)

I'm not sure that a "coordinated" campaign will work better than thoughtful individual letters -- it might be dismissed the way politicians routinely dismiss those fill-in-the-blank form letters distributed by advocacy groups to their members. But I'm open to whatever might help keep my R-D 1 going.
 
OK, I'm fine with sending - on an agreed date - either a "standard" letter agreed amongst us or an individually drafted version to Epson. I don't think it matters much, so long as the letters broadly sing from the same hymn sheet.

I'm happy enough to collate people's suggestions and create the standard letter in Japanese, for those who want to use it (I'll need a volunteer to create a PDF in Japanese, though).

However, I do think we need to decide what our goals are.

Let's start by considering this, from another thread (http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=429902#post429902):

The very friendly people at the electronics place that I was referred to by Epson tech support called their Epson rep and apparently I'm supposed to bring it to the electronics place, I guess because they handle invoicing and stuff, and they'll ship it to Epson, and for a flat rate of $511 (shipping included) it gets fixed.
Click to expand...

So, we now know that the R-D1 can be repaired (or replaced?) at a fixed fee, albeit gaining this knowledge seemed akin to getting blood from a stone. Is this enough? If not, what more do we want?

To get the ball rolling, here are my thoughts:

• It's good to know that Epson will take in out-of-warranty cameras for repair. But is there an in-house repair facility? So far, it seems that faulty cameras are simply replaced

• We want our cameras repaired not replaced

• Parts should be retained for several years - not destroyed as "obsolete" at some point

• We want reassurance that our cameras can be repaired a reasonable time into the future (e.g. 5 years)

• If there is an in-house repair facility, it needs to be made known to Epson repair centres worldwide. Currently, the majority of Epson facilities seem to be unaware of the camera and the procedures for servicing it

• If Epson are unwilling/unable to undertake general camera maintenance/repair in-house, they should allow third-party specialists (I'm fine with these needing approval by Epson) access to necessary technical documents and parts, so they're able to carry out straightforward repairs and maintenance (e.g. rangefinder realignment) according to Epson specs

(PS: someone's kindly registered the domain rd1owners.com for us, for when we're ready to put up the web page. I'm in no rush to create the web page - let's give it a few weeks, when we have a consensus on our aims and have them honed to perfection.)
 
If anyone knows someone senior at Robert White in the UK, it might be worth consulting them for advice.
They seem to have been one of the biggest outlets for the RD1 and RD1s and they've had years of experience dealing with all kinds of camera companies, from the large multi-nationals, to the small niche makers. The Robert White company seem to be very reputable and most often have the camera user's needs at heart.
They may have an interesting take on how to approach Epson on this. They may also have an interest in helping to support all the owners who bought their RD1's from them in the first place.
Secondly, it would be GREAT if this didn't end up being centred on Europe or North America or both.
I'm in Australia and the thought of sending my RD1 to DAG, or someone in Germany (for example) doesn't really appeal.
If I had to I would, obviously. But it would be great if we could push for a worldwide solution to the RD1 support issue.
 
Count me in. I've been shooting the first baby pictures of my newborn and absolutely love the r-d1. On the other hand, all the problems and lack of support from Epson has me worried.
 
Last edited:
Just wanted to relate Sean Reid's experience with Epson CS as reported in his long term review on ReidReviews.com.

Basically the first time he called he got someone who was unfamiliar with the R-D1 but on a subsequent call he connected with a CS rep named Wanda who was very familiar with the R-D1 and who just about personally shepherded his R-D1 repair/replacement experience.

I bring this up only to suggest that perhaps Sean be appraised of this effort for his input into it. JMO.
 
Joe Mondello said:
I ... suggest that perhaps Sean be appraised of this effort for his input into it.
Click to expand...
I emailed him just after I started this thread, but he has no more influence with Epson than the rest of us, unfortunately. As he's said before, Epson's attitude towards him turned somewhat cold after his R-D1 review - which I think was unwarranted as, on balance, it was very favourable despite highlighting a few problems.

He's happy to send in a letter, though, and wishes us luck...
 
RichC said:
I emailed him just after I started this thread, but he has no more influence with Epson than the rest of us, unfortunately. As he's said before, Epson's attitude towards him turned somewhat cold after his R-D1 review - which I think was unwarranted as, on balance, it was very favourable despite highlighting a few problems.

He's happy to send in a letter, though, and wishes us luck...
Click to expand...

Good, I figured you probably had contacted him but since there was no mention of it and his experience with CS seemed relatively positive, I just thought I'd mention it JIC.

I didn't realize that Epson had turned cold on him after his review -- which is actually ironic as it was Sean's review that really helped me to pull the trigger on the R-D1.

I am certain that Sean is responsible for the sale of more than a few R-D1's!
 
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